BigSkyGuy

Tony, Did you get a nonferrous response (ID number or trace) when you turned down the sensitivity to 10? In other words would you be essentially digging everything? Thanks!

I think you nailed it on the gimlet JCR!

I think you will like the SH. Although it is not a ground balancing PI it handles black sand much better than a VLF. When passing over a patch of black sand you get a broad increase in threshold, but nothing that you would mistake for an actual signal. The box is quite heavy, but I hipmount mine and that works well. I never turn up the iron eliminator (pulse delay) and just dig everything. You may get a bit better depth than from your Sand Shark, especially with the big coil. I also broke the headphone jack. Garret was kind enough to replace it free of charge despite the warranty running out two weeks before. Thank you Garrett! Happy Hunting!

I am looking forward to the improved separation of the 6x8" M8. I really like this size coil on my Vista X. Choice is always nice and hopefully CoilTek will come out with some other options.

Thanks Chase. Hopefully a new batch will be along soon.

Yes. It says "shipped", supposed to be delivered 12-27. Thet must of sold out quickly.

For those in the US, both the M8 and M15 are in stock at Seriousdetecting.com. I just ordered both.

That is good news.

Just in time for the price increase!

Looks like Montana agate to me, although I have never seen a pattern quite like that. The Yellowstone is a known source of agate.

Oh well. Great find anyway!

Wow! Only 11,056 minted of the 1793 cap.

Geologyhound, Can you photograph the reverse side? Sometimes it is easier to read the back, eventhough the text is a mirror image. To me the inscription looks like "Scallirs Gold Nugget", but there is much more illegible text around the preimeter that may shed some light on what it was from. Thanks

In the ground testing in your area means everything. Several years ago I purchased a Blisstool v.6 which was supposed to have superior depth to anything out there. But, in my ground in Montana it was fairly average on depth. One year I took it to Ohio on a visit to my family and I finally was able to see what everyone was talking about. I found a tiny German 1 Pfenning coin at 10 inches, but at home it was nothing special on depth. The Equinox easily gets an extra inch of depth by comparison. I attribute this partly to the 7-8 kHz frequency of the Blisstool vs the higher range of the multifrequency of the Equinox. @Jeff McClendon has stated on this forum that ~20 kHz detectors work well in his ground, which is magnetite-based mineralization (I used to live in Golden, CO). I think that is the case here as well. I think Monte's nail board test has its uses, especially in the west where nails and non ferrous items tend to sit on or near the surface. This was the situation that led Monte to create the test in the first place. However, even here the test should be done on top of the ground and not in a garage or someplace where the influence of the ground cannot be taken into account. YouTube influencers completely blew out of proportion the whole issue with the Manticore and nail falsing. I used to own a V3i and several older White's models (Spectrum etc.) that allowed transmit power to be turned up separately from the sensitivity/gain. If I remember right there was a knob on the front of the box that was called "transmit boost" or something like that. When turned on, transmit boost would make the detector prone to falsing on nails, especially when the ground was wet. I think the Manticore is similar to a White's model with boost on in some ways. It goes with the territory. I definitely dig more iron with the Manticore than I did with the Equinox, but only because I am going for the tougher colocated signals. If I was to limit the signals that I dig to perfect tones/Target Trace, then my iron count would go way down, but so would my good finds. I also tend not to use AT-HC which is weighted more to lower frequencies which does not work well in my ground anyway.

I use an 8" concentric on my Vista-X. The main reason is that it desensitizes the machine to flat iron compared to the DD coils. Flat iron (bottle caps, small can bits, etc) can be descriminated out well below nickels and any that remain (cans, can lids, etc) give a broken signal. Separation is also supposed to be better. Keith Southern has a video of him using a Tesoro Tajon (I think) with a concentric on the Monte nail board test and he was able to distinguish the coin next to the nail while sweeping "down the barrel" (i.e. lengthwise to the nail). This is the most difficult position and direction in the test (position 2 sweep 3 or 4, can't remember which) and the Tersoro with concentric was one of the rare detectors that pass this test.

JCR, I would guess the tag is a tool check. What are your initial thoughts on the Versa? Thanks!

Hey Doc, What you have found is a silver Chatelaine pocket book. These were typically attached to a chain which was either fastened to a woman's belt or pinned onto her dress. Along with the pocket book would also be other trinkets, such as a pocket knife, perfume bottle, etc. I have found a silver perfume bottle, but never the pocket book. What a great find! Thanks for sharing.

Maker was Frederick Goldman, Inc. Dates from 1985 onward. Nice!

I find aluminum "nuggets" all the time on fresh water beaches. People build a campfire on the beach and throw in beer cans, pulls tabs, etc. which melt into nuggets.

Looks like a sedimetary or metamorphic rock to me. Perhaps a gneiss? Tough to say without a fresh unweathered surface.

I definitely dig more iron with the Manti than I did with the Nox, but I am sure that I am getting better separation with the Manti. I have no desire to go back to the Nox, at least for park hunting. I think that the line between ferrous and non-ferrous is not sharp, but blurry, so you have the choice of digging only non-ferrous and missing some good targets, or digging more iron and recovering more non-ferrous mixed with iron. The Manti is more like the latter. I have dug more items with both brass and iron components, such as pocket knives, D-ring buckles with an iron tang, etc. with the Manti than I did with the Nox. As far as depth, I have not noticed a big difference in my soil, but separation, that is what impresses me.

I still use mine, but only for water hunting. Manticore just cannot handle black sand like the Tarsacci. There are many places where the Tarsacci or a PI are the only options, so I keep it around.

My first thought from the picture was chromite, but the specific gravity that you posted is too high and the hardness for chromite is too low. Chromite has a G of 4.5-5, and a hardness of 5.5.

I have used my 700 in fresh water, but only for wading so far. No issues with water intrusion. I bought the 700 for water hunting because I do not wish to submerge my Manticore. So far I am happy with the 700. ID accuracy is not as good as the 800 was, but this is not a big deal for me because I dig all non-ferrous anyway. In mineralized areas, 98-99 falses can be a pain, but these can be notched out or ignored once you identify what they are. Dp tones is nice if a little more depth is needed.