Bayard

On 3/24/2024 at 10:16 AM, Bayard said:

I have used my Manticore twice at old parks where I previously found dozens of old silver coins with my Etracs and Equinox.  So far, the Manticore has not found anything amazing.  This is the Midwest and the soil is mild.

I tried the Manticore again yesterday at two more of my hunted out sites.  The Manticore didn't find anything old at the first site. At the second site, I found a beautiful condition 1946 quarter and a wheat cent.

The masked silver quarter signal was subtle, definitely not obvious or screaming. The signal was similar to a fringe depth silver signal on the Etrac, although today's 1946 quarter was not especially deep. I think I might keep the Manticore for a while longer.

I have used my Manticore twice at old parks where I previously found dozens of old silver coins with my Etracs and Equinox.  So far, the Manticore has not found anything amazing.  This is the Midwest and the soil is mild.

Equinox is still available for sale.

This Minelab Equinox 800 works fine but does not include a coil.  I'm sure many of you guys have multiple Equinox coils and could put this detector to work immediately.

The wireless headphones and charging cables for both the headphones and the detector are included.  $400 plus $25 for fully insured shipping.

P.S.  The bottom segment of the arm cuff has an old epoxy repair.  It's very solid and matches the color of the arm cuff.  Also, the wire to plug in the wireless headphones as regular headphones is not included.

I use a large Lortone tumbler with aquarium gravel.  The drum is about the size of a gallon paint can.  My clad gets completely clean but remains discolored,  After tumbling, I pour the clad and gravel mix onto a screen and hose it down.  Once everything is dry, I sort it out with a beach scoop.

Although lacking any details, these are the kind of reports that I want to hear, specifically how the Manticore performs at supposedly hunted out sites.

What can the Manticore find that an Etrac, CTX, or Equinox has left behind?

One apparent improvement appears to be a higher arm cuff.  Although I don't use an arm strap with any of my other detectors, I can't comfortably use my Equinox without the arm strap because the machine is unbalanced due to the arm cuff being too low.

If an extended height arm cuff were available for the original Equinox, I would buy one.

I have been using an Etrac on a regular basis for over nine years and have found close to 500 silver coins with it.  I bought an Equinox 600 in February 2018, but rarely use it.  The Etrac is superior at finding deep silver coins in most circumstances with the Equinox only excelling at unmasking or finding nickels in Park 2.

I absolutely hate the ergonomics of the Equinox, and vastly prefer swinging my heavy Etrac or my rinky dink Vanquish 540.  I wouldn't even own the Vanquish 540 if the ergonomics of the Equinox were not so horrible.  The Equinox is almost impossible to use without the arm cuff strap because the detector is not properly balanced, and I have no interest in attaching a counterweight to it.

Just like the Equinox, I don't foresee the Manticore making me retire my Etrac, if for no other reason than because the ergonomic deficiency of the Equinox has not been remedied.  When a $199 Vanquish 340 has better ergonomics than the latest $1599 Minelab product, something is wrong.

On 11/28/2020 at 9:50 AM, mh9162013 said:

In that case, avoid lithiums. They are more delicate, less forgiving to abuse and have a lower lifespan than a high quality NiMH cell.

Your assertion is contrary to my experience of the last five years using only RNB lithium battery packs in my Etrac.  I would never go back to NiMH and have to charge batteries the night before every hunt.

20 hours ago, PimentoUK said:

Mr. Bayard would be OK with a set of low-self-discharge NiMH's from an established brand, with a set of non-rechargeable alkaline cells kept as a backup.

I'm looking to be bullet proof, not just OK.  I'd rather spend $60 and never have to worry about batteries again.  I use an RNB battery pack in my Etrac and keep a fully charged RNB pack in the trunk (boot) of my car as a spare.  I would never go back to conventional batteries for the Etrac again.  The convenience of lithium is just too great, total reliability and more hunting time between charges.

That spare RNB pack might only get used once or twice a year; but, it never fails to hold a full charge even with months between uses.  It's in my car trunk during freezing winters and hot summers yet it still never fails. 

The Vanquish is going to stay in my car all the time too.  I'll only be using it on the rare occasion that I see a promising site and don't happen to have my Etrac or Equinox in the car.  Unless somebody has experienced a problem with the RNB pack for the Vanquish, I intend to buy one soon.

4 hours ago, palzynski said:

Hi , could you post a pic of this RNB battery thanks ... Is this battery rechargeable ? For info I often use lithium AA non rechargeable batteries for my Vanquish , they work very well 15hours autonomy but unfortunately not rechargeable ... 

The RNB battery replaces the battery cover on the Vanquish, and it is rechargeable.  There are a couple of Youtube videos on the battery, and it appears to be widely available for sale with U.S. dealers.  The manufacturer is RNB Innovations.

I notice that RNB now has a lithium battery pack for the Vanquish priced around $60.

I have been using RNB battery packs in my Etrac for years and probably will buy one of these Vanquish batteries, if there are no bugs needing to be worked out.  I intend to keep the Vanquish in my car trunk and will only use it sporadically.  Regular rechargeables don't seem to hold a charge if they are not used for a long time.  In contrast, the RNB batteries seem to hold a charge indefinitely.  I want to be confident that the detector is going to work even if it has been sitting unused in the car trunk for months.

Just now, relicmeister said:

My first modification was a folding mechanism ( available on ebay as “ fold and go” metal detector modification.   This worked well to enable me to fit it in a backpack for hikes, but in actually adding about 5 ounces of weight, it didn’t help ergonomics. Having seen a post here where a member replaced  the upper shaft with a Whites s-shaft, I did the same with mine, and now am very pleased with the swing ergonomics. The weight with the 11” coil is 3 lbs 7 oz, including the folding unit. I also lowered the handle by 1 1/2” improving the balance greatly. Both of these mods were not difficult to do, and cost about $70 in parts. It compares well with my f75 in swing ease.

That's an interesting modification, pretty much what I want, although I don't need the folding feature.

It looks like your S rod is the middle rod.  Are you using a White's upper rod and a White's middle S rod, or, is the upper rod the original Minelab upper rod?  Are you using a White's lower rod, or, does the Minelab lower rod fit?  What exactly did you need to shim?  Thank you in advance.

I have had a 600 for over a year now.  There is much to like about the detector; however, the ergonomics are something of a problem.  Unlike all my other detectors, I must use the Equinox arm strap, otherwise my arm will not stay within the arm cuff while swinging the detector.

My original plan was to try to turn the middle rod into an S rod.  I wasn't sure I could do this with just bending, or, if it would be smarter to attach a separate S section either mechanically, via welding, or even via epoxy.  Since then, I have acquired two additional middle rods, one for each coil.  This would now mean three times the work if I alter the middle rod.

The other day I was looking at my AKA Signum MFD.  It has the older style plastic housing.  Rather than being a straight rod, or an S rod, it is more of a V setup.  This got me thinking that if I bend the upper rod of the Equinox so that the arm cuff is higher, (similar to a hockey stick) this may solve the ergonomic problem, or, at least let me get rid of the arm strap.

Has anyone tried bending their Equinox shaft?  Will a simple conduit bender be sufficient to do the job?

I returned to site 2 today, hoping nearly six months of experience with the Equinox would give me enough skill to make some additional finds.

Park 2 allowed me to find three additional wheats cents, plus my first ever Barber half.  It's a worn 1904, and it wasn't particularly deep.

I believe the most I've ever found was a stack of seven clad quarters.

I don't often find a teens Mercury dime in this kind of condition.

I visited a site today where my Etrac has found a worn Mercury dime and some wheat cents in the past; but, it struggled with the trashy ground.  I thought this might be a site where my Equinox could make some additional finds.

I got a 1917 Mercury dime in outstanding condition, probably dropped close to 100 years ago, and two additional wheat cents from the 1930s.

On 7/28/2018 at 8:09 PM, Dubious said:

Having used the Nox for some time now, do you prefer it over the Etrac for hunting coins?  I think I still prefer my Etrac for coins in most places, but that in places with a lot of old iron nails and trash I do better with the Nox. (I am generally searching for high-conductor coins, hoping for silver, and not digging nickels a/k/a pull-tabs.) Other non-performance factors, like weight and screen readability, also push me to grab the Nox sometimes when otherwise I might not.  If I were a relic hunter (I mainly hunt coins) I would probably prefer the Nox everywhere.  I have other machines, including 2 Tesoros and a Racer 2, but have hardly touched them since getting the Nox.

The Etrac is still my primary coin hunting machine, largely because of the highly accurate depth meter.  My Equinox is used as a followup machine at sites where the Etrac has found silver coins.  It is also my airline travel machine.

On 7/28/2018 at 7:25 PM, GB_Amateur said:

Settings (including gain)?

 

Park 2, multi, sensitivity 25, IB 0

I've had the Equinox for five months now.  I think I'm up to eight silver coins with it so far, plus multiple Buffalo nickels.  This has been a slow silver year for me, only 23 total, haven't been able to find any promising new sites plus the weather has been too hot to hunt much.

Yesterday I ran the Equinox over a small 30' by 30' patch that I have previously pounded with the Etrac.  Within minutes the Equinox found an eight inch deep wheat cent and a 1947 nickel at about the same depth. 

The eight inch deep wheat cent was a clear signal, albeit with reduced volume, and I was impressed with the find.  The nickel was a strong signal.  This machine loves nickels in Park 2.

The mentality of such people is approximately:

"Garrett is the best."

Have you tried any other brand of metal detector and compared it to your Garrett?

"No."

Why not?

"Because Garrett is the best."

8 hours ago, Cal_Cobra said:

Glad you were able to ID the pistol, that's cool.

I have to say though, I'm surprised that rimfires were still being made/sold in the 1880's, always figured they were a bit older.  

 

Rimfire ammunition (larger than .22) was commonly available and in production up until the start of WWII.  The tooling to make the larger caliber rimfires was scrapped or discarded during the frenzy of war production during WWII.  Demand for larger caliber rimfires was not great enough for the major ammunition factories to recreate the necessary production tooling after the war.

I have a 1940s park near my home.  Earlier this year I dug up a complete round of .32 Long Rimfire.

The Equinox stock coil already offers better separation than an Etrac with a 6 inch coil.