midalake

CONGRATS!!! You have been a diggin son of a gun!!!!

I think it might be easier to do a print program on a coil support and build it up? I don't know anyone with that talent. I will contact him. Stainless steel that close to the coil?

Does anyone know if there is a coil support made for Tarsacci? Any other thoughts?

A few coin and artifact pics. The gravy was a Cob Coin between 1585 and 1625. A colonial silver earing and a silver 1851 1/4 Real. FYI>>> Royal Road of the Interior Land The Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (English: Royal Road of the Interior Land), also known as the Silver Route, was a Spanish 2,560-kilometre-long (1,590 mi) road between Mexico City and San Juan Pueblo (Ohkay Owingeh), New Mexico (in the modern U.S.), that was used from 1598 to 1882.

I want to thank my friend Van for a wonderful time of detecting and sharing knowledge over the years! Finally had the chance to work some VERY old ground in Mexico. I had challenges switching from the beach to land because of all the trash. It was tough going in many places. Like most copper coins they all come out bad here. Even though a lot of this is dry land the soil must be tough. Pulled many colonial coins buttons and other items. The scenery and beauty of a few of these locations were off the map. Most of these locations we hunted were in conjunction with the Camino Real. It is amazing how much of this is pretty hunted out. It takes lots of research and permissions to find good places in this day and age. Below is a picture where the cob and silver earring were located. A dry lakebed. Notice in the background the ruins of an old Hacienda. A view of where we hunted in the Mountains on the Camino Real, where the silver 1851 1/4 real was found.

Or in Mexico.......

I am very tall so the D2 rod was never really long enough, and the flex was ridiculous. So, 100% worth it for me. For us seasoned beach hunters there is nothing out there that does not need some tweak to make it bullet-proof. If companies were smart, they would consult beach hunters on their equipment standards.

Yes I understand. But XP left the end untreated in the clip [exposed] . This is why there is water egress in the cable. I have since made mine bullet proof, for Salt water hunting. I cut that piece of sheet clip off and attached directly to the coil with Goop Marine compound. First, I treat the end several times lightly to seal it then install like this [see pic]. The open space is for the charge clip which works just fine. Now this may not work for everyone. But since I am a dedicated beach hunter, I never need to remove that crap-e antenna. 😎

Awesome find!!!! Congrats!

Yes, the Manticore Coil does not glide as well. But the set-up is light, and the factory lower rod has a nice small diameter that cuts the water nice. 😎

As a dedicated Beach Hunter and owning the D2 and Equinox 800 I will not be getting the Manticore. We have done numerous depth tests over two seasons in different conditions different days, maybe close to 15 buried tests. To be honest the D2 and Manticore are too close to call on depth and the Equinox might be 1" difference less than both of those. One thing on the Manticore I do not like is, all the coil cross supports. I am a ground scrubber and the Manticore is one big sand plow. In my location, I do not see any advantage that the Manticore would cover different from what I already own. 😎

Garrett Drizzle?

I am just perplexed at the factory settings of the Legend. How could Nokta set their own machine up for failure so much? I do not think I have seen worse factory Beach settings on any other machine. EVER. Doubt I will get another shot to test one. 🙄

WOW, Nice haul!

Yes, that is why I rely on my other brilliant friend that has owned the Manticore for over a year. 😎 Yes, maybe. The IF of 5 did a great job of taking care of the multi metal 1-2 and 5 peso coins. I may have been able to turn it down some.

I have hunted in recovery of 6 for a long time. But from memory, I do not think there was much difference between 4-6 recovery when I was testing. Everything else would have to be tested.

Well that sums it up.

I checked and yes, the lower is CF. However, there is too much flex in this set-up for me. I could not hunt it. That flex coming from the upper.

Yes. Hunting in Beach 2, 1 tone, horseshoe mode on. ALL Iron will double ring or have a target break down in response at depth. We are talking targets deep enough that will not TID properly anyway. Remember 1 tone so everything sounds the same. [for the most part]. The key is coil control. Slow coil movement is necessary to let the ferrous sounds off twice. In the case of nonferrous at depth. It will ONLY single ring. You cannot make it double ring. In my experience the signal will sound good 360 degrees around. Good being: clean with no breaks, clicks, or double rings. Shallow nonferrous will double ring......but this is what you have the TID display for. Showing positive numbers. FYI The 900 Equinox is also masterful at this in Beach 2.

Re-checked settings: Salt [st] 2, Iron [IF] 5, Audio [AG] 6. Bottle [bc] 1..... Recovery speed was tested from 1-3. We thought 1 was giving better responses than 3. The higher you went the worse response on fringe targets. In summary: I do not think any of our settings hurt this test of the Legend.

Still have the unit, will double check the setting. I am tall and had to have the shaft extended to its limits. The lower rod is not CF and the shaft is junk.

Yes, coils sizes were all 11" that were tested.

This was a fully updated Legend. We used Gigamasters settings and with limited time just stayed with those. I don't think Beast mode is for beach hunting. Not sure what your "DT" reference is? We did release any setting that might upset depth performance and tested from all metal to discrimination of 10. Even experimenting with recovery speed. Our surprise and confusion was, the Legend could run at full sensitivity yet not obtain the depth of the other machines on the beach. To be honest, this was not even close. Maybe the Black Sand? Don't know?

Hopefully soon.....maybe two-three weeks. 😎

OK, back to testing. We were out for 14 days straight for Easter. Legend, Manticore and Equinox 900 were the new machines worked this trip. Comparisions will be made to long time machines I run here, being the D2 and Equinox 800. Legend. Testing was done in Multi Wet as we always hunt in wet and water contact. If anyone has setting questions, ask. 1. It was difficult to work the legend in ANY moving water. The rod has way too much flex. 2. The Legend was really stable on the wet sand with black sand. Water contact was quiet and what little testing we did, it appeared that recoveries with moving water would work. 3. We accomplish 30 sensitivity on the wet sand. HOWEVER, 4 different tests on different days and locations, Showed the Legend could not hear a buried gold ring set at a fringe depth. Every other detector we tested could hear the gold ring and identify it. We even had recovery speed down to 1. ** The Legend is VERY recovery sensitive. Caution should be given to swing speed. Because of the major failure of the Legend in buried ring testing we never really hunted it for more than an hour session. Equinox 900. Testing was done in Beach 2, one tone, horseshoe on. We did not find any big changes one way or another from the 800 in operating on this beach. The 900 was stable and maybe you could run a little more sensitivity in the wet sand EMI seemed to be good. Water contact was close to the same with maybe a little more sensitivity issue. Water recoveries could be done. Gold ring testing on multiple days had the 900 on par with the Manticore and 800. We did not find stability issues like others found. Manticore: While I only hunted it for about an hour. My friend and I spent days looking at each other's targets and ring testing. Many different modes were tried, and settings. At the end of the day, we did not find one target that the other person could not identify or hear. Direct buried ring testing showed there were better settings to use as several times the 800 and 900 surpassed the Manticore. Oddly enough, with this updated unit we found Surf and Seawater to be unstable for its purpose. Last year we found Surf and Seawater to be our favorite. In summary: We found all of the Minelab machines, 800,900, and Manticore to be very close salt water and black sand beach tools. The only drawback was if the Manticore was not set properly the Equinox 800 and 900 could beat it. 😎