midalake

Awesome find!!!!  Congrats! 

Just now, strick said:

are you saying that the cross supports catch the sand? interesting statement.

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. 😎

On 4/19/2024 at 12:41 PM, Jeff McClendon said:

The Legend and Manticore easily out perform the Equinox 600/800 where I detect the most and I don't have to worry about leaking and build quality either.

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. 😎 

On 3/27/2024 at 3:05 PM, 67GTA said:

If he knows what he's talking about,

Garrett Drizzle? 

On 4/10/2024 at 10:09 AM, Bill (S. CA) said:

Jeff is right.  Run the IF at 0 or 1.  Otherwise you severely compromise the depth.  And I found the setting in general to be useless. 

On 4/10/2024 at 10:21 AM, Jeff McClendon said:

I have found the Iron Filter setting to be very effective if I don't run it above 4 in some cases.

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! 

5 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

As far as Manticore, it has taken me and Abenson almost 6 months to get a handle on that detector. I know you are a brilliant guy and I am not, but I doubt you can do it in 1 hour.

Yes, that is why I rely on my other brilliant friend that has owned the Manticore for over a year. 😎

5 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

I still think IF 5 is way too high for an iron mineralized beach

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.  

3 hours ago, mcjtom said:

Would varying the recovery speed affect this phenomenon?

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.

4 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

Just for me (I tend to agree with you about the Legend not being as deep as the 900 and Manticore BTW)

4 hours ago, Bill (S. CA) said:

My experience with my Legend has been similar to yours at my beaches.  It just doesn't go as deep as a Deus II or Equinox.

Well that sums it up. 

9 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

The stock lower rods on all Legends are carbon fiber. They make a tall man carbon fiber lower shaft. Yours must have been altered if it doesn’t have a CF lower shaft.

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.    

2 hours ago, mcjtom said:

Could you describe the 'double ring' of iron at depth (as opposed to nonferrous single ring as iron at depth)?

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.  

11 hours ago, Digalicious said:

The default salt stability control on the Legend is set at maximum. That setting should have a notable effect on depth.

8 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

Did you adjust the iron filter settings to a lower value than default 8? Same for bottle cap reject. Gigmaster’s beaches have very mild black sand levels. I think he uses IF 5 and Bottle Cap 1. That may be too much iron bias for your beach. Same with recovery speed 1

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. 

Just now, Digalicious said:

The default salt stability control on the Legend is set at maximum.

Still have the unit, will double check the setting.

Just now, Digalicious said:

That's the first I've heard of any water hunter say the shaft has too much flex. Nor have I experienced that in my water hunting. Are you certain the cam locks were locking properly?

I am tall and had to have the shaft extended to its limits. The lower rod is not CF and the shaft is junk. 

Just now, Lynk said:

@midalake thank you for your writeup. Great color on your testing. I am glad to hear your positive take on the 900.

Sorry if I missed it, but did you use the 11" coil for the 800 and 900?

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

1 hour ago, Bill (S. CA) said:

Yet another good write up by you.  Any thoughts to doing the Legend Update to see if DT and Beast mode improve performance?

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?  

On 3/3/2024 at 8:15 AM, JCR said:

I wish I could let you try the Rutus Versa in your conditions

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. 😎

On 4/6/2024 at 2:39 AM, TTT2866 said:

well done! What's the total weight? 

Ugh, no scale at the condo. 

10 hours ago, RickUK said:

Very well done on finding such a stunning gold chain,did it come with the rings on or did you find those as well ?? Once again well done.

Complete, found as one.  Thanks!

9 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

What detector were you using?

Equinox 800, full water contact. 
 

5 hours ago, matt said:

Have you checked to stones to see if they are real diamonds?

No Diamond tester here. But my friend is interested in purchasing one so will get an appraisal soon.  

Pin pointer>Never. 

Thanks, got a set to pair. 

We have a Legend at the beach for testing but forgot headphones. Will the Deus 2 phones pair?  Also is it the same headphone jack as the Deus?  Will a wired pair work from D2?  Any other simple options?  Thanks 

Question for you experts in manual GB on the D2. Let's say your machine picks "80" after doing the GB procedure. 
Does anyone see an advantage being a couple of points higher or lower in ground balance from what the machine picks?  Thanks. 

Awesome finds......keep it going!