midalake

14 hours ago, skywatcher said:

Here goes nothing been reading this forum for years yet i never sought advice until now never 2 old right. I have been reading through most of the black sand post but still undecided what to do.I mainly do underwater searching and some land also

Ah, Panama. This is the reason I never bought a place in Panama. 

My Black Sand is nowhere near that bad. I think your only choice would be a PI machine, which I have no experience with. 
If I had to rank how the newest machines worked on my beach it would be. Tarsacci, close second the Equinox and Manticore [TIE] and the worst is the Deus2. 

We will soon be testing a Rutus. 

2 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

Found on land in the last three months along with over $300 in US clad coins:

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

7 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

Nope.  I had to send it out to someone I know who had the skill to build up the ear from scratch using epoxy and a special buy of plastic material

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. 

1 minute ago, JCR said:

 I would contact Dimitar, he has always been willing to help if possible.    Otherwise that break should be repairable with marine grade epoxy and a stainless steel reinforcement washer on the outboard side.

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. 

Just now, Steve Herschbach said:

If you live on an island in the Pacific and that detector dies, you most likely will pay a hefty shipping bill both ways for warranty work.

Or in Mexico.......

14 hours ago, wprandy said:

I see you have a carbon fiber shaft. Is that to reduce flex and weight?  Is it worth the $?

I am very tall so the D2 rod was never really long enough, and the flex was ridiculous. So, 100% worth it for me. 

6 hours ago, wprandy said:

There is no way my sister will want to purchase this detector if she has to do a DIY fix out of the box. She has been detecting daily since the 80's

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. 

3 hours ago, wprandy said:

As a former military ARMY soldier, and Scuba Instructor, I know how to rinse and keep gear in brand new condition for years. 

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! 

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. 😎