Chase Goldman

Dave - how high up the scale did the Tarsacci throw those coins?  I ask because there is a way you can adjust Disc on the Tarsacci that covers the whole ferrous range and notches out 3 or 4 points of the high wraparound region (e.g., if you set Disc to 28, then all negative (ferrous) ID'S are disc'd and also 26 to 30 (Max ID on the Scale).  Just wondering if you used that feature, but still found it to be ineffective.

12 hours ago, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

Most don't allow hunting during the summer season and if they do it's very limited. I struggle getting up early with those crazy Sandy Point summer hours . 7am to 9am. And that almost got shut down last year when a few were slipping in at 6am, Ranger passed along a message to all that hunt earlier, We catch anyone in here before 7am .. there will be no more detecting.

I know, it's nuts in season and in two hours you can't cover much ground.  That's why I go in the off season and take my time.  Yep, no fresh drops but last time out still took home some pocket change and a nice 925 Bracelet.  I also pulled a 2 cent piece there in the off season and a couple pieces of gold.  It's quiet, you're not rushed, and there always seems to be at least one surprise find when I do go.

Yeah, and it's great the bad actors continue to take away the few remaining opportunities we have to detect public areas by representing the hobby in a bad light.

Thanks for reminding me to put mine up on the classifieds.   It was the deepest detecting, non-PI detector in hot dirt I ever used.  But with the improved ergonomics of the Axiom PI and decent versatility and performance of the D2 in mineralized dirt and at the beach, the Tarsacci really no longer fills a niche for me.  Look for it soon.  🙂

4 hours ago, moondog69 said:

No state parks

MD State Parks with beaches allow MDing.

Nice saves. 

What's the vintage of the USMC button?  Funny those two keys are broken in an almost identical manner, they look like twins.

Like the Baptist Sunday School souvenir pin.

1 hour ago, HardPack said:

Maybe there is room for XP Deus improvement, the reactivity expert setting silencer is also not available with the XP Deus Goldfield mode

The silencer setting doesn't apply to Goldfield as it uses IAR to reject iron vs. discrimination.  Silencer is an iron bias setting on top of discrimination in those modes that use discrimination, so there is no way to "improve" it.  This applies to Deus 2 as well.  Silencer, bottle cap, and tone ID are simply absent from Goldfield to enable focus on small signal response without additional filters.  It works quite well and they expanded it for use in relic detecting on Deus 2 with the Relic Program.  It's my main search program and I have had a lot of success with it.  If I need silencer or bottlecap filters, I'll switch to the programs that can accommodate those filters.

I still don't get that pricing - basically, what they are saying is that you are paying nearly 2 grand AUS extra simply to include 13X11 DD coil in the full package which is nuts (don't think a plastic external battery case and the MS3 wireless phones are worth $385 AUS either but I'll throw them a bone).  I don't know what the actual AUS price is for the 13x11 standalone, but it seems you can get the lite package and then buy whatever second coil you want standalone and even purchase some MS-3's standalone and you would basically have the full package at a nice discount AND would be able to pick the second coil that suits your needs best.  It seems the lite package is the way to go, even though the pricing is still on the high side.  No one is really going to miss the backup battery pack.  You can use a power bank and some bungee cords if you get desperate.

24 minutes ago, DSMITH said:

Chase do you think two pieces of sticky backed Velcro 1 placed on each edge inside the compartment maybe one in the bottom would work to snug the ORX remote up, i am talking about the side of the Velcro that is the fuzzy side Just a thought, just trying to work out what could be done in my head to keep the ORX remote from Rattling around inside the compartment.

Yeah, that can probably work.  The only issue with that is if you ever decide to switch to a Deus 2, you would have to dig the Velcro strips out and might have adhesive residue on the mount internals.

Ok.  So, I was on the road and happened to be near enough to a Chesapeake Bay beach park that I decided to take a detour and swing my Deus 2 detector around on the sand using my new RC Digs mount that is compatible with Steve's CF Shaft system customized for the Deus.

To cut to the chase...it was fantastic.  Even with Steve's superior locking mechanism for the "traditional" Deus 2 case mount, I was always concerned about the remote working loose and falling off as I often am manipulating the remote keys for target interrogation, pinpointing, and adjusting settings for changing site conditions.  This is especially true when salt beach hunting.  The RC Digs mount was secure and the angled positioning enabled a great, glare free view of the display with simple quick glances.  It just gives you a lot of piece of mind that your remote is going to be secure without the need to deal with locking mechanisms and backup lanyards.

I wasn't expecting to find anything here because it is off season and devoid of any fresh drops but had fun anyway and picked up a few stray coins and sinkers and also managed to snag a solid 925 silver bangle bracelet that gave off a weird Target ID because it was buried unlatched.  Bonus!

I already highly recommend Steve's CF shaft system for the Deus, especially for beach and water work, and with the option to now to select the RC Digs mount to house the Deus 2 remote, it is even better.

I do recommend the angled RC Digs mount unless you have people sharing the shaft that may have a different dominant swing arm, in which case, opt for the straight on mount. 

As I posted above, you can use the RC Digs mount for your Deus 1/Orx but the fit is not ideal as the remotes for Deus/Orx are smaller than the Deus 2 and they will rattle around in the enclosure unless you snug them up using a slip-on remote cover or shims.  Button alignment is not ideal either, but will work.

I have no additional improvement suggestions other than those mentioned by other previous users of the SteveG shaft with the RC Digs modified compatible mount.  It is a killer combination!  Thanks, @steveg for letting me run the new mount through its paces, you have a winner!

16 hours ago, steveg said:

DSMITH -- that's a good question, regarding the ORX.  I am not sure if the ORX control box would fit properly into the RCDigs mount, or not.  My shaft is compatible with the ORX (including my mount, I'm near certain), but not sure about the ORX, and I don't think the guy who makes them has an ORX remote available to him, to check it out.  If you would like me to send you one for you to check it out, let me know.  We can work something out in that regard...

Thanks!

Steve

4 hours ago, DSMITH said:

Absolutely would like for you to send me one and then I will let you know how it works with the ORX what do you need from me Steve

Ok so I mounted both my ORX and Deus 1 remotes in the RC Digs case and they fit (as expected as they have smaller dimensions than the Deus 2 remote) but it is not ideal as they are not snug and bounce and rattle around inside the case while swinging it.  Also, the remotes sort of sit low in the case such that the pinpoint button is right on the edge of the lower part of the mount opening.  If you are going to try this, I would suggest putting the remote in one of those slip on protective nylon covers and that creates more of a snug fit and protects the remote if it does move around in the mount.  Again, the alignment is not ideal, but it can work.

It was a fun but strange day.  How many times did we ask each other "what the heck is this?" as we pulled another unusual doo dad out of the ground.  That Convention Badge was amazing and cool you found the flag shield backing. Odd about the lack of silver coins considering all the other high tone targets and other silver we hit.  You've been on a ring run of late (in addition to all that Spanish silver), while I've dug more cufflinks this season than ever.  You're the ring master and you can call me captain cufflink. 

So Bob (@F350Platinum) documented our wild ride this week at our newish permission, a field with an unexpected house site on it.  It was amazing.  When we first surveyed it a couple weeks we knew it was going to be tough going with aluminum trash as expected nearer the main road and a ton of iron at the actual home site.  I lucked out that first brief hunt at the end of a long day with a minie ball,  a flat button,  a silver spoon bowl, a wheatie, and, amazingly, the only silver coin ('64 Rosie) we've pulled out so far, all in quick succession. 

When I met up with Bob this time, he was semi-gridding the property adjacent to the access road/driveway were I had found the previous items and I was picking my way through the aluminum to get my "ears on".  My first keeper was a '58 Jefferson.  I then hit a few pieces of miscellaneous brass including some of those keyboard instrument brass "reeds" or whatever.   I then hit a honker non-ferrous signal and hesitated whether to dig what I thought was going to be a smashed beer can or or worse.  I decided to go for it, and to my surprise, I dug a late 1800's vintage Champion 6-Lever lock.  This is a fairly common antique lock that was built to last and an built to be secure.  It was in amazing condition.  I joked to Bob that we should find the safe this thing was attached to...little did I know that statement sort of foreshadowed how the rest of the day would go.  I dug a handful of early 1900's wheats, a 1940 nickel, and also a toasted Buffalo nickel.  I then dug an amazing brass padlock key for a much older lock than the one I found and a pieces of a Colonial era English lock key latch cover marked with a Crown - perhaps belonging to the lock matching the key I found earlier.  I dug a couple of other interesting brass things including a brooch or pin with a rippled shell-like texture and an ornate little brass ornamental with a square loop.

After digging a number of those keyboard reed thingy's and little else of note, I decided to do a walkaround of the small plot, as I was making my way towards the back I dug a couple of matching costume jewelry type pieces of gold gilt over hollow brass that looked like pieces of a bracelet of some sort.  Didn't think much of it.  I then dug a brass makeup case that still had makeup in it.  Anyway, as I moved out of the debris field of the house, things went quiet and I did not dig anything but a couple of random pieces of aluminum. 

I made my way back to where Bob was detecting.  I saw him sitting on the ground for awhile and playing with his phone as I was swinging my way back, which typically means he found something good.  I was right, he gave me the thumbs up signal, and showed me the incredible silver ring and stone.  after chatting about that, I got a target not 5 feet away and it was a gold plated cufflink, with an art deco style design.  After that it was off to the jewelry races with us recovering a number of jewelry related items, buttons, and pieces of silverware and miscellaneous silver bits.  The coolest piece for me was a silver brooch with a translucent blue stone and a silver cufflink.

Anyway, it was one of those rare "dig a minute" type days, and even though few of the items were as old as what we usually dig in that area, it was a great day by any measure and the weather was perfect.  We are just wondering where the heck are all the silver coins. 

BTW - I was mostly using my custom setup of the Deus 2 Relic Program (IAR at 5, Reactivity set as needed, PCM audio) with the 9" Round Coil and occasionally searching and interrogating with the General Program using Full Tones and High Square audio.

Thanks, Bob for another great detecting day and for not spanking me too badly.  You were really making some nice ring saves and I didn't have much to show for lots of digging up to that point until we unlocked that "jewelry box".  Good times.

Do you have it going USB C to USB C, Simon?

On 2/21/2024 at 6:25 AM, Badger-NH said:

The landscape and scenery where you will be observing it make a big difference.

...and the weather.       That's why the more southerly sections of the path are more popular for this Spring eclipse vs. the 2017 which was in August when clear skies were more likely across the entire path.

The weather forecast will be the thing that determines if I make the trip otherwise I'll just enjoy our local 80% coverage.

All the best for a complete recovery for CPT.  Hope to see you posting soon and eventually swinging again when able. Thanks for letting us know @walkerrj.

2 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

Thanks Chase,

This is important, @L David Keith was the deciding factor in retrieving this artifact, I left it there because I could not glean this information well, he provided specific information that gave me the confidence to pick it up. I didn't want to get "blowed up real good".

Seriously, if you're not certain that ordinance is inert, be careful. I left this find for a while hoping the rain would wash it off and expose any kind of fuse mechanism, and even now that I am certain it is a solid ball, I still handle it with care. 

Yep.  It is important to not take chances with potential live ordnance, regardless of how long its been in the ground.  If you have good confirmation of solid shot based on weight and volume, then you're good to go.

To alleviate confusion between cannon bore diameter and standard solid shot diameter/weight and variations in iron alloy specific densities, check the various tables at Historical Publications LLC site https://www.historicalpublicationsllc.com/cannon-bore-shot-shell-canister-and-grape-shot-diameters-for-rifled-and-smoothbore-cannon/article_7776287a-e5be-11ec-a0c1-5b319e800f0a.html.  That information is consistent with information posted by L David Keith earlier in the thread.

It's likely an adhesive Gore Vent.  Internal pressure builds to a point that it temporarily pops the "sticker" to allow the pressure to equalize and then the adhesive re-seals the sticker to maintain a watertight seal.  You likely didn't damage it, but if your skin/fingers have oils or other contaminants (silicone grease?) that could compromise the adhesive properties of the vent, then the sealing ability of the Gore Vent "sticker" could be affected leaving the internals vulnerable to water intrusion. That's why you "pop" it into place as shown in the video.

1 hour ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Hugh. I will point out for the record though that gold is just another non-ferrous metal, not magical.

Agreed - my relic equivalent mid-conductive targets are primarily brass buttons (though I wouldn't mind hitting another gold coin).  But when I said gold, I was looking at it from the perspective of sensitivity to targets smaller than button or coin, and if that is the objective, the M8 might have the edge due to physics (the more closely spaced magnetic field lines it produces) .

I feel that it has taken me a full 2 years of experience to get to where I am with the D2.  But along with that came two significant D2 updates within the past 6 months that accelerated not only my learning and proficiency but also my success because they actually improved D2 performance and usability namely:

• The addition of high square audio (1.X)
•  Added audio filter controls (1.X)
• Enabling iron volume for Full tones (1.X)
• Enhancing TID stability (1.X/2.0)
• Improving small, mid-conductive target sensitivity in Goldfield [and Relic].

I think that having the benefit of the latest 2.0 update out of the box will accelerate anybody's D2 learning curve vs. the early adopters who had to wait more than a year between the 0.71 and 1.1 updates.

My only caveats against declaring a clear winner here for me: 

First, I did pretty well on my first hunt with the Manticore/M8 in thick iron. Luck? Non-relevant?  Or...will I find even more success with tge Manticore as I learn to be as proficient with it as the D2.

Second, it really surprised me on detecting that tiny metallic sliver I found and mentioned in my first post on this thread.  Need to do a side-by-side with the M8 and D2 on that target.

Finally, while I have A LOT of hot dirt experience with the D2, I basically only have about 3 days with the D2 since ver 1.X came out and zero hot dirt experience with Manticore.

I'm still evaluating them both in this regard.

1 hour ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Would not the Manticore be better in those locations than the D2 if the D2 is indeed more prone to falsing on bottle caps?

Regarding D2 ferrous falsing, Bottle caps, specifically, completely disappear for me on the D2 with the BC filter engaged with little to no downside.  You get a blip to know they're there so you're not oblivious to them but can feel free to move on. 

BC, like D2's Silencer, is just another iron bias type filter.  So that's two iron bias filters you can manipulate to potentially knock out multi-alloy ferrous falsing on things like flat tin but TBH I don't have a lot of data to confirm that BC and/or Silencer would be as effective as it is on bottlecaps . 

Relic program on D2 uses a third, separate type of bias filter called IAR which does a good job of knocking falsing iron back into the ferrous bin while still allowing the non-ferrous to pop.  However the D2 Relic/Goldfield programs don't use traditional Disc so don't have access to the Silencer and BC bias filters.  That's where technique comes into play - With the D2 custom program slots and quick navigation from program to program, I can quickly hit a target with two or three different setups (programs with different ferrous filter settings) to quickly filter out a false and move on.  Ferrous falsing has other tells on the D2.  In my experience, the most prominent tell is widely varying TID (especially when you turn on the target) because non-ferrous targets, even those co-located with iron, are pretty stable.  I think the biggest D2 falsing weakness is deep large iron, especially large flat iron.  

Relic/Goldfield appear to be the more "transparent" programs as they are pseudo All Metal, so I search with them in thick iron, and interrogate with "discrimination" Base programs such as General or Sensitive with different tone setups (pitch or full tones) and the bias filters I previously mentioned. To either suppress or coax falsing/distortion to unmask ferrous.

Manticore has ferrous limits which is just a different way to slay the same cat using a form of iron bias and appears to also work very well.  I am still learning how to use the user programmable hot keys to set up something similar to target interrogation with Manticore to what I have natively with D2.  It shows promise.  But frankly, all I am doing is getting Manticore to sort of emulate the D2 and not expecting it to surpass the D2.  I'm just using its differences to perhaps make some targets pop in iron that I might have missed with D2.  ID stability is a minor downside to Manticore compared the D2.  On the other hand, I think ferrous limits and the 2-D target trace display on Manticore are better at keeping from getting fooled by big deep iron that occasionally happens with the D2.

Steve, from a general detecting standpoint, I look at it this way: Either machine with the small coil (and a proficient operator) is going to probably eek out 8 or 9 keepers out of 10-12 keepers that exist in a given iron patch.  It's just that out of those 8 or 9 recovered keepers a couple are going to be different in each batch.  That's my gut feel and the reason I feel they "compliment" each other while being effectively equivalent. Sometimes, I just need a change of pace machine I can switch to if I'm in a slump with one machine or the other and it's good they have similar but slightly different performance.

Both machines are extremely versatile and with the M8 coil, I think ergonomics/weight end up being a tossup.

But to answer your question, for primarily gold, I'd probably lean Manticore.  The M8 coil just seems ideal for that.

For relics in iron, it's D2 and the 9" coil, but I would be fine working the spot over with M core and the M8 to see if anything else pops.

The thing you need to ask yourself, is whether the operator makes the difference.  Specifically, is target "interrogation" technique enhanced by D2's features and if that is one of the keys to Condor's success in iron.

Similarly, you appear to be more comfortable with the ML platform than with the D2 platform overall.  That comfort may be the thing that tips the scales for you in what appears to otherwise be a virtual tie.

On 2/5/2024 at 1:07 PM, cudamark said:

     Hi all, I had a curious problem with my 900 on a recent vacation. Before leaving home, my 900 worked flawlessly. When I arrived at my first vacation hunt, it wouldn't fire up! Figures, huh? The green light would just flash once and not stay on steady like a normal start up. After playing with it a bit, sometimes it would start after a few presses of the power button, other times it might take a hundred presses to finally get a solid green light and start up procedure. Once it actually did start properly, it would stay on, no problem. The next day, same issue. It got so bad that I didn't think it would ever start up. Then I got the idea that maybe it would help to try with the battery charger (or in this case, my portable reserve battery booster/charger) hooked up, even though the battery had received a full charge all night long. Voila! Started right up! Humm, what's the deal here.....Over the next few days, that's what I had to do to get it fired up, and once started, it worked fine, although I noticed that the battery seemed to run down faster each day. The last day, the battery only lasted a couple of hours after a full charge from the night before, so, I figured the battery itself was the startup problem. When I got back home, I checked with the warranty info and found that the battery only comes with a 6 month guarantee....seems a bit short, but, ok, get another one. $30 and a few days later, replacement battery in hand, I put a new one in and problem solved.

      I had previously replace the battery in my 800, so, thinking it was the same procedure (I even thought it might be the same battery, but, no), I felt confident in replacing this one too. It is slightly different as I discovered. It isn't all that different, but, here's what I found. Pull the handle off the shaft as normal, then the battery compartment cap just pulls out....no retaining screw. It just has an "O" ring sealing the cap to the handle/housing. Inside, the battery just pulls out easily, unplugs like the 800, and just slides back in, with a foam bumper holding it in place. In re-installing the cap and "O" ring assembly (it would have been nice it Minelab included a new one with the battery) I noticed that it fit tight enough that the external speaker would flex outward when pushing the cap in place. Not wanting to damage it, I tried installing it very slowly to allow the air inside the handle to escape without flexing the speaker. No dice. I had rubbed a bit of silicone grease on the "O" ring and housing making that sealing surface air tight. Ok, plan B......there was a small round sticker on the cap that peels up easily to reveal some air holes. That did the trick! Just carefully roll the edge of that sticker back enough to expose the holes, then install the cap all the way, and then press that sticker back over the hole(s) again. There again, it would have been nice if Minelab had included a new one with the battery, but, it looks like it will still work fine. I have one question for all of you though... what happens if the speaker cone breaks? Will water flood into the battery compartment and damage something? Is the battery compartment isolated from the electronics in the pod? The battery connection doesn't have a waterproof connector on it, so, if water (especially salt water) got in there, wouldn't it short out the battery? Maybe I'm missing something, but, that looks like a potential problem down the road when dunking this thing in the ocean.

I don't think you're supposed to peel that sticker as that might be a long term concern regarding adhesion.  , You're supposed to actually pop the speaker.  Make sure the silicone grease you used was food grade and not petroleum based. This was posted awhile back on how to do the Manitocore/900/7000 battery changeout:

Regarding the potential vulnerabilities, warranty should cover it if its a design or manufacturing issue but I am unaware of any drowning issues with the 900 like those reported for the 600/800.

HTH

1 hour ago, phrunt said:

Very close, except it would be a KFC bucket, I never did fancy popcorn much 🙂

My employer genuinely did bribe me with buckets of KFC to take on overtime or work back late when necessary, paid of course, but the KFC was the clincher 🙂

 

KFC perfect.    For me it would be Taco Bell - same parent company. 

6 hours ago, phrunt said:

I'm guessing the SDC is easier to change coils on?

Well, it's not designed to have coils swapped, so that would probably be a no or yes?  I don't know, but you certainly do, Simon.  Though it can be done and third parties sell an adapter shoe to facilitate easier changeout of third party compatible Coiltek coils.

Pioneer can confirm this, but I suspect, as he stated, that the ability to swap coils was one reason why he was interested in the E1500 in the first place (over the SDC 2300), as he could then use it for small or large gold hunting depending on the coil and then he could get rid of the SDC and possibly also his Gold Monster.  So I am assuming he was using the installed stock SDC coil.  Perhaps investing in the coil swap capability for the SDC via the adapter accessory would be the right alternative to the solution he was originally pursuing with the E1500.

Even if all the things you addressed, Simon, regarding coil changeout ease and coil cables etc. could be satisfactorily addressed, I think these were less signficant issues and it was the lack of operational automation that really determined that it just wasn't a good fit for Pioneer.  He is trying to vacuum up as much gold as he can on a daily basis to make a living and is simply more comfortable with machines that don't need to be tweaked for optimal performance, like the Gold Monster and SDC 2300 (both of which he owns) and perhaps even the GPX 6000 would be in that category, but is out of financial reach.

It was good to hear his perspective first hand and even better that he took the time to feed his thoughts back to the company even after he knew the machine was not going to work out for his situation.  Also glad he chimed in here and hope to hear from him again regarding his experiences pursuing gold.

Perspective:  I am relic hunting, primarily in mild ground but have a lot of mineralized ground experience with the D2.  Very little with the Manticore, though, because I have been waiting for the M8 coil which I just received in late December.  I don't like to detect mineralized ground with a VLF with coils with footprints larger than the D2's 9".  Ideal footprint would be the 10x5.  The M8 is a good option (8x5.5), though a greater coverage footprint (10x5) or 11x6 would be ideal.  I have no experience detecting natural gold.

I have been frequently detecting a productive Colonial home site with my digging buddy that has multiple thick iron patches hiding relics going back to the 1600's.   We have been pounding the hot spots with D2's with the 13" coil (fringes and open field searching) and 9" coil to pick keepers out of the heart of the iron patch.   I recently decided to give it a go with the Manticore M8 coil and had success similar to that I had with the D2 and the 9" coil.  I know Steve has seen my post on this, but for those of you with the same question as Steve but have not seen it, you can find it here.   As far as comparative coil separation performance is concerned, it is hard for me to say with certainty because the detectors are different, plus I have less experience with the Manticore than I do with the D2, but I would say they were at least equivalent.  But I can say, that overall I felt almost like I was using the D2 in a new mode.  It took a little time to get used to the different target IDs and ferrous falsing "tells" (I think I can mitigate this with a more customized ferrous limits setup - but did just fine utilizing the 2-D target trace display as an additional source of information to make a dig decision). 

I primarily use the Deus 2 in Relic Mode with sensitivity usually above 90 (sometimes I reduce it to the mid-to-low 80's to "sift" for non-ferrous amongst really thick iron) with high Iron Amplitude Rejection settings (IAR either at 3 or 5) and adjust reactivity as needed.

I had the Manticore set up in AT General with Enhanced audio, Default tone settings (2-Region, All tones, variable pitch).  After noise cancelling and ground balancing, I set sensitivity at about 23 and left recovery speed and discrimination and ferrous limits at the defaults.  

Below are my keepers from two different hunts at the same site.  The first picture is with the D2 and the 9" coil and the second is the Manticore and the M8 coil.  You can see the similarity of the recoveries from the same area but with the different detectors/coils.  None of the targets are particularly tiny, but notice the small target in the bottom photo in the column all the way to the left, second target up from the bottom.  I am pretty sure that is a tiny piece of silver.  It kind of blew me away, but the audio on the Manticore left no doubt that there was a target there.  I did not test it with the 9" and Deus 2.  Maybe I will do that.  I have found broken off button shanks with the D2 and the 9" coil.  None of these targets, however, qualify as anything close to micro gold targets.

Preliminary Conclusion:  I have yet to find a significant difference in performance that I can attribute solely to the different coils or even to the detectors themselves - I probably need more swing time on the Manticore under different circumstance to be sure.  There are some features I like about swinging the Manticore vs. the Deus (the target trace display, horseshoe button, light overall package with the M8 coil) and vice-versa (rock solid target ID stability and repeatability, All Metal feel of Relic Mode, great separation ability and coverage of the 13" coil, and incredible integration and performance of the M6 pinpointer) such that I am now thinking that I have a situation (facilitated by the Manticore's M8 coil) that is somewhat similar to what I experienced with the Deus 1 and Equinox 800.  Namely, two excellent detectors that compliment each such that I can't see parting with either.  Fortunately, I don't have to, and the fact that they are compact enough that I can bring both along even if I am hiking into a site is a bonus.

On 2/10/2024 at 6:57 AM, RickUK said:

Looking at getting one of these coils Detech 11 DD Anti Interference for Minelab GP, SD or GPX detectors for my GPX,the stock coil that comes with it is the stock 11'' Mono which i dont particularly like as a stock coil,but this Detech 11'' AI coil is seriously grabbing my attention as a everyday use coil,it will never be used for nugget hunting predominately for coin,artefacts and hoard hunting,but will mainly use my selection of larger coils for the latter option.

Has any one on the Forum used one of these coils and if so am i going down the right route for my needs and would you recommend this coil as they are pretty tough coils and a decent price here in the UK although they are shipped from Bulgaria.

Rick

Rick - I think you take a slight performance depth hit on the these AI coils vs. a DD with the same coil footprint.  Since you are getting one anyway, you can be the judge of that if you have any DD coils in your arsenal you might use for mineralized ground or use of the GPX ferrous blanking feature.

For relic hunting with the GPX, I have run DD coils exclusively because I primarily solely used (I have a Garrett Axiom now) the GPX in hot ground and I also utilized the ferrous blanking feature with great success.  I found the Commander Coils to be best behaved in that regard, but also had good experiences with my Detech 12.5" DD. 

Anyway, the point I wanted to make was that I have experienced detecting in situations with localized interference that could not be mitigated with a simple frequency scan to find an alternate quiet frequency.  Since I did not want to take a perpetual depth hit by running an AI coil full time, what I did was utilize Minelab's excellent "Mono-DD-Cancel" toggle on my GPX 4800 that enabled instant, on-the-fly switching of the DD coil wiring to put it in noise cancel mode.  This completely eliminated any common-mode external EMI.  As with a normal AI coil, there are no free lunches as far as doing this is concerned.  You will take a depth penalty (perhaps 10%?) and pinpointing will be offset to one side and as I recall tones switched from low-high to high-low for high conductive targets.  All that being said, I recovered one of my best and deepest relics while operating in this mode (it was a brass 1860's military bit boss that was down greater than 1 foot) - I was using the 11" DD stock Commander coil.  The best part was that when I was clear of the localized interference, I was able to switch the coil back to DD mode and restore full performance.  That would not be possible with an AI without completing switching to a different coil.  Even though you are getting an AI coil for use, in those situations were you might be encountering localized EMI while running a DD coil, you can try this approach on the fly without having to switch in your AI coil.  FWIW.