schoolofhardNox

Nice that you got your SLQ. They aren't as common as you would think. Barber is more common to find than SLQ. It takes a certain site that is popular during their minting to get more that one SLQ's. And those trimes are even harder to find. A tiny coin for sure.

Thanks. The fields are a weird consistency. There seems to be a layer of top soil around 9 inches and then a old, hard pan like layer below that. Almost everything is 9 inches and above. After that it's very hard to dig, and I'm not sure if there is an older layer than what everyone is reaching. I have yet to get a target in that hard layer. Thanks. I really want to get the PI out, but I have to play with the new machine to see what it brings for my type of detecting. So far I really like it, much more than the 800. It does bring back E Trac/ CTX memories but with a modern twist. The ring is odd. I believe it's a cobalt mix and the designer has a lot of variations, but this particular model says 8K and also .925. Most of his rings are Cobalt/mix. I can't find one that is .925. I should check his site and not retail sites. It is a big ring though. That heart has that slice in it for the other person to have the key to their heart. I'm not fond of it because it was deep and rang in the silver range. I thought I had a quarter of half, but no.... I got aluminum 🙄 I agree - it bangs on coins. Nice, solid, pure hits. No nickel digging for me. Thousands of low conductor hits, so I passed on them. I just wanted to see how much silver is left there. Not much but still not zero. I can't see a reason for the Nox except for chains and maybe tiny studs... not something I would hunt for exclusively. If I lived closer and not 2 hours away, I would dig the low conductors and keep a list of pull tab numbers and only dig the other numbers. But it makes no sense for me to mess with those low odds vs the time I have to detect. That is why I never waste a lot of time talking to people when they stop and ask me questions. Thank You. I may fix that axle and sell the car on E Bay for around 15k 😬

Beach hunt # 21 was back at the beach I found the Seated dime at. I was hoping the low tide was low enough for me to hit the rock area again, but it was not quite low enough. I only had about ¾ of an hour before the tide rose and pushed me up on the drier sand. But I did manage to find a silver/cobalt ring, and a small silver earring. The dry sand only had zincs and other trash. I did notice the Manticore loves saturated sand, although it ups the high conductors towards the 99 region. I will come back here the next time the tide is really low. Did about 3 ½ hours and decided to go to another beach and hit those big grass fields. I recently started to hunt these fields after hearing how good they have been through the years for a lot of local hunters. The silver fields they call them. I tried my E Trac there for a couple hunts, then the 800 for one or two hunts, and finally the Manticore on it. They previous hunters’ cherry picked high, (silver) conductors, so there is a lot of clad and copper cents left. I dug all high conductors, with the occasional low conductor every once in a while. There are literally thousands of low conductor targets, mostly pull tabs and foil. So, no nickels on this hunt. I dug the cans mostly to get them out of the way. You could tell they were big targets, and they rang between zinc and copper pennies. Same goes for the aluminum bottle caps. I dug those because I’m not sure where the big gold rings read yet. It’s been a while since I dug over a hundred coins, but they add up quick. The Manticore seems to do better at separating the target ID on coins in dirt, while grouping the high conductor ID’s closer together in wet sand at depth. Both wet and dry just hit more clearly than the 800 does. I even take the same path back to the car and was amazed at how many coin targets I was digging compared to the Nox. It definitely bangs out the clad quite well. I did manage 2 silvers, so I was happy about that. A long hunt but worth the time spent with a new machine. Next week, I may try a new beach dirt and sand hunt as well.

I'm somewhere in the middle. Not white sand and not extreme magnetite sand. I have found that the Manticore performs best on the wet saturated sand and does not do as well in the dry areas (with black sand showing/mixed in) In the wet areas, on my beaches, it ups the numbers closer to 99 (even on copper pennies), where as on dirt the numbers are lower and better separated. It does go deep, but I think it's best characteristic so far is the clarity and sharpness of coin signal, even at depth. I haven't posted yet, but above a beach, (grass dirt area), I hit coin after coin. I usually walk the same path back to the car when I hunt there and I was shocked at the number of coin hits the 800 missed. It's the clarity of the signal that impresses me the most. I agree that there is a lot of potential to unlock on this machine.

Awesome find. So many varieties of patriotic and store card tokens, keeps it fun. Way better than an Indian (unless it's the '77) 😄

Awesome ring. Sometimes you just hit a small, great area, even if it only gives you one or 2 targets. Anytime you strike gold, it's exciting.

I get it, but I just can't seem to get over the fact that everyone is talking about him this much. If this keeps going on, the page count may surpass the Equinox release. 😆

Can't believe people here are still talking about Calabash 😄 when there are a bunch of new machines out there. Right now, since the Manticore is doing very well for me, I could care less what Calabash or any other You Tuber is saying about it. I wish someone here could tell me how I can scrape up enough cash to get the Deus II, Legend, Axiom, etc... That's what we should be talking about 😉

Geeze, bruises from us giving you guitar lessons? What kind of lessons were you thinking? 😄

It is a beast though, certainly not for most people. The only problem with the Manticore is it feels so light that when I pick up the GPX, I'm like "I can't swing this tank anymore" 😄 Thanks. That trash would have been even lower if I could have started out in the low tide. Most of the light stuff came from the upper beach. Down low that stuff was long gone, washed away by the sea. It's hard for me to even believe, but all those copper cents, silver and clad basically came from a 15x30' section. I'm sure a lot of it was left because the scoops can not get past some of the big rocks that are locked together in place. With a spade you can pry them while kneeling. Then you just have to dig blind through the water until you get the signal out. Not fun, but judging the age of this beach, worth the time. Hopefully in 2 weeks the tide will just be barely low enough to expose those rocks again. Geeze, that F350 guy is always making you hijack threads 😬 We should do a road trip and teach him a lesson. 😄 CC Seated coins are hard to find here and are usually pretty worn out, like the "S" coins are. I think I may only have 3 of them. I'm trying not to get too pumped up with the Manticore, because there are different situational hunts that require different settings. So far I can tell it loves saturated sand and semi saturated sand (when the tide has receded a couple of hours ago). Like all Minelab detectors, the likes will over take the dislikes as soon as more people get their hands on them. I'm just glad I got one in time for my winter beach season.

Thanks, I'm learning some new tricks. 😄 I think this is going to be a good machine. Can't wait to see if it really is. I bet you won't hear a peep from all those early reporters that could only find negative things to say about it. 🙂

Thanks! The CC is below the bow. The PI may go deeper but would have me digging a lot of needless small aluminum scraps. I'm pretty happy that I can cover most scenarios with the GPX and the Manticore. For tiny gold and gold chains I will still need the Equinox. The real test is next time the tide is low enough for me to get back to that area. I have some "thoughts" 🤔 on how to get more from there.

Beach hunt # 20 was at the beach that I just recently started to do well at. I had some friendly competition from a couple of guys from the area, that are very good detectorists. They filled me in on some of the finds that have come from that beach. It’s an older beach that has the potential to find older, silver coins. The tide was near record low (-0.8), and I was eager to give the Manticore a try on wet sand. Usually, you would use a scoop to dig, but not here. Really big rocks and smaller rocks below them. I opted for my trusty spade, but even with that, each hole takes a while to pry open. The water filling up every hole didn’t help either. 🙄 Since it wasn’t low tide just yet, I worked some of the less saturated, upper sand. Not a lot of signals but some zincs and junk. I almost gave in and pulled the GPX out but decided to give the Manticore some more time. Once I got into the really saturated sand, high conductive numbers started to show up. Most were copper pennies, but I was surprised that targets were every few feet. At first I didn’t trust the numbers because I was worried it was iron. There is a lot of iron at this beach. But they were real numbers and a couple of times there were 2 or 3 copper cents in one hole. Finally I hit a silver Mercury dime, and soon after a really clean Seated dime – 1875 CC (Carson City mint). 🥰 That made my day. I also found 3 Indians (one shot up), which I didn’t realize I had until I got home. The only piece of jewelry found was a silver ring. Ship spike were a cool find as well. A great day out and I’m glad that I only did 5 hours – I don’t think I could do more in that type of digging. I must say, so far I am very impressed with the Manticore’s ability to find deeper conductive targets. Next low tide I will be back in that same spot with some new ideas on how to get some more of the deeper coins.

Interesting. Just goes to show you that increasing from sens at 23 to 26 doesn't gain you anything but noise. Even running it at 30 only gains you 1". So it's really best to know what your acceptable lowest number for sensitivity is. On that chart 24 seems good if you can maintain it. Dropping sensitivity seems to have a greater adverse effect than raising it. 24 - 30 (6 steps up) gains you 1" - dropping it from 24 to 18 (6 steps down) loses you 2 1/2" . Lesson is - don't drop sensitivity too much or you lose out, and don't put too much faith in raising sensitivity - it doesn't gain you much at all. Thanks for doing the chart.

That dog is too cute!🥰 I think the nail just held multiple boards together to make a thicker beam or something similar.

Heart attack material right there 😬 And that's just from viewing your post 😄 Awesome hunt.

Exciting day of gold!! Isn't always the case that the last place you go is the place you should have started at? 😄 Hopefully you can get there before news spreads too far.

Maybe a saddle decoration. Still have hopes it's military. On the two headed nail, I have one (maybe more) of those. So I started to think it's just a nail with a copper washer on the other end peened over. So I scraped mine and found that it is a washer on one end. Here's some pictures. Without cleaning both ends, it looks solid, but after cleaning, one side is peened over.

Great stuff again!! The odd gold piece is puzzling for sure. Industrial things only use what is absolutely necessary in their products, so it would have to be something that demanded resistance to the elements to justify the costs. Any satellites or space stations crash in your area recently? 😄 I'm still thinking it's jewelry related in some way, maybe part of a locket or pendant or watch, etc... Whatever it is, it's 🥰.

My advice is just the same as others have said. Dig it all for a while, and learn what good targets sounded like and what a bad target sounds like. Once you have that down you will inevitably, one day decide to dig a bad target and it may turn out to be a good one 😄 That's how it works sometimes. No guarantees by using the numbers or tones, although tones work the best overall. A bad target (iron) close or next to a good target (coin) will make that coin sound worse, and make most people pass at digging it. But my main advice is to know the limitations and strengths of the detector you are using. If you have a single frequency machine, you will be limited to dry sand. Wet sand will make your machine so unstable, that you will be frustrated. I use 2 or 3 different machines depending on where I hunt, how sanded in a beach is or how much black sand I encounter. Look over peoples beach posts on all the different sections here to get an idea of which machines perform best, but also meets your price range. Two ways to hunt. Grid a promising looking area to death, or move quicker and cover more ground. Each way has it's pluses and minuses. You will determine your style and comfort of hunting. Good luck. I'm not sure if I read what part of the country you are in?

Nice variety of years as usual. Not sure what that big brass piece is but it peaks my interest - maybe gun related or military? 🤔 The two headed nail is cool for sure. Maybe that is how they were made and then just cut in half and pointed? Silver is never out of style by the way 😄

That makes the whole day worth it. Something about seeing gold send a victory pulse to the brain 😄

I'm late to this, but was wondering if you could attach a counter to a new member that let's just you know someone is new and is sending a lot of PM's. Anyone new doesn't know enough people to send multiple PM's. If a new member sends more than one PM, then maybe that could report to you that information. As a lot of people here, I have never had an issue that I can remember.

Very Nice!! That's one way to make you like a new machine 😄

NOoooooo.............. That's exactly the kind of pre-hunt thinking that got me into trouble in the first place. 😄 Next hunt will be worse than this hunt. It will rain molten aluminum and iron will jump from the sea. There 😊 Set the bar low and you won't fail. 😉 Huh ...... 😞. I've done that too. 😄 But in my defense, the guy at the store swore to me that they use hard plastic inside the boots for their durability. 🤔 Never did buy anything from that store again. Next time the pinpointer comes with me. I scrap electronics for fun 😄 I can smash that puppy and extract the board in less than a minute. Seriously, I recycle metals and electronics for their components. There are buyers for boards and I just collect them until I get a lot. I was a bit shocked that the modes differed enough to cause the land version to be noticeably different from the beach version. It's not that it was unusable by any means, but more that it did change it enough for me to notice the difference it was giving me towards iron. I just found it to make the iron iffy enough for me to dig it. I was way more confident in beach mode with the iron. Who knows, maybe just a fluke. I won't be able to test it again for a couple of weeks. I want to hit the grass and try for some more silver from the fields, next trip out.