okara gold

Beautiful chain! Congratulations on an epic find!

My Manticore is always full of water even days after being submerged. Every so often I will loosen the 4 screws and dump the water.

I hunt by sound. If it even remotely sounds good, I dig it. I am hunting mostly on the sandy beaches, so digging is no problem. Dirt hunting is another story with more selective digging.

Very nice chain and 18K too! Congratulations! They are hard to find.

I will check more of my iffy signals to see where a lower sensitivity finally cannot pick them up. Your buttons sure get a workout! 😆

25 minutes ago, Skate said:

I'm hopefully getting my M8 in the next day or so. My question is why do you think it's so good on the wet sand? I've read where several folks are finding a lot of success with it on the beach where usually depth and coverage is king and a smaller coil usually brings disadvantages. The 15" on the beach is what I usually swing but maybe with the Manticore less is more?

I'd love to hear what you think. 

I was at the beach the other day and some guy was swinging a Nox with a 15 inch coil. I was a little envious and embarrassed thinking about how much area he was covering with each swing and here I am with this little 8 inch. The M8 is the smallest coil I have used in decades! At times I think about going back to the 11 inch just to cover more ground at the beach, BUT... I am running a sensitivity around 26 to 27 and at times 28 on the higher slope. I could not possibly run that high with the 11. I know a lot of guys are saying that a lower sensitivity is better for more accurate number ID's and in a lot of instances it is. I had a small target easily coming in as non-ferrous and at 26 sensitivity, I lowered it to 21 and the target was gone. It turned out to be a small open silver earring. I think it is a give and take with what you are comfortable hearing. I am always thinking small thin gold chains, so that is primarily why I run it so high. I think the beaches are loaded with chains, but we just can't get a decent signal on them especially in the salt water.

A lot of guys on the forums are saying the M8 is just as deep as the 11 and awesome in heavy iron trash infested sites. I can't say how they feel about the 15 in. I am just amazed at all the small open earrings I am finding with this coil. I don't think I'm missing anything deep that the 11 would find, just suffering with ground coverage.

If you are looking primarily for fresh drops, the 15 would get the job done in quick fashion!

Here are some pictures of 3 successful hunts using the M8 on the wet salt beach. The little gold pendant has what I think to be a garnet with tiny diamonds weighing in at 1.4 grams. The other picture showing 2 pieces of gold side by side weigh .4 grams on the 10K thin ring and .8 grams on the 10K toe ring. Another picture shows how this coil is hot on finding open earrings of which some are silver. The "gold" disc pendant is plated over steel. That one had me take notice for a minute or two until I put my magnet next to it. The chain was the deepest I have ever dug one, probably 10 inches. I was hoping it was 10k and heavily corroded but alas... just plated copper.

Haven't had much time in the water with the coil yet but so far so good.

7 hours ago, bklein said:

I guess I’ll just spread the sand with my shoe and if no target seen I’m done and move on.  

I've been using the M8 exclusively on the wet beach sand and am now at the point where if I spread the sand out paper thin and still cannot locate the target, I move on. I used to cringe at the thought of leaving anything I might detect again but it is painstakingly slow to try and recover every little bit. A very successful hunter friend of mine told me this years ago... If I don't see the flash of gold I move on. The M8 is picking up the tiniest shards of non-ferrous metal and many of them blend in with the darker sand, mainly tiny copper pieces.

I'm using Tom's settings in the water with the M8 coil also. I don't think there is any way you can adjust any settings to make gold sound better. To me, gold has a smooth soft sound compared to coins or aluminum. In the prospecting audio every nonferrous target sounds pretty much the same. I say pretty much because I am hearing subtle differences on pull tabs or irregular aluminum, but I still dig everything that remotely sounds good. I too have audio responses from the smallest of targets that fall through the scoop or move around when trying to scoop them up. Sometimes after multiple attempts I move on. The audio response in prospecting mode is very short and quick. I think the more time spent on this particular mode is best for learning the Tom D settings. I hunt in Florida, so his settings are working for me. I don't think I will change to something else at this point. 

On 3/14/2024 at 1:42 PM, cudamark said:

I heard rumors that Chuck is going to start making Stealth scoops again. Hope it's true as I've had no success in contacting the outfit in Ca that was the last manufacturer of them.

I have one of the Stealth scoops, the 720i and was trying to find some contact info for them. No luck either. Glad to now hear they are not gone forever. If I remember correctly... there is a lifetime warranty on that scoop from breakage but does not include wearing it out. I'm good with that!

Very nice pictures and some good-looking finds! That Columbia is definitely interesting.

There's a couple of beauties! Nice going on those coins.

On 3/5/2024 at 7:34 PM, CoinShooter said:

Have any of you ever done that? Surely all those gloves being taken off to retrieve car keys has to leave a ring or two on the ground. And just maybe, a snow plow pushed the ring to the side of the parking lot. 

 

I used to wait until the snowbanks were melting in the parking lots and just walk around using my visual eyeball detector. Found a beat up silver ring once, some currency and car keys.  Ya never know

I'd be happy with that ring any day of the week. I can count on one hand the number of times I have found any ring marked from Mexico. 

37 minutes ago, Lead Detector said:

For digging the little pieces?

 

Batteries not included! lol

CoinShooter... The M8 is incredible at finding very small pieces of non-ferrous metals.  It should be great at sniffing out tiny bits of gold. I have met quite a few guys from Alaska who came to Arizona in the winter, looking for gold.

Best wishes for a full recovery CPT.

Did a wet sand hunt today and the M8 finally sniffed out some gold. It's marked inside the band... Black Hills Gold 10K and weighs 1.3 grams. It was roughly 10 inches deep and gave a nice clear tone with an ID of around 19. No denying it was a good target to dig. The heart is marked sterling, and the little O ring is .925.

On 2/19/2024 at 4:04 AM, TampaBayBrad said:

I can see why you may be hesitant or fearful of leaks on the Manti after your experience with the other detectors. I've been dunking mine every week now for 14 months with no problems. Not aware of any owners on the 2 forums I read having a leak yet.

Mine has been below water more than above water for over 1 year now and no leaks or problems.

Thanks for a good in-depth report Chase. I recently acquired the M8 coil and have used it exclusively on the beach. Looking forward to hunting inland in the Northern states once Spring comes. Just by reading your experiences with it, it has given me better expectations of its performance. Time will tell!

I have one of Steves' lower rods for the M8. It fit and works just fine!

I've been using the M8 at the beach and one thing I have noticed is the abundance of open earrings it is finding. They are supposed to be difficult to find when open but the M8 doesn't seem to have a problem with them. I am definitely finding more than I did with the M11. No gold yet but the coil is alerting me quite well when a non-ferrous target is under it. This picture shows some of the junk jewelry I have found. There are more but I usually throw it in a bucket and didn't think of taking any pics. I am running a sensitivity of 27 to 28 on the wet salt sand, prospecting audio and a speed of 4.

On 2/7/2024 at 1:07 AM, phrunt said:

In both instances I was the first to do something. 🙂 

My motto has always been... To go where no man has gone before. It can pay big dividends. 

What a nice assortment of goodies! I need to find a washout!

Now that's a nice-looking ring! Congrats on all the great finds.