okara gold

I always do an auto GB on the wet salt sand where i hunt and it usually settles around 12 - 15. This is in Florida on the west coast. No black sand but heavy salt accumulation. I have gone into the dryer sand area and re - ground balanced in auto and almost every time it settles back to 0. Also if the are is a heavy accumulation of shells / seaweed on the higher slope of the wet sand the GB is usually higher… around 18 - 20. If your machine doesn’t vary from 0 in various conditions then something doesn’t sound right.

Hey Steve. Congratulations on a lifetime of dedication to your passion and the positive outcome you have had on the thousands of people you have helped over the years, and continue to inspire today. That store is awesome!

I dug one of these a few weeks ago in the water on a beach. I’ve hunted this beach for almost 20 years and never found one before. Still waiting for the luck to come.

That was a good read. Thanks for sharing. Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, I used to do my prospecting on a good trials dirt bike. Never dumped it in all the places I went. Had a little friendly competition with a guy on a 3 wheeler once. Who could get the farthest up a particular wash? The dirt bike was the winner when he got blocked in by big boulders. Easy to hide in the brush too. 😊

Went to the beach yesterday and hunted for a while in beach deep. Everything was sanded in and also battling red tide irritation... few targets were to be found. I did cross check with the low conductors and found the response to have a sharper audio than deep. But I am able to hunt the deep mode in a higher sensitivity by about 2 more numbers. The jury is still out until I can do more testing.

I’m going to have a very restless night sleeping. Can’t wait for the morning light! 😂

Do you use tones or the prospecting audio?

Hi Bill…I’m going out tomorrow morning and will certainly check out that Deep Mode. I think our water will be too rough to get in so it’s the wet sand for me. I’ll hunt in deep and switch to low to check the target and see how things go. Thanks for the post!

You are absolutely right. IN the wash or slightly submerged in salt water Seawater mode is highly suggested and from what I have found is the only way to go. I predominantly use beach low conductors on the wet sand and when I approach the splash zone, I either quickly lower my sensitivity down 4 or 5 numbers or quickly turn and start back up the slope. If I continue into the splash or wash the machine will howl and scream and make all sorts of agonizing sounds, making it quite obvious that it doesn’t like my sensitivity setting while under the water. I cannot hunt in the water with the low conductor mode unless the sensitivity is ridiculously low, which is pointless. Beach Seawater is the mode that works submerged in the salt. In my water I am able to hunt with a sensitivity of 21 - 24.

I use a 3 mm wet suit with an additional 2 mm vest, and sometimes that isn't enough warmth for me. If the sun isn't shining and a wind is blowing it won't take long to get chilled. Right now, we are dealing with periods of Red Tide. Can't even get near some beaches without coughing and eyes tearing.

A friend told me years ago that if you try to sneak gold "nuggets" out of the country, you are charged with "stealing from the wealth of the nation". He highly recommended us not to go there as the results are not worth imprisonment in a Mexican jail and the loss of your belongings. This was not the Baja area.

I have to "ditto" that also. Tom D recommended hunting in beach low conductors so that's the mode I have been using. Next time I get a marginal signal I'll give the Deep a try and report back.

I will push mine to its limit in saltwater hunting. That is... neck deep for me. If it leaks, back it goes for a replacement. I will not live in fear of it leaking especially while under warranty. So far, I'm at roughly 50 hours submerged. No problems.

Nice to see a chain that small being found. There must be loads of them lost at beaches. Many times I go out and just think… chain hunt. By this I run sensitively as high as possible and dig any small repeatable signal. Ya just never know.

Yes. That is the only mode I’ve been hunting in when on the sand. When I get in the water I use the surf / seawater mode. Coins bang loudly on the machine.

It seems the Winter months have more detectorists on the beach, especially on weekends. I see a lot of snowbirds with a machine in hand. I have arrived at sunrise only to find 5 hunters already combing the sands. Good luck! It will come!

Hunted the wet sand on an outgoing tide and found its first 14K ring. Not very deep but a solid 19 ID. It weighs 1.5 grams. Shortly after came the open 10K earring, with tiny diamonds maybe 4-5 inches in depth. I don't recall the number, but the audio was loud and clear and when I dug it the depth surprised me as to how well the audio sounded. Lastly came this tiny whatever it is piece of gold with 4 little leaves that must have been attached to something else. It weighs .6 grams. It too sounded off as non-ferrous metal and was several inches deep. Not many other heavy targets as they must be deep. I am using the prospecting audio, beach low conductors, speed 4, ferrous limits...upper 4, lower 0 and sensitivity 22 - 24. So far, I am impressed with its gold response in wet salt sand. Went back the next day and only a few targets were found with more sand piled up. Bob

So far from what I have read, seen and time used, I think the Manticore is a very good all-around machine. Everyone's expectations are different. Some people don't care about its salt beach finding capabilities, some don't care about its small gold abilities. I am not too concerned how well it works in a carpet of nails (at this time) or how it handles hot ground. And some are looking for it to excel in all areas of detection. I hunt saltwater beaches 90% of the time. For me it seems to be better on depth and tiny targets than the Nox. This I would expect after years of R & D off the Equinox platform. So, if it doesn't have any new updates for a while, I'm ok with that. It is serving my purposes just fine. (I just had a 3-gold morning with it that I will post separately). I think it is way too early for anyone to think it needs an update. Time to learn the machine and let the engineers figure it out through our input.

I am using the same settings as TampaBayBrad has listed above with the exception of a little more volume on ferrous. I used to use 50 tomes on the Nox but do like the prospecting audio. It's not for everyone but there are other audio options available.

Relco... Don't know if there was a model but the ad stated... You Can Find Treasure!

I have found a number of small gold chains with the Nox 800. All in wet to moist sand. I very rarely hunt the dry. These are some but not all I have found. I have them repaired and give them to family on special occasions. They are all pretty small. I added the charm onto the one chain, but both were found separately. Those chains are out there, just hard to find. Go Manticore!

I’m experiencing the same thing. Those tiny bits hit with a strong audio. I’ve spent too much time searching for the little buggers and when I do find them, my response is “unbelievable “! Unbelievable because it is sounding off so well on such tiny targets. But I keep thinking… chains!! In the water is more problematic when the target falls through the scoop. I may resort to making a flotation screen with tiny holes so I can just dump a scoop in it, check the results and be on my way. I read an article about micro gold hunting on the beach. That is looking for earring backs, studs, etc. Seeing they will only be a few inches deep, use a plastic kids sifting toy with tiny holes and isolate the target in it quickly.

5 / 6 ID

I’ve been finding very tiny bits of copper, aluminum and brass with the Manticore. I figure if it can find these bits then it should be capable of finding gold chains which it proved to do today. This wasn’t a surface or just below the surface find, but several inches in the wettest of salt sand. I’m really pleased with its beach capability performance. Ground balance in this area was around 10. The signal was absolutely… Dig Me!

Did some wet sand hunting today as the water was too rough to get in. Found this 10K, 1.9-gram gold chain in the wet sand zone where the waves were just breaking and rolling onto shore. I was hunting in Beach Low Conductors, sensitivity 23 and prospecting audio, all metal. It was about 3 inches deep and gave a clear, crisp diggable sound. No doubt it was a non-ferrous target.