F350Platinum

Good on you, @Chase Goldmanand @phrunt! Rattlehead has a good tip there. 🤔 Tough job. 🫤

Wow JCR! That's a great trifecta. 😅 I'm glad to see someone out relic hunting, it's too hot here to go anywhere but the beach. The coins are in fairly decent shape, glad you could get dates. 🏆

Got tagged by a few sea nettles this week, and the sting, while not intolerable, lasted about 10 hours. Long quick dry pants from now on! 🍀

I mentioned this in passing on a thread, but I've been looking for a way to keep the Manticore charged for marathon hunts, both in the fields and on the beach. While no solution is perfect, this is about the best I can find currently. The biggest problem you will still face is galvanic corrosion if you are in a salt environment, and I don't recommend immersing the detector much past the lower rod if you decide to use it in water. It's IP67. Here's the battery: It can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0BX3KC6Y6 They offer a smaller and larger one but this seems to work out well. It should keep the detector charged for about 12 hours or more if you only use it when the battery starts to get low. Simply unscrew the top and connect a charging cable. It's waterproof and dustproof until you open it. Then it is not waterproof or dustproof. I'd also consider protecting the charging cable in some way with an electrical compound, if it gets wet at all you can lose your charging cable and burn the contacts with galvanic corrosion. Here's how I mount it: I use two ball bungees for the unit and one for the cable. You can get a 10 pack of them for like 8 bucks here: https://www.amazon.com/Xpose-Safety-Bungee-Ball-Cords/dp/B07FJQBC6G They come in ridiculous amounts like 30 for even less. 6 inch works great. Here's a side view: I have a magnetic shovel mount on mine that kinda gets in the way but this is a better solution than the much larger and heavier battery I've been using. While not using it simply tuck the wire and close the cap. You can tuck the cap under the socket when using it to keep it from rattling. It doesn't add much weight to your detector, and because it is under the arm cuff you won't notice it much, and it also will counterweight a heavier coil. It only weighs 236g or about 1/2 pound. As a last word, do not use this rig in rain or on blustery sea days when there is a lot of salt spray. 🤔 I'll be field testing it at the beach all next week, and will update this thread with results. 🍀

Great hunt. That's some determination, having two machines fail on you in one night... 🫤 If you aren't going to submerge the machine more than the lower, get yourself a Power Delivery battery, and bungee it and the charging cable under the arm cuff. Put it in a Ziploc if it's splashy. The Manticore will run a good long time with such a rig, possibly double the run time. 10000 mAh or more, like this one: https://www.amazon.com/VEEKTOMX-10000mAh-Charging-Portable-Competible/dp/B09BBCPC3X This one is tiny and light. Mine is older and heavy. Here's a shockproof and water resistant one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BX3KC6Y6 Get power delivery because it's more capable of keeping the detector going while charging. You really won't notice the extra weight unless it's a big power bank, and it counterbalances the coil. Make sure you clean all charging contacts when you get home, salt spray will corrode them fast.

At first I was worried that it might have been Civil War era, and might have a fuse. 😬 Left it in the field for a couple weeks to wash some of the dirt off it. When I was certain it was solid shot, I brought it home and soaked it in vinegar for a while to get rid of some of the rust.

Absolutely brutal, Chase met me there. No wind and high pollution for some reason, despite being 64 when I started, I couldn't stay out there more than 3-4 hours. 😵 We both got dehydrated and dizzy. 🤬 Want that cannonball I found? It's a 12 pounder from the Revolution or the War of 1812, I found it about 250 feet from the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Potomac. 🤣 Probably American, no arrow. Could be Spanish. It'll only cost about $100 to ship... 😬

Happy Independence Day School! 🎆 🦅🇺🇸 Good on you for putting all that time in, at least you were rewarded... Somewhat. 🤔🫤 How big are the large rounds? I have an area some might be in, dug a 12 pounder there. Always better to come away with something!

Fine bit of hunting there Compass! That looks like a hand worked bracelet, quite the find and probably old. See if you can get a jeweler with an XRF gun interested 🤔 You're doing a heckuva job with that M8. 👍🏆

I'm just about completely recovered now, thanks! All is going well. Next spin very soon! 👍

Thanks, one never knows what one might find there. 🙂

Nice stuff Compass! Guess the season is on now for fresh drops. It's been really hot here, but it broke last night. 👍

Not bad at all, man, but it's just getting too hot. Supposed to break up "severely" tomorrow. 🙄

Thanks Joe, There are guys that hunt the water often there, I saw one at least twice last year. Probably no chance of big scores, just what they miss 😅

Can't like your response enough, Jeff. I was really disappointed in the water for sure, not so much in the field with 29kHz. 🙂 I did test each one over 2" high above it, and up to the edge of air detection. 🙂