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. 🙂

Thanks, I thank the stars I have two RC's. 🥳 Hopefully my data helps, I'm more of an in the field than a pen and paper guy, but today is going to be really hot so I took the time. Release time was bad too because most of us find the heat a bit trifling. I really want XP to get the upper hand on this, it's almost like there was a management change or something, like the founders retired and put it in the kids' hands. This isn't the XP I know and love at all.😢 I probably should have put this in Advice and Comparisons, I have more to say but not going to bash any other manufacturer, or praise them over XP here.

Yes that's like Relic on the D2, I find it harsh, but I'll give it a try. Got used to pitch in relic, I can do it on the Mcore. 🤔

Hey y'all, I've been messing with the HF2 coil since I got it, finally had a chance to use it in the water yesterday with "meh" results. 🫤 The false high tones on iron at every frequency range I used except 29kHz, and the fact I didn't find anything in an hour of using it were quite disappointing. I love the form factor, but I dislike having to take my detector apart to charge it especially with the antenna attached because I use the RCDIGS mount, and like the M8 coil for another machine it feels like swinging a brick in the water, too many ribs and it's too fat. 🫤 I'm using V3.04 on this RC, the third update now. I only use two programs, a modified Beach Sensitive and Relic program. With V2 they were killers, as my old posts will affirm. I find everything from relics to coins to gold, and bring back very little trash. Take that with a grain of salt however, I have great conditions where I hunt, and I've been using the Deus 2 for over 4 years now. Today I decided to throw a quarter, dime, nickel, Zincoln, and memorial on my trusty air testing medium, my non-magnetic bed. 😏 I don't put much stock in air testing, but this test was illuminating. XP has attempted to "understand" US coins in this version but yikes 😬 I find all this, like others have, to be very similar to another detector released recently with massive problems. After shelling out $400 for this coil, I really expected more out of it. I'm praying that they get this sorted out. Here are my results at each Frequency Max, remember my programs are modified, I'm not using vanilla programs. I attempted to get each swing in the "sweet spot". Beach Sensitive 89kHz Q - 99 6" high, 96/97 2" low. D - 94H, 96L N - 65 Z - 88H, 90L M - 88H, 91L 53kHz Q - 99 D - 96 N - 65 Z - 89 M - 92H, 94L 29kHz Q - 95/96 D - 91/92 N - 63/62 Z - 87/86 M - 89/90 Relic 89kHz Q - 96H, 99L D - 94H, 97L N - 64/65 Z - 88/89 M - 91H, 93L 53kHz Q - 96H, 99L D - 94H, 97L N - 65 Z - 88 M - 91H, 93L 29kHz Q - 95/96 D - 91/92 N - 63 Z - 86 M - 89/90 My thoughts? I think this is all over the place, something has gone wrong at XP. 🫤 I do love the EMI handling, it's top notch. In my short experience there's nothing like it. Dead quiet at high sensitivity. I noticed some slight lag in TID display, maybe the program is outpacing the processor now? Too big? Are we headed to the "Swiss Army Knife" problem when the knife won't fit in a pocket because it has too many attachments? Right now I have no faith in the water with this coil and software, and low faith in the fields. Draw your own conclusions from the table above, I'm going to stick with the V2 rig I have until this gets sorted out. I have another detector that we all bashed when it first came out, but it's getting to be like an old friend like the Deus 2 with V2. 🍀

Thanks Brad, This little beach has been a popular spot since the late 1700s, it's been through a lot of changes from the Steamboat Era until it all burned in the 1960s, and then got totally trashed by Hurricane Isabel in 2003. That was the year after I moved here. 😬 Its heyday was from the 1800s until the 60s. My wife used to go there when she was a kid. There was a fall bonanza after a lengthy bout of wind last year, got Barbers and old gold. It all started with a silver cross. 🤔 I've found Euros, old German Marks, old Spanish coins, crazy tokens, even some dangerous stuff. 😬 Probably a good thing for visitors that I go early in the morning 😅 I'm really looking at the Bottlecaps thing now, y'all are right about the IDs and traces. I mostly go by ear so it takes a bit of effort to look at the screen. 🤔 I did get a couple of those solid IDs that were black bottle caps, I throw them out because that crap stains my stuff. 🤣

Nice going mn, Shame about the cross but it does really look nice. Also looks like you have an interesting token or medal next to it. It's always a good feeling for me with modern change to get at least one of each coin, I feel that tells me the settings I am using are ok for the hunt. I have been using Freestyle and Dankowski from the start, so far I don't see a need to change, but I'm glad to see someone experimenting. 🏆 Every time I try another beach program I find it less stable than Beach Surf and Seawater. 🤷‍♂️ I have used one tone (which is really 2) sometimes, it's easy to switch back and forth with 5 Region All and One. I leave recovery on 6 and crank the sensitivity to 30 sometimes, always with Enhanced Audio to get the chatter in the background. Mental Metal mentions on his page that he finds the Manticore edges out the Deus 2 for gold, and I'm inclined to agree, but I still bring more trash back after using the Manticore, and I've definitely found a good share of gold rings with the Deus. 🤔 Odd that you have a pairing issue with headphones on the Manticore, I always turn the headphones on first, and to pair I hold the buttons in until I get the tone for pairing headphones first, they always pair in a few seconds no matter what. 🤔 I switch between the 105s, Killer B, and my "Frankenphonez". It's time to start using the bone conduction, in 90+ weather the over ear phones are a fast path to heat stroke 🥵 I've never used a computer to post, all my posts come straight from my Galaxy Z-Flip. This forum is easy on that phone, and lately I've been resizing all my pix to help out with forum storage. 🤔 This is all my impressions from the East Coast, so YMMV. 🍀

It's a river. Big one in Northern Virginia. Very few times but often enough at slack tide it's placid, but it changes rapidly if there's any wind. I've seen 4-6 foot waves in it. I used to travel on it in my boat, but it has a temper. Sold the boat and got into RV'ing. Right now I can't dunk, so water waist deep is my limit. Probably another few weeks until the incision is healed. 🙂

Thanks 1491, There were a couple breaks where I sat in my truck and drank a whole bottle of water in the AC, got a bit dizzy so I stopped for a bit. Water hunting is a lot more strenuous! We're having a monster heat wave this week. 🥵 I always seem to find crazy coins at that place.

Thanks Tony, The sands are good here as well, not much mineralization albeit rough at this beach. My other one is all white sand. IDs don't really change. The .22 shorts are all over the place, I've probably dug 100 or more over the years, and they keep coming up. 🙄

Got a chance to hit a local beach today before low tide, I'm still recovering from surgery, but I can go in the water about waist deep. It started out at 73 degrees at 6am with no wind, but got brutal really fast, when I came home it was 97. Today I brought the Manticore with the M9 coil, and the Deus 2 with the HF2 coil and V3.04. I started out with the Manticore, knocked out about 2 hours in the water, and got some great stuff. I used the Deus with the new coil and antenna and the latest update for an hour. I wish I had the fortitude to go over where I used the Deus with the Mcore, I got nothing. I did hear some targets but very few, even with sensitivity at 95. Almost all of them sounded like junk. The last 2 hours I went back to the Manticore, and it did well again. That's all the trash I got in 5 hours, lots of .22 short which is abundant on this beach, it was probably from a sand dig used as a range. I think I'm getting the hang of the Manticore on bottle caps, I never dig them with the D2. This was a water hunt, I never searched the dry, but this is most of what I got with the Manticore. Typical change, a cool little brass dangle thing with a stone, and a 1970s DC Metro/Metrobus token. But yeah, you're right - there's more. 😎 Got 2 rings, one a very well made sizable ring with a purple stone that I think is quite old: And an 18k gold plated silver ring: But the most interesting thing was the coin, it's a Swiss 1/2 Franc coin from 1943. .835 silver. 🥳 Here's what it looks like: They minted 4 million of these so it's not particularly rare, but this beach always surprises me somehow. 😅 🍀

Good stuff Gentlemen, great post Andy! I had some similar experiences today on a beach water hunt with the HF2, it almost seemed like there was nothing there 🤔 I'll write that up in a separate post on V3.04. 🙂 I love XP, don't get me wrong, but something is awry... 😬 The Manticore is well balanced and thought out, I did great with that. 😎