UT Dave

Not too different, with high conductors, so far, for me, with the Manticore. But, maybe not quite as bad as you are seeing in your dirt Mr. McClendon. I'm only about 50/50 calling copper Memorials from clad dimes and 75/25 calling clad quarters from pennies or dimes so far with the Manticore (but I think I'm improving). But, I'm digging all those anyway. So, it hasn't bothered me much. Low conductors though, different story for me with the Manticore vs. what you are seeing with your 900. For me, my parks and beach, the Manticore calls nickels quite noticeably easier than I do with the Nox 800. And I think the 800 calls them pretty well. They only occasionally smear across three digits, but usually only two and often only one. The actual digits vary slightly by dirt and EMI. But the high end of the worst case three digit smear is below where almost all the square tabs I've dug bounce into. Lead bullets, same thing, pretty tight, solid VDIs. Lead .22LR slugs are common on the beach I go to and they are usually only covering two or three digits even at 8" deep in heavy salt. The only gold ring I've found so far with the Manticore was as solid a VDI as I have got with the machine, a non quavering 25 from two directions. And, for that matter, square tabs hold a pretty solid VDI, just higher than nickels 😁. Mid conductors don't seem too bad either, in between low and high as far as VDI stability goes. Jacketed pistol bullets are a common target in the 40's and they are usually pretty tight on the VDI. But copper pennies and up, I can't call as accurately yet with the Manticore as I can with the Nox 800. Worth mentioning, I never did get super accurate calling copper pennies from clad dimes with the 800 either, but a bit better than I'm doing so far with the Manticore. But same as you are seeing, anything between 70 and 90 is kind of a crap shoot as to copper penny, clad dime, clad quarter or silver coin or .925. I do feel like the high conductors, sloppy VDI's notwithstanding, "jump out" of aluminum trash stronger with the Manticore too though. Not that it really locks on hard to a high conductor comingled with square tabs, but it's easy to repeat the signal and narrow it down - the speed of the machine showing itself I suppose. End result being, with only about 25 hours of park hunting with the Manticore, I do feel that if I'm wanting to cherry pick, the trash ratio is certainly no worse, and probably slightly better than I do with the 800. I'm just less sure of what the non-trash will be before I dig it. None of which contradicts what you are seeing with the 900 on high conductors! And I'm definitely not trying to tell you how to run your machine. Just trying to share how I'm adapting to similar behavior with the Manticore. And, - Dave

Hmmm... - Dave

Didn't quite happen. I took both machines over there, but was short on time and wanted to get in a quick hunt with the Manticore then do a side by side EMI comparison before leaving. Started raining about an hour in and when I got back to the truck I didn't feel like standing out in the rain to compare EMI. Manticore in Multi, ATG, default ferrous limits, one region all tones, ran quiet and stable at 18-21 sensitivity depending on which part of the park I was in. And just nailed the nickels. I continue to be impressed with how easily the Manticore calls nickels over the 800. And I think the 800 calls them pretty good. But I only dug 18 coins and 9 of them were nickels and I dug only 2 square tabs that were both only half a square tab. One junk stainless and one mangled .925. Since, I don't know for anything like a fact that Manticore sensitivity 20 equals Nox 800 on 20 sensitivity, a static comparison would have been uncertain anyway. Comparing wild targets both tuned for EMI would be a lot better. But, honestly, I don't see myself bothering. I'm feeling pretty confident the Manticore is working better in EMI and would rather just hunt with it than do tests against the 800. I likely will still do the static compare at this park anyway, it's easy and won't take long. Just need it not to rain 😁. - Dave

So far, for me in my urban parks the Manticore does seem to handle EMI quite noticeably better than my Nox 800. I have not had them both out at the same time to compare though. But in a couple of parks where I have had to run the Nox in 20Khz and lower sensitivity below 20, I have been able to run the Manticore in SMF at 20+. Actually have not had to leave SMF in a park with the Manticore yet. Which is quite different than I was accustomed to with the 800. I speculate it's got to be more than just the long press, which I believe simply automates the process of running through the channels looking for the quietest one. Pure speculation but because the Manticore does seem so much better, I think there has to be more to it. Perhaps the increased TX improving the signal to noise ratio? One of the absolute worst parks for EMI is the one closest to my house. I have to run the Nox at 20Khz and sens 16 to get it to quiet down. Maybe I'll take them both over there this afternoon and do a side by side to satisfy some of my curiosity. - Dave

Thank you Jim! I really, really appreciate that. I'm still getting out amongst 'em and calling as much as I can in the fall and winter. Numbers have been poor for going on quite a few years now though. Drought, fires, etc. These days, I always take a detector with me and hit all those long abandoned ranches and mining camps and homesteads out there in the Great Unknown. Been more than a couple calling trips have turned into detecting trips when silver coins start popping up, 😁. I'll always remember your quest to hand call a lion. That was just cool as heck. I spent a whole winter a few years ago trying to call one, period. Did call a couple, but only know that from them vocalizing and tracks in the snow. Following summer, two days before my depredation tag expired, I was driving along with my kids looking for mule deer buck to photograph. Spotted a lion chasing a deer through the oak brush. I hit the brakes. Lion stopped chasing the doe to look at us, but it was deep in the oak brush. My daughter whistled and I'll be danged if that lion didn't jump up on a stump to get a better look at us! Could see from the mottling on the shins it was a youngster. But, I had a tag, and my Mach IV in the back seat (with my daughter). She wanted me to shoot it. But that just wasn't how I wanted to fill that tag. I took a bunch of pictures and was happier than having a dead lion to deal with that morning. Daughter is still ticked off about it 😂. - Dave

Very nice work Jim. Looks like new! Probably better than new in some ways. And good to see you around, you might remember me as DAA from the old GGVG board years ago. - Dave

Still a little early for them in most of the places I roam. But, they are pretty common later in the year. https://youtu.be/oyRFgQDC8cU - Dave

Okay, figured it out. Some of the country I like to roll around in. - Dave

Hmmm... Seems image tags from a hosting site aren't working. I'll have to figure that out later. - Dave

I'm just so glad spring is finally springing around here! Parks are opened up so hunts after work and morning hunts on the weekend are a go. Now I just need some more snow to melt and some mud to dry out a bit at some higher elevations and I can start doing trips to hit the ghost town type stuff, which is what I really enjoy the most. Soon! - Dave

And FWIW, I've found arrowheads and spear points in Utah that ID as coming from some pretty far away places. Great lakes, South America, etc. There were trade routes going way, way back in time. - Dave

This one looks pretty close. - Dave

I want that small coil bad. But I have the same question. Will we EVER get it? - Dave

I didn't know what the hoochie coochie gal was. But asked on Friendly and found out. It's a vintage roach clip 😂. vintage ROACH CLIP holder RISQUE WOMAN nude LADY pinup | #151908684 (worthpoint.com) - Dave

The parks are finally melted off and the mud is even starting to get better in some parts of some parks. So this morning I hit one of the oldest and no doubt THE trashiest park around here. It was machine gun everywhere. Decided to try All Terrain Trash Reject. Took my best guess and a manual GB of 15, did a long press noise cancel and the machine was running just the tiniest bit sparky at 22 sensitivity - I didn't try any higher or lower, left it there the whole hunt. Pretty happy with how the Manticore picks high conductors out of the trash with the 11" coil in this mode. Was getting everything from surface drops to 8-9" coins. Ended up with two wheaties and a '46 Rosie. And a bunch of clad. Didn't dig too, too much trash. But was digging a lot of aluminum twist caps for the first half of the hunt or so, before I started getting a handle on how not to dig them (just looking for ID spread on a cross check) and then I only dug two or three after that. My big gripe with the Manticore right now is no wireless options (without a dongle). Warm enough this morning that I was hating on the earphones after a couple of hours. But with so many people around I didn't want to run the speaker either, so I left them on. I don't really want to use a separate transmitter, but I think I'm going to have to. The earphones just aren't going to work for me as the weather continues to warm up. - Dave

I have one of my old ones buried in my coin garden 😄. - Dave

I think this is the tiniest piece of stamped .925 I have ever dug. About 3" deep on the beach. Beach Deep, recovery 4, sens 22. Also got an old sterling BSA ring at about 10" today, same settings. BSA ring shown before and after some electrolysis, it's stamped sterling on the back. - Dave

Not much turf hunting with the Manticore yet. Weather... But so far, I am seeing the same. Manticore loves nickels. I did get in a park hunt one morning last weekend and got six nickels and only two square pull tabs. I feel like I had gotten "pretty good" at calling nickels with the Nox 800 but with less than 20 hours park hunting with the Manticore so far I feel like it's gotten noticeably easier to call them. Except the one nickel I was sure was a nickel, turned out to be a 14K gold ring. I'll take that kind of missed call 😂. - Dave

Rich, up to about 10" of snow here at the house today and still coming down and supposed to keep coming down for another day. I think this is the 106th day of January, here in Utah? - Dave

^^^ Agree 100%. Bad for us, bad for them. And no commnication. Leaves one to wonder just what are they thinking. - Dave

It seems the bulk of Manticore's have been shipped to big box retail stores. I wonder, how many of the people buying them from those places, care about the additional coils? Maybe very few. Maybe, there's just very few of us, period, in the grand scheme of things that even care about the coils. Who knows what Minelab's plans are. The entire rollout of the Manticore definitely leaves a bad taste though. I'm more open than ever to competitor offerings going forward. - Dave

So you're saying there's a chance 😁. Yes! - Dave

Ah, rats... Didn't have much hope, but was still holding out a tiny ray of hope that a BTE device would work. So much for that. - Dave

The alternative to taking it, would have been to divulge my intentions of selling all the gold and silver from the last year to finance new coils, and stuff... So I remained dutifully chagrined without giving up my intentions. - Dave

Very nice! When it finally thaws enough for regular park hunting I'll keep those 13's and 18's in mind! The beach I've been hitting lately, every 18 I've dug and I've dug a lot of them has been a .22LR bullet. Dang bullets... And I was enduring grief from my lovely bride less than an hour ago for her not getting any of my gold finds for the last year or so. We had friends over, one of my two detecting buddies and his wife. His wife was showing off the 18K band with 40 tiny diamonds that my buddy found and had cleaned up for her. My wife, derided me for several minutes on the subject. And I just sort of had to sit there and take it... - Dave