TroyLPN

1 minute ago, F350Platinum said:

You should bronze it and put it in a display case 🤣

Are you sure that isn't older, like Aztec or Mayan? 🤔

Now that I think about it, I believe the Vikings may have used these as primitive orange peelers. There you go. Evidence of a pre-Columbian Norse presence in Coastal Florida.  Did I say 9.99?  I meant 999.99. 😅

My best metal detecting buddy got his shiny new Manticore a few days ago and let me take it for a spin today at the beach (thanks, D!).  My first impressions:

I think if you're going from an Equinox you'll have a shorter learning curve. The menu is very easy to learn to navigate pretty quickly.  I don't know how useful that target trace will be in beach sand. Shallow targets, probably yes.  Deeper ones, maybe not. A 24 on the sensitivity was about as low as I could go in the surf without it getting "chirpy".  It does seem to be able to identify iron junk a bit better than my 800.   It seems lighter probably because it's way better balanced. It just seems "sturdier" over all. It can find the itty-bitty pieces of utter crapola just as well as my 800 does. The headphones are amazing!  Way more comfortable and a clearer sound than the stock 800 headphones.

I liked it well enough that think I'll grudgingly wait for one even though my Christmas present will probably be turning into a birthday (July) present. 🙄

And finally my very first target with a Manticore. The bids start on the auction site at 9.99 for this genuine aluminum vintage 1960's Mid-century Modern zip-top can opening mechanism. 😂

3 hours ago, MetalDiggrz said:

CTX user here. I've been patiently waiting to replace my CTX, preordered in early September. I can't get over this rollout. What a mess. I have a half-dozen sites on hold, winter's rolling along. In another couple weeks the ground will be frozen here, if the Manticore isn't here what that happens I'm getting off the list and buying a Deus II. I'd love to stay with Minelab, I love the ctx, but it's time to deliver.

My thoughts exactly.  It's been in the high 70's/low 80's here in Central Florida for the past week.  There's some nice deep cuts at the beach.  Can I get in them and hunt?  Nope, no waist-high water for me right now.  My Leaqinox 800 is out of warranty and a Manticore is unavailable.  MineLab, are you reading this?  March 1st starts Spring Break.  I WILL have something to hunt the water with by then.  I hope I don't have to leave my MineLab hat at home. Maybe XP would like some free advertising at the beach during Spring Break at Daytona Beach this year.

They were calling to make sure I got my interest-free loan back from "that" dealer I had a problem with a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I was knee-deep in the surf and couldn't hear what the Rep was saying very well. I just came right out and asked the Rep what the big problem was with getting a few Manticores to their dealers. Rep gave me the usual canned response about "new product", blah blah. Then Rep mentioned a few last minute "tweaks".  Make of it what you will.  Rep said they were glad everyting turned out ok for me.  No, not really, Minelab.  I'm not very happy about now being at the bottom of another list despite pre-paying months ago and a Deus 2 is starting to look pretty good. 🙄

7 hours ago, xpmoguy said:

Those are some very interesting finds. How old do you think that ring is?  I My detecting buddy found a gold band last summer on the California trail. It was not marked, and my jeweler buddy said they didn't stamp the content purity before 1854. Florida sure looks appealing compared to our freezing world... Here is a find from last year...it doesn't get much better than this in my neck of the woods.

My #1 bucket list find right there!  I probably dig enough gold jewelry on the beach every year to make 2 or 3 of them...but still not the same as finding one of those!  The ring was found near the barber and there was no stamp so I'm guessing probably 1890-1920. 

We're finding some really cool old stuff since the hurricanes.  Did you see the news about the old ship from the 1800's that got exposed at Daytona Shores?  I did go detecting at the beach near it a few times and found a few older peices of silver jewelry, nothing spectacular. I made sure to stay at least 100 yards from the actual wreck though.  You should come visit us with your detector!  It was 82 degrees down there yesterday and there are old silver coins being found every day from Ormond down to Ponce Inlet.  Fun times!

If Minelab is doing this slow-roll out of the Manticore on purpose they're shooting themselves in the foot.  Euphoria has died down, Christmas is over 'til next year, numerous videos now on you-tube about excessive iron falsing (whether warranted or not). I've talked to several detectorists at the beach lately who've gone from "gotta-have-it-yesterday" to "meh, I'll wait and see." Not to mention weeks of utter silence on the part of Minelab after months of hype.  Seems to me like all of the above would translate into quite a few cancelled orders and lost sales.

On 12/30/2022 at 12:39 PM, xpmoguy said:

On a lighter note, we had a break in the winter weather here in Oregon and the ground unthawed enough to get out a couple of times this week. I saddled up the old nag (my Nox800 😎) And took her for a spin in a heavily worked WW2 site.  

My old nag says your old nag can come live in our barn and keep her company any time. 😁

Daytona Beach this morning at low tide (80 degrees BTW). Really old crucifix, 14K old wedding ring (WG to MH) and a 1907 Barber dime.  Not a bad ending to 2022. I'm excited to try my Manticore (if I ever actually get one) but I agree, it's gonna have to be freakin' awesome to beat my 800.

2 hours ago, dsb said:

PSPR try watching this series.  https://collider.com/detectorists-hulu-mackenzie-crook/  Or go git em, $925 Cheap Flights from Austin (AUS) to Adelaide (ADL)

Best show ever!  The one where he plunks down a handful of muddy coins on a bar to pay for drinks....I'm like "I've did that!!"  😂

That Deus 2 is looking better every day.

31 minutes ago, phrunt said:

No the truck crash was a joke 🙂

 

The container ship hitting the iceberg was real though. 😂

Thanks, Gerry.  Now I want to go to Cancun again! 😁

2 hours ago, PimentoUK said:

"I’ve always wondered why polycarbonate plastic (LEXAN) has not been used in an instance such as this? That stuffs tough !!!"

The Eqx coil is moulded from a PC & ABS blend. My hunch is they used an inappropriate blend - too much PC , or not enough PC.
Plastic failure is not my area of expertise, but I recall stress-cracking to be a characterisitc of PC, so if anything, I would speculate using less PC in the blend would be better.

If they used the same stuff for the control pod that might be why lots of them developed tiny cracks around the battery charging port and started leaking when immersed in seawater.

5 hours ago, PSPR said:

I really feel sorry for those up north who get their Manticores and feel the need to get out in the snow to look for targets.  That looks soooooo cold.  At least her ground wasn't frozen yet.  Those people should be required to send their Manticores to someone in the south who could really use it in an enjoyable environment.

I totally agree! All those poor lonely MantyCores stuck in some cold closet 'til spring! I would be glad to adopt one and introduce it to some nice warm beach sand. Makes me want to cry. 🙁

9 minutes ago, midalake said:

They are long and thin so when they break through the mounting holes there is room to fab a whole set of new holes!!! 

Don't worry, the beach guys will let you know soon if this set-up is worthy. 

I use a 15 inch coil on my 800 almost all the time.  A couple of months ago I got out my 11 because it was a calm high tide and I was planning on being knee-deep in the water all day. My 11 looked almost new and was never used much since I got the 15 as soon as it was available. But it's still a 4 year old coil. It lasted about 30 minutes of pushing it through the water.  And that was with one of those "coil ear stiffener" things on it. Does the plastic they used in those 800 coils degrade over time?  Did the seawater "melt" it or was it just the extra force it takes to push it through water? I just hope my new Manticore will hold up better under beach conditions!

10 hours ago, PSPR said:

Good work.  Believe me, that crossed my mind, too, regarding my dealer.  If they get a couple hundred orders then we are talking some money.  People have been tempted with less.

I would think Minelab, knowing how long it takes to bring a detector to the marketplace after announcement would tell dealers they can't take more than a $50 deposit for an out-of-stock Minelab detector.

Yeah, they definitely need to set some kind of policy on pre-orders for these dealers. The ones listed on the MineLab website at least, are more or less representing them to the public and it's high time MineLab acknowledged that.  Yes, I know they are independent entities and set their own store policies.  But Minelab has a choice about which dealers make their "where to buy" list. And yes, that shady dealer I just had to cancel with is on that list and I did check before I put my order in.

I think MineLab putting these dealers on their website and then turning a blind eye to them raking in thousands of dollars in pre-payments is just a town-skipping, maximum temptation, bankruptcy what?, disaster waiting to happen.  Are we idiots for sending them our cold hard cash with no timeline whatsoever for delivery?  Probably.  Is MineLab partly to blame with their full-page "Christmas present" magazine ads, "where to buy" list, and 2022 release announcements?  I think so.

1 hour ago, canslawhero said:

he could have parked all the deposits at a crypto bank, say Celsius Network or FTX, lol

I asked MineLab if they've ever had a dealer skip town with thousands in pre-payment loot.  I think that might have been the question that got my refund rolling. 😅

31 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

I'm going to make a quiz question here (and no offense to Chesroy):  what is wrong with this statement??  🤔  (Hint: You only need one guess.)

My granny always said if you need to call yourself an expurt, you probably ain't.

After emails and calls being ignored (during normal business hours, I might add) I finally contacted Minelab USA.  Sorry for all the drama, ya'll, but I can't afford to lose that much money and I was getting seriously concerned about that happening.  They must have contacted him because I did finally get a nasty message saying my order is now cancelled and oh, by the way, there will be a $40 cancellation fee next time (no mention of that on his website).  Next time?  Dude!  Not if you were the last MineLab dealer on the planet!  I'll get myself a sand sifter and a shovel if you're my only option.

Now I get to stress over it for 3-4 days waiting for the refund to show up at my bank. 🙄  Not to mention the fact that he got an interest free loan from me and I could have been on someone else's list weeks ago.

10 minutes ago, PSPR said:

I really would like to see a detector with a circular digger attached to the coil that would take a plug out remove the target and then put the plug back in the hole.  

I actually did this in rock-hard dirt out west a few years ago.  You take a cordless drill and put one of those round saw auger things on it.  It worked pretty well except it only did a 2-3 inch plug and the battery ran down fairly quickly. 😁

1 hour ago, PSPR said:

Can't blame you there, strick.  I haven't watched his videos that long but he can get very abrasive at times.

As far as the falsing on the Manticore, after sleeping on that, I think in heavy iron one needs to only dig targets that are separated from the iron signals.  In nearly all good target cases there is that separation.  Also, you can investigate further by increasing the recovery number to see if you can separate the iron trace from a possible target.  If not, just don't dig.  This flies in the face of a bit of info in the Manticore manual but if it works.......

Doesn't any kind of iron sound good if it's the right shape/deep enough and/or you hit it just right?  I know my 800 will make an iron nail with a round head sound pretty sweet if it's turned straight up in the sand.  I've dug a ton of them since the hurricane. Along with screws, washers, nuts, bolts, etc out of all those beach walkovers that got smashed.

1 hour ago, PSPR said:

If he doesn't return your money (or ship you a Manticore) after you cancel that is called FRAUD.  Just contact the Attorney General's office in the state he is located in and they will talk to him.  That's usually enough to get your money back.

Of course, that is after you contact your CC company and trying to get them to act.  You can also mention it to Minelab Support and they will probably yank his dealership if he doesn't act.  I'm 99.999% sure you will get your money back without a big hassle.  His only legal way out of it is to declare bankruptcy but then he has much bigger problems than $1599.  But I wouldn't worry about it.  Just plan to take those steps if you don't see your refund.

He's ignoring my phone calls too.  If he doesn't get back to me by 4 pm today I'll be calling my bank.  I used a debit card, but I guess it's kinda the same thing. 

55 minutes ago, Daniel Tn said:

I have never prepaid for a detector.  I don't know why anyone would. When I bought my boat, I had to order it and wait MONTHS for it to be built and we are talking something that costs $33,000 before taxes, and I didn't have to put a dime down ahead of time for it.  Same with my wife's new vehicle...the dealer didn't have one on the lot but ordered one for us.  No deposit necessary.  I don't get why some detector dealers will do that.  Mine just put people down on a list and will call or text when the units come in for payment.  

I usually don't but I didn't order until October and I mistakenly thought a pre-payment MIGHT put me a little closer to actually getting one.  Boy, was I wrong. Lesson learned and NEVER AGAIN.

I just emailed him a request to cancel.  No reply as of yet. I guess 2 months is too long to dispute a charge with my bank if I don't get a refund? I will NEVER prepay for a detector again, lesson learned!

Well, I finally got a straight answer out of that dealer on the 3rd try. Number 35?  And I pre-paid in October? That doesn't sound quite right, but whatever.