TampaBayBrad

phrunt, are you anywhere near Auckland? Just read in the paper about the serious flooding there after a summer's worth of rain fell in one day. Hope all is well with you...

Possibly they were laying in a pile on the same towel when the owner forgot and picked up the towel. Also, if you hit the beach during a low tide later in the day, go as deep as you comfortably can in the water during that low. When you're deep at low tide, that is the least hunted area by others due to it's inaccessibility at the other higher tides.

My beach hunting instincts: 1. More people, more jewelry drops. Also means more detectorists already hitting the place. 2. Drop jewelry in waist deep water, very hard to find. Drop in the sand, you may be able to find it. (this assumes you knew you dropped it in both cases) 3. More detectorists hit the dry and wet sand than hunt in the water. Less competition in the water. 4. Best time to go hunting is an early morning low tide. Work the water line first before the tide covers it back up. Save the water hunting for later when the beach gets crowded. Work the towel line before it gets crowded if the water line has no targets. 5. Go hunting after a storm stirs up the beach. Water targets could then be easier wet sand targets after getting pushed in or uncovered. 6. If the popular busy beach is cleaned out of targets, try a not so busy beach. In my area you have wall to wall condos lining the beach for miles, which house a lot of vacation renters hitting the beach right behind their condo. It may not have as many people as a public parking beach, but it doesn't have as many detectorists either. I probably have more thoughts, but those are the main ones that popped into my head at 5 a.m. this morning about beach hunting. Good luck, it sounds like you are on the right track. Learn your detector and learn your beaches. You will hit the gold if you put the time in.

I don't know the mechanics of how they work. I imagine screen sifter size is a big deal. But if it's small enough to hold coins or rings, you would think it would back up easily and not allow them to drive as fast as they do. I think being in a tourist area like I am, the rake is mainly used for appearance of the sand. There is no trash at all on the beach where I see these guys running in the early morning EVERY day. Not enough time to get trashy in between runs. I find deep coins in the dry sand 8"-10" down, so was wondering if these machines swipe them off the top layer or if they can't get that small.

Does anybody know if these things are good enough to pick up small things like coins and rings? I want to stop one on the beach and ask the operator (he would know), but haven't done it yet. They hit my dry sand beaches every morning.

I was going to say this Steve, but you said it better than I could. Setting ferrous limits, setting ferrous pitch, setting ferrous volume, and setting recovery speed all come into play as to what the user hears and sees on the display around iron. It's like YOU have the control of how your detector operates around iron. I'm still playing with my settings but am liking the machines performance so far.

On the waterproof subject....here's a quote from page 2 of NASA Tom's Manticore thread: "The only other thing I want to clarify: We learned some lessons with EQX water intrusion. MC is improved; yet, retains IP68 rating........to 5M (16-feet)." So there it is from the horse's mouth. 🙂

Were you running the ML-105 headphones that come with the detector? If so, wired or wireless? Sounds like you took a beating in the surf. Way to hang in there and give it the old college try!

That's a heck of a description he wrote up! "Our most powerful detector yet, Manticore finds targets faster, more clearly, and in even the most challenging environments. With impressive capabilities and technologies, nothing will go undetected. More effective than even the most high-end models in the market, Manticore brings power, precision and accuracy to detecting in a way that wasn’t previously possible."

On the first page of Dankowski's Manticore thread, he states: "IF you could figure out a way to wire a EQX coil to the new Manticore...... the Manticore would blow/burn it out. Soooo...... coils are NOT interchangeable. (There's also other reasons for incompatibility). The coil has tighter tolerances....and more stuff in it; hence, soooo........it must be built heavier-duty. The extra 2 heli-arc'd fore-aft curved ribs are not very hydrodynamic; yet, are a necessity." "50% more power to the coil does not equate to 50% more depth." So it sounds to me that they are for sure referring to power TO the coil.

I've only been one short trip with mine and I pinpointed dead center of coil with some success because that's what I do with my cz-21. Not sure if that is the sweet spot, but it worked for me and my shovel. I didn't use the pinpoint function.

Interesting, kinda like all the ship wrecks close in from Sebastian Inlet southward. We get a ton of beach "renourishment" over here. Screws things up for a while detecting wise, but you need beaches! Hate the $3 an hour parking wherever you go too. The price we pay to detect. 😒

Congrats, Steve. Looking forward to your observations on settings for your manticore.

Thanks for your explanation, Chase. Maybe this section of the manual can enlighten some more: "FREQUENCIES AND SEARCH MODES Each Search Mode is limited to the frequencies that provide the best performance for that mode. All‑Terrain modes can operate successfully across every available frequency setting, therefore single frequencies are available in All-Terrain. Beach modes can only perform successfully in typical beach conditions in Multi‑IQ+, therefore the single frequencies are not available. Similarly, Goldfield is optimised for detecting low conductive gold nuggets that are more easily detected at higher frequencies. Therefore the lower single frequencies (5, 10 and 15kHz) are not available in this mode. MANTICORE does not have a 4kHz single frequency setting. Instead, the All Terrain High Conductors Search Mode provides a Multi‑IQ+ based mode that can achieve an operating frequency even lower than 4kHz. This provides the benefits of a low frequency/high power mode for detection and discrimination of high conductors, while retaining the substantial benefits of Multi‑IQ+. MANTICORE Frequencies Frequency (kHz) Multi‑IQ+ 5 10 15 20 40 All‑Terrain       Beach       Goldfield       MULTI-IQ+ OPERATION Multi‑IQ+ operates across the full spectrum of frequencies simultaneously, allowing it to cover a much broader range of targets than a single frequency can. Multi‑IQ+ delivers superior performance over single frequency operation in almost all conditions. Detecting using Multi‑IQ+ at all times is recommended because: It gives the best chance of detecting a broad range of targets. Multi‑IQ+ Target IDs are more stable and accurate than single frequencies" So I'm thinking the 50% more power claim may be the power required to simultaneously transmit all freqs at the same time? Even a Mine Lab rep in a video I linked in another thread gave vague answers when asked about the 50% more power. He did say it provided another inch to 2 inches of depth. (again vague answer)

I get that....been detecting many years. I'm just saying I don't think the 50% thing is just adding another couple numbers to the max sensitivity on the high end of the scale. In other words, let's say Nox can go to 30 sensitivity on a certain scale, but MC can go to 35 on the same scale. I don't think that's what the new 50% more power claim is referring to. I think it's more of a combined power at all the freqs: "Multi-IQ+ transmits more power through the coil at a wider range of operating frequencies, to light up more targets in the ground. " So I'm thinking you get some power benefit from Multi-IQ+ even if your not using the hot 30-35 range on the sensitivity setting.

Never be able to use the extra power? What's the point of developing a detector with it then? I ran the manticore on first hunt wet salt sand at a sensitivity setting (24) that was just starting to get "chatty" after ground balance and long press noise cancel. Not annoying chatty, but audible with coil bumps and slight background that is easy to ignore. Not sure if you are assuming the extra power doesn't kick in until you're up closer to the 35 max setting? I'm not sure that that is how it works. I was thinking that my 70% of max setting would be more powerful than an equal 70% of max on the Nox. There has to be a benefit of the "50% more power" beyond a higher more powerful high end max sensitivity setting that nobody can use. What would be the point of the cost of designing, engineering more powerful equipment if nobody could ever use that power?

That's it ^^^^^^. Not very useful with only 3 different indications. 90% to 7%....really Mine Lab? That does tell me that the 2 hours I ran didn't bump it lower than 90%. I still had the 100-90 indication. I was using Beach Low Conductors for 1 1/2 hours and All Terrain Low Conductors for a half hour.

I didn't even notice my setting because I left it as it was out of the box which was pretty high now that I looked at it. I first looked at the screen at the beach in bright sunlight with my polarized sunglasses on and decided "this ain't gonna work!". So may as well left the sunglasses in the truck. You know how it is when you pump gas or go to an ATM with your sunglasses on. But I wouldn't think the small lcd screen brightness would burn too much battery. On a laptop you burn more battery but the Manticore screen is smaller than cell phone screens. Then again the Manticore battery isn't big in relation to those either. On mine, I ran with the higher backlight setting for 2 hours or so first hunt and I just checked it and the battery indicator hasn't gone down any. Weird?? I don't know....

You've found a musket ball? Sure it wasn't a big ball bearing? Lol.... A couple reasons I hunt the beach/water down here. It's allowed, it's soft sand to dig in, the beach is close for me, the water keeps me comfortable in the blazing hot summer sun, they don't like us in parks, they use electrified barb wire fence to keep us out of school yards and there weren't many civil war battles in central Florida. So....I go to the beach where the scenery ain't bad anyway. And I don't have to fight the waves like you guys on the east coast.

Not sure, but I thought the 50% extra power only applied to Multi-IQ+. Not sure if you get the extra power (depth) over the 900 Nox with a single freq. setting. May be something you want to look into before deciding on the single freq set up. If an extra inch or so isn't important, then it wouldn't matter. From the Mine Lab site: "MANTICORE with Multi-IQ+ is the most powerful, fastest, and precise metal detector in Minelab’s history. The heart of MANTICORE is its super-charged Simultaneous Multi-Frequency (MULTI-IQ+) engine. This feat of innovation generates an incredible 50% power increase over the best-selling detector series of all time: EQUINOX. "

Sounds like you were detecting an old Hootenanny Hoedown site! There's probably some old whiskey bottles down there too. Ha!

Man, that sucks. You think it's coming and then BOOM! Wait another 3 days! Ouch. Mine came second day air FedEx signature required from Cabela's. If yours is signature required UPS, you better be there with your ears on for the knock or doorbell.

I love reading your pontificating along with Dankowski's. A big help in understanding how the machine works. I got mine on Wednesday and went for a short hunt on the wet sand beach for an hour and a half yesterday. Came up with a nice man's tungsten or stainless ring that I swear was at least 12" deep. Also a tiny sea shell toe ring and a charm and a pink stone in a plated setting that was half the size of a pencil eraser at 6". This beach is pounded by others regularly. Thanks for your input and glad you're getting yours. 😀

DUDE! WAKE UP! It's go time!

ALERT! ALERT! Back in stock at Cabela's at 4 a.m. Go get um!