LawrencetheMDer

Yea, I'm a little peeved about buying a Manticore in Feb 2024 for $1699 and seeing it on sale two months later for $1199! Well, it has paid for itself several times, already (yes, in 2 months). But still! Hmmm, I currently have an 800 as back-up but warranty will soon expire and I've drowned 3 over past 4 years...Haven't drowned the Manticore, yet, but it is good for 6 meters. Perhaps a good time to consider another Manticore for back-up, particularly because of water.... Perhaps this is an opportunity instead of a curse...

Thought I'd comment since I'm an "L" as well. I noticed on the 2D screen that certain sinkers/fishing weights (shaped like a barrel) are tight circles but fall about a circle diameter below the center line, in my case around "52". Most time I just dig everything by single sound (underwater boosted), but in real trashy areas use 2D screen to cherry pick, as best I can.

I'm usually in the surf 80% of the time and most the rest in wet sand at low tide. But this year has been different at least on the west coast of Florida - of 13 gold pieces (7 rings, 1 bracelet, 1 ear ring, 2 charms, 1 pendant and 1 lump of 18k gold; dental?) so far this year, only 2 rings in surf and 1 in wet sand and all the rest in dry sand. Been cold and rainy and windy this year and few donors going into the water, except for Canadians. Not surprised you caught gold in the dry sand. Good snag. Happy Hunting

Beach hunting for past 15 yrs. Have had Manticore and 15" coil in service for about a month of 12-16hrs/wk for beach dry and wet sand and surf hunting. Have mixed reviews; like extreme sensitivity but musical sounds I can't really hear well given my Rock-and-Roll past. Found 4 small gold (<1.0g-1.5g; 3 shown) with the Manticore in past month along with the light weight junk, mostly foil. But can only use Manticore in Underwater Boost mode (under General Settings); otherwise, target sounds blend in with noise. Guess I'm a Minelab guy. Have used Excal II (one of the best beach machines), CTX 3030 (drowned x2) and Equinox 800, although another (x3) control pod drowned recently but still under 3 yr warranty. 800 is now my back-up machine. Warming up to Manticore, but sure wish they would do something about the poor sounds/musical notes - give me something more complex, in terms of audio output.

Thanks for the very helpful info, esp on the 18" coil. I have a 17" coil on my CTX 3030 I've had for 8-9 yrs and the whole thing weighs more than 6 lbs (slightly less than 3 kgs) limiting use, now. I have run the 15" coil on my 4 (2 drowned) Equinox 800s for 4-5 yrs and I'm very happy with stats showing I find 11% more coins compared to the 11" standard coil. Just received the 15" coil for my Manticore. I found the Manticore difficult to use with the standard 11" coil (large coils have spoiled me in the ocean). This is the first I have read of an 18" coil for the 800/900, so very interested in a Dealer in the USA. Any suggestions? Happy Hunting

Here is a pic of the 293 US cents that I have found so far this year (Jan1, 2024-Feb 24, 2024) on the west coast of Florida. I'd say 95% or so are NOT spendable. At least I get a good work-out, but I would prefer dollar coins, just a personal preference. Happy Hunting

Here are Manticore VID/VDIs for nickels (Beach low conductors) found MDing: For gold as well as lead and foil, VIDs change with size and weight. As weight increases so does VID. One variable to consider in the VID/VDI readings is the texture of the surface. Gotta go for now. Happy Hunting

I have been working with my Mani for a few weeks now (4-800s w 2 drowned, 3-CTX 3030 w 2 drowned, Excal II, can't drown) and find some really excellent advice above...keep talking! Really like advice of "more with less"; more info and cleaner VID and 2-D display with less Sensitivity. Trying to drown mine now...we'll see. Happy Hunting

Conditions for beach hunting on the west coast of Florida are challenging right now. They’re pretty BAD. Cold, dreary and rain, no one is going to the beach. No Donors. Haven’t even seen that many Detectorists – that is how bad it is. None-the-less, I pulled this beauty out of dry sand on a near deserted beach. Marked “AU 750” and “T & Co.”, this 18k beauty fits my wife perfectly. Gone! Looked up on Tiffany site and retail listing is a cool $1,200! Funny thing, when I first found it, I thought it said “Sterling 925”; the lettering was real small...it was gray and dreary out. Figured it was gold plated. Got home and with loop discovered the real identity of the little treasure. At 3.09g the ring rang up a “23” on the Manicore (Beach deep, extra boost, Separation “4”, Sensitivity 32, Noise cancel, ground balanced). Happy Hunting

Really have enjoyed thread because I just got the Manicore, coming from Equinox 800 (4 of them - 2 drowned) and CTX 3030 (drowned 2) and Excal II (can't drown). I took gander at data and plotted chart of VID to Gold ring weight (g) is shown below (double checked data 2x). Slightly different from the figure earlier. I also calculated the correlation (R) between the weight and VID and it was R= .60, which is very high and significant; as weight increases Manicore VID increases. What is really important to note is that the real heavy clunkers, say 10g, are in the same range as CENTS! Dig them cents. I also looked at the 2-D image for 7 gold rings in my, errr, my wife's possession, formally mine. The same relationship applied - as weight increases so does the VID. But I found the 2-D image most interesting - when in close range (say 6-8") the screen gave a 2-D circular image of about 2-3mm. HOWEVER, as the gold ring is increased in distance from the coil, the circular image on the display starts to elongate along the horizontal line. At near threshold in terms of detection, the gold ring image fragments into light colored blobs centered all along the horizontal line. Just yesterday morning I was detecting a beach at low tide with the Manicore and I recall several instances where I got a near threshold image of horizontal blobs. I passed because I thought it was noise. No doubt deep, but that gold drops like an anchor and soon disappears forever. Only problem with Manicore is the musical sounds; can't hear the dang things. Only in seawater boost. Happy hunting

Good advice, but should note that w auto ground tracking repeated sweeping over a target will cause the target signal to disappear. Personally, I never use it. One strategy I use, 8-12hrs/wk in Gulf surf w 800 and 15" coil, is to identify the segments causing excessive noise (usually 1-3) and to null those segments. And, although it has been shown that some very small and low weight gold rings are found at those segments, it is very rare. With the appropriate noisy segments nulled I can often run 23-24 sensitivity w a 15" coil. Of course, noise cancel and ground balance should always be done first to minimize environmental effects. And I don't use wireless headphones.

I do a lot of beach hunting w the 800 and 15" coil. A recent sturdy I just completed with 19 gold rings and the Nox 800 VID (VDN) numbers. Gold Ring Numbers on Equinox 800 Listed below are the visual display numbers (VDN) to 19 gold rings. The gold rings varied from 10k to 18k and weight varied from 0.8g to 11.05g. The numbers are based on air test, but generally, these match well with the numbers I get at the beach. Based on Equinox 800 with 15” coil in Beach 1. Air test at 3”. Other settings standard (eg, recovery "6"). VDN Number of Hits 5 (1) I 6 (0) 7 (1) I 8 (0) 9 (0) 10 (0) 11 (3) III 12 (0) 13 (3) III 14 (3) III 15 (1) I 16 (1) I 17 (2) II 18 (1) I 19 (2) II 20 (0) 21 (1) I For my Equinox settings in Beach 1 and locations/conditions, nickels are a solid #12, pull/push tabs vary from #13-17, zinc cents overall vary from #18-21, copper cents around 22-24, modern dimes from 26-27 and modern quarters from 26-30. (Of course there are always exceptions, like cents appearing around #12 and quarters around #20 and pull/push tabs around #9 or #22). If I hunted based on VDN numbers alone and ignored push/pull tabs (#13-17), I’d miss over 50% of the gold rings! Thankfully, I can rely on the sound of the target, sort of, given I’m “hearing challenged”. Push/pull tabs are generally much more variable in VDN with each pass of the coil (e.g., +/- 3 units) while gold rings are very stable (+/- 0-1 unit) when within range (i.e., not too deep). I have read threads that gold rings have been found at a VDN as low as #1 and as high as #25 or #26. Based on 3 ½ yrs of personal experience with two 800s and with about 55 or so gold rings found during that time, I have found gold rings from #5 (in data reported) and as high as #23 (not in current analysis). I have reported previously that there is a positive relationship between gold ring weight and VDN; as ring weight increases the VDN also increases (a statistically significant positive correlation between ring weight and VDN). So the next time you’re out hunting with the 800 and tempted to ignore one more pull/push tab – look at the variability of the VDN and listen closely to what the target has to say...you just might want to dig that pull/push tab after all. Of course, that is easier to say when digging in soft beach sand vs hard, frozen dirt. One more thing, esp about ignoring cents: For me, silver rings are often found in the cent range (19-23). So the next time you want to pass on a cent, it just could be a gold ring or nice silver ring. Happy Hunting