GB_Amateur

You lost me. What does 'that' refer to?

I'm going to hone in on this as it might lead to something meaningful. (I don't have a 900 and it's way too early for me to comment on the Manticore's performance.) Here are my counts on clad dimes and 95% copper Memorial cents for the five years that I used the Equinox 800 (w/11" stock coil) almost exclusively. These are in chronological order 2018-->2022 clad dimes: 213, 196, 151, 265, 112 -- total of 937 copper Memorials: 326, 314, 300, 355, 161 -- total of 1456 That occurred from 1194 hours of detecting mostly parks and schools. To this day I cannot distinguish a clad dime from a copper Memorial, not from the audio and not even from the VDI (digital target ID values). Both hit around 25-26 with of course a few 24's, etc. Have I ever gotten an ID in the high 20's? Rarely on a deep Memorial and then it's not consistently up there but jumpy 24-29 or so. My depths for these go down to about 8" although the vast majority are 6" and less (mostly less). Could I tell them apart? I would do just as well by flipping a coin (pun intended). (OK, a coin biased 60::40 because that seems to be the natural ratio of Memorials to clad dimes as shown in the above totals.) So what's going on? There are many possible explanations but IMO the most likely 3 are: 1) Our specific Eqx 800 units perform differently, 2) Our settings are different, leading to the discrepancy, 3) Our ground mineralization is so different that it results in this discrepancy. #1 is by far the least likely, IMO, partly because others have said something similar to what I said (see UT Dave's post above for example) and you, Jeff, have (I'm pretty sure) used multiple Equinox 800's. #2 doesn't seem out-of-the-question but enough people have tried widely different settings and it seems someone (more likely many someones) would have pointed this out if they noticed that settings A gave significantly different VDI's than settings B for the same target. #3, well, hasn't this been the bee in the bonnet for years if not decades for many reported differences in detector performance? I'm seeing a pattern here. Could your Eqx 900 VDI wildness be due to your difficult ground -- something many (especially beach detectorists) and even Minelab don't notice (or maybe swept under the rug in the latter case)?

Your situation is unusual because you have some loaded locations that have never been searched. That's rare here in the USA. It's like you've traveled 40 years back in time. Now if you claim to have done that I'm going to join the suspicious ones. That and hubris that no one can do so much better than they, the experts (in their rose colored glass covered eyes).

Anyone who lies, cheats, and/or steals *should* irk us all, no matter how insignificant that dishonesty seems. Being the suspicious type, I sometimes privately question finds made here. Fortunately I don't think I've ever concluded that a posted find was fake, but it's good not to let one's guard down as long as one doesn't get possessed by the practice. It seems people who perform such nefarious acts eventually overdo it and reveal themselves as the charlatans they actually are.

Interesting prediction, but their slow/delayed release of that new Simplex detector (after that trade show in Germany having been nearly two months ago now?) seems to add support to that.

There's a lot of metal detecting advice on the internet, but it's not always correct. Reader/viewer beware... I heard that 'advice' about discriminating by pumping and tried it out on a known good target, but I did that *before* I trusted it. Never again after that.

There's a Gold Prospectors Association of America (GPAA) chapter in Michigan (found here) : (I think 'Remis' is spelled wrong -- Remus in Google Maps.) Remus is in the center of the lower penninsula. You could call or email this person and probably get some advice/info. There is/was a LDMA (national club) camp in Athens which isn't terribly far from you: That shows there is gold in the area. As to whether or not it's in the creek you've illustrated, it may be up to you to do some panning to find out. Most gold found in the Great Lakes states and Midwest is tiny, but detectable gold isn't out of the question. "Getting down to bedrock" is the mantra to find the largest pieces, but often that isn't possible without the right equipment (e.g. dredges and diving gear). If you can find any exposed bedrock, search the cracks with whatever method you have available. General rules-of-thumb for where gold drops out during flooding applies.

Here's a good one on coin detecting: Although this was written before the SL model was released, it's still relevant.

What is it, an electric junction box popout plug?

Think back to the Iron Bias update on the Eqx 800 where they kept the original Iron Bias method but added another. It's possible they will do something like this with the proposed update. We've all seen over the years (decades?) where an update took away something that either had value or the users had the impression it had value. And then even more bitching and whining occurs than initially occurred. It sure looks as though that Facebook answer was written by someone knowledgeable (i.e. an engineer) than, for example, a marketer. That gives it more credence in my book, and less likely to have weasel-craft going on.

Please elaborate as I'm having trouble understanding and it seems at first (and second) glance there are alternate interpretations to your question. (Or maybe that was your intent. )

The 6000 is so unknown to me (Condor let me use his last June, but I didn't even try to change any settings) that I've gone far enough with questions about it here. (Kinda like your lack of familiarity with the Manticore.) It's not even obvious to me that noise reduction on PI's is similar to noise reduction on IB's. FWIW, I point out that your scientific approach to testing and being able to back up what you say with more than just speculation (or you admit you are speculating) is the kind of approach that makes this site worth reading. I can be (overly?) skeptical of posts as I may have sounded regarding meteorite availability but that is just an attempt to get some answers for questions that remain in my mind. (And you're a good person to ask....)

Well, something may be be coming soon, but 'near future' is vague enough (kinda like them saying the Manticore accessory coil are coming soon 😏) that IMO we shouldn't get too excited yet. But that ML response on Facebook (quoted by Geordiedan) is a very interesting read.

The NYTimes article has lots of accompanying photos, unlike the copy of that article which Simon posted. But I think NYTimes has a limit on the number of articles which can be read without a subscription, so if that kicks in.... FWIW I posted a link of the original article on another thread (the one that Gerry started and asked if the winter's heavy precip would lead to more available gold this year).

Does it reveal it's doing that? This idea being blasted that Noise Cancel on the ML Manticore is secretly reducing the sensitivity (note: on the Manticore the 2 digit sensitivity value is always on display on the left side of the screen and I've yet to see that value go down when I do a long Noise Cancel procedure -- has anyone??) seems over the top, to put it mildly. A lot of the accusations being hypothesized here about the Manticore can be tested by the antagonists. I'd like to see more of that compared to the current unsubstantiated accusations.

Here's a timely answer. I'm sure some here will recognize places and names: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/22/us/california-gold-prospectors.html

I've found a lot of those in one of the turn-of-the-century Nevada ghost towns. May have something to do with roofing or siding attachment, but definitely not sure, just my usual WAG.

My ML Manticore (stock, with 11" coil, only one available so far) comes in at 1.31 kg or 2.89 lb = 2 lb 14 oz. There might be a bit of dirt in that measurement. 😉

'Unglazed' is the word. Most bathroom and floor ceramic tiles are glazed on one side but not the other. Inside surface of a toilet tank is another option, but taking the lid off frequently runs the risk of dropping and breaking it.... The tile shop might have broken pieces they end up tossing, so if that's the case the price should be right.

Great sun-baker find, or was it a 'moon-baker'? Here's what the Richard Snow reference says about that coin: These cents were struck in quantities similar to those of 1871. Aside from the 1977, this is the toughest date to find today. (Possibly he's referring to Mint State condition coins in regards to his 'toughest' comment. But most of those post-war 13 years 1866-1878 are semi-keys or better due to their relatively low mintages. Well, there are lower grades than G-4: AG-3, F-2, P-1 (About Good, Fair, Poor). I'm not going to try and grade yours. No matter the condition, I always get a thrill from finding a scarce date (which almost never happens for me -- that's why they've been labeled 'scarce'! 😁)

Yes, even though we think of primo sites (whether for native gold or coins and relics) as seriously picked over, that is a small fraction of the earth's non-ocean surface. The deserts (including Antarctica) presumably have the exposed and shallowest meteorites; seems less likely for plant covered areas, though. I know it's been mentioned before, but still an interesting thing to contemplate -- how many meteorites, small fragments in particular, have been detected but ignored as simply hot/cold rocks (by native gold detectorists) or even nails or other waste iron bits (by coin&relic detectorists)? Coincidentally when the 11:00 news came on last night the first item covered was the reports coming in from Central Indiana of a bright flash and sonic boom that had occurred a few hours earlier. Most skies in the area were unfortunately overcast but a morning news program (see the link I just posted) shows a perported image -- I initially am a bit skeptical that this is the event, given the sky conditions I was experiencing as well as some people's unscrupulous efforts to get their 15 minutes of fame. Hope I'm wrong and if so there should be other videos showing up to confirm that one.

🤣 I never heard that term before but it's fairly self-explanatory if you conjure up a mental image, as well as from context. (I did look it up anyway.) It's applicable here for more than just (some of) the X-Terra Pro purchase justification threads. Except from reading (and interpreting) the Codan periodic investor reports, we get at best indirect, sparse evidence as to who is buying what and how that compares to the past. For example, was the Manticore release much different (quantitatively and temporally) than the Equinox's five years ago? Were the Equinox's accessory coils released any sooner then than they seem to be (as still promised) for the Manticore today? Are we any smarter / better informed when we post our opinions, speculations, and hypotheses now than 5 years ago?? 🤔

What's the replenishment timescale, though? (You know better than I that...) there are a couple strewn fields at Gold Basin which have produced quite a bit, yet those falls occurred thousands of years ago, I think. We hear about fireball sightings and their subsequent meteorite searches, but how frequent are those -- about as frequent as Medieval Europe cache finds? I read a decent book (Field Guide to Meteors and Meteorites by Norton and Chitwood -- for some reason I can seem to find the link atttach icon in the post headings...) on the subject and it surprises me the low number of estimated falls and even recovered samples listed for the various known finds by classification. And many of those, like the Gold Basin finds, are from falls which occurred long ago. There are things quoted about the number of tons of meteoroid material that hits the earth's upper atmosphere everyday. However, how much of that makes it to the surface and what is the resulting size distribution? (BTW, these questions are more than rhetorical. I've looked for answers to them and not been successful. Someone has at least a reasonable idea; maybe even someone here.) Maybe getting off-topic here, but from much of what I've read on this thread, there's a good reason for that. 😄

Isn't it possible that concentrating too much on the share price and shareholders' demands is what's gotten them into this mess in the first place? Did they have these problems before they were publicly traded? Putting out three new detectors practically simultaneously sounds like something the greedy shareholders thought would be a great idea, IMO. What could possibly go wrong??!! Just sit back and drown in all the money being thrown our way!

Welcome, IDS! Manticore is so new that there isn't a lot to say about it yet. Try different modes, play with the audio to suit your taste. (There are oodles of audio settings and everyone's ear is different.) Read the manual! Then read it again. I've read it 3 times and I'm due for a 4th now that I have ~20 hrs under my belt. Know where in the manual to find the different things you might want to tweak. Relying on the stock settings (except for the audio) is generally recommended early on. Don't get too crazy with cranking up the sensitivity; OK to try and see what happens but then go back down. I've been running 22-23 where I can get away with it (EMI allows) and down to 16 (EMI pushing me there) and it works well for me on those and in between. Plenty to be found with the lower sensitivity settings. More gain amplifies the noise so sometimes you lose signal-to-noise cranking it up; kind of diminishing returns, or worse. Know how to do a factory reset and don't hesitate to use it if it seems things get wacky. At worst your back to all stock settings, which is the point.