markinswpa

Wow, its looks like Nokta just bitchslapped Minelab with the Accupoint compared to its feeble attempt with the Pro-Find 40. As if to say its no better than the 35. Maybe it is maybe its not, from what I read, confidence is not all that high. If Minelab ain't paying attention they better wake up. My Pro-Find 35 never made it out in the field after a some bench testing. Will try an Accupoint when available.  What I don't get is why both companies are throwing so much money into lower end detectors with such a finite amount of treasure's left.  Sure they can prey on the dreams of people finding gold at the beach but most when go on vacation want to relax, not metal detect. So that said it comes to relic hunters and coin shooters most quickly realize they want the best they can afford and give up on the lower end detectors. So again, why all these new entry level detectors ? I have an Xterra Pro. Took it to an old city park and have to say the SF 's did about as well as when the update came out for the 800 with the 4k option. Which is to say in 4K or 8k, 10k and so on made every pulltab. beavertail and every other piece of nonferrous crap sound  and Id  like a good target. And when it comes to metal detectors, from the posts I've been reading the $600 Legend is kicking butt compared to the 2 latest Minelab high end releases. And this is coming from a Minelab guy. I've had  an 800 for over 5 years, a 900 for about 10 months now. I took some of the funds I had set aside for a Manticore and bought a Henry Golden Boy. And still have enough to buy a Legend if I decide to upgrade with another detector. Minelab, WAKE UP. The wolf has come knocking. My 2 cents.

On 8/27/2023 at 8:25 PM, Michael H said:

Any idea on grading or value? Found metal detecting 

Very crisp Ihp. Congrats,  nice save. Coinbook shows it t be worth 75 to 150 bucks. To me it would be a priceless find so I wouldn't bother to have it graded. But thats just me. I don't sell anything. Good luck. Mark

On 8/27/2023 at 11:29 PM, jawbone said:

Just don't try to clean it other than maybe soap and water. It has fine details and if there's no 

reverse damage it's worth a fair amount.

No no. No water on old copper ever. It will in just  about every case leave you with a rusty red looking coin. Toothbrush, toothpick, a little nose oil will do great. Mark

On 8/21/2023 at 8:48 PM, UT Dave said:

I have been on a bit of a tear on the .925 rings lately.  Just how things go, sometimes you run hot, sometimes you run cold, but I have been running hot for .925 in the trashy parks the last couple of weeks.  I got one today a little nicer than the average though.

 

Makers hallmark is QG, which I found is Quality Gold and this is Rhodium plated .925 with either a lab grown or natural Sapphire.  Bunch of worthless even if "real" diamond chips.  And it (almost) fits!  Hard to get off...  It was only about an inch deep, in the machine gun nonferrous trash.  About fifty feet from where I found this one, two days ago (I didn't get out yesterday).

 

And the average ones I have found in the last two weeks.  Probably jinxing myself by posting my luck...

 

- Dave

Wow Dave you are doing very well. Love the latest find, Congrats. Maybe a Deacon or a Bishops ring. A real beauty. Good luck. Mark

On 8/21/2023 at 5:18 AM, Airtemisa said:

Thaks RVPopeye, I´m using THIS SHAFT for 3 years now, but due to wear and tear, the lower shaft no longer exerts pressure like it did at beggining, and I have to replace the shaft.

I've been testing the Equinox 900, and compared its shaft to mine, and it's better and stiffer, so I'm looking for the original EQX900/700 shaft, which I think I didn't say clearly in the initial post.

Thanks!

If I'm reading this correctly, what you want do won't work. The 800 & 900 shafts are not interchangeable. And good luck trying to find an OEM shaft. Heck people can't even get the ML85/ 105s  headphones yet. Minelab has been pretty slow about replacement parts. Someone mentioned Steve's shafts. I second that. Well built, reasonably priced, I've had one on my 800 for over 3 years and it  has held up quite well. Good luck. Mark

23 minutes ago, Dug D said:

Nox coils will work on the X pro, I have a nox with 3 coils they all work on the pro. 

I don't know the price comparison, maybe you will save money waiting for the X pro coils ?

Dug D Thanks and I am aware of the Equinox coil compatibility. However the V8X has my interest and to be sure I will compare it to the 6in.coil. I had the 10x5 on my 800 for about 50 hunts, although a decent coil I found the 6 to be better. IMO  As far as cost I got a new Xterra for less than 200 so I won't mind spending a couple bucks for an extra coil.

7 hours ago, TexHunter said:

Hey Mark, unfortunately, I haven't seen the V8X, or the V10X, coils listed anywhere. Very disappointing...

Tex, yes have been looking around myself. However Minelab responded to my email and said they expect to announce and release the extra coils very shortly. I hope for the Manticore guys that holds true as well. Mark

 Are the V8 coil for the  Xterra available ? Have only seen them on Minelabs website. TIA. Mark

5 hours ago, Nokta Detectors said:

We don't know where to start to describe our feelings...this past week has been incredible and unforgettable! We hosted our distributors from all around the world at our new factory. They met the whole Nokta team, learned about our past, present and our vision for the future. They toured the factory and a part of Istanbul... we had presentations, meetings and discussions... we shared ideas on our new products and metal detecting...we ate (maybe a bit too much:-), we laughed, we danced under the fascinating lights of the Bosphorus and most importantly we all felt like a BIG FAMILY! We thank each and every one of our distributors and would like to express our sincere gratitude for their support and for being part of the best distributor conference held in this industry so far.

First class all the way. Thanks for sharing. Continued success. Mark

On 7/19/2023 at 8:40 PM, fishersari said:

Its been 6 months as weekend detectorist.. Dug every signal of ID 98-99.. positive tones all directions with minor hint of iron.. usually the target was deep big iron around 12 to 15 inches. Not a single good target dug.. I wonder if anyone has dug a good deep target with the ID of 98-99. Btw I'm using the AT High conductor, AT Low conductor identified it as iron.. but I'm not so sure that AT low conductor max depth is identical as AT High conductor for inland relic site.. I'm ready (sort of) pass up targets that read 98-99

fishersari  I hunt with the 900, it has the same target range, the stability and target Id issues as the Manticore. Everybody I talked to, all the posts I've read seems to agree 98-99 is always is iron. Till yesterday. I hunt old parks and get a ton of 98-99s. In my soil the Equinox,800 &900 seem to up average a penny /dime signal more often than not. Until the previous hunt all my silvers (around 30 ) hit 92 to 96. On that hunt the 2 Mercs I dug both rang up a 79-80-81. I was surprised, I thought ok the 900 is behaving today. Yesterday, same park I dug 3 wheat pennies, the first 2 hightoned in the 90s and then dropped into the 60s. The numbers then bounced anywhere from 62 to 96. The third was a 98-99, numbers never dropped, it was tight up to a log so I really couldn't turn on it. Which that and where it pinpoints is usually how I decide to dig or not. The tone sounded really great, I thought maybe big silver, about 4 in. down I saw a penny in the hole. A crusty 1930 wheatie. After rechecking the hole and a scan of the area there was no other signals. I always investigate a 98-99 and now I guess I'll have to be a little more diligent. Mark

By the way I remember when the Equinox came out everybody was notching out 39-40. I had several old silver dimes and oddly enough Ihps that gave clean 39-40s on my 800.

Nice group of finds. Congrats. Those matchbox/tootsie cars do sound great. Good luck. Mark

On 7/25/2023 at 5:00 AM, TampaBayBrad said:

Try slowing your recovery speed down to 2. You may have to swing a little slower. Tom Dankowski says you lose a little depth with higher recovery speeds (not that 4 is high). I run my Manticore at 4 like you do on the 900, but I'm in the Beach programs which are a different animal.

I thought when you were describing how the machines behaved in your test garden that all was well and the 900 out performed the 800 after the factory reset. But then that doesn't answer your lack of finds to date this year. 

Maybe go back to the test garden for a double check that it's still performing well. If nothing else it will give you peace of mind that you're not wasting your swing time with a machine that isn't going deep.

Brad correct. The 900 did out perform  the 800 in the test garden with all the same parameters. Thats why I find it strange I haven't been hitting any deep targets. I did try a Recovery of 3 then 2 without any conclusive results. I will say I don't care for Rec. 2, it seems to stretch the signal out too much. If that makes sense. I judge a target by how fast the tone breaks and 4 seems to work best for me with a medium sweep speed. Haven't revisited the test garden, its been too dry. Good luck and thanks for your response. Mark

On 7/25/2023 at 12:21 AM, longbow62 said:

Great finds, congrats!

On 7/25/2023 at 8:11 AM, NCtoad said:

Nice bunch of finds Mark!   Looks like that 900 is working well for you!

On 7/25/2023 at 2:34 PM, jim tn said:

I didn't have the 6" coil for my 600, but highly suspect the 6" I now have with the 900 would probably struggle on 8-10" deep coins. The 11", however, will go deep. I've dug 2 coins between 10 and 11" with it and they weren't just tic tones, either. The 11" is my depth hunter, although it's darn good in quite heavy trash, and the 6" for heavy trash un-masking. Good luck. HH jim tn

On 7/26/2023 at 3:21 PM, mh9162013 said:

Love those finds, especially the Mercs.

Thanks guys. One of the things that keep me hooked is the anticipation of what the next find will be. Hope you all have a good year. Good luck. Mark

On 7/26/2023 at 3:07 PM, phrunt said:

The Manticore was certainly a 1 step forward 3 steps back detector, I'm so glad I didn't burn my money on a Nox 900 too, I was very tempted as I love my 800 but the things I love about my 800 the 900 has lost, most importantly target ID stability.  I am rather annoyed that Minelab still market the Manticore as having more stable ID than the Nox 800 as that is the primary reason I bought it and had I have known what I know now I wouldn't have bought it and would have likely just bought a Deus 2 instead and had my more stable ID's.

My last few Minelab purchases have been disappointment's and in my currency I've spent over 10 grand on these last 3 purchases, enough to buy a decent used car.  The first of the 3 was the Pro-Find 35, bitter disappointment, followed by the faulty and buggy GPX 6000, and last but certainly not least the Manticore. 

I haven't given up on the Manticore as I paid so much to get it, in fact I'm trying my best to like it but if I could get a refund on it I would and I'd stick to my CTX and 800.

I don't know who gets these detectors across the line but it appears the finish line is a few miles in the distance yet they release them anyway to get the sales money coming in, a bit like the Legend.

The Pro-Find, 6000 and Manticore, along with by the looks of it the 700 and 900 were not ready for release when they were released.

I'd normally be in a rush to buy the new Minelab pinpointer, but not this time, my experience of the 35 has been terrible, I felt like just throwing it away, no point getting it replaced as the new one is no better, been there done that.

My 6000's been back twice for repairs and one of them took a lot of rallying for Minelab to even acknowledged the fault.

My Manticore appears to have good quality, but certainly doesn't meet what marketing are saying about it.

Does marketing meet expectations?

The  new Pro-find better this deeper that, all they did was put a new dress on an old whore. Still has 9 v batteries. Do they really think we are going to buy that after the bull they fed us on these new detectors. I hate to say this but I think Minelab has started down a slippery slope and as I have said before I don't think its Minelab per se but Codan who seems more interested in profit than product.

First good luck to the budding detectorist.  Hopefully my granddaughters will take an interest.

I would first check to make sure the discount wasn't for open box models. Wouldn't be the first time big companies put the details in small print. If not the case I would ask for a refund and a shipping label for return.  You paid for new you should have received a new product. That alone would give me pause to do business with them again.

I would contact one of the dealers here on the forum. If you area veteran you qualify for a 15%  discount right away. If not I'm sure they will give you a decent price. Good luck and keep us informed.

7 hours ago, TampaBayBrad said:

Do you still have the 800? If so test them side by side in a test garden. It just doesn't seem right that the newer detector isn't as deep as the one it's replacing.

Brad I still have one 800. Sold one as when I got the 900 12-11-22 as I had a Manticore on pre-order as well. When I got the 900 I just happened to be working what turned out to be my highest silver/ wheat producing yard permission ever. Only place where the silver and wheats smoked the clad total. All toll it gave it 24 silvers 2 sterling medals and 62 wheats. Less than 2 bucks in clad. So when the 900 came, I put the 6 in coil on as I did with most of my 800 hunts. Field 2, 5 tone Rec. 4 Ib 0 All metal.

I kinda bashed  the 900 on my initial report, extremely jumpy numbers, I'm talking 30 40 points or more. Tones scratchy and not really locking on a target. If I had been in an old trashy park and not a target rich yard I might have dumped the machine after the first hunt. Turned out I hit 7 silvers and some wheats on its maiden voyage. I had to try the more horsepower with the sensitivity and was able to crank it up to about 26. But quickly dropped back to 20-22. Targets were mostly in the 3 to 5 in. range. 18 would have been fine. There was no noticeable EMI and in all metal you could hear the iron, -9 to -19 without fail. And to add thats pretty much the norm in my soil 95% of the time.

Ok  I needed some answers. Been hunting with the 800 for almost 5 years, love the machine and couldn't wait to see what Minelab did with the 900. I did a factory reset and took both machines up to my test garden. Coil and settings the same. I have an Ihp, wheat, memorial, and clad dime buried at six inches. A clad dime, quarter, half and dollar buried flat at  10 inches. They were buried over 4 years ago in moist ground so I'm sure they sunk a bit.

 I don't have the coins marked so when I hit it I have to locate the targets. And as you know if you miss a target by an eighth of an inch it may as well be a mile. I know the general area but what I'm saying is I still have to hunt for the target.  Heres where it gets strange. The 900 settled down, nailed all the targets in my test garden with target Ids within 4 numbers. Acceptable. The 800 while letting me know there was a target down there there were no positive Ids and in a real world hunt I may or may not have dug the signal.

Took the 900 back to the silver yard, it behaved. It performed well, I think I hit another 6 silvers and a slew of wheats and I think a slick Buff on that hunt.

Fast forward to Jan. 23. My first silver of the year was a cruddy 64 Rosie. A little over 9  in. down in topsoil like dirt. But since I have yet to pull a coin at more than 6 inches. Its not the locations, its the same parks and yards and some new permissions that I've hunted with the 800. This time last year I had over 40 silver and a bunch of keepers. (Ihps, wheats and Buffs ), this year I have less than 20. A good deal of my silver was in the 7-8 inch range last year. And a few at an unbelievable  10 + inch range with iron close  by or in the hole with the coin.

 Sorry if this post is dragging on. I'm not a technical type of guy. but heres my thoughts. If and when an 800 see's a coin its like a love tap compared to the 900. The 900 bitch slaps a coin. And even more so on the mid-tone nickel signals. It just clobbers them. The problem I think is that its too fast and not able to report the deeper signals in certain types of soil. Unfortunately my dirt. I know guys in my areas that say the same about the Manticore. They aren't hitting the deep coins.. One guy in particular came from an Explorer to a 30 30 when it came out and to the 800 when it came out. Got a Manticore, he wasn't impressed. Bought a 900 gave it a try, sold it. Went back to the 800. I told him to hold on to the Manticore until the update came out. Haven't spoke with him since the update. This guy is a diehard deep silver park hunter with thousand of silvers to his credit so when he speaks, its worth a listen.

 Short story long if Minelab can tweak the 900 a bit I think it has the potential to be the best in class on the market.

18 hours ago, TampaBayBrad said:

A wise man indeed!

Thanks Brad. I also like the 6 in. coil. It can get  in close and works well.

13 hours ago, jim tn said:

Nice batch of older coins and tokens. The 900 seems to be working nicely. I like mine, too. Good luck! HH jim tn

Jim thank you. Yes the 900 does get it done. I've learned to deal with the jumpy numbers. I just don't look at the screen. Ha ha. I will say, even at a recovery speed of 4 ( my go to speed ) it is a very fast machine. If I had to complain it would be that I'm hitting very few deep targets. After 50 + outings with it I refuse to believe I haven't walk over some deep coins. I ran my 800 pretty much the same and had no trouble hitting 8 to 10 inch coins, and a few deeper than that. And that is with the 6 in coil. Sensitivity usually around 20-22. Anyway thanks and good luck to you

Love  old tokens. Nice save. Congrats on the other goodies as well. Good luck. Mark

10 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

Wow, so nice to see the old stuff! Old coin and Relic hunting is my favorite, I really miss it. 🥲

That's some great hunting there. 👍

9 hours ago, Geologyhound said:

Some really nice finds there! That would have me jazzed!

6 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

Great finds from the past, glad that you saved them.

Good luck on your next hunt and stay safe out there.

Thanks guys.  Our parks have been pretty well pounded but there is always a chance you could find something old.   Most md'rs don't even bother with them anymore. Not too many people carry money theses days so very little clad to be found. So the trick is kick the brush for the old stuff. Good luck to all.

More pics

10 minutes ago, markinswpa said:

Thought I would share a few finds from some of my last hunts. My last yard hunt was late in April. Too dry here. The rest of the finds were from city parks. A cool token, my first real shield nickel and my first Barber dime of the year were some of thehighlights. Thanks for looking in. Mark

So new to posting on this forum. I was using the Equinox 900 Field 2 5 tone Rec 4. no notch, no disc. all metal. The setting worked pretty good for me on the 800 so continue to use it.

Very cool find, congrats. I found the same one a few years ago. One side of the end of the barrel is missing, never the less its in my display case. Yours looks to be close to perfect. Great save. Mark

Thought I would share a few finds from some of my last hunts. My last yard hunt was late in April. Too dry here. The rest of the finds were from city parks. A cool token, my first real shield nickel and my first Barber dime of the year were some of thehighlights. Thanks for looking in. Mark

Jeff, good write up and thank you for your well regarded opinion. Have been kicking around the prospect of getting a Legend and a good report like yours increases my interest. You answered a question I had as far as third party headphones. The ability to use after market ones for me is huge. I was reminded of that on my last outing at a city park when my earbud/transmitter set up for the 900 malfunctioned and had to use the Ml85s. Temps in the mid 80s, 4 hrs before I found a decent target and 5hrs in I found my first coin. Needless to say it wasn't the most pleasant experience. Perseverance did pay off with an old nickel spill, 4 Buffs & 2 Vs. I've learned to put up with the 900s issues except for one. Other than one 9in. silver Rosie in mild topsoil like conditions I have yet to dig any deep silver. The majority of coins I find are in the 2 to 4in. range and the deeper ones 5, maybe a few at 6. Last year using the 800 I had no problem hitting 8 in. + silver dimes and such. Looking at last years log, number of hunts pretty close to equal my silver/wheat/ Ihp is far less than half of what it was in 2022.

I've ruled out the D2 and won't consider a Manticore unless Minelab ends that proprietary headphone horsesh!t. Another thing, guys I know using the Manticore in my area are also not hitting deep coins. Have not talked to anyone since the update.

So I've got to wonder if the Legend will see deeper targets in my soil. Again thanks for your report and I will check out Iffy Signals videos.  Good luck. Mark

On 7/5/2023 at 8:09 AM, Chase Goldman said:

A mineralization meter tells you how much magnetite or other similar ferrous oxide compounds are in the soil.  The ground balance indication on most detectors is really just a number generated to help a user properly balance out ground phase (conductivity).  It does not necessarily correlate to the degree of ferrous mineralization present in the soil.  Even if you have a properly ground balanced detector, highly mineralized soil (often referred to as "hot ground") reflects and attenuates the magnetic field that is put into the ground by the detector's transmit coil as well as the received induced magnetic field by the target which greatly reduces depth capability.  Many detectors such as the higher end Fisher and Teknetics models; XP Deus, Orx, and Deus 2; Nokta Simplex and Legend, provide a separate mineralization meter.  Minelabs tend to not have this indication although the Nox internal algorithms use sensed changes in ground mineralization as keys to adjust ground balance in ground tracking mode and also sense it in Beach Modes to automatically dial back transmit power in the presence of black sand.

Having a separate indication of ground mineralization helps the detectorist identify this hot ground situation so that they can adjust the detector to compensate somewhat for its effects.  For example, DD coils are slightly less impacted by mineralization than coaxial or concentric coils, so a detectorist might choose to use a DD coil in this situation (most detectors have now gravitated to solely using DD coils sobthiscis typically a moot point).  Lowering transmit power (if you have that adjustment) sometimes helps.  If you can separately adjust for salt effects (usually a beach mode adjustment) that can sometimes help too.  And certain frequencies may penetrate better (usually lower frequencies, but there is no hard and fast determination that lowering the frequency is necessarily always better in hot ground > a lot depends on your desired target conductivity).  A lot of trial and error is involved.  In really hot soils, shifting to a Pulse Induction detector is the best antidote as mineralization has much less impact on depth detection due to the way they transmit and process their received target signals.  There are other drawbacks to Pulse Induction detectors (expense, lack of sophisticated visual target ID and discrimination) and they are primarily used for gold prospecting, beach work, or for relic detecting in hot and/or high salinity ground environments.

HTH

Wow Chase thanks. You explained  that way better than I could. Even learned a few things myself. Thats why I like these forums, so many knowledgeable members willing to help. Take care. Mark