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Salt This post and the one following it may clarify the salt issue for people. It’s an issue for any very sensitive metal detector: https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/8257-my-tarsacci-mdt-8000-commentary-pics-and-videos-unit-received-12-15-2018/?do=findComment&comment=96925 Clay from the Minelab Eureka Gold manual, page 34: ”11.2 Clay Domes A common occurrence in nugget-bearing country is soil mineralisation commonly known as ‘clay domes’. These are regions of rather broad sound which could be confused with the sound which would come from a large deep nugget. The following procedure will quickly establish whether or not the sound comes from clay or a metal target: a) Pinpoint the target as best you can. b) Remove about 4 cm (1.5”) depth of soil from over the target response. Dish the hole so that there are no sharp edges around the hole. c) Sweep the coil across the target from a few directions, keeping the coil as low as possible. Listen to the signal and note if it is: — Any louder or more defined than before. By bringing the coil closer to a metal target the signal should become louder. — Note if the signal seems to come from one direction only (a mineral signal will often come from one direction only, or at least be less defined from the return sweep). d) If you are still not sure, continue to dig deeper and again, note the points above. e) Be sure to dish the hole when digging to ensure there are no sharp edges. Sweeping the coil across the sharp edge of a hole can cause false spurious signals due to the change in distance between the ground and the coil.” Thread on mineralization issues: https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/1599-gb-numbers-mineralization/

A funny story actually. I arrived at site and was thinking about which detecftor to use first to find a target to compare. Had Tarsacci mdt 8000, Etrac and Nox with me. I chose Eqx 800 and took off. I get this strong signal with 13 in the window. Said to myself golly this thing sounds like it’s on top of ground. Went to truck to get pinointer just to see how shallow. . Garrett propointer pointer hit strong so I moved some of the sprigs of grass and sage around and saw something. As soon as I layed eyes on it I knew what it was. But the ID told me it was not genuine. I did a small video checking with Etrac. I have found the genuine Spanish bits on this farm before 4 I think in this general area of 90 acres. Btw high odds I dug this target not today but a few days ago. Better to be lucky than good I guess. This find was unearthed with either Tarsacci or Eqx 800. Don’t know which one. Suspect it was colocated with flat button or musket ball and once I found one of those Inwas satisfied. I may not even have detected either flat button or musketball before but rather this bit. Go figure. This happened once before with me on a merc dime nicke scenario. But I caught on the same day. Not days later. Find reads 13 on Nox and 07 conductive on Etrac. Definitely not silver. This area has also given up a fake capped bust dime for me detecting found with Nokta Relic detectorand 5” small coil. Here’s pic of my actual find. Suspect fake Spanish bit. This video here I am putting here so folks can watch. Notice the back of these fakes. Key on the letters RE near the rim and the detail below on coins.

GB_Amateur -- One site in particular made me take note as to hunting in different modes. I was hunting a Civil War camp and hunted about half of it in one of the modes. I can't remember which but I did do a video of it and the following hunt. Anyway...that first day I recovered several minie balls and larger pieces of camp lead, etc. I came back the next time and finished the camp area...then kinda skimmed through it in a different mode. During that skimming process, I realized I was going to have to rehunt the entire area...cause now I was finding small brass, buttons, etc that I had somehow missed. Sure enough, I think the 2nd hunt produced a half dozen buttons, smaller bullets, etc whereas the first one was mostly .58 cal bullets and 1 button. Oddly, I have NOT hunted all that much in the Field modes. In my particular testing, I have favored the Park modes. Currently, I admittedly have been using/testing the Tarsacci MDT detector more than the Equinox. Except for in the water.

Since the Dankowski forum is the only place Alexandre has posted about the AQ, i will cross post something he just put up - under the “handle” of “golden retriever”. He posted it right after Tom D. Had made a post where he commented that the Tarsacci was hitting a nickel at 14” on the beach. Note: English is not Alexandre’s native language. Also, when he writes “(with a fast swing without noise)” he is not talking about the strawberries, but about the fact that all the test results he is sharing were obtained not by “massaging” the target, but with a fast swing and that was without any resulting noise from the ground. The Tone Mode and the Mute Mode are the two modes where ferrous and other high conductor targets are ID’d. Hello, Salt wet sand for US nickel : IN ALL METAL MODE 17'' without noise at 7µs with a maximum ferrous discrimination IN TONE MODE 17'' without noise at 7µs with a maximum ferrous discrimination IN MUTE MODE 17'' without noise at 7µs with a maximum ferrous discrimination With fast or slow SAT speed setting... If the competition is better I pay them a tray of strawberries... (with a fast swing without noise) Alexandre

Hi Paul. Congratulations on your Tarsacci purchase. My limited experience with this detector closely mirrors your own. While not my number one choice for either relic or gold nugget hunting I think this detector will be used on a regular basis by me in scenarios that utilize the strong points of the Tarsacci. I don't have enough experience in iron infested relic scenarios to have a definitive opinion about it's performance there. I do think it has much better separation than many may think but depth wise in iron no detector does well so I think I will stick with my Deus in the nail beds. Near the end of May I hope to have the Tarsacci in that hell hole of mineralization, Plumas County, LOL. It will be interesting to see how the Tarsacci performs on steep, blasting cap infested tailings. The ones a GPX will work you to death on. Also in hydraulic mines and in areas hot rocks may be bothersome.

Hello Goldbrick, Recently picked up the MDT and like you drove to Merced, a short 105 mile drive from my area. Dimitar was great, very friendly, helpful and never pressured me. Haven’t used the MDT in water yet, and it’s really designed for tough water mineralization but it does well for inland hunting which I’ve already experienced. Used the MDT on a few relic hunts, with very favorable results. Is deeper over all my non-Pi detectors, out in open ground is that is . Doesn’t do well in areas with a lot of iron, but in open areas especially with poor soil is definitely deeper a good 1” to 2” inches. The GPX 5000 is wearing me out, Have been waiting for a non-Pi to come providing a stronger signal than other VLF in poor soil. After viewing David’s and another Tarsacci users videos, decided to get one. Yes it’s no GPX, but it’s very lightweight and does get better depth over other top end Non-Pi detectors in my area. Sure has it’s weaknesses, but it’s strenght outweigh the negative. Appreciate you sharing the MDT, not too many MDT post out there glad I found yours. Good luck, and enjoy the MDT. Paul

Well it is a wonderment isn’t it from around the time the Nox was released and forward in time. A whole series of Kruzers are released and no one is thrashed as a shill. The Anfibio is released and no one is thrashed as a shill. White’s MX7 is released and no one is thrashed as a shill. White’s Goldmaster 24K is released and no one is thrashed as a shill. White’s TDI BeachHunter is released and no one is thrashed as a shill. Tarsacci MDT 8000 is released and no one is thrashed as a shill. And now a French detector the Manta with a Fisher sticker on it is being released and no one is thrashed as a shill despite the fact that this thing has been shill-ed to death!

Yeah, I have followed it closely. I set up a reviews page about it back in December... There are multiple threads about the Tarsacci on the Metal Detector Advice & Comparisons Forum including this one. Goldbrick also reported here. Impulse AQ - I like it. Referential to the old Fisher Impulse. If the machine is even remotely as pictured I will probably get one. It may not be designed for dry land use in extreme ground but there is plenty of ground in Nevada that is relatively mild but which does have a lot of alkali salt in the ground, maybe a few hot rocks. If nothing else it looks like a killer Lake Tahoe detector.

Hi Steve, I did get a Tarsacci. I posted the following on this forum on February 6th in a different thread- "I pulled the trigger and bought a Tarsacci MDT 8000. Like in the Johnny Cash song I drove right down to the factory and picked it up. Well, not quite, but close. I was only about 100 miles away from Merced vacationing so I made arrangements and drove down and met with Dimitar, the designer. I spent a couple hours with him. First, learning About the Tarsacci, then discussing its mineral handling capabilities and prospecting possibilities, then trying it out. We did some air tests on coins and nuggets and detected some test bed targets. I had my Deus with me so we did some comparison testing. The weather sucked and I needed to haul my carcass up to Oregon pronto so we did not do exhaustive testing but we did enough that I felt confident buying the machine. Dimitar did not pressure me to buy his detector. The detector sold itself. A week previous to this I was looking to buy an Equinox which I am no longer interested in at this time. In the interest of full disclosure I do not intend to use this machine only for gold nugget prospecting. I also enjoy relic hunting so the capabilities I witnessed that applied to both types of detecting made my decision for me. This machine has been marketed as a beach machine. I had about one hour of beach detecting experience up until yesterday. Now I have about 3. I played around with it on a beach in Oregon with a fair amount of black sand and see some decent performance( I think). What I am seeing on the beach is making me all itchy to go some where there is some bad dirt instead of sand. The Tarsacci is an interesting machine. The build quality of the rod is the best I have ever seen, top notch. I hope the rest of the machine lives up to that standard. I don't want to say much more as I just have so little time on the machine. And of course there is the human factor. I just paid a fair amount of coin for this detector so I must have liked it. Not being perfect I am likely wearing rose colored glasses now when it comes to my new toy. If some of you guys are like me where you have just reached that point in life where you have no interest or physically can not dig every target on God's green earth then this machine may be one to follow its journey through the gold and relic fields." Since I posted that I have not been out detecting with the Tarsacci very much. When I have I was at "bed of nails" locations doing some relic hunting, which is not exactly the Tarsacci's forte but it actually does fairly well in that circumstance. Once, I did take it to a pounded nugget location for a couple hours. I would classify the mineralization as medium at that site. I did not find any gold but neither did my partner with his GBII. The Tarsacci seemed to run good at this location. It will be interesting to see it's performance in some really hot ground. I did do some testing of the Tarsacci against the Equinox at Stricks' test bed site. We recently planted this test bed. The soil is medium mineralization in an area of bad EMI. Strick and I planted a half dozen coins at depths which are challenging for the Equinox at this location. We also planted another half dozen coins at shallow depths in co-located with iron scenarios. On every coin that was planted with out iron co-located the Tarsacci was able to generate a better response to the signal versus the Equinox. On every co-located target the Equinox did a better job of separating the targets. I am not saying the Tarsacci could not detect the majority of the co-located targets. Just that the Equinox generated better signals when coins were co-located with iron. I know this post is very sparse in content about gold hunting with the Tarsacci and I don't anticipate having much more to contribute for a few months due to demands of work, and continuing education. One of you retired gents should pull the trigger on a Tarsacci and really work it over in a review.

So Merton, did you get a Tarsacci on order or in hand?

This is not one of "those" forums. The goal here is to inform, not paranoia about people defecting to other forums. Post links at will - please - to relevant subjects. A significant amount of my time is spent chasing down and editing posts to provide the links people are not making themselves. Tarsacci added to the Detector Database....

Tarsacci MDT 8000 specifically targeted for wet sand/beach detecting/artifact hunting in bad soil, made by a company specializing in underwater detectors, does not sound like a multiple frequency machine from what I could find: here's a link http://www.dankowskidetectors.com/discussions/read.php?2,152652 (If I can't post this link to another forum, please just kill it.) Sounds like a highly specialized detector designed for a specific niche purpose, interesting . . . All the best, Lanny

On the Dankowski forum about a month ago, 2 guys were testing a Tarsacci in the Tennessee red dirt, and it did not do well at all. I would wait for more testing before I would part with $1500 . Now maybe they did not have it set up right, or the machine was defective, , or it does not do well in mineralized dirt? It seems to do well in salt environments.

Agreed, but in some conditions especially ones with extreme trash new technologies may be more helpful in picking out the good targets from digging out iron all day. I love my Minelab 4500 P.I. but all the spots I hunt now are literally full of iron..sometimes you just want to cheery pick the non ferrous. If the Tarsacci does a better job of it than other MD available I am willing to at least give it my ear.

Klunker, I probably won't ask you to drive my RZR when I have my Tarsacci in it so we should be OK. LOL p.s. did you buy an Equinox? Signed, An early adopter......

I value a detector comparison test over a known target only slightly more than an air test. The test does prove, however, that the Tarsacci will find coins with holes and strings tied to them buried for less than 15 minutes better than an equinox. But it is good to see Minelab getting some strong competition. The real test will be to see which will withstand a day of being transported in a wildly out of control Polaris Razor.

I pulled the trigger and bought a Tarsacci MDT 8000. Like in the Johnny Cash song I drove right down to the factory and picked it up. Well, not quite, but close. I was only about 100 miles away from Merced vacationing so I made arrangements and drove down and met with Dimitar, the designer. I spent a couple hours with him. First, learning About the Tarsacci, then discussing its mineral handling capabilities and prospecting possibilities, then trying it out. We did some air tests on coins and nuggets and detected some test bed targets. I had my Deus with me so we did some comparison testing. The weather sucked and I needed to haul my carcass up to Oregon pronto so we did not do exhaustive testing but we did enough that I felt confident buying the machine. Dimitar did not pressure me to buy his detector. The detector sold itself. A week previous to this I was looking to buy an Equinox which I am no longer interested in at this time. In the interest of full disclosure I do not intend to use this machine only for gold nugget prospecting. I also enjoy relic hunting so the capabilities I witnessed that applied to both types of detecting made my decision for me. This machine has been marketed as a beach machine. I had about one hour of beach detecting experience up until yesterday. Now I have about 3. I played around with it on a beach in Oregon with a fair amount of black sand and see some decent performance( I think). What I am seeing on the beach is making me all itchy to go some where there is some bad dirt instead of sand. The Tarsacci is an interesting machine. The build quality of the rod is the best I have ever seen, top notch. I hope the rest of the machine lives up to that standard. I don't want to say much more as I just have so little time on the machine. And of course there is the human factor. I just paid a fair amount of coin for this detector so I must have liked it. Not being perfect I am likely wearing rose colored glasses now when it comes to my new toy. If some of you guys are like me where you have just reached that point in life where you have no interest or physically can not dig every target on God's green earth then this machine may be one to follow its journey through the gold and relic fields.

Hello Northeast. Thanks for posting, I am aware of the info on the detector advice and comparison forum and I follow Davids posts and videos closely as I respect his opinion. On the Dankowski forum there is one post with 25 pages of discussion, mainly concentrating on the Tarsacci's attributes as a beach hunter but some guys are interested in using it for relic hunting. There may be a software upgrade to make it work better in extremely hot ground such as relic hunters encounter at Culpepper VA. The point of my post here was there is zero discussion I can find relating to it's possible capabilities as a nugget hunter. Where I sometimes hunt in the Sierra Nevada the ground is wickedly hot for the most part. On my Deus the mineral meter is usually at max or very close to it. This just kills the depth on a VLF. That is why when I read about this detector with good discrimination, Black Sand Mode, hot rock elimination, and supposed depth capabilities it piqued my interest. I don't think it is a VLF as NASA Tom stated on his forum the following "The new MD8000 Tarsacci is neither VLF or PI. It is a Multi Domain based platform." I only hope to spark some discussion and learn what I can as I am considering purchasing this detector.

Since you've been gone Merton there have been a lot of forum additions. The Tarsacci is aimed primarily at beach hunters with possible secondary uses for relic detecting. It has therefore been under discussion for some time on the Metal Detector Advice & Comparisons Forum as Northeast has linked to above. Using the forum search function would have located the threads immediately so do use search when looking for things. If you want to give the Tarsacci a go as a prospecting detecting Merton I am sure there are many that would be all ears. I added the Tarsacci MDT 8000 to the Metal Detector Database With Reviews on Dec 30th. Tarsacci Mdt-8000 Launched 12-11-2018 My Tarsacci Mdt-8000 Commentary, Pics And Videos Video Comparing Gpx, Equinox, Deus And Tarsacci Mdt-8000 Eqx 800, Tarsacci, Deus, Anfibio Multi Head To Head - 2 Targets In The Wild Tarsacci Settings Explained Tarsacci Relic Hunt Gent Using Tarsacci Mdt-8000 At Great Salt Lake In Utah The Tale Of Three T’s ___ Tarsacci , Tesoro, And Technology

Happy New Year! It has been a couple years of furious activity in a normally slow moving industry. We are in a Golden Age of detector hardware, with intense competition driving prices lower while fostering innovative new designs. Most of the action has been from manufacturers outside the U.S. - will 2019 be the year U.S. manufacturers strike back? It will be interesting but rumors are thin on the ground right now. New models appearing are niche models, like the new XP ORX, aimed at the gold prospectors. A new manufacturer has appeared, Tarsacci, with the new MDT 8000 that initially anyway seems to be aimed at beach hunters. The machine I most have my eye on is the upcoming Fisher Impulse AQ. I am satisfied with what VLF technology exists now, so all I need is a PI detector at least as powerful as a Garrett ATX in a housing weighing under 5 lbs. I sold my ATX and currently do not have a PI and am waiting on what Fisher has to show before deciding what to do about that. F75 replacement? I will believe it when I see it but the Aqua Manta is all but assured for 2019. I lobbied Garrett for years to make a LTX (Lightweight ATX) but to no avail. However, with the new AT Max just out it does make me wonder what Garrett has up their sleeve for 2019. If not a replacement for the embarrassingly long in the tooth GTI 2500 than perhaps my wished for lightweight ATX? A guy can hope but I am not holding my breath. Garrett has pushed single frequency as far as they can so their next step will be revealing. Minelab is still consolidating the Equinox rollout and a raft full of new gold machines in the last few years. They seem well set at the moment. I wish I could get a SDC 2300 in a Eureka Gold box but that is one wish I doubt will be granted. Nokta/Makro? They have long been known to be working on a PI detector so maybe the new Fisher Impulse AQ will have a competitor? It is almost 100% that Nokta/Makro will release a true multifrequency detector in 2019 so there will be that to look for. That and the soon to be released Nokta/Makro Simplex, a new low cost multipurpose detector. Tarsacci MDT 8000? I will let the beach and relic hunters sort that out. Tesoro is gone now so we can officially ignore them without feeling guilty about it. White's I will continue to hope beyond hope that a working version of the Half Sine Technology may finally appear. Fingers crossed as always, but the odds are low. One does get the sense that White's really does need to hit a home run however so the pressure is on to get it out the door. This could short circuit other developments above were it to actually happen. I’m not holding my breath however. XP just started shipping the new X35 coils and ORX model, so 2019 may be a quiet one for them. And with that, best wishes for a great 2019 to one and all!!

The jury is still out on the Tarsacci. Not hearing a lot about the results on that one. I hear rumors its a flop in highly mineralized soils. Some positive posts on the Great salt lake beaches. I 'm taking a wait and see attitude about it. Not gonna be a guinea pig on that unit. I'm curious to see how the manta performs. Seems to hold some promise, as there are some videos out.

Added Tarsacci MDT 8000

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