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Exaggeratedly tired but nevertheless satisfied after last week with Manticore. These pieces popped up in a couple of spots where I have been previously and even with the right conditions they still seemed to be somewhere waiting to be flushed out. I am beginning to get a feel for the capabilities of this instrument.... Have a great weekend to all of you!

Just got back from Myrtle Beach, stayed at a nice campground with about a mile of beach in front of it, with some hotels and condos along the rest. Every day I was out there at about 7am, the first few days there was nobody but me detecting. Some days I went out in the afternoon as well for low tide. The Camping Gods were with us, it did not rain at all! I was using my Deus 2 with the 13" mostly, I took a spin with the WS6 Master and my other D2 and the 9" coil with antenna, but found the 9" didn't really hit as deep as necessary for many of the finds. There is about a foot of new sand on this beach from 2 years ago, I knew that because it gets hit pretty hard that a lot of my finds would be deep. My third target was a sight find, just before I swept over it and got a 94. 😎 A .925 engagement ring with 50 moissannites, and an aquamarine. First day, my wife was thrilled. 🥳 I say moissanite because the small chips test as real diamonds with my tester. Next big find was this nice Tungsten Meteorite ring, about 6" or more deep. It fit me. I was hitting most of the coins at a foot or so, you can tell by how they look that they were there a long time. A couple of days they ran a grooming machine over the beach, and one evening a couple detectorists showed up and grid searched the whole thing, one in the wet and one in the dry. 😵 Only saving grace was that they were both swinging their detectors 6" to a foot above the sand. 🤣 The next day I searched the golf cart parking lots instead to up my clad count 😎 I have RCDIGS mounts for all my stuff now, the V3 version for the WS6 Master, and the improved stainless bolts versions for my RCs. With my beach program, the mounts, and @steveg's excellent gear, it's turn on and go without a worry of losing anything. Thanks Ryan! 👍 I'm proud to say I helped a bit in the designs, and am grateful to both for letting me offer suggestions. This beach is not the most productive place I've ever been to, the dry sand is not mineralized at all, but the wet and wash are often near the top on the mineralization bar. There is black sand that you can hear. This may be the reason I didn't get any gold even at low tide despite the D2 hitting coins at a foot or more. It's a pretty clean place, but there are pull tabs and bottle caps, I didn't dig any caps but I dug lots of pull tabs and foil. Here is the non-ring haul: 108 coins, some dog tags, some earring bits and a pretty cool medallion: The center may be gold, and the back says "PW SUN '75", hand engraved. My last hunt before I left gave me my "Thank you for looking" find, this tiny ring with 3 stones I dug in one of the exits. It's not gold and probably cheap, but my wife took that too. 🤣

After the second week, I'm still a newbie with this machine, but apparently, applying the basic good principles the results are yet on another level. There's a place where I hate to dive, due to terrible shaped rocks that can destroy elbows and knees if a minimum wave push me against it when I'm in between and searching. The fact is that those traps helps to keep the stuff really good. This stretch of a private beach it is made of solid rocks more than moving boulders and with some erosion affecting the spot, it means really few brave people able to swim and as a direct consequence, nothing to search after the summer... But, I tried again today after being there months ago with every detector I have in my shed and surprise surprise 🫢... I named trust building this post cause the two gold pieces I pulled up downthere are a clear evidence of a better time management during the session. This morning I tuned the Manticore to be scary quiet and just stopped the few times a pure "non iron" signal it was requiring attention. The number of people that searched in this spot since always, left so few targets to listen that most of Us never even talk about or try to go again...It just don't worth the effort... Well, the picture proves different🫢. I'm not overjoying and I recognize the small M8 advantage between tight crevices, but after the 6" and the Ctx... Here's the moment when I can say goodbye to my old trusted sniper rifle.... I never tought this could happen one day...

The young lady below lost her favorite sterling silver ring on a sports field playing lacrosse a couple days ago. Once she demonstrated approximately where she was on the field and where/how she was throwing the ball when the ring popped off, it look less than a minute to find it. Right on the surface under the unmowed grass, and multi-repeat 42/43 on the Legend. It took longer to power on and set up the machine than it did to find the ring!

Last monday I finally started the test phase with the Manticore and the M8 underwater. After a minimum of settings adaptation, I recovered three small and light pieces for a total amount of almost 6 grams in total. Tuesday underwater again and Wednesday wetsand workout, nothing to register...Until today on the wetsand...I was again with the M11 and after the usual coins and an unexpected sinker on the slope, minutes after a solid 17 screaming to dig it. It was a 4.45g 18k piece. What else can I say...Jeez...If there's something left, this is the most similar tool to a vacuum cleaner 😅

Being far from the seabed for over a week and forced to appreciate the wetsand work, I honestly loved the things I found in these days and kept a good pre-view of the lower eroded slope meanwhile hunting the upper side. After one small ring and a necklace last monday and another ring with a diamond yesterday, it was clear that a precise point remained unhunted or at least not so well explored by others. Doing the maths I checked a time window of three hours this morning to go underwater exactly in the same point and facing the hotpoint where I pulled up the good stuff on the shore. As soon as I was facing the bottom, I realized the suspected conditions I had when water was too murky to see it for good among waves. I've seen this s##t too many times in two decades so thinking about heavy scattered iron, slippery clay and boulders with almost no sand at all to cover the surface, I opened totally the screen and started listening everything to remove the masking stuff... Due to the deep flat slope, the only places where to keep the eyes and ears open were the holes filled with moved rocks... Ten minutes and the first wedding band it was in my hands. Already happy but conscious that nothing more than luck caused so soon the first hit, other two hours passed until the second hit with a terrible silence in between... So the second wedding band, this time white gold with a little ice it's been recovered and warmed the heart and the wetsuit. As usual my camera it was left home and all that remains is this picture😂

I took up a ritual as a pure pastime, devoting a few hours to the shoreline. Some time ago I found with great wonder, a small ring in a really forgotten stretch of a beach, where I could barely find iron and a few coins. This morning, it being stormy and so for the rest of the week, I returned a little further than the spot where I was successful. The only promising area with obvious erosion was about 10 square meters. A very strong concentration of clay and black sand was making Ctx sick, so I immediately opened the pattern and changed separation, given the incredible masking I could hear. What happened next, in a dozen coins, is nothing short of a miracle for me. For the first time I found myself looking for a pendant that might belong to the necklace instead of the other way around, and the little ring had opened a sliver of hope amidst very obvious signals, but mixed with really too much iron. I think the necklace gave a minimal signal because of the knot along the links by the way. Nothing else to record for today, but what a day guys!

If you keep a diver out of the water for more than a week, it goes bad like fish. Not to rot during this lousy time of zero visibility and bad waves, I went back to the little miracle spot on wetsand today. Although I had returned yesterday with a 6", no signal was in range and quite disappointed and tired I returned home after two hours. Instead, this morning I was with the 11" retracing the same steps. After more than 4 hours with my arm wrecked and all too much aluminum dug out, as I was leaving the beach I was swinging the detector just enough not to keep it off and really stumbled upon an unmistakable signal. I titled the previous post "seriously?"...Well this must be the second act. After 20 years, I continue to experience the wonder of certain days. The spark of gold can make you forget even that you are broken.

After the last three days of waiting, with little pronounced swell but enough to make the surf area impassable, this morning I tried to hang on despite the water still being choppy and the visibility really bad. Once again, a pattern with really tight high and low iron limits selected the few signals worthy of digging. I must say that while limiting the sensitivity, I am afraid it is the only efficient way for me to make an effective session in certain conditions. As usual the cam's battery died before the glory shine and however, just sand suspension and fast water it's been the subject for 99% of the dive session.

I recently had some doubts about the effectiveness of my sessions and made a radical change in instrumentation. Although I had been adopting the Deus 2 on the bottom for a year continuously now, I first overdid it by dusting the immortal Excalibur and later dusting the Ctx3030... Last week the numbers suddenly spiked and I reluctantly decided to sell the Deus 2. As I write, the new owner of the remote is getting ready to go out for the first time to the beach with my former detector. What happened this morning, however, marks a historic date for me. I am a diver, I practice the shoreline very little, and in my area, given the minimal tidal variation, practically after the first autumn storms the equipment is all in the water... Well, after years, I pulled up a ring in one of the worst spots where nothing but aluminum, iron and rarely any coins turn up. I hate to repeat it, but the time saved by avoiding digging out any possible sign made all the difference. Little does the bit of gold matter; getting to dig it up matters to me. I have no words 🏴‍☠️

I'm posting this in Coins and Relics because all the pieces of jewelry are relics. 😎 This isn't a beach hunt, I've done much worse there 😅 What seemed to be a "let's check this place out a little more and go somewhere else" hunt turned out to be a whole day in this little field, I invited Chase down for the day because it was going to be warm and I thought it might be worth the trip for him. It's a small field, only a few acres, totally nondescript. I got there a bit before Chase, walked back and forth along this part of the field, there is another huge farm next door. We think there was a house here, but nothing exists on any Topographic maps. By the end of the day we were sure of it. First find was what may be a gold plated metal ring, no marks inside. Might have been a replacement or bargain wedding band: It only weighs 2.6 grams, but it does ring when dropped. A 91 on the Deus 2. I'll probably take it to my jeweler who has an XRF gun to make sure, because it does weigh more than a similar size 14k band. Next find was a 1944 war nickel: Chase arrived , we walked all over and found some wheats and lots of junk. The place is stupid with crap, aluminum, bits of old brass and tons of iron everywhere. I was running Tekkna, and it did well for me. We didn't find much more for quite a while, we were thinking of leaving, and then I found this mangled silver spoon: Almost 16 grams of coin silver. I then found this trunk plate, a Civil War era plate from a Washington DC trunk maker used until 1880. I joked that I just found the jewelry box plate... 🙄 Who knew I would sorta be right... Chase went off to check out the back of the field, he had been on top of a hill finding nothing but large pieces of aluminum and concertina reeds, and I walked back from where I found the spoon, and got one of my best finds of the day: This massive 8.4g Sterling ring with probably a glass stone, it's purple and seems shattered. I motioned for Chase to come over to this spot, and we just kept finding jewelry. He will probably add his finds later, it was an insane day. 🤪 Very difficult to find stuff in all that iron and trash, we both were using D2s with the 9", anything bigger wouldn't have done as well. Next I dug this Sterling pin: It was taco'ed but I got it straight. Here's the trash, lots of large brass, lead and aluminum. I didn't get much iron at all, Tekkna is great for this kind of challenge. Here's the total haul, the best is yet to come: Obviously finding a really old ring is a thrill but nothing could have prepared me for the last big find: Apparently this is quite rare, researching it only found one other like it. It's a 1904 Republican National Committee badge for the Chicago Convention, where Theodore Roosevelt was selected. The Chairman had this 14k version made for him, but sadly passed away before the Convention: His was 60 some odd grams, my piece is 35: It may at least be plated. It's unbelievable it held up this good for 120 years. 🤔 I haven't had as productive a hunt as this in quite a while, we hope to go back and find more. It's very difficult going.

Here are the finds from 3-4 hunts over the last week or so. They are certainly not like anything Mr. and Mrs. TTT have been finding but I can only show what I find. It has been quite a long time since I found a watch and this one was bouncing around in the waves. There is really not too much good stuff but there is one 14K/1.6g earring and one .925/2.4g ring. It is just time to show I've been out, good or bad. Here is the hunt from today. It is an old ring that didn't clean very good. We think it is a crystal in there and certainly not a diamond.

After some time, we all have a spot that unlike others, we know like the back of our hand, that spot where more than others we had satisfaction and even lessons. It is the spot closest to home, the one you reach with little effort and know with your eyes closed. Well, two days ago I met a diver friend in town struggling with his hooka and having to take advantage of the few days of 0 energy for the last sessions of the year, yesterday I brought a cylinder with me so I could give him air and a few hours on the bottom. The wonder? Entering the water together in the home spot and in the slime that makes the water murky discovering that some god has ripped out tons of sand without anyone noticing yet. I start breathing at an accelerated pace, but I don't care because there is a compressor on the surface and for the next 4 hours I won't dare move away from the pit. I discover with little surprise that the holiday season has already brought the need for another 2kg of ballast to stay down on the bottom.... I can hardly believe it at moments, and although I have moved hundreds of boulders and searched meter by meter in over 15 years at this place, for the umpteenth time Mother Nature surprises me with a new combination of red clay, fine crushed stone, black sand, then orange, shells of all kinds, and large boulders on top of the cake with seaweed topping deposited between the cracks... The scenery tells of a bad current that has dug down to the mother layer as never before, in addition to old waves of a power rare in these parts. But the seaweed reminds me of the late recognition of the closing party. I start with the smile of a child at Christmas and listen confidently for the presence of iron, then silver, coarse aluminum, and dig up nothing but distinct mids... Bang, a reddish snake at least 20 years old appears.... I am sure I am in the oldest section, the most ravaged by dozens of other hunters, and I am struck with nostalgia. I may have seen 20 more of the same shape, but I haven't dug any in forever.... At that point, already happy to have caught a piece just where I least expected it, I insist and move a good 100 meters away catching sight of another really huge pit. It's been almost three hours and I'm starting to stand on the bottom almost belly down.The wetsuit has soaked through to the cells closest to the skin and the temperature has dropped considerably. You can tell by the loss of interest and control that you are about to get hypothermia.... Just before the headache, determined to resurface and already blessed with gold in my glove, another indisputable signal in the 40s stops me.... Bang again... Thin, barely bigger than my little finger and as beautiful as ever, comes a second ring from another time.... There is no way to explain, on balance I don't get to 4 grams total, but the place, the history and memories I have among these rocks, are back together after too long. I leave the beach struggling to get out among dozens of meters of seaweed, dirty and breaded like a schnitzel...I turn around and say, "You got me again..."

This time, with the newly arrived hooka compressor, I went exploring for another bit of coastline. At first glance, there was little to be done, given the imense amount of new sand underfoot and that horrible feeling of tender ground. At that point I adopted for the only decent opening, just a few meters wide and...Again a surprise✨ https://www.instagram.com/reel/C01lqe-qYcc/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

After the usual three days of weather observation and skipping scouting to confirm bottom conditions, this morning a window of about 3 hours presented itself before new wave energy made the spot where I thought I was done in October impassable... The few remaining signals, are items I have not picked up due to the lack of a net bag, but whenever I find myself on a target I know, I am able at that point to isolate areas where I have already passed in other previous sessions. That said, the day started badly with leaks at the 'air regulator and missing pressure in the tank. I manage to hold the bottom for just 45 minutes and am forced out on emergency for low air. I reach the car by traveling about 400meters with the harness and ballast on and change the cylinder. At that point I screw the first stage back on and open the 'air tap on the new cylinder and hear the unmistakable venting between the tap and the first stage. I unscrew again and notice that the O-ring has blown out. I find it intact on the ground and reassemble correctly. After all the time wasted, I wonder at that point if I should leave the beach, since no interesting targets have come to light and I think I finished already in this spot some time ago. I decide to persevere and although I don't feel like walking with all that weight, I return to shore and dive. A strong current pushed me to the side just before I went out to change my tank, and this time I follow it, letting it carry me slowly toward deeper water. At that point a signal among the 40 draws my attention and a moment later I find this unusual ring in my hands.... Lesson of the day? Insistence can pay off even when it seems over....