So The Beach Hunts Start Again

[schoolofhardNox]

Beach hunt # 31 was an all-day hunt with the Manticore. I need more time on the Manticore, so I took it back to the fields that surround one of the beaches I do. After about 6 ½ hours of doing the fields, I was close enough to the beach to see that there was a section that looked like it had some big waves scramble it around a bit. So, for the last 2 hours I did that section. The fields I did will definitely give you some experience hearing targets close together. I used 5 tones for this as I am not too interested in hearing every variation in the tones like all tones would give you. I’m basically hunting for silver, but any high tone will do. I did manage 3 silvers there, each one being fairly deep and having a slightly different difficulty factor in hearing it. One had a soft but solid response, while the other two were harder to hear, but repeated enough to pass the “I’m not iron” (hopefully) 😄 test. I’m definitely better at ID’ing deep iron on grass vs the beach. So, 3 silvers dimes from the grass and also the usual bunch of clad and copper cents, that the other guys ignored. After being tired of hearing all the pull tab low tones, I ventured out on the beach. I quickly noticed that the purple/black sand was all over the place. That’s usually a good sign since I usually get some rather shallow coin signals there. But as usual for me and the Manticore, it struggled with that sand. So, I figured the Goldfield mode was my best chance. I lowered the sensitivity but found that I could use up to 19 as a sensitivity setting. I ran recovery speed at I think 6 or 7. It chirped a bit but handled the sand quite well. A couple of junk targets and then a nice small silver knot ring. More clad as well. I’m just happy that I could hunt that sand and I’ll try to tweak the machine a little more the next time I’m in that situation. Nothing spectacular showed up but I’m grateful for the 4 silvers I found.

[Rick N. MI]

You do have a lot of stuff where you hunt. Nice silver. The Manticore did a good job.

[CPT_GhostLight]

Dang, SohN, looking at the trash page, I thought you were using the GPX! 😉 Nice haul and congrats on the silvers. It looks like you're getting Mandy dialed in nicely. Well done!

 

[schoolofhardNox]

13 minutes ago, CPT_GhostLight said:

Dang, SohN, looking at the trash page, I thought you were using the GPX! 😉 Nice haul and congrats on the silvers. It looks like you're getting Mandy dialed in nicely. Well done!

 

😄 Yep, it looks like GPX material. Almost all of the iron and all the aluminum foil was found on the beach. Only a couple of pieces of iron were from the field hunt. Almost all of the aluminum cans were from the fields though. The short beach hunt had targets very close together. You didn't have to swing far to get the next target and most were within 4".

[TampaBayBrad]

8 hours ago, schoolofhardNox said:

😄 Almost all of the aluminum cans were from the fields though. The short beach hunt had targets very close together. You didn't have to swing far to get the next target and most were within 4".

Man, that's a lot of digging. I'm not sure I'm in shape enough to do 8.5 hours anymore.

Sounds like the beach area was more productive, but I know you wanted to learn the machine in the fields.

I'm glad we don't have that hot sand to deal with here in Florida. Great hunting....

[GB_Amateur]

On 4/1/2023 at 5:12 PM, schoolofhardNox said:

Beach hunt # 31 was an all-day hunt with the Manticore. I need more time on the Manticore,

So could just about everyone with access to one.

On 4/1/2023 at 5:12 PM, schoolofhardNox said:

I quickly noticed that the purple/black sand was all over the place. That’s usually a good sign since I usually get some rather shallow coin signals there. But as usual for me and the Manticore, it struggled with that sand. So, I figured the Goldfield mode was my best chance. I lowered the sensitivity but found that I could use up to 19 as a sensitivity setting. I ran recovery speed at I think 6 or 7. It chirped a bit but handled the sand quite well.

Good to hear that, and it shows that with so many combined settings options (way more than the Equinox, for example) that your earlier statement is correct.  I recall previously that you had not yet found a combo of settings that allowed you to detect in those difficult ferrous conditions.

I was thinking similarly to GPT_G regarding your trash collection.  I also note that two of your three silver coins from the grass/turf show signs of salt damage.  So (probably not surprising to those of who live near the ocean) you were hunting in some intermediate zone between true dry-land turf and true beach conditions.  At least that's this land-lubber's viewpoint.  😁  Thanks for your typical thorough report.

[rvpopeye]

Just looking at your hunt finds posts wears me out !🤔

Keep posting though , I can use the exercise and the workouts are building up my scrolling finger. 🥸 

 

But seriously , It's hard to tell the difference between your Manti-hunt and a GPX one.  It seems you have the new box figured out pretty good.  👍 

 

 

 

[F350Platinum]

Gotta say this one freaks me out a bit, was it an exercise in assimilation (digging everything to understand the detectors' discrimination capability), or habit, because with your PI you usually dig it all? 🤔 I like the black sand advantage using gold mode. This feels like a noob question but I thought I'd go for it anyway 🤣

Interesting hunt as usual, definitely more like one would expect from a PI than the new SMF machines. 😀 I'm glad you always show the "real deal". 👍

 

[strick]

I think what he was doing was digging real deep stuff on purpose. I'd be willing to bet that most of the trash/iron was well beyond the discrimination capabilities of most vlf's and just gave a iron false type signal. Beach guys will often dig everything in hopes of deep gold or silver turning into  real signal as they get closer to it. Being the good samaritan that Hardnox is he figured out what he had once he got close enough to it but instead of just leaving the in the ground he removed from the beach. Just speculating lol. I'll be in Pismo in less then 10 days and the Manti will be first at bat but if the targets are sparse then out comes the TDI pro with clean sweep coil 🙂 

strick 

[schoolofhardNox]

On 4/2/2023 at 5:30 AM, TampaBayBrad said:

Man, that's a lot of digging. I'm not sure I'm in shape enough to do 8.5 hours anymore.

Sounds like the beach area was more productive, but I know you wanted to learn the machine in the fields.

I'm glad we don't have that hot sand to deal with here in Florida. Great hunting....

You'll get used to digging a lot after a while 😄 The fields have more non ferrous targets and better chance for silver. The beach gets hit a lot and only small areas open up every once in a while, like the one I did at the end of the day.  You guys have tame sand but that means everyone has good depth from their machines, so you have to get deep to get the gold.

On 4/3/2023 at 11:46 AM, GB_Amateur said:

So could just about everyone with access to one.

Good to hear that, and it shows that with so many combined settings options (way more than the Equinox, for example) that your earlier statement is correct.  I recall previously that you had not yet found a combo of settings that allowed you to detect in those difficult ferrous conditions.

I was thinking similarly to GPT_G regarding your trash collection.  I also note that two of your three silver coins from the grass/turf show signs of salt damage.  So (probably not surprising to those of who live near the ocean) you were hunting in some intermediate zone between true dry-land turf and true beach conditions.  At least that's this land-lubber's viewpoint.  😁  Thanks for your typical thorough report.

Yeah, I wish Minelab would just release a lot of machines rather than trickle them out. Many other people have way more time than I do to hunt, so they could learn the Manticore a lot better and faster than me. Most of the fields have nice, dark dirt, except as you get closer to the beach. The banks don't protect the fields during Nor'easter storms, so there is always some mix of dirt and salt/sand. There you will get the usual effects of tarnishing the silver.

On 4/3/2023 at 11:37 PM, rvpopeye said:

Just looking at your hunt finds posts wears me out !🤔

Keep posting though , I can use the exercise and the workouts are building up my scrolling finger. 🥸 

 

But seriously , It's hard to tell the difference between your Manti-hunt and a GPX one.  It seems you have the new box figured out pretty good.  👍 

 

 

 

Yeah, the beach produced a lot of iron that reads funny with the black sand. There were times the discriminator was not convincing that I was digging a non ferrous target. So I dug almost everything. Some non ferrous did read iron. It's going to take me a while to get what I want from it on a beach. I'm fairly sure it's doable, I just have to figure out how. On land it's a lot easier to get comfortable with it.

On 4/4/2023 at 6:26 AM, F350Platinum said:

Gotta say this one freaks me out a bit, was it an exercise in assimilation (digging everything to understand the detectors' discrimination capability), or habit, because with your PI you usually dig it all? 🤔 I like the black sand advantage using gold mode. This feels like a noob question but I thought I'd go for it anyway 🤣

Interesting hunt as usual, definitely more like one would expect from a PI than the new SMF machines. 😀 I'm glad you always show the "real deal". 👍

 

I always dig more in tricky situations. The black sand smeared the discriminator sometimes making some iron sound good and some non iron sound bad. I should go by tone more and leave the 2D screen alone during those situations. On normal sand, the 2D discrimination works really well when combined with pinpoint, 90 degree turn, double beep, and quality and tone of the target. I think I would have passed on more targets had it not been for that 925 knot ring. They always get you to dig more when they throw you a bone  😄

On 4/4/2023 at 9:32 AM, strick said:

I think what he was doing was digging real deep stuff on purpose. I'd be willing to bet that most of the trash/iron was well beyond the discrimination capabilities of most vlf's and just gave a iron false type signal. Beach guys will often dig everything in hopes of deep gold or silver turning into  real signal as they get closer to it. Being the good samaritan that Hardnox is he figured out what he had once he got close enough to it but instead of just leaving the in the ground he removed from the beach. Just speculating lol. I'll be in Pismo in less then 10 days and the Manti will be first at bat but if the targets are sparse then out comes the TDI pro with clean sweep coil 🙂 

strick 

I do dig a lot to double check that I am not blindly assuming the discrimination works evenly, everywhere I go. In tough ground, I dig more.  I rarely ever leave a target in the ground once I start digging. On large, unmovable targets, I have to leave them only to dig them up again and again on different hunts 😄 Good luck when your Manticore comes in. I think you will like it a lot. It hits hard on solid targets like coins and rings. But it hits little crap too.🙄