Manticore Center Line Question...

[abenson]

Went back to the park today with some new settings after watching videos by Rattlehead and Metal Detecting NYC. My dirt is 4 bars, so most targets deeper than 6" are pretty iffy. This park also has bad EMI. When running the Manticore wide open deep targets just have so much iron grunt to them it's pretty much a crap shoot as to what you are going to dig. So today I ran with iron mask ON, (stock ferrous limits) in deep high conductor, recovery 3, sensitivity 22. In addition to that I setup a disc pattern to knock out 0-24 and 29-54. This allowed nickels and IHP and up to be detected. I also past on most targets that weren't at least 4 bars down on the depth gauge. I didn't dig one nail today, except 2 copper ones. I still had 4 signals that gave a perfect target trace and dime/penny ID I was unable to locate and gave up on them. Don't know if they were nails in the sidewall or real deep targets. But at about 9" in a public park it's time to give up.

When I got a target I spent a bunch of time switching between all targets accepted, my disc pattern and pinpoint mode. What I found was pretty enlightening. First, EMI was tamed way down with the disc pattern and it didn't appear to affect depth. Second, masking from my dirt was also reduced. Finally, I was amazed at how much iron masking there is running the Manticore wide open. There were a few targets that were completely masked by iron running the screen wide open. But engage the disc pattern and I could clearly tell there was a target and was able to pinpoint it's location. Most of what I dug was clad at about 6" deep, including 6 nickels. But I did manage a few 7-8 deep coins, 2 of which turned out to be an 188? IHP and a 1912 wheat back. When I opened up the screen those deep targets sounded so bad I would have never dug them.

So my conclusion is the Manticore likes to be run the same way I did my Explorer and eTrac, with iron mask and disc patterns. Anyway park hunting today with the Manticore was way less frustrating than the past few hunts I've done.

[bamajoe]

Next time out, I'm going to run a combination of discrimination and ferrous limits with low to medium sensitivity. Also, "NORMAL" audio theme.With "NORMAL" audio,you can use 5 tones.In 5 tones you can adjust bin volume and pitch, so that when you open the screen by pressing the horseshoe, you don't hear or can limit the audio fatigue.  Whatever allows me to here best the deep targets. Then dig targets that cross the center line.It may be mid week but I will report back on my results.

[phrunt]

I've been digging good coins off the center line, silver coins and NZ $1 and $2 coins at depth are coming just above the center line quite often, doing a nice blob but not necessarily on the center line, the shallower easier coins are generally always on the center line. 

[strick]

9 hours ago, abenson said:

 First, EMI was tamed way down with the disc pattern and it didn't appear to affect depth. Second, masking from my dirt was also reduced. Finally, I was amazed at how much iron masking there is running the Manticore wide open. There were a few targets that were completely masked by iron running the screen wide open. But engage the disc pattern and I could clearly tell there was a target and was able to pinpoint it's location

I toggle back and forth from disk to wide open constantly while hunting and can confirm that depth does not seem to be effected much while in disk. With the CTX there was a loss of depth while running in disk. 

To the OP how much off the centerline are are you talking? just barely then yes some good targets will be just a hair off of the centerline but not much in my experience. Also target smearing is quite common when there is iron in very close proximity to a good target but usually the smear will be still touching the centerline. This I demonstrated early on and I believe is in the manual as well? I have dug nothing yet that I can remember that was a good target way off of the centerline.  

strick 

[GB_Amateur]

14 hours ago, abenson said:

Went back to the park today....

Quite an eye-opening report for me (I'm only quoting the first line but the full post is loaded).  I must remind myself to keep an open mind once I get mine, trying things I never liked with other detectors.

14 hours ago, abenson said:

My dirt is 4 bars,...

I have to put in at least one of my usual nitpicky questions 🙄:  I assume you are referring to a particular detector here, but not the Manticore (which doesn't have a mineralization meter AFAIK).  So,... which one?  Thanks.

[abenson]

1 minute ago, GB_Amateur said:

Quite an eye-opening report for me (I'm only quoting the first line but the full post is loaded).  I must remind myself to keep an open mind once I get mine, trying things I never liked with other detectors.

I have to put in at least one of my usual nitpicky questions 🙄:  I assume you are referring to a particular detector here, but not the Manticore (which doesn't have a mineralization meter AFAIK).  So,... which one?  Thanks.

Yea I've been trying to run it like the Equinox in parks, when really it needs to run more like an Explorer or eTrac. Took a couple other peoples videos to open my closed mind up.

Sorry I just assume most people know the reference is to the T2 or F75 mineral scale. It goes from 0-no minerals to 6 extreme mineralization.

[Jeff McClendon]

I really appreciate all of these tips and tricks for running the Manticore in iron mineralization above moderate by all of you Manticore owners like Strick, Daniel TN, bamajoe and abenson. It confirms what I had previously suspected after owning an Explorer and CTX 3030. They are not the best choice for where I detect in 4 to 6 bar F75/Tek G2+ dirt. Looks like I will be skipping the Manticore experience unless I move out of this area.

[GB_Amateur]

24 minutes ago, abenson said:

...The reference is to the T2 or F75 mineral scale. It goes from 0-no minerals to 6 extreme mineralization.

KInda figured that, but wanted to make sure.  Here is what my F75 (downloaded) manual says:

[abenson]

18 minutes ago, Jeff McClendon said:

I really appreciate all of these tips and tricks for running the Manticore in iron mineralization above moderate by all of you Manticore owners like Strick, Daniel TN, bamajoe and abenson. It confirms what I had previously suspected after owning an Explorer and CTX 3030. They are not the best choice for where I detect in 4 to 6 bar F75/Tek G2+ dirt. Looks like I will be skipping the Manticore experience unless I move out of this area.

Jeff I'm actually starting to like the Manticore in my dirt. It's heads above the Explorer/eTarc as far as performance goes in bad ground because of it's faster processing. I was simply saying that it does better when you run disc patterns and iron mask like you would on a Explorer/eTarc. The 188? IHP I dug yesterday was a solid 8" deep and I never dig coins that deep in my parks. And the signal was clean with very little up-averaging. 6" is the standard depth you could count on getting a decent signal on. 7" dimes and pennies have always gone to high numbers on the Equinox with an occasional accurate number flashing, but it was always a crap shoot. It's probably going to be different for every type of soil. But I think there is enough adjustment options on the Manticore that you can make it perform with decent results.

Once my reiic sites open up, that will be the tell all for me. Still not sure how it's going to handle iron polluted sites.

[steveg]

abenson --

I am trying to follow your post, which is very interesting, but it's missing a couple of details I'd like to hear.

SO -- forget about your disc pattern for now, I just want to focus on your "iron mask" (i.e. taking the machine out of all-metal mode, and allowing the "factory" ferrous limits settings to be your "iron disc" or "iron mask").  IN OTHER WORDS, no iron audio at all, correct?

SO, when you say non-ferrous targets "masked by iron" in open screen, suddenly become "non-ferrous tones" when you turn "iron mask" on, are you saying that if you sweep one of these targets in question with open screen, you hear ONLY iron grunts, and NOTHING MORE, but then you turn your "iron mask" on, which eliminates the iron grunts, and NOW you are hearing a good, diggable high tone?  It went from PURE iron grunts to PURE high tone, by switching from "all-metal" to "iron mask on?"

Steve