Hunting High Conductors In Tough Dirt...don't Be Hesitant To Try All-terrain Low Conductors Mode...

[steveg]

Hey all.

Just a brief post here (at least, brief by my standards, LOL) to share something quick that I've learned so far...

I primarily hunt DEEP old coins, and I generally hunt areas in central Oklahoma, where irony-red clay prevails.  This dirt is problematic, for many machines...so that's some background, for context.

SO FAR, in my dirt, I've found that running the Manticore in All-Terrain High Conductors is very difficult, when nails and such abound.  The high-tone falsing is very problematic.  It's NOT that I can't figure out what is a false, and what might be a "real" high-conductive non-ferrous target.  BUT -- it DOES require me to stop, and spend a couple of seconds "interrogating" the target, to confirm that it's a likely a "false."  And so, the issue is, in areas with abundant iron objects in the ground, I am stopping CONSTANTLY to confirm each one of those high tones...and thus, I'm not able to cover ground, being instead "detained" by the abundant high tones I'm hearing. 

Finally, during my last hunt, being barraged by high-tone falses, I cried "uncle," and switched to All-Terrain Low Conductors and...what a NIGHT AND DAY difference.  I was literally SHOCKED, within about 5 seconds of switching modes.  The high-tone falsing was cut IMMEDIATELY by 90 to 95%...

The other benefit, was that I was having to lower sensitivity lower than I wanted to, when in ATHC, trying to combat the high-tone iron falsing.  While the EMI conditions would have allowed higher sensitivity settings, I had lowered to 21/22, trying to "calm down" the falsing, but with very little success.  Obviously, I could have gone even lower, and maybe, eventually, found a setting that would reduce some of the falsing noise, BUT, given that I was targeting very deep coins, in a heavily hunted park, I felt that I would have been sabotaging my efforts to lower it much further.  BUT -- after switching to ATLC, and re-ground-balancing and a new "long-press" noise cancel, I was able to move my sensitivity up substantially.  I ended up running it at 27 to 28 the remainder of the day, that being the level that was just below where EMI would have become audible...just on the "edge," so to speak.

So, I just wanted to toss that out there, for anyone finding that the machine, in their dirt, is especially "falsy" on nails/iron.  I will try All-Terrain General, as well, in subsequent hunts, but for now, I'm going to stick with ATLC, as it is an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT MACHINE for me, in my dirt, changing to this mode.

Steve

[Rattlehead]

Thanks for the info, Steve. I saw similar results with ATG vs ATHC. Sounds like ATLC may be even better. I'll give it a try. It actually sounds very reasonable, since running Fast on the D2 also allows higher sensitivity than Deep HC while remaining stable, and works great for coin shooting.

To me, the ID seemed a little less stable when running ATG vs ATHC. Did you notice the same when running ATLC?

[Hunterjunk]

interesting !  I spent Tuesday battling some very tough ground in ATHC mode using various sens levels . Late in the day I  gave ATTR a go with a much improved result .  Machine was much quieter to the point I was worried that I was missing targets . Two late pennies reassured me that if a decent target was there I was going to hear it .  Going back to the same site Monday and will try your ATLC suggestion , thanks .

[steveg]

Rattlehead,

Very hard to say, as I don't have enough hours on the machine to get a feel for how accurate the IDs SHOULD be...

Interesting that you say that though...I dug a roughly 6" deep Roosevelt silver dime, and the ID was bouncing between 60s and 90s...and I assumed it must have been on edge, due to the way it ID'd.  But, maybe it was partly due to the ATLC...

Hunterjunk,

I hear you!  That's how I felt!  The machine got so quiet when I switched out of ATHC, that I started thinking something was wrong!  🙂

I'm going to try All-Terrain General, soon...but might stick with ATLC for a bit...though I think Rattlehead may be right, now that I think more about it.  I think VDI will suffer, in low conductor mode...

Steve

[JCR]

Does anyone else think there may be some difference in the TX power on ATHC vs the other modes?

[Shelton]

I have exactly the same, I tried with FAST and DEEP audio first in a very heavy iron place. I was switched to LC and switched audio to Enhanced, 1 tone, and Simple modulation! And the place starts to produce targets again!

[steveg]

JCR -- it kind of SEEMS that way...but not sure...and I doubt we'll ever know.

Shelton -- to clarify, you started out in HC, and then switched to LC and changed a few other settings, and as a result, you were able to have better success?

Steve

[JCR]

Higher TX output could cause the falsing & instability some are reporting. A lower weighted frequency mix should not. And yes, we may never know per MInelab.

[PUHH]

Manticore have 3 multi signal :

 

1. AT General, Fast, Low, Trash and Gold

2. AT High - more low frequency?! = more noisy? 

3. Beach (same like Equinox beach)  - less power, and less high frequency

[phrunt]

Well you can certainly see the "more power to the coil" in the amplitude in his videos in all but beach modes with the Manticore, vastly different to the Nox, not surprisingly the Nox 900 is the same as the 800.