Comparison - Manticore vs EQX 800 vs Explorer SE Pro

[sube]

Explorer Quirk #2 - I guess while I'm on the topic of quirks and big silver, wait for it...the all metal null. How does that even happen? I'm hunting along and suddenly the machine go silent. Nothing, no threshold tone, no target tone, no overload, dead silent. I'm like what the hell? Machine looks like its running fine. I turn 90 degrees, ah rusty nail at 9 o-clock and a rusty nail at 3 o-clock about 15 inches apart. Two nails nothing else. Hmmm on further examination they are pointing at each other. I turn back 90 degrees and the weird null returns. That's damn odd I thought. I decide to dig a plug in the center between them...good lord 2 silver quarters and a silver dime dang! The poor Explorer got a brain freeze or something, with two nails both pointing at the silver spill it basically said, hey I have no idea what to do so it went silent. lol

I have seen this on the ctx where you would hit a iron signal nail and then turning 90 degrees the detector would go silent . As you say confused or what I think happened was the ferrous and non-ferrous canceled out each other thereby going silent another words it could not generate a tone for either target . Target trace would always have a cursor in the 12.25 range if it went silent thereby combining both targets as one . But the iron bin lower right corner would also show a iron target you have to remember the ctx had 2 cursors ..
I always ran no disc as much as possible other wise you missed to many targets because you just disc them out . The fe line was a disc line like I said run as high as possible 35 fe line is where you would learn the machine . If you ran the fe line lower like 28 many quirks of the machine never entered the picture . sube

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

Never experienced that with the Explorer.
Though normal thing with my Sovereign gt.
After learning the Sovereign will still see good targets while in the null. I fell in love with that machine.
I wish you were around here 15+ years ago when I bought my first computer metal detector.
The Explorer. What a pain that was to learn.
Coming from Garret's.
And here you are showing me something I never learned.
Thank You ...
Ever write a book on Explorer tips and tricks ?
I'd buy it.
Love to see your Explorer disc patterns.

I think the era of an Explorer book has come and gone.

Manticore? As a managing director of software development who's dug 10's of thousands of targets with Explorers I have a different perspective on fielding testing these machines. Soon (I retire in T minus 4 weeks) I'll be focusing my full attention on field testing the Manticore on Explorer sites I have hunted hard and dug several thousand old coins.

Among the sites are spots where I know targets are exceptionally deep. The 15" WOT coil proved it but as the Explorer plus WOT was just too heavy I just scratched the surface and returned to the stock coil. During the WOT hunts I dug quite a few deeper silver coins. When I switched back to the stock coil I never dug one that deep again. Plus...the relics...I dug a shoe toe tap on one site good grief that thing was deep. There was an Indian cent coin spill dug on that site also very deep. I guarantee there are a layer of deep coins on that site out of reach of the Explorer. It appears to be dirt hauled out of the 1600's area of town and piled onto this field which is 5 feet or so higher than the surrounding land. Oldest coins I dug there were a 1833 bust dime and a few large cents. Another site across town, there's also a deep area there. I dug WOT deep silver there, bunch of large cents. Oldest coin I know of dug there was late 1700's large cent. Then there are the rusty nail infested areas, great sites to test the Manticore's target separation. The parameter of the oldest park used to have houses built on it in the early 1800's. Now it's infested with rusty nails. Skunked there several times with the stock coil. Took the Minelab 8 inch coil into that mess and dug coin after coin. Slow going, typically 2 hours to cover a 20x20 but that area is loaded with coins. Out of town, cellar holes where again the WOT testing proved deep coins are to be found. 1700's large cents and colonials.

Then there's the beach. Already tested the Manticore on our pacific west coast beaches head to head with an Explorer. Dang the Manticore is deep and slices right through our nasty magnetic volcanic black sand. Not perfect, plenty of coin mixed with black sand tones but as mixed signals go pretty decent. East coast hunters only think they have black sand, here's it's nasty and thick. I was digging deep quarters sitting in a layer of pure black sand 6 inches thick in my scoop. Not the light salt and pepper black sand they have on the east coast. Jet black, black sand layer. So deep I did get tired of having to drag my beach scoop back out of the deep hole with two hands, that deep. Sadly the Explorer could not see through all that black sand and get any depth.

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

Not so much a quirk as a contest of how BAD a silver signal can get. Over the years as we got more experienced with Explorers hunting frequently turned into a contest of the most horrible signal dug that turned out to be a silver coin, leaving us baffled. As most Explorer users know a rusty nail ID's at the top/left corner. Right in the corner. Falsing it bounces from there way over to the far right edge of the screen, maybe 3/8 of an inch down from the top. The classic rusty nail bounce pattern, very consistent. One day I got one of these bouncing signals only...instead of ID'ing right in the upper left corner it was like 1/4 inch to the right of the top left corner. The bounce over to the right edge of the screen was also off the typical location. Anything deviating from standard Explorer behavior, dig it. Dug this thing up and it was a silver 1/2 Reale worn to about 25% of the thickness of a silver dime. I took note of that and did some test hunts with the top/left corner notched out and dug several targets that were ID'ing just to the right of rusty nails. Way the hell over in rusty nail territory. All manner of buttons got dug up.

In similar fashion, bottom left corner of the screen is typically bobby pins. But I heard from a top beach hunter he was finding very small gold over there. Not all the way in the corner but maybe 1 inch or so to the right of that corner. Kind of no mans land. Typically small gold ID's much further to the right near foil.

Learning the quirks and oddball behavior of these machines by taking the time to pay attention, investigate odd things pays off over time.

 

[Odanscoils]

I think the era of an Explorer book has come and gone.

Manticore? As a managing director of software development who's dug 10's of thousands of targets with Explorers I have a different perspective on fielding testing these machines. Soon (I retire in T minus 4 weeks) I'll be focusing my full attention on field testing the Manticore on Explorer sites I have hunted hard and dug several thousand old coins.

Among the sites are spots where I know targets are exceptionally deep. The 15" WOT coil proved it but as the Explorer plus WOT was just too heavy I just scratched the surface and returned to the stock coil. During the WOT hunts I dug quite a few deeper silver coins. When I switched back to the stock coil I never dug one that deep again. Plus...the relics...I dug a shoe toe tap on one site good grief that thing was deep. There was an Indian cent coin spill dug on that site also very deep. I guarantee there are a layer of deep coins on that site out of reach of the Explorer. It appears to be dirt hauled out of the 1600's area of town and piled onto this field which is 5 feet or so higher than the surrounding land. Oldest coins I dug there were a 1833 bust dime and a few large cents. Another site across town, there's also a deep area there. I dug WOT deep silver there, bunch of large cents. Oldest coin I know of dug there was late 1700's large cent. Then there are the rusty nail infested areas, great sites to test the Manticore's target separation. The parameter of the oldest park used to have houses built on it in the early 1800's. Now it's infested with rusty nails. Skunked there several times with the stock coil. Took the Minelab 8 inch coil into that mess and dug coin after coin. Slow going, typically 2 hours to cover a 20x20 but that area is loaded with coins. Out of town, cellar holes where again the WOT testing proved deep coins are to be found. 1700's large cents and colonials.

Then there's the beach. Already tested the Manticore on our pacific west coast beaches head to head with an Explorer. Dang the Manticore is deep and slices right through our nasty magnetic volcanic black sand. Not perfect, plenty of coin mixed with black sand tones but as mixed signals go pretty decent. East coast hunters only think they have black sand, here's it's nasty and thick. I was digging deep quarters sitting in a layer of pure black sand 6 inches thick in my scoop. Not the light salt and pepper black sand they have on the east coast. Jet black, black sand layer. So deep I did get tired of having to drag my beach scoop back out of the deep hole with two hands, that deep. Sadly the Explorer could not see through all that black sand and get any depth.

Yes the deepest dig ever was with the wild orange thing on my Explorer.
Congratulations on the retirement.
Retired almost a year now. Seems like last week.
Though most of it in bed from injuries that forced my early retirement.
I will be waiting with bells on for your tests and reviews of the Manticore.
I have so much to learn on that machine