3 Minelab Manticore Tips
1/ Where you are having trouble stabilizing the unit—go to one of the modes that has a lower frequency weighting. (A/T High Conductors, A/T Trash Reject, Beach General). These are more stable. They also work well at bringing up targets in heavy soils or dense sand. Higher weighted modes are more volatile and noisy. The Manticore has the advantage of providing good detection of all types of targets on any of the available frequency weightings. These low frequency weightings also act as a kind of a low-level discriminate control in that those targets which are mixed with the ground’s signal (tin, steel, very light foils, anything corroded) are pushed down to not sound off as well.
2/ Beach Deep and Beach Low Conductors are both very deep search modes but lack stability around the water’s edge. To get used to how the Manticore responds to salt water moving over the coil—try using one of these modes and bring the coil into the water. Notice how the signal tone mutes slightly. This means that the machine is losing depth. So when you are setting the machine up around salt water listen for this muting effect—its a cue to lower your Sensitivity or try a faster Recovery Speed. In that these two modes are very deep it’s worth experimenting to find ways to run them at the water’s edge or even in a light salt environment.
3/ Where you are having problems running higher Sensitivity settings around salt water you also have the option of adding a small amount of rejection (one or two increments). This forces the signal to “assign” on one side of this reject block or the other—making for more stable audio. At the same time this “1-2” zone is where thin chains respond. It’s a tradeoff—depending on how important it is to you to run higher Sensitivity at that location. A good “all purpose” Sensitivity setting for salt is “22” although by muting the signal a bit with more Ferrous Limits “bordering” it’s possible to settle the audio down and run the Manticore higher.
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