Minelab Manticore “Degraded” Responses
Learning a new machine is probably easier if you start with your “ideal” signal and work backwards from there. This way when you have something that is a poor response but has some of the elements of a good one—you are more likely to notice. Part of the skill of recognizing good targets mixed in with iron (or upended) involves just that—looking for parts of what a good signal presents. The more of these that are present, the better the chance that you have a masked good target. You could call this the method of “necessary but not sufficient.” So for example seeing a “92” flickering up on the screen is a good start but if it does not repeat over one exact spot on the ground, that’s not so good. It’s kind of like a ”point system” where everything you have in terms of target testing will come into play: coil control target testing, meter skills, all metal testing (Pinpoint mode)–all can give you that critical bit of information to help in your dig decision. The term “degraded” responses comes from skilled CTX 3030 hunters who learned to look for signals that were lower than ideal but still consistent in other ways. A few Minelab Manticore dense iron tips:
-peaked response in both modes, ideally. It’s always Pinpoint that’s the most telling no matter how much iron there is.
-climbing meter enhanced by a tight, narrow, controlled “IDing” pass.
–even a slight consistency to an angled cross sweep. This does not need to be a “full cross”-just off the original direction tells you a lot about the consistency of a response.
-using a single frequency checker is not a bad idea too. Many top hunters use “10 kHz or “15 kHz.” These slower more thorough frequencies will give a more accurate reporting on the relationship between the ground and your signal. An alternative would be one of the Beach modes that feature some low weighting but are faster responding.
-be sure to vary the speed and width of your coil passes. Another “old timers” trick is to swoop the coil down at the ground to send the signal down at different angles. This works well on upended coins or deep ones that are masked by shallower junk.
–try lowering the Sensitivity. This makes the surrounding iron smaller by relation in that it is wider responding.
-try both open screen and “Trash Reject” type FE Limits. I also sometimes work with a small (1-3 increments) reject block. This makes for cleaner target assignment on either side of the ferrous / nonferrous “line.”
With the Minelab Manticore its important to remember that when you want to use a frequency weighting that focuses upon high conductors for example, more falsing will come in from that end of the spectrum. Its up to you to enact a testing process to confirm your targets with accuracy. Making a quick switch to All Terrain General to check deep signals also works well.
A key tip I hear coming up again and again from skilled Manticore relic and coin hunters is to base your digging decisions on “which tone dominates.” “(iron or “good).” This, along with the “big two” tests (cross sweep and Pinpoint: wide / narrow) will seldom steer you wrong.
Even doing thorough signal examination–and with 40 years of practice–it’s when I neglect these simple basics that spikes wire and other high responding iron targets fool me. The mistakes I make most often are:
-no Pinpoint test to listen for a narrow, peaked response. (Thinking my Discriminate mode “ears” have “got this one).”
-no cross-sweep conformation (even a slight angle). Where you have heavily worked conditions–this is a good place to begin to “lower the bar.” I can’t say enough about the value of this quick part-angle check with a high Gain detector. It tells you a ton and offsets a lot of the machine’s tendency to continually “sound-off” on targets with no mass or consistency.
-no attention to the consistency between the target’s size and the Depth Meter. A classic big iron dig is one where you hear a small tone–but a shallow depth reading. Then, of course there is nothing at that depth. (It’s worth noting here again that this is why your initial Pinpoint reading is so important in that all of these other correlations hinge on it). Learn to get the most information possible from the Manticore’s Ratchet pinpointing system—it’s very valuable to your accuracy.
From: “The Minelab Manticore: Tips, Tricks & Settings” by Clive James Clynick