using Manticore in goldfield general for woods hunting

[glasartisan]

This is for Tom or anyone that might have used the Manticore in goldfield general. Question is this considered the deepest of all the modes and especially using with the audio theme prospecting? Would like to try this out for woods hunting for relics, mostly for fur trade items and frequent high conductors. Not much pollution of tons of nails. Items can be as deep as 16 to 20 inches in soft loamy sandy soil. There will be shot shell hulls and rifle casings. Using ferrous upper limits of 4or5 and lower maybe 3. 3 recovery speed. Mild to moderate mineralization. I am using the 11-inch coil with multi- frequency on. Or would I be better served in same environment using ATLC with prospecting audio. Depth equivalent on both? Thanks, Steve

[NASA-Tom]

Hey Steve,

Goldfield Mode is THE most "sensitive" Mode......of all the Modes. BUT...... primarily targets: LOW conductors. If you are hunting High Conductors....... you may want to use a different Mode. If you have never tried Goldfield Mode (with Prospecting Audio)....... in the real-World...... in a real environment.......... you are in for a real SHOCK! It is startling ........ to say the least.

You may first want to start out in All Terrain - High Conductors.........with Audio Theme = Prospecting. Start with a low Sensitivity (of....say: 20) at first......... and become (happily) accustomed to the ear-bashing........... before you start raising Sens.
Recovery Speed: 3 is fine. (I use Recovery Speed 2....for best depth performance....... if targets are genuinely sparse).
I also push-the-envelope of Ferrous Limits - Upper/Lower = on: 4/3.

It is too easy to want to 'quit' the Prospecting audio Mode....... but don't! Yes..... the learning-curve is steep and long; yet, successful/profitable.

[glasartisan]

Thank you, Tom, for that enlightening and recommended settings. Sure sounds like a powerful mode and I hope I will be able to stay with it. I like your idea to start off though in ATHC with prospecting theme and a bit lower on sensitivity.
Why I'm talking about the goldfield mode, something in the settings have me confused. Now this all will apply to the prospecting theme that I am in and in goldfield general. I know we can't use target tones, only in normal and enhanced. But the ferrous tones have me confused. You scroll up to ferrous tones, you have 2 choices, ferrous volume and ferrous pitch. Ferrous pitch is grayed out and you need to be in normal or enhanced audio for it to work. So, I move the arrow over to ferrous volume and click on the pencil and will bring a screen up that says ferrous volume which is fully adjustable with the arrows of 0 to 25. But the thing is the detector will not vary its iron volume when I have the horseshoe on, [red #s] Is this a bug or maybe my machine is not working? Also, the screen that has the threshold adjustments for the prospecting audio, you can arrow down to the heading ferrous tone, and this is stuck in off position, arrows are grayed out. I think this is ok as manual talks about that. But ferrous tones have me confused when you can adjust it to 0 to 25 but detector stays the same audibly.
Could the detector be made with an update to give an iron volume along with a pitch adjustment Whilst in prospecting audio. Thank you, Tom. I hope this makes sense.

[NASA-Tom]

Steve,

In Goldfield Mode, the default audio theme is Prospecting Audio.

In the Prospecting Audio Theme ‘Advanced Menu’ there is an option to turn Ferrous Tones ON or OFF. If Ferrous Tones are turned ON, then Iron will give a low tone ‘grunt’ and the Ferrous Volume control will work. If Ferrous Tones are turned OFF, then iron will give the same VCO-like tone as any other target, and the Ferrous Volume control will do nothing.

The non-intuitive part is that in Goldfield Mode, with Prospecting Audio Theme selected, the Ferrous Tones option is disabled and fixed at OFF – you can’t turn on Low Ferrous Tones, and the Ferrous Volume control will therefore not have any effect. (In any other Search Mode, you can select Prospecting Audio, and turn on Ferrous Tones and the Ferrous Volume control works.) This is likely because at most true Gold Prospecting sites, using low ferrous tones is almost always a bad idea, and will usually lose you significant performance on nuggets.

[glasartisan]

I thank you Tom for clearing that up for me. I understand now that iron tones have their limitations then when only in the gold field gen, with prospecting audio. I would be curious Tom if that would be a big job or even doable to change up the software to incorporate an iron pitch and volume control both when running in goldfield and prospecting theme? I know the manual says you want the tones turned off for the nugget hunting guys but for the relic hunters, I think would be helpful in varying the iron pitch for woods hunting in goldfield gen, prospecting audio. Thanks Tom, Steve

[NASA-Tom]

Steve: Yes....... that is most-probably: software doable.
You will definately want to have Ferrous Tones = ON ........ so you can hear the normal low-tone grunts of iron........and the high-tone squeals of the non-ferrous items. You will also have control of the iron low-tone grunts...... with Volume control. This config is efficient...... and a time-saver.

[glasartisan]

Alright Tom, thanks for the response. For us detectorists that hunt off the beaten path for relics, perhaps maybe in the near future we would see an update from Minelab in regard to iron tone adjustability in goldfield, prospecting theme. Can only hope. Thanks, Tom, for your wisdom. Steve

[NASA-Tom]

Certainly.......A viable thought!