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Manticore In Arizona


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4 hours ago, PlacerHunter said:

I have the manticore and have taken it out 3 times this past week. I took it to a local park that has an adjacent rec center that was the first school in our city so it has an early 1900’s history. I’ve hunted it about a dozen times with a whites MXT, then my Equinox 800 with the stock coil, the 15” coil and the small coil. In my previous hunts, I have found hundreds of coins and several silvers. I went back to the location just to see if the Manticore would uncover more targets from the same area. The patch of grass I concentrated on is about 20 feet wide and 150’ long. Working this area with the manticore a few hours over two trips, I was amazed at the number of additional coins that I recovered (about 30). The advantage I recognized was the separation of the trash and targets.  Also, painting the separate targets on the 2D screen allowed seeing the targets on the screen for about 3 seconds even after the numerical VDI indicator has disappeared. I’ve found myself digging less trash thanks to the 2D screen as well. A good VDI number showing on the screen can be double checked with the 2D portion to see if the target is bleeding out of the upper or lower 2D ferrous areas which can indicate a trash target (depending on what you’re hunting).  The target identification seemed to be more accurate on the deeper targets than the equinox.  The manticore seems to hit very well on deep dimes.  The VDI screen backlighting and control button backlighting are very bright and adjustable.  The “flashlight” option, for detecting at night, is pretty weak. You’d be better off using a headlight if night detecting is your thing.   I have not had time to test the Manticore on gold nugget targets yet. Just my two cents on my initial usage. I’m happy and pretty impressed with it so far. 

What dealer did you get it from?

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I was using the all terrain with trash reject search mode. I have the recovery speed set at six, and the sensitivity at 21 for most of my searching. I believe the default settings had the sensitivity at 20, and the recovery speed at five. I tried putting the sensitivity higher, but close to 25 was getting a little Chattery and erratic in the headphones. The ground I am hunting in is a mixture of some decomposed granite, red clay, and regular dirt overburden.  
it did rain a day or two last week and the soil was still damp a few inches down as well.  A lot of the targets were recovered at about 6-7” and the VDI numbers were almost spot on to my air and surface tests for coins. 
I must say, that I believe that the processor in the Manticore is a lot faster than the equinox. The 2D screen is a game changer (for me, in my opinion) because as you swing, the VDI numerical indication can be changing very fast at times (depending on the number of targets)  to the point where the numbers are changing too quick to see them. The 2D screen will put a mark on the graph and it will slowly fade away in about three seconds. This gives you time to quickly look and see if you have a good target signal on the centerline and not in the upper or lower ferrous ranges (again, depending on what you are hunting for I suppose).  

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44 minutes ago, rled2005 said:

What dealer did you get it from?

I purchased it through the GPAA (gold prospectors association of America).  

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  • 1 month later...

My Manticore will be here tomorrow, one day shipping. The guy might have one left, if anyone is interested?

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