Jump to content

A Video Of The Manticore Vs The Equinox 800 On Gold Nuggets In Australia


Recommended Posts

Some may find something useful in this video, what I got out of it is seeing just how badly VLF's work in those hot Aussie soils, as soon as he turned on all metal mode on the Nox it was going crazy so he had to keep disc on, when he ground balances it never does balance.

Such a contrast to here in the gold areas where I don't even need to ground balance as I don't get any feedback from the soil in defaults.  I can see why Aussies think VLF's are pretty pointless, they actually work pretty well in my ground though so I do quite like VLF's for gold prospecting in milder soils, in Australia especially where this guy is testing these detectors I wouldn't even bother using one at all.

 

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites


The video maker made a point to test these detectors in their default prospecting modes and ruled out using the Equinox and Manticore with the horseshoe button ON and all target IDs accepted. 

Using the Equinox 800 in default Gold 1 means iron bias is on 6, recovery speed is also on 6 and ground balance tracking is ON. With the horseshoe button pressed, all targets accepted and iron bias on 6.........that is an unholy iron audio mess even here where I use the Equinox 800 for gold prospecting. Reducing iron bias to zero really helps here. So does slightly lowering recovery speed, turning tracking ground balance OFF and setting up Gold 1 or Gold 2 Multi with target ID -9 and +40 rejected. I can always hit the horseshoe button when I want to hear everything. If I just hunted with the default discrimination pattern that rejects the iron target IDs, every smaller sub gram non ferrous target would have broken up audio if they were deeper than 2 or 3 inches. I assume roughly the same is true for the Manticore.

I hope people don't complain about the big coils. That is all that is available for the Manticore right now. 

GPX 6000 really does make these VLFs almost obsolete for most smaller gold prospecting. However, if you only have $800 to $1000 US or a bit less, the Equinox 800 and 900 are really good. They aren't 4 times worse than the  $4400 US GPX 6000 at least in Jenko's testing.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yea, it's a fair bit different here, someone can only have a VLF and still do quite well.

It may not look it from the hole in the photo but the nugget was down just over the depth of the Carrot.  I was using the Nox in this spot with the 11" coil to cover ground well and using it to block out hot rocks as the GPX 4500 I also had at the time was really struggling with them, or I should say I was really struggling to use the GPX because of all the hot rocks 🙂 I did quite well this day and got a few, the previous couple of visits to the spot with the 4500 I was skunked and spent my days digging hot rocks.  In hindsight I should have tried a DD coil on it rather than the 14x9" EVO I was using.  I haven't even had my GPZ there, nor my 24k or Manticore obviously.  Might have to go again soon before too much snow hits.

IMG_20190511_154850.thumb.jpg.170892cd5af32d6a4c9096bdbc5eb1ea.jpg

IMG_20190511_154854.jpg.84ba1ff274aaaa40ab237902170bfb2a.jpg

1.2 grams.

 

 

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

After getting the 6000 I rarely use a VLF for gold anymore, unless it's really trashy and even then it's debatable as to whether it's even worth it. But I'm with Jeff. Using the 800, 900 or Manticore in default gold modes in Nevada or Arizona is an audio nightmare. ON the 800 I would usually drop my iron bias to zero, recovery to 4 and reject target ID's -9 thru -6 then it was doable. But even then a nugget smaller than a 10th of a gram practically has to be sitting on top of the ground to hear it. Even half grammers are hard to hear at a few inches.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...