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I spent a pleasant early morning on a recent permission I had wanted to detect for a while. It is the later homeplace of my Great Great Grandfather. It's just a cow pasture now but I remember the old house still standing in the early 1980s, all grown up. I went there with two of his grandchildren who had fond memories of him. We dug up some of the Iris plants that had been there close to 100 years. They still bloom here at my home. I dug the typical stuff you find at a farmhouse site. Lots of bits & bobs, Mason jar lids and assorted interesting junk. I did find a few personal items like I was hoping to. Of course lots of Iron in the ground. I dug the bigger iron and found some treasure in that too. I will save this site for when my children are home to visit and want to get out. All 3 like to detect and that is pretty special itself.

DD coil, low to moderate sensitivity, and employ ground balance window as needed. Hate to say it but you have to play with it. The Axiom easily handles one hot rock type. However, while in Oz I had to play with the machine quite a bit to get decent operation on two disparate hot rocks at once - ironstone and laterite hot rocks in the same location. If you have ground that is one thing, and two wildly different rocks, it takes quite a bit of fiddling to get it all to shut up, and you still may get blow back chirps on rocks in very close proximity to the coil. But those are literally on the surface. Be aware that the more aggressive you get with the ground balance window the more possibility some nugget signals are also attenuated. I know places where my GPZ 7000 and GPX 6000 both struggled mightily with hot rocks, and I am certain there are places where the Axiom will struggle also. It just depends on the exact mix of issues at hand. Hopefully you find the solution that works for you on your ground, and report back, good or bad. Good luck!

I hope you don't mind Steve. How interesting to read Monte's history in detecting. I started in 1980 with a A.H. Pro Electronics VLF/TR detector. Quickly moved onto a 5000D series 2 Whites detector. I expect my getting old I have forgot much. Those days of pockets full of coins, me with a flashlight to continue into the nights. I knew a guy who discriminated out nickels just to beat having to dig pull tabs. Recovered coins with a screwdriver, small trowel for the deeper ones. I remember in the 60's and 70's the parks were full of people all weekend long. By the 80's people didn't go to the parks like those older days. When I started you still had to to wait for the weekdays or nights to go out detecting, Kids were a pain in the neck. Iron bottle caps were as bad as pull tabs if not worse. Time has rusted those away leaving little pockets of rusted iron. If you wanted to dig Indianhead's you had to dig those bottle caps. That Whites detector it seemed signals were dig or don't dig where today you have to do more investigating. Depending on how much time you want to spend digging. That detector didn't have audio ID, But when you went over silver, you knew it was silver. Items I dug back then you don't see any more, not very often. When was the last time you dug a "Church Key" Brass pot pipes? Many womens hem weights, Boy scout neckerchiefs? a lot of pocket knives, sure dug a lot more gold and silver rings. I had to learn the detector without anyone helping me. I really never learned it and all it actually was capable of. There was no internet, got some help with the treasure magazines, Eastern and Western. We didn't have pin pointers, Those old blue box White's were a ton of weight, 14 AA batteries lasting maybe 10-12 hours. The closest dealer to me was White's of Minneapolis, 50 miles away. I knew only one other local person in my area who detected. He used a Bounty Hunter which at the time was a quality detector. Reading Monte's history, enough to write many books, Glad I can search thru them. Detecting has been a very big part of my life. Well enough of my rambling on of the "Good ol days"

As the one setting the challenge I am offering no inflation adjustments. My thinking is more that a very good VLF can be had for $1000 and a good PI should cost no more than twice that. People here tend to be made of money, but go to an average detector club meeting in the U.S. and tell the average user they should be spending $4000 for a metal detector! At $8000 they will think you are crazy. I am batting for the guy who is willing to invest in a couple good detectors and who thinks $3000 is more than enough to spend to get both a good VLF and a good PI. That's my personal goal also, to have just two or maybe three detectors at most that do all I need to do. I am a technologist who thinks that technology generally means more power for the same or less outlay. That being the case I don't consider this a challenge really, just more a matter of time, and who will do it first. Competition and technology being what it is I think it is inevitable.

I can't see the new Simplex models being good sellers. They needed switching single frequencies but I guess they didn't know the X-terra was on it's way at the time they made the decision to make them. To me it makes more sense just to revamp the Simplex as one model to keep it modern such as adding Bluetooth like they did. The shift from 12kHz to 15 was likely because Simplex owners all struggle with the pinpointers all being on the same frequency as the detector so it was just a pain really, having a mute function on the detector for when you use your pinpointer was a bandaid solution and an annoyance so the frequency shift makes sense. It was never a good choice of frequency to put the Simple on and seems like they didn't really consider pinpointers when designing it. That one Simplex model should have been as cheap as they could make it to own the low end market. I guess Minelab did 3 models with the Vanquish so they figured seeing it's one of the Simplex's competitors they could do 3 models too so bring in slightly different price points. Maybe doing that helps sales but it's not what I see with the local market and which detectors people appear to buy, most fork out the extra cash and just get the top of the range model rather than the cheapest one but the Simplex Ultra is very overpriced I think at least in my market. Here I can buy an X-terra pro for cheaper than a Simplex with green headphones, I would take the X-terra anyday although I did buy a Simplex with headphones, but this was before the X-terras release. The Impact Pro is very close in price to the X-terra here only about $30 USD difference, I think it's price has been significantly reduced to clear out the stock as now with the Legend the Impact just won't be selling anymore.

Speaking of SSF and detector frequency selection and mode capabilities…. Detecting manufacturers are all over the map on terminology conventions primarily to promote marketing “one upsmanship” and because there are no hard and fast rules on the definitions of single frequency and multiple frequency as they relate to classifying detectors. The naming conventions just tend to confuse everyone. Especially since the more popular and generally more capable and versatile detectors of late typically incorporate both simultaneous multifrequency (SMF) and single frequency (SF) mode capabilities, typically with the latter being “selectable” (hence “selectable single frequency” or “SSF”). Using the term Multifrequency or MF to refer to a “type” or “class” of detector rather than a “mode” is just too ambiguous. In my mind, MF is generally most associated with SMF detectors vice SF detectors that have the capability to select from multiple single frequencies, so I avoid it even when referring to SF detectors that have multiple selectable single frequency capabilities (e.g., Deus 1). If you want to get even deeper into the weeds, you can argue about whether SMF detectors are actually “simultaneous” MF or “sequential” MF. So I try to limit use the term Multifrequency or Multi-Frequency or MF solely to referring to a detector’s operating mode. All that being said, that didn’t stop Nokta from referring to some of their SSF only detectors as “Multi” (e.g., the Mukti Kruzer) - its all primarily marketing driven use of terminology that can cause the buyer who doesn’t understand or deep dive the specs to be confused and think they are getting more features than what they are actually getting. Regardless, since there is no real standardization, the best you can do to avoid confusion, ambiguity and to keep people on the same page is to repeatedly define your terms as Digalicious did above to keep people on the same page or simply refer to the subject detector(s) directly by name or model number. To keep it straight in my head, I look at the operating mode capabilities of detector to generally classify them as follows (examples of some of the most popular or notable recent models that fall into my categories provided - not an exhaustive list): I consider both classes of detectors above as SF detectors in general as they only have SF mode capabilities and have no MF/SMF mode capability. Single Frequency - Simplex, most First Texas VLF detectors still in production, Garrett ACE and AT series (except Apex). Selectable Single Frequency - Deus 1, Multi Kruzer, Impact, Anfibio, Tarsacci MDT 8000, X-Terra Pro, Quest Q35, I consider the detector classes below as SMF even if some of them have both SF and MF/SMF mode capabilities. Simultaneous Multi-Frequency (SMF only) - Vanquish, Excalibur II, CTX 3030 Simultaneous Multi-Frequency (with Selectable Single Frequency (SSF) modes) - Nox, Apex, Deus 2, Legend, Manticore, Quest V60/80. Note: I am not aware of any SMF detectors that only have one single frequency mode. I wish Vanquish had at least one single frequency selection (as well as adjustable ground balance) as it would make a slightly more versatile value detector in the ML lineup. Alternatively, if ML added a single SMF mode (e.g., Beach or Park) to the X-Terra Pro without significant impact to price point, that would basically make the Vanquish irrelevant and blur the line on value-priced SSF and SMF detectors while accomplishing the same thing. But we are talking razor thin profit margins at the lower end and I would understand why ML or even Nokta are adverse to slicing up the low end further by adding features that drive profits down further and potentially shunt sales away from the higher end models. But this is a Nokta Forum and the Topic specifically is Simplex… I was hoping that’s what this most recent quick revamp was going to do, but it looks like they just went with the 15 kHz frequency change, Bluetooth on the 2 higher end variants (which basically obsoletes the Nokta pulse dive as a compatible wireless pinpointer option) and the additional tone and mode options on the Simplex Ultra. Now that they’ve set the price point for Ultra in the ballpark of Legend, doubt they will revamp it again for selectable frequencies as that will just drive the price up even closer to Legend so folks would probably just opt for Legend at that point IMO.

The idea has never been to produce a cutting edge product, a GPZ 8000, for $2000. Yes, development costs are real, and must be recouped. I have always been thinking GPX 4500, which last sold for $2699. Dealers cried when Minelab discontinued it. Development costs long since recouped. All it needs is to be repacked in a modern housing using a modern battery option. I’d be thrilled with something like that and have never asked for more on this thread. Minelab can do this easily. Minelab discontinued the machine since, as a monopoly, it was undercutting sales of the $3999 GPX 5000. Solution? Discontinue 4500 so you have to buy the 5000. That’s what lack of competition gets you. The 4500 always was and still is Minelabs ace in the hole, that allows them to stop any threat by Nokta dead in its tracks. Maybe Nokta has figured this out? Whatever, we will get there, and not too much longer. The fire of competition is doing its magic in VLF as I type. A match has been lit to PI and people like me will continue to fan the flame until somebody fills this massive hole in the detecting market.

Nokta did it with the Legend, a cut price Equinox but with better quality by far, and proper waterproofing. I'm not sure if the Axiom is better quality than the 6000 but it would not be a hard thing to achieve. It's Minelab's lemon when it comes to quality. There can't be many people left now that haven't had to send theirs in for something. R&D costs aren't recouped on small amounts of sales easily, they need volume to get R&D back and that's what happens when you sell a detector at the right price, again you can look to the Legend, Nox 800 sales must have slowed down a lot over the time they were out, the Legend which is basically a better clone of the Nox came out and sells like hot cakes and you can bet the Legend was selling more units than the Nox 800 up until the Nox 900 release. Garrett may struggle to get their R&D costs back until they adjust their pricing on the Axiom. They need it to be a detector people want to buy, if they came out with the Axiom at $3000 Australian dollars (about $2000 USD) they'd sell so many of the things to people that never even considered these higher priced detectors even in Australia which would be their toughest market to crack I would think. If they did cheaper like $2000 AUD they'd be a massive hit, the casual detetorist that tend to just try buy a Gold Monster and hope for the best would be all over them. The Axioms not taken off as it should have simply because they didn't do what Nokta would have, and come in at a cheap price and grab a large part of the market Minelab miss out on due to their ridiculous pricing. I just hope Garrett are testing the market trying to get Minelab sky high prices and come back to reality when they see they're very overpriced.

Am I the only one thinking this is getting weird? Does Minelab know this is actually costing them sales? I held a new Manticore in the box last month, thought about buying it, and decided no. Why? No small coil. Frankly, it just pisses me off, and so I kept my credit card in my wallet. I really don't get it. Is Minelab afraid to have coils ready when a detector releases? Gosh, maybe the detector will be a dud, so we don't want to make coils for a dud detector? From a retail perspective it's pure stupidity. If you want to maximise sales you do so at the time of sale. When a salesperson has a customer with the wallet out, it is the absolute best time to get them to buy an extra coil or a carry bag or whatever. Sales 101 for dummies, and apparently nobody at Minelab knows this, or does not care. Dealers have got to be ripping hair out by the handful. But more directly you have grumpy old farts like me that get all passive aggressive when companies do not do what I want. Minelab has been sticking that "screw you guys that want coils" knife in our ribs for years now. I'm happy with my Equinox 800 and the coils I have for it finally, though it took ages to get the 5x10. I love small coils in particular. I'd like to settle on a new VLF, and to this day the Deus 2 is just not really getting me excited. One reason - limited coils priced too high. In theory I really want a Manticore so I can sell my Equinox and Deus 2. But this coil thing is really bugging me, and so I have yet to pull that trigger. In a way having a Deus 2 instead of a Manticore is just my way of giving Minelab the finger as regards coils, and so I guess I'll keep being a XP customer instead of a Minelab customer, until Minelab decides to get their act together on this.

Used the Axiom for the first-time last week, in Georgetown area North Queensland Australia. Happy with machine, but no gold! I was frustrated with the amount of hot rocks and ground noise, this was when using tracking off. The ground balance values were staying pretty constant, no big changes when moving along. So tried auto tracking slow, med, and fast all helped but I was worried I could track a target out. Started out with sensitivity of three and slowly worked up to 4 and 5 machine ran quit smooth at these settings. Normal mode seemed a bit smoother again. So what I am trying to say is how better to deal with hot rocks and ground noise? I do like the Axiom but not trusting it yet. Any clues please. PS meant to so was mainly in Fine mode and trying Normal but mainly in Fine.

Minelab did contact me about my Nox 900 and sent me a replacement so they are reading these forums. My new Nox 900 acts basically like the one I sent to Minelab for testing. Otherwise, Minelab does not give out information about timing of impending software updates, coils or detectors. XP does it sometimes. Nokta does it regularly. Anyway, the Nox 600/800 has about 6 target IDs between US nickels and US zinc pennies from 14 to 19 that I could choose to dig or ignore if I wanted to when USA coin hunting. The Nox 700/900/Manticore seem to have the same non-ferrous target ID scale. Now with the expanded target ID scale of these detectors there are roughly 33 target IDs between a US nickel and a US zinc penny that I need to at least keep track of. Just using the 900, there is not a lot of distinctive information about coin sized objects that can be given by the 900’s audio. At least the Manticore has some visual indications that might help with identifying what might be under the coil if it has a non ferrous ID between 29 and 62. I don’t like looking at a display very much but it may help at this point. Target ID instability at least for me is present to various degrees using Deus 2, Nox 900 and to a lesser degree the Legend. I am also seeing some significant upaveraging and shifting of target IDs of deeper coin sized targets using the Nox 900 and Deus 2 which is frankly annoying. I assume the Manticore may also do some similar upaveraging on some coin sized targets. For me, it would be great to only need one or two VLF detectors for the types of hunting I do. Right now, the five that I own all have strengths and weaknesses that are covered by each other. No one detector beats the others in every category that I need a detector for like coin and jewerly, relics, submerged fresh and saltwater, and gold prospecting, all of which usually happens in at least moderately mineralized conditions with either tons of modern or 1800s trash. The one that comes the closest to doing everything really well at this point amazingly enough is the Nokta Legend. It’s great to have all of these excellent detectors. Hopefully one will rise above them all at least for me and my hunting conditions with continued software updates and coil choices.

Mine was off a few times with V0.71. It was correct after V1.0 update and has been correct with V1.1 even after pairing with different coils and headphones. Maybe try re-updating for those still having problems with the clock. It may well be a glitch in the clock code.

I haven't had time to study this in detail. I have noticed my clock going badly out of whack at least once since I upgraded everything to V1.10 I believe, but haven't yet tested my theory, that the clock goes wrong when pairing a different coil and/or some other accessory. I've seen something out on the internet showing what someone purported to be a reply from XP, in response to a request to fix the clock problem, saying that XP didn't see fixing this as a high priority (or some other words to that effect). My personal theory is that the problem may lie in a piece of code that XP themselves have licensed from someone else - and that they actually have no control over how to fix it. It's not uncommon these days, where individual chips are in fact little systems in their own right, e.g things like wireless communications. If I'm right, this would tie in with the idea that pairing is a trigger for the problem, as it may well involve running a piece of someone else's proprietary code. At least I can keep my cellphone on and the D2 is clever enough not to be bothered by EMI from it - and keep time that way. I think it's funny that the clock goes wrong, because actually, when I'm having a good hunt I lose all sense of time anyway! Maybe what would be most useful would be an alarm to tell you dinner's ready!

Except you get to pay $500 more than Nox for the privilege of doing so, but dumping the D2 takes care of that cost gap and then some, I suppose. I'm of a similar mind. To me the 900 looked great on paper, appearing to address all the known flaws of the 800, however, the introduction of TID stability issues associated with the 900 TID range change and continuing issues with EMI susceptibility have soured me on the 900. Especially when I compare the 900 with the rock solid TIDs on the D2 and when I find that I can't calm the 900 down in fields where I don't even here a blip out of the D2. Yes, I consider the anecdotal better target depth performance and improved EMI of the Manticore vs. the 900 and the additional features of the Manticore that can compensate for the TID stability issues (i.e., target trace and ferrous limits adjustments) compelling enough to dump the 900 for the Manticore. But I am in no way shape or form selling the D2 to do so. Especially with my athritis addled, aching right shoulder. But somehow they had enough bandwidth to refresh the Nox, upgrade the Nox coil ear design, release the 700/900, and also the X-Terra Pro shortly after that with two new coil form factors available upon release of the Xterra all right on the heels of the Manticore launch. Sounds like they need to re-rack their priorities a little so they can deliver on their promises. They announced the Manticore accessory coils the same day they announced Manticore. I am sure people bought into the Manticore because of the promise of being able to get their hands on the advertised accessory coils presumably within a reasonable time frame. It really almost comes off as a display of contempt for their customer base - i.e., prioritize the big money detectors over the small-change coils (though profit margins are likely bigger). Reminds me of the lack of transparency that occurred in the wake of the Nox submergence failures...we never got a straight story or acknowledgement of a design or manufacturing flaw - just the bare minimum - honoring warranty repair, no questions asked and with no answers other than finger pointing at third-party shafts and accessories. It's all pretty disappointing. C'mon ML - show a little after sales respect for your customer base throw us a bone by getting those Manti coils on the street with some reasonable pricing. Throw a Nox 900/Manticore wireless receiver out their too so we can have a little variety on untethered 3rd party audio gear. ... And word on the timing of any forthcoming firmware update would also be welcome.

I’m somewhat amazed that over six years after I issued this challenge, nobody has won the prize. If anything, we have gone backwards, since the White’s TDI took away a model that met the criteria but unfortunately lacked the horsepower. Among major manufacturers that leaves us with the new Garrett Axiom as being as close as we get. I’ll give them a win on the weight at a perfectly balanced 4.2 lbs. The SDC 2300 is currently the only other option, better on price, but horrible ergonomics. This is where we are in 2023 as far as the challenge and the major producers: Fisher - no ground balancing PI being offered Garrett Axiom 4.2 lbs $3995 Minelab SDC 2300 5.7 lbs $3399 Nokta - no ground balancing PI being offered XP - no ground balancing PI being offered Axiom weight is good but price is still twice my targeted US$2000. It is therefore still an open challenge with only Fisher and Nokta in the running at this time. The Impulse Gold might get announced by the end of this year if we are lucky, and never if we are not. And we have no idea what the price will be. If the ergonomics match the Impulse AQ we will have a winner in that regard, but I’m worried Fisher will look at the Axiom and SDC price and come in at like $2995 just because they think they can. That would be a move in the right direction, but still too high. They are still selling the prototype Impulse AQ at $1700 though, so there is hope. That leaves Nokta, but not a peep out of them on the subject since just over a year ago, when the detector was only in the pencil to paper planning stage. A year is not long enough to get a new detector done when starting from scratch, but maybe it’s possible by 2024. Or does Minelab pull a “Xterra Pro” and head off everyone with a repackaged GPX 4500 for MSRP $2495 with an out the door price near $2000 ? It could happen, and Fisher and Nokta better get with the program or see this opportunity fade away. Me, I don’t care who does it, as long as it gets done. Until then I’ll use the Axiom as being as close as we can get at this time. It’s my way of supporting those who make progress to this under 4lb under $2K goal, and if anyone gets even closer I’ll look hard at using what they come up with instead. It merely need be as good as the Axiom, but at a lower price. Garrett met my minimum power needs, met the ergonomic challenge, but I’m disappointed at the price. That alone is keeping Garrett from selling the Axiom by the truck load. Garrett Axiom, 4.2 lbs, $3995

I do not know of any extensive comparison tests done between the Axiom and GPX 4500 so there is also a not zero possibility the 4500 can detect that nugget better. Please do report back on what Garrett’s findings are with the machine. I’m less than thrilled so far by the reports of defective units. Yeah, Minelab really dropped the ball with the GPX 6000 in that regard. But so far I’m not impressed with the failures I’ve heard about from Garrett owners either. Can’t anyone make things correctly anymore, and more importantly, do proper quality control before units are shipped?

moved to a new camp site and just detected within walking distance of the van today (few hundred meters') just about 5 grams between the two of us. And yes the 7000's with x-coils have been over this ground last year as well and there are still some tiny bits of gold there for the 6000 The camp site Veronica out detecting with the gpx6000 cheers dave

Ah, detectors are just flying off the shelves for Digger Dave!

2 rings today my wife got the wave looking one — so 2 925s for us today. Lil bit of change and some cheaper jewelry. Got excited when the gold earring popped out. Thought I had a gold ring at first then my hopes were crushed when it turned out to be cheaper jewelry. 😝 The shark tooth pendant is a nice find too. It’s about an inch long. Back at it tomorrow. Spent most of the morning in the water. Pretty calm for a change on this coast — it was nice to be able to get out in the surf up to my waist without getting slammed by waves. Dug a lot of junk targets too that are not in pictures.

I'm not ignoring other peoples ground conditions. Wilderland wrote: " very recently witnessed an air test comparison on small gold with the X-Terra Pro against both an Equinox 800 & 900, a Manticore, an Axiom, and a 6000 & 7000." The OP did not mention what test targets were being used or settings used. I just gave the OP information on air tests that may support his experience as far as single frequency detectors running between 14 and 19 kHz. You and I both know that these latest simultaneous multi frequency detectors and pulse induction detectors don't appear to do well at all in air tests versus single frequency VLFs unless there is virtually no EMI in the area. I just base what I have experienced on in the ground targets at the places that I hunt which includes really bad places near me and places in Arizona, New Mexico and Montana that aren't nearly as mineralized as around here. I hope everyone doesn't go out and buy a GPX 6000. I want competition not a GPX 6000 monopoly. I still would go for a less than 4 lbs less that $2000 gold prospecting competitive PI in a heartbeat over the GPX 6000.

One thing you consistently ignore in your analysis is that not everyone has ground as bad as you Jeff, nor needs your level of detector. Alaska has huge swaths of gold bearing land that is near benign when it comes to mineralization. There are many other similar areas. I’m not trying to sell anytime in the Xterra Pro as a nugget detector, but I also bet a guy with only $300 to spend would have a hard time getting anything better. Yeah, everyone should own a GPX 6000, but not everyone can afford one.

What's good about the X-terra Pro is the price, it makes for a cheap detector for someone to get that gives them an all rounder, it can do the beach, coins and jewellery in parks and would be a reasonable gold prospecting detector in the entry level arena I would think not too dissimilar in performance to a Gold Bug Pro. Yes, it won't be a fantastic detector compared to the dedicated higher frequency machines but it's more than capable of finding a pretty small nugget and for such a cheap priced detector that's great. I gave a go with my Vanquish and it can find gold too in my milder soils, I guess not so well in hot soil without ground balance although multi-IQ does pretty well in many situations, I didn't think too far different from a Gold Bug Pro either in it's jewellery mode so these basic entry level type machines are starting to really be quite capable for various purposes for someone on a limited budget. If someone around here with just enough money to buy a X-Terra was questioning if they could use it for gold nuggets I certainly wouldn't snob the detector and say no way you need something a lot better than that, I'm confident I could find gold with it.

I'm just as disappointed as the next person in the lack of coils for the Manticore, it's getting beyond a joke. I don't even use my Manticore as much as I'd like to and end up grabbing my Nox as it has the coils I need leaving my Manticore at home to gather dust. If they fix the jumpy ID's and release some coils for it they've got a great detector with the Manticore. They're my only complaints. I do feel a little deceived though as their marketing for the Manticore said it has more stable ID's than the Nox, I loved how stable my Nox Id's were so I was excited to think the Manticore was even better, sadly it's worse, significantly. I just hope they don't pull a GPZ on us and say the smaller coil is coming and it never does as they had decided they will make a GPX 6000 instead, they may want Manticore owners to have to buy a Nox as well to get a small coil 🙂 I wouldn't put it past them and in a way they've already done that by making the Manticore small coil bigger than the Nox small coil so for me personally I may end up still using my Nox for gold even when the Manticore has a small coil. I won't be buying a Nox 900, sure the quality is better but I just don't want another jumpy ID detector. I'll stick with the 800, mines never going to leak as the only water its going to see is rain and it only ever has the 6" coil on it for gold so my ears won't break. I used to use it a lot for coins with the 15x12" coil but the CTX and 17x13" coil has taken over that job and hopefully if they fix the ID's the Manticore with 15x12" coil will be a suitable contender for the coins too. I'm really starting to wonder if the Manticore was rushed to market as the Deus 2 was stealing that end of the markets sales. I can't imagine many CTX's were selling being so old and the Deus 2 comes out and gets a lot of sales, sales that are unlikely to go to the Manticore as once people have committed to a purchase they tend to stick with it and not bother with the competitors release.

I am thinking that adding Selectable Single Frequency to the new Simplex line would not cost Nokta much if it only entails Software. I feel certain Nokta is still monitoring this & other Forums. Surly they have at least considered doing this.

Actually, that matters. But I don’t disagree the XTPro is a fantastic bargain, and without even using it I’d have no problem recommending it as an entry level nugget detector.

I know who I’m sending all my wiped out coins to

Man, you have good eyes, F350! I think you're spot on... a copper Memorial.

Rev number shows when the detector is first started. The SB settings are saved between frequencies and after a complete shutdown/restart.

That's a special place to detect indeed, great hunt! Being able to hunt a place with your family connection is a rare thing and I imagine many of those items had a very personal connection to them and now to you. Well done, JCR!

No Gold or Silver. Only 3 coins. The partial toy soldier is neat and the small Flur de Luis ornament. The plated buckle is stamped brass so maybe from a cap gun rig. For some reason the photo loaded upside down. I will try again with 2 more photos. The first showing some of the big Iron. The chain & hook are hand forged, so quite old & worn. The plow share is a common type find for me. This one is whole and cleaned up well. I intend to use it on my push plow in my row garden. The second photo shows the house with a family reunion gathered together on the front porch about 1927. Fortunately, older relatives who are in the photo as children, helped me get everyone identified.

The clocks on both of my D2s are right on but I never use them anyway. My Apple watch is always with me.

Nice hunt. Fun hunting a place like that. Some interesting finds.

Only had the problem a couple of times before the update, It's held the correct time since then. Mostly it has been spot on.

I had issues with mine showing the incorrect time, but it's been correct since the update.

Looks like a nice hunt, is that some gold and some silver that I see. Good luck on your next outing and stay safe out there.

Great story JCR.Thaanks for sharing it and taking us along.Hoping that something with provenance and connected to your relatives comes to the light of day for you.

I have a different idea, maybe they knew a software update was needed and now they have to test new software with the new coils before releasing them ? Some may say I am being picky, but the jumpy IDs on the X pro, Manticore and from what I hear on the new NOXs, have the average and above average guys frustrated.

I'm thinking the nox redesign was in the works for awhile along with the xterra pro. I mean the xterra pro is mostly a Nox with the multifreqency removed from the programming. Also those new xterra coils look exactly like the vanquish coils so they probably didn't put much time/effort into designing those to work with the xterra. Every time I take my manticore out I find a few more things at some hunted out places and I keep thinking "If I had the smaller coil I'm sure I'd find even more!". I really want some sort of 3rd party audio gear, the headphones the manticore came with sound good but their too bulky and I prefer ear buds. I believe this is also a real possibility. Well FY23 is ending on June 30th maybe we'll be able to find some info in the FY23 annual report when its released. Maybe they're waiting for the start of the next FY to make any announcements. https://codan.com.au/investor-centre/annual-reports/

Well good on ya for getting out there and braving the elements! 👍 That belt slide is so cool it hurts. 😎 Looks like it could use a polish and be put back to service. Might even be a tie clasp? My first experience with hearing lightning with the D2 was in Emerald Isle last year, even miles away over the ocean it crackled. Better than a 1965 quarter to signal the end of the hunt. 😀 If you can, try to get an estimate in mm of the coin you dug last. That helps identify them sometimes, but many of the memorials I dug this past week had been eaten away enough that they looked like dimes. I'm going to tumble the lot for my recap 😀 Just looked at your photo, and i can clearly make out the letters "LIBE" circled in the photo. 😀 Methinks it a Memorial or wheat.

Steve makes a good point about the 4500, they could repackage that and head off any competition at the pass a bit like the X-Terra coming in to make the new Simplex rehashes redundant. If they ever made a lightweight GPX 4500 in a modern new housing it would be a great seller if it was at the right price. They could even trim the 4500's features down a bit seeing it's so close to the 5000 and come in at a really good price. I'm sure there are people at Minelab that's job is just this, trying to stay ahead of the competition in all areas. I don't care who does it will benefit greatly from doing so, especially if it appeals to more than just the gold market.

Yes Chase I’d seen that already about not selling in the US and that’s why I made the statement on second line of my post. I guess I should have said and never will have any. haha Happy Father’s Day Chase. Chuck

Once you have dies or molds built already, and research done - nothing costs that much really. It's all arbitrary pricing, and price gouging in the case of $10,600 GPZ 7000's and $6000 GPX 6000's. They are obscenely overpriced. An updated, lightweight 5000 tossed into the existing 6000 form factor should cost about $1250-$1500 MSRP and still have enough profit for manufacturer and dealers to sell, using existing tooling. Woody did a total cost breakdown video on a 4500, component by component (the newer 4500's supposedly were just 5000 boards with the numbers scratched off according to him), and I think it was like $150-$200 including aluminum case extrusions, or something like that, to manufacture. It doesn't help that in the US, a large amount of the buyers of these machines historically - at least from my observations in the field - are largely retired persons with a lot of disposable income and an attitude that price doesn't really matter if fun is being had (aka - the "fishing boat" analogy you can find posted in the past). I can't even count how many people I've met who've found maybe 1-2 ounces in their lives happily paid $10,000 for a GPZ with no expectations of paying it off. Combine that with the fact that a ton of people for whom price would matter are friends with dealers who give them very, very deep discounts - often at or near dealer cost, and so the complaining about price is largely reduced to a few people who don't have the disposable income, don't have dealer friends, or simply are tired of prices being ridiculously high on general principle. These people aren't numerous enough to force change. And there isn't enough competition to force change either. Thus - price gouging.

If the 8" coil was available I would also buy a Manticore. I would sell my Equinox 900 and Deus 2, keep my 800 with all of the excellent coils I already own for it along with the APTX low latency earbuds/headphones that I already own that work with the 800, GPX 6000 and the Legend and just enjoy detecting with these great detectors. Tired of waiting for XP to fix Deus 2 for gold prospecting via software and a smaller coil and I don't really like the Equinox 900 very much even though both work very well for most detecting. I can't see disliking the Manticore anymore than I dislike the Equinox 900 at this point.

If I were you I’d ban me! True story though is I WANT to be a Minelab fan and I WANT to be a happy Manticore owner. They just make it so hard, and where else to say that but here? I’m a squeaky wheel looking for some grease, and willing to ruffle some feathers at Minelab if it gets a result. As you say they are doing no worse than with Equinox, but would not the goal be for them to improve over time? Whatever, I got it off my chest, and will once again let it rest. Somebody poke me when and if these coils ever appear, because frankly I’m not going to be hanging around paying attention. It’s time to go detecting, not cruise dealer websites hoping and praying. I guess we can look at these still, which have been on the Minelab website since early January, as if we could actually get them. Show us product not pictures!

Hey, spout off somewhere else. This forum is for ML and Manticore lovers only! Not XP interlopers posing as ML malcontents just so they can get an XP mention over here... It IS ridiculous, but believe it or not, ML are still just within the release window timeline of the Nox 6" coil release which didn't happen until 7 months after Nox release in Jan 2018 (i.e., July 2018). If December 2022 counts as the Manticore release month, then they have until the end of June to release the small coil for ML accessory coil business as usual timeliness. But, like you said, ML "business as usual" is just bad business or at least dumb business. Maybe they should spend less time on litigation and more time on customer communication and coordinated product accessory releases. SMH.

I'm willing to wait for Nokta to make Steve's challenge a reality. I think they will.

So just over a year ago we were at the “talking about what the detector should look like” stage. That’s the last post I can find from Dilek about the PI and where it is. It can take up to five years to develop a completely new detector from scratch. Nokta has been much faster than most however, and one reason I suggested the Impact housing was to shorten development time. Still, a year would be a pretty amazing thing, and I’d think next year at earliest. Assuming development did actually get past the “we are thinking about it stage.” Maybe the Minelab lawsuit derailed things with the lawsuit as we have heard nothing for over a year now. Still looking for a winner for my Under 4 Pound, Under $2000 Gbpi Challenge after six years of waiting. Fingers crossed for 2024.

continued on with the patch in the first post first picture, it has given up a total of 105 bits of gold now for 14.4 grams. Four part days detecting it, today was 5 and 1/2 hours for 43 bits of gold which weighed in at 5.4 grams, and it was a much more pleasant day as the very strong winds from the last few days have gone. A few pictures from today you can see the settings I am running on this type of ground and the detector is running nicely and todays result, 43 bits of gold for 5.4 grams, the gold is small but it is gold cheers dave

I wonder if this slowness is part of a deliberate business strategy to 'smear out' revenue/profits over multiple financial quarters - to satisfy corporate bean-counters and/or allow senior execs to "earn" juicy bonuses for meeting performance targets.

That was a good hunt. Remember the scene in the movie "Caddy Shack" where the Priest waves his golf club at the storm? Best to remain humble.