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Hot off the press and available NOW! https://www.minelab.com/manticore-software-upgrade WHAT IS NEW? Stabiliser Setting: A new Stabiliser feature has been added to All Terrain Search Modes, significantly enhancing useability in iron trash. It improves the overall stability of the audio and Target IDs at sites where iron falsing may be experienced, and adds nuance to better distinguish good targets from iron. Adjust from 0 to 12 and make false detections a thing of the past. Enhanced Goldfield Search Mode: Take advantage of greater sensitivity to small gold with the power of MANTICORE. Soft Key Shortcuts: Take charge of MANTICORE with soft key shortcut functions added to control Search Mode, Flashlight, Display Brightness, Sensitivity Boost, Clear ID Map, Speaker Mute, Recovery Speed, and Frequency. Customisable Ferrous Target ID: Make it personal by highlighting Ferrous Target IDs in red. Underwater Headphone Boost: Enhanced audio awaits with Underwater Boost to increase headphone volume when using Minelab Waterproof Accessory Headphones (sold separately). Language Customisation: Access the user interface in your choice of language from English, French, German, Czech, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Hindi. General Stability Enhancements: Including improvements to Beach Mode Ground balance on dry sand, Search Mode default settings, wireless audio connection stability improvements and more.

Well not all beach hunters reside in Florida like you and Tom and and aren’t perpetually blessed with the advantage of always working in “0” reference Florida dry sugar sand where this “update” has perhaps little usefulness. Ground balancing and tracking requires the presence of some level of mineralization to key off of. So the detector ground balance algorithm works best when it can actually sense a change in mineralization level as the coil is pumped above (for auto and manual ground balance) or swept along the ground (for tracking ground balance). Otherwise, you’ll just get a zero ground phase reading while pumping or unstable ground phase adjustments while tracking - which is just fine provided the dry sand ground phase is truly at or near zero. Which is indeed the case for most beaches. However, low magnetic mineralization dry sand at some beaches can still have a significant non-zero ground phase reference as a result of non-magnetic (I.e., non-black sand) mineral components. But the auto ground balance algorithm may have trouble picking this up in low mineralization situations. So I suspect ML has adjusted the dry sand ground balance algorithm to be sensitive to and to properly respond to changes in low mineralization levels so that a more precise ground balance point can be obtained on dry sand beaches that have a non-zero ground phase. This enables the detector to run in horseshoe (i.e., No Discrimination) mode without experiencing non-zero ground phase “grunts”. This update might also help those who utilize ground tracking to enable seamless, stable transitions between dry sand, to damp sand, to wet salt sand, and surf. Granted not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but some outside of Florida and even in Florida might find it helpful. Sorry this is not an overly exciting update for you Florida beach hunters, but Manticore already seemed tailor made for the beach and I was not hearing beach hunters wanting for much more from Manticore out of the box. Probably due to the fact that Tom D was so heavily involved in providing feedback to the designers in the early stages of design. Is there something you really wish ML had addressed for the beach hunters in this first update that they did not provide, Brad?

I left the house at 7am, not particularly confident, but I went panning anyway. There were a few reasons why I didn’t have my usual “ get up and go “ attitude when wakening up to the sounds of “ I’m happy “ by Pharrell L Williams. The first reason was the weather, it’s hot. Well it’s 26 degrees C which is far too hot for a Scotsman, I mean our natural skin colour is pale blue. The second reason was that I had all but done with the area I had been prospecting for a while. I thought with the heat that maybe a leisurely stroll along some bedrock outcrops would be much more economical than the usual set up, and that actually was the third reason. I had never seriously done any dry land crevicing before. Pharrell Williams really put the tin lid on it with the lyrics “ no offence to you, don’t waste you’re time “. These lyrics were in my head and on repeat all day haha! Arriving at the car park deep in the Leadhills an hour after leaving the house I was cussing the weatherman for getting it correct again. They’ve did this for the umpteenth time this year and nobody seems to complain. WELL I AM. Anyway, it was hot and the Leadhills are barren of any cover whatsoever, making the walk from the car park to my familiar stomping ground that extra bit tiring, so I took the opportunity of a few photos as an excuse to pause now and then, though pausing only made me more lethargic, as like I said there’s no shelter from the sun at all. A green desert. The views when walking along the old railway line are lovely on the eyes due to the elevation of the old line. The green hills roll on into the distance, and when stopping to take it in, so too does my mind. Looking out and over the valley from the old railroad, i can almost feel the presence of the old timers are still here with me. The burn winds it’s way along the valley floor like a main artery, fed by the veins that run straight down off the hills and that provide fresh water for the flocks, and replenished gold for the prospector. The farmhouse stands alone like a kings guard in defiance of the elements. A constant feature of the valley it helps to protect. The burn offers life for its flock too. The great thing about walking an old railroad is that it’s almost perfectly flat until…….. you reach a hill😃 At least it was downhill, and ideal for a perfect approach. At the bottom of the hill I would cut left and walk the short distance to the start of the bedrock outcrop that I wanted to work. Made it, phew! The plan for the day was to first head uphill along the bedrock looking for easy areas to work before removing the small amount of gravel still remaining in the pool on the bottom left of the photo. I planned things in that order because I knew there was still a flake or two of gold in the gravel, and therefore if I blanked with the crevicing then I still had the gravel as a last resort. I also knew that once that tiny amount of gravel was removed then that was me finished in the area, an area I’ve sort of became attached to over the last few months. I was prolonging the inevitable really. After a quick look at the pool I made my way up and over the rock wall. From now on in the only water I would see was the stuff in my bag, for up this high the stream dries out completely. On a positive note the lack of water means I can take my time to reach far down into the crevices where I could study them without the chill of the water that charges through in autumn and winter. A pleasing change indeed. I wasn’t long before I reached my the decent looking area to work. Doesn’t that in the photo just scream gold. The way the bedrock slopes down at angles that trap. No doubt this spot has been worked judging by the gravel that not just looks loose, but I can confirm was loose, and after what seemed like an eternity to reach bottom, I found nothing. The bedrock crevices started wide, but by the time I reached as far down as I could they were too narrow to empty out. Moving on I found the next good looking area not much further upstream, but like the last area looks can be deceiving. I like the way the bedrock funnels down in a v shape into the pool, helping to concentrate the gold. I opted to remove the gravel near the tail of the pool, thinking the water would plough through like a jet wash near the top, making it all but impossible for the smaller flakes to settle. Again the bedrock crevices went down a couple of feet, progressively getting narrower, and again too narrow for me to properly work. “ No offence to you, don’t waste your time” ,there’s those lyrics again, and this time I took heed and decided to refill the confidence meter by heading back downhill, and onto the second part of the day, removing that gravel. I would sluice and pan out each bucket as I filled them. The last thing I needed was to empty it all out at once only to discover no gold, that wouldn’t be good. After two buckets and very little gold I contemplated moving, and here’s where I believe our lives are planned ahead of us. You see I decided to pack everything away and move on to an entirely different stream in an entirely different area of the hills, but after packing everything away and hoisting the backpack up and onto my aching shoulders, I only mane]aged to walk around 30ft to where I saw another bedrock outcrop. This outcrop was different to the one I had worked earlier. For a start the stream below the outcrop widened out as it exited the narrow rocky stretch. The stream slowed as it broke out over an open gravel bed. The actual gravel was very soft underfoot, obviously well worked, but directly below the bedrock was an area I could work by digging down the wall of the outcrop. As I removed the rucksack from my shoulders in a writhing fashion I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the thought I had only walked 10 paces before I had to unpack it all again. Sure enough the gravel down the side of the bed rock was packed fairly tight and I had to fight my way down through rocks that were difficult to remove. The thought of packed gravels alongside bedrock got me digging like Barney rubble, and after removing and sluicing the 4 buckets it took to reach the bottom of the rock I couldn’t resist the urge to pan it out. What would it contain I wondered. Well the answer was sweet sod all haha! Not even a dust particle of gold. I was a little upset. Why had I just not moved on to pastures new when I had my chance? Why had that bedrock took my attention and stopped me in my tracks, and turned out to be a total waste of time? What was I supposed to do now? I will tell you what I was supposed to do, because like I mentioned earlier, I firmly believe our lives are set out on paths that are impossible to veer from. What I was supposed to do at that point was finish off the last remaining couple of buckets of gravel that I had gave up on earlier after only finding a few flakes in the couple of buckets I did remove. So everything was carried back to the original spot and the sluice set back in place, where it was an hour before. I seem to do more walking than anything else these days🙂 Walking back up to where the pool is, and the last of the gravel didn’t fill me with confidence. The gold I had spent collecting over the past while had all but dried up, but I needed to finish the last of the gravel to remove the “ what if “ factor that would have played in my head, had I not removed it, but before getting the pump in action I took a last look at the bedrock face where it meets the water level. I used my fingers to scrape out any small pockets of stones that were still trapped in the crevices in the vertical wall, and that’s when something caught my eye. It looked like gold, but all my sinews were saying it couldn’t be, I mean how lucky would I have to be to have such a bad day, only to literally walk onto gold. Well it was gold, and a fine gram nugget too. I was overjoyed at my find that was just sat there on the bedrock. I’ve seen this happen in videos, but for it to happen to me was unreal. I still had to remove the last of the gravel in the pool, which I did, but as I suspected there were only a few last remaining flakes. I obviously wasn’t bothered. I had polished off everything I could in that stretch of the stream and I could now move on without looking back, and it’s a good feeling knowing I would be prospecting new ground when I next go panning. The walk back up that steep hill and along the old railroad back to the car park in blistering heat virtually went unnoticed thanks to my find. Now that’s what I call dream prospecting👍 til the next time, happy prospecting to you. Ian 🇺🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🥃

I am an ocean water hunter. To be able to hear the Manticore while water hunting. I am using Tony Eisenhower impedance matched headphone. I set the volume at 21. With the new louder volume settings for water hunters. My new volume setting is now 15 using Tony Eisenhower impedance matched headphone.

Flat out wore myself out yesterday detecting - Lots of tight grids. Even faded on F350 and Joe D while texting last night. Wife got some of the change and the brand new-ish Jessica Simpson designer sunglasses to wear, so she is styling. They will go with the other new ones she got the other day. I scored 3 rings. 1 junker, 1 18k engagement as well as the 1 18k wedding band kicker. Yes the 2 rings are a set. Someone is probably not happy. Basically the diamond ring rang up 49 on the D2 (beach sens). The better news is after I was done admiring the diamond ring I remembered to double check the hole. Guess what another 49 on D2 😊 😃 😜 Well the rest is history — the wedding band came out next. Both same size and maker. I cannot not find any inclusions in the diamond with my loops so off to the jeweler this upcoming weekend for the big microscope inspect and hopefully a quick appraisal. Great Day! The gold dance happened! Double check those holes for 18K!

Over 9 oz so far. A couple more pics after processing the species before I sold them . Gotta love the gold price at the moment. 🙂

Thanks for the excellent break-down on different sand types Chase. Guess the guys in California may find the dry sand GB useful since they have the "black sand" in different areas. Me....I'm stuck with the soft sugar stuff. (Awe shucks!) As you suspected, no there isn't anything really that I felt needed to be changed with the Manticore for my hunting style. I am really happy with it's performance and customization options that I tailored to my liking. I'm almost afraid to update the machine because I like it just like it is and I've had mine for 6 months now. I don't fiddle with any settings once I initially got it set the way I wanted it except adjusting sensitivity setting occasionally. Just noise cancel, ground balance and go! Wanna hit the water? Change program, ground balance and go! Yippee! 😍

I may be way off here, Col, but one thing jumps out at me and that's the Audio Response setting. I get that beaches are noisy with people, wind, waves, and such so I would imagine you need to crank it up to hear the tones. However, the new V1.0 & V1.1 Audio Response was one of the settings that was beefed up by XP in the updates. I used to run AR at 5 in V0.71, but I had to dial it back to 4 with the new updates because it overloaded quite a bit on higher settings in my mineralized ground. I tried to run it on 5 a couple of days ago in an open field, but it really clipped the audio on shallower targets. I went back to 4 and deeper and shallower targets both sounded and separated better. I think it was Paystreak who has made a few mentions in recent videos that the Audio Response is basically an amplifier circuit and he demonstrated on live digs that when the setting is increased it amplifies everything in the ground more, making larger and shallower targets sounds amplified to the point that they can mask good targets. I know that doesn't address the TID masking issue, but I did some live dig tests today on a site with a lot of nails and big iron from demolished houses running my Fast Full Tones and Fast Pitch programs side by side. On more than a few instances I was able to pick out high coin tones colocated with iron with only spotty or no high TID numbers. That worked in Full Tones, but not when I switched over to Pitch Tones to check. I didn't try any of the 2 to 5 Tones settings, though. Just some thoughts.

Thanks for posting the link. Excellent video from Brass Medic included in the link. Looks like a very good update especially for hunting sites with lots of nails and for gold prospectors. Time for the new coils!!!

thanks, I'll look it up Here is the video if anyone's interested. https://youtu.be/W9RpjHtMbeU We are lucky to have a reasonable selection of coils for the 6000.

My last 3 patches have all been below old reef mines. The old timer's surfaced the ground below the reef workings until the ground got to deep then sank holes. I found a few scattered pieces on the surfaced ground and the mullock heaps down further and thought I got most of the gold. Then I tried the left and right edges of the surfaced area. Standing on the bottom of the slope and looking up towards the reef mine at the top, the right hand sides on all 3 surfaced areas were barren of detectable gold but the left sides had a narrow strip of ground running down the slope that the old timer's didn't dig that was full of species. Makes me wonder why they didn't dig a bit further to the left. Were they all right handed diggers? LOL. Here are a few pics with some of the results.

Dankowski also has white sand. One has to be careful listening to his settings unless you are hunting next to him.

My wife and I the chance to run the 12x7 this past weekend up in the high sierras. The coil runs smoother then any of the other coils I have..lay the machine on its side on the ground...no problems at all...in fact we hardly had to do any noise cancels..We did not get over any gold but dug plenty of small bits of rubbish at depth..as usual Klunker showed us how it's done with his tried and true 7000. strick

Thank you but I hope nobody interprets my search for a solution as degrading the Deus 2. Having been around metal detectors since 1970, I will say without hesitation that the Deus 2 is the very best unit I have ever used or tested. I would not own any other at this point but I would very much like to see this masking issue in the beach modes resolved. If the XP engineers can solve this, it would make the best detector on the market today even better! 👍🏻😁

Pulled this 3.17 gram nugget at 20" out of our claims with Reese Townes aka Gold Seeker 5000 on Sunday. It pinged real loud. Had a great day with 4.35 grams total in the last hour of digging. Always good to hit a "patch". Worked my hole hard before it finally showed. I absolutely love this coil. Really smoothes out the 6000 and finds little bitty crumbs and big gold at depth. Game changer for digging and detecting our claims.

Hello Folks, I am new to Gold Hunting and Gold Prospecting. I started recently in Spring of 2023. I own a Gold Monster 1000 and have not found much gold so far, but I keep going out there and prospecting looking, for me that is the fun part. Gold is more of a bonus, and as I get better I hope to start finding some here and there. Its nice to be here, alot of good information and I hope to be a good contributor over time. Warm Regards, Marblin

Sorry I did not reply sooner as I was in Nevada chasing rattlesnakes, trying to find a few pieces of gold and being run out of the desert by afternoon thunderstorms. Minelab and most other manufactures usually are not ones to run discounts or freebies on the new detectors. The EQ-900 is one of their most popular sellers. I doubt we'll see any promos on it for quite a while. Are you interested in the EQ-900 for General Use (Coin/Relic/Jewelry) or Gold Nuggets? The pics below are of the 1st piece of gold I recovered in 2023, with the EQ-900. A nice 6 gram specimen.

New manual to go with the new update https://www.minelab.com/__files/f/505058/4901-0428-2 Inst Manual, Manticore EN.pdf https://www.minelab.com/usa/metal-detectors/manticore

Air test or backyard testing is just that, testing. Reality then may not fit... In a couple of months, seven Gold pieces have come out and I am close to obtaining my first Ounce. It works with gold!... In Spain the X Terra Pro is sold out and some distributors have already raised the price to 360 €. Supply and demand, the market sets the standards when something works. And at a laughing price...

Simple, flawless, installs on both the Manticore and the ML 105 headphones... now let's play! 😉

OH MY WORD! You have to be kidding me. A detectorist found this cache? I would have had a coronary, on the spot... Steve

I only have the Coiltek 9 round. Also an excellent coil and more stable compared to the stock 11. Perhaps a bit on the heavy side. But definitly nothing bad to say about it. I just happen to be a NF fan and the 12x7 is a good elliptical size for me, next to being a superb coil. GC

One thing about all this becomes perfectly clear...once again. Testing targets and settings on top of the ground can and most times will give you a different result than the same target array that's buried in the ground....which is where we hunt anyway...right? So I look at top-of-the-ground testing as a "preliminary maybe" indicator. I learned that years ago when I first started testing detectors and this masking venture just reinforced that lesson in spades....again. 🤣

Great finds. Thus far, the NF 12x7 has only fans, me included. Simply an outstanding coil, stable but yet sensitive, and well balanced. Just like the 12 Zsearch! Real ceaftmanship and worth every penny. GC

Time to rejoice everyone, because the impossible is now possible! You see, a detectorist on another forum, told other members that Target Trace on the Manticore can distinguish between aluminum trash and gold jewelry. Imagine that? No more digging any of that trash when hunting for gold jewelry! Yes, you read that right. TT on the Manti can actually defy the laws of electromagnetism. However, before you throw out all your other detectors, you probably should know that she's a Minelab Rep and also thinks TT shows the shape of the targets😁

The cache of rare Civil War-era coins unearthed in the Bluegrass State includes finest-known 1863 Double Eagles as well as several interesting varieties and errors. Numismatic Guaranty Company® (NGC®) was honored to recently certify an incredible cache of rare Civil War-era coins found in the Bluegrass State. “The Great Kentucky Hoard” (as it had been designated) includes a group of finest-known 1863 Double Eagles and hundreds of US Gold Dollars dated 1850 to 1862, as well as a small number of silver coins. Several interesting varieties and errors were also discovered. https://www.ngccoin.com/news/article/11795/kentucky-hoard-civil-war-coins/ Short video of the find in the field

Another 4 weeks of tumbling resulted in these results. I was running 3 tumblers.

The long awaited updates are available for the Manticore, I've had a look at them and there is plenty of them next to try them in the field "watch this space" oh don't forget there is a new user guide which covers the new updates

Sensitivity stability deeper targets more targets the coiltek coils are good coils I prefer the 9 inch round over 10 x5 the only way you find this out is compare them yourself and you can decide what coil you prefer they all find gold

The 5000 is an excellent detector as are many other detectors available and you will get many good opinions here, you want to find gold and hunt for coins, jewelry and hunt relics the 5000 will do that of course as will as other detectors. If you could tell us a little more about you and your situation, general areas you want to hunt, your experience using a detector and do you have locations in mind you plan to hunt and the type of gold people are finding you will get information more specific to your needs, also your budget how much is your limit and do you have local dealers for support and training. Have you thought about two detectors the types of items you want to hunt for are different and different detectors work better than others in different situations. Good luck in your endeavors.

I'm heading to Tent Stake Island in a month 😬

CPT, Gave every level of AR a shot and adjusted other settings in conjunction with the AR variation…. No change in the masking. I’m sure this is an XP engineering issue and only they will be able to address it. Now the larger question is, when and if they can fix the masking issue, will the fix break something else….this is always, or at least frequently the risk you incur with software manipulation.

I think someone was playing with developer tools, you can make a website say whatever you want, editing it and then they just screen captured their edit.... I just edited this page to show it, took a minute or two

Yes I found the 14"×9" disappointing as well. Good ground coverage for patch hunting. It can get over a fair bit of ground in a day. Found a nice little patch of species just below some old reef workings with it. But every time I look at it I think why would someone ruin a perfectly good 14" round coil by shaving the sides off it LOL.

The Axiom is an updated ATX, with everything you described except a lower price.

The sense I get is that with a machine that needs to settle down multiple FQ's and a lot of power, the signal needs to be heavily processed / modultated. Everything is "brought down." You are hearing more of a proxy. This makes iron falses sound not too far from a good signal--even clean sometimes. A way had to be found to make this machine more accessable to newer hunters who are getting fooled by spikes and other iron . An "Enhanced" style audio feature (stabilizer) acts to make them more distinguishable. My one problem with"Enhanced " is that it makes everything sound more the same--the fullness and detail of the audio is lost. This is kind of a re -purposing. One change I did suggest in my book was a more accessable Recovery Speed in that this is such a critical adjustment in obtaining a balanced signal. I also like that the "dual indication ie red / black" red iron indicator (instead of just the red line) will help us to narrow in on non-ferrous targets in dense iron. Who knows it might even be faster / more sensitive than the audio. We used to do this with the DFX--look for numbers flashing on the screen that the audio circuit would not pick up on....I will be incorporating some notes on this upgrade into the new book as I test it more and see what others think. cjc

YAY they listened and fixed the small gold sensitivity, at least according to the firmware update, time to find out. Their update tools are fantastic, well made and you have no fear of bricking your detector like some other detectors on the market as the flash tool can recover the detector if anything goes wrong with the flash like your computer loses power or you knock out the magnetic USB connector, worst case scenario you lose any saved settings. The small gold sensitivity on some quick testing does indeed seem improved, excellent that was one of my biggest issues, I really like that. I haven't had a chance to test target ID stability yet as I'll have to go out and find some coins to see and it's night time and well below 0 outside so I'll wait 🙂 I'm impressed so far, love the red ID's for iron, love the clear target map on the 2D screen feature. All in all a fantastic update by the looks of it, I'm super happy Minelab listened on the small gold as many thought it was fine and the same as the Equinox, I was confident it was not and contacted them about resolving it which thankfully it appears they have. Thank you Minelab.

More than likely the feds and the tax man. Then there are property owners and thieves even though no one with a lick of sense would keep such items at home.Their fifteen minutes of fame so to speak could cause a poo storm.

Simon , smokey prospecting has a utube video comparing the two with interesting results 🤔

My OCD just prevents me from not pointing this out, but for accuracy sakes, the ML-105’s that come with the Manticore also pair with the X-Terra Pro, but as you say, both the ML-85’s and ML-105’s are basically unobtainium as standalone accessories right now, and when available, the ML-105’s price point as an accessory will likely be even worse than that anticipated for the ML-85’s. Alternatively, a plug in APTX-LL transmitter and compatible APTX-LL phones can probably be obtained for less than half of what ML will likely charge for the ML-85’s if one prefers a wireless configuration for their X-Terra Pro nugget slayer. But yeah, the accessories will drive the price to the point where other detectors begin to become relevant considerations. FWIW

No, I get nothing regardless of notch/no notch or disc.

I would not have shown this. Problems will soon arise. Great finds for sure.

I will suggest that the unmasking difference between the two programs has to do with how the SMF is weighted & processed. Even if you have the same max kHz setting, the Sensitive program will favor the higher end of the spectrum as opposed to the General program. Higher frequencies do not normally hit coins as hard but do hit ferrous harder than lower frequencies. The 2D air test is not hard. The 3D in ground with 5" between the 2 targets is hard for most any detector, even in mild soil. I have experimented a good bit on at depth 3D masking. If ferrous trash, multi frequency is the way to go for sure. The lower weighted mix the better. There is also a sweet spot on reactivity/recovery and careful coil control is needed in interrogating a suspect target. I also find that being able to hear the iron and the higher conductor interact under the coil is helpful. TID will jumpy but not too wild. Al trash and high mineralization is a whole other ballgame. You may want to try using the lowest Max Freq possible on the Beach Sensitive(and General) and play with the Reactivity some more. Let us know your results as this applies to all detectors and types of sites.

There is zero reason for any of you guys to be interested in or care about the Xterra Pro for nugget detecting. It’s not a sales pitch. Use what you already have, which is no doubt better. For those who do have one or are interested in trying one, I’d use the 6” round coil, or 5x10 Coiltek. Best place to start would be Fine Jewelry mode. Reduce the Recovery Speed if in relatively trash free, milder ground. Go slow, keep the coil to the ground, dig all targets unless in heavy trash. I’d stick with All Tones and not be tempted to notch out ferrous, which is the better way to go in the long run, as you are alerted to all targets, and can investigate those suspicious ferrous indications that might turn out to actually be non-ferrous. If you notch stuff out, you’ll never know it was there. Last resort if you have to though, or for those who just can’t stand hearing it all. Hint when using full tones: keep the volume low in target rich locations so as to not flood your ears and brain with too many loud signals. I found plenty of gold with the 13 kHz Fisher F75 and any detectorist with any real chops should be able to do so with a 15 kHz XTerra Pro. I’m not saying it’s the best option, but I’d not discount it out of hand either. Anything that gives people with limited incomes access to this hobby is fine by me. I do like that it uses coils I already have, and costs no more than just another coil! Be a great second machine and loaner for any Equinox owner.

Neither Discrimination nor Notch made any difference with the masking issue. Since no matter what we do anyway the masking will still be there, we just prefer silent search and not hearing the occasional iron. If we can somehow overcome the masking one of these days, that would certainly be much preferred. However, like you and I discussed, it seems this is a question better suited for an XP engineer to tackle. 😉

Bleep yeah ! It probably ID'd the same as a pulltab !🙄

I usually don't post a lot of my finds, but seeing the Manticore is new to everyone I want to get the word out as to its capabilities. This hollow, 14K gold earring was found in the saltwater using the surf mode with a sensitivity at 21. It wasn't deep and was found in the first scoop with an ID of 2. I was surprised how well it sounded off when the coil went over it, seeing it is only one-half gram and the loop was open. The gold earring is on the bottom of the photo, with some junk stuff on top. It hit pretty good on the studs also.

Air tests are cool, just like air guitars. I've never found a target in the air. But did find a several small nuggets in a blown over tree stump a couple feet off the ground. Maybe that counts as a air test.

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.