abenson

Literally fired up the Manticore walked 30 feet got the first signal and out pops this 14k 1.7 gram ring at approximately 13" deep. Beach deep stock program sensitivity at 21. Got it on video which I will post on my channel at some point.

No I haven't. Seems like once you start digging though the signal gets more broken on iron.

Chuck I just meant at depth when a target it at the D2's detection limits, there is no ID. Where as the 900 is still flashing up numbers.

Once I get a Manticore, I don't see me buying another metal detector for a very long time. Anything released from this point forward is going to have to be pretty damn spectacular for me to want to purchase it. Time to learn what I have and get really proficient with them. All the latest VLF's that have hit the market by XP, Minelab and Nokta Makro are going to make it a real uphill battle for Fisher and Garrett IMO. Which is too bad.

Sorry Chuck I'm not Jeff but I'll thought I would throw out some things I'm noticing between the two. First the VDI scale is different for both. The Deus 2 high conductors are getting compressed in the top 10 numbers which I really don't like. I've had quarters read as high as 96 on the D2, so where does that put halves and dollars? You have copper pennies, dimes, quarters, halves and dollars all in the last 10 digits. The 900 on the other hand has a much bigger spread for high conductors about 20 points. That being said, for high conductors my observation so far is the D2 locks on silver dimes pretty dang good 91-93 usually and silver quarters 94-96. Have not dug a half yet with the D2, I fell like the D2 target ID holds true a little better at depth than the 900. The ID just goes away once it's out of range on the D2. For the 900, what I have witnessed so far is quarters and halves are locking right on even at depth. Dimes and pennies on the other hand are all over the place. I've had pennies come in all the way from mid 60's to mid 70's Dime I've had read any where from mid 70"s to mid 80's. And then nickels 23-27 on the 900, 60-65 depending on the nickel for the D2. Kind of sucks trying to remember what reads what on the 2 when you use one day and the next use the other. That being said and I've said it before, the type of hunting I do I'm going to dig practically anything over 20 on the 900 and 50 on the D2. And gold nugget hunting I dig even lower numbers on both.

Distributors must have received a bunch because dealers are starting to ship Manticore's now as well. I'll wait not going to pay $140 in sales tax on Cabelas site.

Wow nice haul!

Yea I get it. I owned a fly fishing shop from 1995 to 2000. Same thing happened in that industry too and happens in every industry eventually. If you had a specialty fly shop you had the elite brands the big box stores couldn't get. Fly shops offered the best service for both the beginner and the advanced fly fisherman. Personal service from someone who actually fly fished. That all changed over time and now you have all the big box stores with the elite brands being sold by people who don't know a thing about fly fishing (with exceptions) to people who don't know what they need or want. Same thing is happening with the metal detecting industry. Dealers will eventually disappear and when we have watched all the latest YouTube videos about the latest and greatest metal detector we want, we can wander into Walmart and ask an associate where the metal detectors are, and they will say what's a metal detector?

Too bad the big box stores are getting the bulk of the newly released metal detectors these days. You'd think Minelab would want to get them out to dealers that have potentially 100's of people on pre-order lists first. When the Vanquish came out I walked into a Dicks sporting goods store and bought one off the shelf before dealers got any.

I'm not a fan of the 99 target ID's to begin with, I liked the compressed Nox 800 ID's better. But that just my preference. On the Nox 800 you could expect of spread of 2-3 at the most. But on the 900 I'm seeing as much as a 10 number difference one way or the other. High conductors are not the issue I've dug several 12" quarters and a half at the beach that were within 1 or 2 numbers of what they read in the air. Nickels on the other hand have been all over the place 23-29 at depth. But it really is no concern to me as I don't park hunt much and I'm going to dig practically anything that is a positive number beach, gold or relic hunting.

From what I saw it's a winner at the saltwater beaches. Not sure how it would compare to a GPX 4500 or 5000. I may have to borrow a 4500 from my friend the next time we go out and bury some nickels at different depths just to see. Might even take the 6000 along as well. Not to prove one is better than the other but just to put things in perspective for those that are interested. My gut feeling is the Axiom and 4500 would be very close. We already know a dime at about 14" is no problem for both the Axiom and the Equinox 900 with the 12x15 coil. I would guess from past experience with PI's at the GSL it will pickup a nickel at 16 or 17". I will at some point post the video we did of the Axiom and Equinox going over different targets but will start a different thread.

Wow nice bunch of finds!

Sorry should have mentioned the coil. It was the DD 11x13 I believe that's the size

UtahRich and I went to the GSL beach yesterday for about 4 hours. He was swinging the Axiom and I was swinging the Equinox 900. Hopefully he'll add his thoughts. I think the settings he settled on were Salt mode, speed slow and sensitivity jumping between 3 and 4. Axiom ran good and we compared a lot of targets. I was very impressed with the depth it was getting. We both found some good targets it was good to see the Axiom in action at the beach.

I would run speed slow. If it's anything like the 5000 a slower motion will allow less EMI to enter. It may have no correlation at all to the 5000 but you can try it and see what happens. Also most saltwater beaches I could run the 5000 in normal and even sharp sometimes. So it's possible you could run the Axiom in normal or large and get decent results. The only place I ever had to run salt mode on the GPX is the Great Salt Lake. But even then some places closer to inlet I could run it in normal.

I could have ordered one just before Christmas and again last Thursday between Christmas and New Years. What happens is if they get a bunch in stock they will come up in search. If you add to cart and it doesn't change to currently out of stock they have them to ship. Once they are out, it will change to out of stock but they will eventually just take them back off the site. Seems like they are getting some every few weeks.

I could have bought a Manticore twice from Cabelas in the past 3 weeks. But I passed. IMO if you have a 900 and a D2 you're not going to gain much with the Manticore. That being said I'm still planning on getting one at some point.

There were about 4 of those being used at DIV, they seemed to do just fine there.

Nice bunch of silver!

Thanks Jeff for your info on DP tones as that is something I have not experimented with yet. The results speak for themselves I will definitely be trying DP tones the next time I'm able.

Some of the videos I've seen it appears the 900 handles EMI better than the Manticore and vise a versa. So I think that is where some of the confusion is coming from. I may have a Manticore in the next few weeks. But right now we have 9" of snow on the ground so I don't know that I will get out using it even if it shows up.

I got tired of waiting on the Manticore myself. I will eventually get one, but I'm really liking the 900

Congratulations on the ring. The 5x10 coil is my favorite Nox coil, usually have it on for most of my hunts unless I'm in an open field.

In Arizona where the dirt is moderately mineralized i couldn't run the sensitivity above 22 without the machine being unstable. At levels above that, EMI wasn't the issue it was all the chatter from the ground that kept me from pushing it higher. On the 3 day gold hunt I did, I didn't have any issues with coil knock using the 6" coil.

I don't know that Minelab has said anything about the 900 being able to handle EMI better. But quite a few have assumed that it would. I don't see any difference. Congratulations on the frame buckle, hopefully you'll find the rest later. I think the D2 and 900 compliment each other very well. I like them both for different reasons.