Hunterjunk

Good first up report . Definitely noticing greater depth here on my heavily hunted beaches compared to the Nox .

Aint maths grand ! I divided 35 by 25 = 1.4 , 1.4 x 17[Nox] = 23.8[Manti 24] From what I am seeing on my beaches though I think the Manti is another beast altogether when sens hits from 28 to 35 . There is more power there but most times it cannot be used . I have one beach only where I can run over 30 . I have tried 35 on this beach and it's do'able but 32 is more comfortable . 35 found large deep iron where I had never seen any before . A few of my beaches can be hunted with the Nox at 25 , the Manti is ok on these at 26-27 .

Thanks . Have not tried Beach low conductors yet , only high and deep . I hunt wet sand mostly and even ventured out into knee deep surf using Beach deep and still finding it usable , a bit noisy but real targets stand out . Will try your audio suggestion . Plenty of learning left in this machine yet !

Quite aware of the sens ranges of both machines . That was not the point . The aim was to see how the Manticore performed on small gold . As I said , I could have run the Manti at a higher sens as it was handling the town EMI better than the Nox . The Nox was unusable at higher than 17 with the Manti starting to get noisy at 19-20 . I also doubt that Nox 17 and Manti 24 are truly relative . A simple division of 35 divided by 25 does not allow for any extra power to the coil and says they have just spread out the sensitivity scale . From my small test I think the Manti would have out performed the Nox if I cranked it up . Any way real world detecting in the bush will be the real test and that won't be happening until a smaller coil becomes available .

Approaching 40 hours beach hunting with the Manticore . Starting to like the machine and have some faith in it . Still using stock programs as I consider myself to be a babe in the woods still with this machine . Reread the manual last night and it all makes more sense now so will start playing with a few settings . I am really liking Beach Deep , with the All Metal horseshoe on . All Metal is giving me plenty of info about bottle tops , to the point now that I really don't have to dig any more of them . Depth on the beach is great , and battery life is good with 5 hour hunts barely moving the battery level indicator . Would feel even more confident about the machine if I could just blood it with some gold but it's pretty scarce around here . Photos of various hunt results .

Tried the Manticore on a couple of nuggies on the front lawn today . I fired up the Nox 800 first using gold 1 and the Coiltec 10x5 . Town EMI would not let me run the Nox at any higher gain than 17 , and that was noisy . Used goldfield general on the Manticore sens 17 , and of course the M 11 coil . I could have run the Manticore a couple notches higher but wanted to keep things as equal as possible . The bigger nugget was detectable by both machines at near 4 inches . The Nox had a clear advantage of about one inch on the tiny nuggie while the Manticore could barely see it at one inch . Tried all the other modes and interestingly found that Beach deep was almost as good as the goldfield mode . A smaller coil on the Manti' and we might just be able to use some of that claimed extra power in the field as it was much better at handling the EMI . Targets used .

When I ordered my Manticore 2nd Sept. I also ordered the extra coils and lower shafts . At this time Miners Den in Bendigo still cannot give me a time frame for delivery , nor price . No doubt they will be expensive !

Longest hunt with mine so far is a 3 hour night hunt , using headphones , low screen light . Very pleased to see the battery level had lowered very little . Great to be able to drop the the screen light so low . Only a red backlight would have been better .

A few target tests . These were done on my lawn , so not air tests but certainly surface tests . Tried low and high conductor on all targets . There appeared to be a one digit difference in target number . The thinnest ring would not register at all when on high conductor but came up Ok on low , albeit with a very low number , junk target tone , but good target trace . Of note is the very low V.D.I's when the ring is broken . Also plain bands give a perfect circle on TT but when they have a larger area on one side like a signet ring then TT is a circle with a smudge to one side . With the silly season in full swing I am struggling to find time to get in the field for some real hunting .

Max sens is 25 on the beach here in the couple of spots I have tried . At that level it's noisy , any more it gets really cranky and e.m.i. becomes an issue too .

Another short hunt in a flogged area last night . Tried out just using the TT system and found it can be tricked by certain targets . Coins really sound great though . In the pic below there is a half silver ring . I was impressed by the depth of this target and while target trace was poor at best the signal was tight with a great tone . While the target id was only 22 it was a signal you have to dig . The pull tabs ID'd from 30 right through to 42 depending on size depth and orientation which is a bit more than I hoped for . On the plus side they signal with a very bright tone and doing 180 degree opposed swings most showed some irregularity on target trace so with experience most will be eliminated . Loving the adjustable screen lighting that goes to a much lower light level than the Nox . Noticed that Gerry in his great post did not mention any coil bolt loosening . Mine will come loose through coil movement so have used a small cable tie as per photo below . Very much enjoying the grip shape as opposed to the Nox .

Always interested in other peoples ID numbers , I think they vary a little due to mode used and ground value . I have found one Sovereign and a half with the Nox . The Sov. in ground was a 17 , 17 , 18 signal while my half was a solid 15 in ground and out . Mt two Sov's are a solid 18 out of ground . A gold Guinea I found was a solid 18 in ground . I will test these with the Manticore and post the results in this topic area .

A great report with great results ! All of your skills on display .

Wow ! This sort of got out of control . I was not expecting much comment so really surprised . Lot's of opinions about . Eisenhower's quote about opinions on the eve of the D day landings comes to mind ! My post was in no way meant to knock the machine , Minelab , or their engineers but does reflect my experiences over the last 12 years of detecting . I have owned and used various Whites , Makro , Nokta and Minelab machines and have had very few problems until receiving one of the first Nox 800's in Aust . While the Nox is a wonderful machine for making finds my breakage list reads like the "Who's who" of detector failures . Hence my observations about the Manticore , they are not predictions and I hope the machine is trouble free . I guess I qualify as one of the "weed wackers" as 75% of my hunting is in thick scrub on 1800's mine sites . Arm breaking hunts of 6 to 9 hours are the norm for me and as a self funded retiree I get out more than most . I have had coil lead failures on Detech and Minelab coils only so am wary of thin flexible cables in heavy going . My trade was fitter machinist / tool maker with maintenance of injection molds being part of my work . My opinion only but I would not design the ears the way they are . I see one opinion is that this gives some flexibility . To me flexibility means more bending of the plastic which can only end in failure . I have some industrial nylon that will machine up into a strong ear replacement . Managed to get out for a quick 1.5 hour beach hunt last night . The state of the tide left me few options so hunted a very trashy and noisy area . Could only hunt at a maximum gain of 25 and there was plenty of moaning at this level but I always run my machines hot and use my ears as a filter . Metallic items came through the background clearly and the target trace seems quite good . For those that don't like to tighten their coil bolt much you will probably have to put a small cable tie etc. through the coil bolt to ears as my bolt worked loose twice . As with any new machine there is a learning curve . The results below are from the most basic settings and understanding of the machine . Dug some junk just to check out the target trace system . For purely coin shooting I think the target trace will be great . Apart from the ferrous indication though it's not something for relic hunting . Very pleased to get a junk ring and some coins from this spot with a pre decimal 1955 sixpence very welcome . Some good times to come with this machine and I hope you all get yours soon . Merry Xmas .

With many of you in the US getting closer to having a Manticore in your hands , have a look at my pic below of the shaft ears . I received my machine a week ago and still have not found time to take it for a hunt yet . I keep looking at the shaft ears and wondering why they are so long and thin ? Surely the excessive length just adds to leverage forces that will place added stress on those 90 degree bends ? It will be interesting to see peoples opinions as the machines roll out . Also the coil cable is very thin at 2mm thinner than the superbly armored Nokta Simplex coil lead . The sexy rough textured carbon shafts look like they will hold grime very well too . Otherwise the machine strikes me as a fine piece of kit and I hope to get a hunt in tomorrow night .

No rubber in sight , but some very fine historical buttons though !

Pre orders are being filled in Aust . Would be interesting to get some idea of the numbers . Mine is in the mail so should have it next week .

Nah Axiom won't work in Tasmania ! Send me one Garrett and I will try to prove myself wrong . I dare you !

Most gold bearing ground in Tassie is hard going for a detector . We grow scrub , lot's of it ! I am always watching for a bushfire to open up ground for relics and gold . A good hot fire will give about 12 months access before bracken regrowth makes for hard swinging again . Even ground that looks fairly open like some in the vid can have 6 _ 10 inches of leaf litter which knocks your detection depth way back .

Received an Email from Minelab early this week saying their Miners Den stores would be closed on the 18 - 20th of this month for staff to receive training on the Manticore . I am hoping that this means supply might not be far away . Fingers crossed !

Wow ! you found gold right there . Will look forward to his story . He looks very young in that photo .

Well said Steve , love how you don't go for any BS . Hope you have a blast over here and go home with over weight luggage .

Many months of hard usage have passed by with me using the 10x5 . Conclusion : I sold the 6" Minelab . For relic hunting the coverage and depth are vastly superior [ in my experience ] to the 6" . If chasing the smallest gold then the 6" is a winner , and the 5x10 suffers more emi . Small gold with the 5x10 .

I found an obviously old , brass ball a few years back , approx 1 inch dia. and had no idea what it had come from . A member on an Australian forum informed me it was from a steam valve . Just another possibility for your find !