Jeff McClendon

The phrase "better compatibility with your devices" refers to the AccuPOINT pinpointer wirelessly pairing with all Legend models and the most recent 15 kHz Simplex models. I assume it will also pair with the new Score and Double Score models too. Your uninstall all previous update tools suggestion is a good one. I always do that whether I am using a Mac or PC just to be safe and to get the latest update tool. I have several current computers that have successfully downloaded and installed software updates on my updatable detectors. I offered to do that for D Smith's Legends. Maybe he will take me up on that offer.

I had to solder loose battery terminals on my Lobos too. Just part of life with a detector with old solder joints.

I am really glad that there are university archeology departments that are willing to employ the use of metal detectors for some of their projects. That is a big improvement and helps with the negative opinion that some "professionals" have held about using metal detectors for easy metallic object recovery during university or historical society sponsored projects. I like the Lobo Super Traqs. I owned the Lobo and the Super Traq. They are very sensitive on smaller targets from my experience and easy to use. However, parts availability, coil availability, weight,............there are so many comparable detectors available right now that are every bit as good or way better than the Lobo. I have worked with Colorado State University on a few projects. The times that archeology students and their advisors arrived with metal detectors to help those of us that metal detect for real, those people showed up with old, beat up Bounty Hunter Tracker 4s because someone in the department had recommended that detector! We had Equinox and Deus detectors. They found next to nothing. We (7 people) found over 400 period legitimate targets in two 8 hour days of detecting. In all, we recovered over 4000 targets during the Julesburg Project. How would those students do with several $259 Minelab X-Terra Pros...........Just something to think about.

If you happen to have a pencil with eraser, an eraser can clean off any scum or buildup of crud too.

Bill, I really enjoyed reading your post and I agree with most of it. Bill, these sentences are about me by the way: "They are constantly searching for the one detector that will do it all and are discouraged that it doesn't exist. They are consumed with the idea that they are missing good targets, insisting on searching in all metal in trashed-filed parks so they don't miss the "carpet of gold" that is hidden below the layer of foil and tabs." I haven't been able to find "the One". I have four VLFs right now that come pretty close. I definitely hunt those four in almost all metal (I notch out the two or three lowest iron numbers to take care of magnetite) and I definitely hunt a lot of full auto machine gun fire carpeted levels of aluminum and steel trashed parks and school yards where the amount of targets I hear is impossible to count even in a minute of detecting. And yet, I am having my best year ever both for the amount of US clad, silver jewelry and especially deeper silver coins. Gold jewelry has fallen off a little but it's still happening. I have already found more in the ten months of this year than I did all of last year and I was out of commission for the entire month of January. I did better last year than the year before and I couldn't walk during most of November and December of 2022. Ever since I got my hands on an Equinox, my finds have steadily increased, not decreased and these newer detectors like Deus 2, Manticore and the Legend just keep finding deeper, good quality targets even through a sea of modern trash. That Is what saddens me or at least makes me feel weird. I am cleaning up with the same detectors, running the same software, on deep targets in way worse ground conditions than many of those that are reporting depth issues.

Hi Joe, I think some of this lack of depth perception can be lack of deep targets related, weather and seasonal changes, grass is taller in the spring and summer.......stuff like that. I have to say however, at least where I hunt, these newer detectors are absolutely amazing compared to what at the time were outstanding single frequency VLFs that I used even 10 years ago.

Simon, thank you for answering these questions so carefully. I literally am just a digital electronics end user with zero experience beyond ancient analog/beginnings of digital component experience where I literally had to physically set binary switches on simple PC boards, replace easy to handle board level parts and run crude spectrum analyzers back in the early 1980s, day after day. So, could software after its loaded into a modern metal detector or the detector's memory integrity degrade quickly enough to cause some of these issues?

I visit several Facebook (Meta) group specific VLF detector sites along with making it a point to regularly come to this awesome forum while also checking in over at Friendly. I am saddened by what I see being reported as depth issues after performing online available software updates for detectors like Deus 2, Equinox 600/800 and of course, everyones whipping post, the Legend. I have not been to a Manticore Facebook site yet. Maybe there are depth issues being reported there too. I am sure there will be similar issues with the Equinox 700/900 if there ever is an update. I am saddened because being able to do an online software update is one of the real advantages of these detectors that are offered by their engineering teams. Plus, these really are state of the art, excellent detectors. It also saddens me because after reading these reports, I wonder if there is something wrong with my software updated detectors, the software itself, the downloaded update tool or are there different board level components or different main PC boards being implemented by some of these manufacturers post production due to supply chain issues that simply work better than the original parts/boards or just the opposite. My last reasonable wondering is: are the variables in computers and their capabilities, operating systems, firewalls, virus prevention software along with the differing quality of various internet data services just too big of a hurdle for these company's software engineers to plan for properly? Then there is the remote possibility which is just nuts.........are these companies trying to sabotage each others detectors online by infecting each others software and update tools or is there a third party source for this malign behavior. Please tell me that is not going on. There certainly are a few unfortunate people like D. Smith on this forum and his Legend issues which are real. There seem to be others that simply are setting up their detectors to fail judging from their postings and supporting videos which usually show improper settings for the task they are trying to do. Then there is the piling on/placebo effect. Just to put my mind at ease, I took both of my Legends, Manticore, Equinox 800 and Deus 2 with their biggest 11" coils out to my test area to detect some 8"+ deep in the ground small high conductor US coin targets. Even in their most basic/conservative settings BUT with lowered iron filter/iron bias settings and with the iron target IDs/audio accepted, they easily and fairly equally hit all of those targets. Whooooh, that feels better.

REM sleep for me......

I can only speak for myself. I liked the 900 for saltwater beach hunting, for gold prospecting and for any kind of detecting where digging basically every signal was OK. For any kind of coin, jewelry or relic hunting where digging every signal was absolutely not OK or literally impossible and where precision of target IDs, audio responses using multi tones and estimated target depth were the most important features needed, the two Nox 900s that I owned and used for 4 months and over 100 hours of use, were a messy nightmare. If Minelab does an Equinox 700/900 update, I hope they will address some of the instability issues I experienced both for target IDs and audio anomalies. I am not seeing any of these issues with the Manticore that I have been using for the last week.

my bad, trying to do two things at once is not good for this old head.

I was doing a Deus 2 project for someone else at the same time. Thanks for catching that. I'll fix it.

I have recovered around 100 US coins so far with the Manticore but have mostly been concentrating on copper pennies, clad dimes and quarters with around 10 nickels. Most have been in the 4 to 6" depth range but a few of the high conductors have been as deep as 8 to 10". At the 8 to 10" depth target ID spread will get wider in the dirt I hunt in but audio still stays mostly within the tone bin with an occasional drop below 77. Deeper nickels also have stayed in the 16 digit tone bin I set for them from 21 to 36. I basically discount the wild zinc penny target IDs if they have some depth and especially corrosion. With these much more powerful, sensitive, and less stable simultaneous multi frequency VLF detectors like the Manticore, Deus 2, Legend and Nox 700/900, I really concentrate on coil control and on not fully deciding on dig/no dig on deeper targets until I have onboard pinpointed the target and centered the coil over the target. The Manticore's pinpoint function is outstanding and makes that really easy. I get pretty tight numbers circling deeper US high conductor coin targets after doing that so far. I have not dug any deep iron yet. Maybe I am being too conservative.

So far, I am using AT General, 5 tones and I am seeing no more than a 4 target ID spread once the coil is properly centered over the targets on targets deeper than 5". The 8 to 10" high conductor targets I have dug have had slightly wider numbers but still stay within the high conductor 5th tone bin. My high tone bin starts at 77 for high conductor coins and jewelry. I am going to totally defer to ABenson for any gold info since he has an 8" coil and is doing very well with it judging from his latest video of his trip to Nevada. I am trying to get down to Arizona the second week of November with the Axiom, Manticore, Nox 800 and Legend for a short gold prospecting trip if the weather cooperates.

The “perceived” target ID stability advantage of the Nox 600/800 over the Nox 700/900/Manticore is one of three pluses for the Nox 600/800. The other two are the situation with wireless audio options and the current available coil options for the Manticore specifically. Otherwise, I definitely prefer the Manticore over the 600/800 and the 700/900.

I read it. His soil is both iron and alkaline rich. My soil is just plagued by magnetite. The Equinox 800/'s 40 non ferrous target IDs versus the Manticore having 99 non-ferrous target IDs.......the Nox 800 will win that comparison every time. Equinox 700/900 versus the Manticore having the same 99 non ferrous target IDs, the Manticore wins that from my limited experience with two 900s and this Manticore. Just being slightly cynical, maybe that was Minelab's target ID stability plan using this progression. The X-Terra Pro, Nox 700, Nox 900 and if you really need fairly stable target IDs at multiple depths and in multiple ground/beach conditions, you need to go with the Manticore.

Hi Chuck, so far, target IDs away from a lot of EMI are very stable at the three parks I have been to here with sensitivity between 20 and 24. I did turn on the red iron numbers, so this Manticore has the latest update installed. Today, I took this Manticore to a park that both of the Equinox 900s I owned/used absolutely hated. With the 900 at this park running very conservative, stable settings like Park 1, sensitivity on 20 to 24, recovery speed 5, F2 iron bias on 0 or 1, I could detect high conductor US copper penny or clad dime targets that seemed to be on the surface due to triple beep per sweep audio responses and target IDs from the mid 60s to 99. Those coins were not detectable with my Tek Point pinpointer set for 4" depth. They were 5" deep US copper pennies and clad dimes. The Manticore showed none of that behavior at the same park, similar dirt conditions and the same 4 to 6" deep copper penny and clad dime targets. They single beeped and had rock solid target IDs between 78 and 82. Any coin sized target that the Manticore triple beeped on per sweep was on or within 2" of the surface. That basically settles it for me. I am a new Manticore owner.

Thanks Dave, I’ve only had time for two short hunts but I am already super impressed. I had a situation today where there was a Corona crown bottle cap about 3” deep. It was showing red and black target ID numbers along with a major swoosh target trace with typical 60 target ID spread numbers and audio. I could also clearly hear what sounded like at least two clad dimes or copper pennies at about the same depth. Turned out to be three clad dimes and the Corona cap all under the 11” coil and in a tight 6” area. I could hear two of the dimes and that bottle cap plain as day. I was just using 5 tone AT General with no fancy settings. Amazing.

My last remaining Nox 800 is going to get a well earned rest. Maybe I'll use it once a month. Since I got rid of my GPX 6000, I was basically without a Minelab so, time for the Manticore. I have basically stayed out of the Manticore ruckus as much as possible. So I don't know if this Manticore has the July update which included the stability feature. I also don't know if that feature is On or Off in default All Terrain General. I haven't done any digging around in the user interface. I really like everything about the Manticore except once again, Minelab's choice for a shaft system. If even just the upper rod was grooved on one side, the shaft would not twist so easily even after adjusting the quick release tension. Other than that, what a super nice, ergonomic detector with a fantastic display and user interface.

I received a Minelab Manticore today from Gerry at Gerry's Detectors in Boise ID. Really fast shipping and its always been fun to do business with Gerry. Thank You! I had just about an hour to do a quick park hunt in Denver. The ground was slightly moist and this park is moderately iron mineralized and halfway fills a Deus, Deus 2 and Legend iron mineralization meter. So enough to make a decent simultaneous multi frequency VLF detector a must have unless one is just looking for something dropped yesterday. I powered up the Manticore, paired the ML 105s, chose stock All Terrain General, chose 5 tones, did a ground balance which ended up on 7, did a noise cancel even though there wasn't much EMI, raised sensitivity to 24 and started detecting. My first target had rock solid, single beep per sweep audio with target ID 78 to 81 and the target was just beginning to activate my Tek Point pinpointer which is set to 4" depth on coin sized targets. It was a 4" deep US copper Memorial penny. Definitely no big deal except........the first target I recovered with my Equinox 900 (also purchased from Gerry back in late December 2022) was a US copper penny. It was about 5" deep, it had extremely jumpy audio, was triple beeping on each sweep and had target IDs jumping from 68 to 99. Things went level to very downhill from there between the Equinox 900 and me. I sold it in April 2023 after being fed up. At least the Manticore behaved nicely compared to the Equinox 900 on a very similar target at very similar depth. Chalk up a definite win for the Manticore. My very next target also had a solid, single beep per sweep but slightly fainter audio response, target IDs from 76 to 81 and seemed to be a bit deeper. I figured it was either another copper penny or a clad dime. After digging down to 6" depth, I couldn't find the target. My Tek-Point was going off on it but I couldn't locate it. I kept digging and finally got frustrated. I was looking for a coin which was my mistake. This 8" deep target turned out to be a tiny 0.6 gram sterling silver religious medallion and it was on edge, not laying flat. The photo shows it next to a normal sized sunflower seed kernel. To say I was super impressed with how the Manticore in default All Terrain General detected that tiny target at 8" depth would be a huge understatement. I was shocked and amazed. So, another huge win for the Manticore which I definitely LIKE. I can't say that I ever liked the Equinox 900 unfortunately. I tolerated it at most. I absolutely loved the Equinox 600/800 from the moment I first powered it up. I waited until well after the first update for the Manticore (which included the increased sensitivity of the Goldfield mode) to even consider buying one. Now with the 8" coil seemingly on the horizon, I went ahead a picked one up. My Nox 800 deserves a nice rest, while the Nokta Legend, Deus 2 and now the Manticore do their thing. Hoping for many more finds with the Manticore.

That "Say Goodbye To EMI" title for Gary's "Combat EMI With The Deus ll" video is very unfortunate. It was probably added to this video by a marketing person at XP. Garry never mentions "say goodbye to EMI" in his video since he knows that is not going to happen. He does say combat EMI multiple times. Deus 2 has 6 increments of frequency shift for each single frequency or simultaneous multi frequency combination. It's simply not enough to make a huge difference. However, after using a Deus 2 for quite awhile now, I have never had to go nuclear and switch to the Mono program because of EMI. Deus 2 is chatty anyway and is capable of having a robust noise floor by design, so those wanting or needing silent search probably picked the wrong detector.

I have used the Equinox 800/900 and the Legend running 1.11 software at both of the locations where this dirt comes from and found sub gram gold and low conductor targets with them. The Colorado dirt will make all of those type of targets have iron responses if they are deeper than 1" or so. The Legend and Equinox 800/900 will hit all of the targets in this test easily with the 0.1 gram or smaller targets at 2" or less and the 0.25 and 0.75 gram type targets having real world depth numbers similar to the TDI's results. Both of those Multi VLFs have to be run in their prospecting modes with all targets accepted, with iron bias set as low as possible and with recovery speeds set on 4 or 5 at least. I keep a US copper Memorial penny with me for sites that have dirt like this. At 4" depth and even less, that high conductor penny sounds like iron with target IDs that are near or at the bottom of the iron target ID range using the Equinox 800/900 and the Legend. It's not their fault. In the Arizona dirt those same type of targets can be detected with the Equinox 800/900 and Legend with similar depths as the TDI but the 0.1 gram and even smaller low conductor targets will be easy to detect with those Multi VLFs plus in the Arizona dirt those Multi VLFs are likely to display really good low conductor target IDs instead of the iron range target IDs caused by the Colorado dirt..

Difficult vs Normal on the Colorado dirt would be my preference. However, my main concern at the place where I did the test was EMI. Normal was a bit quieter than Difficult.......go figure. If there had been little or no EMI, I could have run the GPX 6000 at Manual 8 at least and those results would have been even better for sure.

Hi Jim, I did not say that the TDI Pulse Scan modded by Reg was running at 14.4V. I used the nominal voltage written on the Whites battery to make sure that readers of this post knew that the TDI I was using was a big box TDI and not an SL. I charged up the battery using the stock Whites charger. Where that charger cuts off is the amount of voltage that the battery being used was charged to. I have had an SL fry on me using jacked up batteries. I am not doing that anymore. This was not an air test. The 0.1 gram gold nugget target was detectable by the TDI with the Sadie coil using those settings in air testing. This was an in the ground test using containers of very mineralized dirt with plenty of magnetite particles and volcanic material. I did not try to make the TDI I was testing look bad. However, its single channel ground balance system could not handle those dirt samples as well as the other two detectors.

I have used the Relic program for a lot of things but not for saltwater beaches. I have used it at freshwater beaches for relics and deep coins. At least the way I understand it, the default Relic program is for deeper and small coins (US dime) and larger type targets. It is pretty blind to small targets below a gram in weight. So for a well rounded, detect anything easily program, Relic would not be my choice if I was just going to hit an area only once for instance. Goldfield, since the V2.0 software update is much more sensitive to smaller sub gram targets than any other program on Deus 2 except for the Mono program running 40+kHz. But I wouldn't consider Goldfield for going deep however. If I was looking for really small, shallower jewelry targets anywhere including dry salt sand, running Goldfield might be something I would try or the Sensitive program in Pitch, not Relic. For damp or wet salt sand for a wide range of target sizes, conductivities and depth, Beach Sensitive would be my choice if it can handle the salt/black sand conditions.