Jeff McClendon

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.

The Axiom is already solid competition versus the GPX 6000 on small gold. Garrett coils for the Axiom in US$ are very reasonable as are the coil size and type choices. The 11X7” coils are very lightweight. I understand the 8” round DOD coil from X-Coils could really be an excellent size coil for many applications. Simon, just a guess, what would this coil cost? The 11X7” Garrett coils are $299 US. I also understand that X-Coils has relocated to Belarus……

Period, dot or point. In Nokta's case I would say it means "The Point".

duplicate sorry;

I was able to hold and mess around with an Accupoint at a recent detector club meeting. I did not find it to be heavy, big or awkward to use. I have trouble seeing some of the icons on the Legend screen and especially on the Deus 1 and Deus 2 audio modules/puck controllers. I had no problem seeing the screen icons and settings on the Accupoint. This was inside and away from sunlight. Might be different in full sun. I did not get a chance to test it against any other pinpointers. Some people complained about the price which looks like it will be $139 US. If this was just a "normal" featured pinpointer, I would agree. However, its pairing ability with the Legend and Simplex BT headphones, the brightly lit color display screen, iron discrimination, 20 kHz operating frequency and internal rechargeable battery, put it in a class that is only presently occupied by the $159 XP Mi-6 and the $129 Quest X-Pointer Max (haven't used the X-Pointer Max). I personally have owned two Mi-6s and got rid of them simply due to their inconsistent pairing/unpairing which made any kind of speedy target recovery impossible on a regular basis. Maybe their pairing consistency has improved with recent software updates. I did not find the Mi-6 to be anywhere near as deep in mineralized ground as the Fisher/Teknetics pulse induction pinpointers. I look forward to seeing how the Accupoint's 20 kHz operating frequency does on really small targets. Awesome write-up MFF18B!!

Welcome to this forum.

That is an interesting idea. I would even like to see a 30 or 40 kHz Gold Bug/F19 (F30 or F40!)/Teknetics G2+/Bounty Hunter Time Ranger Pro. As far as weight, the XP ORX or Deus 1 can run as high as 81 kHz and is way lighter than any gold prospecting specific detector available especially using the HF elliptical coil with the remote in one's pocket. In that configuration the ORX weighs less than 2 lbs (29 oz). So does Deus 1. Even Deus 2 with the stock shaft, not the Lite shaft and 9" coil weighs 30.3 oz with the remote removed.

The Nokta Legend did really well recently at a high altitude late 1800s site in Colorado. This site has a stone foundation, lots of iron and non-ferrous trash and high iron mineralization. I was lucky to recover these two targets since they did not have totally "clean" non-ferrous audio responses using the Legend in 2 tones Pitch audio and I had to investigate them thoroughly by going all the way around them. They were about 5" deep. The silver 1875 US Seated Dime is in okay shape. The brass insect pin with its double C shaped post and pin is correct for this site's 1860s to 1920s age. I have certainly never found anything like that insect pin but I don't have nearly as much experience as some of you with 1800s US relics. Anyone that knows more about these insect pins, please comment if you are willing.

I just remembered to check the software version that my Axiom is running and it’s running 1.47.0 so I guess I should update it……..?

Garrett’s site was down for about 36 hours. I was trying to download the Axiom manual. It came back up last night 10/10/23.

Actually, the Axiom using the smaller DD coil with sensitivity on 1 of 8, threshold set around 0, in Normal after doing a thorough noise cancel, runs plenty quiet enough in my basement to test relic, coin, nail and aluminum trash audio responses and even on sensitivity 1 it will hit a #6 shotgun pellet/0.1 gram piece of lead or gold swept very close to the center of the coil. I wouldn't try that with the Mono coil.

So far on those two dirt samples with those targets I agree. Very competitive for sure.

I realize I am late to the party as far as the Axiom. Some of this may have been said already. I haven't read every word or post about the Axiom on this forum yet. I want to say first that I have had a love hate relationship with the GPX 6000. I realize it may have been rushed to release during a world-wide pandemic. So were some other detectors. However, as much as I like the GPX 6000, it has always seemed to me to be a thrown together detector on the outside with some great software engineering on the inside. The flimsy stock coils, weird wobbly twisting won't lockup shaft system, uneven weight distribution, and the well documented audio/speaker/EMI issues just continue to make me wonder how many corners did Minelab have to cut on this detector. It still detects really well, no complaints there, when it can handle EMI conditions and is super, even hyper sensitive to small sub gram targets. I just needed something else that I can trust on deep coins and relics in high iron mineralization and at a saltwater beach along with some rudimentary iron discrimination. So, the Axiom. This is the first pulse induction detector that I have used that seems to be put together from the ground up, from the tip of the battery compartment to the toe of the coils with a complete design in mind. No "hey lets throw this component from this detector and this component from this detector and that battery compartment we already have with this shaft system" kind of mentality and cost cutting. It is a complete design build aside from the use of Garretts Z-Lynk wireless system which I simply do not care for and the shape of the control box which resembles the ACE Apex. I am super impressed and very delighted to see this from a detector company. Nokta came close with the Simplex/Legend but many of the exterior materials used for those two very budget minded detectors are nowhere near the quality of what is used on the Axiom and I would not expect them to be. I am still learning this detector after only a few days. It will take me awhile. What I can see immediately is that it is plenty sensitive to small sub gram gold, it can handle difficult ground conditions well and it has just about every operational feature I need laid out with a very uncomplicated user interface. The Axiom reminds me a lot of the GPX 4000 to GPX 5000 but with a much less complex and hard to access user interface. I can easily see that the Axiom will be much more suited to relic and deep coin hunting than the GPX 6000. I did a lot of testing on about 40 common relics with the 6000 using all of the timings and I never could find a consistent, easy to follow pattern (easy for me anyway) when changing from Mono to DD coils or even changing from Normal to Diffucult using the same type of coil as far as low-high-low or high-low-high audio characteristics. The Axiom does not have this issue. So far it has been very consistent in my preliminary testing on a few common relics and US coins. I am still trying to get used to the 11X7" Focused Core DD coil that came with mine. It is definitely different and I will keep studying Steve's remarks about it. I really like the iron audio discrimination feature that works with DD coils!!! Steve, I know you helped with both the GPX 6000 and the Axiom. Thank you very much for all that you did on these PI detectors during their design and well before that too.

I have been doing some testing before selling some PI detectors that I really like. The testing was done on 0.75 gram lead, 0.25 gram lead and 0.1 gram gold targets using two containers of dirt from an area northwest of Phoenix Arizona and from an area south of Breckenridge Colorado. Both samples are very mineralized with both iron and volcanic material. I placed each target one inch below the surface of each dirt sample and used a ruler stuck one inch into the containers to measure coil height above the target in the dirt. Not by any means a totally realistic test, but as close as I can get right now. I was using a TDI Pulse Scan stock 14.4v battery with Reg Sniff mods, a GPX 6000 and an Axiom. Here are the results and a photo of the dirt containers. The Arizona dirt was no problem for all three detectors to ground balance on. The Colorado dirt was another story. The TDI would not ground balance well at all on it, the GPX 6000 was noisy on it, amazingly enough the Axiom Mono coil was very quiet on that dirt and the Axiom DD coil came up with some really odd ground balance numbers on that dirt....15/03 and was a bit unstable. I was able to run the sensitivity on the TDI and the Axiom at around 85% of max before they became unstable. The GPX 6000 became unstable at Manual 7 of 10 so I could only run it at 60% of maximum. It might have been able to have even better results, but there was EMI in the area with power lines about 1/4 mile away.

I recently purchased a slightly used Garrett Axiom. I have owned the Minelab SDC 2300 (two of them), Minelab GPX 5000 and the Minelab GPX 6000. I liked some things about the SDC 2300 but the ergonomics were not okay for me. I really liked the Minelab GPX 5000 but again, the ergonomics were not okay for me. I like the GPX 6000 even more. Ergonomics are great. Super sensitive PI detector. Build quality however is another story. So is the fact that there are what, 9 search coils for the GPX 6000, 2 of the timings on the 6000 are for Mono coils (Normal and Difficult) and 4 of the timings are for DD coils (Normal EMI, Difficult EMI, Normal Salt and Difficult Salt) but only one of the nine available search coils is a DD coil and it is a ridiculous 14" coil! I have only spent a few hours with the Garrett Axiom. It hasn't taken long to realize what a well built, ergonomically pleasant and excellent operating detector the Axiom is compared to the others mentioned and it has six currently available coils, 3 Mono coils and 3 DD coils. I will be posting some rudimentary testing soon between the GPX 6000, Axiom and TDI 14.4v detectors on sub gram targets. Aside from that, you couldn't pay me any amount of money to swing an SDC 2300 if I had a chance to swing an Axiom instead.

My first thought was realgar and orpiment. If that is true be careful. Those are ores of arsenic sulphide.