Jeff McClendon

That statement for me is very important. I am very willing to pay good money for a detector that is fun to use as long as it also detects well. That way I don't have to constantly be wondering about my abilities to use it and its abilities to tell me a lot of clear and factual information about what it is detecting. Some detectors have clicked with me immediately even though I needed a bit of time to navigate their user interface and to learn the basics. Getting acquainted with the Equinox 600/800 was a good example. It took a bit of time but I wasn't struggling or wishing I had never purchased it. Knowing the Equinox 600/800 really well made the Legend an immediate success. The same goes for Deus 2. Having lots of time on Deus 1, ORX and the Equinox made moving to Deus 2 fairly simple. I really enjoy using these detectors and they make going for a walk with them very rewarding both for my physical and mental well being and for what they find. They aren't by any means perfect but I trust them. I wish I could say the same for the Equinox 900. All I can say is that in the soil conditions around here which is where I hunt about 80% of the time, the Equinox 900 was just a hot mess, five alarm fire. It did very well at areas that were not so iron mineralized.

My first target with the Equinox 900 was a 3" to 4" deep US copper Memorial penny. Its target IDs should have been 78 to 81 or so . I was just using default Park 1 with 5 tones and with the horseshoe button engaged for all targets accepted. That 3" to 4" deep copper penny sounded and had target IDs all over the place like a multi denominational coin spill. It went downhill from there.

Minelab may have upped the sensitivity on the 700/900 too. However, I rarely was able to use mine above sensitivity 22. If I went any higher, the ground noise and/or EMI was off the charts. Using 22 or lower however, made hitting any mid depth to deeper targets a real issue as far as target ID instability. So I got EMI, ground noise and target ID instability with too much sensitivity and target ID instability with too little sensitivity. It didn't matter what search mode I was using or what settings besides sensitivity, ground balance and noise cancel I was fiddling with. There was just no optimal "safe" zone where I could really trust the Nox 900 for basic coin, jewelry and relic hunting where I usually detect. The Nox 900 did okay at the two So Cal beaches I tested it on briefly. It was also very good for gold prospecting IF the sensitivity was not too high, like under 20 at the two places I used it.

Five is all I know about. I am trying to stay out of it as much as possible.

Just to be clear, the photo above is of the new unit that Minelab sent Chris. Those imperfections on the screen are air bubbles under the flimsy factory screen plastic sheeting. Chris did not make a photo of the unit he sent Minelab. He did report water in the handle and underneath the screen.

Sounds like Chase and Steve Goss are experiencing similar behavior too which is why they recently posted their experiences. For a little more context, Rattlehead, Daniel TN and others also moved on from the Manticore for similar reasons that were more iron falsing related. Others that I know have abandoned their Nox 900s for similar reasons and gone back to their 800s. Ground and beach mineralization whether it is iron, salt, alkaline, fertilizer or some other form of extraordinary ground condition makes all VLF detectors a little upset, even simultaneous multi frequency detectors like the Equinox models, Manticore, Deus 2 and the Nokta Legend. From my experience moderate to high iron mineralization really messed up the Whites V3i, DFX and the earlier BBS and FBS Minelabs. That is why the Equinox 600/800 with Multi IQ was such an improvement over what came before especially for hunting in iron mineralization on a wide range of targets and target sizes. The Manticore and Equinox 700/900 do have better ergonomics, waterproofing (hopefully), shaft and arm cuff quality, and additonal features over the Equinox 600/800. Whether they actually detect significantly better than the original Equinox 600/800 is a real question that I can't answer which is why Chase's title "New Minelab Blues" is so appropriate. All of those great things that Minelab corrected/added compared to the 600/800 are counterbalanced in the negative direction by the real-world performance of the 700/900 and Manticore. It's a headbanger for sure. Why Minelab didn't just leave good enough basically alone by doing exactly what Chase said in his post and stuffing the Nox 600/800 with the addition of Pitch tones, flashlight, vibrating hand grip and maybe a slightly expanded target ID range like the Legend, into the new control box housing, shaft system and stock coil with supposedly better coil ears is beyond me.

I am referencing Abenson's video without his permission to give you a visual/audio experience of what some of us are seeing with the performance of the Nox 900 and Manticore in moderate to high iron mineralization. I hope that is OK. Using the 900 for almost 5 months in those conditions, the video from Andy shows much the same as I experienced. Now he is using full tones. Imagine using 2 tones and having to watch the numbers or using 5 tones with tone bins that are being constantly crossed over with these unstable target responses. Those jumpy numbers are not mostly being caused by EMI. Those are target responses that are being influenced by ground conditions. Watch from the 1:20 mark to the 5:50 mark for a short video example of what many of us are talking about. This part of the video shows just the Manticore and its tendencies in high iron mineralization. My experience with the Equinox 900 is remarkably similar. You can also skip over to the 9:30 mark and watch to the 14:50 mark and see the Equinox 900, Manticore and Deus 2 in action at a different, slightly less iron mineralized site on 5", 6" and 8" US dimes. Better yet, just enjoy the whole video. I would like to own an Equinox 900 or a Manticore. Right now, they would not offer an improvement over my Deus 2, Equinox 800 or even my Nokta Legend.

Some people call having the horseshoe button activated "All Metal Mode" including Minelab. Since there are other "Modes" on the Equinox 600/800, it gets confusing. Like Chase said, pressing that button is a short cut. It instantly allows all target IDs and their audio responses to be accepted and experienced by the user. The audio responses will be the ones that were being used in whatever search mode you were using. You can do the exact same thing by going into the settings and accepting all targets with the the "Accept/Reject" function. Press the horseshoe button again and you are back to whatever preset or custom Accept/Reject settings you were using in that search mode. For me, I like to use a custom program that looks like I have pressed the horseshoe button to accept all targets, but with the volume adjusted to my liking for iron targets and with some other settings changes that are different than the default settings. So, it is possible to have a custom program with iron volume turned to minimum/OFF and when you press the horseshoe button the iron audio will still be very low or silent. So pressing that button just effects the "speedometer" Accept/Reject pattern being used, not the other settings. That is why I cringe when I see Minelab and others call activating the horseshoe button "All Metal Mode". Being old fashioned, "All Metal Mode" for me means one or two tone VCO audio with all target conductivities having the same preset volume level. That button is one of my favorite things about some Minelab VLFs

I hate to hear this from you Steve G and from many others. I have about 30 minutes just playing around with a Manticore so I don't have much of an opinion. I however do consider the Manticore to be a much more feature rich and slightly more powerful version of the Equinox 900 which I did own for almost 5 months and which I put over 100 hours of careful time on. As you regulars know, I too found the Equinox 800 to be beyond belief when I first started using one and about 40 hours in I started to make some incredible finds after I got used to its sensitivity and tendency to hit everything (I thought) in the ground. The 900 at least where I most often detect, took the hitting everything in the high iron mineralization ground around here to a whole different and very unpleasant level both with extreme iron falsing and with multiple beeps and wide ranging target IDs on seemingly easy, mid depth targets that the Equinox 800, Deus 2 and Legend lock onto like they should with no fuss or disagreement. It was like the Equinox 900 was constantly arguing with itself and could never make up its mind which drove me honestly, nuts. It was like the experiences I had with so many single frequency high gain detectors out here that would just go crazy on simple targets. So, Steve G's post rings very true with what I experienced with the 900. It looks like Minelab made some fairly extensive software changes and the Nox 700/900 Multi IQ and Manticore Multi IQ+ just don't behave like the Equinox 600/800 Multi IQ which really shocked the excrement out of me. Like Steve G, I made some really good finds with the Nox 900 but that was almost by accident since I was so distracted and befuddled by the way it behaved. I enjoyed and appreciated absolutely everything about the Equinox 900 except for the most important part....how it detected. So it has nothing to do with how much I like or dislike a detector like the Nox 900. The thing just didn't work very well where I detect most often. The tougher the ground conditions and man-made iron conditions, the worse it detected. SAD.

Sounds like a "tested" or at least previously assembled Manticore to me. I don't know where Bass Pro gets their Manticores from. Do they come straight off the boat to Bass Pro/Cabelas or do they go through a distributer first? Having the round adhesive seal broken is not good. Coil serial numbers don't usually match system control pod serial numbers. The system control pod's serial number should match the serial number on the original box. Personally, for the price one pays for a Manticore, I would demand a brand new, unopened one. Getting 10% off at Bass Pro shouldn't automatically mean that you get an open box Manticore. Your 10% price should have been based on an open box price not a brand new price. However, I have purchased several expensive detectors that were dealer demo units BUT I knew in advance that they were demo units and that they were priced accordingly. They had full warranties and have been great.

From my experience in dirt like that I would have to keep the GM 1000’s coil way off the ground and/or turn the sensitivity way down. With the Manticore and 800/900 I don’t have to do that plus I can switch over to several different modes if I want. The single digit notching on those detectors can really help too as can other fine tuning adjustments that the GM 1000 just doesn’t have. I will say that I sold my Nox 900 because of the unstable target IDs but also because of excessive iron falsing on ground like that that also had tons of 1800s iron and tin trash. Taking a PI into areas like that was insane. At least I could keep detecting effectively with the 800/900 (and the Legend remarkably) and I assume the Manticore

That is fairly normal performance at least where I often detect. The Nox 800 and 900 would only have a slight advantage and that is only due to smaller coil size. Most other single frequency VLFs I’ve tried on ground like that just overload even on lower sensitivity and I’m referring to all of the current gold prospecting specific VLF detectors. Tough conditions for sure. At least the Manticore and the 800/900 have Multi I Q and enough settings adjustments to keep detecting at 2/3 sensitivity. GPX 6000 can run pretty noisy in dirt like that too. Hitting a .3 to .5 gram nugget at 4” depth is really quite good in dirt like that with a VLF.

My posting this video was not meant to be any form of a recommendation or even a thumbs up for XP manufacturing the Xtrem Hunter. I don't need one and probably never will. XP did however fulfill a promise to some of their customers by designing and manufacturing it for use with Deus 2's FMF tech. Maybe I can get them to promise me a land based smaller coil for Deus 2.........

Savannah Harps, a very respected YouTube saltwater beach hunter reported today 7/21/2023 that his Manticore is being sent in for a possible leaking issue. There is visible water under the screen. All I have to say is Oh No.

I have seen three reports of Manticores and one Nox 900 leaking on Facebook. Two as recent as this month. One of the owners relayed that Detector Center in Pennsylvania (Minelab Repair) has reported five leaking. Since it’s Facebook………who knows.

I didn't know that XP has a sister company Helio that is a leading solar panel and hot water heater company in France. I want built in solar charging for my Deus 2 (especially the coils) just like on my Garmin watch then I could ditch the stupid butterfly clip for charging the coil and the tiny screw on connector for charging the remote.

An introductory peek at the Xtrem Hunter and the XP factory. Thanks Gary!

Welcome Crossbow37! GotAU (Anthony) said you were joining. Happy Hunting Jeff

Thanks Steve!!!!! I visit this forum several times a day either to post something, read what others have to say about their detecting life, and most of all learn and then learn some more about this really cool hobby that I am still addicted to. I could be addicted to other things that aren't nearly as healthy so this metal detecting addiction is one that I plan to keep for a while longer. Thanks especially for promoting and helping to keep this forum alive and non-affiliated with much of the drama that other forums and social media engage in every moment. I really appreciate a safe place to learn how to metal detect and to find lost treasures both in the ground and on this forum.

Since you are going with just the WS6 as Master setup, in my opinion the answer to this question is basically automatic. You have to go with 1.10 simply to get all of the great features for the WS6 that were left out of every software version before it including 0.71. Adding things like 3 notches, big numbers, tracking ground balance along with the features the Captain mentioned above make running version 1.10 for the WS6 as Master a total no brainer in my opinion.

I have to agree with Mike H in that I also believe that as you phrased it "regular ID numbers do as well". Regular ID numbers on detectors like your and my Legend tell us something about the target in conjunction with the qualities of the audio response. For me, using a detector with a visual target ID and multi or full audio tones with some audio modulation of the tones that audibly are able to depict some characteristics of density, shape, size and depth along with possible conductivity, helps me form a mental picture of what a target might be like before I make the dig/no dig decision if I need to make one. Does that mean for example that the Legend detecting a 4" deep US nickel, 4" deep 14K medium size gold ring, a 4" deep piece of irregularly shaped aluminum can slaw and a 4" deep deformed lead .380 acp. bullet that all have a target ID of 26 will actually have the same audio response? No, they will probably not have the exact same audio response so they must not really have exactly the same numerical target ID if we were shown the target ID as a whole number but also with decimals. Personally, I believe that the Manticore is showing a much more granular level of audio and numerical information translated onto a 2D representation than simply "TT does not show anything that the ID doesn't". If that phrase had been "TT does not show anything that the whole number ID and the audio response doesn't", that statement would have been one that I could agree with.

Don't take my word for it due to some of the bad mineralization here. I have no doubt that the X-Terra Pro will do great in most areas and that it is well worth its price. That is what this review of the Legend is also all about. It is also well worth its price for most detecting situations especially using the latest software.

Your saga sounds a lot like mine except that most of my hunting is done on dry land where the Legend mostly functioned well. I got mine on March 20, 2022. It had mammoth update issues and it had a faulty system control unit which made updating it even harder. I also waited patiently for version 1.09 and the adjustable iron bias feature so that I could use my Legend for gold prospecting. About the time that version 1.09 was released in July of 2022 I had a serious ankle injury that required surgery and several months of recovery so I didn't get to properly test it until the spring of 2023 and then version 1.11 was released. I have stuck with the Legend because it had proven to be an excellent land unit for coin, jewelry and relic hunting. It obviously had issues at some saltwater beaches and until version 1.09, it was pretty useless for gold prospecting unless I just used 40 kHz single frequency and avoided using the Multi setting in prospecting mode due to the iron bias being stuck on setting 8. So, I totally get your perspective and your decision to move on from the Legend since in my opinion the weakest part of the Legend's detecting abilities out of the box and up until version 1.09 was saltwater detecting. This is also why I have waited to write a reasonable review of the Legend until now since Nokta have corrected some deficiencies and added some features that make it a much more well rounded and versatile detector than it was at its release. I am still waiting for XP to do the same for Deus 2 (been waiting for 19 months) and then there is the Equinox 700/900 about which my lips are sealed. I am glad the X-Terra Pro is working well for you and your hunting/diving conditions in saltwater. I did get to try one recently on moderate to high iron mineralized dirt and what I thought would happen did happen due to my experiences running the Equinox models in single frequency. The X-Terra Pro would not be a detector that I would choose for the ground conditions that I usually hunt in. Like Steve H says often, the ground or in your case saltwater reigns supreme and is the most important factor especially when the mineralization is moderate to extreme.

The wide variety of steel crown bottle caps can be a tough target for these SMF detectors depending on what condition they are in and how deep. On the Legend, I usually hear 5" deep or less ones in good shape having broken up audio with large target ID swings from 1 to the mid 40s. The Ferro Check meter also reflects that even with a Bottle Cap Reject setting on 1 using the Ground (G) or All (A) discrimination patterns and indicates a mixed ferrous/non ferrous target. Some of them don't have those tendencies and come in strong with a 19, 20 or 21 target ID and no broken up audio or iron IDs using the same settings where I detect. I get very similar weird behavior using Deus 2 and the Equinox 800. I have not seen any undamaged pull tabs of any variety consistently have a single 26 target ID. I have seen damaged ones be a solid 26 along with broken off beaver tails and those freshness seals that are just used with the modern pull tabs.....why do people pull those out too and then discard them? They must be bored or distracted half out of their minds!

bigtim1973, I think you made the right decision. Deus 1, ORX and Deus 2 with just the WS6 can definitely get just about everything done really well. They would not be my first choice for full-time water hunting or frequent gold prospecting but otherwise they are really hard to beat when it comes to ergonomics, speed, separation and now target ID accuracy with Deus 2. If you are like me, you probably have a ton of XP accessories like three sets of charging cables and coil charging clips, a couple of waterproof pouches, several antennas, coil bolts, other odds and ends.etc. If you get the itch to try something new just PM me again, I will probably have already tried it out!!!