Jeff McClendon

I really liked my XP Mi-6 as a standalone, unpaired pinpointer. I did not care for all of the episodes of incomplete or very delayed pairing and unpairing with it and my XP detectors including Deus 2. I recently purchased the Nokta Accupoint. I have not even had a chance to use it paired up with my Legends. I have used it as an unpaired, standalone pinpointer with Legend, Deus 2 and Manticore. So far, it has been outstanding. I have just been using the default 7 of 9 sensitivity setting and two tone ferrous/non ferrous setting. It has not disappointed one bit. I have also done direct comparisons with the Accupoint at 7 of 9 sensitivity, Garrett Carrot at max sensitivity and a Fisher F Pulse at max sensitivity. The Accupoint running at 20 kHz is by far the most sensitive to sub 0.15 gram gold nuggets and micro jewelry which does not have to be touching the Accupoint for it to give a clear non ferrous response even at 0.5 inches from the tip or sides. The Garrett Carrot will respond to these small gold targets but only when they are touching it on the sides near the tip. F-Pulse also has no response at the tip and a weak response on the sides near the tip. Very impressive results from the Accupoint for gold prospecting and add in the ferrous/non ferrous target tone identification and wow. Once again, Nokta have delivered with a product that does exactly what they claimed it would do similar to the Legend.

Whatever it is I for one am happy it’s happening. Being able to buy these brand new detectors with full warranties for less than used prices on EBay USA is astounding. So whatever they are up to, thanks FTP.

Some Equinox 600/800 compatible BT headphones may work too.

Thanks Phrunt. For the price and since I know the F19 platform really well, there won't be any surprises and I won't be disappointed. I am not asking anything of the F19. I just love that platform and have been looking for a new one with the 10x5" coil for a while at a rock bottom price. Personally, the Legend with its 9.5X5" coil seriously will out perform it head to head using their discrimination/multi tone modes with the Legend on Multi or 20 kHz. However, switching the F19 to its live threshold based all metal mode is a one of a kind experience. Like Steve said, I can crank it up to 99% sensitivity and it will just effortlessly detect in bad EMI and 19 kHz is just about the perfect transmit frequency for my sketchy ground. It even competes well with the ORX and Deus 2 in Mono set on similar frequencies. Experiencing that live threshold is an experience I miss and one that people who have only owned the newer selectable single frequency and SMF detectors with hybrid prospecting modes and reference thresholds have no concept of.

I fell for it. Not the F70 though. I sent them an offer of $250 with free USA shipping for a brand new F19 with the coveted (by me anyway) 10X5" coil and they accepted. Some of you know how much of a sucker I am for the F19/Gold Bug Pro/Tek G2+ platform. I guess I could have offered less and they would have accepted........ At that price I could just keep it hanging on the wall as a piece of nostalgic art but I know I will use it sometimes. The knobs and that threshold based all metal mode are too tempting.

Thanks guys!!!

I was checking out Garrett.com today (April Fool's day) just to see what was for sale and what sale items/promotions were going on for this weeks 60th Anniversary Sale. It's a very nice site. Maybe Garrett was playing an April Fools joke on me.......I could not find any AT Golds for sale. Did Garrett discontinue that excellent detector and I somehow missed it?

I have found the iron stability feature to be very useful at some iron infested and highly iron mineralized sites. I am not the kind of detector user that can hunt with iron rejected or with the iron filter setting very high. Usually it's on 0 or 1 due to ground conditions. At some locations where the nails are the same type, similar size, from the same time period and in basically the same condition, I will use the iron stability feature to fine tune the amount of iron falsing or non ferrous responses with as little iron responses mixed in as possible as suits my hearing and the conditions. I use the same concepts when I am hunting mostly non-ferrous targets in thick non ferrous trash but with higher iron mineralization. It helps me. I am more of a "I will gladly use whatever features are available" kind of person and I do experience differences when I use the iron stability fine tuner.

I don't know where it can go. I just use the detectors, I don't design them. Like others have said, the Garrett Ace Apex which has a form of simultaneous multi frequency tech, was meant to be an advancement of the Ace line of detectors. It certainly is. I have no doubt that Garrett's Storm will be an advancement of its AT line of detectors if the Storm is an all terrain VLF. If it has anything like what was mentioned in the Russian video.......great for Garrett and great for their customers. Multi IQ was released with the Equinox 600/800 6 years ago. Before that, if I wanted to use an SMF detector I would have to use a Whites or Minelab on land and neither one did what they said they would do where I detect which was: handle natural iron mineralization very well, detect a wide range of conductive non-ferrous targets very well, detect really small targets that were sub 0.5 grams really well, or keep their target ID accuracy on deeper targets. They had just OK target separation and did not have even decent ergonomics. Minelab's Multi IQ Equinox 600/800 addressed all of those things very successfully and made detecting where I live for the targets I want to hunt, a lot more fun. The Equinox Multi IQ 700/900 certainly fixed some of the external flaws in the 600/800 original design. Whether it's a better performing detector ????? The Manticore Multi IQ+ definitely is a better performing detector than the 600/800 and has all of the same external fixes that the 700/900 has. The Nokta Legend and Deus 2 are just better than the Equinox 600/800 as far as actual detecting in my opinion where I detect with them. I can run the Legend and Deus 2 at 95% sensitivity just about anywhere. Manticore works well for me at 85%. I haven't tried it any higher yet. So yeah, I can run them higher than 66.6%. Did three manufacturers improve on the Equinox 600/800 .....yes. So was SMF in the form of Multi IQ on the Equinox 600/800 the peak.....no. These detectors are able to process target information faster with way less interference from the ground itself. If that can be improved more, I will take that any day. I will take an inch or two of more depth any day. I will take better IDs on those deeper targets any day. I will take user adjustable frequency selection (more advanced than Deus 2 max frequency) any day. I will take any kind of functional imaging that makes target identification easier any day.

Coil bolt and two washers really are for sale at Garrett.com for $10.99. Thanks Lama!!!

Watched the video again to catch some more details. Carbon fiber mid and lower shafts. The coil cable is inside the shafts. IP69 waterproof. 2.65 pounds. More flexible multi frequency choices as in the user has more autonomy over which frequencies are being used simultaneously......I think he was saying that. The wildest part for me is I think he said ground penetrating radar twice with some kind of multi colored graph like a Whites V3i with a different color for each metal. He specifically mentioned iron, gold, copper and silver would each have a different colored graph line........and then he said he didn't see how that would work in Russia since all of the jewelry there is heavily alloyed!!!......GPS satellite capable with SIM card. $1200 version has a coil, wired headphones, wireless headphones (I think he said Koss) and a pinpointer (probably pairs wirelessly). The $870 version is just the detector and coil with no extras. April 5th launch and April 17th goes on sale. Don't shoot me, this is what the video maker said with some room for mistakes by the auto translator and my bad Russian language skills. Basically I can grunt and moan in Russian!

That was a really good video. Having owned the GPX 6000 (two of them) although I sometimes miss it, I don't miss the erratic threshold one bit. The E1500 was very calm. With a good set of headphones on, I would be able to listen to that all day. I will take the video maker's word for it that 20 sensitivity on the E1500 was optimum for what he was doing. Personally, I would have turned it up a bit more until it started to get a bit wobbly and then backed off one. I noticed that the external speaker was on the max 9 setting. So, it just did not seem loud enough at all and using headphones or an amplified external speaker might have made some of those responses stand out a bit more. If I owned an E1500, I would definitely be using it for deeper US coins and jewelry at highly mineralized locations. Those targets would be in the 1 to 25 gram range and should be easy for the E1500 to handle with my Coiltek Elite 14X9" down to roughly a foot deep. Very impressive.

It hasn't peaked yet from what I am seeing from the Manticore and Deus 2 compared to late 1990s and since the Equinox in 2018. Most of the people saying it's peaked haven't been able to use this newer tech.

Hi JCR, Thanks for the great video and for the excellent information. Your video iss way better than the ones I make for sure! What iron filter settings were you using?

A ground balance of 15/00 is not normal unless your coil is over salty ground conditions or in saltwater. That is what showed up on your Axiom in the video before you switched to Normal Mode. Before you made that switch to Normal, I could briefly hear some coil noise from not being ground balanced when you moved the coil away from the target to make the switch to Normal. I would often get ground balance numbers like 15/00 or some other value/00 with my original 11X7"DD coil using Fine Mode and my Axiom would not be ground balanced. That was not over ground with salt content. The replacement coil does that sometimes too........... I hadn't noticed it before until I posted my video here but, the sensitivity to both wild targets in my video was substantially lower when my Axiom was in Fine Mode compared to when I swept those targets in a properly ground balanced Normal Mode.

The Manticore definitely has a distinctive US nickel sound at least for me using the Normal audio theme and giving nickels a dedicated tone and fairly tight tone bin (20 to 28). I just make it a point to dig anything in that range if it has that nickel "thud" sound. Sure, I will dig the occasional pull tab, damaged pull tab, detached beaver tail from a ring pull and those aluminum freshness seal off of modern pull tab cans. Why on earth do people remove those. They can seriously cut you. I also get good sounding can slaw sometimes. Otherwise, that percussive well defined nickel thud is either a nickel or something even better especially when the target IDs and 2D pattern is very tight and well defined. The 800 could make a similar percussive sound on US nickels but there were just way too many other targets that shared 12,13,14. I actually appreciate the expanded target ID range of the Manticore for that reason. Your characterization of the Manticore locking on to high conductor coins and jewelry has also been my experience whether it's a surface or near surface target in a sea of aluminum/steel trash or something deeper. Even on very iffy sounding possible deeper high conductors, there is so much information provided by the Manticore through tone nuances, red and black target ID patterns, the onboard pinpoint function, very accurate depth meter and the 2D screen that I have started to really experience some patterns of behavior that I can depend on as far as "is it a high conductor coin/jewelry/relic or is it an iron target". Thanks for posting your experiences.

Thanks Knomad for your posts and your linked video. I can’t explain what is happening in it. All I can say is that I too have experienced some weird stuff using the DD coils in Fine Mode that completely stops being weird when I switch to Normal. Using Fine Mode with Slow or Medium speed while this is happening has no effect from my experience. Here is the video I sent to Garrett showing another instance of this odd behavior. This video is not showing the only time this has happened. I made the video to demonstrate what I was experiencing during long sessions with the Axiom in Fine Mode using the 11X7" DD coil with sensitivity at 3 or less and then switching to Normal Mode and the coil would behave normally. The ground conditions for the video were moderate to high iron mineralization and slightly damp ground. EMI levels were very low.

Were you able to watch Knomad's video? It is very good and shows exactly what I was experiencing too. The new coil that Garrett sent me does better than the old one in Fine Mode as far as sometimes ground balancing but sometimes not. Could the post production versions of the Axiom with the software update just be too hot sensitivity wise for some of those coils somehow?

I had similar issues with my first 11X7DD coil. I made a video and sent it to Garrett. They sent me a new coil BUT, I still am not satisfied with using any DD coil in Fine Mode. Like Knomad, switching the DD coils to Normal makes them operate very well as far as ground balancing and sensitivity at least on my Axiom. It's weird and kind of counter intuitive since the DDs have that small focused core that mimics a mono coil with a DD surrounding it. That small mono core should love Fine Mode. I just gave up at one site where I had only taken the 11X7" DD. Fine Mode absolutely would not ground balance and the ground at that site is not extreme. I make sure to take my 11X7" Mono coil with me no matter what. If this iteration of DD coils shouldn't be used in Fine Mode, Garrett needs to let us know or fix the problem.

With my recent use of the Manticore I was concentrating on high conductor targets first, and then, low to mid conductor targets between target IDs 10 and 30 due to the high levels of aluminum trash in my area that has target IDs between 30 and 55. So far, all of the women’s jewelry that I have found and tested which is mostly smaller earrings, smaller chains with pendants, small engagement rings and small bands have all had target IDs between 10 and 30. Larger men’s rings will definitely be between 30 and 60 or so. Modern silver jewelry seems to start around 60 to 65. I owned a CTX for a while but only used it on land. It was similar to swinging a heavy double barreled shotgun! I imagine it would be a different story submerged. The biggest improvements on the Manticore compared to the CTX for me are the much improved response on low/mid conductors, faster target separation, better unmasking in iron, better handling of mineralization, better ergonomics, better user interface, much easier to read screen and the audio enhancements. I do not like the expanded target ID system and the 8 hour max battery life. For you, the vibrating handle for a secondary underwater target alert and the onboard flashlight may be helpful too. The 2D target trace will display multiple targets immediately and simultaneously which for me has been very helpful. CTX kind of did that but at a much slower rate. The Ferrous limits are somewhat similar to the CTX patterns but there are upper and lower ferrous with non ferrous in the middle. As far as Deus 2, I really like mine but I don’t have to look at its screen under water. I have a hard enough time seeing it in daylight. I also dont’ like all the extra hassle of setting it up for hunting with it under water or having to charge up more than two things in order to hunt. Yes, the 25 to almost 85 low and mid conductor target ID range is a bit much. If you want a less expensive option with a good screen, only 50 total non ferrous target IDs and solid underwater performance, the Legend is also a possibility. I have two of them and they are fantastic. Is the Legend as fast as a Deus 2 and equal to it in iron trash and depth……No. The Legend is also not as deep as the Manticore. However, for the money the Legend is still a great bargain and it won’t miss much.

Hi Del, I think so. I have never used Deus 2's 11" coil however so I can't include it in that answer. I had lots of success with the 13X11" and basically I can call the Manticore 11" coil and Deus 2 13X11" basically equal with Manticore at sensitivity 22 to 24 and Deus 2 sensitivity at 95 or so. If everything hit the fan tomorrow and I had to pick between them for deep high conductor hunting in iron and aluminum trash, right now I would pick the Manticore with the 11" stock coil simply because it feels better on my arm than Deus 2 with the stock shaft swinging that 13X11" coil and the Manticore is easier to setup for water hunting (no setup really) and it is just better for gold prospecting even after XP's improvements for Deus 2's Goldfield program.

I'm confused as to why I wrote that too. I will edit my post. I was hunting in All Terrain General with the All Metal discrimination pattern and the ATG Preset default upper and lower ferrous limits unchanged. I have tried All Terrain High Conductor on some of these deeper high conductor targets. The results were not as good with far less "lock on" as far as giving me enough high tone audio responses to make a dig/no dig decision. I had ATHC setup with the same tones, tone pitches, tone volumes and tone breaks as ATG. I have the same "issue" with Deep HC on Deus 2. Basing my deep coin programs on the Sensitive program has just been better for the soil conditions here.

I have had my LG24 for over a year and it has taken a beating in the goldfields where I have used it the most. This coil has over 200 hours of use. I started noticing more coil knock recently using the LG24. I checked the connection where the coil cable enters the coil. It was loose and the O ring was only partially held by the nut. I loosened the nut some more, repositioned the O ring and hand tightened the nut. That has helped some but I still get detected target type responses when I tap the strain relief area where the cable enters the coil even at sensitivity levels below 20. My other Legend coils do not have this issue. So, you may have a defective brand new LG24 and may have one that is wearing out!

I was less than neutral about Minelab's Manticore when it was introduced. I wasn't negative about it but I certainly did not celebrate its release or the fanfare that went with it. I waited for almost a year before buying one. Thanks Gerry/Gerry's Detectors for making my Manticore purchase happen!!! I only started using it full time for coin and jewelry hunting around the last week of January 2024 when it warmed up enough here to melt most of the snow. We have had small amounts of snow and cool temperatures since with no hard freezes so hunting for deeper targets in moist soil conditions has been ideal and still is now after the 14" of snow melted from a recent blizzard. So my Manticore has been doing great (so did my Deus 2 with 13X11" coil during September and October of 2023) as far as detecting these deeper, challenging targets shown in the photo by giving me enough information to choose to recover them. Sure, I am digging some rusted nails too but my US wheat penny count for the last two months is 128 and I haven't dug anywhere close to 128 rusted nails. All of these silver, gold and copper target finds have been in public parks. All targets were at least 6" to 12" deep and there were no easy, totally isolated, no brainer finds. All were in high iron mineralized dirt that by itself would mask these targets using single frequency VLF detectors and these parks have plenty of trash to deal with and listen to. Plus, I have hunted these same parks extensively with the Equinox 800 and I did not find those 128 wheat pennies or the targets in the photo. With the Equinox 800, I would average 1 or 2 wheats a week, a silver ring or jewelry find once a week and a silver coin and gold jewelry find once a month at these same parks. I am using All Terrain General with the All Metal discrimination pattern and the ATG Preset default upper and lower ferrous limits unchanged, Normal audio theme, 5 tones with tone volumes, tone pitches and tone breaks adjusted for my preferred targets, recovery speed 4 or 5, and sensitivity between 22 and 24 with the stock 11" coil. Basically, I had no idea that this much silver was still left in these parks and I have only hunted 22 times during the last 2 months in parks that are old enough to have these types of targets. Thanks Minelab for the Manticore!!!

Thanks Chuck, I will give this technique a try. I am always interested in tips and tricks from people that I trust who would not stick their neck out on a forum with this kind of information unless they had seen some positive results over time using it. Hopefully, those responding will be Manticore owners who can keep an open mind and heart and be nice.