longbow62

I guess I don't understand how the manufacturing, shipping and the storage process works. Take the CTX for instance. Surely they don't sell a lot of them these days. So the one someone does buy might have been made several years ago? I surely didn't think Minelab had CTX lines continually churning them out. The same could be said of any of the detectors they manufacture. They make a run of a model then switch to another model in some type of rotation. It seems like Minelab would not lower the price because they were overstocked. At least not this early in the Manticore's existence. I don't think it was a poor sales or overstock issue.

On another note why Minelab thought it was a good idea to make the 900 is beyond me. They could have done the whole fixing issues thing and not changed much and still called it an 800. I would have understood it more if they dropped the 800, but they still manufacture it. A lot of people had they not had the option to buy a 900 would have instead probably have bought the Manticore. Maybe I don't understand marketing and maybe Minelab would hook them into buying a 900 and then reel them in to purchase a Manticore later.

I rave about the Manticore all the time to one of my digging buddies. He broke down and ordered a Manticore this past weekend. It should be in this week. He has them all and swings the D2, Legend, 900, and CTX. I'm looking forward to seeing what he thinks about it.

Couldn't you buy another coil cover and glue/epoxy a solid thin piece of plastic to the bottom to make the coil glide over the top of the sand easier?

I have zero regrets buying the Manticore. My 800 is still kicking I think, I haven't hunted with another detector since I got the Manticore. I pulled two (For Me) bucket listers a couple of weeks ago with it out of a iron and aluminum infested nightmare of a site. I guess iron in this case had a 1857 half dime's I.D. pulled down to 59-60. It rings up 64-65 out of the ground. I've dug 8 flat buttons so far. 3 Shield nickels with one being an 1867 in pretty nice condition for a Shield nickel. It's right along a gravel road next to the Mississippi River levee and the shredded beer cans in this field will make you cry. 

I got a digging buddy I think is faking finds from time to time. I have no idea why he would do this. He is a good detectorist in my opinion. The reason I think this is because he post almost all the stuff he finds on Facebook. I mean the run of the mill silver and stuff. He has found 4 really hard to find coins and he didn't post any of them. 2 he found detecting with me. The other 2 he just sent dig photos by text. The last one took the cake, a large cent and not 20 ft. from the truck. That is a really hard coin to find where we live. The place we found it is old enough, but after his initial going on about it was sitting in the console he didn't pick it up or even mention it again the whole day. He didn't post it to Facebook. He is what I would call highly competitive too. Another thing that is a red flag to me is the finds in question are coins none of have found and I am always talking about the day I finally find one. Anyway I don't know how to deal with it. I have known him many years now. We have had some good times and finds together. He has actually put me on a lot of silver from permissions he has gotten, but it's such a turn off I don't think I want to dig with him anymore. Has anyone on here dealt with this type of thing before?

I'm curious about the WM-09. I don't like the ML 105s for summer use. The ML85's are kinda like the old 800 headphones and while I find them okay I'm not sure I want to invest in a pair. I have a set of Grey Ghost and Aiwa headphones I could use already with the WM-09 or maybe get some wired ear buds.

Even though the tone and I.D. would make you think that's possibly a coin the 2D shows melted metal as a blob not a tight circle.

What I am saying is in realitively clean mild ground blobs are junk. A nice tight round circle is mostly coins or something that is a homogeneous metal (could be aluminum for instance) that is the size of coins. I hunt a place that has a lot of melted metal of various sizes. On the 2D you can weed the junk out because coins are mostly always a nice tight perfectly round circle.

I've noticed it's possible to have a good tone and numbers, but the 2D screen is more like a blob than a nice tight circle on the center line. I can't think of a time a single blob/fuzzy circle sitting directly on the center line has been a good target while hunting ground that is somewhat trash free and mild. I have noticed trends in the 2D, although like others I am currently using it for one more extra piece of added info and not the only piece of info and not the be all end in deciding to dig or not. You can also see multiple targets so that's nice to be able to see. Depending on how trashy a place is will determine just how much you can trust the 2D on the I.D. being correct. I think overall the 2D is a useful tool and it's nice to have it on the main screen.    

My 800 was well past it's warranty expiration. I needed to upgrade. I had a D2 on pre-order, but I decided to wait for Minelab and cancelled it. Two buddies did get the D2. I think from what I've seen it's a great detector worthy of all the praise it gets. I got the manticore Jan. 10th 2023. My second hunt with it in a very trashy yard from a recent tear down I got 3 silvers. I took it back to several places my buddies and I had worn out with various detectors including the 800 and I found more silver. I was finding multiple silvers in several of the places we had given up on finding any more. I think the Manticore is kinda tricky to learn. It did take many hunts to feel confident with it. I still don't think I completely know the detector yet.    

I just found out mine is on the way. Woo-Hoo!

I ordered Dec. 21st. I have heard nothing on mine. I could have used it yesterday.

Sounds like it will be worth the wait. Thanks.

I ain't heard squat. I have one on pre-order myself. As long as it's here mid March or around the 1st of April I can live with it.

So how many people have the M8 coil and what's the verdict? I have one on back order.

My 105's have been great so far with no issues. I don't like them though for summer as they are really hot. Thinking about ordering some 85's or maybe a WM-09. Can't make up my mind.

I got an email saying the M8 was in stock. By the the time saw the email it was the next day and the M8 had sold out. I went ahead and back-ordered it. I may be waiting awhile, but no big deal.

1 hour ago, Jeff McClendon said:

Batteries.

I kinda thought Minelab engineers should be able to fit everything in a CTX into a Manticore size package. I understand it would be a ground up redesign of electronics and power, but the CTX is a great detector. So many people including myself do see the Ferrous-Conductive I.D. as a plus. I was even hoping the Manticore would incorporate it. I also kinda think the CTX is way more expensive to manufacture parts wise than the Manticore is. Therefore I don't see why a redesigned CTX would cost as much as the present CTX. 

Forgive me if I've brought this up before. So I have a Nox 800 and a Manticore. I really like both of those detectors although other than side by side testing I don't use my 800 anymore. It's just basically a backup these days. I even have a backup for my backup a Nokta Legend. People love the Etrac and CTX for their I.D., depth, and silver finding abilities. Both are still formidable detectors. I do not understand why Minelab has not taken the CTX and put it in a Nox/Manticore form factor. I never owned a CTX, but did own an Etrac. If the Etrac had been as light as my 800 I probably would have kept it. It seems like a no brainer for Minelab to rework the CTX FBS II into a lighter machine. Other than it's weight doesn't the CTX still have a lot going for it? I'd also bet everyone that still swings a CTX would probably buy the lighter version. A 5+ pound machine these days is ridiculous. 

Part 2 is on the Minelab YouTube channel. I don't see where the assumptions of a possible pending update are coming from, unless somehow I missed something.

The Manticore launch was pretty decent I think. There were no real serious bugs since release. I could be wrong, but I kinda doubt there will be much more updating. I personally wish they had a full time team devoted to improving detector performance through software updates, but I seriously doubt they do.

To be honest I don't care to spend over $300.00 on the M8. I may not get one right off the bat. I don't use small coils that often. If I find I need a small coil I'll just use my 800 with the Coiltek 10"x5" for the time being.

On 7/21/2023 at 5:40 AM, Medina said:

So mad I sold my 3030, my 800, actually believing the hype about the Manti... no small coil yet, the update..not really sure what it did (for me)... 

Got half the hours sweeping as I did this time last year, very frustrated. Actually thinking of selling it, buying an 800 with coils (I've easily got well over 1200 hours on the 800) and hoping ML gets its sht together at some point

 The Manticore definitely has a steeper learning curve than the Nox. Most people including myself thought there wouldn't be much of a learning curve if you were coming straight from the Equinox 800. I was wrong about that. The larger segment I.D., and more prone to false on iron. It's seems to me to be just a more sensitive detector in general. You tend to have to endure a lot more targets with the Manticore if you hunt in all metal.

I'm doing fantastic with mine. At this point no way would I trade it for any other detector. Personally I don't think if you had a Equinox 800 upgrading to a 900 was worth it, but that's just me. Coil selection is nice to have, but generally I prefer the 11" stock coils. Since I turf hunt mostly I find it pretty rare that any accessory coil is a major improvement over the stock coil. In certain situations sure, but for daily detecting no. They are nice to have, but I don't seem to ever use them that much.  

2 hours ago, markinswpa said:

Brad correct. The 900 did out perform  the 800 in the test garden with all the same parameters. Thats why I find it strange I haven't been hitting any deep targets. I did try a Recovery of 3 then 2 without any conclusive results. I will say I don't care for Rec. 2, it seems to stretch the signal out too much. If that makes sense. I judge a target by how fast the tone breaks and 4 seems to work best for me with a medium sweep speed. Haven't revisited the test garden, its been too dry. Good luck and thanks for your response. Mark

I'm with you on this. Lowering the the Recovery below 4 stretches the tone out to long. Honestly the stock program recovery speeds are about perfect. I've never seen a lot of difference raising or lowering them drastically.  

That is like $428.00. That's crazy! I hope the M8 is at least a $100.00 less. Even if it was, $328.00 is still to much if you ask me.

You guys are blowing my mind on I.D. stability issues. In mild to moderate dirt I see absolutely no wild swings on the I.D. of targets. Every deep silver I dig I pretty know it's silver. Silver dimes in my dirt are always 80 to 84 tops. You just don't see like ever see a 78 or below if it's a silver dime. (If targets are silver deep reading in the upper 70's I dig them. I've been burnt to many times on worn silver not to dig those. Quarters 99% of the time start at 88. If they are silver they can go as high as 92. I've dug 2 silver half dollars with the Manticore. I knew they were half dollars. I.D. 94ish. Sure the I.D. can fluctuate slightly, but I've never been left wondering what I was digging due to I.D. fluctuations. In my dirt wild fluctuations mean some kind of trash target usually. Honestly I guess I'm a Cherry Picker. I don't like digging trash. I'm having my best year ever sliver wise swinging the Manticore.

I'm perfectly happy with the Manticore. I wouldn't trade it for anything currently being made. I've had multiple silver hunts from places where silver had not been found in a while. As in for all practical purposes about hunted out. I've done this enough that I've been kind of flabbergasted how the silver was still there when so many high end detectors had been over it.

I don't think the Manticore is a ground breaking detector. I think it's definitely a step up from the 800 & 900. I think Multi-IQ+ is better than Equinox Multi-IQ on the turf. I don't have access to lots of relic sites, so I can't seriously comment on that. For the sites I hunt it's perfect.