Search the Community

This test was done in hot ground and it's pretty clear the Manticore has an advantage over the Gold Monster 2000 in this scenario. Couple of observations-GM2 is much easier on the ears than the Manticore and that might be best choice for some people. GM2 is also way easier to setup where as the Manticore you have to make a lot of initial adjustments on a new site to get it to run decent on various ground types. The Manticore also is running a slightly larger coil and if the GM2 had a 6x10 on it may have hit those deeper nuggets just fine. I've heard a few early users say they could cherry pick targets with the GM2 and I think you're making a big mistake if you think that's going to be the case. Just in the few hours I've run the GM2, I can see it's just as prone to calling good targets junk, as any other VLF out there. So it's still a dig it all machine unless it's a surface target IMO. Overall I think the GM2 is a pretty solid machine, especially for new users or people who just want a mild mannered good performing gold nugget VLF detector.

I've been wanting to know the answer to which is more sensitive to micro jewelry using similar programs setup with similar settings. I have not had a chance to do this in the field. I used Deus 2 HF2 coil, Sensitive program, Pitch 2 High Square Audio, Disc 10, Sensitivity 93, Max Frequency 53 kHz, Reactivity 2, Silencer 0, Bottle Caps 0, No Notch, Audio Response 4, Iron Volume 7. I used Manticore M8 coil, All Terrain Low Conductors, Depth Tones, Preset Disc pattern which leaves target IDs 0 to 10 wide open and I used the horseshoe button engaged, Sensitivity 22, Recovery Speed 5. I put a couple of inches of dirt that fills up all of the Deus 2 magnetite mineralization meter that is from my backyard in the bottom of a 13" gold pan and put 3" of wood chips on top of it. This mimics the bark tot lots that I hunt with the HF2 coil. I put all targets under the wood chips and on top of the dirt, so roughly 3" depth. Here is a photo of the wood chips and dirt with a gold chain in the gold pan. Here is a chart of the results showing the targets, their size/weight, depth of detection and target IDs The chart does not show it but no doubt about it, Deus 2 with HF2 coil using Pitch 2 tones and the Sensitive program was more effective than Manticore with M8 coil using Depth tones in All Terrain Low Conductors. The HF2 absolutely nailed the gold chains and the M8 coil struggled on those targets and a few others. XP's Pitch 2 is really strong for this type of detecting. I tried other Manticore settings and All Terrain modes. The Manticore results were worse using those other modes. I did not try the gold prospecting mode on either detector. Both audio themes, Pitch 2 and Depth tones have VCO 2 tone audio. The 3" depth is not necessarily the max depth on some of these targets. Another inch or two is possible with both detectors. I just used an arbitrary 3" floor for this test. The smaller chain, titanium ball point pen tip, 10K earring post and 10K earring back were already iffy or not detectable at 3". At least for these type of targets and hunting, the 53 to 88 kHz max frequencies that are available for Deus 2's FMF programs along with the new Pitch 2 are just better. So, for micro jewelry hunting on land or fresh water, I am sticking with Deus 2 and the HF2 coil and Pitch 2.

I know what’s being said already in the Legend 2 is not out yet. That’s true but the the day Nokta announced it would be a Legend 2 it didn’t have to do just making it better than the One but out doing the competition and right now that’s the Manticore. Yes the Legend will be lesser in price and Nokta has always put out a good to great detector for your money. The trouble now the Manticore is proven to be a great detector detecting fly poop size nuggets and that alone will make people more willing to pay the higher price that the Manticore is selling for. I say if you’re just a coin hunter and the Legend 2 has all of what you want in a detector and that’s coin hunting only then it’s for you . Believe it are not I’m all for the Legend 2 but it’s going to take more than say calabash saying it’s great but people taking it out in the true gold field and spending the time proving it’s equal to if not better than the Manticore. All I can say Legend 2 is the day you come on the market you better hit the ground running proving yourself. Chuck

I saw this photo floating around of a guy that broke his Manticore coil and found the design of the mount interesting, they seem to do stuff to lower weights but why would they, why not make it solid like it looks? You would think hollowing the mount out like this would halve the strength of the structure for minimal weight savings. He seems a bit of a gadget guy, that blue thing on the lower shaft mount must be to strengthen the mount, don't think that's necessary.

Back in 2018 @Steve Herschbach wrote a great (long) post on how to use the Minelab Equinox for detecting native gold. Here's a link to the post I'm referring to. (There were others, too.) The ML Manticore has been available for going on 3 years and there has been a lot posted on it. But has there been a comprehensive article for it similar to the above for the Equinox which synthesizes the various tidbits into one place? I realize there is a lot in common between these two detectors when it comes to features & adjustment options but there are a couple I can think of off-the-top-of-my-head which are different, namely the Ferrous Limits and the fact that ferrous ID's are separate from non-ferrous ID's. So rather than a complete rewrite, I'm thinking just a post on these differences would be sufficient and otherwise just a "see the Equinox writeup" pointer for the things in common.

Before I proceed to add any of my observations, I genuinely feel sorry for people who might be of a different point of view and possibly gets hurted by these words...but... Being a solo underwater hunter and just recently an occasional wetsand baby, while using since day one the Manticore in all metal/prospecting/Beach L.C. mode this is what I lately understood on my skin. In spite of any possible setting, the search for elusives broken, charm's separated and super thin gold chains in the wet/water depth/salt area it is not a real thing. Of the four beach programs, If I have to list on a scale of 1 to 4, the one well known for small gold sensitivity (not depth), the n°1 it is for sure L.C. . Following the "no falsing" correct setup mindset, on a medium contaminated ground, a sensitivity of 17-19 it is the real peace of mind level to avoid disgusting noise in the ears for hours. Be careful with the 8x5 cause this will multiply the depth loss and I'm not talking about excessive recovery speed involved here. If not for the object size and manageable layer to scan, physics still works on the planet and miracles don't happens. I wrote about mindset for a good reason and exactly, the reason it is : forget the damn chains and search for the weight/size that pays the effort first. I've heard like I hear all years, that Excalibur guys are already beating the hell around the coast and guess what, I'm tired to leave mine at home. Yeah, listening to salt signal I'm burned and producing way less than the intentional "threshold target". So closing, without even mentioning S.& S./General and Deep, I started to adopt a notch on 0-1-2 and still thinking how much time I lost far from rings that any other machine finds without particular difficulties. That's not for the real world, that common and overestimated setup we think as global. Not sharing finds recently and I'm sorry for this, but for good reasons. I can just tell You all, that I rarely write personally, something without a reason. And as usual, if some words can help someone struggling, the better. I wish You a prompt storm season to finally start with the real games...

Yesterday I went back to a park my kids go to often. It has a modest sized playground with sand. I've found different patches over the years of coins, cars and a little jewelry. It gets detected often by others as well. After the fires in January all of our park sand has been scrapped down as a fear that there was toxic smoke affecting them. This has taken the surface down quite a bit but there has also been some clean sand added back. When I started yesterday the detector and settings were pretty ratty. This is not normally the case but I know near one sand area there is a buried recycling tank. Several of our parks have this now. Everyone should know what is really under their park surface for EMI reasons. My normal settings I use at the beach (beach low conductors) just wasn't getting anything. No fresh drops and nothing in the hard, compacted sand. I tried All Terrain and didn't get much improvement. I came upon a spot and looked down and saw something shinny and it didn't detect. What? I picked it up. It wasn't plastic. Let me think ... I had just been talking with Reese about the Manti and Prospecting Mode (Goldfield) and his great nugget finds. I was on a thread about All Metal and we were talking about micro jewelry and this certainly qualified ... let me try PROSPECTING (GOLDFIELD) for JEWELRY. After a little bit of setting up and checking my settings I put that little earring down where I saw it and it SCREAMED at me (with Prospecting Audio)! Oh my ... I adjusted the threshold (because I was in Prospecting Audio) and sensitivity a bit and off I went over the remainder of the sand. It was surprising. Here is the little earring I found that I could adjust the sensitivity of the Prospecting mode (Goldfield) and detect pretty close to some larger metal objects. The ID of the target was still available but the sound was much better than the other beach or terrain choices. Soon I hear something else: It was the earring to the right of the Superman. I tried some other settings (modes) and it was almost soundless compared to prospecting (Goldfield). I would have skipped it. At this point I'm wondering how many other times I could have used PROSPECTING (GOLDFIELD) in a park and found more. I kept going around the scrapped and less scrapped areas and down deep I heard something. I was down about 6" now and it didn't sound big but it was lodged in the hole and would cause me to bend my sand scoop. I almost stopped digging with the thought it was just a piece of old pipe but it had kind of a copper ID. Out pops Superman! There is one more convincing find in this picture that will make sure I give Prospecting (GOLDFIELD) a try on nearly every park in the future. A bit after I found SM and I covered the hole I got a screamer sound. I scooped and detected and no target. This actually happens a lot in the other modes so I looked and hanging from my scoop is that fine chain. It had not been a grunt sound like my chains at the beach. This was a high tone. I looked at the chain and there are no large pieces for clasps or charms. It is pure chain, probably mostly copper. Still it was loud. I just haven't found anything like this in that park. What I was able to 'sense' through finding the other targets is prospecting (Goldfield) is the closest to all metal without target processing. The bobby pins sound different. Maybe this is why some beach PIs find more 'stuff' than the Manti or similar. In the evening I went out to my local beach spot and went back to beach modes and as you can see it produces ... even sometimes very small. This dog that has learned a new trick is going to try it on regular turf and grass one of these days and make a few plugs. I might even try PROSPECTING (Goldfield) at a coin hunt on low sensitivity and make it act like a GBII! (Footnote: While I was at another park this afternoon with the boys I realized I used some terminology that would be confusing. On the Manticore there is a Prospecting Audio. This can be used on all of the modes including Goldfield. I think Goldfield is called Prospecting on the 800 and I don't know about the others. I'm going to make it clear when I switch to Goldfield in the post above.)

I hunt a older 1840ish park that has been scoured by VLF machines since the 70's. Finds are notoriously slow these days, I found my last silver a couple years ago...however I belive there to be deeper targets still there and the soil is reasonably mild. I am consisdering a PI or hybrid machine to try for more depth as I don't think those types of machines have been extensively used in the location. Would it be reasonable to think an Axiom or ATX or similar might open up new opportunities on coins that are below the VLF range?

I've got this spot that has lots of nails and other iron objects including pieces of tin. What settings should I use on my Manticore to get the most desirable items detecting? Thanks for any advice.

Is there a thread here that compares these two? I'm just thinking about the small gold comparison with the M8. I think Simon is new to both of them if he has an M8. He was comparing the Manticore to the 800 and some others. Does Norvic have a Manticore?

This is a short, 3 minute video of Deus 2 with HF2 coil and beta 3.04 software loaded on my WS6. So, no external speaker. I am using XP wired headphones with the volume on both the headphones and the WS6 maxed out. The audio is still no where near optimal. I apologize for that. Manticore is using its external speaker so don't compare the volume levels. Instead turn up your viewing device volume as much as you can and listen especially to me trying to ground balance the HF2 coil. It never really happened. Off camera I tried repeatedly and failed. Manticore running its multi frequency prospecting mode ground balanced within 5 seconds and was able to run much more quietly while having outstanding sensitivity to these two lead targets: 0.09 grams at 1.5" depth and 0.15 grams at 3" depth. Sensitivity was set on 20, recovery speed 5 and all targets accepted. As stated in the video, I could raise the coil 2 to 3" above the targets before the audio response got too weak to hear. This Beta 3.04 ground balance issue on highly iron mineralized dirt using FMF Goldfield is troubling. The HF2 coil performed as best it could in my opinion but it is just handcuffed by the software. I only tried the HF2 coil running Goldfield with 88 kHz max frequency, sensitivity 95, reactivity 2.5. Reactivity 2 was impossible to use due to ground noise. Reactivity 3 made sensitivity to these targets much worse. I was able to raise the coil about 1 inch above the targets before the audio really dropped off in volume. Compared to V2.00 software using the FMF 9" coil, the HF2 coil with beta 3.04 is a big improvement but the lack of getting a quiet ground balance and all of the falsing from the ground itself just tosses a hand grenade into using it for a location like this. Yes, I have found sub gram gold and specimen gold at this location using the XP Deus and XP ORX running the original HF coils.

Disclaimer: long read. I spent several hours with the Manticore in the goldfields in the high Sierras and thought to provide some insights and impressions. First of all, the purpose of the Manticore for me is the ability to hunt for gold nuggets in really trashy mine sites. As you know, the Sierra Nevada has been visited by a few gold prospectors before (?), and prospecting at popular mine sites without any form of discrimination, that is based on target IDs, is pretty much hopeless. Sometimes, digging up everything with PI/ZVT is possible if you take on a really submissive mindset, but it is for the most part highly unproductive and will make your day nothing else but miserable. I tested the Manticore with the sole purpose of finding gold in trashy and highly mineralized mine sites, and by using various test nuggets ranging from 0.1 to 0.4 g. What ended up working best for me was: Gold Field mode with Prospecting audio theme, treshold 17, pitch 22, volume 14, sensitivity 16, revovery speed 6. The 0.1 nugget gave IDs between 8 and 12 and the 0.4g nuget around 22. Of note, the y axis on the screen( ferreous potential) is pretty much useless for detecting small nuggets, and both nuggets consistantly showed up at the upper and lower boundaries, unless right under the coil (then also in middle). So, don't trust the ferreous paramter when you hunt for small gold. When you detect a repeatable target, swing over it several times from different angles with short swing range and slow speed. In particular with the 11 inch coil, the target ID can be all over the place if the coil picks up too much ground signal as you move over the target of interest. So, make sure your "drill down" swings are tight. This should get better with the smaller coils, but for the 11 inch coil you need to be tight. Despite auto tracking on, I have not noticed that targets were tracked out. So, it's ok to take your time and examine a target from various angles with several swings. Importantly, the IDs should remain tight when you do that, like.+/- 3. Too much of variations can indicate hot rocks, which generally showed up for me in the 27 range, but can also be as low as 2. Often, the hotrocks give a slightly elongated trace in the very upper ferreous region of the 2D screen. This was pretty consistant, but might depend on the hotrock composition of the area. Again, don't look at the ferreous indicator when you suspect a nugget, it may or may not work and will fool you often. By far the most impactful parameters are sensitivity and recovery speed. In mineralized ground, the 16/6 setting worked the best for me. Anything above sensitivity 16, or max 17, or recovery speeds below 6 made the machine totally unstable and practically useless. If your ground is alot milder, you might be able to dial up the gain (or dial down the recovery speed), but this will highly depend on your conditions. I can just say that if some sort of ID is important to you, then you MUST tame the machine down, in particular in hot ground, otherwise all benefits of target ID will go away quickly. Under these conditions, the depth is only modest with the 0.1 nugget disappearing beyond 1-1.5 inch depth. To be able to detect at the edge, you need to keep the treshold on and listen for slight wispers (often without any ID dispalyed). This is absolutely essential to get some sort of depth, and this has not changed since the earlier VLF days, despite all the modern advancements. For the "full bore enthusiasts", this might work for PIs if your brain can handle it, but will NOT work for the Manticore, or any other VLF that I have used for that matter. If sensitivity is too high, you will not hear a nugget even when it is directly under the coil. So, be warned, as the Manticore has alot of power to offer. Do frequent GB and noise cancel, this helps, albeit not as much as for the 6000. I actually like the pinpointer feature, but the hotspot is at the tip of the coil, not at the center which I believe the manual says. Overall, the Manticore is a great machine for my purpose, but you need to find the sweet spot in settings to maximize the target ID quality for digging less trash, and to have a chance for a succesful day at a mine site. The depth and sensitivity under these conditions are modest at best, with depths detectable down to 2-3 inches for the 0.4 g nugget and about 1 inch for the 0.1 nugget. However, then with mostly reliable and consistant target ID numbers. There is absolutely no comparison to the 6000, which in this soil and under these conditions beats the Manticore by a huge margin, as expected. In mild soil this difference could shrink, but for sure not where I hunt. However, the 6000 is totally unproductive in highly trashy areas and the Manticore can save the day. So, gold can be recovered at super trashy sites with the Manticore, but expectations need to be managed. GC

After 386 days of ownership and an average of 160 sessions of use, The Manticore ceased operation today due to flooding. Although, data in hand, after the first 55 days the instrument had reached the break even point, now we will see what happens after the lab service... I will keep you informed.

So, been quite awhile since I have posted any good finds, not for lack of trying! I'm not as skilled or as lucky as many on this forum! But I had an interesting situation at one of my local beaches that was a learning experience, and actually sorta fun! I'm not generally a water hunter by "trade" for various reasons! One of the most notable, is that in a good part of my "detecting range", it is highly illegal to water hunt due to treasure leases with the State of Florida! Most of which are "owned" by the Mel Fisher family, which sublease to Treasure Coast salvagers, and are highly monitored by them, and law enforcement! So that's my disclaimer, and information for the unknowing! But there are beach water area's that are fair game for those who don't mind the generally murky water, and constant wave battering! One of those areas had an unexpected sand stripping event several day's ago that I had to try my hand at searching! Now to be up front, no treasure, or even clad was found in the water!😵 But nonetheless, it taught me much about the specific geology of the area, and how to search it! It was a rapid learning curve, as the monthly low tides don't wait for anyone to get there s**t together! I was using the Manticore with the M15 the first day, as I had hit a few beaches, and on the way home, stopped at this one! It is definitely too large for wavy water, and was overwhelmed by multiple targets! Nonetheless I managed a handful of lead and some beach clad up on the sand! Oh, and by the way, a scoop is useless in this situation, and I got tired of tossing it on the beach, or keeping track of where the waves took it! So, I come back day two a bit wiser, and ready to rumble! Waterproof headphones, my M9 coil with green bumper, and armor on my coil cable to prevent ruining it on the rocks, and left the scoop in the truck! I thought for sure I was gonna get at least a ring or two with my lead weights this time!🥁 And no🤯; but a crap load of mostly old lead, and way too many signals to dig in an hour! So, the last day, at now the "not so low" tide, half the rocks were covered, and the water was near zero visibility, so search and especially recovery was slow!😵 I was just able to managed a few more sinkers; still a ton of signals, some of which were the same aluminum can bottoms locked under the shelves, that i hit the previous two days, and it was done! No treasures!😬 So, in F350 fashion, I saved the "best" for last! I detected up the slope leaving the beachfront, into and old grassy area on the way to the shower! I got two pennies, but one was a 1927 wheatie, so it wasn't a total loss! I was rewarded immediately by some hidden fire ants that lit me up, as soon as i filled my hole!🤬 I will have the ankle scars to remember that find! I gained valuable experience, along with the makings of a potential ammo loading hobby!😉 And some great exercise! I haven't tallied up all the lead, but I'd say it was north of 100! I'm still convinced that the rings are in there, somewhere, but that will have to be another story some day!🤞🍀👍👍

Hi Folks, I've been pleasantly surprised with the pinpoint mode on the Manti compared to the NOX800. With the old NOX the perceived wisdom on the NOX thread was when in Pinpoint mode to ignore any VDI readings and depth (spade) indication as these were frozen at the last grap/sweep in the motion mode and just react to the location info the pinpointer mode was telling you. However it seems that the Manticore whilst in pinpoint mode shows and gives continuous updates on the 2D display and VDI of what it is seeing, and it seems to show even more resolution when doing so. Do you think the target info the Manti is showing in pinpointer mode is accurate and useful, or should we ignore it like the NOX? We'll probably dig it anyway.

I found 11 of these unknown objects. They might be brass. I also found these brass? objects that say case on the front. Maybe somebody will know what these are.

I own a Manticore with m8 m9 coils. I intend to spend some time this summer in the goldfields and am wondering if I should invest in a dedicated gold machine like the Whites/Garrett 24k or similar VHF technology or with the coils I own for the Manticore whether my success rate would be comparable to the dedicated gold machines.

A friend without Youtube filmed this video so I'm putting it up for him, he was playing around with his Algoforce and comparing it to the GPX 6000 and Manticore in some black salty sand and he did a good demonstration of how well the Algoforce can handle these difficult conditions that the GPX 6000 cannot handle at all. He's using a MK2 Sadie in the video, you can make it work even better and deeper with a less sensitive coil. I've had good results in my testing with the 11" Commander Mono in this sort of situation. I've never understood when someone says the GPX 6000 handles tough conditions well, just because the packaging says all gold, all soils, all the time doesn't mean it's true 🙂 The older GPX models were much better in very tough ground like this black sand. I've seen the same results as in this video around here, the 6000 fails badly in tough black sand conditions where the earlier GPX 4500/5000 worked much better and as you can see in this video the Algoforce also does very well and can even accurately Target ID accurately in the black sand. The GPX 6000 also fails in hot rocks around here that the Algoforce handles well. We have some of the worst black sand in the world in NZ at some of our West Coast beaches, I'm yet to take my Algo to the worst pure black sand beaches but the mixed sand and black sand beaches I've tried so far, it's worked remarkably well. I hope to get a chance to go to some of the really bad beaches soon as I'll have a good advantage over the previous attempts by people to detect them, I think, the Tarsacci that was touted as handling our beaches was a massive failure and didn't work well at all, I expect the Algo is going to do much better from what I've seen so far. I'll get some video when I make it to a good black sand beach showing how I go.

This is for people who have used both. Not really interested in opinionating from those who are just speculating. I have been hanging tough with my Equinox 800 package, in large part due to the coil selection. Both the D2 and Manticore have left me wanting in that department so far. XP holding out on the 5x10 coil, and Minelab holding out on, well, just about everything up to now. But at least the M8 and M15 coils are reaching user hands, and I am hopeful we might see a Coiltek 5x10 someday. But to keep it on the straight and narrow lets consider two coils only. The Deus 2 with 9" round as it's smallest option at this time, versus Manticore with 5x8 M8 coil. In general if coil sizes were identical I think most people would give the D2 the edge on picking non-ferrous out of a nail bed. But coils rule in the end, and I suspect the smaller M8 coil might tip the equation in favor of the Manticore for hunting dense trash. I'm also a small gold nugget guy as most people know. While some have knocked the Deus 2 for small gold capability my buddy Condor has one and does quite well on small gold with it in my opinion. As in I have been impressed. Yet another person (abenson) has the M8 on the Manticore and has killed it on some impressively tiny gold, but did note coil knock as an issue, something not seen on the Deus 2. That is however very dependent on sensitivity and even more so ground balance settings, so jury out on that for sure. Long story short I am strongly considering on replacing my Equinox 800 by next year with either the Deus 2 or Manticore. I tend to lean into small coils with VLF so the 9" or M8 are a real focal point for me. Frankly, if XP released the 5x10 for the Deus 2 it would probably be game over for me, but they really don't want me having that detector so are refusing so far to release that coil for the Deus 2. Yeah, I have heard the reasons why not - falling on deaf ears here. You out there XP? Give us the 5x10 for the Deus 2 and we can end this debate now. Until then however the Manticore M8 combo rates high with me, not least because I am simply more used to the Minelab way of doing things with menus. XP is a more radical shift for me. And in the long run I do think the Manticore will have the better coil selection, as we can at least hope for limited aftermarket coil support. Something we will never see with XP. Blah blah blah I do go on. So what do you people who have used both think about the D2 9" combo vs Manticore M8 setup?

As I write this problem I honestly feel like an idiot, but hey, it's a good thing to share the idiocy and avoid problems for others. I have a stuck lower end on the shaft of my Manticore. Despite the long-lasting lubricant I have applied in the past to each freshwater bath after saltwater sessions, I have now found the lower end causally stuck in place in the middle segment. I have tried soft and hard methods to remove it by sliding it down, but no amount of pulling or pushing will do. I also heard some carbon crunching noises that I did not like at all when I tried using a table stand with a sliding hammer. Good old candle wax is still the best...I just needed to use it first.

If you talk with a gold prospector, saying about a gold chain as the hardest item to uncover, it is a joke. In my still modest 20+ years experience, I found no more than 12 or so. Every time cause of a pendant still there in the same hole, or at least an eye visible piece. Long story short, I found at some depth (2" more or less) one little pendant with a weight of only 0.32 gram. I know, the shape can do miracles in terms of response to the coil, but hey...With the M9 this opened my eyes and that's the reason for the title. There will be no more progress on a Vlf to avoid salt and listen to chains. I'm sure now. Still today, smaller items barely covered in sand can be reached but forget about decent depth perception of it, not underwater. The low conductors program performs to a limit where I can barely realize if I'm running way hot at 22 or something reacts for real to the coil. Wrong program underwater, wrong approach to the usual work, I know. Using different settings and programs will only get You a blind machine like many others on micro targets. Steve explained long ago the "salt against chains ratio" and now, again I crashed my nose on it. For peace of mind, I'm considering to stay for some time with a pulse machine and forget micro targets for a while... I think that I've been lucky enough to push the Manticore to the limit underwater in salt. Skull

I used my Manticore in the ocean surf for the first time yesterday in Beach Surf/Seawater mode. Though it detected quite well finding targets so deep I couldn't even recover them, the pinpoint function did no seem to lock on and work very well. Has anyone else experienced this?

Larry here- about 8 years detecting (minus 4 surgeries), I started with a White's DFX, which I still have, and last year bought a Minelab Manticore. I enjoy finding period relics (where legal!), but of course jewelry and coins are fine, too. I am still delving into Manticore settings and variations, and wishing I had started detecting when I lived in the Northeast! This forum was recommended by an experienced detecting friend, so I'm happy to be here.

I got the Minelab Manticore in early January or February 2024 I think, (Thanks Gerry from Gerry's Detectors) but it was too frozen here to start using it much until early March when the thaw out started slowly happening. I have just started to scratch the surface for turf hunting with the Manticore. I have had a couple of short gold prospecting hunts with it and no water hunts. I have almost exclusively been using it at public parks with it setup in All Terrain General Multi, with all targets accepted and with sensitivity between 22 and 25 of 35 using the 11" coil. Today I recovered the 67 and 68th (my age is 68) silver coin/ring/relic since my first hunt with the Manticore in early March. To say that I am surprised and amazed with the Manticore would be a vast understatement. I keep detecting logs. In 2022 I recovered 20 silver rings/coins with the Nox 800 and Legend. In 2023 I recovered 32 silver rings/coins with the Legend and Deus 2. This year, I may be able to break 100 with just the Manticore. None of these targets were less than 6" deep. Most were 8"+ and without the very deep Fisher F Pulse, finding them with a less deep pinpointer and just a screwdriver would be really hard. So, this post is not about me. It's all about the Manticore and the F Pulse and the difference they have made at hunted out parks in just 4 months. Found some old tokens and a 1909 S V.D.B. Wheat too.

Yet another question about the Manticore versus Deus 2 (only put in a different way).------If you own both of these detectors---is there any "real" reason to keep the D2?---Talking about for relic/coin hunting in mineralized grounds.----Assuming a person has all the available coils for each detector.-----I have my thoughts concerning this---but---would like to hear the opinions of others.