Manticore Accessory Coils

[midalake]

9 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Am I the only one thinking this is getting weird? Does Minelab know this is actually costing them sales? I held a new Manticore in the box last month, thought about buying it, and decided no.

I decide no as well. Even though I really thought it performed well at the beach. I did not like how the 11" coil with all the supports caught the sand, so I was hoping for a Coiltek 10X5 to dedicate it for the water.  If Minelab only comes out with an 8X5 this detector will be a total no. 

[TripleT]

No it's not weird.  The new update will Manticore the competition.  Or I've totally misread the Equinox progression. 

[Chase Goldman]

8 minutes ago, TripleT said:

No it's not weird.  The new update will Manticore the competition.  Or I've totally misread the Equinox progression. 

Manticore the competition?

Sorry you lost me.  What am I missing?

[TampaBayBrad]

4 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

Manticore the competition?

Sorry you lost me.  What am I missing?

Steamroll the competition? 🤔 😆

[TripleT]

11 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

Manticore the competition?

Sorry you lost me.  What am I missing?

Sorry, I used a noun as a verb!🤐

[TampaBayBrad]

14 hours ago, midalake said:

I did not like how the 11" coil with all the supports caught the sand,

Yes, when the coil is wet and you decide to work the dry, the sand accumulation does add some weight. I find myself turning the coil sideways and gently bumping it on the beach to shake some of it off.

I'm wondering how much heavier the 15" will be. I noticed they aren't using the extra bracing, so maybe it won't be too much heavier.

[Chase Goldman]

3 hours ago, TripleT said:

Sorry, I used a noun as a verb!🤐

Gotcha- btw what "new update" are you referring to?  Has one been announced or is it known to be in testing?  What's going to be in it?

[phrunt]

I'm just as disappointed as the next person in the lack of coils for the Manticore, it's getting beyond a joke.  I don't even use my Manticore as much as I'd like to and end up grabbing my Nox as it has the coils I need leaving my Manticore at home to gather dust.  

If they fix the jumpy ID's and release some coils for it they've got a great detector with the Manticore.   They're my only complaints.  I do feel a little deceived though as their marketing for the Manticore said it has more stable ID's than the Nox, I loved how stable my Nox Id's were so I was excited to think the Manticore was even better, sadly it's worse, significantly.

I just hope they don't pull a GPZ on us and say the smaller coil is coming and it never does as they had decided they will make a GPX 6000 instead, they may want Manticore owners to have to buy a Nox as well to get a small coil 🙂  I wouldn't put it past them and in a way they've already done that by making the Manticore small coil bigger than the Nox small coil so for me personally I may end up still using my Nox for gold even when the Manticore has a small coil. 

I won't be buying a Nox 900, sure the quality is better but I just don't want another jumpy ID detector. I'll stick with the 800, mines never going to leak as the only water its going to see is rain and it only ever has the 6" coil on it for gold so my ears won't break.  I used to use it a lot for coins with the 15x12" coil but the CTX and 17x13" coil has taken over that job and hopefully if they fix the ID's the Manticore with 15x12" coil will be a suitable contender for the coins too.

I'm really starting to wonder if the Manticore was rushed to market as the Deus 2 was stealing that end of the markets sales.  I can't imagine many CTX's were selling being so old and the Deus 2 comes out and gets a lot of sales, sales that are unlikely to go to the Manticore as once people have committed to a purchase they tend to stick with it and not bother with the competitors release.

[Jeff McClendon]

Minelab did contact me about my Nox 900 and sent me a replacement so they are reading these forums. My new Nox 900 acts basically like the one I sent to Minelab for testing.

Otherwise, Minelab does not give out information about timing of impending software updates, coils or detectors. XP does it sometimes. Nokta does it regularly.

Anyway, the Nox 600/800 has about 6 target IDs between US nickels and US zinc pennies from 14 to 19 that I could choose to dig or ignore if I wanted to when USA coin hunting. The Nox 700/900/Manticore seem to have the same non-ferrous target ID scale. Now with the expanded target ID scale of these detectors there are roughly 33 target IDs between a US nickel and a US zinc penny that I need to at least keep track of. Just using the 900, there is not a lot of distinctive information about coin sized objects that can be given by the 900’s audio. At least the Manticore has some visual indications that might help with identifying what might be under the coil if it has a non ferrous ID between 29 and 62. I don’t like looking at a display very much but it may help at this point. Target ID instability at least for me is present to various degrees using Deus 2, Nox 900 and to a lesser degree the Legend.  I am also seeing some significant upaveraging and shifting of target IDs of deeper coin sized targets using the Nox 900 and Deus 2 which is frankly annoying. I assume the Manticore may also do some similar upaveraging on some coin sized targets.

For me, it would be great to only need one or two VLF detectors for the types of hunting I do. Right now, the five that I own all have strengths and weaknesses that are covered by each other. No one detector beats the others in every category that I need a detector for like coin and jewerly, relics, submerged fresh and saltwater, and gold prospecting, all of which usually happens in at least moderately mineralized conditions with either tons of modern or 1800s trash. The one that comes the closest to doing everything really well at this point amazingly enough is the Nokta Legend.

It’s great to have all of these excellent detectors. Hopefully one will rise above them all at least for me and my hunting conditions with continued software updates and coil choices.

[Chase Goldman]

51 minutes ago, Jeff McClendon said:

Target ID instability at least for me is present to various degrees using Deus 2, Nox 900 and to a lesser degree the Legend.

My experience mirrors your own regarding no one detector doing it all.  However, my experience diverges from yours in this respect.  Legend and Nox 900 do not have TID stability anywhere near that of the Deus 2 at depth in my experience - but that is primarily in mild soil, so my soil conditions are different than yours. I have corroborated my experience with D2 rock solid ID stability with at least two other DP members here.  If I am detecting in hot ground - then I am generally just pulling out my PI which is now the Axiom and also this is for relics (not natural gold).  If I am switching up from a PI under those circumstances , then it will be the Deus 2, but that is primarily because the D2 is always strapped to my back if I am using a PI, not because i have exhaustively proved it is deeper or more stable than the Legend or Nox 800/900 in hot soil. 

So I get where you are coming from on the Deus 2 and Legend comparison based on your specific environment and your objectives and don't refute your first hand observations.  My circumstances are just different and I have less A to B to C comparisons of Nox, D2 and Legend in hot soil.  I would like to do more experimentation and get more proficiency with Legend, but to be frank, my access to prime sites is limited and I need to make the most productive use of the few hours of access I do get, rather than running science experiments.  Bottom line, is that D2 is giving me that confidence right now, so I am just pulling it or the Axiom out even with access to the Nox's and Legend.

So it really comes down to whether Manticore with the right selection of coils brings anything more to the table than D2 (or Nox, or Legend) do for me right now.  Or whether I should instead focus solely on Legend proficiency, bypass Manticore, and let my old Nox 800 be the only viable ML backup-to-a-backup machine in my arsenal.  Right now, as far as the Beach goes, I could be happy with D2 or the Nox 800, could probably get to yes with the Legend, and have no doubt the Manticore could get it done and might be fun to boot.

Really need to have the Manticore small coil available to complete this assessment.