Is The Manticore Worth It? Does It Perform Better Than The Nox?

[phrunt]

4 hours ago, Gold Catcher said:

Ok I changed it to the Manticore after a long discussion with my good friend in AZ. I also will get the 8 inch coil which are coming up soon, so I was told. Who knows, I might become a VLF fan 🙂

GC

As all you care about is gold nuggets there is very little in it 11" vs 11" at the moment, the 6" of the Nox is likely to be a bit better than the slightly larger Manticore 8x5.5" coil.   The Manticore offers more features.  You're a prime candidate for is the price difference worth it really and in your case it probably isn't as the Nox will do all you want it to do and maybe slightly better on small gold although that's unknown at the moment to me in my conditions until I get my mitts on the M8 coil for my Manticore.  The Nox 800 I'm very happy when it comes to small gold so if my Manticore lets me down in that regard I'll keep using my Nox.

[Gold Catcher]

28 minutes ago, phrunt said:

As all you care about is gold nuggets there is very little in it 11" vs 11" at the moment, the 6" of the Nox is likely to be a bit better than the slightly larger Manticore 8x5.5" coil.   The Manticore offers more features.  You're a prime candidate for is the price difference worth it really and in your case it probably isn't as the Nox will do all you want it to do and maybe slightly better on small gold although that's unknown at the moment to me in my conditions until I get my mitts on the M8 coil for my Manticore.  The Nox 800 I'm very happy when it comes to small gold so if my Manticore lets me down in that regard I'll keep using my Nox.

Thanks, Phrunt. I was told the Manticore ID is better in discriminating, like nails, etc and with more advanced algorithms. I will check it out and will report, albeit without having a Nox comparator.

GC

[phrunt]

4 minutes ago, Gold Catcher said:

Thanks, Phrunt. I was told the Manticore ID is better in discriminating, like nails, etc and with more advanced algorithms. I will check it out and will report, albeit without having a Nox comparator.

GC

It does give you more information to make a judgement call.

[phrunt]

1 hour ago, Gold Catcher said:

Thanks, Phrunt. I was told the Manticore ID is better in discriminating, like nails, etc and with more advanced algorithms. I will check it out and will report, albeit without having a Nox comparator.

GC

Judging by this video I'd be cancelling your order seeing you're in pretty hot soils, the performance is shocking I think.

 

[Jeff McClendon]

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. 

[phrunt]

7 minutes ago, Jeff McClendon said:

Hitting a .3 to .5 gram nugget at 4” depth is really quite good in dirt like that with a VLF. 

My concern is it won't suit his needs, he was wanting a VLF for discrimination reasons in hot soil finding gold in a junk filled area.  By the looks of it he may as well stay with his Gold Monster as it's not going to be a whole lot better is it?

[Jeff McClendon]

9 minutes ago, phrunt said:

My concern is it won't suit his needs, he was wanting a VLF for discrimination reasons in hot soil finding gold in a junk filled area.  By the looks of it he may as well stay with his Gold Monster as it's not going to be a whole lot better is it?

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

[GB_Amateur]

Performance is an objective characteristic, although there are so many variables (ground conditions being a big one) that care in judgement is still necessary.  Value (answering "is it worth it?") is extremely subjective.

For sure the Manticore has a richer feature set than the Equinoxes, with lots of audio setting possibilities.  And the visual feature 2-d screen, when used in the right hands (or maybe I should say "with certain brains"?), is an added feature that the Equinoxes don't have.

Most people care about depth, though, and that's a very difficult question to answer given the many variables involved.  From early on it's appeared that in mild soils (especially beach sand) the Manticore depth advantage over the Equinox is measurable.  As the ground gets worse (and that's specifically from iron mineralization level), the difference between the two shrinks, even to the point that with the latest Manticore update it may well be worse as abenson has experienced in some of his ground.  Fortunately we're not forced to use the latest update.  And future updates, if they come, will hopefully fix this giving all Manticore owners the best of both worlds.  TBD.

[Gold Catcher]

Thanks guys, all really useful info. I am fine with sacrificing some depth if it would give me a better target ID at mine sites. The video was really useful to get an impression of how it works in mineralized soil (thanks for posting Phrunt). I probably would swing much slower though, and I am curious if this would make any difference. It surely makes all the difference for my 6000 and 7000.  I know in principle that for VLF discrimination to work "well" the swing speed should be slow with strict coil control.

GC

[gadirtfishing]

Manticore is an absolute beast..... I used an E‐trac for 8 years and it was a fine machine. I never used a Nox so I can't contribute there. Manticore is like a E-trac on steroids and I love its much lighter weight and its design of build. The learning curve was easier for me because it's similar to the E-trac's system just more options to tweak. I keep it simple and do not over think it with tweaks and it has produced big time. I find coins up to 12 inches in pounded out spots I hunt. First couple of hunts it blew my mind. I really hated to spend the money but it was well worth it since I will be using it for several years to come. If your on the fence don't be jump on the Manticore you won't be disappointed. Most reviews stating its an iron magnet are false, I think people are over complicating the machine and tweaking it way to much. Just let it do its magic. IMO most targets 8 inches or deeper are going to be iffy targets most of the time but the Manticore easily weeds out the iron over the E-trac. The target trace absolutely is amazing technology and a game changer in the art of metal detecting. I avoid ATHC because that I believe is the iron magnet and stay on ATG and have no issues digging iron or target ID separation. I have no issue digging deep targets around 10 inches running sensitivity around 16 to 18 so no need to run it at full capacity IMO. HAPPY HUNTING !