Hunting Gold Nuggets Using Manticore (pics Of Success) And What Coil Will Be Best?

[Gerry in Idaho]

I've been so crazy busy this summer my gold hunting has taken a hit.  Finally the last couple weeks has freed up some time for swinging the Manticore.  As you all know, the only coil most of us have is the stock 11" coil, so that's what I've been using.

Now that the info has come out (yesterday to us dealers) about the options and the part #'s with prices, I'm starting to get excited for a smaller coil.  No, they messed up and will not offer us the small 6" coil, but they are offering an M-8, M-9, and M-15 (or the stock M-11).

What do you folks think will be the best coil option for Au nuggets/specimens and does anyone know the different or seen pics of the M-9?  That one caught me off guard as I had not seen or heard of such.

Below a couple Manticore specimens from this year using stock 11" coil.  1st is a 3.6 gram and 2nd is a 11.8 gram.

Notice this piece was broken and likely off a larger section.  Need to go back and hunt around there much more to find the bigger chunk.

[Ridge Runner]

Gerry  

 It’s a video on the M8 and the M15 showing both. The 8 is 8X5.5 and for me that would be first pick.

 Chuck 

[Gerry in Idaho]

13 hours ago, Ridge Runner said:

Gerry  

 It’s a video on the M8 and the M15 showing both. The 8 is 8X5.5 and for me that would be first pick.

 Chuck 

I'm still trying to find out what the heck the M-9 coil is?  

Also, maybe and hopefully CoilTek is on the table with a small elliptical coil, say a 6" x 3" or similar size like the GB-2 or the LST or the GMT.  To those who say the really small coils don't find bigger gold?

 

[Steve Herschbach]

I think the real question is if the Manticore at $1599 is really any better at nugget detecting than an Equinox 800 at $899? Personally I have my doubts and I can’t see anyone getting the Manticore primarily for nugget detecting. That said, if a person had one anyway, there is no reason not to use it for nugget detecting. Coils? 5x8 for the little stuff and 12x15 for covering tailing piles or other large areas for depth in the big chunks. Or just go 11” as the best all around compromise it’s designed to be. I’d be getting the 5x8 myself if I had a Manticore and might prefer it over the 6” round on the Equinox, if only Minelab made such a coil for the Nox. But my Coiltek 5x10 has it covered for my Nox and none of those on the radar yet for the Manticore.

[phrunt]

13 hours ago, Gerry in Idaho said:

I'm still trying to find out what the heck the M-9 coil is?  

Also, maybe and hopefully CoilTek is on the table with a small elliptical coil, say a 6" x 3" or similar size like the GB-2 or the LST or the GMT.  To those who say the really small coils don't find bigger gold?

I think the M9 is a marketing mistake by the same people that put a Gold Bug Pro as the VLF image for the Minelab investor report.  M8 8"x5.5", M11, stock coil and M15 15x12" coil, that's all we will see from Minelab I'm confident with that, what matters next is which sizes Coiltek intend to do, and they've been all quiet on it for now.  A 6 by 3 would be my dream coil and if they did that then I'd say the Manticore is better than the Nox 800 for gold, until then I doubt the M8 is going to cut it to be "better" than the 800, especially on tiny gold. With the Nox having the 6", 10x5", 11" and 15x12" It seems like the nugget winner to me.

I have the M8 coil for my Vanquish, the flat nose on it takes away a lot of the elliptical advantage.

This is the 10x5" Nox Coiltek back-to-back with the ML 6", you can see the 10x5's advantage in rocky areas by this photo especially with its hot nose and the 6" being hot in the middle.

 

 

[Gerry in Idaho]

On 9/2/2023 at 5:42 PM, Steve Herschbach said:

I think the real question is if the Manticore at $1599 is really any better at nugget detecting than an Equinox 800 at $899? Personally I have my doubts and I can’t see anyone getting the Manticore primarily for nugget detecting. That said, if a person had one anyway, there is no reason not to use it for nugget detecting. Coils? 5x8 for the little stuff and 12x15 for covering tailing piles or other large areas for depth in the big chunks. Or just go 11” as the best all around compromise it’s designed to be. I’d be getting the 5x8 myself if I had a Manticore and might prefer it over the 6” round on the Equinox, if only Minelab made such a coil for the Nox. But my Coiltek 5x10 has it covered for my Nox and none of those on the radar yet for the Manticore.

I've been putting time on the Manticore chasing gold in trashy areas.  My initial testing was not worth writing about and I was actually pretty upset.  I've since played around with some Timings and starting to get dialed in and some results.  As for price difference vs performance for Prospecting and the shortage of coils?  I feel you are correct Steve.  But since I hunt a variety of treasures and also underwater/beach, I am starting to get tuned in with the Manti and seeing results.

Thanks for your persepctive.

[DigDeep]

On 9/4/2023 at 4:28 PM, Gerry in Idaho said:

I've been putting time on the Manticore chasing gold in trashy areas.  My initial testing was not worth writing about and I was actually pretty upset.  I've since played around with some Timings and starting to get dialed in and some results.  As for price difference vs performance for Prospecting and the shortage of coils?  I feel you are correct Steve.  But since I hunt a variety of treasures and also underwater/beach, I am starting to get tuned in with the Manti and seeing results.

Thanks for your persepctive.

I’ve tried my Manticore several times and finding it a bit frustrating as well. 
I’ve been using SD, GP and several GPX’s for a long time. I love them and no complaints.  I’ve found a lot of gold with them but it’s getting harder to find nuggets in my local areas that are relatively trash free, at least what I can tolerate lol. I know there’s still good gold to be found in the trashy areas so I bought a Manticore hoping it would discriminate well enough to make it tolerable. So far I’m not having much luck. 
I set up the discrimination pattern and ferrous limits to pretty much give a window of just gold. I tested it over a couple dozen nuggets of various size that I have and they fall into this window. But in the field it’s still getting a ton of steel and other junk. At least usually until I got it out of the hole and the coil sitting right on it then it goes quiet and finally figured out it’s ferrous or out of range.  

-recovery speed 3 is what seems to work the best. 

I’m honestly quite disappointed with the depth as well on nuggets. 
My 5000 with a 12” NF EVO is quite a bit more sensitive in every aspect. 
 

Do you have any suggestions or tweaks I can do to help it out?

[Gold Catcher]

For gold prospecting I recommend all metal in gold prospecting mode and not paying attention to the ferreous discrimination. Too much gold will be missed, and many of my nuggets registered as ferreous in mineralized soil. I have reported on this before. Rather, follow the the ID, nuggets are in between 8-22 with not much fluctuation. Gain has to be up to 19 (recovery speed 6) if you want to have any depth on smaller nuggets (1-3 inch). Also, listen carefully to faint threshold variations (deeper targets won't give any reading) and remove slowly layers of soil until you start getting a repeatable ID.

GC

[Skookum]

I see less reason to move on from my Equinox 800 until the smallest coils materialize and are proven to be adequate for the Manticore. Many of us share the same thought. That is simply manufacturing smaller coils (preferably manufacturer brand) will lead to the larger purchase. It seems like someone at some level in the corporation is crazy-making about profit margins on coils and misunderstands the bigger picture of what triggers many detector sales—for a multi-use machine! 🤑>🏭>📦🧐>🫷🤪

[phrunt]

Yup, coils sell detectors.  Many have not invested in certain detectors from leading brands due to the fact they don't have the right size coil.  A multi-purpose detector is only truly multi-purpose when the right coil is available. 

They've been extremely slow with Manticore coils, some inklings of them coming soon, but it will likely be a slow burn trickle of them I guess and a battle to get one.