abenson Posted October 18, 2023 Share Posted October 18, 2023 Last week I meet up with Steve (Condor) in Northern Nevada to do some nugget hunting. I brought along a number of SMF VLF units (Deus 2, Legend, Apex) to test, one of which was the Minelab Manticore with the M8 coil and latest update that is supposed to have improved performance on small gold. We hunted for 3 days in various locations in conditions that included alkaline soil, mild to medium mineralization and hot rocks. I found a total of 16 small nuggets, 13 of them were located with the Manticore. I didn't have a dedicated gold nugget VLF along such as the Gold Monster or Gold Bug so I'm not sure how the Manticore would compare to them. But overall I was pretty impressed with the Manticores nugget hunting ability. If you're interested I did a video with my setup and comments about the target trace on the Manticore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phrunt Posted October 18, 2023 Share Posted October 18, 2023 Good video, its great they fixed up the small gold sensitivity, I was so disappointed when I first got it with the previous firmware, now all is well in Manticore land for prospecting, if only they'd hurry and release the M8 coil to the general public. My warranty is ticking away without it being used as I don't have the coils I need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strick Posted October 18, 2023 Share Posted October 18, 2023 1 hour ago, phrunt said: My warranty is ticking away without it being used as I don't have the coils I need. Interesting you say that as I was thinking the same thing the other day and was wondering if maybe that’s how things were planned...nice video Andy struck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UT Dave Posted October 18, 2023 Share Posted October 18, 2023 Man... Snow will be hitting the ground before the M8 does! @abenson, sounds like, looks like, you'd consider running the update mandatory for nugget hunting with the Manticore? I'm still running the old version. But if I can ever get my hands on an M8 and do some nugget hunting with the Manticore, it looks to me like I'd be well served to update. - Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abenson Posted October 18, 2023 Author Share Posted October 18, 2023 15 minutes ago, UT Dave said: Man... Snow will be hitting the ground before the M8 does! @abenson, sounds like, looks like, you'd consider running the update mandatory for nugget hunting with the Manticore? I'm still running the old version. But if I can ever get my hands on an M8 and do some nugget hunting with the Manticore, it looks to me like I'd be well served to update. - Dave Yes Dave I think the Manticore would do best running the update if you're after gold nuggets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry in Idaho Posted October 19, 2023 Share Posted October 19, 2023 Very informative video on finding small and really dink gold with the Manticore. I noticed your machine does the same chatter each time you put it on the ground. It's not the ground per say but the loose coil cord which Manticore easily detects. Try cleaning up some of the excess cable near the coil and it will help. Yes I realize it's good to have some flex as we are always adjusting angle when in use. Mentioning the other detectors in the comments but never did say how you would rank them for small gold hunting? If you don't want to, that totally fine as I know sometimes testing unreleased coils and or detectors, pointers, there's certain things you can't do or say. You're quite becoming very good at the natural gold my friend and I appreciate you sharing your thoughts on the update and coil. Keep it up. My Staff/I will be around Rye Patch the 1st week of Nov. getting ready for students eager to learn.. if you're in the area swing by. Again as expected from you, well done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abenson Posted October 19, 2023 Author Share Posted October 19, 2023 3 hours ago, Gerry in Idaho said: Very informative video on finding small and really dink gold with the Manticore. I noticed your machine does the same chatter each time you put it on the ground. It's not the ground per say but the loose coil cord which Manticore easily detects. Try cleaning up some of the excess cable near the coil and it will help. Yes I realize it's good to have some flex as we are always adjusting angle when in use. Mentioning the other detectors in the comments but never did say how you would rank them for small gold hunting? If you don't want to, that totally fine as I know sometimes testing unreleased coils and or detectors, pointers, there's certain things you can't do or say. You're quite becoming very good at the natural gold my friend and I appreciate you sharing your thoughts on the update and coil. Keep it up. My Staff/I will be around Rye Patch the 1st week of Nov. getting ready for students eager to learn.. if you're in the area swing by. Again as expected from you, well done. Thanks Gerry. The coil chatter actually happens on the Deus 2 as well. I'm pretty sure it's the ground. I'm not the only one that experiences this same issue. I've got a seperate video coming with the other detectors mentioned in the comments. I'll be in Virginia hunting relics the first part of November, but thanks for the invite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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