Minelab Manticore First Really Short Hunt

[Jeff McClendon]

I received a Minelab Manticore today from Gerry at Gerry's Detectors in Boise ID. Really fast shipping and its always been fun to do business with Gerry. Thank You!

I had just about an hour to do a quick park hunt in Denver. The ground was slightly moist and this park is moderately iron mineralized and halfway fills a Deus, Deus 2 and Legend iron mineralization meter. So enough to make a decent simultaneous multi frequency VLF detector a must have unless one is just looking for something dropped yesterday.

I powered up the Manticore, paired the ML 105s, chose stock All Terrain General, chose 5 tones, did a ground balance which ended up on 7, did a noise cancel even though there wasn't much EMI, raised sensitivity to 24 and started detecting. My first target had rock solid, single beep per sweep audio with target ID 78 to 81 and the target was just beginning to activate my Tek Point pinpointer which is set to 4" depth on coin sized targets. It was a 4" deep US copper Memorial penny. Definitely no big deal except........the first target I recovered with my Equinox 900 (also purchased from Gerry back in late December 2022) was a US copper penny. It was about 5" deep, it had extremely jumpy audio, was triple beeping on each sweep and had target IDs jumping from 68 to 99. Things went level to very downhill from there between the Equinox 900 and me. I sold it in April 2023 after being fed up. 

At least the Manticore behaved nicely compared to the Equinox 900 on a very similar target at very similar depth. Chalk up a definite win for the Manticore.

My very next target also had a solid, single beep per sweep but slightly fainter audio response, target IDs from 76 to 81 and seemed to be a bit deeper. I figured it was either another copper penny or a clad dime. After digging down to 6" depth, I couldn't find the target. My Tek-Point was going off on it but I couldn't locate it. I kept digging and finally got frustrated. I was looking for a coin which was my mistake. This 8" deep target turned out to be a tiny 0.6 gram sterling silver religious medallion and it was on edge, not laying flat. The photo shows it next to a normal sized sunflower seed kernel. To say I was super impressed with how the Manticore in default All Terrain General detected that tiny target at 8" depth would be a huge understatement. I was shocked and amazed.

So, another huge win for the Manticore which I definitely LIKE. I can't say that I ever liked the Equinox 900 unfortunately. I tolerated it at most. I absolutely loved the Equinox 600/800 from the moment I first powered it up.

I waited until well after the first update for the Manticore (which included the increased sensitivity of the Goldfield mode) to even consider buying one. Now with the 8" coil seemingly on the horizon, I went ahead a picked one up. My Nox 800 deserves a nice rest, while the Nokta Legend, Deus 2 and now the Manticore do their thing.

Hoping for many more finds with the Manticore.

[phrunt]

I think we should all chip in and buy you a year-long therapy voucher to Detector Addicts Anonymous, I'll see you there 🙂

I'm pleased you're finding the Manticore experience good, more so that it confirms I don't need to bother with a Nox 900.  The Manticore's pretty good, it's impressive you're getting quite tight target ID's in your soil.

[Jeff McClendon]

26 minutes ago, phrunt said:

I think we should all chip in and buy you a year-long therapy voucher to Detector Addicts Anonymous, I'll see you there 🙂

I'm pleased you're finding the Manticore experience good, more so that it confirms I don't need to bother with a Nox 900.  The Manticore's pretty good, it's impressive you're getting quite tight target ID's in your soil.

My last remaining Nox 800 is going to get a well earned rest. Maybe I'll use it once a month.

Since I got rid of my GPX 6000, I was basically without a Minelab so, time for the Manticore.

I have basically stayed out of the Manticore ruckus as much as possible. So I don't know if this Manticore has the July update which included the stability feature. I also don't know if that feature is On or Off in default All Terrain General. I haven't done any digging around in the user interface.

I really like everything about the Manticore except once again, Minelab's choice for a shaft system. If even just the upper rod was grooved on one side, the shaft would not twist so easily even after adjusting the quick release tension. 

Other than that, what a super nice, ergonomic detector with a fantastic display and user interface.

[UT Dave]

Happy to have you reporting on your experience with the Manticore Jeff.  I know I can learn from your thoughts.

I've been very pleased with the Manticore as a trashy turf scrubber and ghost town silver seeker.  I don't find it to be anything like a generational leap from the Nox 800.  But I do find it to be a consistent improvement in many aspects.  Much better ergonomics and build, screen, UI as you said.

I think it is a bit deeper, sometimes.  And I think it does scrub high conductors (and nickels) out of trashy turf a bit better.  And it definitely handles my local EMI better.  In some urban spots, non ferrous trashy turf combined with bad EMI, it really did "open up" some quarter sprinkles and .925 for me this summer.

- Dave

[Jeff McClendon]

1 hour ago, UT Dave said:

Happy to have you reporting on your experience with the Manticore Jeff.  I know I can learn from your thoughts.

I've been very pleased with the Manticore as a trashy turf scrubber and ghost town silver seeker.  I don't find it to be anything like a generational leap from the Nox 800.  But I do find it to be a consistent improvement in many aspects.  Much better ergonomics and build, screen, UI as you said.

I think it is a bit deeper, sometimes.  And I think it does scrub high conductors (and nickels) out of trashy turf a bit better.  And it definitely handles my local EMI better.  In some urban spots, non ferrous trashy turf combined with bad EMI, it really did "open up" some quarter sprinkles and .925 for me this summer.

- Dave

Thanks Dave,

I’ve only had time for two short hunts but I am already super impressed. I had a situation today where there was a Corona crown bottle cap about 3” deep. It was showing red and black target ID numbers along with a major swoosh target trace with typical 60 target ID spread numbers and audio. I could also clearly hear what sounded like at least two clad dimes or copper pennies at about the same depth. Turned out to be three clad dimes and the Corona cap all under the 11” coil and in a tight 6” area. I could hear two of the dimes and that bottle cap plain as day. I was just using 5 tone AT General with no fancy settings. Amazing.

[strick]

Jeff- good to see you giving the manticore a go....I look forward to your honest and in-depth reviews and comparisons to other machines...like you I was very impressed with it early on.... In my "stroll in the park with a manticore thread" I mention finding a very small wire looped silver earring at 7 inches with it.

I think you will enjoy using the M-Core...its a great park machine...I'm still on version one as I was happy enough with the way the machine was running but may give the latest version a go...I haven't been on a park hunt in many months...but it just rained yesterday and when work slows down this winter I hope to get back out...At the risk of sounding like a broken record....We need that small coil 

strick 

[GB_Amateur]

Always good to hear your reports, Jeff, whether evaluating a detector or finding goodies.

One thing I suggest you play with -- turning down the sensitivity.  I've found in my backyard test setup that 17 seems to be the sweetspot so far for a USA quarter in All-Terrain High.  The target ID is tight there and turning the sens higher doesn't seem to improve the depth much (but rather costs in TID spread).  Of course the ground conditions in particular have a huge effect so I would never say my settings are best for others.  Lots of 'knobs' to adjust and I'm sure you'll give this new detector a thorough checkout eventually.  Glad it's working out-of-the-box for you with basically stock settings.

BTW, if you are seeing red numeral TID's then the new update is installed.  The original software would have a red underline for ferrous content signals with the digital TID but the numerals themselves were dark gray, regardless of ferrous signal strength.

[Jeff McClendon]

4 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Always good to hear your reports, Jeff, whether evaluating a detector or finding goodies.

One thing I suggest you play with -- turning down the sensitivity.  I've found in my backyard test setup that 17 seems to be the sweetspot so far for a USA quarter in All-Terrain High.  The target ID is tight there and turning the sens higher doesn't seem to improve the depth much (but rather costs in TID spread).  Of course the ground conditions in particular have a huge effect so I would never say my settings are best for others.  Lots of 'knobs' to adjust and I'm sure you'll give this new detector a thorough checkout eventually.  Glad it's working out-of-the-box for you with basically stock settings.

BTW, if you are seeing red numeral TID's then the new update is installed.  The original software would have a red underline for ferrous content signals with the digital TID but the numerals themselves were dark gray, regardless of ferrous signal strength.

Hi Chuck,

so far, target IDs away from a lot of EMI are very stable at the three parks I have been to here with sensitivity between 20 and 24.

I did turn on the red iron numbers, so this Manticore has the latest update installed.

Today, I took this Manticore to a park that both of the Equinox 900s I owned/used absolutely hated.

With the 900 at this park running very conservative, stable settings like Park 1, sensitivity on 20 to 24, recovery speed 5, F2 iron bias on 0 or 1, I could detect high conductor US copper penny or clad dime targets that seemed to be on the surface due to triple beep per sweep audio responses and target IDs from the mid 60s to 99. Those coins were not detectable with my Tek Point pinpointer set for 4" depth. They were 5" deep US copper pennies and clad dimes.

The Manticore showed none of that behavior at the same park, similar dirt conditions and the same 4 to 6" deep copper penny and clad dime targets. They single beeped and had rock solid target IDs between 78 and 82. Any coin sized target that the Manticore triple beeped on per sweep was on or within 2" of the surface.

That basically settles it for me. I am a new Manticore owner.

[phrunt]

That's really interesting Jeff, you're reporting far better ID's than the Nox in your crazy bad soils, yet for me it's far worse than the Nox in my very mild soils, perhaps they put a lot of focus on worse soils thereby making mild soils worse.  

I can calm my ID's down by going to 17 sensitivity which is my go-to sensitivity number, going above that my ID's get progressively worse and going below it I start to lose some depth, whereas 17 seems to maintain a majority if not all of the depth.

Good for people in bad soils I guess except for reports like from Abenson, and seeing yours has the update from factory it's a bit of a puzzle why his was playing up, even the replacement.

I don't know if you read that thread much seeing you didn't have a Manticore at the time.

 

[Jeff McClendon]

I read it.

His soil is both iron and alkaline rich.

My soil is just plagued by magnetite.

The Equinox 800/'s 40 non ferrous target IDs versus the Manticore having 99 non-ferrous target IDs.......the Nox 800 will win that comparison every time. Equinox 700/900 versus the Manticore having the same 99 non ferrous target IDs, the Manticore wins that from my limited experience with two 900s and this Manticore.

Just being slightly cynical, maybe that was Minelab's target ID stability plan using this progression. The X-Terra Pro, Nox 700, Nox 900 and if you really need fairly stable target IDs at multiple depths and in multiple ground/beach conditions, you need to go with the Manticore.