New Manticore Owner Any Tips

[JCR]

Thanks for posting the video. I had not heard of him before. He seems to know his stuff & has sites similar to mine, full of nice rusty small iron.

[RayfromAK]

15 hours ago, TampaBayBrad said:

Thanks Ray, but I am strictly a beach hunter. Aluminum is my problem metal! Dirt diggers will appreciate you sharing these settings to try. 

I am mostly interested in coin-shooting, and in the near future, prospecting.  But I assume that the Neil Jones' "Freestyle" settings should work well for treasure hunters.  What he shows in the video is that some good targets-inland in places that have been hunted many times- can still be found if one slows down the swing speed while listening to iffy signals plus looking at the Manticore's screen.  He's digging pieces or lead and other metals, including coins, that are within 5-6 inches from the surface. Those coins should have been detected already, since they aren't very deep.  He also says that one could very well "swing fast enough" when trying to figure a possible good site, but to come back to the same site right after the rain to look for for more targets that have been missed. In this case, if you find a place that may hold some good treasures, even a heavily hunted site, slow down the swing speed and don't miss the "good" signals found within the "iffy" signal. Do a slow cross-pattern swing over the iffy signal while watching the display.

Since I am not experienced with the manticore nor any other detector relating to detecting salt beaches-nor anywhere else, there is lots of details available about the manticore and the M8 coil by a fellow called Nasa Tom.  Maybe he's the person involved in the design of the manticore?  I have no idea, but there is a "Low Conductor Mode Settings" where he uses a Disc. Upper -4 and Lower - 0, Nothing notched-out, Audio Theme = Prospecting.  But this "prospecting audio mode is not the only one he talks about. He's providing lots of details to beach and water hunters.

 However, his instructions are too long and detailed for me to post in here.  He talks about spending quite a long time to manage the use of high sensitivity, including past 30 to detect the smallest targets by the surface.

[abenson]

I've owned the Manticore since it came out and have at least a couple hundred hours on it. The best advice I can give is, don't assume others peoples settings are going to work for you and your sites. Setting people use in the UK won't necessarily work in the US. Tom Dankowski's setting for Florida beaches won't necessarily work on California beaches, etc, etc.

Other people have already said this, you can't run a Manticore setup like an Equinox. The Manticore is a totally different animal and you need to forget what you know about the Equinox for the most part when using the Manticore. Sensitivity and Recovery speed settings on the Manticore are some of the most misunderstood in relation to iron contamination and high mineral ground. In my ground I prefer either General or ATLC when hunting most land sites, recovery at 5 or 6 and sensitivity at 19 or 20. It's stupid for people to say run your sensitivity up to 25 or 30 or whatever if the result is counter productive for the site. I have videos showing how counter productive running your sensitivity up can be on high mineral ground. If I run my recovery too low or sensitivity to high, the Manticore actually loses depth and the target ID is very unstable. So the best advice I can give is either bury some targets or find some targets in the wild and go over them using different settings to see how the Manticore reacts. General is probably the best program to start in if you are new to the Manticore. Start by using the stock settings and make adjustments to target tones to see which you like best 1 region all tones, 2 tones, 5 tones, etc. then which audio theme and audio profile you prefer. once you have it setup for the audio you prefer, then start making adjustments to recovery speed and sensitivity settings over a buried target until you get the best audio and target ID response. The last thing I would mess with is the upper and lower ferrous limits and that's after you have at least 100 hours on it.

And finally, take into consideration what software version you are using because there are settings on the new version that aren't on the older version that you may or may not like. Stabilizer is one of those that may or may not help with your sites, I personally don't use the stabilizer. Hope that helps. here's a video showing how sensitivity can be counter productive in a high mineral site.

 

[blackflag]

2 hours ago, abenson said:

The best advice I can give is, don't assume others peoples settings are going to work for you and your sites

I totally agree 100 percent, I even go as far to say settings can be different from one side of a site to another. Manticore is a very adjustable and powerful detector. I’ve almost gave up on it and quickly learned that I was overdriving it. Lower the sensitivity to 17-20 and reactivity 5-7 depth/separation is very good. I’ve been able to make some great finds in some beat up sites that weren’t producing anymore. If it gets over something good it will usually be a clean hit, but it will pull masked and challenged targets out iron and nasty modern trash. Audio is telling and ID has a better lock in iron than anything I’ve ever seen. 

 

[RayfromAK]

What Mr. Eberson posts about the soil conditions being different depending on the region of country you live at... is true.   However, the only way one can learn is by doing it by oneself-without help from the experts, or by learning from others.  For example:  it does not hurt for one to try slowing down the detectors "swing" as shown by Mr. Neil Jones.  If it does not work for you, then just don't do it.

For all I know, by reading or course, is that lowering or increasing Sensitivity depends on where you are detecting.  There is a lot of information about the Manticore in the Thomas Dankowski Forum (below), specially about the M8 use at the beach, and minimum/maximum Sensitivity numbers.  The website is being changed, so it will be up to any of us to see what her has to say about the Manticore.  I have not idea if he ( the person called "Nasa Tom") is involved in the design of the manticore or not, although it seems likely.

https://www.dankowskidetectors.com/discussions/list.php?2

Since I haven't use my new manticore (the ice and snow should be thawing/melting by May where I live at), what I have done is to read all the information Nasa Tom has posted about the Manticore at that website above.  One of the things he has said about detecting on wet-salt beaches goes as follows: if you do a Long Press of Noise Cancel, "it is critical that the coil is away from the wet-salt by approximately 1/2-Meter, and the coil be absolutely still/stationary. Then you can concentrate on Ground Balance. Then you can concentrate on high Sensitivity settings."  But again, it is up to you as a Manticore user to explore the possibilities Nasa Tom is referring to. Maybe he's wrong? Yes, it could be the case, but what would anybody lose by listening to what he has written?

There was a fellow in this forum who tried high sensitivity numbers. At least he's trying to figure something about his detector in the area he resides at. Could his Manticore be defective? Who knows?:

 

[fishersari]

On 3/13/2024 at 9:36 AM, RayfromAK said:

There was a fellow in this forum who tried high sensitivity numbers. At least he's trying to figure something about his detector in the area he resides at. Could his Manticore be defective? Who knows?:

I don't know how I can ran sensitivity that high without too much noise maybe it has something to do with beach conditions on that day.. every other days on average I can run with max sensitivity of 27 without too much ear fatigue but I didn't. If I'm using m11 my max sensitivity will be at 25, m8 my max sensitivity is 27.. That is were I'm at now .. still learning and maybe in the future I can run much higher sensitivity (I dont know what it will reveal with much higher sensitivity because sensitivity of 22 can hear targets that sensitivity of 27 heard just fine) once I master the Manticore sound/language.. If not that's ok too,, I am perfectly happy with where I am now..

I agree with @abenson and others, to run low on the sensitivity especially to new users. Once you cranked up the sensitivity too high  the 'language' and nuances  will be a lost.. You could run sensitivity of 28 or 30.. just note that you entering the 'noise and falsing' area in finding a good target response not to mention the tiny/small good target sound may be lost too within all those noises/falsing and target ID/ good target tones degrading as abenson pointed out, If you are not familiar with how very high sensitivity noises and falsing sounds like, you inviting problems..  ferrous limit area in 2d screen will become 'ground and ferrous' area... and for me I'm still not seeing the advantages on running very very hot yet.. I mean why running hot if the performance is almost the same like running tame?.. or little bit hot..

I for one are very thankful to this forum and every experienced detectorist that are willing to teach, give out valuable information's and remarks about metal detecting in general. Heck even proper/slower swing speed I learnt from this website/forum

[TampaBayBrad]

15 hours ago, RayfromAK said:

a fellow called Nasa Tom.  Maybe he's the person involved in the design of the manticore?  I have no idea, but there is a "Low Conductor Mode Settings" where he uses a Disc. Upper -4 and Lower - 0, Nothing notched-out, Audio Theme = Prospecting.

Yes....that's the Dankowski settings we discussed on the 3rd page of this thread a couple posts ago.

[Yatahaze323]

One thing to note about Tom Dankowski's is that he lives in Florida so his settings work great for the beaches conditions down there with basically no black sand/mineralization.  So if you plan on using his setting you may need to make adjustments if you don't have similar beach conditions.

I'm gonna try that freestyle program out at some cellar holes with the 8" coil and see how it does in some nail infested areas, I was already playing around with the upper ferrous limits to try and deals with the square nails so it may help. 

 

[RayfromAK]

12 hours ago, fishersari said:

I don't know how I can ran sensitivity that high without too much noise maybe it has something to do with beach conditions on that day.. every other days on average I can run with max sensitivity of 27 without too much fatigue but I didn't. If I'm using m11 my max sensitivity will be at 25, m8 my max sensitivity is 27.. That is were I'm at now .. still learning and maybe in the future I can run much higher sensitivity (I dont know what it will reveal with much higher sensitivity because sensitivity of 22 can hear targets that sensitivity of 27 heard just fine) once I master the Manticore sound/language.. If not that's ok too,, I am perfectly happy with where I am now..

I agree with @abenson and others, to run low on the sensitivity especially to new users. Once you cranked up the sensitivity too high  the 'language' and nuances  will be a lost.. You can run at sensitivity of 28 or 30.. just note that you entering the 'noise and falsing' area in finding a good target response not to mention the tiny/small good target sound may be lost  within all those noises/falsing and target ID/ good target tones degrading as abenson pointed out, If you not familiar with how very high sensitivity noises and falsing sounds like.. then u inviting problems..  ferrous limit area in 2d screen will become 'ground and ferrous' area...

I for one are very thankful to this forum and every experienced detectorist that are willing to teach, give out valuable information's and remarks about metal detecting in general. Heck even proper/slower swing speed I learnt from this website/forum

Yes, it is possible that the beach conditions that day allowed for high Sensitivity.  About the "slow swing speed" talked about in the video:  I believe that it may be true that one has to slow down some when one is detecting "iffy" signals.  I don't know about the Manticore, but it usually is very possible to miss targets when one walks and swings the detector faster than slower.  

This summer, when I start using the Manticore I plan to use the factory presets and Modes while learning about it.  That's what I did with my Equinox 800, before adjusting the settings to my liking.  The primary reason why I purchased the Manticore is because of the 2D screen, but there are other things that I think I will enjoy, and that is its ability to handle noise from power lines, and so on.  I will probably keep the Equinox and its 8" coil, although more than likely it will be collecting dust as a backup detector.

[RayfromAK]

10 hours ago, Yatahaze323 said:

One thing to note about Tom Dankowski's is that he lives in Florida so his settings work great for the beaches conditions down there with basically no black sand/mineralization.  So if you plan on using his setting you may need to make adjustments if you don't have similar beach conditions.

I'm gonna try that freestyle program out at some cellar holes with the 8" coil and see how it does in some nail infested areas, I was already playing around with the upper ferrous limits to try and deals with the square nails so it may help. 

 

That (above) is true.  👍

About the Freestyle settings in the video I posted (where the settings are written on paper), Neil Jones has updated or slightly modified those settings.  He also uses the Stabilizer, and says in one of his videos that one has to be very careful with the Stabilizer, because it can affect  detecting "depth."  

At the Tom Dankowski website: There is a great about of information about salt Beach detecting with both the M8 and 11-inch coils, about ground balancing properly, lots of data about Sensitivity and the difference in noise tolerance between the M8 and the 11" coil.