Cheating On My Deus 2 - Taking The Manticore And M8 Coil Out For Some First Time Relic Hunting Love (long)

[Chase Goldman]

If you have been following my posts and those of my detecting buddy, Bob - AKA F350Platinum, you will see that we have been having a great level of success, especially detecting colonial relic sites, over the past year or so.  I attribute that to a combination of gaining more proficiency with the Deus 2, gaining access to some exciting new and productive permissions, and utilizing the latest Deus 2 updates (Version 1.1 and 2.0) which fixed most of the lingering issues with the Deus 2 since its release and added some great new features and performance. Even before these updates, we were having such great success with Deus 2 in the relic fields, coin shooting, and beach hunting, that other detectors just didn't get pulled into action unless we wanted to check something out or run some sort of comparison.  I have limited opportunities to detect, so when I do get a chance to detect with Bob, I want to make the most of it and not be out there learning some new detector or messing around with unfamiliar settings. 

About a year ago, I had purchased the Nox 900.  On the surface, ML seemed to have addressed most the remaining shortcomings associated with the Nox 800, improved the shaft system, and added some features like adding Deep Pitch (DP) audio as a feature for all detecting modes.  They also changed the Target ID scaling and also enabled compatibility with all legacy Nox OEM and third party accessory coils, including my favorite Coiltek Nox 10x5.  All of these changes and the ready availability of the Nox 900 vs. the Manticore and the fact that my 800 was no longer in warranty, convinced me to pick up the Nox 900.  Got it into the field, and let's just say, I was not impressed.  The main issue I had was getting it to run stable at a reasonable sensitivity level (I like to run just above 20 out of 25 sensitivity).  It was really chirpy, especially in DP audio and running it along side the Deus 2 was like night and day.  Even after a few other tries, it never quite clicked with me.  And it started gathering dust.

With the 8X5.5" M8 coil release becoming imminent (or so I thought), I decided to invest in the Manticore over the summer.  Took it to the beach, and it was just OK and perhaps also a little chirpy.  Again, I simply fell back and continued to swing the Deus 2, while the Manticore sat idle.

Finally, a few weeks back, I was finally able to get my M8 coil for the Manticore, and after having much success the last several outings with the Deus 2 13" elliptical and 9" round coils at a our most popular and productive areas, felt that some of the more dense iron patches at these sites could benefit from being scanned with the smaller M8.  The area we are detecting heavily is not readily accessible to our vehicles, so we have to hike a ways across a couple of fields to get there.  I have a Rhino Skin vest with a sizable and long back compartment that provides the ideal setup to carry detecting gear (either my Deus 2 and its two coils or the Manticore with the M8), food, water, and "just in case" items for several hours of "unsupported" detecting.  

Above, you can see my Rhino Skin vest/pack holding the Manticore and M8 coil and also the XP Deus 2 9" coil/shaft.

This was going to be the Manticore's first relic hunting field test.  Despite, the limited swing coverage of the Manticore with the M8 coil, I decided to go ahead and make the trek to the detecting area swinging the Manticore.  For this session, I decided to keep it simple.  I had the detector set up in AT General with Enhanced audio, Default tone settings (2-Region, All tones, variable pitch).  After noise cancelling and ground balancing, I set sensitivity at about 23 and left recovery speed and discrimination and ferrous limits at the defaults.  I was not walking slow enough to ensure sufficient coil coverage, but targets are few and widely scattered so I was not expecting to recover anything except by chance.  Mainly, the walk afforded an opportunity for me to get used to the Manticore tones, ferrous tones, ground feedback in horseshoe (no discrimination) and responsivity again as I had only briefly used it beach hunting and run through various settings in only my test garden.  On the trek, I recovered a couple pieces of miscellaneous brass and a modern bullet casing.

Met up with Bob in the field who was already there and who was detecting some fringe areas with little success.  We started to make our way over to the area and my first keeper target was a fired musket ball.   We zig-zagged to different parts of the hot spot area and thick iron and started to do our thing.  I recovered some horse saddle brass and more miscellaneous brass pieces.  Then the buttons started to pop, brass, gold gilt, silver plate and tombac.  I also dug some larger brass (perhaps a partial musket butt plate and a mangled buckle).  My final Manticore keeper was a gold plated cufflink (complete with the post and toggle clasp) with an interesting flowering vine design. 

 

The Manticore M8 did not disappoint.  I had an outing with similar results to my previous trips to this area with the Deus 2.  I like the expressive audio, the ability to quickly switch discrimination off and on using the trusty horseshoe button to lessen audio fatigue, the additional information provided by the 2-D target trace display, and obviously the slightly improved separation ability of the M8 coil vs. the Deus 9" round.  I got used to the different target IDs, the ferrous falsing tells, and target trace clues to make dig decisions.  But frankly, the keepers were pretty obvious, and I dug little junk that fooled me.  Finally, the Manticore ergonomics with that M8 coil are fantastic, to the point that once I started swinging my Deus 2 with the 13" elliptical coil again, I really felt the weight and toe-heavy balance.

For the trip back to the vehicles, I switched back to the Deus 2 with the 13" coil for better coverage of the large fields and managed another flat button and a rivet and some modern bullets.  We quickly surveyed a new site to finish the day and I managed to recover a few surprises from that field, which was had a lot of iron contamination - apparently an old house site.  I snagged a .52 Sharps minie ball, a silver Rosie ('64), a flat button, a wheatie, a portion of a tiny silver spoon, and a part of a parasol slider mechanism.

All in all, not bad for a first relic outing with the Manticore - I have a lot more to learn and tweak - and not a bad quick survey of a promising new field.  The perfect detecting weather, great company, and awesome finds made for another fantastic detecting day.  As is our tradition, Bob and I reviewed the day and tentatively planned future adventures while drinking his awesome post hunt coffee.  His ornate sword guard and British Colonial period regimental button were really the finds of the day.  

Bottom Line:  Bob has some amazing Colonial sites and the Manticore and M8 coil certainly did not disappoint in a challenging iron environment...looks like I will be bringing both the Manticore and Deus 2 along on future digs.

[F350Platinum]

Great run Chase!

Nice handful of silver, buttons, bits and the like. Odd that seemingly sleepy field turned out to have so much stuff in it, either there was a house there, it was a dump, or a ton of topsoil was trucked in. Judging from the range of relics, I guess anything could be true. 🤔

At first I thought the M-core was making you dig more than you wanted to, but the good stuff was a surprise, we both had "find-a-minute" going in that spot. 

Glad the trip was worthwhile. 🙂

Just like my post titles, "Go Small or Go Home" 🤣

[Chase Goldman]

7 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

At first I thought the M-core was making you dig more than you wanted to, but the good stuff was a surprise, we both had "find-a-minute" going in that spot. 

Yeah.  I was mostly digging keepers, just that other than the cufflink and the silver plated taco button, there were no real stunner finds for me.  The dug junk was really no different than what we would dig with the Deus 2.  It is great to be in dig a minute mode with those targets.

[phrunt]

The thing I like about the M8 in a coin type scenario is it punches well above its weight for depth, I don't normally like small elliptical coils for coin hunting as my coins that I want tend to be very deep with targets quite sparce, so I'm a 15x12" kind of guy, yet the 5.5x8" M8 coil surprised me, compared to similar sized coils on other detectors I've tried and far exceeding that of the Nox 800 and 10x5" Coiltek.

It's good to see you finding the benefits of the Manticore for your needs, a shame to see a good detector go to waste.  It sounds like with both available in your toolbox you'll be well covered with the GPX hanging around for when needed.

[JCR]

A nice time all around.  Thanks for posting.

[relicmeister]

Access to promising sites is far and away the most important predictor of finds- regardless of detectors used.  Having both great sites and great equipment- well it doesn’t get better than that. 

[strick]

Nice write up. Are you using version 1 or 2? I finally got my hands on a M8 coil yesterday so I'll be trying it out soon....I've not up dated my M-Core as of yet unless someone can convince me otherwise..

strick

[Bill (S. CA)]

Chase,

Really superb post.  I'm sure it took a lot of time to put together.

One aspect you mention about the Deus II is its "toe-heaviness" if such a work exists.  It is an amazing detector and I hope to own one someday.  However, every time one of my buddies loans me their Deus II to hunt with I can feel the upper forearm strain instantly.  They tell me you get used to it but in my limited experience with the detector it is surprising to me that such a lightweight machine still feels heavy because of the imbalance.  Any thoughts on this?

Also, while I'm commenting on your post, I have had occasion to use a Manticore for several beach hunts and to me it is a heavy detector.  To be very honest, my Legend is easily my favorite detector to swing in terms of balance and weight.  With the new lightweight shaft and arm cuff it is literally feather weight.

Bill

[HardPack]

Great write up.

[Chase Goldman]

3 hours ago, strick said:

Nice write up. Are you using version 1 or 2? I finally got my hands on a M8 coil yesterday so I'll be trying it out soon....I've not up dated my M-Core as of yet unless someone can convince me otherwise..

strick

I'm on Ver 2.0 on the Deus 2, and the latest release for the M-Core.

It's all anecdotal because it is not documented in the release notes, but both Bob and I have run some comparisons and our general perception is that although the ver 2.0 update of the Deus 2 only explicitly mentioned increasing Goldfield small gold sensitivity and compatibility with the Xtreme Hunter two-box coil, it appears that Goldfield's cousin, Relic Mode was also enhanced and overall TID stability seems even more rock solid and repeatable than in previous iterations.