Coil Options, How Important?

[Mountain-Menace]

Howdy All,

With the recent Minelab sale I'm looking at either the Equinox 900 or the Manticore, primarily for gold prospecting. One of the appeals of the 900 is the wider variety of coil sizes from 6" all the way up to 18".

Does anyone have any thoughts on the differences the 900 may offer with a wider selection of coils while prospecting? The 6" should find smaller gold more consistently, and the 18" should find it deeper, but does the Manticore beat the 900 even without those coil sizes?

Are there better detectors in the same price range that may be better suited for gold prospecting?

Thanks for any thoughts and feedback!

[phrunt]

the M8 (small Manticore) coil is very similar in performance to the 6" Equinox coil on small gold although it will likely go a bit deeper as the gold gets bigger, I am not thinking there would be any benefit going to the 18" coil for prospecting purposes, the 15x12" both models have would be as big as you'd ever want to go and that has very limited application.  The 11" both models have is a good prospecting coil though as they're both very sensitive detectors to small gold even with the abnormally large 11" coil for a VLF for prospecting.   It gives very good depth on gold for a VLF using that coil in the right ground conditions, and obviously the smaller coils have their benefits for tiny gold. 

The only good coil for prospecting missing from the Manticore that the Equinox series has is the Coiltek 10x5" although the M8 isn't all that much different in size so it's not critical.

I was wary at first about the Manticore coil limitations for prospecting, but quickly found because of the increased power of the detector that the shortfall in coil options is made up for by the detector itself, and there is still the chance Coiltek will come out with coils for it, I think they might have a waiting period for doing so, so Minelab can gather up the sales of their coils first so it could be a couple of years.

[MD4V.org]

If you are married to the Manticore or Equinox, go with the Manticore. If you are serious about gold you can always look for a good used Minelab GPX, or even an SD.

[RONS DETECTORS MINELAB]

2 hours ago, Mountain-Menace said:

Are there better detectors in the same price range that may be better suited for gold prospecting?

The detectors you’re looking at are about the best on the market for low mineralized gold fields. Hopefully you have mostly lower mineralized ground that you go to then you’ll do just fine with the 900 or Manticore or other comparable brands.

Once you get into more mineralized ground then the PI detectors are going to come into place for getting any depth. The Algoforce E1500 is the first detector that fits the low cost PI option but is not available in the US quite yet. The older second hand low cost PI detectors do not have very good sensitivity to the sub-gram gold, so not a good choice unless you know there’s some bigger nuggets where you’re detecting. Most goldfields are picked over pretty good, but if you have private permissions all bets out off.

sorry for getting off topic a bit 😖

[Mountain-Menace]

20 hours ago, phrunt said:

I was wary at first about the Manticore coil limitations for prospecting, but quickly found because of the increased power of the detector that the shortfall in coil options is made up for by the detector itself, and there is still the chance Coiltek will come out with coils for it, I think they might have a waiting period for doing so, so Minelab can gather up the sales of their coils first so it could be a couple of years.

Thanks friend! I picked up the Manticore last night. With gift cards I was able to get it for half the sale price. What would you recommend for accessories, 8" coil first?

18 hours ago, MD4V.org said:

If you are married to the Manticore or Equinox, go with the Manticore. If you are serious about gold you can always look for a good used Minelab GPX, or even an SD.

Even used those are out of my price range, for now. Mrs-Menace would never let me see the light of day again if I came home with one of those for the foreseeable future. I'll practice with the Manticore, save up, and then see if I can join you in PI land.

 

18 hours ago, RONS DETECTORS MINELAB said:

The detectors you’re looking at are about the best on the market for low mineralized gold fields. Hopefully you have mostly lower mineralized ground that you go to then you’ll do just fine with the 900 or Manticore or other comparable brands.

Once you get into more mineralized ground then the PI detectors are going to come into place for getting any depth. The Algoforce E1500 is the first detector that fits the low cost PI option but is not available in the US quite yet. The older second hand low cost PI detectors do not have very good sensitivity to the sub-gram gold, so not a good choice unless you know there’s some bigger nuggets where you’re detecting. Most goldfields are picked over pretty good, but if you have private permissions all bets out off.

sorry for getting off topic a bit 😖

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll keep an eye on the Algoforce E1500. Unfortunately I think I'm running through some higher mineralized grounds. This is the best I can do for now, so I guess I'll have to give it a try and hope not to go insane from frustration.