RainorShine
Forum Supporter
To preface my comments, previous to the Manticore, I was using a NOX 600 and had what I would characterize as good success in my hunts.
To date, I have been on 9 hunts with my Manticore since receiving it on the 15th of January. One hunt was at a beach, one hunt in a heavily detected park and the remainder have been curbstrips and yard permissions. To date, I have not made any exceptional finds, only 5 silver dimes (one Canadian) and one religious medallion.
In comparing the two machines, the Manticore is equally light and easy to swing. The improved design of the handle and arm cuff make it considerably more comfortable for me. The new carbon fiber shafts with the compression clamps also are a major improvement over the button hole style adjustments, even if they aren’t “keyed” to help with alignment. I really appreciate being able to collapse the entire detector down to such a small size, making it much more easily transportable. The menu system on the Manticore is easy to learn and understand.
With the exception of custom tone and discrimination settings I have used the default settings, primarily in the All Terrain High Conductors search mode, Normal Audio Theme, Rich Profile and 5 Zones All Tones. The Manticore has been remarkably stable. I have been able to run at a sensitivity of 25 to 30 in most locations and up to 32 in one area. I did have to scale down to about 20 in one location with significant overhead power lines.
I have been able to run the machine for up to 7 hours straight without turning it off, and still had battery power remaining. Of course, this could change if additional features like flashlight or vibration were turned on, but I never had need for these.
The Manticore was very quiet when I was using it on the beach in Beach Mode. So quiet in fact that I had to check a couple of times just to make sure everything was operating. As it turns out it was just a very quiet beach as attested by my hunting partner at the time using his PI machine.
I have not found any exceptionally deep items worth keeping, although I have pursued some remarkably deep trash targets that once I got down around 12-15 inches the target started growing larger and larger with the pinpointer implying a can lid or who knows ??? (time to quit).
Unfortunately, I have continued to dig a significant number of rusty nails. Maybe there is a tweak that will ultimately allow me to ignore these things, but as of yet I haven’t figured it out. The VDI still shows a fairly discrete object on the non-ferrous line, albeit with a smudge from the upper ferrous range. However, a coin being masked by a nail can also look like this.
Memorial pennies of any composition continue to be the bane of my detecting experience. They come in the mid 50’s (rotten zinc Memorials) at 60-65, in the 70’s and most irritatingly at 79-81 (so close to clad dimes and small thin silver rings that you can’t ignore the signal). I have probably dug 200+ Memorial pennies since I have started using the machine. Unfortunately, wheat pennies also seem to come in a wide range of numbers. The very last signal I dug yesterday was a 1920S wheat that rang up at 77!
All of the nickels I have recovered (buffalo, “V” and regular Jefferson, sadly no War Nickels) are consistent at 25-26, but pull tabs also frequently slide down into this range from 28-29.
All of the silver dimes and the medallion came in at 81-84.
Clad quarters and the one presidential dollar that I found came in at a consistent 88-89. The only 90+ signals I received ended up being larger pieces of trash, like a square 3” by 3” piece of sheet lead. The display was a perfectly round circle on the non-ferrous line.
The Manticore does seem to generate more signals than the NOX, making it a bit "chatty" at times but not in a bad way. I think it may be due to the increased processor speed being able to present more of the targets (good or bad) in the ground than the NOX was capable of processing.
It is unfortunate that you can’t create multiple custom programs for the Manticore. It would be nice to be able to be able to have a choice of customized options immediately at hand to call up if desired.
In conclusion, over all, I’m satisfied with the performance and design improvements in the Manticore. Was it worth the $1700? That has yet to be determined, but I believe with continued use and learning it will improve my finds rate and reveal items that I would have otherwise missed.
Wishing you all good luck on your hunts!