I would count myself among the handful of satisfied turf hunters. But, having said that, I agree with almost everything you said
.
Despite being well satisfied with the Manticore, I am getting kind of soured on Minelab too. I got on the waiting list for the Manticore almost a year ago now. Didn't get it until early February because I didn't want to get it from Cabelas. Still no extra coils available. The update is total crap in my dirt, I'm running the old version. Battery life sucks. Can't save custom disc patterns. Etc. There is a lot to be disgruntled about.
But, but, but... I am satisfied with the machine. I had low expectations too though. Better EMI handling was almost all I was hoping for and the Manticore has delivered on that, for me. I'm finding the extra speed over the 800 quite useful in heavy nonferrous park trash, too. And crown caps are a thing of the past. Even the Corona crown caps I dug so many of with the 800, non issue with the Manticore. Just those few improvements, better EMI handling, better separation in nonferrous trash and better bottle cap handling, have "opened up" some EMI heavy, trashy park areas for me and produced a lot of clad and silver that was tough to get with the 800 (not impossible, but harder). I'm up to almost $500 in clad with it, with silver coins and .925 combined nearly 50 silvers, and two gold rings. It has over half paid for itself in six months - in mostly hammered, trashy park turf hunting. It's working for me.
Add in the vastly improved build quality, screen, menu system and ergonomics, and, yes, I am satisfied. I'm surprised to find, I really like the target trace too and find it very useful. I wasn't expecting that.
But, I know a LOT of people, aren't satisfied! It's far from a home run from Minelab. It has all kinds of warts that need to be worked around. ATHC is a disaster in iron. I mean, disaster. Fortunately, ATLC isn't so bad in iron. But, ATLC doesn't hit the deep silver like ATHC, either. And so far, I have mostly used it turf hunting. My friend that has used it more for relic hunting - which I like a lot more than turf hunting - is talking about selling his Manticore to stick with his D2. My relic hunting season is just about to get started, and I might be singing a different tune, soon?
And, I thought the Manticore would be an easy transition from the 800. But it has been anything but. I can't tune the Manticore like I did the 800. Not even close. It's a completely different machine that needs completely different adjustments for my dirt. Put it this way, lowering sensitivity and raising recovery speed were NOT the way to get better signal and ID at depth in bad dirt with the 800, but I am finding it most certainly is with the Manticore.
Lot of words above. But really, I am actually in almost total agreement with you
. Minelab has seemed like they are trying to botch this machine from the get go. Yet, for urban turf hunting, it's kind of killing it for me.
- Dave