I have to agree with the OP. I traded a CTX for the Equinox with all the coils as a pre-order when it first came out in 2018. I am a relic hunter in East Tennessee where we have some pretty highly mineralized clay soil. I immediately started finding more and better with the Equinox. Have made so many amazing finds over the years with it since it came out, been in American digger at least 5 times with finds. Manticore came out, figured it was the love child of the CTX and Equinox, what I "thought" I wanted. Well I took it to the same civil war camps and battle sites that I had been taking the Equinox, and was less than impressed. Not only did I NOT find piles of relic that were "deeper" or "masked", I struggled to even find relics at all. It just was not screaming out bullets like the Equinox does. I tried different programs, different levels of discrimination, all metal. Nothing made a difference. I found a few bullets, but not once did I say "oh thats a bullet" like I had been able to do with my Equinox. So I sold it after a few months and went back to my Equinox 800 and my finds increased again. Saw that updates were made and got to thinking maybe I didn't give it enough time or that improvements had been made, so when the package was offered with 3 coils, I bought another one. This time, I am SURE that the Manticore just is NOT the relic machine that the Equinox 800 is. Again, it struggles to lock onto bullets, the trace is all over the place, even on bullet signals. I took my 800 to a site last week and got a solid 17, and dug a wormed 3 ring bullet at a measured 8 inches. Also dug 2 buttons, and some pistol balls. Took the Manticore to the same site 4 days later, spent 4 hours, ran stock and M8 coil which I tried in a wooded section and near barbed wire fences and dug not 1 single relic. Took it today with stock coil and got a semi solid 50, screwy trace, dug up a bullet at about 5". The Equinox woulda locked on and told me it was a bullet no problem. The Manticore may be a fantastic beach, park, yard machine, maybe its great on coins, but it is lacking as a relic machine. I will be using my 800 going forward for relic hunting. I had put it on a telenox stem years ago, and got a metal arm cuff. Never had issues with coil ears, and for as much as the Manticore costs, the fact that the stem spins round and round is pathetic. Build quality is much better than stock Equinox 800, but that shaft design sucks. Im keeping the Manticore for beach work and the occasional coin shooting I do, but its done looking for relics for me. I will be buying a brand new Equinox 800 when they discount them and discontinue. Minelab caught lightning in a bottle for relic hunters with the Equinox 800, the Manticore is very dissapointing in that department.
