Manticore Salt Water Settings, M9, M8, M11 and M15 Coil Notes

My Best Minelab Manticore Salt Water Settings: M11, M9 and M8 Coils

I’ve done  a lot of testing lately mostly with the M9 and M8.  These are both great coils and both make a big difference in the Manti’s signal to noise ratio.  This means that you can run hotter in salt and hear smaller targets.  My initial tests have been on a fresh water beach and with small targets.  Fact: There are a lot of ways you can run this machine and not all of  them are that great on small  gold.  With the NOX I found that simple 2 Tone and Prospecting audio (g2) were the best so I set about trying to replicate these settings.  Two tone is a great freshwater beach Manticore setting. I ran Surf and Seawater to overcome my tough, black sand mixed in beach.  This way of operating gives great detail on responses especially when you combine it with skilled use of the cross sweep and high quality headphones.  Really hammers those small foils–you can see the potential right away.  With the M9 I was able to run the Sensitivity up to 28—quite a powerful setting.  Higher though causes the audio to “bunch up” –overrunning targets slightly and sounding jumpy overall.  (Its very important to be able to hear when the Manti is doing this).

Im anxious to try simple Two Tone in  fast salt to see if  it can be balanced  out to run  as  well there as it does on my black sand freshwater beach.        I take the stock middle “line” down to zero in that I feel that this big low tone block blends with the ground noises in salt. Even moving the Tone Break up a bit would not be out of the question to accomplish this as it worked well to stabilize the NOX.  In that chains are the best finds where I hunt this is  something to be done with caution.

At the same time my tests over time have shown that its Prospecting audio that’s  got the most low conductor punch.  Dankowski’s 11 coil settings are very good and let you walk right down the slope into the swish.  You may  have to run Horseshoe “on” to do this and having this choice lets you also run right in salt water.  This requires lower Sensitivity settings though depending which coil you are using.  I’ve gone in behind my own hunt running “segmented “ style audio and found quite a few more targets running Prospecting audio.  This made a believer out of me. Its more like a pulse or all metal signal and seems to ride over interference sources  like slopes and seabed contours  better than a  segmented  mode.

Finally we have Dankowski’s Low Conductor mode.  This is  a very powerful way to run the Manticore but it’s noisy.  It too  can be run with horseshoe “on” to smooth it out a bit but the low conductor sensitivity does  react to fast water and seabed.  This setting requires very low Sensitivity settings—20 or lower.  At the same time it’s very powerful this way –especially if you are hunting for small gold.  If you are searching ground where a lot of chains are found—these two settings are definitely the way to go.

While I’ve gotten some great results running “segmented” type audio—particularly Five Region All Tones  using the “Freestyle” ferrous Limits grid and “Excal” type audio (One Region All tones) my tests  are now showing me that the super responsive, fluid response of  Prospecting audio performs better—especially on small  gold.

Speaking of “Freestyle” Neil’s audio set up  is very fluid but is based upon five tones–so it  gives a lot of information on signals but still “pops” well on targets in dense trash  or iron.  this audio set up can be pirated for other applications besides use with the “Freestyle” Ferrous Limits grid.  The Ferrous Limits bordering also acts to smooth out the machine in salt water.Neil Jones’s “firewall” type approach in  his “Freestyle” settings also  work wel l to tone down the noise in salt water.  Dankowski talks a lot about “getting used to” the noise and hearing through it. You can  also run lower Ferrous Volume too.

Minelab Manticore Settings for the 8″, 9″ and 15″ Coils.

M8: very strong for a coil that size—and very  punchy on the micro gold.  Maybe not deep  enough to use full time although  I do see top pros doing  this with the NOX 6”

M8 Coil (Dankowski)

With Manticore and 11″ or M8 coil……. I recommend
Beach Mode – Low Conductors
Recovery Speed = 4
Ferrous Limits = Upper: 4….and Lower: 0
Audio Theme: Prospecting audio
Volume: 25
Iron Volume: 25
Nothing ‘Notched’ (bring in the horseshoe)
Ground Balance
Do NOT Disc out ANYTHING!!
Make absolutely sure to dig ALL targets in the ‘single digits’ ID range. It’ll be a little painful (at first); yet, you will incur a epiphany-moment…..that will ‘justify’.
You should swing the small coil (M8) just a little slower than the M11 coil. About 1/3 slower. And…… if you can……. keep it about 2mm (to no more than) 5mm above the ground……IF you can start to handle the ear-bashing (assuming Sens 30). Hearing the aberations and salt-delta’s of the ground …is JUST as important as hearing real targets. In short order……. this will become intuitive.

M9: this coil  seems to have  “the best of both worlds” in that it’s quite deep and has  good  low conductor sensitivity (given the right settings).

M11: Great, deep all arounder—it will  get small  gold but is  limited  on real  micro targets like fine chains.

M11( Dankowski)

Beach = General
Recovery Speed = 4
Audio = Prospecting
Ground Balance the unit over some water.,.,.,.,., about 2-feet deep of water. , . , . , . , . with the coil bobbing method ABOVE the water (not “IN” the water).
Volume = 25
Iron Volume = 25
Ferrous Limits – Upper = 5
Ferrous Limits – Lower = 3
Notch nothing! Bring in the iron. (Don’t allow for ‘ghost’ signals).

Sensitivity is going to be your ‘variable’. Run the Sens as high as you can IN the water.,.,.,.,., at a level that you can understand/handle. This may be around Sens 22.

M15: Nice large coil  to swing.  I see guys cutting off struts but I don’t feel this is necessary.  Compared  to a Coiltek 15” there is not much drag at all.  I exercise my shoulder with a dumbbell to be  able to search longer with this coil.  The NOX could not really handle its big coil in salt and Dankowski says the same thing  about the M15.  It does require some balancing and higher /sensitivity settings are not necessarily  what will  get the performance.  Its okay  on small gold but does  require that these targets have  some solidity to them.  If you want to  run this coil  at a sloped saltwater edge run N/S not E/W the interference from  dragging the coil downhill needs a faster Rec Speed.  With the 15″ for the NOX the recommendation was REC SPD 4 I try and stay around this level unless Im going parrellel on a hill.  In fresh I see guys running Goldfield–great, smooth micro gold getter–Sens down at 20.

These are my  observations after a couple of years with the Manti.

(Some micro 22k gold  with the 11″ coil, 4.9 gr.)

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