Thanks for that. The Goldfield program did seem like an afterthought if I remember correctly. It really does make a good relic mode.
Gold 1 and Gold 2 were kind of afterthoughts on the original Equinox 800. They were deliberate on the Equinox 900 and Manticore.
I’ll have to check out other discussions.
No real reason to check other discussions. Just get the non conductive lower shaft.
Did you experience similiar bump issues with the stock detector with the 11” coil? Did you notice any improvements using the M8 with the custom lower rod?
The 11" and 8X5.5" coils both make contact with the lower shaft easily. As soon as the back end of those coils gets within about 2" of the lower shaft, those coils will audibly detect the shaft. It's as simple as that. Minelab just blew it and they refuse to admit it is even an issue and offered no solutions.
Here is a quote from my own post that you quoted:
"Steve Goss ( Steve’s Detector Rods) made a batch of lower rods that cannot be detected by the Manticore in its prospecting mode. I bought one from him and it works great for gold prospecting. No bump sensitivity and no instances of Manticore coils detecting that shaft."
That holds true using any Manticore coil as long as you use Steve G's non conductive lower shaft and run sensitivity at a level appropriate for ground conditions.
Here is Minelab's email reply to a member of the archived Detector Prospector Forum:
"Thanks for the additional video link. Our engineers have read your emails, viewed the videos, assessed this problem and provided the below response.
"Carbon fibre shafts are conductive, much less than metal, but still detectable by machines with good high frequency target performance. This would be well known to any serious metal detector manufacturer and is not news.
A carbon fibre shaft is only detectable if it moves with respect to the coil. On a detector as it is typically used in the field, this doesn’t normally happen, or the movement is so small that the signal response is also small. So much smaller than all the other sources of noise seen by the detector from typical conditions (EMI, magnetic ground noise, salt, trash, coil bump noise, etc.), that it has little or no effect.
However, in certain conditions it can become noticeable. E.g. using Gold mode to search for small gold in near-ideal conditions (low EMI, very low ground mineralisation) where very high sensitivity settings are possible. In this case, the effect might be seen when bumping the coil, swinging particularly fast or when changing coil position. This might require users to modify their technique slightly to get the best out of the machine, when, ideally, they’d prefer not to. In many gold-bearing soils the noise from ground mineralisation will swamp this effect, but goldfields with low mineralised soils do exist.
So why use carbon fibre? The answer is weight. As an example, the Carbon Fibre lower shaft on a MANTICORE is about half the weight of the fibreglass lower shaft from EQUINOX 600/800. This is weight reduction at the end of the shaft which where the user feels every gram. Some claim this is unimportant, but the large numbers of coin and treasure users for a long time now have increasingly demanded lightweight, well balanced, ergonomically designed machines, and engineering has taken this seriously in the coin and treasure range. (The popularity of aftermarket carbon fibre shafts made for the original EQUINOX 600/800 series is proof of how important this is to customers, relative to concerns about shaft conductivity.)
Some more context – MANTICORE is a coin and treasure machine with a gold detecting capability. It is not a dedicated gold machine and you won’t find it listed as a gold detector on the website. The vast majority of MANTICORE users will spend the vast majority of their time using the detector for hunting coins and relics, where the carbon fibre shaft has no effect on performance, or gold prospecting in conditions where it isn’t even noticeable. For these users (the majority) the improvement in weight, balance and ergonomics makes carbon fibre by far the best choice for the lower shaft. It's also worth noting that many MANTICORE users have been finding good gold with the machine in the 1.5 years since release when shaft conductivity was never noticed. This should put some context around how significant this really is.
Would a non-conductive fibreglass shaft be a better choice for a dedicated VLF gold machine? Probably, there’s a good reason that the Gold Monster 1000 has a fibreglass lower shaft. Is it the best choice for a C&T machine? Definitely not – it would penalise most users with extra weight and poorer ergonomics for something that doesn’t affect them at all."
After reading this response I went and spoke to our engineering team and asked if they would consider a fibreglass/plastic shaft, unfortunately they declined as the MANTICORE is a coin and relic detector and not a dedicated gold prospecting detector it's something they would not consider.
I feel bad having to bring you this news as I try to help all customers regardless if there problem is large or small, all I can do in this case is suggest that if you require a fibreglass or plastic shaft you could find these materials from your local hardware store and then remove the plastic coil mount from the bottom of the supplied carbon-fibre shaft and attach it to the fibreglass/plastic pole to use with your detector.
If you do require any further assistance please contact us back."
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Kind regards;
Jason
Minelab Customer Care
In my opinion, that was a total CYA answer and complete BS.
The weight issue at least for gold prospectors is a non issue between the 53 gram stock carbon fiber shaft and the 63 gram fiber glass shaft by Steves Detector Rods. Most gold prospectors are using the M9 and M8 coils anyway which reduces the end of the shaft weight a lot compared to the M11 and M15 coils. I just keep my M11 coil on the stock shaft and my M8 coil on the custom made shaft.
It makes no difference if the gold prospecting ground is mild or extreme. Whichever coil is being used in Goldfield or even AT Low Condutors will detect the lower shaft ridiculously easily.
Every USA gold prospector that I know of who uses the Manticore for gold prospecting has purchased a non-conductive lower shaft from Steve Goss
@Steves Detector Rods (TNET supporter dealer) and never thought twice about it. That shaft has made a huge difference.
Sounds like there are good reviews/results. I’ll check it out and post an update as to how it resolved this issue.
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