NOKTA LEGEND BEAST MODE VS MINELAB MANTICORE - DEPTH TEST

By request we have a silver dime on the edge of detection. Looking at the new Beast Mode.

[IffySignals]

I am not noticing much of an increase of depth over Park & Field with the Beast mode. This dime is at the edge of detection. I am running both machines very hot (not realistic) to try and hit this dime. I am also noticing an iron grunt on deep targets with new DT setting when used at higher levels.. This is a tough test, a 10" a dime (in my soil) is very difficult, and only used as a demo to see if we could hear it in the new Beast Mode. This is 1.14 which is a Beta, if you are noticing the same results or any other concerns please inform NOKTA.
Thanks Mike

[goldendredger]

I happen to live in a spot with a park across the street. This park is built over an old golf course. 1930 to about 1960 it closed and park took it's place. They brought in fill dirt. Spread about 6" to 12" of top soil over it all. I have to be able to reach through that top soil to the old ground to get old coins. I am also fortunate to be able to run any and I mean any detector maxed out on sensitivity. Ground is mild and little to zero emi interference. It's a miracle spot. So I am able to stretch the legs on my detectors. I own Simplex plus, Legend now on 1.14, Equinox 800, Manticore and Deus 2. I run and have to tune each machine to get that absolute maximum depth and even then I am just able to pick up the old wheats and silver. Most coins are full pinpointer depth. I have to move very slowly like a turtle listening for that soft repeating target. And I am not talking an actual tone. Or VDI /Tid numbers working at all. In the Manticore and Deus case the depth bars are maxed full and targets come through more on the threshold pitch change. So lightly zip zip not high tone beep beep. Every deep target is questionable and not a clear high tone coin.
Today I put the lg35 coil on the Legend. I buy the biggest coils for my detectors for maximum depth. So Legend on 1.14 with lg35. I put it in the beast mode under prospecting profile. And proceeded to frequency scan the the MOST critical ground balancing. Now Delic says there is ground balance then there is ground balance level 2. On ALL my detectors if I want maximum depth it's extremely critical to have a perfect ground balance. If not you will lose inches!
They put 2 levels of ground balance for a reason.
So I ground balanced level 1 or normal ground balance. Then I pulled up level 2 and ground balanced that. Return to the regular screen and began to go. I set reactivity to 3 in my testing it's the best for sure on the Legend. I proved that again today. Anyway I started with my turtle pace. Slow steady sweeps coil riding right on the grass. You are listening for that soft rise in tone. I did not get 5ft forward and I got a nice soft sound repeatable in both 90 degree turns. The VDI would hint a 47 once and awhile and with the Legend the depth bar works to a certain point then if target is deeper the depth bar shows nothing. So I have a nice bump of a signal tone whoop whoop and depth beyond the depth gauge and occasionally a 47vdi. This are the signs that say deep coins. And I am stretching the capabilities to the absolute max of the legend and program. For curiosity I dropped reactivity to 2 and 1. I lost the signal. Back to 3 it's back and 4 and 5 it's gone. 3 is the winner for sure on any program on the Legend. Next I switched to my Hotrod park program. And I could just pick up the signal. But not on every sweep and most of the time only one way. So back to beast. Yep it's there and a signal I would dig. Definitely faint definitely not slapping you in the face. I dug the big plug like normal and flip it. Detect the plug nope swing over the hole and target is a bit stronger and now repeating well with VDI. So I pinpoint with Accupoint. Nothing. So I dig another shovel load out a good 4" more depth. Pinpoint and there it is still in the hole. I am now at the original surface of peat gravel from the golf course. I take my hand trowel and pop the area it's pinpointed in. And I have the coin. A 1939s wheat. Full pinpointer depth.

Now yes it did do it. I feel it's close to my Manticore for depth and was able to reach this level. However my Manticore does this with the stock 11"coil. My Deus 2 does this all the time with its 9" stock coil. I think the Manticore has a slight advantage with 11" over Deus 9" but they both pull coins from this level regularly. This legend has done it now. But with the largest coil at 13.5x12.5 inches. It's big heavy beast. I have to use a sling to hold the detector to be able to go any amount of time with that giant coil on.
My conclusion is when conditions allow and you can max sensitivity and squeeze out everything the detector has the legend is just 1 notch below the Manticore and Deus 2. If Manticore and Deus 2 where 90 out of 100 the Legend is a solid 88 along with the Nox 800. It's right there. Weight wise it's a tank compared to Manticore and really heavy compared to Deus 2. But price it smokes everything else available. Coils are very affordable. Not the case with Manticore or Deus 2. Price and VALUE cannot be beat with the Legend. 2 points down in performance is almost nill. And here's the truth about detecting. When and I truly ask when are you trying to or going to be actually trying to dig targets at 12" deep? I have this one situation where this is the case. I have to move at a snails pace to get them. The ground water content is a huge factor to. When I go to 99% of locations I will be hunting in 6" or less with maybe an occasional 8" deep target. You or I are not trying to reach down to China to get coins. It's not practical. Most places if you popped out these giant plugs and dig even deeper you would be in trouble in a big hurry. The legend like all my other detectors can reach 8" with pretty much grab and go stock programs. Fairly fast pace and get some treasures. Those that are crazy enough to slow down and cover a 10ft x10ft patch in 1 hour and trying to squeeze every millimeter out of it we can are far and few.
Beast mode, DT setting are still program options within the limits of the machines power it has available. Which is set by the FCC for this particular electronic device. This regulation's are what the companies have to work within.
There's not going to be a setting or program update that's going to be a overwhelming gain. It's still within the machines specs. Just settings that might work better in one spot and not the next. Beast mode although sounds like something huge is going to happen in reality is still settings within a certain amount of power output capabilities of the detector. No update is suddenly going to make the detector gain inches. The settings in certain conditions and you having the knowledge on when and how to apply those programs and settings is what will give you the advantage over the basic programming options. I expected this 1.14 update to open another "tool" within my "toolbox/ programs" to help fine tune for some depth gains. But did I expect to update and turn on the BEAST and suddenly I am digging 2ft holes? The answer is no. I never expected anything much over what the Legend was already capable of already. That's the real truth of it. And that's perfect.
Big gains will come from new technology in new machines that will be capable of greater depths. But like I say most places you know what's past 10"?
NOTHING!
Just dirt and rocks. How do I know this? We detected my yard. House is built 1947. I pulled everything with every detector I owned at that time. I hit it super hard. We shaved 4" off the top. Detected again. I only got a few bullets and couple of coins on that shave. We took another 4" off the top. And I detected again. And got ZERO targets. There was nothing at 8" and definitely nothing below 8".
Another park in my town. I have hit it hard. I know where the old house was exactly. I pulled all the coins and junk I could. It was built around 1907. They removed the sod. Took about 6 to 8 inches off initially. I went and detected. I pulled 6 more silver coins and they where not deep. Right on the surface that was just shaved off. So for whatever reason hotter ground I suspect and coins tilted up. I did not get those silvers when the grass was there. And the depth was not big. It was conditions. And the technology was not punching through to reach those or in 99% of the case with shallow silver that's not detected the coins where standing on edge or tilted past 45 degrees. This is the most difficult thing for our detectors to find. Silver coins or any coins tilted up past 45 degrees up to 90 degrees can be 2" below the surface and most detectors won't detect them. The only detector I am starting to get tilted coins with is the Manticore. It seems to have a slight advantage on tilted up coins.
I truly think testing and focus should always be performed on tilted coins. Coins at a 45 degree angle or more. For every flat coin there is probably 2 tilted coins your machine will not see. I think detector companies should be focusing on being able to detect tilted coins. Compare tilted coins on the various detectors. It will blow your mind. The first company that can detect deeper or say tilted silver at even 6" will clean up out in the world detecting. Its dumb to think all coins are laying flat or close to it.
But back to depth. They took another 4 to 6" off to level the ground before the new base material went down. I detected it again and got not a single coin more. Only a few pull tabs that where clearly mixed from the surface dirts down into the flatten level.
Depth is not what it's all about. Beast mode is a tool towards a slight advantage in certain situations. Will be awesome for some and worse for others. It's location dependent.

Have fun detecting! Don't expect the world from the update expect you got a new set of unique wrenches that just might work on that next

[brokenarrowoutdoors]

I’m glad I bought the manticore. I wasn’t at first but once they came out with update and I finally figured out not to run above 25 sensitivity. It’s a beast. Running sensitivity to high was giving me iron falsing way too much. I thought just because it was stable I should run as high as possible. Not true with manticore. 21-25 is the best in my area 😊

[kody]

I haven’t updated mine yet. I like to wait & let them work out all the bugs in Beta version then once the actual update comes out I’ll update.
Saying that tho maybe I could add some input of the Beta version….idk.
I’ll probably wait for the update tho.
I’ve been detecting almost 4 years now & watch tons & tons of videos trying to learn everything I can.
4 years is nothing compared to most detectorist so I try not to put out my inputs on it.
I have learned a lot tho & know the Legend very well.
You, Calabash & a few others have taught me so much & most don’t even know it.
I do appreciate all your videos.

[KernowekTim]

Excellent honest testing. Good, straight-forward, easy to assimilate analysis. This was why I was giving you kudos as a tester of genuine ability earlier. You save people a lot of grief. That counts. Over to you Nokta. Please take heed Nokta. You only need two, genuine top-class testers, imo. Look at the giant XP concern. Too many Mike.

[dougsnyder]

Thank you for the great videos you do. I’m glad I just bought the Manticore. Now I need to get some hours under my belt in the field. 👍

[travismcmillian]

Great comparison! I know you have already addressed this, but to reiterate for those who may be disappointed in the results, punching deep for silver is always better in a single, low frequency.

[yonislav_]

In my country the Manticore costs 2200 usd while the legend costs 650 usd. Manticore is better, but x3 expensive, that makes the legend good choice too

[markcarman]

Looks like the beast mode update is a dud to me. I was hoping for better results. Thanks for the test. Glad I bought the Manticore but I also own the Legend.

[bryanolier]

Good test Iffy. I don't know about the beast mode . 😮 Keep swinging !

[tnsharpshooter]

Nice video Iffy.
Wished you would have checked dime using 5 kHz with Legend.
Looks like the Manticore was the Beast.

[billbarry]

Wow, I was expecting much better results than the results you showed! We gotta be missing something because it dosent make sense for Nokta to work that long on a mode that doesn't give better results. What I've seen so far wouldn't be worth the time it takes to upload the 1.14 something MUST be missing!! What the heck??

[williamburns]

nice video but you need to hold down the noise cancel until it sets on one number on the Manticore.

[rickvann]

In my mild soil, im getting 12 inch wheat penny, so im leaving mine alone.
Nice video, im more interested in operating in high iron infestation areas. Let me know what you think about it's unmasking ability. Mine is going to be forsale if it doesn't improve.

[johnboyle]

I’ve done some testing too and so far I have to concur, DT makes little to no difference and beast mode attached to gold mode limits tone settings which is disappointing. I currently prefer 4 tones which I’m used to, so trying to get my ears tuned to gold mode tones is confusing so I probably won’t use it. I’m out in the fields tomorrow so I will do some comparative tests with real targets to see I my normal settings can find the targets that I find with DT & Beast mode settings.

[markphipps]

I'm looking for my first detector, and trying to logically choose a multi purpose machine for use in North Carolina where we have everything from beaches to mountains. I thought I was dead set on the Manticore (especially at the current $1200 sale price) but I could get a Legend and a Gold Kruzer for the same price as the Manticore. I don't have a problem taking time to research and learn a machine, but all the variables make it really hard to choose. Suggestions?

[wicked_digger]

Hey man, pretty sure you set beast mode but didn't change the number from 0, which is not active. I don't see any way that the Legend isn't hitting that dime even without beast mode. I crush 10 inch dimes all day with mine.

[mikewhalen]

im glad i looked at this video .i won.t be going to 1.14 until they fix it.great job iffy can.t see how u can show it any better than u did.not good.

[jethrocarpenter]

It's deeper in 10-15khz single frequency on the legend.

[DigginLifeMetalDetecting]

2 diff detectors - a whole bunch of different adjustments - a HUGE AMOUNT of environmental interference - over 100 different ways to set each one up - missing the equalization IMO.