The MANTICORE is a very different detector to the EQUINOX, despite some similarities. It was specifically designed with heavily hunted-out sites in mind, which are now much more common for most detectorists, and where finds are becoming increasingly sparse. It is intentionally much more aggressive than the EQUINOX 800, and is designed to stop users on iffy detections more often, but also to provide the user with more information on which to decide whether to dig. We would expect an experienced MANTICORE user to dig iron more often than with an EQUINOX 800, but over time should also find some targets that an EQUINOX 800 might overlook. The consequence is that the MANTICORE can be a more challenging user experience, and we find that most experienced EQUINOX 800 users need to go through a period of adaption to get the most out of a MANTICORE.


Heavy iron sites like you describe are very common and a lot of users see this, even more so at European sites where habitation extends back thousands of years in some cases. Some users (more so in North America than Europe it seems) are having particular difficulty with iron. Certain types of iron, combined with low soil mineralisation like what you describe (and is quite common in North America) seem to make this the most difficult. (Interestingly, users in higher soil mineralisation seem to have much less difficulty.)


Iron targets often exhibit non-ferrous falsing when the coil is off to the side of the target, particularly when mixed with some ground noise (for example from weakly mineralised ground). With the MANTICORE, the signals are stronger, and so what sounded like a choppy audio response on the 800, can be a stronger, clearer 2 way response on the MANTICORE. However, we find that in almost every case, when the coil is over the center of the target, the response is ferrous.


You might say that the EQUINOX 800 choppy audio response is better in the case of iron falsing, and perhaps this is so for iron falsing. But iron falsing is very difficult to distinguish from co-mingled targets, and the EQUINOX 800 will also give you a choppy response on many co-mingled targets, and in many cases won’t be enough to stop you.
We can suggest a couple of things that may help. In the short term, on sites like this, I recommend using Pinpoint Mode to locate the centre of a target and quickly checking it again in detection mode with the coil centered on the target. A consistent ferrous response on the center of the target which turns to non-ferrous off to the side is a giveaway that you have iron falsing. A couple of seconds in Pinpoint mode is one of the best ways to distinguish between 2 targets, and one piece of falsing iron. Many experienced users don’t think they need to use Pinpoint, but it can give you more than just target location information.


You can also expect a software update in the near future that will provide a setting that helps you distinguish audio signals that have a good chance of being iron falsing. I believe you will find this update will significantly help you in the scenario you describe, and make detecting much easier.