By
GB_Amateur
I did some testing in my back yard to compare relative depths achievable in my soils with various coils on the Fisher F75.
Caution: these are relative measurements specific to my soil conditions (including ferromagnetic mineral content and current moisture content). The purpose is merely to compare coil sensitivity for particular settings which push the detection depth limit under these conditions but otherwise should not be used as an absolute indication of how this detector with these coils mounted will perform under different conditions by other detectorists. My ground is of moderate mineralization, measuring 2-3 bars on the F75 depending upon exact location in my backyard and coil choice (higher reading for largest coils).
Detector setup: Fisher F75 Limited (black) operating in motion 'all metal' (USA nomenclature, not Minelab's!), DST on, gain=99 (max), ground balanced, noise cancelled, threshold=0. I plugged Garrett GS2 headphones directly into the socket, i.e. 'wired' headphones.
Test targets: 5" deep 95% copper Memorial USA 1 cent, 6" deep 25% nickel, 75% copper USA 5 cent ('nickel'). (These have been in the ground ~ 2 years.)
Measurement meaning: because the coins are at fixed depth, in each measurement I raise the coil until I lose the signal in either left or right swing directions. That is, I require the target to sound off clearly as the coil moves from left to right and from right to left. I use wood blocks as shims with a least significant thickness increment of 1/2" (~1.3 cm). I estimate half that or 1/4" as the measurement's systematic uncertainty. Note that these measurements are intermediate ('hybrid') between full ground and an (full) air test.
Coils tested:
Fisher stock 7"x11" DD and 5" round DD (both included in the Limited/black model package), Coiltek 6" round DD prototype (built for Fisher F5 and operated successfully on my Fisher Gold Bug Pro), Mars 6"x10" DD Sniper, and Detech 13" round DD Ultimate. (I forgot to test the only concentric I have for this detector -- Fisher 5.5"x10" which is the stock coil on their F70. I'll do that later this week and add it to the table below.)
Results:
Summary/Conclusions: With the exception of the yellow-highlighted Coiltek prototype (which was not designed for the F75), the order of depth does reflect coil size. The Mars 6"x10" DD performs almost as well as the stock Fisher 7"x11" DD. The largest coil, the Detech Ultimate, is only a bit better than those two which likely reflects the considerable increase in ground it 'sees'.