Nuggeteer 18 X 6 Mono Coil On Tdi Pro

[karelian]

Just arrived in the mail, Nuggeteer 18 x 6 mono, mounts nicely on the Tdi pro using a Minelab lower rod. It is weighty at 1 kg but easily balances on the Tdi Pro, just don't have any metal in your shoes..

When the weather clears I'll go down to the beach and give it a good run. Useless air tests, test garden results and beach run results in the very near future.. karelian

[karelian]

Just started with the useless air test, pleasantly surprised that the Nuggeteer  18 x 6 mono is very stable and quiet. No EMI issues at all in an area with mobile phone towers, WIFI, an EMI hot zone, whisper quiet and smooth operation. So far so good. Balances well on the Tdi Pro, just adjust shaft length and it floats nicely.  Build quality is good, coil mounting points are solid and appear durable. Coil cover is a good fit. Sensitivity is very good and the preliminary air test indicates decent performance is on offer. In the next day or so I'll give it a good run on the beach etc. Weather is a bit wet and wild, much appreciated actually..

Tdi Pro air test, gain was 10, ground balance off, conductivity in all, pulse set at 10.  

Australian $1 coin     37cm  - 14.5 inches

Australian 5c coin     30cm  - 12    inches

Australian penny       36cm  - 14    inches

Australian 3 pence   30cm  -  12   inches

Half Sovereign           34cm -13.5 inches

0.5g gold coin            22cm -  8.5 inches

US 3 cents, Buffalo  34cm - 13.5 inches

US Quarter                 28cm -   11 inches

Whites Buckle           51cm  - 20 inches

It did not go unnoticed that I was able to advance the gain on the Tdi Pro fully, without issue, very stable. I'll attempt simple discrimination when ground testing, eliminating fish hooks, hair pins, nails etc Interesting to test depth under those circumstances..

The main game being coverage, large expanses of beach.. depth is secondary, so far so good. Seems to hit hard for 80% of its depth, only fading on targets for the last 20%,  5cm on a grain gold ingot is decent for a coil this size. Tested a  flat 0.3 gram gold nugget and it hit hard out to 15cm or six inches. It hit hard on a 1.6 gram nugget out to 25cm or ten inches..  I look forward to  gaining more experience with this coil. In ground performance and beach experience to follow shortly.

Karelian

[karelian]

If circumstances demand on the beach  I can fine tune to find 'gold'. Problem is if I knock off small iron, I will loose other targets like Australian $1 and $2 coins. Depending on the area I normally dig everything when using the Tdi in wet or damp sand and swap to a VLF on the dry sand which helps is trashy areas.  On the goldfields I dig everything, no exceptions..

On the beach when needed I can disc small iron by  setting pulse around 13 to 14, the ground balance between 5 and 7, conductivity in LOW.. play with the machine using a small piece of iron to fine tune the settings. Using these setting the 18 x 6 mono still hits well on gold. The one grain ingot does not respond at all, the half gram gold coin looses 2cm or less than an inch, from 22cm to 20cm. Half Sovereign, a solid little gold coin goes from 34cm to 31cm, good signal very clean while ignoring small iron.. So yes the Tdi will let us disc small iron and still hit gold with a loss of roughly 10% depth. Not forgetting the 18 x 6 hit a one grain gold ingot at 5 cm and failed to detect it at all when set up to ignore small iron. 

Most targets are shallow or under 20cm or 8 inches, so the 18 x 6 will still hit well if setup to ignore iron whilst covering large areas fast. The option to target gold items is worthy of exploration, the coins barely pay for my fuel..

On the goldfields  I just leave the delay at ten, do a normal ground balance and switch conductivity to low. Away you go, very smooth and steady in the worst ground.. no boot tacks... nails or small bits of rusty flakes.. Aluminium  foil is another story.. But again I will loose gold over a certain weight... the idea of going over a monster nugget and missing it means I usually leave conductivity in ALL, unless specifically targeting small gold. At least the machine gives us a choice. Again the Nuggeteer coil works well on the Tdi at all settings.

[karelian]

This combination eats up large areas fast, perfect for the beach. Large coins like the Australian 50c come in up to 14 inches, which slows me down a bit because I have to dig so deep. Again a very well behaved coil. Isn't upset by salt water or wet sand, EMI has yet to raise its head.. full gain on Tdi Pro possible on two out of three locations visited.

High winds made for a short beach run, early days. Very good coil, I'm very happy with depth and sensitivity. 

Loves beach junk, bottle tops, aluminium in all it's forms, ring pulls, etc A real beach cleaner.. Tried three different beach areas, really comes to life in the low junk sites. Small coves, smaller beaches, no kiosk but a yacht club, good dollar coin areas.. not too much rubbish.. I'll give this combo a good run over the summer and take it into the goldfields later in the year.. So far so good.