My Bigfoot Coil Finds A New Home!

[Steve Herschbach]

You maybe thought I sold it - no way!  I am the original owner of this Bigfoot coil and it is treated like the gem it is. It certainly is not going anywhere. However, I have bounced it back and forth between several detectors over the years. It started on a DFX, the went to a Vision, then an MXT, then a V3i, then a DFX, then back to a V3i.... and now back to a DFX. I really love the V3i, but the Bigfoot coil was not designed for it, and it has erratic performance that I just can't really get used to. Specifically, the 22.5 kHz frequency target id numbers triple in value, and this makes everything on the high end, like all coins, wrap around into a ferrous reading. This creates an intriguing expanded low end VDI range with a 100 point spread between ferrous and a nickel. But it make running in multifrequency pretty weird. It also seems to throw the multi ground balance off, which makes sense as 22.5 kHz is involved in that. I really only get stable operation running in 7.5 kHz single frequency. But then why bother? I love the features the V3i offers, but getting solid stable performance with the Bigfoot coil is questionable at best.

So I decided to go back to the DFX, again, and found a clean one at a decent price on eBay. Many DFX are overpriced right now, going for up to $500, but with shopping you should pay half that. I got a clean one delivered to me for $260. The detector will be dedicated to the DFX, and the 950 concentric will help fill out my V3i coil collection, which right now includes the new D2 coil and a 6" concentric. The 950 may not be V rated so remains to see if the gain can be maxed out on the V3i.

Be fun to get out again with this all time favorite combo of mine.

White's DFX with Bigfoot coil

[johnedoe]

Hey Steve.

I have a Bigfoot coil that i got for my Eagle Spectrum back in the early 90s

Do you think I could use it on my v3i in the 7.5 single freq?

Just curious... I still have my Spectrum so it is not a big deal/

 

[Steve Herschbach]

2 hours ago, johnedoe said:

Hey Steve.

I have a Bigfoot coil that i got for my Eagle Spectrum back in the early 90s

Do you think I could use it on my v3i in the 7.5 single freq?

Just curious... I still have my Spectrum so it is not a big deal/

 

Very doubtful it will work but it can’t hurt to try. Nothing in the coil or detector will get damaged by just giving it a go.

[Tom Slick]

Steve - I found that the trick to Running the BigFoot on the V3i was to only use it in all three frequencies. Everyone's soil is different but I found that running in three freq. the pull tabs would all read much higher on the VDI scale than the Gold rings. This allowed setting up disc programs or patterns that would eliminate most of the tabs while still getting most gold rings. For some reason only the aluminum targets jumped up the VDI scale and not gold items. I did eventually sell my V3i because I found myself only using it for hunting shallow clad and jewelry occasionally and for most all my detecting I was using different detectors. I sold two BigFoot coils (my spares) but have kept one that is mounted on one of three DFX's I have. The other two DFX's are used by my son and wife but only for competition hunts using HotFoot coils. When it comes to pulling clad and Jewelry, there's nothing like a BigFoot on a White's. 

  

[Tom Slick]

Johnedoe - The BigFoot designed for the Eagle Spectrum will not work on the V3i, Sorry. 😟

[Steve Herschbach]

10 hours ago, Tom Slick said:

For some reason only the aluminum targets jumped up the VDI scale and not gold items

Unfortunately not on mine. Even medium rings were jumping all the way into ferrous. Basically it was simply tripling whatever the normal target id was in 22.5 kHz regardless of target type. Anything that might read about 35 or higher was launched all the way into ferrous.

I assume different Bigfoot coils work differently on the V3i. I’ve heard some basically don’t work at all since they are not V rated. Mine must be one of the borderline ones.

I’m not getting rid of the V3i, and maybe someday I’ll put the Bigfoot back on it and experiment some more, but right now I just want confidence everything is working as it is supposed to.

[EL NINO77]

Some coils designed for DFX .. when used on the spectra V3 of the brain, certain phase-shifting of the coil is manifested at a high frequency by the ID on the High Conductive Coin already transitioning to iron ... with one exception ,,, and these are the high conductive coins detected on edges - these are detected in areas of non-ferrous objects ...

It is a very  problem especially at a 1Ffrequency of 22.5khz ..., as well as with the use of 3F multifrequency..........but it occurs at the multifrequency proving frequency of 7.5khz and 2.5 khz well enough to replace the detection deficiencies at 22.5khz ..

I discovered a similar problem a few years ago with the Detech 6x8 "SEF MTX / DFX coil - which I used on the Spectra V3 ...

Congratulations to Steve .. for the "new" DFX detector .... and I believe that the Bigfoot coil will perfectly complement this detector ...👍

I  have now also gone in a similar direction ... and I bought a Whites MXT All Pro  ... which will complement my Spectra V3 and V3i in detection..where there are also advantages it ...because of that I can use all the coils from Spectra ..

[Steve Herschbach]

It is nice that so many White's detectors share coils, unlike some companies that go out of their way to assure that will not happen.

I've had four V3i now and I think this is my fourth or fifth DFX. This really is a sickness!  But compared to many things in this world, very inexpensive and harmless fun.

[Rick K - First Member]

I have two of the “other” Bigfoot coils - for the earlier machines. I have fun with it on the IDX Pro - luckily mine has the GB mod, because unless you GB the BF coil to the ground, it can read silver as wrap around to iron.

[Rivers rat]

3 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

It is nice that so many White's detectors share coils, unlike some companies that go out of their way to assure that will not happen.

I've had four V3i now and I think this is my fourth or fifth DFX. This really is a sickness!  But compared to many things in this world, very inexpensive and harmless fun.

What are those machine for Steve??

 

RR