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6" Coil On The Way!


steveg

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Hi all!  

FINALLY, after a long wait, I have a 6" coil on the way.  I'm really looking forward to trying this coil in some really trashy spots I have in mind.

A question for anyone that has the coil -- have you done any depth comparisons with it and the 11"?  I'm curious as to how much depth would be lost, given equal settings, on a coin-sized target?

Thanks!

Steve

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Steve..... one or the other of those coils will suffer if the same settings are used.   The larger coil in a trashy area takes is a LOT more material to process....... depth isnt everything and often times you can benefit from not running a hot coil.    Its better to run both coils optimized for the area and target and let the results be your finds.

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Dew --

True, you are right of course.  I guess I shouldn't have said "the same settings."  Given that you are processing less "stuff" with a 6" coil vs. an 11", you can often run sensitivity higher on the 6", in my experience.

What I was trying to figure out is that I have a couple of places back in PA which are littered with square nails; one in particular is an old church that dates to 1800, but has burned at least twice -- so the remnants of those burns (square nails, etc.) are everywhere.  I have made some good finds there; I got in there for a short while about a month ago while back home, for the first time with the Equinox, and surprisingly managed to pull another 8 Indians; that's more keepers than I ever pulled from this site in one hunt, and I've been hunting it for years!  But, the targets are deep; greater than 6" in all cases and often 8" or even a bit more.  So the gist of my question was this... obviously the 6" coil will help me to pick amongst the nails at this site, but will it have enough "umpf" to get down to those 6" to 8" targets?  It won't do me any good to be able to see around the nails (in this particular site) if I can't get enough depth to see the targets that are down there...

So that's where my mind was going when I asked the question.  I agree that depth is NOT everything, but at some sites (like this one) it IS important...

Steve

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My experience with Minelab machines and DD coils is that you still get great depth even with the smaller coil. The size  and depth difference is more pronounced with concentric coils. You might lose maybe 20% depth, but you can also increase sensitivity on the smaller coils. 

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Geoff --

I agree; 6" coils on other Minelab machines (specifically FBS) got really good depth.  I'd have to assume similar results will be had with the Equinox 6"...especially with sensitivity bumped up (as a smaller coil usually allows).

Steve

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Steve ....... the advantage of having more than one coil is that you can hit the area with the larger coil..... then go back over it with the smaller.   Not sure about the 6" loosing 20% depth...... maybe in an open field but trashy area can give various results on targets and depth.   THEN it depends on the trash....... small high conductors might give you a fit with the small coil.   Coils are just another way to tune your detector.

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I would love to see someone post a base line for air test distances with the 6 inch coil vs the 11 inch coil, with the same program and sensitivity settings....just to get an idea of what to expect from it.  I realize things in ground will be different, but I like looking at data like that.

 

Don't look like I will be able to get one of these any time soon so data from those that have them is all I have to occupy me.  There's one on ebay now for a Buy it Now of $450.  I think I will pass.  lol

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Daniel --

I got the coil in the mail yesterday.  Perhaps I will make some time to do just the testing you mentioned.  I am curious as well.  Indeed, as you said, things in the ground are different, but it should be interesting to see the results, anyway.

As an aside, this seems like a good place to share a somewhat interesting thing that happened on a hunt the other day.  I was hunting with my Equinox, sensitivity 24 (almost no EMI present), and the 11" coil.  My friend was hunting his E-Trac, with a 6" Detech Excelerator coil, and he was hunting in auto sensitivity (with lots of iron in the ground in places, he was trying to combat all the threshold nulling).  Now, with him running "mild" settings (i.e. auto sensitivity), and me running hot at 24, this is not a good comparison.  However, we were comparing signals during the hunt, as we usually do.  At one point, I came across a solid, but deep signal -- classic deep-coin hit with the Equinox, but I couldn't get it to lock onto a good, small range of ID numbers (as is often the case on the real deep ones, for me).  I was thinking wheat cent, with most of the IDs bouncing around mid 20s, but wanted to see what kind of numbers my buddy would get on his FBS machine, to see if his unit suggested "wheat cent" as well.  I marked the top-dead-center of the target, and had him swing it with his E-Trac, and he got NOT A PEEP.  Not even a break in his threshold.  So, he went to auto +3.  Still no joy.  Finally he switched to manual, and cranked it up, and then he was able to pick up the target (though with skewed ID numbers, especially his FE number, to the point where he said he may or may not have dug it.) 

We repeated this same thing on another deep coin a bit later on -- identical scenario in that the EQ picked it up well, but some bounciness in the numbers, while a cross-check with his E-Trac with 6" coil and auto sensitivity was a no-go.  Not entirely surprising that this happened, it was just interesting to see how drastically the use of different coils and different settings will affect results.

Again, I'm just putting this here for the sake of information; it's only peripherally related to what we are talking about -- in that we did not have our machines set up similarly at all.  The two interesting things I took from this were that ONE -- with a small coil and auto sensitivity, his machine was entirely blind to a coin at about 8" deep that the Equinox with 11" coil and running hot presented a clear "dig me" response on, and TWO -- switched to manual sensitivity, cranked up high, the E-Trac and small coil was able to give a reasonably similar response to the target that the Equinox running hot with larger coil did.  

Just wanted to share; nothing ground-breaking, but worth mentioning I thought.

Meanwhile, I will try to make time for some air testing with the 6" vs. 11" EQ coils...

Dew -- I agree, on your point about working a site with the 11", followed by the 6".  That is how I approach real old, relatively small sites, where I want to try and extract every good target that I can.  It's also how I will approach the particularly "trashy" sections of parks and yards that I've hunted hard with the 11" coil in the past.  It's time to "re-hit" some of these spots with the small coil...

Steve

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