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Dithering On 6" Coil


Al F

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I've been DITHERING on whether or not to get the 6" coil for my NOXIE 600 .... I mainly do BEACHES here in Southern California as I live only 12 miles from the nearest beach ( I only got about 150 miles of beaches within a short drive depending on traffic.... Will it be worth the expense... Will the little guy give me better target results ???? For my type of "diggin", is my 11" coil the better choice for coverage and accuracy??? Hmmmmm

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  • The title was changed to Dithering On 6" Coil

I love that little coil but I honestly see little use for it at the beach. Some might say it would be good for hunting micro jewelry, but frankly the 11" coil hits as small as a person could hope for in that regard. The 6" coil is more like for micro-micro jewelry which in most cases will be flakes of aluminum foil. The main problem is beaches are large and small coils just don't cover the ground well enough. The 12" x 15" coil is the one I would be craving for the beach.

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The 6" will be worth it for shoreline work, at least around here.

It will work better when the conditions call for it, if not use the 11" for more depth and coverage. (You can turn down the sens and raise the recovery with the 11" coil to eek out a few targets in the trash, but you can't use the 6" to find deep targets in the clear sand.)

I wouldn't bring the 6" as my only coil unless I knew I had a specific spot to use it.

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Trying to cover a beach with the 6 inch coil would drive me nuts.  Maybe I would hit a specific cut with it visible from my entry point but I wouldn't carry it with me hoping I had the opportunity.  The small stuff the 11" coil sounded off on my last beach outing was ridiculous.  As Steve said, no need to go micro micro with the 6".  Recovery of such targets in the sand is hard enough since they sift right through the scoop like sand.

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I agree with Steve and Chase. I trust the 11" coil because of what I have already found with it and the depth it gets. A little coil like that would make me impatient on a beach, so much sand to cover, such a tiny coil to do it right...

 

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Totally agree with Steve and Chase.  While I'm not much of a beach hunter, if I were in your shoes, and strictly a beach hunter, I'd be saving that money for the 12x15.  Now, if you plan to hunt some trashy dirt sites, that's a WHOLE other story...

Steve

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The shorelines are loaded with targets. That 6" coil would certainly yield more targets then a 15" would on my local beaches. I know there are hundreds of targets on the shore that I just can't separate vs there might be a deeper target off shore that a 15" hits that the stock 11" wouldn't. If I happen to walk over it. 

If the conditions are ideal, the 6" is the best choice. Coverage is your enemy because conditions are ideal.

If the conditions are realistic, the 11" is the way to go. 11" is versatile.

If you think the 15" is the best because it is bigger, stick with the 11" and 6" combo.

Unless you want to look for boat anchors, don't use a huge coil unless you are willing to give up the sensitivity to smaller items. Are you sanded in, desperate to hit anything, would be happy with a high inductance ring? A 15" is a good choice.

I sometimes use a 5x10 because its not all about depth, for good conditions a 5x10 finds you way more then a 15" coil ever would. WAY MORE, IN BOLD EVEN. It can be a night and day difference. Tennis bracelets, little chunky 22K earrings with rubies and diamonds etc are the types of things that you can get with the smaller coils. A smaller coil can actually be deeper on smaller targets, on edge targets, without even addressing the unmasking. 

I've bent over and picked up rings right off of the bottom that a 11" coil would not make a peep on due to masking. I couldn't see anything but the rings both times, it still nulled out/iron farted. This is at zero depth, on the surface. (Underwater) A real eye-opener, its one thing to suspect it, but when you see it you all of a sudden feel overwhelmed.  What can we do with a 15" coil in this situation? I tell you what you do, walk offshore and hope for a fresh ring drop in the clear sand. Maybe get a quarter or a tall boy can. If you're real lucky maybe try to scoop up a chain connected to a block of concrete, that's a great way to kill 20 minutes. 

Like most settings on a metal detector, its a compromise, not a linear equation.

If the answer seems easy we're probably wrong. That is why 90% of detectorists get 10% of the good stuff. ?

 

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9 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

Trying to cover a beach with the 6 inch coil would drive me nuts.

:laugh: The 11" is a very good compromise - If we can even call it a compromise.. I've found really small stuff with it .. sausage-ends in 8" no problem :blink: (sens at 18!)

 

11 hours ago, Alluminati said:

The 6" will be worth it for shoreline work, at least around here.

Yes, there are places on the beach, where the 6" will certainly outperform the 11". I have some very trashy spots, where you can clearly hear the 11" struggeling with masking. But overall those areas are too small compared to the rest of my detecting area - at least for me! So I probably wouldn't use it often enough to justify it's purchase... Over here it costs about 230€.. if it was in the 150-ish range, I might get weak :ph34r:

In the end everybody has to decide for themselves ...

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Have you ever tried scrubbing your driveway with a toothbrush?

Thats what a 6” coil at the beach is, I honestly can’t see how it could be functional. The 11” coil is already overly sensitive so small foil so exentuating that tendency whilst reducing volume of ground covered just seems like a totally terrible idea ?

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