Mark Gillespie

Steve I apologize for missing the other post. I allot a set amount of time each day to read every post and must have overlooked them.

Been wondering if the machine might be super good on gold jewelry too.

Steve, in your honest opinion, how does the Gold Bug 2 compare to the Monster? Were these pickers all sub-surface etc?

I'd love to try that machine, only draw back is my area holds very little gold. But it might be a super gold jewelry machine. Thanks for taking the time to post your finds.

I borrowed the 6 x 10 coil from a friend that uses it on his DFX. He states the coil is very hot and deep. But I could not get the coil to perform how he says it does on his machine. To me the coil makes the machine feel front heavy, which is a negative attribute. Then, I couldn't get it to run even close to my D2. I understand the D2 is a deeper coil, but the 6 x 10 could not respond to my deepest test garden targets, a 6 1/2 dime and a 7" rivet. This year will mark the 10th year for my test garden. As close to real world targets as I can get. It would be nice to know if the coil was at fault or maybe my machine. But the D2 and my SEF coil reacts very well to all my garden targets. I hope to borrow a 8 x 6" SEF coil this weekend and see how it does. I'm not griping, only stating results.

Thanks, I called a guy I hunt with at times and he's going to loan me one this weekend. I can say I was very disappointed in the performance depth of the 6 x 10 DD coil. I would imagine (by what I could measure) the 6 x 10 coil is best suited for medium to very small targets down to around 5-6" in depth. Go over 6" and the coil struggles to say the least, maybe I should say fails. Funny that the SEF coils can outperform the White's coils and be lighter and better balance too.

Very interesting

Boost carries over to the al metal side if set on the discrimination side firs.

Fisher F75/F75 LTD

Took all my coils to the local post office for a weigh in. The 1 in front of the scales is 1 pound.

I'll take my coils to the post office today and get a weight on each and report back.

Actually got my answer, the White's 6 x 10 DD (not V rated) coil seems or rather feels heavier than the SEF 10 x 12" coil. But a short visit to my test garden revealed the SEF coil way out performs the 6 x 10" coil. The coil would not run without overloading until the RX gain was set to 8 using the stock coin/jewelry program. Then I checked the 3 deepest targets and only one would on occasion give an audio in one direction, the other two were completely silent. Changed every setting I could think of and no improvements to the response to one dime and a small copper rivet at 7". Using the same settings the SEF will easily report an audio and valid VDI on every target. Looks like I'll be pursuing a different coil than the 6 x 10" coil. Since I rarely hunt in the brush an open coil will be good. Oops, out of time.

You keep at it and you'll get a good one soon.

As usual, great information.

Coil is at the front of my shoes now. If I go any shorter I'll have to bend over which would be worse for my neck. I have a hunting buddy that is going to loan me his 6 x 10 DD coil to try and I'll report back. The 10 x 12 SEF coil was noticeably lighter feeling (maybe better balanced not sure) than the stock 10" DD coil. In my opinion the depth between the two is very close too.

Actually hoping the 6 x 10 DD coil would be a lot lighter coil to swing since I had neck surgery.

Do you have a 6 x 10 DD coil to weigh?

The weight of the stock D2 coil is one reason I'm hunting a 6 x 10 DD coil for my V3i. But I really enjoy my V3i, yes very programmable too.

All this is why I hang out here more than anywhere else.

Fantastic recovery, it's amazing what comes to light at times. Congrats

Awesome review

That is an awesome settings chart Mike.

You're right

Found out one thing, every coil I got with the v3i are not V rated. All failed the test. Now I must admit the main reason I wanted the V3i was to use the high frequency to jewelry hunt. Now I'll have to find a v rated coil and maybe sell the others. Ever learning and never learning any lessons.

Recently bought a used V3i from a hunting buddy. He bought the V3 new and later updated to the V3i version. The machine is fairly clean and the 10" D2 appears to never been used. He bought two SEF 10 x 12" coils, one white and one black. I was very concerned about the lack of air test distances, but with a few reductions in settings the coils will be sufficient for while as long as I don't run multi-frequency and keep the tx boost off. Did the simple test to see if they were V rated and all failed and one will not ground balance while in multi-frequency. All this makes sense since he originally bought a V3 detector. Now I understand why he bought the SEF coils (he thought they would add depth). I originally bought the machine for only gold/jewelry hunting with the 22.5 frequency which will require a V coil if I run with high sensitivity settings.