Hi all
Fantastic information here. Re: Covering Ground Vs Going For Depth
My wife and I are semi-pro prospectors and I exclusively use the covering ground method (patch hunting), while my wife does a bit of both.
I have put in 1150 hours coil-time in this last season with my 4500 and the new elite 18" coil, only dropping down to the 14" for chaining a new patch. My wife swings a 5000 with a 14" elite coil, dropping down to a 11" elite when we are chaining. (she has put in approx. 900 hrs this year).
We will be buying an SDC 2300 for next season.
We spent 7 months in the West Australian bush, 5 of those months alongside our friends/partners who swing (he) 7000 and she 5000 with 11" minelab.
My wife has found 3 times the amount of pieces than I, although I have just over double the weight.
Many, many comparisons of undug targets have been done between the 4500/18" elite and the 7000/14".
Some targets can be heard by one machine and not the other. Its an approx. 60%/40% split in favour of the 7000/14".
Our friends do more cleaning up/going for depth than patch hunting.
We ended up with 63 Oz, they 32 Oz.
Hope this helps with the discussion.
Cheers
Phil