RickUK

Of course its only a general indication on how each detector performs,i do own a TDI pro and it just shows exactly what depth advantage can be gained over other machines.Must admit never really like the stock 12'' DF coil so i mainly use the Coiltek 14x9 Mono which is not only deeper,its also lighter weight wise yet still deadly on small coin size finds.But for very small items like say cut 1/4 and 1/2 silver hammered coins and roman then the MJ 9x5 folded mono is the coil that i prefer,dont do nugget hunting or much beach detecting as mine is mainly inland.Cannot comment about the other machines used in the test though as i have never used them.

Great read,i also use the same size and type of coil on my TDI albeit mine is the Pro version,so the battery problem as such is not a problem as such,but the folded Mono is a deadly combination,been using mine alot of late and its become my everyday use coil.

This of course just my personal opinion i have never really been a fan of the stock and 7.5'' DF coils,infact they are as brand new with may be a few hours on the clock but these days just gathering dust in a cupboard,my preferred replacements for them are the MJ folded mono and also the Coiltek 14x9 Mono,both as light as a feather but perform extremely well on my sites.

Of course we all hunt different targets due too various locations,i dont hunt nuggets as we dont have them as such in the UK,but i do hunt low conductivity targets such as silver hammered coins and also roman coinage,this then is when the TDI range and the folded mono coils become deadly weapons of choice and they certainly do hit hard on hammered coins.

One of my favourite coils that is within the sizes that you have mantioned and i really enjoy using is the NEL Snake 6.5''x3.5'' i use one on my T2 and also a the UK version of the Vaquero called the Laser Trident11 Extreme,on both of these machines they perform superbly.

They cover slightly more ground that the 5'' T2 coil but target separation in my mind is slightly better,on trashy sites then the T2 with the Snake coil is my weapon of choice,then my 2nd choice for the next size up is the NEL SharpShooter 9.5''x5.5'',the Sharpshooter coil on my original green T2 has taken more gold coins ie full and quarter staters than all my other machine put together.

Well the Whites sale is over,but just had a phone call from Scotland and they can ship me over at basically the same price a 6'' Mono coil for my TDI Pro,so will be on the next shipment from across the pond to the UK.

Always had terrific customer service from Whites scotland and i assume it would be the same across the pond.

Only watched a few minutes of the video and then hit the 'exit' button,that says it all really.

I use a TDI Pro and not for nugget hunting but deep relic hoard hunting,currently the large coils that i use and dont have any problems with that are designed for the ML range are the 15x12 Mono,18'' Detech Mono,14x9 Coiltek and the largest coil which i will admit was designed for the TDI Pro is the 20' Grande Sierra mono.All run perfectly well,because i use it for deep larger objects i run my delay 15-20us.

Must admit not all that keen on the stock 12'' and 7.5'' DF coils that are made by Whites,infact they are basically brand new gathering dust as i just dont use  them,my favourite small coils are the Jimny folded mono and i think my all time favourite coil for the TDI Pro is the Coiltek 14x9 mono which was of course designed for the GPX range,but works extremely well on the TDI and exceptionally light as well because its foam filled.

When i use the Jimny folded mono with GB on and in low conductivity its deadly on silver hammered coins and roman coinage as well,but also hardly dig much iron,i have access too a roman trading villa site but what is mostly challenging about it are the ground conditions,the ground is basically nearly like black sand but about 80 miles from the coast,not alot of VLF machine can work this site but the TDI excels.

Really love this machine,maybe not the best machine for nugget hunting but terrific for my needs on some of my permission,its not used everyday but when it does come out to play it certainly earns its keep and the added beauty of a wide selection of ML coils.

Never really liked that size coil case for my DFX,found it heavy so only used it a few times.

I do use a Coiltek 14x9 coil,really nice and light due to being foam filled.not good for surf use as it floats,but inland a terrific coil,out of those coils that Steve  i have and use the 'Jimny' folded mono coil and also the big beastie bottom right bought it brand new when Jimmy Sierra shut up shop and paid basically peanuts for it including shipping too the UK,not used much but its tremendously deep,the cost involved means it will stay in my TDI coil arsenal of which i have many coils some designed for the TDI Pro and also some from the GPX range that i also use.

Absolutely brilliant idea,really cool idea,trouble is i did buy one of the XP cases thinking that i would carry and use it all the time,un packed it and put all the gear inside it and never used it,that was 18 months ago lol

But i do still use my Deus on a regular basis,infact i like them that much i have a complete one as a back up that i always carry with me.

In the last few month i have been gradually drifting back into using Concentric coils on some of my everyday machines,well on the machines that allow both coil usage except the T2 and the Deus as both dont allow Concentric coils too be used.

The specific sites/permissions that i hunt can/are be very trashy like roman and saxon sites,so i feel that Concentric coils are the best tools for the job in those situation,currently working a large permission that is right next door to the great north roman road which is often called the A1 from London up North,its certainly a very productive site but one does also encounter 2000 years of trash as well,so although that i do have machines like the Deus,T2 and some other modern machines,the best machine/s for the job are the Laser B1/B3 which Tesoro based machines tweaked for the UK and and also one that has totally blown me away is a 20 year old IDX Pro all these machines have got Concentric coils on,but not only have the finds improved i must admit by a massive margin but also the enjoyment factor has come back again.......just these 2 things are in my mind the most important part of detecting 'increased finds rate and the enjoyment factor' and its only since using these old classic analogue machines which also have Concentric coils on.

I still use very small DD coils on a few of my detectors in the 5-6'' coil size predominately the 5'' T2 coil and also the NEL Snake on a modern Trident 11 Extreme or basically its a Vaquero but on steroids and when used with these small DD coils on excel in target separation on Medieval village sites which can be a very daunting environment with a large coil on.

Although i do basically use both DD and Concentric coils,i am starting too enjoy Concentric coils more and more,the trick is using the knowledge that one can only basically gain from years of experience on deciding  which coil/detector combination too use on that site that you are working that day,alas the current stock coils that most detectors have these days are 'happy medium' coils,its always wise if possible to have a selection of coils for your machine/s this in theory should cover most of your detecting needs,but of course we all detect different targets around the world,the only common denominator is that they are all metal,some hunt gold nuggets in Aussie land or Arizona,in my case i hunt a wide spectrum of finds here in the UK,so we all use the best tools for the job for your region.

Some folks will be out this weekend hunting gold with say a GPZ with a 19'' coil on,but i will be using a 20 year old IDX Pro with a Concentric coil on,this just shows what at the time we consider the best tools for the job.Do i have some modern high tech machines,of course i do,but i only use them for site specific use.

DD and Concentric coils do have advantages and Disadvantages,the hardest part and the skill is choosing the  right one for the task that day

This new detector from Minelab may well be the best VLF machine for years,no question about it they do have a very slick team of folks who deal with the promotion and advertising of these products,but although we have all seen the recent videos on how quick this machine is,we still dont have the final specifications.

Will i be buying one of these machines when they finally are available ?? the answer is 'no' and the reason being i have always had one major buying criteria that i never shift from and that is giving a new product a minimum 12 months time duration from launch to see if any major design faults or reliability issues evolve,and this not only applies to detectors i use this for any major purchase,things can and do go wrong with new products (MX-Sport electronics and Nokta plastics).Of course this product may fly of the shelves as fast as they can make them and never have a technical glitch,and i do hope they do,but for me how ever tempting the adverts and videos are,i will still be sticking by my buying criteria which would mean that i would not get one till very early 2019.

11 minutes ago, Chris Woods said:

Where did you find this harness OP?

And, if you don't mind my asking, how much did it set you back?

Thanks in advance for the info,

Chris

Chris,this is the Ebay link for the same harness.

Ebay harness link

7 minutes ago, Chris Woods said:

Where did you find this harness OP?

And, if you don't mind my asking, how much did it set you back?

Thanks in advance for the info,

Chris

Chris,this is the one that we use its from Kevin at Staffs Detecting,below is the link for it,its also on Ebay as well.

Full Harness from Staffs Detecting

John,stunning machine and just proves that some of the older machines can keep up with modern day detectors and even exceed them,always wanted a 6000 but never really found a decent example,but if one did come along then a i could well be very tempted.

Welcome too the forum,my favourite coil for my TDI Pro is the Coiltek 14x9 Mono,really love using this combination mainly because the coil is so light being foam filled,but no good for beach detecting in the surf as it want to float like a cork.But amazing depth for sure.

Looks a great piece of kit,like the shooter on the table as well

I hear exactly what you are saying John and certainly taken the info on board,would never go out of my way specifically to get one,but if one did come along at a very advantageous price then i would consider it.

Just bought a 22khz 11.5'' Concentric coil for the Nexus MP and should be here by the weekend,out tecting with it sunday,could/should be deadly on trashy sites and also good on low conductive targets like silver hammered coins.Thats the theory anyway lol

Hi John,the plan would be to not use it as a everyday use machine but more for site specific use,once again like the TDI Pro thats not your everyday use detector but when the opportunity arises then it could pay for itself just with one decent find.One full stater all it takes as that will pay for a very decent example.Back onto the stater hoard site next month so we hope we will retrieve some more,as i am pretty certain some are deeper and still we have not located a container,of course that is if the coins had been in one,dont think its a purse drop as it seems more than what someone would want too carry with them.But while the coins still keep coming then we will still keep detecting the site.

Must admit i am seriously looking at getting a GMT for some of my permissions,although i am not a nugget hunter but the 'allure' back too a celtic gold stater site has wetted my appetite again,although i do/still use the TDI Pro i think the GMT could be used more and more also for micro jewellery as well.

If one came along almost new at the right price i could well be very tempted to buy one.

The machine/s that have found me the most gold are the T2 and the DFX,those have found me the most gold coinage over the years from celtic full and quarter staters,George111 full guinea,Vicky Sovereigns and more.

I dont own one of those coils that they have on sale,if i lived across the pond then i would have bought one,but the shippings costs and import duty would have not made it viable,i do own one of those large Jimmy Sierra coil ie bottom right,its a beast of a coil not only size wise but weight wise as well,but when Jimmy shut his online store they had been selling them brand new at stupidly low price and i mean crazy low.

You cannot go wrong on the prices on the Whites website on the sale items

Links all work well here,makes great reading and look forward too some new models in the future,still use my DFX,IDX Pro and TDI pro,all have served me well and never missed a beat.

Thats a very tidy conversion,i also use the exact same GM shaft for my backup Deus,works well with the original Deus coil better as the battery is in the actual coil,rather than in the lower shaft of the newer HF coils.

Will be following this thread regarding this coil,only Coiltek coil that i own and have ever used on my TDI is the 14x9 Mono,that for the most part stays on the TDI most of the time when i am on open pasture sites and require the extra depth.I do also use a Jimmy coil made for Jimmy Sierra,thats a 9x5 folded mono and red hot as a coin shooting coil,works very well when using low conductivity as it hits silver hammered coins and also roman coins as well,but discriminates iron nails including reasonably big ones very well.

Been looking for a 5.75'' that Razorback made a couple of years back,no longer sold but i think it was called the 'Piglet' coil but i stand too be corrected on the name,but it was a nice little coil that would work well on a couple of my permissions.The only other coil that comes close to this coil is the 6'' Coiltek mono one,but my preferred option is the Razorback coil as that was designed especially for the TDI rather than the Coiltek one which was designed for the GPX series.

Thats a terrific find for sure,i still reckon that we have only just scratched the surface on what is still in the the ground here in the UK but its just a little deeper than what a normal VLF/coil outfit can reach,possibly some larger hoards than say the Hoxne hoard,Staffordshire one etc are still waiting to be found.

The biggest problem i feel is the race between deeper ploughing damaging items and detectorists recovering them before they get damaged like the Ringlemere Gold Cup

Must admit it certainly has been a very enjoyable read,glad its looking like it could come good for you finally after all this time.

John,i take your point about the RNB battery pack,but in the case of the DFX have been using it for over 2 years and never had any problem thus far,my way of thinking that if anything was too go wrong it would have done all ready,over 2 years is alot longer than a small lanter of just 30 minutes use,the IDX Pro is of course alot older than the DFX and have also not noticed any problems again.

It would be 'sods law' that when i go out tomorrow for the day detecting something will fail,but this is why i always carry a backup or 2,just incase did happen while i am away on a dig.