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Today i received new range coil. This is X-COIL 26" spiral mono. Weight of this monster coil is 1680 gramm. Tomorrow will be testing. This coil for GPX series

I put in some serious days of detecting old patches in Gold Basin in order to get a solid idea of what I personally missed with the Z14 and give my coils more of a workout. Most of the spots I hit were patches I personally found and I doubt anyone else has ever detected, that way I can gauge what exactly I was passing by and get a good feel for the differences between the coils I have with me. However, the first patch I hit was on in Lost Basin proper and not one of my own. I had once met an old timer detecting here as I was exploring back in 2014 and he explained he had found this patch in 2002 and it had produced up to a 1.5 oz'er and about 3-4 ounces in total, mostly deep. It's about 50'x50', seen 3 GPZ's I am aware of, 25" coils, and about 2 decades of detecting. I put on the 17x12, which I was given free by the manufacturer, and began a mental gridding. 12 t-hold, low smoothing, 19 gain, HY, Normal. About halfway through I got a very subtle signal, but it was repeatable. I kicked off low smoothing just to hear the difference and the signal was definitely bigger...maybe wider is a better term. Kicking into Difficult the signal disappeared. Back to my normal settings, I boot scraped an inch and saw the top of a large rock which I assumed was the signal, but after pulling it aside with my pick the signal got stronger. I ended up with a solid ~0.3 grammer at about 10 inches. I'm certain this target didn't make a peep on the Z14. You can see the big boss man overseeing the operation here to the upper left, and also the old dead twigs which the old timer had at one time raked aside, which was what drew my attention to the area to investigate at first. Grand Wash cliffs in the background, the Grand Canyon is directly behind them. Visible is the foreground is the filled in hole, you can see this is pretty typical Lost Basin reddish dirt. I would classify it as mild to low-medium "heat". Some run Difficult here, but I see no need for it. Here is a video of the lack of sensitivity at the tips of the 17x12. It's really noticable when trying to pinpoint and oddly it makes a big ole 17" round easier to pinpoint with for me than an elliptical. I feel as if the 17x12 is like detecting with a 14x8 except with a lot of extra plastic around the edges and with the depth in the center of the coil of a 17" elliptical. It's odd. I'm not sure it's my choice for rocky washes anymore because that sensitive area towards the center is hard to get over everything. Next I moved to a wash in Gold Basin which had produced a lot of sub-1 gram stuff for me in the past and I put on the 10" to do some crumbing. I slowed down and really made an effort to listen for tiny blips but after running through about 40 feet of wash bottom without a piece of gold I decided to grab my Gold Bug 2 and run back over the same ground because I swore I should have had some dinks by then. A lot of caliche is exposed here, and for those who don't know what caliche is, it's basically a limestone conglomerate type rock that acts as bedrock in the desert here. It can be soft or hard as concrete. Almost immedietely I had a strong signal on the side of the wash, which I assumed must be a small bit of tin. I grabbed the GPZ/10" and despite my best efforts I couldn't get any type of real signal to repeat for me. Going back to the GB2 I recovered the target and it ended up being a 0.03 gram tiny nugget, which upon looking with a loupe was quite porous and had tiny microscopic bits of quartz within it, a very common occurence for nuggets here as much of the gold forms within breccia in shears and shattered fault gouge here so it often encapsulates almost microscopic bits of quartz. Due to these non-sluggy sort of targets, the VLF seems to hit much harder on them than the GPZ/10", which probably explains why I can't seem to get the sensitivity on my tiny nuggets as others seem to be reporting, even in other parts of AZ. A 0.1 gram nugget of gold from here might only have 0.05 grams of gold in it, and discontinuous geometry, which is hard on non-VLF machines. I moved on another 5 feet and hit another pretty definite target on the GB2, this time it was a paper-thin flake, I think it was about 0.05 grams. Just holding it in my fingers lightly was enough to bend it. It's at the tip of my pointer finger. It would make a sound on the 10" if I waved it in my scoop right over the coil, but it couldn't hit it at about 1", just too thin even for the GPZ, and that's why I missed it I think. I put my GPZ back in the truck and decided to just run through the last 30 feet or so I had covered with the 10" just out of curiosity. I almost immedietely hit another signal, faint but repeatable. At about 6" I pulled out a 0.2 grammer right on caliche. Not sure how I missed this one, might have gone too fast with the 10". It ended up having a lot of quartz too, and some hematite. And then another 5 feet again, about 5" and sitting on caliche, a 0.2 grammer that I really should have heard before but somehow didn't. This one I got in-situ before brushing it away as it was wedged in between two cemented pebbles. And then finally a 0.15 grammer that really wasn't even very deep. Not sure why I missed this one but it was right in the center of the small wash and there is no chance my coil didn't scrub it. This post got kinda long, so I will take a queue from JW and do a multi-part post. My conclusion (unsurprisingly since we already knew this) is that the target geometry/composition makes a big difference in how successful a person is with the 10" and why I was having trouble understanding why people don't simply just go in with their VLF's instead of the 10X since it's so much quicker and lighter. I know I traded notes with Andy when we first got our 10"' X Coils and he was getting a lot better depth on tiny bits than I was, and I'm sure it's because the gold in the areas he detects is more solid and my gold has a ton more quartz inclusions and porosity. I have some 0.1gram bits that won't make a peep on the 10X even running them directly over the coil in my scoop, and that's due to the target characteristics. Overall, I'm reminded why I rarely spend much time doing this kind of detecting unless I really need to get a couple pieces for morale. I don't live close enough to gold fields where I can spend my time chasing small stuff like this. That's just me and my personal situation, but I feel it's necessary to state since the majority of posters here live much closer to detecting ground and might not understand why I detect the ways I do. It's 1000 miles drive each way for me to go detecting and I'm not retired so I have to make it pay or at least break even. Next post I'll show you what I normally aim for in my personal detecting and why I do it that way even though it breaks some of the "golden rules" of gold detecting. I believe it will be important to make these distinctions for those new people reading these sorts of posts 5, 10, 15 years down the road and wondering why we did what we did. I feel it's important to not copy what others do online, but to develop a strategy and skillset that matches your local conditions and personal situations. My style probably might not even be optimum 150 miles away in the Bradshaws, let alone across the country or world.

I was in Quartzsite looking for flea markets for 2 days with my girlfriend (she is not a fan of prospecting). I snuck off for 2 hours to do some detecting with the 17x12 X Coil which Al had given to me for free to make up for the problems I had with the early X cords. I've not had any issue with cords since then, they stretched again but not enough to bind up in the shaft and inserting/removing coils has been easy now. Since time was slim I decided to hit a wash fairly close to town which had produced a little over 1 ounce for me with the 4500 and GMT, but which I had not visited with the GPZ at all yet. I figured it was the best chance for me to find a nugget in a short amount of time. Most of the gold found previously was 1/2 gram to 2 grams here. Not much smaller, and not much bigger. The wash has bedrock from surface to about 3 feet deep, a nice quiet gneiss and schist assemblage, pretty standard in Q. Part of the reason for the mild soils. I also thought odds were good that I'd missed all the deep, small stuff back in 2012 and that it'd be perfect to clean up with the GPZ/X combo. I'll try something different this time and I'm going to show the horizons and surrounding land. Anyone who really wants to track it down and find it, go for it. As I detect less and less, someone new or just starting can figure out where they are at. This is looking down towards some mountains that can be ID'ed. The part of the wash that produces gold is about 1/2 mile hike uphill from here, and is currently unclaimed. The 17x12 ran even quieter here than in Gold Basin, no problem running at 20 gain, HY, Normal. Though I run in low smoothing because I like a stabler threshold than most so I can move faster and concentrate. Within 5 minutes of hiking to my spot, I got a decent signal, a bit quiet but repeatable. Mostly only sounded off in a circular area under the coil, as if the coil were an 8" round, and I couldn't hear it towards the ends of the coil. I scraped 2 inches of gravel away with my boot, and the signal was now pretty stout. After breaking out the pick, I got down about 15" and started exposing jagged bedrock. I put the coil on edge and pinpointed the signal to a small area between bedrock juts and then began chiseling and brushing away gravel until I found the nugget with my pinpointer, so I could get a picture in situ. It's at the point of my finger inside a crack that required screwdriver excavation. I pried the nugget out of the crack after fidgeting with the bedrock a bit, and was a bit surprised to see it was larger than expected, in fact this is largest nugget I've found in this wash. I figured it was 3.5 grams by feel. It ended up running around 4.5 grams and paid for all our gas and food for the 2 day trip down. So I was happy, for what was at the time about 15 minutes total into the short time I had to detect on this trip. The hole is at the bottom of my coil. The nugget was wedged down in that bedrock which is unfortunately covered in shadows in this photo, and the total depth was just shy of the length of the coil, so around 16-17". There is a new ATV trail almost to the point where I started detecting so I can't help but feel at least 1 person has had a Z14 over this wash, but I'm not certain. This nugget was sitting almost vertical, and I suspect that is why it was missed previously and not a screaming signal on the 17x12, though the signal was definitely sharp and unmistakable. Another 30 minutes of poking and prodding into the rocks and bedrock, and I pulled up a deep drywasher nail and a the head of another nail. Both sharp and loud signals right in the gut of the wash that my 4500/GMT combo had missed 7 or 8 years ago. I was near the start of the wash, thus the end of my journey and thinking it was about time to turn around and hike back down. And then I hit my final target on the short hike, a ~1 grammer which was also a sharp and pronounced signal, and also right beneath a stretch of exposed bedrock. It's at the tip of my finger, didn't have to dig around with the screwdriver for this one. Here is the sum total of what I found with about 1 hour of detecting and 1 hour of hiking there and back. This is a wash I detected back in 2012'ish with a range of 4500 coils and my GMT (before I had a GB2), probably 8 or 9 times total. I covered most of the upper portion of the wash that had produced nuggets for me in the past, though I suspect I could pull another 1 or 2 out of there if I tried with the 10". I'm also pretty certain the 10" would have missed the larger, deep nugget, but I can't be absolutely certain. Total weight, not bad for an ~hour of work. And one final horizon shot right where the nugget zone starts, up towards the base of the mountain. For all the internet sleuths and greenhorns who can't find anyone to share locations with them to get them started. Good luck. Enough clues here to find the area for a dedicated individual. Overall I was happy with the 17x12 in the rocky wash/bedrock areas. It ran smoother here than Gold Basin, both dealing with ground mineralization and EMI. GB gives me these zips and zaps that are absent here, and struggles with the BIF and basalt, and it's real hard to run this 17x12 full bore in washes there with high black sand concentrations. The magnetite chunks in Q gave me problems but they do with the Z14 and 4500 too, so nothing new there. The main issue I have is the edges seem to not be sensitive enough on this coil compared to the rounds. So while the geometry allows you to push into tight cracks, you aren't always getting full sensitivity in the depths of the cracks as you would with the 10" round. The shape of the area of maximum sensitivity within the coil is odd. A simple sweep often misses subtle targets unless you are over one of the sweet spots, and the sweet spot doesn't appear to just be a smaller ellipse within the elliptical coil, it's some odd shape with hotspots within itself. That sounds confusing, but I have a hard time explaining it better. I think Condor mentioned it already, but pushing/pumping the coil into tight spots over the center of the coil (if possible) often works better to hear the coupling between very tiny or very weak targets to determine if it's good repeatable or ground mineralization. I've been doing this out in the open in the flats in GB too, especially in areas of high mineralization, to determine what is a good target. One thing is certain, in the US it's mostly about knowing where to go, or knowing someone who knows where to go. Or having exclusive access to land. This shows why. This was found in 2 hours, but only because I was lucky enough to start detecting at a time when a lot of people ran their detectors subpar by copying settings off internet forums, allowing me to find a lot of stuff the others missed. Those days are largely gone since the GPZ levels the playing field today. I couldn't walk into a goldfield I've never been to an expect the same results, it was only my knowledge of what and where I found gold in the past that let me do this. So, don't get discouraged if your results are not the same. A new guy would simply just have to hope to stumble on this place by dumb luck since all the leads are gone now, while I can just hike right to it. So maybe this will help someone new find an "old" place. I don't detect as much as I used to these days as I have other projects going, but Al (X manufacturer) sent me this coil for free to try last year, and I figured it'd be nice to do a write up since I wasn't able to run my GPZ on the commercial project I have going due to EMI interference from the CAT 336. The coil performed great here though, and it was nice to just get out and finally do some detecting for fun.

I've been getting out for a few hrs 3 or 4 days a week down here in Sunny Yuma, plus a weekend trip to Quartzsite. My thanks to forum member Will for showing me a new area in the Q where I found the 2 biggest nuggets. The 17" round X Coil on the GPZ has been my go to set up. I really like the ergonomics of the 17x12 coil, but the 17" round has really been finding some tiny gold at depth. I lost a few weeks of detecting after my GPZ started losing audio after a few hrs of detecting. I sent it in to the Detector Doctor and they couldn't duplicate my issue, since then its running fine. I've been detecting the same areas here in Yuma for the past 10 years with the old GPX 4000, the SDC and now the GPZ. Nuggets are getting pretty hard to find in these hammered areas so I really look for the new edge in detecting. I'm fond of the Sp01 booster connected directly to the Z then connected to quality earbuds at the booster. I took some of JP's advice on lowering the volume of the Z, then using the booster to raise it at the earbuds. What I understood to be JP saying was a high volume on the Z is also amplifying surface mineralization, creating clutter noise and concealing deep targets. I'm no expert, but it sounds reasonable so I'm going with it. I'm thinking the X-Coil and Sp01 are giving me a new edge on missed gold, maybe. The concept, nevertheless, keeps me out there plugging away and trying to put that coil over some yellow stuff. I took a separate picture of the tiny gold. None of them will register individually on my cheapo scale, so I had to group them to get a weight. Some of these tiny nuggets have come at incredible depths, at least considering their overall weight and audible response with such a large coil. Probably 3 to 4 inches for most of them. The 17" round seems to be hottest right between the center windings at about 2 inches off the edge. Sometimes a side to side sweep on tiny gold loses the signal. Pushing the coil and center windings at the signal brings them up smartly. Mitchel just seems to be having a run of bad luck on gold with his X Coil, mine has exceeded my expectations especially on really small gold.

My first outing with the 15” x 10” X-Coil was a very satisfying experience. Settings used are; High Yield, Normal, Freq. Auto, Sens 20, Volume 12,Threshold 1, Tone 53, Vol Limit 12, Auto Smoothing Off, Ground Balance Auto, GS Off I ran a quick test on a 0.08 gram test nugget with the 10” round which produces some noise and false target responses when running with my wide open settings. Changed to the new 15” x 10” X-Coil and ran over the 0.08 test nugget again. Both coils were getting a good loud response at approximately 3.5 inches. I ran the 15” x 10” coil for 5 hours a day for 5 days. It was stable and quiet (except for a little very low level EMI). The noise and false target responses experienced previously with the 10” round coil were gone. There were no problems with ferrite balancing. Franconia, AZ has produced some large nuggets. A 3 lb quartz rock with 15.9 oz. of gold was found there the previous week. It was a US Army Air to Air gunnery practice range during WW2. So you are forced to dig a lot of deep targets. There are a lot of bullets and small pieces of screen wire blasted from the towed targets. I only found two small nuggets between bullets and wire pieces. They are 0.6 g and 0.2 g. Overall this is a very sensitive coil and a pleasure to have the lighter weight and ability to get into smaller spaces. Have a good day, Chet

Well, I tried a new way to get out to this new gold area I found. The gold seemed fairly small, but I had to hike in at least 3 miles to get there. So I tried to drive in another way in hopes of only having to hike in a mile. Of course Google Earth made things seem better than they were (almost like I could drive right there), but in the end I only cut about a mile off the hike (one way). So now I had a decision to make … take my GPZ 14" coil, the GM1000, or what I call my Midget Coil (10" Xcoil). GPZ 14" about killed me getting out there last time so that was out. I love the GM1000 on bedrock, but some of the bedrock here was very hot. Usually in those cases, I will go to my GPZ 10" Xcoil, which I venture to say is at least on par with the SDC 2300 (with the exception of being a little bigger). And the Xcoil is still a pleasure to hike with. So off I went. I started out hitting the areas I had been to before and got some good signals. First piece was only about .1g. Then I started finding slightly bigger .2g pieces. Most of these seemed to be what I call runners. Those are the ones in washes that I find on the sides of the wash, trying to run away when they see me coming. The larger coils tend to lose a bit of depth when checking the sides and depressions. The 10" Xcoil, however, does very well getting in there. Overall, 5 pieces were found (total .75g). Not a lot, but at least half of these finds were detected very carefully with the 14" coil and were missed. The Xcoil was very clear on all but a 1 grainer piece that was about 2" deep on it's side. All in all, it was just a fun day crumb chasing.

Gidday All, Managed to get two hours in today before rain chased me home with the 17 inch Russian X coil. Blew me away just how good this coil is ! I purposely picked a small area of State forest that I have flogged for the last 10 years, with all 3 different GPX detectors, with coils from 11-25 inches, the SDC, and even a QED. This spot has yielded many ounces of gold to me from 0.05g up to 33g. I had declared it " dead ", as my last 10 or so efforts with the standard GPZ14 and GPZ19 have yielded nothing more. 2 hours in today, nearly back to the car, and I get an obvious signal. This was slightly downhill from a small patch of small reef gold, in an area that I have literally smashed. Coil was about 2 inches above the ground because of sticks and clumpy grass. Removed said obstacles and signal firmer. 4 inches in and I am in nice gravel, target now screaming, out pops what turns out to be buck shot. Bugger, but this is from a spot that I have NEVER managed to get a target in ! Moved about 10m along and same thing, another obvious target, once again coil 2 inches over the ground. Dug in and same again, 4 inches down in nice gravel, target screaming louder than the buckshot, out pops what turns out to be an 0.65 gram bit of reef gold ! I'll be buggered, I thought ! Rain then chased me home. Coil was very sensitive, being able to pick up my 0.11g test piece at 2 inches. I tried knocking the coil against a tree a few times and no bump sensitivity. 17 round weighs the same as the GPZ14. All in all, a fantastic coil. Don't know what the Russians have done differently, but Minelab need to have a good hard look ! Further testing to come when our shitty weather finally breaks. Cheers, Rick

I have received the 15x10 Spiral X-coil. Here is what it looked like when I picked it up. My initial reaction when I was given the box by my mailbox center was that it was 'light' and did they have another package coming? haha Well, it is all in one box and well sealed. It is not packaged like a great looking Amazon box with hardly anything in it. This is a custom box with a lot of tape. Inside the black plastic was a white box that was also well taped. That box contained a sandwich of the coil with coil cover and an extra coil cover. Thanks. The coil is terminated with one connector just like all the GPX coils when you buy them. Tomorrow I'll take the coil, the 19" coil, the 14" coil to my local car stereo installer who also works on battery scooters and electric bikes. If they don't want to do the job then I have called an electronics store that said bring it by with the instructions and they might have someone do it as a side job. The final destination for tomorrow is a radio store here that still has ham and cb radios. One of these places would do a better job than me. I've read all the instructions multiple times now and I haven't had the 'practice' of using that connector and there is not a lot of extra wire to play with so someone around here puts these on all the time. I just need to get these coils to them to make the dongle. Chet, Andy, JW, Simon, Dave and Jason have all said they would help. We'll get it done. Mitchel

So I couldn't resist having a crack at my own adapter soon as my x-coil turned up today. I was pooping my undies on the enitial turn on but all in all wasn't to bad to do it you take your time I started with number 3 blue wire at bottom first as hardest to get to to solder then worked my way up to 2 and 1 the 4 and 5 spent a good 20 mins thoroughly checking for any shorts or anything when I was happy I hot glued all wires and invetween stopping them from being able to move or that in future then heat shrink followed by lots isolation tape I then put the female plug back on the std 14 and works like charm I also waterproofed the xcoil by adding marine silicone in and around the plug and a thin layer along the joining lip were skid plate goes all and all thought for a first attempt wasn't to bad and I didn't make it go boom so that a bonus

So my gpz turned up on Friday and I'm super loving it and my 10"x-coil should be here Wednesday, as soon as I got it out the box I grabbed my we test gold ranging from 0.025 to 1.71 gram and shot out to my we test area that happens to be gravel pit in known gold area.. I found for my area in NZ I was geting the best depth and response on general and high yield with audio smoothing off.. I had a play with the ferrite ring with ground balancing then factory reset and ground balance with no ferrite ring.. So my question is does the ferrite ring gb affect depth and sensitivity at all in low to medium ground. What I noticed was our soil and were I hunt in creek beds you hit pockets of high black sand then less etc. I didn't realy notice any difference in performance but I do think that the ferrite gb did run quieter in the ground over all. Does anyone have any tests or input on ferrite balancing vs no ferrite? I plan to get out this weekend for my first hunt with the 10 xcoil all going to plan. So will be sure to put up a link for the YouTube video when made and my finds if any lol I'm checking out new spot

So I herd we rumor and please take it with a grain of salt. But it got me thinking the russian outfit that made x-coils could they be bringing there own pi gold detector to the table sometime soon.. One would think if the can come up with the x-coil that I'm most account's seems to out do most other brands in all aspects.. Could they be the dark horse and bring a high end pi to table to challenge minlabs reign in high end pis. One does wonder

Which combination of Xcoil will do best? Does it just push the existing hardware to a new level or is there a 'sweet spot?' If someone has a GPX and a Zed should they only get an Xcoil for the Zed? Is there something compelling to make someone get a QED X vs a ZedX or GPXX? Is there an X2300 coming?

I've been a little hobbled with the sore ribs from my misadventure in Baja. I hate being cooped up, so I was out poking around in the placer fields of Yuma despite really bruised ribs from my crash in Baja. Anyone my age has broken ribs in their misspent youth, but at 65 yrs old, they mend much more slowly. Nevertheless, I get bored and have to be outdoors. We had some rain in Sunny Yuma last week and in some locations in the desert canyon washes ran a lot of water. I went out exploring with the GPZ 7000 and the 17x12 X-Coil. I wasn't really interested in trying to dig deep targets with my bummed up ribs, so I concentrated on newly exposed desert wash walls. I passed on a ton of probable trash targets not wanting to dig deep trash that would trigger muscle spasms and shorten my day. Ultimately, I marked some good sounding targets for later examination and dug a few that showed shallow hardpack. Towards the end of my morning I waved the coil over some bench gravels with old drywash fine tailings. I got such a clear signal that I knew if it was trash, at least it was very shallow. I pushed the gravels around with my boot and the target moved proving that it was indeed very shallow. I got out my plasitc scoop and started sorting out the likely target. On the second scoop I get a booming tone that normally indicates old copper scraps or pieces of copper wire. I was amazed to see this gold nugget in my scoop. This nugget doesn't register on my El Cheepo Weed Scale, but even the best scale might find this nuggets weighs in at a few grains. I believe that the toe of the 17x12 X-Coil which measures at about 8 inches in the sweetspot is far hotter than the Minelab 14" standard coil. I didn't mention that I used the 17x12 exclusively in Baja, and was going over ground I covered last year with the standard Minelab coil. I found at least 8 gold nuggets that I missed last year. Nevertheless, feast your eyes on this magnificent gold nugget the X-Coil hit with a hard tone. I have no affiliation with X-Coil, its manufacturer or distributor.

17 x 12 Spiral, pings tiny .1 gram bits no worries. Pain in the butt digging them but sometimes they lead to bigger and better chunks as was the case for me today. 76 grams at 18 inches, any detector would have heard it, same with the 6 gram bit. 14 gram bit was a different story, 20 inches down and very quite but definitely a dig me signal. With the X running so quiet it was no worries. A bloody pleasure to use, a complete contrast to my stock 14” which is so touch and knock sensitive, it’s had a hard life so maybe just worn out but it never ran as quite as the X.

Thanks to Davesgold and the X-Coil manufacturer, I got a gifted 17x12 Spiral Wound coil. The manufacturer took notice of my multitude of problems with the connector modification and sent me a new coil from Russia. Bravo Zulu X-Coil for prospector support. The weather has improved here in Sunny Yuma so I replaced the 17" round with the new coil and took it for a spin. I balanced it over the ferrite with no problems and I experienced no bump sensitivity. The first thing I noticed is how well the coil balances on my modified hip stick rig. I do a lot of detecting in the walls of desert washes, putting the coil on its side. The 7000 tends to get the "wee waas" if you don't keep them flat, but this coil seemed to really tone it down and it balanced really nice for less strain on my arm and shoulder. On relatively flat ground I think I could swing this coil all day for less wear and tear on my 65 yr old frame. I ultimately didn't find anything in the walls, but I hit some old hillside drywash tailings and popped these 3 nuggets. All were at moderate depths but I was amazed at some of the deep iron bits I found. Without some side by side target comparisons I can't say that my depth is improved, but I'm getting a lot better ground coverage and I can poke it in between rocks and obstructions. Even if this coil is no better than the original Minelab 14", it's a lot more versatile. This will be my go to coil from here on. I'll stick the 17" round on over worked out patches, but this is my new secret weapon. Again, many thanks to Davesgold and X-Coil X Coil 2021 News

I have just come out of a magic winter season with the 10,12,15 X coils, I have not used my ML14 or 19 since putting them on. The X coils have made the Magic GPZ7000 a super magic detector. No teething problems, make patch lead, fit and dig gold. How good is that??? Can only say it doesn`t get any better...……...or does it. What will the X coils evolve into ????????? I have no connection to X coil, or to Davsgold except as a customer, top coils, top service and express freight.

I got my GPZ back from Minelab last month, which included a new 14" coil and lower rod. Only $3600.00 AUD lighter in my wallet. As you may recall, I bricked the detector after the Patch Lead was defective. It's still crazy hot here in Sunny Yuma, but I was bored and still curious about the X-Coil, so I shook off my concerns and cut the connector off my brand new coil and built the Patch Lead myself. I was extra careful with the heat from the soldering iron and did a respectable job of putting together the connection. I did a few practice runs on scrap wire and connectors so I was a little more confident of my skill. I got out 5 mornings last week for a total of about 12 hrs run time. At sunup the morning temps were still in the high 80's and jumping to 100 by 9:00am. Unbearable in the desert washes with no breeze. The one thing that saved me was the synthetic chamois cooling cloths, one around my neck and one under my cap hanging down my neck. The first morning I did a complete set-up with the detector since it was, for all practical purposes, a brand new machine with all new printed circuits etc. I waved the 17" X-Coil over the ferrite and got the machine nearly silent, though still reacting some to the ferrite. I started in the area where I found the 28 gram rippa last May. This area has a fairly hot layer of clay about 12" under the overburden. Last May we were able to run this zone using HY, Normal, Sens 12, (Threshold 27) with the Patch Search mode to quiet down the machine. The 17" X-Coil in those same settings was way too sensitive, so I had to switch to Difficult to quiet it down. Because I knew I could only be out for a couple hrs, I focused on trying to get that coil over gold hoping to then play with the settings. No joy the first morning. The next morning I went out to an area that had produced half a dozen 1 grammers when the GPZ first came out. I knew it was deeper and a little quieter ground. We tried Paul's 19" GPZ here when it first came out to no avail. This time I was able to zero out the Ferrite and switch back to Normal from the Difficult setting. The machine was still a little twitchy so I backed off the Threshold to 22 and got it humming along nicely. I gridded the area pretty good and came up with a few deep trash targets and then, right as it started to get unbearable hot, I got a faint, sweet rising tone. A lot of digging and sweating produced a sweet 4 grammer right on the hardpack, about 14 inches down. Now a 4 grammer at 14 inches should be well within the range of the GPZ and standard 14" coil, but I've been over that zone at least 6 times over the past 3 years. The only significant difference is the ground is bone dry this year. Last year there were still pools of water from late season rains. The next morning I was back to the area of the 28 grammer. I found that the machine was more stable and I could run in Gen, Normal, Sens 14. I got a couple deep trash targets and chased a number of hot ground seams and hot rocks. The settings were really sensitive to hot ground, but in my mind that's the only way to find good missed targets. Right at the end of the morning I got what sounded like another bit of hot ground. I switched to High Yield from General and it brightened up the target, but still hadn't convinced me that it was gold. The target was in the sidewall of a drywasher's hole, so the 17" coil was pretty awkward. I dug out the ground so that I could get the coil level and the target brightened up a little more. By then I had hit the hardpack which tends to hide these small, reddish hotrocks. I dug dozens in this same area, but I needed to check this coil's capabilities. The hardpack was brutal in the morning sun so I had to go back to the truck and get my handy Aussie (DavesGold) made pick. I'm not going out without it now. About 8 inches into the hardpack out popped a nice 1.5 grammer. I can guarantee I stuck the GPZ standard coil in the hole a half a dozen times over the past 2 years. Thur morning I got out in the same area. I chose a wash that a produced 5 small nuggets, in the sub-sub gram range, in May. I concentrated on the deepest gravels thinking deeper nuggets must be in there, just beyond the reach of the 14" coil. I gridded the zone where a bench had formed on the inside bend of the wash. I went at it from every angle and was about to surrender to the heat when I got the faintest of faint tones. Again I switched to High Yield and it brightened up some. I switched to Difficult, nothing. I started pulling down the bank so that I could get a good level swing with the 17" coil. Slightly improved tone, still unconvincing. I pulled down another few inches and got a much improved tone. I switched to Difficult and got a dull growl, more convincing yet. After much digging into the hardpack out came a nice 1.8 grammer. I even photographed the hole for this one. The Aussie pick is 28" long. I'm really starting to like this coil. It's light enough for all day use with the addition of my homemade hipstick. I run the hipstick to the bottom of the frame in my lightweight framepack, which moves the weight to the back of the hipbelt and off my shoulder. I'm also running the SteelPhase amp plugged directly into the GPZ, no wireless connection between. As per some of JP's guidance, I'm running the GPZ volume at 2, adjusting loudness at the amp. I'm running the Threshold between 20 and 22 depending on how twitchy the ground is. For the most part I'm running General instead of High Yield trying to reach those deeper targets. The first 2 targets were well within the reach of the standard 14" coil, but somehow I didn't find them over the past 2 years. The last one, doubtful for the standard coil. As the weather cools I'll start doing a quick change to the 14" coil over new targets for a comparison. Right now, it's still to friggin hot to bother. X Coil 2021 News

A lot been said about these x coils when it comes to the zed...but in the beginning there was mention of new improved depth with x coils for the gpx users. As a gpx user and I am probably speaking for many...any news on the performance and availability of these coils. I know I am not letting go of my 4500 anytime soon...

As promised, I got out this morning to do a review on a new Russian Xcoil that I received. But let me state firstly that I am not a dealer, I paid for this coil myself and have no self interests other than reporting what I find as I see it. So here it goes: I headed off to the gold fields of Arizona at about10:15pm last night. It was 105F outside but it was dropping. So it looked like this was going to be a fairly comfortable night for detecting. The goal of this trip was: 1) compare the Russian 10" Xcoil to the 14x13" ML coil in respects to finding gold 2) check ferrite balance 3) check knock sensitivity 4) review overall design The first patch I tested was one in which I had only found small gold (nothing over .3g). In total, I am lucky if this patch gave up 15 grams, but it was very fun. And I gridded this area to the best of my ability. Rough dimensions are 50'x50'. It is unlike any of my other gold area I have been to. There is no quartz on the ground, but seems to be a basalt looking grey covering up a red gossan type material (which the gold is in) There are areas on this hill where you cannot swing a detector it is so hot. And hot rocks are the norm, here. Once on location, I began with the standard coil, dropped the ferrite ring and ground balanced. I also followed up with noise cancelling, etc. Then I proceeded to recheck an area which had a dense concentration of nuggets, previously. I found nothing but I succeeded in warming the machine up. No knock sensitivity, threshold was a little ratty with the EMI, but nothing out of the ordinary. I ran the most conservative settings I know. There are much better settings, but I wanted to know how the coils would operate without optimization. Settings are below: High Yield/Normal/Sens=4,Vol=8,Thresh=25, tone=53, Vol Limit=7, Ground Balance Mode=Semi Auto, Audio Smoothing= off, Ground smoothing= off Next, I switched to the 10" coil. Used the ferrite and checked knock sensitivity. all was good. It also, had the same level of noise as before. so I began hunting. after 15 minutes or so I had a target and it was a small nugget. and then another. At this point I just wandered through the area I had gridded and found a couple more. Total to this point was four small nuggets. I didn't want to spend all of my time here so I headed back to the truck. On the way I checked a wash that I thought I checked previously. Apparently not good enough. I found two larger nuggets, now I am up to 6 nuggets for the trip. But back to the truck I went to check patch #2. Now this is where it gets interesting. It is about 5 minute drive to my new area. The gold from this area *did* come from quartz stringers and the local metamorphic rocks. The largest piece found was 5 grams and I believe I found a little over an ounce in total. Most of it from two washes but some from the adjacent hillside. Anyways, after parking I started my slow walk to the patch with the 10" coil. After getting my wits scared out of my by what I think was a bobcat, I continued to the area. I immediately noticed a problem. The coil was very noisy. I tried everything I could and tried to rebalance to the ferrite. But it would not work. So then I walked back to the truck and got the std coil. This coil ran smoothly. So it wasn't my imagination. Then I switched back again to the 10" coil without rebalancing to the ferrite. No problem. It was smooth. As soon as rebalanced to the ferrite ring, it was out of wack again. So this was frustrating. I never did check knock sensitivity as the ground noise was already an issue. By this time it was 4am and I decided to call it a night. So it seems that while the coils work well in some areas, there are the areas (as JP mentioned previously) that will give some issues. The only way to trick it is to use your std coil and lock in the X-balance and then switch coils without rebalancing to the ferrite ring. Another note I would make about this new coil is that the coil wire itself is thicker and does not like to go into the shaft. After multiple changings, I found that with a little mid shaft rotation, it helped with this immensely. The standard coil wire drops right in. That is really all I have on this, for now. I am not sure if this helps or just muddies up the water.

The x-coils aren't water proof? Is that right? Was heading away for 4 days of nugget hunting in the caravan this week but it looks like it's going to rain??️ Any thoughts on whether the rain may cause any problems to these coils? I know i used to detect in the poring rain with the coiltek elites and the 11" and 18" were fine but my 14" used to false when pressed against the ground. This only ever happened when it rained and i think moisture was getting in where the cable entered the coil.. I was thinking maybe taping some plastic over where the cable inters the coil on the x-coils just to be safe. Any other time id just cancel and go the following week but this is the last opportunity according to my wife to go for sometime. (new puppy that will need toilet training etc) Im keen to try out the new x-coils and hit a spot that may soon be exempt from prospecting in a few months time. X Coil 2021 News

Latest 12" X mission over, was staying out 2 nights but the frost sent me home to the warm bed, plus I lost my pick, walked couple of ks blew a couple of hours and could not find it. Yeah, yeah I know how can one lose a 3ft long pick, done it before will no doubt do it again. I am convinced there is a pick stealing triantiwontigong that exists on all gold fields I have visited. Lot of talk about settings and ground balancing methods lately, as we have often discussed before, these are individual settings and no one has the correct settings for anyone but themselves. Very simply my current, and I say current because I will go with what gets the gold whether settings or hardware. Settings are semi auto, general, no audio or ground smoothing, volume 7, threshold 24-27 depending on wind noise (WM12 no booster or h/phones) normal mostly but difficult when patch hunting usually, sensitivity between 8-20. Ground balance is.... no use of Quick track button, no ferrite simply let the Z do it`s thing, it is next to the SDC the easiest gold detector I`ve ever used. KISS (Keep It Simple Sir) occasionally as I`ve said years back I`ll go into manual but very rarely as it requires having to fool the Z into doing a Quick Track. ML if you listening give us firmware that has an option allowing us to avoid this forcing of QT. I am very sure I am not the Lone Ranger in this request. Crikey another photo posted, I am going soft no...……... I

Have the 10" x-coil sitting at home and now waiting on the 22"x 21" to arrive. Was wondering if others have purchased lower shafts for each of there x-coils or just use the original one and undo/fit the coils to that one? (haven't done the chip mod yet so haven't bothered fitting the 10" x-coil.) X Coil 2021 News

I sent my new 14" Minelab 7000 coil in to an alleged knowledgeable electronics facility, as recommended by Dave, to have a patch lead professionally constructed. It was returned yesterday looking sharp, but would not connect to the X-coil. I then tried the Minelab 14" coil now equipped with a female 5 pin adapter, still no connection. I did a complete restart of the machine and tried both coils again, still no go . I then tried Dennis stock Minelab 14" coil on my machine without the adapter, naturally, NO GO! I was able to pull some of the shrink wrap tubing back on the female 5 pin connector on the coil. Clearly the grey co=axial center wire did not get soldered. The multi-mesh type wire around the grey wire was well soldered with the extra tail to the metal connection parts as per the instructions, but the center core of that wire did not reach the solder point. As far as the business end of the patch lead, there is no way visually check the solder joints as it is encased in hot glue. The company said send it in and they will check the solder joints, but it sounds like my problem got a lot worse than faulty solder joints since the machine won't recognize a legitimate Minelab coil now. Remember, the machine was working fine with the 14" Stock Minelab coil until now. X Coil 2021 News

Does anyone know the company that makes the Xcoils? Is there a website?