Outing With A Minelab 17” Mono For GPX 6000

[GotAU?]

That 17” Minelab mono is pretty sweet. Just used mine for the first time today and it honked on little tiny pieces of lead 2”-4” deep. I was in pebble to cobble sized rocky terrain interspersed with small boulders and only a few plants (desert mountains). I was going pretty fast, trying to beat the sunset at my last spot for the day and was surprised how small the lead was I kept picking up. It’s a great coil for doing quick surveys over large areas and really doesn’t weigh a lot.

I have a Coiltek 14 inch mono , but it just seems kind of heavy and bulky compared to the 17. I haven’t done sensitivity comparisons with them yet. Both are relatively new for me.

The stock 17 is a great coil if you need to cover a lot of ground, else the smaller Coils like the CT 10x5 would obviously be best for vacuuming between the rocks and underneath bushes.

[Northeast]

8 hours ago, GotAU? said:

The stock 17 is a great coil if you need to cover a lot of ground,

Yep, agree.  It certainly covers some area and is easy to swing.   It feels much better balanced than the Minelab 14” DD.  Used it probably half of the time in Western Australia last year and will likely do so again this year.

Being a bigger coil it did pick up salt signal more and a coupe of times it was better noise wise to trade down to the 11”.

It doesn’t get much use in my local area due to forested, hilly country but I’m happy with it so far.

Best of luck yours GotAU 👍🏻
 

[GotAU?]

4 hours ago, Northeast said:

Yep, agree.  It certainly covers some area and is easy to swing.   It feels much better balanced than the Minelab 14” DD.  Used it probably half of the time in Western Australia last year and will likely do so again this year.

Being a bigger coil it did pick up salt signal more and a coupe of times it was better noise wise to trade down to the 11”.

It doesn’t get much use in my local area due to forested, hilly country but I’m happy with it so far.

Best of luck yours GotAU 👍🏻
 

Thanks for the input! We don’t have much salt in the auriferous desert areas of So. California, but if I go to Nevada, I guess I’ll have to use the 11 inch. I was thinking this coil would be good for meteorites on our dry lake beds, but they are mainly salt playas so it will be interesting to see how that goes.

I did have fun using that coil for the first time yesterday, and am looking forward to going back to give it a proper shake down as  this is all I got yesterday….

https://youtu.be/GaBtHcAm2GA

[GotAU?]

6 hours ago, Northeast said:

Yep, agree.  It certainly covers some area and is easy to swing.   It feels much better balanced than the Minelab 14” DD.  Used it probably half of the time in Western Australia last year and will likely do so again this year.

Being a bigger coil it did pick up salt signal more and a coupe of times it was better noise wise to trade down to the 11”.

It doesn’t get much use in my local area due to forested, hilly country but I’m happy with it so far.

Best of luck yours GotAU 👍🏻
 

Do you use a pinpointer with your 17 inch? I have a Minelab pointer but it acts up sometimes and may need replacement. I was thinking of getting a Garrett carrot (I understand that those work better for small items?), but wasn’t sure as to what would work best with that coil. Of course, whatever it is, you’re gonna have to move the coil well away while using it, everything starts beeping when you fire up a pin pointer near it.

[afreakofnature]

Anyone have any luck with 17” punching deeper on targets?  

[Northeast]

On 4/10/2023 at 3:31 AM, GotAU? said:

Do you use a pinpointer with your 17 inch?

Hey GotAU, sorry for the slow response.  

I do use a Minelab Profind 35 but I'm not sure that I actually used it last year when using the 17" coil. Most of the targets were shallower (6-10" deep), easily pinpointed and then recovered with a scoop.  

The only target that was deeper than a foot was a 16 gram spiky piece and I was using the 11" coil at the time.   

The Profind does set the GPX6 off a little at times and then at other times it is fine.  I'm guessing dependent on what noise cancel channel the GPX6 is on at the time.  I dare say there would not be much difference whether the 11"or 17" coils are attached.  

54 minutes ago, afreakofnature said:

Anyone have any luck with 17” punching deeper on targets?

Have dug some deep trash targets with it in the Victorian Golden Triangle.  The 16 gram piece I mentioned above I didn't actually go over the same ground with the 17" as it was too noisy due to salt and the fact that my brother in law had already been over the area with a GPZ 7000 (14" and 19" coils) so felt that most deeper targets would have been found already.  Although, he hadn't found that piece and quite a few smaller ones  🤔   Going back to roughly the same area this year so might try if things are lean  👍