Nel Snake Vs Sharp For Nugget Hunting

[OrBrad]

The availability of the NEL Snake for the legend was discussed in this thread 

In that thread I mentioned I was new to detector prospecting and wondered if the NEL Snake would be a better nugget hunter over the stock 6" Legend coil.  Clearly the Snake can get into spots the 6" cannot and that alone MAY be enough reason to buy one.  

When I looked at NEL's site I noticed the "Sharp" coil.  https://nel-coils.com/index.php/en/production

My novice take is the Snake covers a bit more ground, gets in tighter spaces and has slightly better separation.  The Sharp covers less ground than the Snake or my stock coil, has a bit less separation, but a bit more depth than the Snake, and being only 5", I still get into slightly tighter spaces than my stock coil.

The Sharp seems attractive for the smaller size (Compared to stock) and more depth.  But if the depth is no better than my stock coil, and there is no other benefit beyond being 1" smaller than my stock coil, I'd just go with the Snake for the size/shape advantage.

To those with actual experience, is my thinking sound... anything I'm not considering?   

 

 

[phrunt]

If you have a 6" round, there is little point buying a 5" round, the difference isn't enough to justify the purchase.

The Snake on the other hand has the size benefit, along with more small gold sensitivity being smaller.  Depth is a confusing one too, the Snake will likely be deeper on tiny gold than the 6" but there becomes a cross s over point on gold size where the bigger coil becomes the deeper coil. 

[OrBrad]

That was the way I was leaning based on your earlier thread...thanks for confirming.

I was hoping you would chime in.   I actually wanted to send you a PM for your opinion on this subject but I don't have enough posts for that privilege.  😀

 

 

 

[RobNC]

The snake is one heck of a coil. I had the Cors Shrew which is the same thing. Great coil with a quality build. It is very apparent they know how to make coils exceedingly well. That little coil blew the stock coil on my old Teknetics T2LTD away.  I also had the "puck" coil from Teknetics for that detector and it was just no comparison to what the Shrew/Snake did. I loved that coil so much it was all I used on that detector. The only drawback I seen was it took a lot more sweeps to cover areas.

[wltdwiz]

i have the Cors Shrew on my g2+ thanks to phrunt

thanks again for the info

it works great for nugget hunting

[phrunt]

I've long been screaming for metal detector and coil manufacturers to come to their senses and make Snake like coils.  The 6.5x3.5" size in its solid form is a fantastic coil, the Gold Bug 2 has something similar albeit Concentric and it's part of the reason people love the GB2 still, after what is it now almost 30 years on the market, in fact next year will be it's 30th Birthday!   How many other electronics products are still on the market sold new after 30 years? I'm guessing almost none, even the common toaster has changed a lot in that time.

Not only is it good for prospecting for many reasons, it's good for hunting in heavy trash and difficult locations, it almost turns your detector into a super cool pinpointer with Target ID's.

If only they would listen.....

[OrBrad]

So after almost 5-weeks, my Snake arrived today.  I got a bit nervous when I was provided a tracking #, but after a week, it was still in Ukraine with no updates.  Then of course I felt guilty worrying about such a trivial thing considering what those folks are going through.

First impression was the high build quality; it looks very well made. The cable is significantly thicker and feels more like rubber than vinyl.  Just a quality look and feel.

I'm no detector expert and the Legend is only my second detector (First was a new Compass Judge 1 which I still have), but I wanted to do a quick air test comparison with the stock 6" (LG15) just to satisfy myself that Snake was at least a good as the stock coil.

I used V1.11, factory default Gold mode with sensitivity at 25 and 28, and Threshold at 12 and 9, just to see if I could hear the signal better at one vs the other.  I used a plastic ruler from the face of the coil and moved the specimen with my hand.  The placer gold specimen weighed .15 g, was more round than flake, and was taped to a sticky note.

The first thing I noticed was the Snake really popped; the tone was extremely crisp compared to the 6".  The tone on the 6"  seemed "longer", more muddled and almost a double tone.  They both hit hard out to just beyond 2" and both faded fast beyond 2 1/4".  The signal on the Snake was still obvious out to 2 1/2"  and the 6" a bit less.  The higher Sens setting on the Snake got it an extra 1\4" (2 3/4") while the 6" saw little or no improvement.  The Threshold setting seemed to have no effect, though the 6" signal at max range and 28 Sens MAY have been just slightly clearer.

I'm not sure how much value this simple test has, but it has convinced me that overall, the Snake is better suited to my usage and I'm glad I bought it.  What I'm not sure about is whether the Snake is actually hitting a little deeper than the 6", or because the Snake's signal is so sharp and defined, you can just hear it deeper above the noise.  Guess it doesn't matter.

Can't wait to go hunting!

 

[JCR]

Glad you got your coil. It should do very well.  I’m still waiting on mine, so you give me hope that it will show up in time.

[HardPack]

Thanks for the info. Been prospecting with the Legend LG24, been holding off on the LG15. Just placed an email order for the NEL Snake. 

[JCR]

I received the Legend 15" coil I ordered directly from NEL today. I'm happy to have it & think it will be a great addition for me.

Ordered 03/14/2024. The factory shipping box is even in good shape. The postage looks like it went around the Moon to get to Texas.  18 inches, here I come!😁