X-Coil 15x10" DOD Experience?

[GoodAmount]

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with the 15x10" DOD X-Coil on the 7k?
 

I've currently got the 17x12” spiral, 8” DOD and 15” concentric and have found the majority of my gold with the 7k using the 8”, cleaning up the crumbs in surfaced areas and rocky terrain that have been hit pretty hard by other detectorists. It’s been a fantastic coil, being super sensitive, surprisingly deep and pretty stable in variable ground and I can push it into nooks and crannies and into the undergrowth where it’s not possible with a bigger coil. I owe it big time, but ground coverage is obviously very limited and I’m finding I’m increasingly using the 15” concentric to cover more ground. It’s a fantastically quiet and sensitive coil, but it’s giving me tennis elbow and a dicky wrist as a result of swinging it many hours a day. I’m also sure I’m missing targets close to trees and obstructions given its lack of edge sensitivity. 

I haven’t used the 17x12” spiral for a very long time - it’s heavy and noisy in the ground I hunt, so I’m thinking of selling it and buying the 15x10” DOD. I’m interested to hear how it compares with other X-Coils, particularly for regular day-long patch hunting. It’s pretty appealing on paper, given it has double the ground coverage of the 8” while being only 130gm heavier and it’s elliptical profile is good for maneuverability. How is it for sensitivity, stability and depth?

[phrunt]

I've not used any of their bundle DOD coils except the two small ones that are bundle DOD because they have to be to fit the windings in, the 8" and 10".

I have the 15x10" spiral and it's very close to the 10" in sensitivity because the 15x10" is spiral and the 10" bundle, I believe offering a bit more depth and obviously more ground coverage, the bundle DOD version won't be as sensitive as the spiral version though.

I've not had any interest in the larger DOD coils preferring the spirals, DOD's are more suited to people with very bad ground which I don't have, and I want the best small gold sensitivity I can get being in an area that really requires that.

Think of the stock 14x13" coil vs the NF 12" which are both bundle DOD's , and reduce its size in your head to the 15x10" and that's about the performance you'll get I would think with the added sensitivity towards the tip and tail of being elliptical.  I like the 15x10" form factor for its ground coverage while still maintaining pretty good small gold sensitivity being only 10" wide.

[davsgold]

GoodAmount, if your going for a 15x10 then get the spiral one, they are a great coil and we still use that one most on our 7000, well that's when were not using the 6000's 👌

[GoodAmount]

Thanks for the tips phrunt and davsgold. The key thing for me here is the weight of the coil vs sensitivity when patch hunting for days at a time. I’ll usually swap from a larger coil to the 8” after I’ve pinged my first bits and move very slowly if there’s gold to be found. Then swap back to a larger coil afterwards to pick up any of the deeper bits I’ve missed - which quite often isn’t very many.

@phrunt, you’ve been a great advocate of the 8” and I’d be interested to know your experience with owning both the 8” and 10” given the size difference isn’t that great. The 10” is about the same weight as the 15x10” DOD - could the 10” suffice as a patch hunter? In your opinion, does it give adequate coverage for that function given it doesn’t lose too much of the sensitivity of the 8”?

@davsgold I’d be interested to know how mineralised/variable the ground that you hunt is? How noisy is the 15x10” spiral in it and can you comfortably swing it for days at a time? I’ve got to run the 17x12” at a lower sensitivity in the ground I hunt, which is why I’m wondering if a 15x10” DOD might be a better option.

[phrunt]

With you owning the 8" I see no need for the 10", too close of a coil, the 15x10" DOD sounds a reasonable choice for your needs, especially if the spirals have trouble in your soil, although a lot of the spirals are now v2 which are slightly less sensitive than the v1 spirals, but they handle the bad ground better.  The 10" is only very slightly less sensitive than the 8", they've pushed the limits of the GPZ's potential on small targets.   

The 12" spiral is a bit of a sleeper, not enough people own that being so close in size to the stock coil but it's a killer coil, I think it has all the sensitivity of the 8" coil with more ground coverage and depth.  It's now a v2 coil, I have the original and the v2, I prefer the original for its extra sensitivity but if its noisy in ground like yours the v2 is likely a better performing coil.   

I prefer the v1 spirals as I have mild soils, but I'm sure people in worse soils appreciate the v2 coils although plenty seem to get away with using the original v1's with no issues in their ground across Australia but seeing you're finding you have to wind back the sensitivity with your v1 17x12" you likely would have to do so with every v1 spiral.

[davsgold]

9 hours ago, GoodAmount said:

 

@davsgold I’d be interested to know how mineralised/variable the ground that you hunt is? How noisy is the 15x10” spiral in it and can you comfortably swing it for days at a time? I’ve got to run the 17x12” at a lower sensitivity in the ground I hunt, which is why I’m wondering if a 15x10” DOD might be a better option.

Good Amount, we detect in WA Western Australia most of the ground is very mineralized, a few spots around Granit is not to bad, but most of the time we run the 7000's in High Yield Difficult and sensitivity around 16 

this is the usual type of ground and before x-coils came out

this is a patch we did with both the 7000 using the 15x10 spiral, and the 6000 using the 11" ML mono plenty of gold for both types of detectors 

the 7000 with the 8" coil cleaning up a patch of extremely hot mineralized ground, if the ground was damp from rain it was near impossible to detect with any detector or coil combo 

 

[fourtyniner]

On 10/20/2024 at 8:08 AM, davsgold said:

GoodAmount, if your going for a 15x10 then get the spiral one, they are a great coil and we still use that one most on our 7000, well that's when were not using the 6000's 👌

Hi davsgold. I'm tossing up whether to buy a 6000, or a 8" X coil to find the tiddlers in my old patches in Victoria. Seeing you're experienced in both types, which option would you recommend? Cheers.

[davsgold]

1 hour ago, fourtyniner said:

Hi davsgold. I'm tossing up whether to buy a 6000, or a 8" X coil to find the tiddlers in my old patches in Victoria. Seeing you're experienced in both types, which option would you recommend? Cheers.

G'day fourtyniner, if you already have a 7000 just remember you need the adaptor/patch lead to run an x-coil on the 7000, that being said get it done by David Gibb in South Australia he has made hundreds of them.

Once you get that sorted if you go in that direction then the 8" x-coil and the adaptor lead is going to save you a heap of $ and from our experience was/is about on par with the 6000 and it's 11 mono coil for finding the small gold at good depths.

The disadvantage of going with the 8" x-coil on the 7000 it is still a heavy detector and a very small coil combo.

The advantage of the 6000 is it is feather weight easy to use and finds small gold with ease, and will find good bits at deep as well.

The disadvantage of the 6000 is if you don't already have on you gotta put out a lot of $ to get one but mine found enough gold in a month to cover the initial cost of the machine

A photo of the big speci and  deep hole it came from, but it also found thousands of small sub gram bits as well

I got a big specie quite deep with about 20g of gold in it with the 6000 and the 11" mono coil

 

about a hundred small sub gram bits in this area with the 6000 and 11" mono coil

[GoodAmount]

@phrunt I didn’t realise there was a sensitivity decrease for V2 coils. Interesting, I thought it would have been the opposite.

The 12” spiral would be a good option, especially if it has the sensitivity of the 8”, but its weight is 1100gm, making it less appealing for scouting sidewalls of trenches and sharply inclined gullies. It would certainly suit some of the ground I hunt - I wish I could afford all of the coils! 🙂

@davsgold That looks like noisy ground for sure. Thanks for letting me know your settings - they’re similar to what I use, but I can usually bump up the sensitivity to 18-20 in HY Difficult if I’m running the threshold at 12. In really variable ground with the 15” CC I’ve been finding I can still ping tiny specs at reasonable depth if I drop the machine back to HY Severe THS 12 and keep sensitivity high. Even though the machine is desensitized, it runs nice and quiet so I can hear the faint signals that get lost in the noise of the higher timings. This strategy doesn’t work as well with the 8” though.

@fourtyniner The 8” was the best investment I’ve made for the Zed. It’s paid for itself many times over. I’ll certainly buy another one if it ever breaks.