X-Coil 15x10" DOD Experience?

[phrunt]

The v1 coils are more sensitive, without a doubt, the v2's handle ground better, to me it makes no difference as I'm in milder soils.so I'd not have any interest in using a v2 coil.  If I was in mineralised ground, I'm sure I would appreciate and benefit from the v2 coils and greatly benefit from them being less sensitive.  In bad ground less sensitive means better performance.

In my opinion the biggest flaw with everything detectors are they make things work for everyone, people in mild soils suffer for those that are in difficult ground.  Coils are an example of this I know personally first-hand being given prototype coils that would never have a hope of working in bad ground but wow, the performance they can give in mild ground is impressive, if they were sold as "general purpose" coils they would flop, as many owners mostly in bad ground would say they're terrible however owners in milder ground would be singing their praises.

Manufacturers tend to take the middle road, products that will work in everything.  I personally would label products to suit conditions, for mild soils I'd have a range suitable for the inert ground, for mineralized ground I'd have another range, the problem is consumers are not all that clued up and would buy the wrong coil hoping for the better results.  The problem is this complicates the process, there is a reason Minelab are making their detectors as user friendly as possible, with everything completely automated, turn on and go......  

You see it across all detectors from all brands, why can they run in full sensitivity, and I cannot?  My detector or coil must be faulty.  Most manufacturers make their detectors run at maximum sensitivity and run stable, why? it makes them look good, to the savvy user, this is a massive letdown.  I want a detector I have no hope of running in maximum sensitivity even in the mildest EMI free area, I don't want to ever be able to max out my detector.  If I can do that, my detector isn't meeting my needs.  Gloating about running max sensitivity in the best timings isn't a positive, it means the detector isn't good enough.  I run my GPZ in High Yield / Normal / Maximum sensitivity with the 8" coil all the time, when doing so all I think is the technology can improve a lot, I shouldn't be able to do this.

Manufacturers have come to the conclusion it's better to restrict sensitivity than to leave it wide open as the general user base believes unless they can run it maxed out, they're losing performance, when often less is more.  Automatic cars vs manuals come to mind.  

The Axiom and the Manticore have gone to the "red line" on this, and who knows if that's beneficial for them or not, to some educated users it's great, to others which seems the majority they complain they can't run in high sensitivity settings. 

[fourtyniner]

Hi. davsgold.  After your welcome advice, I've decided to go with the 6000. Mainly because it has more coverage, and a bit more depth due to the larger coils. Which coil do you prefer to use, and, do you have any after market coils for it? Or, are you happy to use the 2 coils supplied with it? Cheers.

[GoodAmount]

48 minutes ago, phrunt said:

I run my GPZ in High Yield / Normal / Maximum sensitivity with the 8" coil all the time, when doing so all I think is the technology can improve a lot, I shouldn't be able to do this.

I can certainly understand you feeling like the detector should be able to give you more than your ground will allow. Running it maxed out all the time takes away some of the joy in decision-making and using your nuanced detector skills from the detecting experience. It would be great if Minelab were doing what Nokta are doing with their software development and responding dynamically to user needs. Imagine a 7000 with a beast mode! 

Your experience is very different from mine. I’m rarely able to run my machine maxed out and love it when I can. Today I was only able to run it in HY Normal for about 10 minutes on a 2x2m patch of quiet(ish) slaty tailings. Even then I had to knock the sensitivity back to 15 to reduce the moaning and groaning. It paid off with a nice specimen that I’d missed on a previous hunt in that spot where I’d left it in HY Difficult.

Some of the people I’ve bumped into here in Victoria swear by running HY Normal Sens 7-8 in difficult ground, but I find I miss a lot of the small gold that way. But truth is that I should be making use of all the timings and coil selection on my patches to maximize yield, which takes discipline and time I many times lack. 🙂

[fourtyniner]

11 hours ago, GoodAmount said:

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

@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.

Thanks for that GoodAmount. I'll keep that in mind if things change. I think I'd be looking for a V1 coil though. More grunt, by the sound of things. Cheers

[davsgold]

11 hours ago, fourtyniner said:

Hi. davsgold.  After your welcome advice, I've decided to go with the 6000. Mainly because it has more coverage, and a bit more depth due to the larger coils. Which coil do you prefer to use, and, do you have any after market coils for it? Or, are you happy to use the 2 coils supplied with it? Cheers.

G'day again fourtyniner, our 6000's that we own we only use the 11" mono coil I've never even tried the 14"DD that comes with them, I did get a loan of a 9" coiltek mono of a mate and used it for a few hours, it worked great also.

We have never had any problems with standard 11" mono coil and continue to use it.

You will be super happy with the 6000 I am sure of that, I don't know where you detect at, but where we go, mine covered it's initial cost after 1 month of detecting

[fourtyniner]

G'day davsgold. Thanks again for that. I work anywhere in the Golden Triangle. I've got heaps of my old flogged spots to run it in. So it'll be an interesting exercise. I'm pretty sure I'll do okay with it.