12x10 SEF Coil Field Tests & Trials. Is She A Keeper?

[Critterhunter]

Not I, but it is what it is in how I described it for me. Can't really make it any more clearer, other than to say that if two targets are placed side by side and or so overlapping of each other...Then in that case where a detector can only take in both target signals at once as a "morphed" signal...That's when I've seen Iron Mask do things I have not seen on any other detector, and that includes "Iron Mask" on my Explorers. Never saw this kind of ability in all my tests with my Explorers or prior machines, including fast recovery ones. Recovery speed means squat to me, and as said when they are for all pratical purposes now a "single" target then it's up to the machine to see if it can sound off to one and not to the other, or at least not allow the signal to simply be discriminated our or sucked into the iron zone. I've been on here too long today, but maybe tomorrow I'll try digging up that old thread where I ran some of these tests. I'm not talking about the S-5/10" coil separation and comparison tests thread. There was one where I was doing more nail/pulltab/notch/averaging type experiments, like I do with all my machines to see how they respond. Shocking how well the Sovereign did at this, and I could never understand why "Iron Mask" on my Explorers didn't live up to the well deserved legend type of reputation that the Sovereign had established. I've taken heat for this before, but I suspect "Iron Mask" on the Explorer is more of a name than a function. In reality to me it was just a handy way to change iron discrimination levels, and not any exotic way to draw good signals out of iron or other trash. That's me though.

 

[crazyman]

I'm not trying to argue with you but what you discribe using two targets that are side by side or close or overlapping has nothing to do with masking and what you discribed as averaging of these two targets has nothing to do with the iron mask switch. The Sovereign will react the same way to those targets in your example whether iron mask is on or off.

 

[synthnut]

I'd surely like to know what "Iron Mask" actually IS ......When I first got my Sovereign , they said to start out with Iron Mask "Off " .....I got use to it off and when turning it on, it added more noise and more falsing to my hunting ...... I shut it back off ......The Iron is pretty much out of the picturs in lew of running in Discrimnation mode anyway, even with the Descimination knob turned low .... They claim more depth with the Iron \Mask "ON" ........SO guys , what IS Iron Mask ? .....Is it a filter , a preamp, a frequency shift ? ........ For me , sometimes when things get a little bit too noisy, and I don't want to change too much to my setup , I will ether throw the 1 and 2 band switch to the number one location , or I will just leave the Iron Mask switch off ......... I'm already hearing dimes LOUD and clear at 8 -10 inches in the sand , so how much depth am I really loosing ? ..... How many of you have actually run it both ON and OFF in the same hunt , or do you just leave it ON and forget about it ? ......What does it do for you ? .....Thanks, Jim

 

[crazyman]

This will give you an idea on how the Sovereign handles masking. It's worse with iron that has been in the ground for a time. Take a dime a nail and a coffee cup outside. Put the dime on the ground and the cup over the dime. Now set the nail on top of the cup and sweep over the cup. You will not get a response from the dime. The discriminated nail is masking the dime. No detector that I know of will hit that dime. Now move the cup off of the dime with the nail still on top just to the side of the dime and re sweep. Keep moving the cup and nail until you get a signal from the dime. As you move the cup away the masking will lesson and the detectors recovery speed will dictate how far you need to move the cup in order to hit the dime. I have not seen any difference whether iron mask is on or off in the field or in this test with masking. As far as the iron mask switch I think it's nothing more than the same same ground filter switch found on some Minelab Gold Detectors that they label on the switch as normal and difficult and very similar to the hot rock accept/reject switch on the Whites 5900/6000.

 

[synthnut]

Crazyman ,
So you're saying its a filter .....I would tend to agree , but what I can't figure out is when running the E Trac , which has many more filters than the Sovereign , the more filters you add , the less depth you acheive .... So if by putting the Iron Mask to "ON" , you are basically adding a filter to the chain ....How does that now IMPROVE depth ? ......Not to mention , you now have a filter turned "ON" and your get more noise .....What's up with that ? ....... To me , by leaving the Iron Mask "OFF " is more like turning a filter on !!.....It quiets everything down a bit ......??????....... I won't add more noise into my path , UNLESS I know that its giving me a benefit .....For example , I will check my iffy targets in All Metal on both my E Trac and my Sovereign to double check a target ....Yes , it's more noisy, but I can hear everything around the target when double checking .......Jim

 

[Critterhunter]

I took the 12x10 out today to hit that beach that had been giving the stock 10" coil problems. Like the 10" coil, about the highest I was able to raise sensitivity here was about 3PM. I will say that the 12x10 seemed to keep it's threshold better where as the 10" coil at this high of setting was dropping out more. I found out why this one beach is giving me so much trouble. Some strong wave action eroded away some sand here and there and I could see layers of black sand streaking out of those small cuts. No other fresh water beach on this lake has given me this kind of trouble with the Sovereign, and those are mineralized too.

I decided to start my hunt by wandering aimlessly through a section I had just gridded a week or two ago with the 10" coil. Since we haven't had warm enough weather as of late for swimmers, this beach is for the most part vacant, so I knew anything that might pop up would be targets I had missed with the stock coil. It didn't take long before I had 2 or 3 pennies, I think a nickle, and a pull tab or two. All within about 10 to 15 minutes. I noticed right away that even with just about the same sensitivity setting as the stock coil that the 12x10 seemed to be hitting coins another inch or two deeper with much stronger responses. The stock coil was having a hard time reporting solid signals at say past 6 or 7" deep in this soil. While I had dug some coins with the stock coil at 8 or 9" (max), they were much worse than the signals I got from things like pennies at that depth with the 12x10. So, no higher sensitivity, slightly better stability, and more solid coin hits in the 8 or 9" range.

I also dug a few tiny little targets that banged hard and I had missed with the stock coil. One was a grommet of some type probably off a shoe and very small, and I'm talking like 7 or 8" deep perhaps. I did notice greater sensitivity to tiny little targets like this with the 15x12 over the stock coil, but I can say the 12x10 seems to be hitting these at depth in a much more solid fashion. As I've also said in the 15x12 thread, somebody I talked to who had the S-12 and the 12x10 got rid of the S-12 when they saw how much better the 12x10 hit on tiny or fine test targets they tried them over. This person also related a very thin gold chain they had dug with no clasp or pendant on it that the 12x10 was able to find for them. For those reasons it looks like the 12x10 has very good small target sensitivity, not that the 15x12 wasn't very good for that size coil at small stuff, and not that the stock coil is exactly a slouch on tiny things either. It just seems the 12x10 is even more sensitivity to small stuff, at least at depth. Consider the location and harsh matrix of this beach and that bodes well for this coil. I would expect things like 3 cent pieces and half dimes would pop up more frequently with this coil.

I was satisfied that the 12x10 found me several targets in no time in an area I had gridded hard a week or so ago. When I worked that area with the stock coil I had also overlapped my rows by about half to intensify how thorough of a job I was doing, digging anything that even remotely broke through a null with intensive coil investigation. So I'm confident the 12x10 was able to get a few deeper targets in that spot as well as some fairly shallow ones that I have no idea how I missed with the 10" coil. I suspect these targets were on edge in some fashion or at least lost in the ground matrix to the point that the stock coil nulled over or didn't see them.

After that comparison in that prior gridded area, I decided to start gridding the next section of this beach where I had left off last week or so. This new spot is one I had gridded about a month or so ago, though I wasn't able to do a real precise job because people kept getting in my way. I always like to keep a good distance from anybody sitting down or walking just to ward off problems, so in reality I probably only did about a 75% complete job of this area of beach last time. Still, I was confident I had worked most of it pretty hard previously. Anyway, I managed four quarters, 7 nickles, some dimes and pennies. Probably about two to three dollars in total over about two hours time. Several of the pennies I popped in the 8 or 9" range along with some round and square tabs I had almost given up on. I didn't expect that good of a response (though not perfect all the time) on targets at this depth at this particular beach just based on what the stock coil was able to do.

It's hard to put an exact number on it but it felt like I was getting an inch or two more reach with this coil than the stock one even with about the same sensitivity setting. For sure some of the coins that were at the very edge of ability with the stock coil gave a much poorer response more often than not compared to what the 12x10 was able to do. Not saying I didn't get some really bad responses from the 12x10 on some of these either, but I'd say as a whole it felt like this coil was hitting harder and a bit deeper for me. I know I stuck my Pro Pointer into the hole a few times to measure the depth of a few of these coins and it was right at about 9" in depth. That may not sound outstanding for a Sovereign but keep in mind this is the absolute worse location on land or beach that I've ever ran into with my GT.

Also keep in mind that while the stock coil had problems here, it gets much more depth on land for me. So far I've dug coins at about 11" deep on land. At other beaches 12 to 14" is rather easy for the stock coil on coins. However, the 15x12 was maxing out at about 9" on land for me on coins, where as it seemed to get another 2 to 4" better depth than the stock coin on the beach. What I'm saying is that I can not at this time equate how well or bad the 12x10 will do in terms of depth on land. Just because it didn't have stellar performance at this one problematic beach that doesn't mean a thing, because the stock coil is too. Hope you can see my logic here. This was not the best place to test this coil's depth in terms of beaches in how it compares to the stock coil, nor was it a good way to judge how deep it might go on land. This beach is the worst of the worst. If anything, one can draw hope by the fact that the 12x10 seemed to get deeper or at least get better signals at depth on this highly mineralized beach. That should bode well for it's potential in my mineralized land hunts (which have much less mineral content than this particular beach). My money is still on the 12x10 perhaps getting deeper on land than the 15x12 did, and probably deeper than the stock coil because it should in theory be soaking in less ground matrix than the stock coil, mainly due to it's much more well defined and extremely tight detection field. We shall see. Tomorrow I plan to hit a know deep coin spot of mine on land and see what gives with it's potential in that respect.

 

[Critterhunter]

I got out today for about two hours at a known deep coin spot. This soil is very dry right now and contained some black sand type of content as well as being very powdery. I won't related the story or details about the deep wheat I dug there today because you can go to the Sovereign ID Chart thread and read about that. I just wanted to quickly cover stability of the coil and sensitivity at today's hunt.

Despite the ultra dry conditions as well as the very black and powdery nature of this soil (mineralized in some form or fashion), I was able to run the 12x10 to the highest manual sensitivity and it was perfectly stable. I only would lose the treshold about every 7 to 9 sweeps when I tested that, and those could have been iron or hot rocks. I could have hunted at highest sensitivity but in this dry of conditions I knew that iron might fool me more running it that high, so I decided to drop it down to noon instead. That would keep iron from playing tricks on me as much with it being this dry, and I wasn't exactly looking forward to digging deep holes in this hard dry ground. Just wanted to see how high I could go with the coil remaining stable, and I must say I'm shocked this coil will ride max sensitivity in this soil this dry with not really any problems. That both speaks well of it's potential in lower mineral sites where max sensitivity may equal maximum depth, as well as it's ability to see through or at least handle the high minerals as well. I still don't know if this coil is going to be deeper than the stock 10" coil on land, but I have high hopes for that and it's still too early to tell.

I can say that it looks promising, both based on that wheat (see other thread) as well as some rather deep (for this type of soil and conditions) tiny little targets I dug. A shoe grommet at about 7.5" deep, and a round blob of aluminum about half the diameter of a pea at somewhere between 7.5 and 8" that gave a good ID for what it was, a 159 signal from any direction that was beyond the depth of most tabs at that depth and so I was hoping for a gold ring or something. The stock coil is sensitive to small targets. The 15x12 I felt was slightly better, or at least very good for such a big coil...very impressive. The 12x10 is for sure even more sensitive to tiny targets at depth than either one of this coils. I can see why the 12x10 got a half inch more depth on a cut quarter penny in the official field test in comparison to the 15x12 and the stock 10" Explorer coils. A cut quarter penny I believe is a silver item probably a little smaller than a half dime. Chains, half dimes, 3 cent pieces, small hammered coins, thin rings...All of these items should start showing up more with this coil I think. It's not that the other two coils aren't great at that, it's just that the 12x10 I feel is a bit better.

 

[Critterhunter]

Crazyman, I don't disagree at all with some of what you say in the comparison of using a cup with a nail on top and a coin below. We are debating two different things here. What you are describing is line of site, the very nature of how coil metal detection works. If a nail is a good bit above a coin and for the most part right over it then the field will hit that nail and be unable to sense the coin, as the first thing the field hits is going to deflect it. The relation to just how exactly over the top that nail is is the deciding factor. As it moves off to the side the coil's field can reach down and see the coin without the nail deflecting it. Proper coil placement and investigation is what matters then, not recovery speed IMO.

On the other hand, my point is not about that. I'm talking about the times when that nail and coin are being washing in the field signal both at the same time for the most part. That can happen and often does, more so IMO than any other form of masking. The two are overlapping or touching in such a way that with proper coil placement you are taking in a mixed signal of both targets at the same type. If you lay a nail and coin side by side and stick that coil right on that line where they both touch, you are in all respects for the most part getting a morphed/blending signal. At times (as you wiggle) the coil will just see one, at other times it will see the other, but in between it's pretty much seeing both. That's when I've seen the Sovereign and Iron Mask do things that I haven't on other machines.

Jim, Iron Mask ON is not adding a filter. It's the reverse of that. With it OFF the machine is increasing it's criteria for for what a target has to look like before it will sound off to it. With it ON it's lowering it's standards and trying to allow any good target mixed in the signal to sound through. Yes, I suppose that could be compared to Hot Rock reject on some machines, but I don't feel it's the same thing to me. I've seen this machine pull perfect or only slightly average IDs from targets that no amount of recovery speed on other machines I've owned can compensate for. Put it this way, I've not seen any form or fashion of very fast recovery that could see targets that proper DD coil placement on the Sovereign couldn't. I don't care how close they are together. But, when they get real close or somewhat on top of each other then that's were I see the Sovereign continue to shine in a very real way for me. Even my Explorers didn't offer this, and whether that was due to the more erratic ID of the Explorer or that lousy 10" the Explorer had (much worse than the Sovereign's 10" Tornado) is any body's guess.

 

[Critterhunter]

Here's an extract from the Sovereign GT manual...

"A fundamental problem for most conventional detectors is the inability to recognize a valuable target when it is located near a ferrous item. This is a particular problem in areas heavily littered with trash, which is common on old relic sites. The Sovereign GT, using Iron Mask / On is particularly good at making the distinction between a non-ferrous target and iron trash, recognizing the non-ferrous target and providing an audio signal. With Iron Mask / On, the search depth is also a little greater and non-ferrous targets may be located more reliably amongst ferrous trash. However, with Iron Mask /On, the detector may give the occasional "beep" on large ferrous targets and the threshold may not be quite as stable. For this reason, beginners may prefer to detect with Iron
Mask / Off. Also, when discriminating in mineralised soil, Iron Mask / Off may be the preferred mode."

That about says it all, but I'd further add that Iron Mask On not only seems to allow you to see coins mixed with iron better, but it also seems to give better ability as finding coins amongst non-ferrous trash such as pull tabs. I'm amazed at the machine's ability to see a coin under a pull tab I have laying on it when I've notched the tab out. What little of the coin the detector can see under the tab will sound off in proper fashion most of the time, or only slightly average down in numbers. Not saying that in any respect doing this will not cause severe averaging, but I am saying that more often than not the Sovereign gives a much better or even perfect response when all the other machines I've tested over the years (Yes, including Explorers) did not show me as much ability in that respect.

 

[crazyman]

I go by what I personally see or experience in actual hunting in the field. If iron mask doesn't have anything to do with filtering or ground rejection why do you suppose iron mask off gives better performance in mineralized ground? Why would iron mask off run smoother in mineralized ground. Why would I have to use lower sensitivity settings when using iron mask on in mineralized ground than I would with iron mask off? why would you possibly get less depth with iron mask off? Why does iron mask on make the detector more sensitive to iron falsing and hot rocks? I'm sorry but all the above has more to do with sensitivity to mineralization or ground rejection than it does with just mere target masking.

 

[crazyman]

Critter, did you watch the video below with the Tesoro hitting that dime behind that big spike? Those are dog and pony tricks that have nothing to do with masking. I don't use a meter that much and I don't have another detector to compare so I can't say one way or the other whether the GT gives better target ID on a discriminated pull tab laying on top of a dime any better than other detectors but I can tell you every detector I've ever owned will hit that same dime in your test with a good dime response audibly. I do know the Sovereign has better target ID on deep targets than any I've used. As far as meter readings in these tests most will drop when the pull tab is discriminated out, some will rise when the tab is not discriminated out. More mass verses less mass and that's what the detector sees when two targets are touching or nearly touching. Did you do this same test with the pull tab and dime with iron mask off ? I did, Nothing magical there.

 

[synthnut]

When it stops rainging , I"m toing to try to simulate what I found the other day with the dime being wrapped around by a pull tab ..... I wish that I had ORIGINALLY swittched Iron Mask ON and then OFF to see what the difference would have been .....I can tell you this much , I hunt with Iron Mask OFF and those blipps I got from the Sovereign were pretty loud even though that target was down a minimum of 6" or more .... Then again it was dry sand , so that's not saying much for a Sovereign .....It would be different if it were down 8-10 inches ..... I really want to hear the difference in "OFF " and "ON" with the Iron Mask ..... I'd like to hear this for myself .... As I said in an earlier thread , if I can't deal with all the noise from Iron Mask "ON" then off it goes , and for that matter , I start out with it "OFF" and most of the time is stays "OFF " ..... Less noise makes me a happier hunter !!...Jim

 

[Critterhunter]

Crazyman, it would seem that we've hit an impasse as to which of us thinks what in terms of unmasking ability. We are getting into an area that is admittedly highly subjective based on what people have seen, tested, and how they went about doing it. I can only say that for me what I have said is true in my experience versus all the other machines I've owned over the years. Something as subjective as the instability of the Explorer's ID system could easily account for those perceived differences in ability to me, as well as even coil performance. I feel we are going to have to agree to disagree in this respect because I honestly don't know how I can possibly explain my position any clearer. Are understand yours and agree with some of what you have to say. The rest I'll have to chalk up to being true for you in every respect based on what you've seen, done, and experienced, as I hope you afford me the same luxury. I really don't want to further bump heads on this topic, as it's getting rather off topic for the intended purpose of this thread- the 12x10.

 

[Critterhunter]

This is a re-post from elsewhere that I made. It's sort of a summary of the working theory I have on the potential of larger coils in certain grounds...

You can read some comparisons in the Sovereign forum under the 12x10 thread that is currently going. Mainly, I suspect the more tightly compressed left/right width wise detection field of the 12x10 would make it much more better to separate targets. An added (in theory) potential bonus to this is that the 12x10 should also be riding on less ground or soaking in less ground matrix, making it deeper in high mineralized soils where say a typical round 12" or even stock 10" coil might not shown increased depth. The target should be soaking in less ground matrix or content, and so cleaner IDs at greater depths should (once again, IN THEORY) be possible.

Now, by the same token I would suspect that the S-12 might give better depth than a 10" coil in lower minerals, perhaps even matching that of the 12x10, but I suspect as ground mineralization increases the 12x10 is more likely to retain it's depth ability while a conventional round coil might start suffering in it's depth ability. This is only my current working theory, as I have only recently received the 12x10 and am currently conducting tests on it in my higher mineral ground sites.

We can see this effect more clearly demonstrated among typical VLF (non-BBS or FBS machines), where they have much more trouble in handling ground matrix due to the differences between conventional ground balance on those machines versus the ability of BBS and FBS technology. For example, I've hunted sites with the 5.3" coil on my Whites that gave deeper target ability and cleaner IDs than the stock 9.5" coil. These effects caused by the ground matrix are less apparent on Minelabs, but just the same do exist under certain conditions.

Despite higher sensitivity levels while remaining stable in my experience with both the 15x12 and now the 12x10 in comparison to the stock 10" coil, this does not automatically translate into more depth in higher mineral situations. Often a much lower sensitivity setting than what is perfectly stable will provide best depth with any coil, and in some respects gives merit to the relationship between how much ground matrix the coil is seeing (being hotter with higher sensitivity) and thus how much depth it can achieve. Sensitivity can only compensate to certain degrees for the type of ground being scanned.

The size of the coil then must be changed to change performance factors. Just because you go bigger in coil size does not mean it's going to get deeper. By that I mean that you may have found in certain ground that your 10" or 11" stock coil provides best depth, while going to a conventional round coil bigger than that (say 12") in fact gets less depth. You seem to have hit a road block, but not necessarily so.

My theory (again, yet to be proven) is that the 12x10 is riding on less ground with it's much tighter in the left/right perspective detection field than a round 12" coil or even the stock 10" coil for that matter. It seems equally as deep or deeper in terms of the DD detection signal as conventional coils, yet by simple virtue that it is stewing in less ground signal it may in fact be able to see deeper targets without as extensive of degradation that occurs with other coils. As I test these theories and comparisons between these coils I'll be posting reports in the Sovereign forum under that thread.

 

[crazyman]

We just have to disagree about this one but find the orignal Sovereign manual and read about the purpose of iron mask. It's a little more detailed in it's discription. The iron mask feature has to do with the masking of non-ferrous by ferrous only not ferrous and ferrous when discriminating one or the other.

 

[kered]

Being that ferous/iron objects are easier to detect than non ferous(even the cheapest child detectors will pick it up easy) and that the detector can obviously tell the difference as it nulls on iron and not on non ferous(without any disc), may i suggest that the iron mask may be decreasing the gain or supressing on the iron only to make the non ferous stand out.
As an example
If we take a big beachball as the iron and a tennis ball as the non ferous, as you move the tennis ball towards the beachball it will be lost in the circle/shadow(seen from above) of the beachball, if the sovereign could decrease/deflate the beachball/iron target and amplify/inflate the tennis ball to a similar size it would then stand out and be detected, just my theory to try to understand it.

 

[Critterhunter]

I have compiled a new chart with updated weights on coils for BBS and FBS machines, along with the 12x10. Here's the link...

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?21,1303616

 

[Critterhunter]

Forgot to mention, the 12x10 is lighter than the stock coil as well as the S-12!

Also, a blurb from elsewhere I posted concerning the SEF's better ability to not snag in the woods and ride over grass easier...

I can say that both the 15x12 and 12x10 snag on branches and other junk in the woods less than the stock round 10" coil. The SEFs have more webbing and so are more prone to slide over things rather than allow them to work their way up into the coil. At first you wouldn't think that, as they have more "holes" than a standard round coil, but it's true for me. Also, I can say that the 12x10 slides more easily over grass and sand than the stock coil. I guess this is more due to it's shape, where as a round shaped coil will tend to catch things with it's edge and dig in more often. There is more surface area on the sides of the SEFs that make for more potential to hit and ride up over things in that respect.

On another random note, both my 15x12 and now the 12x10 had very loose coil nuts where the cable goes into the coil. I've heard they all seem to come like this. For that reason I unscrewed the nuts and then slid them and the cable cover part up out of the way on the cable, then used Shoe Goo (A great rubber cement found at most stores) and put it on the threads as well as the cable where the cable sleeve sits. Slide them both down, hand tighten the nut, then give it just a hair more turn (DON'T strip it by forcing it too tight!) with a wrench. I feel this helps insure further waterproofing, and that's why I also do this with all my other coils.

 

[Critterhunter]

Managed to get out for a short hunt between things I had to do for about an hour today with the 12x10. I headed off to an old favorite spot of mine. This particular site has a large tree in the middle of a mowed lot. I've gridded around this tree numerous times over the years with most of my prior machines, including my Explorers. From memory I think it's been about maybe two years since I've pulled a wheat out of there. At least I can't remember that last time that happened. I know it's been a long time.

Anyway, fired up the 12x10 and first tested to see how high sensitivity would go there. Once again, like the spot the other day, I was able to ride it all the way up to full sensitivity. It did have a little falsing here and there at that highest level but it was workable. Still, I tested VDI stability on a few deep test targets and found that the ID was more stable (able to stay put) with the sensitivity somewhere between 9 and 11PM, so I decided to hunt with it set at that. It's still too early to tell, but one thing that appears to be happening more with this coil is that my sensitivity calibration on something buried to investigate easiest/most stable ID appears to be setting sensitivity much higher than the 15x12 or stock 10" coil. I attribute this to my theory (which is still only a theory, not proven yet) that the 12x10 is in some respects (left/right tight field) seeing less ground than even the stock 10" coil. If I'm right about this it's soaking up less stray ground content in the form of minerals and so is able to produce good solid VDI/Audio response at further depths, and with higher sensitivity settings. It was rare for the stock coil or the 15x12 to want it's sensitivity this high when testing targets for best/easiest/most stable response.

Remember I'm talking about in my soil, where a lot of my sites contain a fair amount of mineral content. Not outrageous (at least many of them aren't), but not pure as the driven snow either. I do have variable ground in my area that ranges from low minerals, medium and high mineral sites. My soil ranges from limestone clay which is heavy in structure, to rocky ground, to areas where it's as black and good of top soil as you could ever ask to plant in. I'm lucky in some respects that it's not all one way or the other I guess. On average, though, I'd say there are more of my sites that have some kind of medium mineral content or higher.

Like I was saying, I've worked the tar out of the ground around this tree in grid fashion on many occasions, looking for any even remotely iffy coin signal to dig. Had my Explorers set here like my other locations with numerous variations. Everything but playing Space Invaders as far as what settings I could possibly try and sensitivity settings. I was anxious to see if the 12x10 could enhance my GT's already better ability in my ground IMO over my Explorers just like it has shown me with even the stock 10" coil as well as the 15x12. Didn't take along to see some results.

First target with potential was giving me a 178 to 180 coin reading as I swept over it doing short medium speed sweeps, or wiggles if you want to call it that. Though less fast and not as tight as what some sites want some times in terms of method. If I sped up the wiggle to something real fast or tried to tighten it down to an inch or so I started to lose the target. Other days the GT wants a tight/fast wiggle. All depends on the ground conditions I guess, and being that this site has a fair amount of mineralization it seems it prefers a slower/wider (by about 4 to 6") sweep back and fourth over that target that I wouldn't exactly call a wiggle this time. Let the target tell you want it wants on that given day. You need to investigate deeper "junk" signals with various speeds/tightness of investigation, and make sure you crawl the coil forward and backwards over the target as you do this until it starts to produce it's best VDI and audio response. Even somewhat not real deep coins can require a very specific coil placement to produce a good response. I believe this can be due to minerals, moisture, or even a coin on edge (or of course nearby trash as well). Reason why I'm covering this is because of the next thing I've got to tell you about.

When I first hear this deeper "junk" signal it sounds really bad, like falsing iron or some other form of metal junk at roughly 7 to 8" deep. It wasn't until I did the above thorough investigation that it started producing a good coin signal at one particular spot, and only after I went from a fast wiggle to something slower and wider. Anything too fast would null or degrade it. I had to hold the coil real specifically in terms of orientation to keep hold of the good response. I switched positions and checked it from another direction and it was giving me that worbly sick screw cap type of sound. Not very good ID or audio at all. Hmmm....Switch to yet another position which was still at a different angle than the first good one and once again I'm getting a perfect ten in terms of a great VDI/audio coin signal. Head back to my original spot and it's still great that way too. Switch over to the bad position and it's still sounding sick that way. I'm thinking about other coins I've dug on edge that sounded like this, as well as that silver ring the other day that acted the exact same way. For sure I'm digging this.

Roughly 7" down I'm not hearing anything with my pin pointer until I check the very edge of the plug at the bottom. A little digging later and out pops a penny. I was hoping for an Indian but it turned out to be a wheat. Still, I'm happy. Missed it with my Explorer and I believe this coin was on edge based on it's response and me being off to one side of it with the plug.

About twenty minutes later about ten feet away I got another deeper sounding penny signal. This one was mostly staying at 180 but with the meter the way I had it calibrated I would have expected a 181 here and there if it was silver. You can't always rely on that, as you shouldn't rely on any machine's ability to identify what kind of coin it is, but just the same I get a little more excited when I see 181 show up here and there on my DigiSearch meter. Dig down somewhere between 7 and maybe 8" and out pops another penny. Come on, how about an Indian this time? It's got good enough depth. Nope, another wheat.

No silver in the short amount of time I had to hunt, but I walked away still happy as can be that a site that seemed to not even be giving up wheats anymore gave me a few quick ones. I really wanted to stay because I had a feeling silver wouldn't be far behind, but I couldn't. Now, you might think to yourself that 7 or 8" isn't much to sound off about in terms of the Sovereign's depth ability, but keep in mind the kind of site this was. My Explorers missed those coins and were lucky to get that much depth on a good day at this site. Same deal with other machines I've used there. I know these two wheats have seen the coils of my various machines pass over them numerous times over the years. They were both within 7 to 10 feet of a tree that I've gridded so much that the locals probably think I mow the grass with a weed wacker there.

Is the 12x10 going to give me coins at 11" or deeper like the deepest I've dug on land with the stock 10" coil? I don't know, but based on what I saw today in both these wheats at a worked to death spot as well as the very high sensitivity settings this coil would allow there, it's looking more like it may very well get deeper on land for me.

 

[Critterhunter]

I got out with a friend for about four hours yesterday using the 12x10. I won't relate any coil performance stuff from this trip because there weren't too many situations to see just how deep it would go. Most of the area we were hunting would more than likely only have fairly shallow targets. I managed a few wheats, one of which was right near a shallower pull tab and about 4 or 5" deep, yet I could isolate the wheat with no problem. It's not that the stock coil can't isolate targets very well with proper coil placement, it's just that the 12x10 does a lot of that work for you and makes it far more effortless to react to and sound off to nearby targets, even when just using your normal sweep speed hunting for the next target. Once two targets are noticed near each other it's rather easy to bust them apart to investigate both signals separately, without having to get as intense with coil placement/wiggling/etc.

The 12x10 once again allowed full sensitivity with only minimal falsing, but I dropped it down to about 10AM based on best/easiest/most stable deep target response. Once again very impressed with it's stability, and I'll once again point out that with buried target calibration it appears this coil is wanting sensitivity set to much higher levels than the stock 10" coil or 15x12. I attribute that to less ground matrix being soaked in by it's tighter/more well defined detection field in the left/right perspective.

Mainly I wanted to let you guys know that this coil broke it's cherry on silver in a big way yesterday, and with BIG silver! I was hunting an area and first dug a really cool old looking PARK BADGE with a badge number on it. One of the guys I hunt with researched the name of the park on the badge and found out it was an amusement park that operated from 1909 to around 1929 when it burned down I believe he said. It wasn't all that deep. 4" at the most.

About 15 feet away I get another signal that sounded only perhaps 3 to 4" deep and looked to be a clad signal based on VDI response and audio. A friend with a 6000 Pro XL was nearby so I asked him to sweep it and tell me what kind of clad he thought it was going to be. I like to play this game with him here and there as it gives me more practice on judging the various types of coin responses as well as keeps him on his toes as well. He remarked that he thought it was going to be a clad quarter.

For whatever reason he stood there and watched me dig the plug and after a little effort I popped out a second deeper plug and he instantly saw the rim of silver in the dirt and pointed it out to me. BIG Silver! 1918 Walking Liberty Half! I believe it has an "S" mint mark. Great, that's like the fourth half I've dug in about a year. Then I thought "Wonder why he thought it was going to be a clad quarter, and I also only got a 180 response when I would have expected a 181 the way I had the meter tweaked?"

I made that comment to him as I stuck my ProPointer back down in the hole and it sounded off again! Out pops a wheat. OK, but I would expect a bit more in the hole than that to even cause this little of averaging (not being a 181). Told him to check the hole for me while I had a victory smoke and laying on top of the ground in dirt we had removed before was a Buffalo nickle! It's got a date, but I need to clean the mud off it to read it. Not bad. Silver half, Buffalo, and a wheat giving me a 180 signal. I suspect even if this coin has been sweeped over before people either passed it up as just another clad or were getting an averaged response much lower on the scale.

My friend managed a 1896 or 1897 barber quarter worn down pretty badly, but it's still a great find. We always like to go home having both dug silver for the day so being soaked to the bone from the rain we decided we could call it quits. My next major test for this coil is hunting at known deep coin spots to really test it's depth ability. I also plan to soon do some buried depth comparisons between it and the stock 10" coil. A few of these targets will be placed on edge to see the already suspected better ability in that respect of these SEF coils. I plan to do these tests both in sand and on land and will write up a field report when done. I'll probably also compare them when masked coins in various ways.