Critterhunter
New member
...And the results will probably have to wait until tomorrow because I'm pretty beat. 
A little lead up though...I marked off about a 60 yard by 20 yard area with lines in the sand so there was no mistake, and I dragged my scoop so both coils would be gridding the exact same "rows" within that gridded area, from the exact same angle, so that there was as little variable to what both coils saw as I could possible achieve. The Ultimate went first. I would mark 7 targets with poker chips. Ones that sounded deep and iffy because those borderline signals are where you are going to see the difference as to if one coil hits better at depth than the other, or say hits a coin on edge better, or say a small piece of gold jewelry. No sense marking off good solid hits, so keep that in mind when you read the results.
Besides marking 7 borderline signals with the Ultimate to check with the 12x10 later (and recording the results on paper as I went on quality of hit from north/south east/west for both coils, but also beyond those 7 borderline targets I scooped every other signal with the Ultimate that even remotely broke through a null (like say bobby pin quality or better). That way when re-gridding with the 12x10 there should be no "targets slightly above a null" left for the 12x10 to find. Only way to see which does what IMO.
I'll go into a little more build up here and tell you what sensitivity both coils were able to achieve stability wise. This is a very small fresh water beach which had obviously already been hit extremely hard by something, because not one coin was found and targets were scarce that gave any kind of good solid hit from both directions. The sand is mineralized and there were some very nearby heavy power lines routing to a nearby building, so the EMI was a factor. So to set sensitivity the limiting factor was the EMI and not what the sand would have allowed. For that reason I set the sensitivity without moving the coil and for the Ultimate it was exactly 3PM. Just a hair above that and it would start to chatter even with no coil movement. For the 12x10 I set it in the same exact spot in the sand, so there was no risk of me being further away from the EMI to bias the results. The 12x10 allowed about a 2PM setting to *maybe* 2:30, so once again the 12x10 wins with the highest sensitivity setting. That's 3 head to heads in a row and the 12x10 is always allowing higher, and at higher margins on the prior two testings than today's margin between the two.
However, one important note: The Ultimate was rock solid stable with almost no nulling due to the minerals in the sand. The 12x10 tended to null a little more here and there but not much at all. However, that could have just been because it was riding a bit higher sensitivity which was now pushing the limits of the sand's mineralization a tad higher than I should have. In fact, I wanted to test that, so I set it down to 3PM that the Ultimate was using for a few minutes after all the gridding was done and wandered around and it wasn't nulling out here and there now and had as rock solid steady of a threshold at the Ultimate did at that setting. That tells me the 12x10's slightly more nulling while gridding was due to the bit higher sensitivity pushing the mineralization to it's limits more than likely, because I know it wasn't an issue with EMI.
I must say the Ultimate was smooth like butter with it's threshold for the entire grid. A "smoothness" that I've only come to expect from my 12x10 in my mineralized beaches or land sites, but as said the 12x10 was just a little "nully" for the higher sens/mineralization factor as explained above.
I'll all say this too. The Ultimate is impressing me with it's sensitivity to tiny stuff for a large coil of it's size, but I'm leaning toward the 12x10 having a bit better small target sensitivity based on the targets recovered. Still, that's not a sure thing yet so I want to test both on some fine gold jewelry other than rings and see if either one hits harder on them. Just have to russle up some stuff to test them on. A few chains and a earrings, all gold, is what I'm planning one, along with a thin gold ring. Minelabs will bang hard on even the thinnest of gold rings at extreme depth, I just want to see which seems to be deeper on one, and also if either is more sensitivity to the finer non-ring gold, as that could be important to beach hunters.
What follows tomorrow will just be a chart with the targets listed each coil found separately, as well as what the targets turned out to be and at what depth of the marked poker chip targets, along with how each coil hit on those from north/south and east/west.
So far I'm at least saying the Ultimate appears to be one very good coil, worthy as a contender to the SEFs, but maybe not for the same reasons, but rather playing to other strengths. Such as a louder target volume at depth, which isn't really a big factor to me because I can easily hear deep stuff with the 12x10 even with the volume all the way down as I always hunt (due to no volume control or limiter on my headphones to keep surface blasts from knocking me hard), but that louder target hit at depth might be important to people with hearing loss who want the loudest hit they can achieve on at depth stuff. The 12x10 does make targets sound louder at depth than the stock 10" Tornado, and I'm not the first person to say that for both the BBS and FBS machines, but for sure the Ultimate is even louder.
OK, most of the stuff is already covered now, just have to put the chart together tomorrow so each marked target is listed and the results for both coils, and also what one coil recovered on it's own versus what the 12x10 was able to follow up with finding. It's not the biggest world shattering results that somebody might be hoping for, but at least it *hints* to a few things, which I'll touch on when I post it.
PS- Even though the Ultimate is pretty even in weight to the 12x10 (or is the Ultimate slightly heavier with coil cover on since I don't use one on the 12x10 and use spray on bed liner? Refer to the first review I made of it in the coil sticky's link for the weighed weights.)...The Ultimate "feels" lighter on the shaft. Whether that's a more evenly balanced thing being a round coil so it's weight is even all the way around the coil, or whether it's just my impression seeing such a big white coil that doesn't feel as heavy as it should at the end of the shaft, I'm not to too sure about. I just know that if weight is a concern you should have none, because this coil feels like a feather at the end of the shaft. I've said it before, but it literally feels like a big white paper plate at the end of the shaft based on what your eyes see yet what your hand feels holding the detector.
A little lead up though...I marked off about a 60 yard by 20 yard area with lines in the sand so there was no mistake, and I dragged my scoop so both coils would be gridding the exact same "rows" within that gridded area, from the exact same angle, so that there was as little variable to what both coils saw as I could possible achieve. The Ultimate went first. I would mark 7 targets with poker chips. Ones that sounded deep and iffy because those borderline signals are where you are going to see the difference as to if one coil hits better at depth than the other, or say hits a coin on edge better, or say a small piece of gold jewelry. No sense marking off good solid hits, so keep that in mind when you read the results.Besides marking 7 borderline signals with the Ultimate to check with the 12x10 later (and recording the results on paper as I went on quality of hit from north/south east/west for both coils, but also beyond those 7 borderline targets I scooped every other signal with the Ultimate that even remotely broke through a null (like say bobby pin quality or better). That way when re-gridding with the 12x10 there should be no "targets slightly above a null" left for the 12x10 to find. Only way to see which does what IMO.
I'll go into a little more build up here and tell you what sensitivity both coils were able to achieve stability wise. This is a very small fresh water beach which had obviously already been hit extremely hard by something, because not one coin was found and targets were scarce that gave any kind of good solid hit from both directions. The sand is mineralized and there were some very nearby heavy power lines routing to a nearby building, so the EMI was a factor. So to set sensitivity the limiting factor was the EMI and not what the sand would have allowed. For that reason I set the sensitivity without moving the coil and for the Ultimate it was exactly 3PM. Just a hair above that and it would start to chatter even with no coil movement. For the 12x10 I set it in the same exact spot in the sand, so there was no risk of me being further away from the EMI to bias the results. The 12x10 allowed about a 2PM setting to *maybe* 2:30, so once again the 12x10 wins with the highest sensitivity setting. That's 3 head to heads in a row and the 12x10 is always allowing higher, and at higher margins on the prior two testings than today's margin between the two.
However, one important note: The Ultimate was rock solid stable with almost no nulling due to the minerals in the sand. The 12x10 tended to null a little more here and there but not much at all. However, that could have just been because it was riding a bit higher sensitivity which was now pushing the limits of the sand's mineralization a tad higher than I should have. In fact, I wanted to test that, so I set it down to 3PM that the Ultimate was using for a few minutes after all the gridding was done and wandered around and it wasn't nulling out here and there now and had as rock solid steady of a threshold at the Ultimate did at that setting. That tells me the 12x10's slightly more nulling while gridding was due to the bit higher sensitivity pushing the mineralization to it's limits more than likely, because I know it wasn't an issue with EMI.
I must say the Ultimate was smooth like butter with it's threshold for the entire grid. A "smoothness" that I've only come to expect from my 12x10 in my mineralized beaches or land sites, but as said the 12x10 was just a little "nully" for the higher sens/mineralization factor as explained above.
I'll all say this too. The Ultimate is impressing me with it's sensitivity to tiny stuff for a large coil of it's size, but I'm leaning toward the 12x10 having a bit better small target sensitivity based on the targets recovered. Still, that's not a sure thing yet so I want to test both on some fine gold jewelry other than rings and see if either one hits harder on them. Just have to russle up some stuff to test them on. A few chains and a earrings, all gold, is what I'm planning one, along with a thin gold ring. Minelabs will bang hard on even the thinnest of gold rings at extreme depth, I just want to see which seems to be deeper on one, and also if either is more sensitivity to the finer non-ring gold, as that could be important to beach hunters.
What follows tomorrow will just be a chart with the targets listed each coil found separately, as well as what the targets turned out to be and at what depth of the marked poker chip targets, along with how each coil hit on those from north/south and east/west.
So far I'm at least saying the Ultimate appears to be one very good coil, worthy as a contender to the SEFs, but maybe not for the same reasons, but rather playing to other strengths. Such as a louder target volume at depth, which isn't really a big factor to me because I can easily hear deep stuff with the 12x10 even with the volume all the way down as I always hunt (due to no volume control or limiter on my headphones to keep surface blasts from knocking me hard), but that louder target hit at depth might be important to people with hearing loss who want the loudest hit they can achieve on at depth stuff. The 12x10 does make targets sound louder at depth than the stock 10" Tornado, and I'm not the first person to say that for both the BBS and FBS machines, but for sure the Ultimate is even louder.
OK, most of the stuff is already covered now, just have to put the chart together tomorrow so each marked target is listed and the results for both coils, and also what one coil recovered on it's own versus what the 12x10 was able to follow up with finding. It's not the biggest world shattering results that somebody might be hoping for, but at least it *hints* to a few things, which I'll touch on when I post it.
PS- Even though the Ultimate is pretty even in weight to the 12x10 (or is the Ultimate slightly heavier with coil cover on since I don't use one on the 12x10 and use spray on bed liner? Refer to the first review I made of it in the coil sticky's link for the weighed weights.)...The Ultimate "feels" lighter on the shaft. Whether that's a more evenly balanced thing being a round coil so it's weight is even all the way around the coil, or whether it's just my impression seeing such a big white coil that doesn't feel as heavy as it should at the end of the shaft, I'm not to too sure about. I just know that if weight is a concern you should have none, because this coil feels like a feather at the end of the shaft. I've said it before, but it literally feels like a big white paper plate at the end of the shaft based on what your eyes see yet what your hand feels holding the detector.