A
Anonymous
Guest
I tried the dreaded "Square Nail Challenge" with my 1350 last Sunday night. I did so to see if all the small coil hoopla was deserved and if I really NEEDED to get one of them "silly little sniper coils".
I'm working from memory, as my notes are at home as I write this, but you'll get the gist of it. The results were logical but discomforting.
TEST TARGETS: 2 dug square nails, 1 silver dime
COIL: Stock PROElliptical
SEARCH MODE: Jewelry
SENSITIVITY: 7.5
CONTROL TESTS:
Silver Dime alone - clear response and HIGH TONE/BELLTONE in any direction.
Iron nails - no audio response, GTA cursor displayed in iron range
I placed the targets in the order shown below, on a piece of white paper, on the non-conductive slab floor of my house. This slab is concrete and does present some need for the detectors circuitry to compensate for it's presence, much as would happen in non-mineralized ground. These test conditions are known through experience and repeatable. Test results are as follows:
SINGLE NAIL test
1. Dime within 1" of single nail - NO SIGNAL in any direction.
2. Dime within 2" of single nail - NO SIGNAL ""
3. Dime 3" from single nail - HIGH TONE SIGNAL swinging coil across dime, moving towards the nail...until nail was well under coil - then NO SIGNAL
Moving from nail towards dime - NO SIGNAL
4. Dime 4" or more from nail: HIGH TONE SIGNAL in any direction, somewhat erratic on ID.
DOUBLE NAIL test
1. Dime centered 1" between nails - NO SIGNAL
2. Dime centered 2" between nails - NO SIGNAL
3. Dime centered 3" between nails - LOW RANGE signal, ID'd as nickle.
4. Dime centered 4" between nails - HIGH TONE in any direction but not solid lock on. See number 4 above.
5. > 4" between nails - HIGH TONE, good lock on when swinging across the targets. SWEEPING PARALLEL to the targets, ie, with all targets under the coil on each sweep I got NO SIGNAL RESPONSE <img src="/metal/html/frown.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt="
">
Summary:
While testing was "in the lab", so to speak, and certainly not exhaustive or all-inclusive, the results were nonetheless repeatable and telling. THE LARGER ELLIPTICAL COIL IS CLEARLY SUBJECT TO MASKING BY ADJACENT TRASH TARGETS, in this case a commonly encountered iron target. It is likely made worse if the targets have been in the ground for some time due to target decomposition and the "halo effect" caused by leaching.
Next time, I will give the same test to bottlecaps, foil and pulltab range targets in order to simulate "playground/park" conditions.
All of this so far bears out what Andy has said often enough, i.e., GET A SMALLER SNIPER COIL. His results and the fact that such coils have been developed over time by all the manufacturers only reinforce this suggestion. I hope this has been of some intertest to you readers, as I know I was enlightened by the results.
KEB
David,
Aiken, SC
I'm working from memory, as my notes are at home as I write this, but you'll get the gist of it. The results were logical but discomforting.
TEST TARGETS: 2 dug square nails, 1 silver dime
COIL: Stock PROElliptical
SEARCH MODE: Jewelry
SENSITIVITY: 7.5
CONTROL TESTS:
Silver Dime alone - clear response and HIGH TONE/BELLTONE in any direction.
Iron nails - no audio response, GTA cursor displayed in iron range
I placed the targets in the order shown below, on a piece of white paper, on the non-conductive slab floor of my house. This slab is concrete and does present some need for the detectors circuitry to compensate for it's presence, much as would happen in non-mineralized ground. These test conditions are known through experience and repeatable. Test results are as follows:
SINGLE NAIL test
1. Dime within 1" of single nail - NO SIGNAL in any direction.
2. Dime within 2" of single nail - NO SIGNAL ""
3. Dime 3" from single nail - HIGH TONE SIGNAL swinging coil across dime, moving towards the nail...until nail was well under coil - then NO SIGNAL
Moving from nail towards dime - NO SIGNAL
4. Dime 4" or more from nail: HIGH TONE SIGNAL in any direction, somewhat erratic on ID.
DOUBLE NAIL test
1. Dime centered 1" between nails - NO SIGNAL
2. Dime centered 2" between nails - NO SIGNAL
3. Dime centered 3" between nails - LOW RANGE signal, ID'd as nickle.
4. Dime centered 4" between nails - HIGH TONE in any direction but not solid lock on. See number 4 above.
5. > 4" between nails - HIGH TONE, good lock on when swinging across the targets. SWEEPING PARALLEL to the targets, ie, with all targets under the coil on each sweep I got NO SIGNAL RESPONSE <img src="/metal/html/frown.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt="
">Summary:
While testing was "in the lab", so to speak, and certainly not exhaustive or all-inclusive, the results were nonetheless repeatable and telling. THE LARGER ELLIPTICAL COIL IS CLEARLY SUBJECT TO MASKING BY ADJACENT TRASH TARGETS, in this case a commonly encountered iron target. It is likely made worse if the targets have been in the ground for some time due to target decomposition and the "halo effect" caused by leaching.
Next time, I will give the same test to bottlecaps, foil and pulltab range targets in order to simulate "playground/park" conditions.
All of this so far bears out what Andy has said often enough, i.e., GET A SMALLER SNIPER COIL. His results and the fact that such coils have been developed over time by all the manufacturers only reinforce this suggestion. I hope this has been of some intertest to you readers, as I know I was enlightened by the results.
KEB
David,
Aiken, SC