17" Coil in high mineral soil

[erick byrne]

Thanks to Bart at Big Boys Hobbies, I will be able to take a brand new Pro Swing 45 & a 17" Coil into the high mineral soil of Culpeper Co Virginia. A hunting buddy of mine and I are going to the Rapidan River Relic Hunt @ Linden Farms this coming weekend. It has been large scale hunted several times in the past, so I am thinking most of the trash should be gone and anything good is going to be DEEP. So it seemed like a good excuse to try the 17" Coil, but I was tipped by someone on facebook who lives in that area, that the bigger coil would suffer in the nasty ground. He advised I stick to the stock coil instead, even with the bigger coil, I wouldn't get the depth I was looking for. So, trying to prepare for the weekend ahead, I opened the Exchange2 program, took the "Relics" mode and after consulting this forum, made a few modifications to it to better handle the mineralized soil, I call it my High Mineral Mode. Anyone care to give their thoughts about large coils and nasty dirt?

 

[trojdor]

I live in Colorado, where the highly mineralized soil isn't perhaps quite as high as Culpeper, (but still quite high) and I use the 17" coil to great effect.
I get a good 2 inch improvement (on coins) over the stock coil in moderate to highly mineralized ground.

I too have read the oft-repeated advise that 'big coils don't work in high mineralization' wisdom and I can only call BS on that 'truth'.
I've tested dozens of brands.
In fact, I've hunted with many detectors over the 35 years I've lived here, and can safely say that the large coils ALWAYS go deeper than the smaller ones on every detector I've owned (over 40 and counting).

The only situation I can think of where it might adversely affect the performance is on detectors which don't have any kind of ground adjustment. (automatic, bbs, manual or otherwise)

I remember working in the high-performance motorcycle industry, and hearing the same kind of commonly repeated 'second-hand truths', and finally came to the realization that; "If you didn't see it yourself, it didn't happen."

Good luck with the VA hunt. Sounds fun.
Let us know how it went,

mike

 

[erick byrne]

Thanks for the response Mike, I appreciate you taking the time to pass along your observations.

I am going to start the Saturday hunting day with the stock 11" coil and see what the day brings. If the day turns into a bust, it will be the 17" coil and the pro swing for Sunday.

Thanks again, Mike. Good luck hunting.

Erick

 

[KinTN]

I think its generally a good idea to listen to posters' opinions that you have come to respect, but should always test ideas for yourself in your soil. You just never know. fwiw, I think your logic is sound, erick. Let us know how you do.

I know sand isn't dirt, but....
I just got back from a beach trip and there were times that I was literally cursing my 17" for finding another target. I came to hate that Depth = 12 (or more, usually a lot more) reading. I dug soooooooo many deep pulltabs and coins (mostly pulltabs) that it wasn't funny. Switched to the Excal now and then and didn't have that problem. That 17"er is a deep hunting sucker.

 

[erick byrne]

The Jackson 5 day Camp dig in Virginia was a bust this newbie. Only found 1 item of any interest, a brass underwear button that I found where the soldiers from Virginia were camped. But, on the other hand, I got a lot of practice time with my 17" coil and the pro-swing 45. Some findings from this newbie....The 17" coil goes DEEP! I was constantly getting readings 12"+ all day long. And the old "Don't bring a big coil to red ground" theory went out the window (for me anyways). The CTX with the 17" coil was rock-solid-stable the entire weekend. I set the Sensitivity to Auto +3, loaded a modified relics program (modified for the RED dirt I was in) and went about my detecting. I noticed my sensitivity numbers never got above 22-12 all weekend long. I made sure I ground balanced the machine when I entered a different hunting area, the soil conditions varied wildly from deep red clay to not so red soil in and around the different tree lines. All in all it was a good weekend, the guys with the GPX machines found the vast majority of the good stuff, but I got a lot of needed practice.

Erick

 

[trojdor]

Erick,
Glad to hear about your trip!

Also glad to hear that the detector and big coil worked very well for you.
Now you've just got to get that coil over some 'goodies'.

Along with some needed practice and familiarization, I'm sure you also got a lot of exercise.
Digging those super deep signals in Virginia dirt all day can be a real workout, and I'm sure you felt it the next day...

Having the pro-swing probably helped take some of the over-all load, but the actual digging is still done the 'hard way'.

Thanks for sharing, and good luck next year,


mike