2 FBS Explorer Coil Weights and Opinions

[seahunter34]

As mostly a water rat, I know BBS. FBS is new to me and I recently acquired an older Explorer XS, in search of the perfect beach/land machine for me and my style of hunting. I prefer lighter machines and modified the XS to a Whites S-Rod and powered her up with a rear mounted Excalibur pod with 1600 battery. Then went searching for a good all-round coil. 2 coils I tried were the SEF 12X10 and the Minelab Pro Coil. I also have a homemade 13 DD coil that's out, because it does not lock on targets well.

I'm comparing several detectors, so to save some money I just traded my SEF for the Pro coil here on the Forums. It was an easy trade and I had several offers as most here seem to favor the SEF. If I had wanted to trade the other way round, there probably would have been no takers! Yet I wanted to try the Pro Coil.

So here are the weights of the 2 coils I had/have: SEF 12X10- 23 ounces with coil cover. Minelab Pro Coil- 19 ounces with coil cover. So, with coil covers on the Pro Coil weighs 4 ounces less than the SEF. To me 4 ounces is 4 ounces less. Without the coil covers on the SEF is closer.

What I've read here on the forums is mostly correct. The SEF seemed more stable/less falsing and may have locked harder on average targets than the Pro Coil. Both coils look quality made, but the Pro Coil is thinner. I feel the way the cable strain reliefs are done on the Pro Coil is first class! However the cable length on the Pro Coil is shorter than on the SEF. Both coils have a Modern Technical Look.

Of the 2 I'm keeping the Pro Coil and will not obtain another 12X10 SEF because 1, the Pro Coil is lighter. My modified XS weighs under 4 lbs with the Pro coil and the SEF took it over 4 lbs. There is a felt difference, even with just a few extra ounces at the nose and I feel I could easily swing the Pro Coil for hours with my configuration. Yet performance is more important than weigh/balance and I found on the XS the Pro Coil to be more sensitive than the SEF. Remember those were my coils on my XS, so my findings might be different than yours? As a water hunter I'll be first crawling on to the beach to hunt. So I'll be using the XS mostly over wet salt sand where gold jewelry is my main objective. While the SEF seemed more stable, there is no doubt the Pro Coil is more sensitive to gold jewelry! I keep hearing FBS/BBS machines do not air-test well because they need to see the ground matrix, but my XS/Pro Coil combo is hot on gold! And I thought my Garrett AT Pro air-tested well on gold rings!

Perhaps this should not come as a surprise as the Pro Coil is a bit smaller than the SEF, but really, my Pro Coil simply hits harder on gold rings, even when they are in dirt! The air I get over gold with the Pro Coil is simply amazing! For beach hunting that got my attention. Now if I were land-locked and primarily in search of old/silver coins, I would use the SEF for better stability. But with my limited testing of the Pro Coil I've found by reducing sensitivity and gain, target detection depth is vastly improved! So I think the Pro Coil has more horsepower and does not need to be floored all the time. Toned down a bit the Pro becomes more stable too.

By deciding to keep the Pro Coil for everyday use, influenced my accessory coil thinking. For a smaller coil I'm now thinking about the smaller SEF or the small BBS ML coil. Now on the larger side, it will be the WOT. But if I end up liking the XS that much, I'll reconfigure to a balance shaft and see if I can float the beast!

 

[RLOH]

I put a Pro coil on my Ex 11 when they first came out and my initial impressions were "WOW", what a coil. Since that time, I bought a SE Pro and Etrac, both which came with a Pro coil. I have sold both the SE and Etrac and have stayed with the Ex 11 with the Pro coil. I have found this coil to be extremely sensitive with a very narrow sweet spot. The only problems I have experienced with this coil is with shallow coins. They pinpoint WAY off where the signal is showing. Some of the guys have experienced "ghost" signals. That is when good signal is heard, but when dug, absolutely no target is found. I have had that problem with every detector I have used with a bigger dd coil. I currently use an AT Pro along with my Ex 11 and to be honest, it happens occasionally with my AT. I have never used the 10x12 sef coil as have many of the long time Explorer users have, but as you said, the weight is a real issue to some. The Pro coil feels LIGHT to my arthritic wrists. I sure wish I was able to try a 10x12. I have used Explorers since their inception and if I had to use only one coil, it would be the Pro coil. That is only my personal opinion. I have had a Sunray x-12 and the only reason I stopped using it was the weight. It was a great coil, but when you have problems, ounces really do count. If I were a healthy young buck, I would problably be swinging a SEF 10x12.

 

[seahunter34]

I just discovered the NEL 12.5X8.5 Hunter coil for FBS machines. It's listed at only 17.28 oz! That seems light for a 12 inch coil? I may have to get one!

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

I just discovered the NEL 12.5X8.5 Hunter coil for FBS machines. It's listed at only 17.28 oz! That seems light for a 12 inch coil? I may have to get one!

You will give up some depth with that coil.

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

The only problems I have experienced with this coil is with shallow coins. They pinpoint WAY off where the signal is showing.

That's normal, just raise your coil off the ground a few inches for shallow targets. While a double D coil produces the strongest signal down the center of the coil the entire coil is hot and near surface targets can be picked up by the left and right edge of the coil, lifting the coil off the ground a few inches takes care of that. Lifting is also useful for determining if a deeper target is large like a pop can or smaller like a coin, the coin will vanish quickly while you can continue to detect the pop can with the coil so far in the air that you normally could not detect a coin at that depth. So this gives you some target information regarding size. The same is true for small faint targets, is it really a deeeep coin or a small shallow scrap of trash. Raising the coil a couple three inches tells the story, if the target is shallow trash you can still detect it but you quickly lose the signal on deeeep faint coins as you raise the coil.

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

The SE Pro coil is great on jewelry, look how small some of these targets are in comparison to the dimes. That gold chain piece was almost undetectable.

Works great on large gold also

 

[seahunter34]

I just discovered the NEL 12.5X8.5 Hunter coil for FBS machines. It's listed at only 17.28 oz! That seems light for a 12 inch coil? I may have to get one!

You will give up some depth with that coil.

Good you have the coil. How much depth loss is there? What else can you tell me about it? I do have to wonder about the depth loss though? NEL rates it nearly identical depth wise as their Tornado 12X13- 2 cm less on coins. Plus I have to say my Garrett AT Pro with factory 8.5X11 DD coil (which is close to the NEL Hunter coil size) goes very deep on gold rings in my tough ground test garden. It gives all my other detectors a run for the money! That Garrett DD coil does not seem to lose depth, it seems to go deeper! So hopefully the NEL will too.