Bill_S said:
One thing I notice was you have to slow way down with it. Otherwise it is great.
You're right about that. You have to take your time with it. Which is why I recommend this coil as a second coil rather than the only coil. The one for faster scanning and exploring is the Elliptical Coil or the 10.5" DD but these coils don't like the REALLY tiny targets nearly as much as the 6" coil. That thing is amazing. There's several frequency choices available for the 6" coil depending on what your needs are and what sort of items you want to hunt. For Prospectors, the High Frequency (18.75khz) coil is the one to use. I hear the 3khz coils are popular for those hunting silver.
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I just rendered this image to show the differences in the coil fields on the Elliptical and the 6" (both are High Frequency 18.75khz DD Coils).
On first glance, you'll note that the Larger Elliptical Coil is reacting to the larger targets regardless of depth. But not so much the smallest targets. The main coil emission (Red) is wider and shallower than the "blade" in the smaller 6" coil... which is why the 6" coil is so neat for busy areas where targets are clustered. Whilst the 6" coil has deep penetration with a very narrow "blade", it has a much smaller secondary field (green). This makes it a specialized tool that I simply couldn't work without. Detectorists using the GPX machines sometimes miss targets that their detecting buddies can see with their 6" HF Coil on their X-Terras.
In actuality, there's just one field but it has a strong wedge (red) right down the middle and a weaker (green) area surrounding the disc. It's also mirrored somewhat on the top of the disc and it's useful when a detectorists waves a fistful of soil over it to see if there's a target concealed in the sample. The bright, green secondary field shows the effective and weaker area that will react to a target when swinging. The blue glow around the very minute targets (above) shows how the smaller 6" coil can react to them if the main blade of the emission field passes over them. The secondary field on the 6" coil (the green glow) is quite faint and small so you'll only detect targets on the surface directly under the coil or in the (red) main emission field blade. So using the small coil alone means you have to travel very slowly if you want the blade area to strike any potential targets. The bigger Elliptical coil allows the user to swing much faster and it will react when a suitably sized target nears any of it's coil emission fields. Finding larger to medium targets with the larger coils is easy. Smaller items need to be over a certain size and within a certain depth. The 6" coil will spot them all but with a much smaller field, it needs to be swung slowly. It's so sensitive that the user needs to adjust the coil for any special environmental conditions. I once was tempted to detect a mountainside using the 6" coil and found myself swapping coils because I was moving way too slow. But if I'm scanning a Mulloch heap or a creek, the 6" coil is incredible.
I put a sparkle where the Pinpointing hot-spot is likely to be. It's somewhat centered on the smaller 6" coil in the middle of the disc... and around the Minelab Sticker on the Elliptical coil (off center and towards the front). Tiny targets will be too faint for the Elliptical but the 6" Coil is amazing at spotting them... even minute targets buried below the surface and underwater. The very narrow and yet powerful (red) coil emission blade is so slim that it pinpoints VERY accurately.
As I mentioned before, both of these coils are surprisingly small and light. Carrying on on your pack and one on the detector is the way to go.
Just swap coils as needed.
Cheers,
Marco Nero