Another question re the MXT and a D2 coil

[DonM]

I understand that one of the drawbacks to using the D2 coil in a trashy park is that it usually rings up bottlecaps up like coins and that this is just something that a user has to put up with if you insist on using this coil. I also have an ATP Pro and when using a DD coil on that unit - I have no problem distinguishing bottlecaps from other good signals (for the most part) because of the great iron ID on that detector - you will usually get a mixture of an iron grunt and a high coin signal and for the most part it almost always a bottlecap under the coil.

So I was thinking - would using the MXT and D2 coil in Prospecting mode allow us to distinguish between the 2 targets - allowing us to hear that iron grunt...anyone ever tried this?

 

[John (Ma)]

I just use relic mode as I get 2 tone. You can set it up as iron is one tone and above is another tone. OR set up to everything accepted is high tone and everything rejected is low tone. Pending what and where I am hunting is which mode I use. I have no issues with the D2 in parks or relic hunting. The only time it may be a hinderance is near a cellar hole where there is an abundance of iron, but a lot of that is due to the size of the coil in whic I use the 5.3 coil. There is also a 4x6 coil option. As mentioned before, I love the D2 and hunt most of the time with it.

 

[RedRockNv]

I don't have the D2 coil but have used most other available coils. I have never tried it but switching to prospecting mode and raising the coil to see the change in iron content. Caps in parks never seem to be that deep. So for me it is just quicker to pop it out. Now in undisturbed soil in the wild so to speak that would be a way to go. Bottle caps are pesky rascals for the MXT.

 

[PSS1963]

I understand that one of the drawbacks to using the D2 coil in a trashy park is that it usually rings up bottlecaps up like coins and that this is just something that a user has to put up with if you insist on using this coil. I also have an ATP Pro and when using a DD coil on that unit - I have no problem distinguishing bottlecaps from other good signals (for the most part) because of the great iron ID on that detector - you will usually get a mixture of an iron grunt and a high coin signal and for the most part it almost always a bottlecap under the coil.

So I was thinking - would using the MXT and D2 coil in Prospecting mode allow us to distinguish between the 2 targets - allowing us to hear that iron grunt...anyone ever tried this?

Interesting that you should bring this up. There's a video on YouTube where the guy compares an MXT with a Fisher F5. The F5 hits on a lot of bottle caps as if they were coins while the MXT finds him only quarters but the part he doesn't seem to get is that his F5 is equipped with a DD coil while the MXT has a concentric :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agZzuNi-f4o

-pete

 

[vito]

So you say the F5 will do equal with a concentric?

 

[OregonGregg]

Your best bet would be to throw the D2 coil on ebay. If you want to make a great machine, like the one you have and make it a crappy machine, then just put a D2 coil on it. I'm sorry but i have put a lot of coils thru the paces out in ghost towns etc and the D2 was the worst performing of them all. just too erratic and even in good conditions VDI numbers were constantly jumping all over the place. In all honesty try the eclipse 5.3 coil. I think you will see a big improvement over the D2 coil.

 

[PSS1963]

So you say the F5 will do equal with a concentric?

Not saying that, Vito, just that the test was not a fair apples to apples comparison between the two machines given the known tendencies of DD coils. I haven't used either machine at this point but based on reputation and the work that others have done I believe that the MXT will be more than a match for the F5, but the way the two machines were equipped unfairly stacks the deck.

-pete

 

[vito]

Pete, that question was not meant to anger. It really was to confirm that a fisher, equipped with a concentric coil, had done better on ID'ing these bottle-caps.?

From what I've read about the MXT it was developed around the 6x10 Eclipse DD. So this 6x10 is the REAL stock coil I think.
In the field I never feel the 6x10 is the wrong coil. ID is always good and dead on and target separation is a pleasure.
BUT the new 950ish coil is WAY better than the old flat one. If the old one was as good as the new one is, I never had bought the 6x10 I think. And I never had knowledge about the excelent target separation this DD has. AND P/P is dead on like the concentric does. Never had this with other DD-coils. On the sov-gt with a 10" DD and on the MXT with the 10" DD round p/p is/was a torture and for this combinations a handheld P/P is a must have IMO.

I understand that one of the drawbacks to using the D2 coil in a trashy park is that it usually rings up bottlecaps up like coins and that this is just something that a user has to put up with if you insist on using this coil. I also have an ATP Pro and when using a DD coil on that unit - I have no problem distinguishing bottlecaps from other good signals (for the most part) because of the great iron ID on that detector - you will usually get a mixture of an iron grunt and a high coin signal and for the most part it almost always a bottlecap under the coil.

So I was thinking - would using the MXT and D2 coil in Prospecting mode allow us to distinguish between the 2 targets - allowing us to hear that iron grunt...anyone ever tried this?

--> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVH6FcF1eIs Hello DonM, may be this is what you're looking/listening for... watch from 7:00 please.

 

[PSS1963]

Pete, that question was not meant to anger. It really was to confirm that a fisher, equipped with a concentric coil, had done better on ID'ing these bottle-caps.?

From what I've read about the MXT it was developed around the 6x10 Eclipse DD. So this 6x10 is the REAL stock coil I think.
In the field I never feel the 6x10 is the wrong coil. ID is always good and dead on and target separation is a pleasure.
BUT the new 950ish coil is WAY better than the old flat one. If the old one was as good as the new one is, I never had bought the 6x10 I think. And I never had knowledge about the excelent target separation this DD has. AND P/P is dead on like the concentric does. Never had this with other DD-coils. On the sov-gt with a 10" DD and on the MXT with the 10" DD round p/p is/was a torture and for this combinations a handheld P/P is a must have IMO.

I understand that one of the drawbacks to using the D2 coil in a trashy park is that it usually rings up bottlecaps up like coins and that this is just something that a user has to put up with if you insist on using this coil. I also have an ATP Pro and when using a DD coil on that unit - I have no problem distinguishing bottlecaps from other good signals (for the most part) because of the great iron ID on that detector - you will usually get a mixture of an iron grunt and a high coin signal and for the most part it almost always a bottlecap under the coil.

So I was thinking - would using the MXT and D2 coil in Prospecting mode allow us to distinguish between the 2 targets - allowing us to hear that iron grunt...anyone ever tried this?

--> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVH6FcF1eIs Hello DonM, may be this is what you're looking/listening for... watch from 7:00 please.

No worries, Vito - didn't take it that way at all. Just clarifying that I wasn't drawing any undue conclusions from the observation. Its very probable that the maker of the video was unaware that the choice of coil type could be dramatically affecting the target ID-ing abilities of the two machines in his test and that the machines themselves may not have been the major contributor to the disparity he was noting. Its very possible that the F5 would ID much better with a concentric coil and that that his MXT would do more poorly had it been D2 equipped. Whether or not this would be enough to make the F5 the winner is a question for another day and another side-by-side.

Your experiences and observations of the 6x10DD on the MXT are interesting and encouraging but don't necessarily negate the general observation that most DD coils have a harder time with target ID. Designing a,metal detector is complex enough of a task that even if a particular machine was designed around a particular coil, it doesn't guarantee that that machine will not perform even better with some other coil, perhaps one that didn't even exist at the time said machine was designed. As an analogy, consider a mid-60's Corvette. These were originally equipped with a fairly high-profile bias belted tire and I'm sure the engineers were quite pleased with what they had achieved with regard to handling but you could take that same car and equip it with a low profile, soft-compound, radial tire and run circles around an identical car with original equipment tires.

-pete