Beach Hunting - Coil Choice

[dirtdigger1581]

I just purchased a new Infinium and will be heading out on Saturday for the maiden voyage. Seems to be everyone that hunts the beach uses the 8" mono or the 10x14 mono coils on the beach. Is the 10x14 DD coil no good? Or are either of the mono coils that much deeper or more sensitive to the gold items? I've gotten very familiar with the pinpointing techniques of a DD coil but have never used a mono before. Is pinpointing with the mono similar to a concentric where you "X" over the target? If so, then how does one get a good pinpoint in the water when you can't see your coil? What's the best technique. I've got all three coils, but was wondering if there was a recommended coil to start with and then branch out. I feel I'd be most comfortable at first with the DD that comes standard but also want the greatest depth and highest sensitivity to gold...Since that's what we're after here.

Your opinions are greatly appreciated.

Happy Hunting!

-Nate

 

[Black Davy]

DD,

Sorry,

I don't have the 10x14 mono, but my beach or in water choice is the 8" mono, it has good sensativity on small items.

Davy

 

[ivanll]

The 10x14"DD coil is fine and have a wide sweep a good coil to use on a beach just a little heavy.
Use the coil speed indicated in the instruction video or the same speed on land as is used in water.
It take a little to get use to pinpointing with this coil, it's done with eider the tip or heel of the coil a few practice runs and it become second nature.
On a beach it does help to have a full size scoop when using the large DD coil.

ivanll

 

[therover]

DD,

Personally I like the 10x14 mono much better for beach hunting, but the stock DD coil should do fine there.

Let us know how you make out with it.

It may be too late as you may already be out there hunting, but the main key to beach hunting with the Infinium is to set it up so it runs nice and smooth. Don't try to overpower it and run it hot until you get and idea how it works on the beaches you hunt. It will still go plenty deep and be sensitive to gold at less than optimal settings.

If salt water hunting, use the discrimination and threshold knobs to counter the salt water effects, make sure you do a frequency check prior to anything and when ground balancing, allow the unit to 'listen' to the ground for a minute in the Fast and Slow modes before locking in. I do this by slowly sweeping the coil back and forth over the ground I am going to hunt in Fast, then Slow modes and then Lock in. Some hunters bob the coil but I think for me, I get better results and the unit runs smoother when I allow the Infinium to take it's time settling into the ground conditions via slowly sweeping the coil when ground balancing.

Just go low and slow and you will find the targets.

Have fun out there and be safe.

 

[dirtdigger1581]

DD,

Personally I like the 10x14 mono much better for beach hunting, but the stock DD coil should do fine there.

Let us know how you make out with it.

It may be too late as you may already be out there hunting, but the main key to beach hunting with the Infinium is to set it up so it runs nice and smooth. Don't try to overpower it and run it hot until you get and idea how it works on the beaches you hunt. It will still go plenty deep and be sensitive to gold at less than optimal settings.

If salt water hunting, use the discrimination and threshold knobs to counter the salt water effects, make sure you do a frequency check prior to anything and when ground balancing, allow the unit to 'listen' to the ground for a minute in the Fast and Slow modes before locking in. I do this by slowly sweeping the coil back and forth over the ground I am going to hunt in Fast, then Slow modes and then Lock in. Some hunters bob the coil but I think for me, I get better results and the unit runs smoother when I allow the Infinium to take it's time settling into the ground conditions via slowly sweeping the coil when ground balancing.

Just go low and slow and you will find the targets.

Have fun out there and be safe.

Thanks for the input. I'm going to either try the 8" or 10x14 Mono for the first run. I did a test with targets yesterday comparing the mono to the DD and the mono(10x14) got better depth and seemed more sensitive. The 8" comes today. Tonight's low tide at VA beach will be the maiden voyage. Didn't get outta bed this morning like I thought I would.

What type of sweep speed do you find works the best? Approx how long does it take for you to sweep from one side to the other?

 

[therover]

I would say when I sweep,it takes a count of one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two, one-thousand-three, to make a one way 5-6 foot arc . Not sure how far out your coil is in front of you, but I use a Plugger straight shaft with the lower rod extended pretty far out so my coil is at least 2 1/2 to 3 feet in front of me.

Hope that helped.

 

[dirtdigger1581]

Well the maiden voyage is complete. Took her out tonight for about 4 hours at low tide. I had the control box hip mounted in the stock pouch, and the 10x14" mono coil on the S rod for the first trip on the beach. I gotta say first off that I can't wait for the plugger straight rod to come in the mail. The S-rod is OK at best, but with no arm strap I found my arm slipping outta the cuff when sideways to the wave action. Also, having it hip mounted was OK most of the time, but found the dangling wire coming from the coil to get in the way of the scoop sometimes. The new shaft will relieve both those problems.

As for performance: I'm not sure I got the machine tuned properly as there were times when it was very "chirpy", and others when it ran mostly smooth with an occasional chirp. It seemed when it was running smoothly I was able to pick out the tiniest pieces of metal from the wet sand. I mean tiny...Found many pieces of small wire an inch or so long...Very thin too. It's very sensitive to the lower conductive targets too. I didn't find a single quarter, dime or silver item. I did however find a handful of nickels, many bottle caps, a couple pull tabs, bobby pins and wire. Got one battery and a couple earrings...No gold though. When the machine was chirping away frequently I also noticed that was only finding targets that were near the surface...6 or so inches or less. This is probably due to the fact that I didn't have it tuned in just right, or that there were only surface targets to be found. I probably need to brush up on my techniques of adjusting frequency, and definitely the ground balance portion of it.

Speaking of ground balance...Can anyone tell me if the threshold will completely even out in pitch when bobbing the coil over wet sand? I couldn't get it to do so. I did try "therover's" method of sweeping the coil side to side in both the "slow" and "fast" modes and it would be steady, but not when bobbing. Even when it was steady as I was balancing not far down the beach from that spot it would go back to chirping. Maybe I need to hunt in one of those modes? I tried increasing the disc a bit too and it seemed to help some, but didn't eliminate it completely. Again, this being my first time out, there's probably things I just need to learn to do better in time.

All in all I feel like it was a pretty good first run. Didn't find the gold or silver this time out, but that just means it's still out there for the next hunt. And that's what keeps us coming back right? I'll try to post a picture of the "loot" tomorrow, but for now it's pillow time! Good luck to everyone out there!

Happy Hunting!

-Nate

 

[Crumble]

I put it in fast mode first, it seems to adjust the ground balance in bigger increments, then bob the coil from 1/2" to about 8 inches off the ground slowly until the threshold doesn't give a beep when I raise or lower the coil, then I switch to slow and do it again, slow mode is kind of the fine tuning, it seems to adjust in smaller increments. After that I put it in lock and away I go.

 

[dirtdigger1581]

I put it in fast mode first, it seems to adjust the ground balance in bigger increments, then bob the coil from 1/2" to about 8 inches off the ground slowly until the threshold doesn't give a beep when I raise or lower the coil, then I switch to slow and do it again, slow mode is kind of the fine tuning, it seems to adjust in smaller increments. After that I put it in lock and away I go.

And you're able to get it to steady out to a balance without a peep? I'll try this method next time out. Thanks!

 

[therover]

There can be times when even 100 yards from a spot where the Infinium is running smooth, it now runs unstable. The ground conditions/salt water conductivity could have changed, or there can be a source of EMI. I have had this happen a few times.

First thing you can try to do is up the discrimination just a tad. It may be that the salt water conductivity is higher and you have to discriminate it out.

The second is to go through the ground balance routine again.....the new area may have some mineralization that the previous area did not.

Last thing....go through the frequency check again. You may have hit a spot where EMI is present and the previous frequency that was tuned in is now not a good one.

Gotta remember that when salt water beach hunting with the Infinium, there are several ways you can stabilize the unit. It takes some practice and getting used to, but it's well worth it.

In my opinion, the best thing about the Infinium when used for salt water beach hunting, is that the unit can be tuned to the cutting edge to find smaller gold jewelry that other PI's may not find due to them being tuned to discriminate a higher range of salt water conductivity which can be in the same range as some small gold (even if the unit is tuned to the optimal pulse delay). The Infinium, being a unit that can gold hunt, has a lower range and if the salt water conductivity is mild, it can be tuned to be more sensitive to smaller gold than some of the other PI units.

 

[Fishers Ghost]

Ahhhhhhh! Sooooooooo! You have learnt the Infinium well Grasshopper

 

[Crumble]

After switching betwen the stock DD, 8" Mono and 10x14" a bunch of times, I've settled on the 10x14" mono. They all have their pros and cons, but the 10x14 mono is the best IMO. The stock DD is almost as deep as the 10x14 mono, but it's a pain to pinpoint with, especially in the water. The 8" mono pinpoints like a dream, and it's great being able to put the coil in the hole on a deep target and find exactly where it is in the hole, but it gets less depth and less coverage than the bigger coils. The 10x14" mono is the deepest, gets good coverage at depth, and pinpoints pretty easily. One thing to keep in mind, a MONO coil on a PI is different than a concentric coil on a vlf, with a concentric you have very little coverage at depth, the shape of the field is kind of like a capitol "V", but with the mono you get almost the same amount of coverage as a DD coil, because the receive coil is just as large as the transmit coil, it's more like a capitol "U". You can test this in air tests, and you will see that you only lose about an inch or 2 of depth at the edge of the coil compared to the center. The 10x14 coils get 75% more coverage per sweep over the 8", which is a huge advantage.

 

[therover]

The 10x14 mono is the only coil I use on my Infinium (I only beach hunt with it). Had the stock DD and 8 inch mono, but sold them both. Just got the best results with the 10x14 so I figured I did not need the others.

 

[diggindirt]

Agree 100%