tvr said:
Up to my ____ in Pulltabs said:
The Sun Ray which is no longer produced will give about 1-2" more depth but the target i.d. is not as accurate.
It does however pin point very accurately. Its extremely difficult to use in trash areas, in fact it will make you mad when your in heavy trash. It will work well in open areas with low EMI and little trash. You'll need to keep it a good 6' away from any large metallic objects
like chain link fence etc otherwise it will false on you or wig the hell out if there is EMI.
Thinking maybe you had a faulty coil or possibly one with a loose shield wire. About 2 inch depth increase in mild soil or at the beach, yes. But I can also get within about 2 to 3 inches of fences and poles and have been in areas that gives a couple of my other detectors fits with EMI; yet with the FZ-12 on my CZ6a, it all still works beautifully. Target ID for me has been as accurate as with the 8 inch coil. I will be keeping the FZ-12 as long as I've got a CZ to connect it to. And yes, it is not for trashy areas.
tvr
You're correct about the 2" gain in depth for mild soil and beach, I live in South Florida and we have very mild soil. I also hunt in other areas of the U.S. where its not so mild. In heavy tough ground you're lucky to get the exact same depth as the 8" coil " out of the FZ12 because of heavy mineralization.
If you have a larger coil, your coil is seeing / sensing and processing more soil at the given moment and its also getting more negative effects from the mineralization at the same time, this in turn means you will have no choice but to turn down your sensitivity to compensate for the conditions. When you turn down your going to lose depth. Its that simple.
Everywhere results and performance will be different. Its too difficult to tell anyone exactly what to expect because the soil and EMI conditions are different from every patch of ground to the next. Personal experience with a detector or a coil is only relevant if that person is going to be hunting in the same exact conditions. Most of the time not, so take it with a gain of salt unless the guy down the street has one and even then, he might not know how to use it properly.
Faulty Coils.......Nope, my coils and detectors are 100% good. When I use the Sun Ray coil or the 10.5 fisher coils with my CZ3D, I have to stay as much as 6 feet from some but not all fences ( metal ) and some others I can get within about 2.5 feet. Depends upon how much sens I'm using and how much EMI is prevalent. EMI will travel along anything that will conduct especially chain link. Most of the time the Sun Ray will be reacting with the bottom of a picnic table leg, fence post or chain link if I'm too close and I have to back off otherwise it will false or just signal with the low bell iron tone. This happens more with this larger coil then with the smaller ones.
Sorry but, I've never seen anyone get within 2-3 inches of a metal post even with the side of a 5" puck without it giving a signal.
I know that even a $79 Bounty Hunter would go off
The target i.d. on the FZ12 has never been as accurate as the 8" coil for me but its usually / mostly on deeper targets at 6+" or more and it also depends upon the target orientation, on edge, slightly masked by iron or another target etc.
Results
will vary from detector to detector. A CZ6A is not tuned or calibrated exactly like a CZ3D so this could be an fairly accurate assessment.
I routinely scan the hole with the edge of the coil ( the side ) just to double check if I've still got a target in the hole while I'm down digging. (3 -10 " deep on average, across the side of the coil). I also pass handfuls of soil 5 - 8" away and across the coils side to check which hand has the target as sometimes I don't use a pin pointer. I've used 5", 8", 10.5 and 12 " coils and have never had problems.
The Fz-12 is a good coil, no doubt about it. Its not going to be a magic bullet for everyone but then again, you may find its the best you've ever used depending upon your conditions.
