Blue Max 4x6 Shooter?

[Circle C Digger]

When I bought my XL Pro it came with a bullseye 5.3 coil. So far I have had excellent results mainly detecting for coins in the Austin area. However, after reading some posts about the Blue Max 4x6 Shooter should I switch coils? At a $149 each is the Blue Max that much better than the Bullseye?

Circle C Digger

 

[dward51]

I can't give a comparison to the 5.3 coil, but I recently bought a BlueMax 4x6 for my XL Pro and I just love it!!!!

Hunting in parks and playgrounds I can usually max out the signal balance on the XL Pro with the unit still running very stable. The coils does indeed detect over a straight line pattern into the ground unlike the cone of a "regular" circular coil. I would think this wider effective detecting area per swing as compared to the decreasing cone of the 5.3" would give a edge to the 4x6 BlueMax in a head to head comparison. It also has good range just outside the coil it's self when swinging it. It seems I can cover more area faster with this coil than the 9.5" when working the wood chips of a playground. Pinpointing is dead on as is the target ID on the meter. The depth reading on the meter is off a little which is as expected since it's calibrated for the 9.5" coil.

I have no idea how deep it will go, but I have found some modern coins at 5" and they gave very good solid sweet sounds.

I have not tried mine in any mode other than the default discrimination mode. Depending on the age of the park/playground I may run the discrimination pretty high to pick up speed. For example in a wood chip playground at an elementary school I don't expect to find anything other than modern clad coins so I can crank it up all the way (yes I give up the nickels, but I have found very few and it bypasses all the gum wrappers and other junk so it's worth it for the increase in effective recoveries - I only get good hits this way). Besides, it's not like those 2nd graders are loosing diamond rings anyway. It does work just fine with lower discrimination settings in older parks when the range of good targets is broader (rings????).

Bottom line - the 4x6 BlueMax is a excellent coil to own and use. I'm more than pleased with mine (and I got it in the for sale forum here at a considerable discount!)

 

[Monte]

A very good friend got that little Blue Max 'shooter' coil for use with her XLT. I sold her a choice, "as new" Classic ID and also persuaded her to get one of the 6

 

[Circle C Digger]

Thanks for the helpful information. I am going to Port Aransas, TX this weekend. I have been told the XL Pro has some difficulty working at the beach due to the salt water. Does anyone have any settings they can recommend to overcome this problem?

Circle C Digger

 

[Monte]

Now, I am not an avid beach (coastal) hunter because it's too long a drive for regular hunting and I am not a water person. However, when I do get there and have had an XL pro or similar model, in hand, I set the GB in the dry sand closest to the damp sand, lock the GB setting, and then hunt. When I get into the damp and wet sand area where I have to deal with the low-conductive salts, I slowly increase the Discriminate level just to the point where I reject the conductive salts. Also, I make sure I maintain a coin height of about 1".

Good luck as I know beaches differ and have hunted some that are low-mineral (iron) and some that are nasty (like many of ours).

Monte

 

[Low-Boy/LCPM]

When you use discrim you also give up targets that are close to the targetst that you discrim out. So a pull tab next to a silver ring may never be found. I use very little discrim and have found a lot of gold rings in sand boxes and wood chips. I just look at the meter and dig the targets I want. You will find a lot more good stuff that way. Just don't dig anything below say 20 on the meter.

 

[Circle C Digger]

I located an older park near town with a very large open area. Looks like a larger coil would work best. Anyone had experience using the Bigfoot coil? Is pinpointing difficult?

Circle C Digger.

BTW - I appreciate the earlier responses.