coil help

[GNILAEH]

Hello. I`m new to md`ing and thinking of getting a better coil for the xt 505. What size of coil and frequency should I look at?
I live in indianapolis In. if that helps on soil type.

 

[Old Longhair]

A 6" HF DD coil might just be the hot ticket, if you're hunting in town.
Knowing more about what you're searching for, and the type of area that you'll be hunting would be a huge help in trying to assist you.

 

[GNILAEH]

For now I`m hunting in a old large city park and my 50 + years apartment complex that is very trashy. So mostly coins and jewelry.

 

[Terra1959]

Hello,
my choice would be 5 x10" HF DD ...can pick between close by targets and cover a pretty reasonable amount of ground at the same time
Its a beauty

T59

 

[chuckciao]

If you are hunting a large area like a park and there is not too much trash there, I would suggest the 10.5DD MF. It will cover lots of area and go very deep.

 

[Old Longhair]

For now I`m hunting in a old large city park and my 50 + years apartment complex that is very trashy. So mostly coins and jewelry.

For very trashy places, nothing beats the 6" DD. That said, the 5x10 DD would be a good bet, if besides your complex you're going to ever hit any larger open spaces. The 10.5" DD is a great coil, but will be much harder to use in tight spaces or heavy trash.

 

[jsblake]

I HAVE THE EXTERRA 305. I ADDED THE 7.5 HZ 10.5 INCH DOUBLE D COIL. BETTER SEPARATION BETWEEN JUNK AND GOOD TARGETS,AND COVERS MORE GROUND. IT IS WATER RESISTANT BUT NOT WATER PROOF.
JUST MY 2 POP TOPS WORTH.

 

[Digger]

When you say "better coil", I'm not sure what you mean? All of X-TERRA coils are excellent coils for what they are designed to do. In a nut shell........ larger coils detect deeper than smaller coils...... DD coils will neutralize the effects of mineralization better than concentric coils.........concentric coils will provide more accurate target ID than DD coils.............. higher frequency coils are better suited for lower conductive targets...............lower frequency coils are better suited for higher conductive targets............... DD coils will provide better target separation than a comparibly sized concentric coil......... lower frequency coils will detect larger targets deeper than a comparibly sized coil of higher frequency............. higher frequency coils are more sensitive to smaller targets than a lower frequency coil of similar size...............solid bottom coils don't hang up on vegetation as spoked coils might...............some of the X-TERRA coils are waterproof and others are considered water resistant. Now, on that last note, don't get too hung up on the differences between being a waterproof X-TERRA coil compared to a water-resistant X-TERRA coil. The determination of whether a coil can be classified as waterproof (vs water-resistant) has to do with the insulation material around the windings AND the amount of water pressure the outer shell can withstand. Since the coil cables are relatively short, you won't be detecting with the X-TERRA at depths deeper than the cable is long. For that reason, I wouldn't worry about water pressure. As to the insulation of the windings, if you run the risk of getting the coil wet, my suggestion is to run a bead of silicon sealant around the area where the coil cover meets the coil, and put a dap around where the cable connects to the coil. The point is, if you seal out the water from getting to the inner coil, it doesn't matter what the insulation material is made of. I've done that to mine and never had a problem using them in wet grass, puddles or shallow creeks. JMHO HH Randy

 

[GNILAEH]

I`m considering either the 5x10 or the 6 inch. My thoughts for getting a detector was that this apartment is 50 + years old and I doubt if anyone has ever used a detector here. So I figured there has to be some jewelry laying around somewhere.
So which would be the better one to choose? Also the pin pointer gets stuck from time to time. Sometimes it stays blank. sometimes it point to an area, I dig it, find nothing, run the pp again and it points to a different location a few inches away from the original target. It seem that the longer the unit is on the pp starts to mess up. Can a faulty pp cause any detecting problems as well?

Thanks for the replies guys.

 

[Digger]

Either coil will be good for coins and jewelry. Both separate well, due to the DD design. But the 6-inch will separate better due to it's smaller diameter. As to the PP getting stuck....... make sure when you put the detector into the Pinpoint mode that the coil is not over any metallic object. Another thing to take note of is where the target is located when in a discriminated Pattern, compared to when the detector is in Pinpoint mode. Remember, Pinpoint is an all metal mode that requires far less coil motion than the detect mode. From my experiences, if a target shows up in a Discrimination mode in a different location than when in Pinpoint, either you have more than one target or the target is trash. If that is not the case in your situation, my suggestion would be to reset the detector to see if it straightens out. Instructions are included with your manual. If that doesn't take care of it, you may want to have it checked out by Minelab Tech support. JMHO HH Randy

 

[TURNMASTER]

Target moves, probably a rusty nail or other odd shaped and probably iron target, unless you moved the target during recovery. What my understanding is, is that the eddy currents "pool" at the end of an iron target while you are trying to locate and then mimic a coin. Then when you move away and come back and re sweep they will "pool" at the other end. 3" would be real close to the length of a 16d nail. Moving targets are usually trash. Use care though because this form of trickery can also come in the form of multiple good targets close together, but usually the trash will be jumpy in terms of tone and ID where the coin spill will have good tones but seem to jump around. The easy cure for the shallow spill is to lift the coil a bit, which will help you to determine the location better. AM will help to check for Iron and like mentioned trash will be more jumpy and often will have a "scratchy" or broken tone. The only way you will learn the difference is by digging targets. In terms of separation sometimes what is needed is to lower the Sensitivity a bit. Either 5x10 and 6" DD are good at trash separation the 6" is the best.

Spend some time going back over previous weeks and months posts and use your search function and you will find that this topic has been gone over ALOT (ALOT).

Read Randys ebook then read it again. Read through the FAQ FAQ and you will learn a lot.

Plan on spending 100 to 150 hours learning the machine and what it is telling you. Also, we ALL dig trash, wether you have 2 years or 20. Sometimes iffy targets are 1910 dimes and sometimes a dime is a silver ring, pultabs can possibly be Gold rings. Never mind that last piece of advice, on second thought you should only dig good signals, more for me that way. Oh yeah removing trash can unmask good targets.

If you bought the machine from a local dealer, he is probably a good source of info. Lots of information on these pages, take your time and be patient.

Jeff

 

[GNILAEH]

Thank for the advise. I will try holding the coil higher above the target when hitting the pp to see if that helps any on the pin pointer misbehaving.