Did some extensive testing for a full week with the Minelab Pro Coil and.....

[deeponedge]

I think I'll give my pro coil another whirl because of your post. Very informative and helpful. I just think my sef is more stable but I'll try what you saif and see if I do any better with it. Thanks again bud.

 

[Dave-IL]

Darrell when I first started out hunting I was using the pro coil but now I am using the sef. Bryce did excellent with the pro coil when I was with him.
Bryce...nice writeup and lets hope we can hunt an hour after work tomorrow.

 

[LI Tom]

I bought a used Pro coil for my XS because of all the praise for it on the forums and it's lighter weight over the stock.I was VERY surprised by all the ghost or trash signals I dug because they sounded SO good.I found it is very deep and found some nice coins,but I was too often doubting if I really had good target or not when digging.I took it on farm field hunt and it did very well here because of how few signals there were.Perhaps with more experience and your tips I will do better at trashy parks,but I think I will always dig some ghosties with it.

 

[G-Money]

Bryce ,I agree with everything you wrote . The pro coil is a coil that has it place but for me not in southern Illinois. To much Iron and coal in the ground. What I did find is that a good signal that sounds good if you move off the signal and come back to it and its gone that its not a good signal. That sounds dumb but works. You end up not digging a lot of junk that way. Well said Bryce !!!!

 

[captn_se]

Hello Bryce!!

Great post!! I'm glad you decided to really give the Pro Coil a thorough testing. I knew you favored the SEF and X-12 Coils over it in the past.

I love my Pro Coil. If the 10x12 SEF were a lighter coil, I'd purchase it and give it a try, but I just can't see myself swinging that coil for 7 hrs on my typical hunt. My shoulder would be really tired out. Even with the weight of the Pro coil, my shoulder/back tells me I should stop for the day. Seriously, It's a joy to swing, and my shoulder thanks me for it.

I know I'm not missing very much with the super sensitivity of the Pro coil. Also, I usually detect with a sensitivity in the low 20's, manual. Sometimes under extreme ground conditions/EMI/etc., I will take sens. down to upper-teens. Too high a sensitivity, and the iron will sound too good for me. Trust me.....a sens. setting in the low-20's manual will get the deepest of deepies!! I tested this countless times before. In fact, I was nearly losing some keeper targets(couldn't get good repeatability of signal) when I was in high iron areas with a sens. in the upper 20's. I believe the coil gets over-saturated from the super conductivity and halo effects of iron and creates a "masking" effect for discerning co-located keepers(silvers, coppers) in iron infested areas.

Congrats on your finds too!! That's about as much silver/keepers as I've seen you post all year in a single post. The Pro coil won't let you down!!

Take care, my friend!!

CAPTN SE
Dan

 

[dirt doctor]

A very informative post Bryce , It helped confirm some theories I had on both the Pro-coil and the Explorer SE .With more practice using that combo it has eventually sunk into this thick skull of mine that I need to stop wasting my time and energy digging all those real iffie- iffies and dig the more positive signals with just a tad of iffie to them . It took digging a lot of iron and Ghost signals before I got confident enough to trust what my machine was telling me and turn the success/failure ratio around a bit . Digging all that junk did serve as an education though .
I'm also going to be trying out cutting down my sensitivity like Captain SE said as it makes sense .Hopefully the rains we are experiencing here now will loosen up some deeper signals at the pounded sites I am hunting .I have also discovered you can't read Andy's book and the Minelab Explorer manual too much .Thanks to all the Explorer and E-trac users who share their experiences .

H H ,
George

 

[Hotcz70]

A very informative post Bryce , It helped confirm some theories I had on both the Pro-coil and the Explorer SE .With more practice using that combo it has eventually sunk into this thick skull of mine that I need to stop wasting my time and energy digging all those real iffie- iffies and dig the more positive signals with just a tad of iffie to them . It took digging a lot of iron and Ghost signals before I got confident enough to trust what my machine was telling me and turn the success/failure ratio around a bit . Digging all that junk did serve as an education though .
I'm also going to be trying out cutting down my sensitivity like Captain SE said as it makes sense .Hopefully the rains we are experiencing here now will loosen up some deeper signals at the pounded sites I am hunting .I have also discovered you can't read Andy's book and the Minelab Explorer manual too much .Thanks to all the Explorer and E-trac users who share their experiences .
H H ,
George

Thanks George. I too have had to forget going after many of those sweet one-ways and intermittent hits that I try with other coils. The pro coil just doesn't work for me...and obviously to many others.

Hello Bryce!!
Great post!! I'm glad you decided to really give the Pro Coil a thorough testing. I knew you favored the SEF and X-12 Coils over it in the past.
I love my Pro Coil. If the 10x12 SEF were a lighter coil, I'd purchase it and give it a try, but I just can't see myself swinging that coil for 7 hrs on my typical hunt. My shoulder would be really tired out. Even with the weight of the Pro coil, my shoulder/back tells me I should stop for the day. Seriously, It's a joy to swing, and my shoulder thanks me for it.
I know I'm not missing very much with the super sensitivity of the Pro coil. Also, I usually detect with a sensitivity in the low 20's, manual. Sometimes under extreme ground conditions/EMI/etc., I will take sens. down to upper-teens. Too high a sensitivity, and the iron will sound too good for me. Trust me.....a sens. setting in the low-20's manual will get the deepest of deepies!! I tested this countless times before. In fact, I was nearly losing some keeper targets(couldn't get good repeatability of signal) when I was in high iron areas with a sens. in the upper 20's. I believe the coil gets over-saturated from the super conductivity and halo effects of iron and creates a "masking" effect for discerning co-located keepers(silvers, coppers) in iron infested areas.
Congrats on your finds too!! That's about as much silver/keepers as I've seen you post all year in a single post. The Pro coil won't let you down!!
Take care, my friend!!
CAPTN SE
Dan

Thanks Dan. I hope your doing well my friend.
I think you like your screen a little more open than I do which might make a difference on how iron sounds.
For me when I open my screen from my comfort zone of IM 22...iron comes in much better instead of breaking up for me.
In all the testing and experimenting I did...with my sensitivity at 26 and my iron mask at 22 I am still able to get a nice breaking up of iron...yet still able to get a solid read on deep silver and injuns'. More importantly...deep coins will still come through the nulling in heavy iron with these settings for me.
I have a 10 inch dime in my test garden with a rusty nail nearby that my SE won't hit well once the sensitivity is dropped lower than 24.
Again though...the pro coil does not function the same way in iron as my other coils do...so I might need to make little changes to how I hunt with it.
I appreciate your input and will try anything to make this coil better in iron for me. Next season I'll try what you suggested with the sensitivity when using the pro coil and see what happens.
Take care Dan...and thanks for providing some excellent info for us to try.

Bryce ,I agree with everything you wrote . The pro coil is a coil that has it place but for me not in southern Illinois. To much Iron and coal in the ground. What I did find is that a good signal that sounds good if you move off the signal and come back to it and its gone that its not a good signal. That sounds dumb but works. You end up not digging a lot of junk that way. Well said Bryce !!!!

Thanks G-Money...and thanks for providing another tip we can all use. PS: I got $50 that says you will NEVER see me use the pro at that one site you took me too.

I bought a used Pro coil for my XS because of all the praise for it on the forums and it's lighter weight over the stock.I was VERY surprised by all the ghost or trash signals I dug because they sounded SO good.I found it is very deep and found some nice coins,but I was too often doubting if I really had good target or not when digging.I took it on farm field hunt and it did very well here because of how few signals there were.Perhaps with more experience and your tips I will do better at trashy parks,but I think I will always dig some ghosties with it.

Tom...you took the words right out of my mouth.

I think I'll give my pro coil another whirl because of your post. Very informative and helpful. I just think my sef is more stable but I'll try what you saif and see if I do any better with it. Thanks again bud.

Thanks Heavy D. Hopefully you and I can get together one more time before the ground freezes and do some more experimenting with it.

Darrell when I first started out hunting I was using the pro coil but now I am using the sef. Bryce did excellent with the pro coil when I was with him.
Bryce...nice writeup and lets hope we can hunt an hour after work tomorrow.

Bryce didn't do "excellent" with it over those 8 targets that the pro coil said were good bro....while the SEF said were bad.

I have found so many Indians and old silver with the pro coil in trash.You just have to believe what the cruiser tells you.Also when you get a sweet sound and turn to check it and it goes away or breaks up most people will walk away from it. I go right back to the sweet sound and look at the cruiser, if it goes high to the right i dig .Found so many good coins this way. My friend would come and check my signal and say i would not dig that or it is junk.He would just shake his head when i dug it up and it was silver or a old Indian.He was using the ex 2 with stock coil .The Pro coil works best for ME using the very front tip of it to check those iffy signals. HH

Walker...most people who know their SE will not walk away from a target that breaks up a little...but still has the cursor movement towards the right upper corner. When you are in heavy iron...almost all good signals will break up a little...so you should pay close attention and experiment a tad longe over signals when hunting in iron.

...for anyone who is switching coils. The SEF coils definitely handle target discrimination very well, especially at max depth. I like the 10x12, but really love the 8x6.

Thanks onemore

Great post Bryce!
I have never used any other coil except a minelab smaller 8" coil.
So i learned to use it to the best i can.
I dont remember getting the same sound on the SE as i do the E Trac.
It seemed more to me on the SE i got the same Silver pitch for iron as Silver.
That made it very frustrating for me,having to watch the screen closely.
Now using the E trac, I get a tone much higher than Silver if it is iron.
and it will register 01-50 a lot of the time.
Kind of like running in ferrous i just learn to ignore the super high tone and listen for the other tones.
I am running a pretty simple program, I just have everything masked out from 28 to 35 or the bottom of the screen.
This is a little noisier like ferrous. But is super fast on targets close together.
The pro coil is super sensitive and i like that myself.
Which at first i thought was too noisy,( Too many targets).
But i learned to love it and slow way down and pay attention to each target.
It has paid off for me.And i am a lot more confident that i CAN find it if it is there.
But there are circumstances and places that are still super tough.
This is where the smaller coils come into play.
They even sort out the targets better,because they can get to targets that are closer together yet.
But the pro coil,for what it is worth,is a super coil.
And a pleasure to swing all day.
It would be interesting to have you Bryce or Someone try that for me.
I would say that one fourth of my screen is discriminated out,just at the bottom.
and see if the SE gives a higher than silver pitch for iron!
Thanks for the great post.
LabradorBob

Thanks Harold. I'll give that discrimination setting a shot next season and see what happens.

Thanks Bryce, I really enjoyed your post. I haven't logged many hours on my SE with the pro coil, but I have noticed what you were saying but hadn't got to the point of really knowing it pretty much was the way it would act the majority of the time. You only confirmed what I was in suspicion of but not certain. Thanks again. HH

Steve,,,you're more than welcome...and thanks for responding.

Bryce.....as I was reading your re-evaluation results on the Pro coil, I was nodding my head
to what you had written. I did basically the same types of tests in my areas this summer and
came to the exact same conclusions as you did. The Pro coil does have its place in ones
detecting arsenal and is truly effective when you learn its little tricks. Thanks for the review.
Gold Nuggets

Thanks G.N. From the amount of messages I received...there are a lot of people who are experiencing what we are.

Very good write up on your experiences with the Pro coil and some nice finds to boot. I'm sure with some guys who are new to Minelab detectors this may be a little confusing, but you couldn't have written it any better I don't think even for the most novice users. I like my Pro coil and have done pretty well with it and I have the SEF 10x12 also, but haven't used it very much yet so I can't compare the two. All coils are definitely not the same and depending on the conditions and how your machine is set up the bottom line is that you still have to swing your coil over that sweet spot. Thanks for the write up Bryce.
Eddie

Thanks Eddie. Well said. I hope you and Lee are able to find some goodies this weekend if you get to hunt.

I noticed that the Pro Coil hits extra hard on what I figure were less than great signals for other coils. I never actually compared coils though. I do know that if I want to tell depth by hit volume, I have to bump the gain down a notch or two. I never noticed the deep iron sounding like a coin thing with mine though maybe it is because I am using the EII. I have dug some holes that had disappearing signals though - figure they were iron falses.
Thanks for the report and Nice Finds!
BF

Thanks Robin. The one site where I got 8 good signals with the pro...yet the SEF told me they were crap really threw me. Just a quirk with this coil that I had to get used to. Targets just don't sound the same to me as they do on other coils. A double edged sword if you will...cause some deep coins sounded better...but so did a lot of crap

Congrats on the nice finds! The junk signals you dug I would not have been able to walk away from. They could possibly be gold coins. I have yet to find one but someday. My hunting buddies give me strange looks when I have to go back to the car and empty my pouch of trash several times in a few hours.

Thanks junkdigger. No way I want to spend time digging signals I don't think have a shot at being a deep coin. While I would love to find a gold coin or another gold ring...I just simply can't chase those type of hits. It isn't feasable to dig everything in the parks around here anyway because of the damage it might cause.

Thanks so much for the cogent and important review. I assume your findings were the same on the E-Trac as well as your Explorers. I use the E-Trac and the stock Pro Coil that came on it. I just got the Sunray X8 and just briefly tried it out before it got cold and snowy here. This may be a hard question to answer if you had only one coil to use between Pro-Coil, SEF 10 x 12 or Sunray X-12 which would you choose? Your review on the Sunray X8 was a big factor on my choosing it so I do value your opinion.

Thanks for responding Bell-Two. Good luck with whichever coil you choose.

Great post Bryce, thanks for being there to help us with these kind of choices. I have the 10x12 SEF and the Pro coil. I like to swing the Pro coil a bit more, just because of a comfort level with the lighter weight, but I will switch back and forth, and hope to get a smaller coil next year.
Steve

Thanks for responding Steve...and you're more than welcome.

for what its worth i find the same results when i use these same coils and on both the explorer and e-trac for me the 10x12 works the best for me here in IL.I also like the 6x8 and 12x15 the sound on deep coins just sound better on these SEF Coils that's just my honest opinion.

Agreed here as well. In heavy iron...I'll be using the Sunray or SEF coil.

Great post...
A couple of days ago I knocked the dust off the old Pro coil after using only the three Sunray coils for a long long time...
both on my E-Trac & my XS...
um...it was like threading a needle with gloves on...your 2 points ring so true, now that I think about how it acted...
I could only hang with it for a couple hours, even though I did find a worn Barber dime at 8" under old gnarly roofing nails...
After reading your report, maybe I won't give up on it quite yet...

Thanks for responding Dasho. It's amazing that so many of us experience the same things with the Pro coil.

thanks bryce nice post i started with the pro coil went to 10 by 12 loved it but have been back with the pro last few times out and find much of what you said matches what ive seen so this backs me up i do like the pro coil but yes it is truly different then 10 by 12 both great minelab tools for the se happy hunting all

Thanks teleman. Keep the good finds coming.

I'm very glad to read this well written, well balanced review, because when I first added the Minelab Pro coil to my SE I was of course a bit sceptical whether it was worth the extra investment, and then very soon thereafter I knew it was a winner! In fact my first coin with it was a Large Cent (my second at the time) -I have dug four more Large Cents and an 1837 Hard Times Token this summer and two Spanish silver reales (as well as a 1623 Spanish Marevedis cob last summer!) with it, as well as numerous Colonial Era relics I now feel that it is one of Minelab's best upgrades. That same day, and the day after, I dug 12 silver coins including a Rosie that was cut into thirds! Each piece was located in a different hole -- with the last piece hitting hard and being quite small - took forever to find it! This find is shown in Andy Sabich's latest book for the doubters. I also own the bigger SEF coil and have re-covered ground I have searched with the very ergonomic Pro Coil and have found nothing, nil, NADA, with the big SEF that the Pro Coil missed! I'm in NJ and there's a lot of history, so I hoped to clear the ground with the Pro Coil and finish up grabbing the deeper targets with the bigger SEF.... boy was I disappointed! I saw BigFangCoinBiter's post about digging deep nails with the SE -- since mounting the Pro Coil that is a thing of the past for me with the SE Pro and ID in pinpoint. I love when you stress the benefit of this little touted feature, because to me it is an invaluable tool and a HUGE time saver. Thank you for bringing it to my attention again and again. It's analogous to hunting without the X-1, which I will not do without on an Explorer/E-Trac....just like I will not hunt without my VibraProbe complementing the X-1. It all comes together like a band with these components to create an awesome hunting machine. Thanks again for leading by example and taking the time to revisit an re-evaluate this awesome coil!

Thanks Erik. The ID'ing all metal pinpoint feature on the SE ROCKS. Many people do not realize how valuable it is. I always try to point it out whenever I can.

That was an excellent post! Thank you for the very detailed explanations and taking the time to share your findings. I am excited to use my pro coil as soon as I can. I really appreciate first hand observations that expand my knowledge base.
Thank You,
Idaho PRB

Thanks for the kind response. I hope the post helped you in some way.

 

[billybones]

can't decide which coil for santa to bring this ther. posted a question the other day and the sef 10x12 was the answer. now i'm confused.3 year old explorer SE stock coil. which one for Santa to bring? Shall it be SE PRO or the SEF 10x12? Area I am hunting iron silver. the report was awsome, but I'll have to re-read it. Thanks again billybones Chicago

 

[Hotcz70]

the 10 x 12 SEF coil HANDS DOWN if I'm hunting in heavy iron.
...just my opinion.

That is just MY personal opinion I have derived after a ton of experimenting over at least 100 deep coin finds in or close to iron this year.

When I'm not in heavy iron I will definitely be using the pro coil often.

You did not mention any other coils other than the SEF and Pro coil...so I didn't mention the 12" Sunray...otherwise I would advise you to consider it as well.

I would not be able choose the SEF over the Sunray...or the Sunray over the SEF...but you only mentioned the pro coil and SEF.

As my report stated...I prefer the sunray and SEF over the pro coil in heavy iron....which is why i say the SEF coil in response to your stated "confusion".

I would highly recommend you using something other than the stock SE slimline coil though...regardless of which coil you choose.

I have had 4 of them and each highly different in the serial number of the production run...and I sold each and every one of them.

I'd take an EX2 stock 1050 coil over the slimline coil any day of the week. Much more smooth and stable on the SE.

 

[jbow]

I've sold my SE but I love the Pro coil on the E-TRAC... I also have two SEF coils for it, the 12x10 and 8x6. I like all three. I will remember what you said about the SEF coils in iron. I've found some heavily masked CW relics at pounded sites with the Pro coil by watching the CO number on targets that only hit one way and only from one direction. Next time i'm out at a pounded place with masked targets i'll try some comparison of those iffy but good hits with the Pro and 12x10...

Thanks for a great post!

Julien

 

[jbow]

I no longer have an SE but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night... J/K, I have an E-TRAC and have the Pro Coil, 10" FBS, 8x6 SEF, and 12x10 SEF coils... I have considered the larger coils but I need more info. IYO, how does the 15x12 do in trash, in iron, greater depth? Seperation as good? Any thoughts at all... i'd appreciate it.

Thanks,

Julien

 

[dmitchstevens]

thanks for the post

 

[Hotcz70]

I saw where you were asking about the 12 x 15 SEF coil. Check out the link in the field test post at the top of the page.
Thanks for the comments too.

 

[Markdb61]

Very helpful post. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

 

[Ray-Mo.]

had to bite my tongue when reading a lot of the negative posts concerning the pro coil.I have found a ton of old deep coins with mine from day one and never had any issues at all.I used a 12x10 for a solid month this summer (my second one by the way) and did very well but could find no reason to keep using the heavier coil.Done a lot of infield target tests and test garden tests as well with results being about equal except the weight factor.

I finally sold mine and invested in a second pro coil for a back up.Keep in mind the last two years were with my E-Trac only.I think part of the issues with the pro coil may be because it is optimized for the E-Trac, but that is just my personal belief.

One more thing I think has caused some problems is the pro coils hyper sensitivity which makes it less stable at higher sensitivity levels.This is not a fault but rather a great trait as it will hit better on deep on-edge coins and targets on the tiny side IE micro jewelry and tiny lead,brass,copper fragments for those relic hunting.

Looking forward to more pro coil exploits from you come spring