Got A PM & It's A Good Question- If You Were Putting Any Coil You Wanted On An Excal For Use In Water, Which Would It Be?

[Critterhunter]

For me as much as I loved the 15x12 for gridding the sand, in the water it was too much drag for the more medium speed I like to swing at. The 12x10 for sure has a bit more drag in the water to me then my 10" Tornado does, so even though the 12x10 is my coil choice for land or hunting the sand (and maybe the Ultimate too as I test this coil more), I would not want the 12x10 for water use. If you swing super slow then you probably wouldn't notice the bit of extra drag because you aren't trying to force things, but for me it was more effort than I care to make trying to swing at the rate I prefer for hours at a time due to it's squarish shape offering more water resistance.

So for me, for water hunting, if I could have any coil I wanted on an Excal, that probably narrows it down to the 10" Tornado or the S-12. The Tornado stays on my GT's water shaft that I swap the control box to when water hunting, and I've found the Tornado seems perfect for the most part in the water, but just the same...If I could pick a coil, I'd probably pick up an S-12 instead for more coverage and depth in the water. When you can't see the coil, more coverage to me is important so I'm not missing spots while trying to grid in the water. I'd feel less prone to missing spots if I was using a coil a bit bigger than the 10" Tornado. The S-12 is actually 12.5" in diameter, so when you think about it it's only half an inch smaller than the Ultimate, and since the Ultimate isn't rated waterproof anyway I wouldn't want to risk using it in the water, although I know some people have. A few are saying the Ultimate isn't stable in salt water, but in terms of resistance I suspect it's not got much drag at all being round, and also because it's a very thin coil. Like maybe half the height of the 10" Tornado= low water resistance. The Ultimate also is true 13" wide, but it's only 12.5" inches long, so in reality the S-12 is covering as much ground per sweep length wise.

The impression I get surfing the beach forum is that the most popular aftermarket coil for use in the water on Excals seems to be the S-12, so I suspect there is good reason for that (IE: Drag isn't an issue). It seems odd that more people seem to use the 12x10 on the sand (or at least on land), but that more people seem to use the S-12 in the water, so I figure it comes down to the drag thing in the water is what I'm guessing.

So if it were me, as much as I like the 10" Tornado in the water, if I had a S-12 I'd probably want to use that instead for faster coverage and more depth, unless I found out the S-12 was more drag then I cared for, but I suspect drag is not an issue with that coil. If the 12x10 was borderline in terms of drag for me in the water, then I bet a round coil roughly 12" long like the 12x10 would have less drag and so be acceptable to me, since it isn't squarish in shape, and since the 12x10 was right on the edge for me in terms of the kind of drag I wanted to put up with at the somewhat medium speed I sweep.

So what is it for you? Any coil you would prefer as your water coil if you could put anything you could on your Excal. Of course the advice is even better if you've used the S-12 in the water or some other coil, such as say the WOT. I'm also curious if any of you guys prefer the 12x10 in the water? I'm betting if you are a super slow sweeper that the drag of the 12x10 wouldn't show it's self, because you are not trying to force it threw the water.

 

[Suncoast Kid]

I have an Excal II that has a pre-Tornado 10" coil that is defective, and it is time to do a mod and replace it. The unit is out of warranty. I am considering replacing it with the SR S-12 coil. I would appreciate it if anyone that uses this coil could put in a word as to it's performance in comparison to the Tornado 8 and 10, especially in regards to it's depth to small gold targets while detecting in saltwater at the beach, or any other comments related to this coil. Thanks to all and HH.

 

[s1u2r3f4]

I am still in warranty on mine. It has the 10 in. But after reading Clynick's book, I wonder if I should have gotten the 8 in. He states that you don't lose as much depth with it. I get a lot of clad and fishing weights. Any thoughts??

 

[OldBeechnut]

All is based upon the conditions, The Mid-Atlantic can be ruff where I hunt, so I try to go small........ I like the little 8 on the excalibur n fisher cz20 in the ruff water. Most of the time I will grab the 10 and regret it's ..........It's easy to find a target but digging It can take for ever bobbing the waves. I hunted a lake a few years ago with Greg Diablo, I took the fisher cz20 8 inch, Greg used the 10 inch excalibur, there were so many coins you could not PP the targets. Luckly the 8 was the right choice.....So my vote is for the little coils, in the water.

 

[Rick(ND)]

I know the 8 inch of the BBS coils were deeper for me and others than the 10 inch, but the 10 inch covered more ground on our Sovereigns. I have one of my customers that has 2 Excalibur's, one has the 8 inch for the water hunting as he can swing it better in water and the 10 inch for the beach hunting where it is not in water. These are the reg Excalibur's with the BBS coils, but the Excalibur 2 have the new Tornado coils which I believe you have if it is still under warranty as all the Excalibur's only have a 1 year warranty and the new Excalibur 2 have been out for a few years now.

 

[Bling]

n/t

 

[Critterhunter]

Having used my land shaft with 12x10 again in the water a few days ago, when I had only intended to dry sand hunt but changed my mind, I can tell you guys for sure that at least for me the 12x10 is too much drag in the water compared to the 10" Tornado. I swing a bit faster than what many probably use as a crawl on their Excal/Sov, so if you are going slower than me you might not find the drag with the 12x10 to be an issue because you aren't forcing things like I am in the water.

So yea, my choice now is probably an S-12 for the water in terms of more coverage than the 10" Tornado, but I'm pretty happy with the Tornado in the water. It just seems so much smaller to me now after using the 12x10 all the time on land. If I was to switch to the 7 & 1/4" Tornado coil for water use from the 12x10 I use on land, I bet I'd feel like I was using a hockey puck to try to grid with, because the 10" Tornado feels like an 8" coil to me now. But the 8" Minelab is a great coil in the water. Personaly seen it work for people.

I am planning on trading off my S-5 for that 7 & 1/4" Tornado though as my trash coil on land. Heard so many good things about it pulling stuff out of junk in badly beaten parks and even have seen reports of coins around a foot deep with it, that just got to have one to try, especially after my tests show the S-5 isn't separating nearly as well left/right wise as my larger coils. I could be wrong about that, because air testing in no way mimics actual in ground conditions, but just the same. Also, it's seeming inability to see a dime well thru 1 mineralized brick while all the other coils would easily see it thru 2 mineralized bricks really shocked me. I had always lived by the rule that a smaller coil will penetrate bad mineralization better but at least in this case it doesn't look like it did. Again, only what air tests showed, and in the actual ground things might be completely different.

As for the little Tornado, I've seen at least two guys in the past say it got them more depth in their badly mineralized land sites then the 10" Tornado did, due to the fact that it's taking in less ground matrix. That conforms with the old rule of thumb I've always heard about smaller coils handling bad ground better. I have seen this myself. I've owned machines in the past where my 9 or 10" coil got less depth are really bad soil sites than my 6" coil did. The ID at depth cleared up because that target is being washed out less by the ground signal. It's not as much of any issue on a Minelab due to the way they handle the ground signal, but I bet you'd still see a difference in some really bad sites. That's also one of the reasons why I suspect the 12x10 gets more depth than my 10" Tornado in my soil/sands. The SEF's field is so "sharp" that I think even though it's a bigger coil it might be riding on and seeing less "ground stew". Combine that with it's bigger size and I can see why it appears to be deeper for me.