"One example showing the need for a 'smaller than an 11" coil', is I had worked a grassy area to death in a years long battle to find a blue stone signet ring allegedly lost while the guy was dumping grass cuttings into a neighboring yard?
There's a kind of 'no man's land' where the hedge line meets the search area. It's the area right underneath the hedge which is feet thick. Well right along that line is extremely hard to search as there's chicken wire in some of it and when you poke your search coil in you get a signal 'above' the coil!!! And there's dozens of debris strewn around in what's essentially a two foot line between the two properties.
If I went there now I'll still get signals... it's that trashy!
Anyhooooo... the CTX with 11" on 'kinda' gave a squeaky signal on a spot but failed to lock on and/or produce TID's
It was the proverbial 'iffy signal', but with a difference: it was just 'a half iffy signal!'
Couple weeks later I hit the area again this time with the 6" coil.
It produced a 'low hoot' and crash bang zip etc!
Digging the hole first gave up a piece of coke: pinpointer said there's more? Then up came a thin bronze ring about the diameter of a quarter (we find loads of them) pin pointer still said there was more?
Finally, after finding a large rusted nail at the 6" mark the hole was clean!
3 in 1
The 11" failed: the 6" won out.
I'm wondering if this scenario might be repeated with the 11" Equinox coil???
Will stuff still get missed???
I might canvass Minelab on the possibility of doing an 8x5"
You know...reverse psychology!