Interesting Question I Got Asked In PM- What Would Be Your THIRD Coil Choice For Your Lineup & Why?

[Critterhunter]

Got asked this in a PM and I thought it was a real interesting question. If you've got a large coil for depth and coverage, and a small trash coil for heavy junk, then what would be your third coil choice and why? For me, 12x10 for every day excellent depth & left/right outstanding separation. 7.25" eight inch Tornado for super heavy junk. For me the 13" Ultimate as my third coil for large open areas where coverage is of primary importance. But if I didn't have the Ultimate as my third coil option, then it would probably have had to been an 8x6...For heavy trash yet in larger areas with a smaller coil might feel like using a stick to cover the area. Then again, I guess I'm hearing that the 8x6 does indeed not exist for the BBS units as was recently rumored? If so, then, lacking the Ultimate, don't know what I'd opt for...Probably the WOT then for large open areas that I want to cover faster.

People have to remember, that while we may be limited by how fast we can cover an area due to a Minelab's sweep speed, that by using a larger coil you can increase your speed at gridding out the area. Believe me, with both the 15x12 and the Ultimate I was amazed at how much faster I could grid a section of beach of land, despite the 12x10's nice improvement in that respect over the stock 10" Tornado. I can say this though- When I do use the 10" Tornado, it feels like an 8" coil compared to my 12x10.

So let's see if this interesting question flies...

By the way, they were asking in relation to their FBS unit. I said based on all I've read of those, 12x10, 6" Excelerator, and then an 8x6 for the reasons stated above. I just wonder if the 6" excelerator seems to be the coil of choice only because it's about half the price of the FBS version of the 8" Tornado, or if indeed there are other perks here about it? I might have to ask a few people who own them all for their FBS units their perspective on that.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Critter my third coil choice would be the Sunray S-12 my first two picks the 800 and 1000 Tornado. HH Ron

 

[OldBeechnut]

Critter my third coil choice would be the Sunray S-12 my first two picks the 800 and 1000 Tornado. HH Ron

I'm with Ron.....WOT just seems to be so limited, here.

 

[deepdiger60]

All ready have 4- Tor. 10 and 8, S-12 and 8 inch coin search no need for anymore . Jim

 

[GeorgeinSC]

Currently I have the Ultimate, S-12, Tornado 10, S-8 and S-5. I was offered the almost new S-12 at a price I could not afford to turn down. So far I have not used the S-5 but I know of a couple of places that it just may get a workout. I wanted a SEF 12X10 but an now so coil poor that I may never be able to get one of them since they are no longer stocked.

 

[Buried Crap NJ]

Critterhunter, Your assumption that a bigger coil for depth is always correct is not always correct! A larger coil is always harder to get depth from for so many reasons. While a smaller 8in coil is the best all around coil for depth! And while I am at it an 8in coil when it come to Minelab is a big coil! I'll agree with your coverage of the larger coil and the trash for the 5in coil. My first choice would be the 8in followed by the 15x12 and while I only carry one extra coil in my backpack during a hunt.My third coil would be the S-12.The only reason the S-12 isn't second is it tends to dig in the wet sand rather than float like the 15X12 or the 15X18 on the sand. I tend to be a scrubber during an 8 or 10 hr hunt!
BCNJ

 

[Critterhunter]

Yes, agreed- some times a larger coil will get less depth- masking or taken in too much ground minerals for the machine to handle and washing out a target at depth. Have seen this with the 15x12. Haven't seen it with my 12x10 compared to smaller coils or ones same size. 12x10 always deeper, at the sites I've compared them head to head anyway in my soil.

But yea, on prior machines at some bad sites due to minerals I found a smaller say 7 to 8" coil would see and ID targets at depth better than say a 9 or 10" coil. All depends on how bad the soil matrix (minerals) is, not even talking of masking being an issue. But I ain't seen that with smaller coils compared on the GT or Excalibur yet at sites.

Compared the old 8" BBS Minelab coil to the 13" Ultimate in very bad sand with microscopic iron, black sand, and minerals. The Ultimate could just barely ID the penny at fringe depth for that site, while the 7.25" BBS coil couldn't even see it at all, until I flipped it to PP and then it heard it no problem. Didn't have to do that with the Ultimate, it saw it in disc. Same deal with S-5 and stock coil. Stock 10" coil was always deeper even in very bad minerals.

Wondering/going to compare if the 8" Tornado sees deeper through minerals than my larger coils. Remember somebody (Crazyman?) saying a long while back that his 8" Tornado (or was it 8" Sun Ray?) was deeper in his soils/sands than the stock 10" Tornado if I remember right.

The 15x12 I owned didn't get as good of depth as the stock 10" Tornado in my soils, but it did go deeper than stock in my mineralized sands for some reason on those same coin/ring sized targets. The official field report of the SEFs shows a breaking point in coil size, where the 12x10 was deeper on dime or at least sub-dime sized targets, and either beat the 15x12 on a dime sized one or at least matched it.

The 15x12 showed more depth than the 12x10 on target sizes about twice the size or so of a quarter and bigger if I remember right. I'm not sure if the 15x12's lack of depth on dime or at least sub-dimed targets over the 12x10 is either due to coil size or minerals. I would suspect it's 15" length size is beyond the point of no return for gaining depth on coin/ring sized targets, but even if that's not the case then soil type can be the deciding factor for some.

I always heard/experienced that about 14" in a DD was max size to still see gains on coin/ring sized targets, but again that's all soil dependent too and might be say a 12 or 13" max coil size to still see gains. In my soil I suspect that's the limit in DD size for coin/ring sized target gains in depth.

For concentrics, always heard/experienced that about a 10 to 10.5" coil size was max to still see gains on coin/ring sized stuff, but again beyond physical size soil type is key too. Concentrics often don't handle minerals as well either, and in that case I found a smaller coil of about 6 or 7" or so was best for ID at depth in some of my worst minerals over a 9 to 10" coil when compared there.

DDs seem to retain small target sensitivity as they get bigger better than a concentric.

All this variables are very dependent on machine brand and soil type, so I ain't saying my findings are true for others. Minerals can change these things largely and give completely different results.