Musings on coils and how to hunt for present conditions

[saika]

My hunting these days is limited by time, I can and do hunt regularily but have limited time per hunt. Luckily I have a very nice soccer/baseball plex near my home that is always busy. This is where I spend most of my time. Due to weather conditions these days the ground is very dry and the parks people have agreed to let me hunt as long as I don't cut plugs for now and stay away from the irrigation system. STAY AWAY FROM THE GREEN GRASS!

How do you spend your time most productively? That is what has been rolling around in my head these days. I have been forced to hunt with my sensitivity way down, there is no use even triggering on the deep targets for now, hit the beaten down grass areas the hardest and dig it all for now except big iron. As I was pulling , no lifting, a 2 dollar coin off of the surface it struck me.

Everything starts off as a surface find, unless soil was moved in from another location. It sounds darn obvious doesn't it? So I have started this policy and am really happy with the results. It takes a bit of homework and planning but can really pay off several ways. If I keep to these spots, I get many of the tabs off and the small jewellry, spend very little time on my knees, bend and scoop as I go and the parks people see me emptying my pouch a lot. You have to move fast, so it becomes quite a bit of a workout to boot.

This leads to the coil issue once again. I have been looking for an extra coil to add to my arsenal for the M6 and considering how nice the DD 10x6 works as a smallish coil, the choice would have to be a big foot coil. I have read that they are deep seeking enough but more importantly they can really cover the ground. The only question that I really have is, "Do they see finer gold at 2-3 inches?"

Nancy?

 

[Nancy-IL]

Gold at 2-3 inches with the Big Foot? YOU BET!!! I've found 4 or 5 gold rings with my wonderful Big Foot. The best of the bunch (men's heavy 14K with 5 beautiful diamonds) was about 3-4 inches down with a very strong signal. I've dug coins in the 6 inch range with the Big Foot. If you do a lot of clad hunting and need to cover a lot of surface, you won't be sorry getting the Big Foot coil.

I like your thinking with the surface coins and this dry soil. We went today and literally popped the coins, etc. right out of the ground without any digging. It's sad seeing the ground tore up from others when it's so dry and hard on the grass.

Hope that helps saika.

Happy hunting!

 

[saika]

Thanks Nancy. yes it does. I was just wondering if the 18" Excellerator isn't the better way to go however. AFter posting this I went to KCO and looked at what they had in aftermarket. That massive DD would do the job also without the strange pinpointing procedure/behaviour. As for the depth on gold I should have pointed out, on small gold like a ladies engagement ring or chains.

Thanks for the approval of the change of tactic, it has kept me in the good graces of the grounds keepers while others have been chased off.

Happy swinging!

 

[Nancy-IL]

I honestly don't know anything about the 18" Excelerator. I looked at the Kellyco site and they say it's for the DFX-MXT-Minelab. It states how deep the targets that's been recovered from this coil. Do you really want to go that deep while surface skimming? And yes, I've found many small (child's gold/diamond ring size 1) rings with the Big Foot. I couldn't find a weight on the 18" Excelerator, but I know the Big Foot is much lighter than the stock coil.

Like I've stated, I'm not all that "technical minded" about detectors, but I do know my machine. I'm sorry, but I honestly couldn't tell you which coil would be best since not knowing the Excelerator.

Clear as mud???

 

[saika]

Great stuff Nancy, thanks. I am sure that the claims are a bit of salesman's puffing but still close enough to be true. With the sens turned way down it should behave about the same way. Thanks for your input, nothing like user experience for good advice. If it works on the MXT it will work on the M6.