I didn't finish gridding that entire large beach like I thought because too many people started showing up and I like to keep my distance to head off any problems with getting kicked out or something, but I'd say I was able to grid at lest 2/3rds or more of that beach....from the very edge of the water to the very back edge where the beach meets the woods. In other words, I covered every "zone" of possible activity when it comes to dry sand hunting, from where people generally set up their beach blankets, to where they'd build sand castles with their kids, to the wood line where somebody might sneak a leak or something.
My criteria in terms of what I wanted to hear to be "dig worthy" was a little higher than it normally would be hunting sand but only because I was on a mission to try to cover the entire beach. On any other day when sand or water hunting I'd dig any signal above a null regardless of how broken or unrepeatable it was. But today I raised my standards for sand hunting to targets that had to be at least 50% "there" in terms of quality of the signal. What that means is that even with that "high" of standards that a target would have to meet, it was still low enough that I was digging junk signals like bottle caps that will only repeat one way and null the other. Pretty much if I could get the target to hit from at least some direction I didn't care how good the audio or VDI was, but my other requirement was that if it sounded past 9" deep and wasn't a good sounding signal then I wasn't going to touch it. In other words, any good signal past that depth I was going to dig (or scoop in this case), but anything that sounded less than that depth I was also going to dig regardless of how junkie those signals sounded. I know, "dig it all" even if it only peeps once when gold ring hunting on the beach or in the water, but what was more important to me on this particular day was trying to grid the entire beach, not making sure I dug to China on any slight change in threshold each and every time.
So how did the coil perform in the dry sand depth/quality of signal wise? I'd say even with that very low sensitivity setting it was still getting impressive depth. 10 to maybe 12" on a penny or dime with perfect ID/audio was not a problem for it. I also dug square tabs as deep as probably 11 to 14" that ID'd properly and sounded off fairly loud. Sure, a few of those coins or tabs at those depths didn't provide as good of audio or stable VDI, but I'm willing to bet those might have been on edge or mixed in with iron. In fact, I know a few of them were because I saw a few be exposed as the sand drifted down into the hole slowly from the edges. I know I saw a dime or two that were standing straight up on edge and at a depth of perhaps 9 to 11" that's no small feat to hit something like that. It might have only sounded off one direction but I've also dug targets that were perfect from any direction and were also on edge on prior hunts.
The coil's sensitivity to tiny targets is amazing. I was hitting round tab tails at maybe 8 to 10" (hard to tell all the time that you didn't just miss them when you are scooping on targets that small). I'd also say what I've heard others say about this coil in that it seems to draw out and improve the quality of the audio, offering you more bits of detail as to the target's identity. It wasn't long before I could tell you that the target I was now hearing was going to be a shot gun shell casing. The odd "cup" shape of those targets will give a distinct sound and ID one way versus swept the other most of the time. It's rare for a coil this big to show that kind of detail in a target's "shape" or "texture". Often once a coil gets past 9 or so inches in size you start to lose that kind of detail at least to some extent. For example, on my Whites using the little 5.3" coil I could hear the "double chirp" of the two holes in a square tab. Sure, it was hard to notice but it was there so long as you paid close attention and of course the tab was laying flat. I'm not saying (yet) that being able to hear the two holes on a square tab is possible with this coil. I don't think that's going to happen, but I am saying that it will show you the odd edges of trash such as the cup shape of a shotgun shell by both audio and the drifting VDI depending on which way you sweep over it. Now THAT'S impressive for a coil this big. You'd expect to just hear a signal without any real detail with a monster of a coil like this, not be able to hear the "edges" or "shape" of the target with proper investigation swinging at it from different angles.
I'd say about 8 to 10" was maximum "perfect" coin ID/audio depth for the coil in *this* highly mineralized sand and with that low of a sensitivity setting. That's not something to laugh at. Most machines on the market would be lucky to get that kind of depth in perfect low mineral sites, regardless of which coil they used. No hard and fast rule here to the numbers I've listed above because obviously I was doing a lot of scooping and not much testing. Had I brought a ruler and a hand digger with me I could back up all the above numbers with what's left of my reputation among certain circles
, but that's the best I can do for you in specifics on this particular day.
By the weekend I plan to do another dry sand hunt at another beach. What kills me is that this year I've spotting one junk ring by eye on the dry sand and dug a gold and a silver in the dry without hardly any effort (within minutes), and along with that the other day I dug a nice looking stainless ring with only about 10 to 15 small passes in a grid I was doing. Here I am today doing my most intense dry sand hunt yet all I got to show for it was enough money to buy a couple McDoubles and a small coke on the way home. By the way, man was I thirsty after this long and unproductive hunt.
So there you go, another long story that goes no where with no ending or climax. Just trying to give you the "feel" of this coil, even on those unproductive days, to help you decide if it's worth buying for you. Wait until I get my hands on a 12x10. Then we're talking novel territory in the comparisons of these two coils in the field.
I'm guessing it was probably for an adult book store and looks to be probably from the 50's.
Seriously, I really want to put this coil through it's paces to prove one way or the other that it's deeper at least in some soil types, so I plan to have some more interesting and informative field reports to post soon.