Super 12 coil or Butterfly?

[dutchroots]

I'm going to purchase one or the other and would like to hear from anyone that has experience with either one or both. There seems to be some skepticism regarding the new butterfly coils; maybe because they are unfamiliar and untested.

 

[Larry (IL)]

I have had experience with the Super 12 but not the SEF line, but I do use a coil like them though. It would be very hard to compare the two coils because they are two different configurations, the Super 12 is a concentric and the SEF, a dual elliptical. Conical coils works best in mild to medium ground and the DD style works best in highly mineralized ground. The conical coils usually gets better depth, but the search pattern is reduced the deeper it gets in the ground, much like the shape of an ice cream cone. It is very important to overlap swings for best coverage in depth. The DD coils usually gets more coverage per swing, reducing the need for as much overlapping your swings but at a cost of less depth, EXCEPT in the case of highly mineralized ground. The DD coils will cut through the mineralization better than a conical. The DD coils puts down a pattern much like a half of a dinner plate on edge, a larger, (front to back), but a much thinner search pattern. Pinpointing with each coil is also much different.

Until the SEF coils have proven themselves with the White's line of detectors, I might suggest considering the Excelerator line of DD coils from Kellyco who are proven winners if you decide on a DD coil. If you want a large conical, the Super 12" is a dandy. I have read mixed reviews on the SEF coils, but I have used the 6" DD, 10" DD and 10X14" DD Excelerator, all being excellent coils.

I hope this helps.

 

[Rob (IL)]

I think Larry about said it. Remember you need the type of coil that will works best in the ground you hunt in. What works in another part of the country may not be the same for you. Then you have to decide if coverage or depth is what you need. Then don't forget about the weight, can you swing a bigger, heavier coil. Rob

 

[dutchroots]

Thanks guys. The ground I'll be hunting in has low mineralization. Depth is important, but I guess coverage is more important. How much depth difference are we talking about? I like the idea of a 12" coil because with my 9.5" I can't get myself to walk slow enough or swing fast enough to get complete coverage. Weight is an issue too as I'll be hunting long days on big fields.

 

[Larry (IL)]

It sounds like your best bet might be the Super 12 for depth and weight. Coverage is up to you by how much you overlap each swing. With no overlap, you will miss most deep targets and with a 6 inch overlap on a 12 inch coil, you will miss 50% or more of the deepest of targets. Take two V's and place them side by side to see what I mean. VV This represents the coverage you will get by not overlapping. On surface targets, you will get just about all of them, while 12 inches down, you will miss most of them. Most of the pros will advance about 25% of the coil diameter or 3 inches per swing to get the best coverage when deep targets are known to be found. For deep hunting your swing speed must also be slowed down to give the detector time to analyze the data it is receiving and to separate the unwanted items from what you are looking for.

The term "coverage" when deep hunting is not how much ground you can cover, but how well you cover the ground that you hunt.

 

[dutchroots]

Understood. Thanks again. There's that decision again on hunting style. Some guys are slow and methodical, others race across the field. If you're working on a 40 acre field with no idea about hotspots I'm not sure one has any advantage over the other. Suppose it all depends on how much time you've got and how lucky you are to walk over the right spot.

Now that we're on the subject of coverage, how does the Bigfoot coil compare? Because of it's shape I would think overlapping is less of an issue. But maybe not.

 

[Larry (IL)]

Nancy has covered the Bigfoot subject well. It is a must have for surface hunting for clad and jewelry. Not good for depth though, swinging it fast, 3 to 4 inches and slower swings will get 6 for us. It is a DD coil and overlapping for surface targets are not necessary.

When relic hunting in a large field you might want to "hit and miss" hunt. That is go faster, here and there looking for signs of past life. When you find an area that might have been a camp site, battlefield, cellar hole or other signs of life, that is when you slow down to a snails pace and dig everything that sounds good and even some that don't until you can figure out what might have been there. Another common way of hunting is to "cherry pick" surface finds and then come back again for the deeper targets. That is the method I use most often. Good luck on your field.