Where are you Critter?

[crazyman]

You left me hanging on your last post about testing and comparing your 12X15 SEF with the 10 inch Tornado on coin sized targets. I'm still thinking about picking up the 10X12. I was also wondering about what your results are using auto sensitivity in the more mineralized areas you were hunting and in iron with both coils. I use auto sens. the majority of the time in thick iron and trash and it's been working really well with little depth loss. By the way I just picked up a used Detech 8 inch concentric coil for my GT. I've heard mixed reports on this coil but curiosity got the best of me.

 

[Critterhunter]

Is that that concentric coil? If it is I hear good things about it. I think it's the only concentric for the Sovereign. I'll be getting back to that comparison soon here. Been busy reading that book on ring hunting somebody sent me and doing other things. Mainly working in my garden, and I mean my vegetable garden and not coin garden. It's planting season! 27 tomato plants and just about anything else you can think of.

 

[crazyman]

Yes it is the concentric coil for the Sovereign. I've been looking for one and finally found one at a great price.

 

[Critterhunter]

Duh, somehow I missed the word "concentric" in the message. I'm finding Auto to get at least about 8" deep on silver coins and probably much deeper, as one spot I was running it in auto had heavy RF noise, minerals, hot rocks, and iron. I think the RF noise is the main thing that may cause Auto to adjust real low, though as said I'm not seeing that at certain sites that are lousy with RF. Hot rocks, iron, and ground minerals I don't feel cause Auto to go as low, which is a good thing. I think also that Auto can really shine in places where the ground conditions are changing fast. It reminds me of auto ground tracking in a respect. Auto will adjust the sensitivity level to match the changing ground, and for that reason alone might provide better depth and performance than a static manual setting. The manual setting might be fine where you set it, but as you move around it might either be much lower or much higher than it should be for say ground that is 50 yards away. Auto for sure gives me much more stable IDs in bad ground or RF, and that's saying a lot because I find the GT to have the most solid "lock on" VDI system on any machine I've ever used, at least a machine with any kind of resolution in target numbers that even comes close to the GT.

I'm anxious myself in comparing the 15x12 to the 10" for coin/ring depths. Remember that everything I've read says the 15x12 is the deepest coil people have ever used for the most part. While I believe this to be true, I have my concerns that many of my sites are too hot in ground matrix and may cancel out any depth advantage. The 10" will see less ground and thus might be deeper since it isn't washing the coin signal out with the ground load. Even though I can run sensitivity at max at many sites with the 15x12 (which I've since found out that doesn't mean best depth on any coil with this machine), that's not to say that it's getting deeper than say a coil that can't run the sensitivity quite that high at the site. Even though the SEF is stable, I am suspicious that the target signal is getting lost at depth in the processing of the ground matrix. I still think the SEF is deeper but have yet to dig deeper coins than the 10" with it, though I have dug real deep tiny stuff and a sinker that banged loud and clear at 11" (measured). Once I play with the proper way to adjust sensitivity for best depth (which is much lower than what you would consider stable) I'll know for sure how the SEF compares to the 10" and will report back.

Cool your jets...It's spring so there are going to be a bunch of used SEFs on the market as people buy them and sell it after a week. I'm sure you can get a 12x10 for $120 or less used, and a 15x12 for about that as well. I sure wish somebody with both of these coils would do some coin garden or actual field testing on the Sovereign to see what gives for depth. Everybody says the 15x12 is deeper but that's on other machines for the most part (Etrac/Explorer). While I have read a few Sovereign owners say this as well it would be nice to be sure by some in depth testing of the two. Anybody want to donate me a 12x10?

 

[crazyman]

I was out hunting one of my old mill sites recently which is a carpet of large and small iron. I used the same settings I posted about earlier. Auto sensitivity, iron mask off and silent search. Not having to listen to a bombardment of most of the iron falses and crazy threshold changes helped and I was able to concentrate and work more signals I might have passed over before. I did pick up 2 Indians in the 7 inch range with a great repeatable signals an old spoon at about 10 inches and a tiny gold locket at about 6 inches. I wouldn't use these settings in a cleaner park type setting where the coins are past 8 inches but in thick iron/trash auto sensitivity can be like magic.

 

[Critterhunter]

Good job. You know, I mostly prefer to use no discrimination when old coin hunting as I like to hear everything to get a feel for the site and also avoid masking. But, there are times, particularly when ring hunting, where the constant sound off of certain junk targets becomes more of a negative than a help. It will destroy my concentration. It's not as much of a problem when coin hunting because I just learn to listen for the highest tones while ignoring the lower ones in my head (unless they sound like a nickle). But there are occassions (more so ring hunting) when I feel hearing it all costs you finds. It's like trying to here three people talk at once. Yea, you might want to hear what all three have to say but by trying to hear them all at the same time you don't really hear or learn anything. When coin hunting I try to ignore the "ring" signals most of the time in my head, and when ring hunting I'll either do that in my head or even run some discrimination and notch to silence those other voices. I'm finding this is deadly on nickles because I'm able to concentrate on those signals and investigate without hearing a chorus of tabs in the back ground.

I can see where Silent Search and Iron Mask OFF would be of use at a site like yours. I was just hunting a real trashy old park with hot rocks, iron, and other junk the other day. Threw it into Silent Search to calm the hot rock false "coin" spikes, Auto, notched out most of the tabs, and set discrimination to kill anything below about 90 on the VDI. What a pleasure it was to hunt like that! It was like night and day at this spot where I was about ready to quit due to the noise. I should have tried Iron Mask OFF and I bet that would have smoothed out the false coin hits from the gravel hot rocks even more.

A friend using his 6000 Pro XL called me over at this site to a good silver dime signal he was getting. I swept the spot and the meter was jumping from 180 up to 181 here and there like it often does for me on silver the way I calibrate the meter. Sure enough he had a 1900 barber dime about 5" deep. I think I'm going to hit this spot with my S-5 coil because it's among the worst in trash/minerals/hot rocks that I've ever hunted. The S-5 should handle the ground even better and might even get deeper than a larger coil at a place like this.

 

[crazyman]

Use what setting are best for you for your ground and/or the type of site your hunting. One size does not fit all and Andy S. himself that some people here think is the Sovereign expert which I wouldn't argue against has said that in his "mineralized" ground he most always uses auto sensitivity with excellent depth. I've also read him say that in some bad trashy sites with lots of iron that auto sensitivity combined with iron mask off works very well.

 

[Tony from Tidewater]

we are pretty sanded up here in Va. Beach. A couple things I don't like about the coil is, the cable is a little short for hip mounting, it's a heavier coil, it seems on mine, when I pin-point, the target is in the middle at the back of the coil, and it seems to like bottle caps too. I'm going detecting the next 4 days, I'll use it again and tell you more. It might be a tad deeper than my S-12, but I haven't confirmed that. I just wish my WOT didn't go bad, as it's still my favorite coil on the beach. Last night, I put a small bead of clear silicone caulking around my S-12, and new 10" slimline (replaced under warranty) which will keep it from falsing the the water. I need to put the silicone on my 10" x 12" , as it did false some as the waves went over it, and I'm sure put a thin layer of salt water between the coil and cover. I was able to run the Sensitivity, about 10 o'clock, but it did chatter alittle.

 

[Critterhunter]

For pinpointing with the SEF try doing a backwards walk with it while doing very short sweeps. When the target just goes away you'll find that it's right at the base of the top of the "V" on the coil where the two people of plastic meet dead center at the very top/middle/edge of the coil. Finding it this way is usually dead on but I go the extra step of doing the same thing at a 90 degree angle noting where the first spot was and then it's more accurate than pretty much any coil I've used on any machine for pinpointing. Often I can stick a screwdriver into the ground and be dead on it, as my Garrett Pro Pointer confirms for me if I check a shallow target with that before digging or probing. You want to listen in pinpoint for the threshold where it just stops reacting even a little bit. Also, I'm finding that on real deep targets Pinpoint won't pick them up so I'll pinpoint the same way in discriminate and it seems just as accurate, though I'm still learning that method when I can't hear it in Pinpoint.

Rather than sealing your coil covers I'd pick up some Rustoleum spray on bedliner at an auto parts store. Put 4 or 5 light coats on the bottom of the coil and the sides. By not using the coil cover you'll also be saving yourself some weight. In fact, my 15x12 without coil cover weighs the same as my 10" with cover I think (posted a chart on here a few months back with all the coil weights with/without covers). I'm going to spray on the bedliner and that will save me 3.6oz on my 15x12.

 

[jbow]

I've been wondering that too. Where do you live/hunt? How is your ground? Have you gotten an average ground mineral reading with an F75 or a V3 ? Just curious here.

I wish everyone would add their town to their tagline, it would be helpful. There was a thread on this somewhere.

Julien

 

[jbow]

As i've said before the GT was my first detector and frankly I almost always used auto-sens for the first couple of years. It pretty much keeps a threshold tone and I had no problem making finds. I am (if the thunder moves on down the road) going to go out this afternoon and hunt with the GT and the V3. I want to try setting the sens around the 2:00 mark like was discussed in another thread and I have an 8x6 SEF for the V3 to play with. I am probably going to call Kelly-Co tomorrow and cancel the order tor the 12x10 E-TRAC coil and order a 12x10 for the Sovereign... then again... I wonder if i'd do better to try and get a Sovereign Amplifier and just use the stock 10 coil...

J

 

[Critterhunter]

I want to hear some tests on that 12x10 compared to other coils in your coin garden!