I have been a great fan of the Wonderful Orange Thing for both the Explorer and Sovereign and use it probably 85% of the time for all types of hunting. I am mainly interested in old coins, so hit old parks etc. The WOT excels in areas that of course are not TOO trashy, but I find they work well anywhere the stock 9 or 10" coils work. I am amazed how well they work in somewhat trashy areas. WOT is surprisingly sensitive to small items, so don't worry- it will find half dimes and small rings. It does go deeper, but you will find many items you pull out of overhunted areas are only 5 or 6" deep, well within the range of most detectors. All I can figure is they are giving a weak or odd signal on most detectors or smaller Minelab coils, but the WOT is able to "pull" a recognizeable signal out of them. This is true on deeper coins as well.
The disadvantage to the WOT is swinging that mighty garbage can lid. The Explorer is notoriously heavy and ergonomically absurd to begin with. Either you build big muscles, hunt for short times, or get a support thing like a bungee cord, Swingy Thingy, or some support to take the weight off your arm.
It makes a superior beach coil, as you can cover a lot of acreage with each swing- you really don't have to overlap much unless conditions are very junky. You can cover a beach in half the time. The WOT on a Sovereign, with the control box removed and hung around your neck in its baggie, makes a superb water machine for mid-chest depth water and shallower. Again, the area covered in one swing is far beyond other coils, and usually in the water you cover a lot of ground for each good find. Yes, it is a bit harder to swing in water than a smaller coil, but not that much. Unfortunately you can't "neck mount" the Explorer, but you could venture into shallow water with it and hunt the shoreline with great success.
On land or water, you pinpoint the same way as with the stock coil, and it is no harder. While in discriminate (or all-metal pinpoint), just swing slowly with very short swings across the target and gradually back the coil toward you with each swing. When the signal disappears, inch forward very slowly until you just start hearing it again. The coin will be directly under the farthest front edge of the coil. Or you can use the tried and true EW/NS swings and find where the lines intersect; the coin is right under that "X".
The WOT also throws the depth gauge off a bit- if the depth bar is halfway, that is usually between 4 and 5" deep. I rarely bother with coin signals that push the depth gauge into the upper half as they are usually clads and memorials. In general, the WOT is just as stable as a stock coil, and acts the same way, and can be used for the same purposes. Be sure to get an X-1 probe, because trying to find coins in a dirt pile or to check what is still in the hole is really clumsy with that big coil. Good luck in finding WOTS still hidden in the ground!!
