Does a smaller coil work better on a wet salt water beach?

[Newfiehunter]

Does a smaller coil function better over the regular stock coil that comes with the detector on a salt water beach which may be heavily mineralized? There isn't so many false signals due to the smaller size and there is less mineralization for it to handle . So, would a 5 inch coil function better on the beach than the 10 inch coil?

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[hamiddetecting]

When you hunt in beach lot of trash, i advice you to use small search coil ( Excalibur II 800) is best. Happy hunting.

[Sandman]

Granted the smaller coil will see less minerals than the larger one but it only means it will be more steady. It will not have the depth nor coverage per swing so you'd cover less ground per hour.

[stevemc]

I agree with the 2 above posters, but what detector are you using? You have to look at a coil as an antenna, the larger it is, the more sensitive it is-to a point, and the larger area it will cover. So with a smaller coil, and in the salt wet sand, providing your detector will work in salt wet sand, yes, it will be less sensitive to salt and minerals-it will be more stable-as Sandman said, and still pick up gold jewelry. But as Sandman also said, the tiny coil will take longer to cover a given area, and wont be as deep as the larger coil. Usually the stock coil is fine and shouldnt be too noisy or false too much. Maybe turn down the sensitivity on the larger coil. A 5" coil on a beach is pretty tiny-unless it is a really trashy beach as hamiddetecting said. Even a 10" coil should be fine.

[Tom_in_CA]

SteveMC is right: If minerals and static are the issue, just turn down your sens, instead of going to a smaller coil. I mean, sure, small coils are "seeing" less ground at a time (and thus "seeing" less minerals in it's viev), sure. But so what? You're simply loosing depth by going to a smaller coil. So why not just decrease your sens. and keep using the bigger coil, if minerals are the issue?

Unless of course target mixing/masking is the issue, then a small coil helps with that. But on beaches, masking is almost never the issue. On the contrary: targets tend to be spread out and distinct. Thus it's usually coverage that's the goal, and not target separation, on the beach. (Unless you have some sort of situation where there's multiple beeps per swing, such that you are having trouble isolating them from each other? I doubt it)

[therover]

Tom summed it up...the conditions pretty much dictate the best plan of attack.

For the most part, beaches are pretty wide open when it comes to trash, that is, there aren't many spots with so much concentrated trash that a small coil would be more beneficial. BUT..there are those times every once in awhile and that is where a small coil would trump a larger one.

For most intents and purposes, coverage and depth are key when beach hunting, and obviously a larger coil prevails for that.

[seapro1]

I like the 8" search coils they seem to give me the best overall results!!!!

[Les West Central Fl]

I use the 8 inch Seasearch Coil that is on my old Excal. In trashy areas it works better than on my Excal 2 with the 10 inch coil. Using the 8 inch covers less area than the 10 inch so you have to go much slower and over lap your swings. If you are inexperienced you will probably miss a lot of targets.

[dewcon4414]

It also depends on if you are using a concentric or DD coil.... the footprint will make a difference. Les's small coil does one heck of a job.

Dew