Excal 1000, Excal II, Sovereign GT, CZ-20, Tiger Shark, Tejon, GTI 1500, Surfmaster Pulse, CZ6a, DFX, AT PRO, Fisher 1235, Surf PI Pro, 1280-X, many more because I enjoy learning them. New Garrett Ca
I use the larger coil and can still pick up earring backs but it might be my sens settings and zero disc. Different beaches call for different size coils. There is no one size that is best.
Look at it this way, I found a .06 of a gram gold ring over 8 inches deep using an excal that had a 15 inch coil hardwired on it...... You want as much coverage as possible at the beach, why detect it with a coffee saucer....
In a trashy area an 8 inch coil does much better in finding good targets however remember you are covering a much smaller area on the swings. I use the old Excal with the seasearch coil mostly and have good results but I try to overlap my sweeps.
Les is a guru with that 8" coil....ive seen him work. In the water both have an advantages..... it depends on how you hunt and where you hunt. If you are meticulous and overlap properly you can do well with any of the coils. Some people dont waste time on the little stuff..... they use a WOT for coverage and do as much beach and water area as possible leaving the small targets to others.
Excal 1000, Excal II, Sovereign GT, CZ-20, Tiger Shark, Tejon, GTI 1500, Surfmaster Pulse, CZ6a, DFX, AT PRO, Fisher 1235, Surf PI Pro, 1280-X, many more because I enjoy learning them. New Garrett Ca
Dew is right of course. Time wasted trying to scoop all those tiny signals for the small stuff wastes time which could better be spent swinging for that large man's gold ring. But it is all in how much fun you want to have. When I get bored I pay more attention to the small targets too but try not to waste to much time on them. One of the reasons I gave up on the PI is wasting time on deep holes for trash plus wearing myself out early.