What I Like About the Smaller Coil

[bigscoop]

It is a great conditioning and probing tool. Like a lot of hunters here on the coast I'm a fan of the larger coil, especially over the dry and wet sand, they are deep and provide more coverage, allowing us to cover a lot more ground. But they can also be a costly addiction for the same reasons. Having been forced to use the smaller coil in recent weeks has proved good for me, it has slowed me down, made me more mindful of my coverage, forced me to grid off smaller areas and to work them tighter and more thoroughly. I've probably found more good targets with the smaller coil in the last four of five hunts then I found with the larger coil in the preceding month, and that includes a lot of hours of post Sandy hunts. I'm becoming a fan of the small coil again and I suspect that I'll be using it a lot more often from here on out. But I gotta tell you, when I first started using it again I felt like I was swinging it a BB.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Agony and Death on a Gold Rush Steamer: The Disastrous Sinking of the Side-Wheeler Yankee Blade - Grab it through Amazon!

[OBN]

Same here BigScoop, I have a hard time passing by the larger, but once out seems the 8 on the CZ does better, but then I still wonder if I did that good with the 8 how it would have been with the 10.

 

[bigscoop]

Seems I just pay a lot more attention to the little details when I'm using the smaller coil, especially when hunting around features that I could also hunt with the larger coil. Sort of makes me break those features down into even smaller ones, if that makes any sense. Puts me in that, "slowly pick it apart" mode.

 

[dewcon4414]

I know you use th WOT and now the 8. We talked about it some the other day..... sensitivity vs depth. I know you see a great bit of difference between the WOT and 8 inch use and what it can see. Joe.... what do you think the difference sensitivity wise is between the 8 and 10 inch? DD separate well especially if worked slower and depth... well that does depend on sensitivity some what when it comes to gold. How much sensitivity to smaller gold do you think the 8 inch may be over the 10.... or is it? I would believe its much greater between the WOT and 8. Anyone tested something .... like small white gold?

Dew

 

[bigscoop]

I know you use th WOT and now the 8. We talked about it some the other day..... sensitivity vs depth. I know you see a great bit of difference between the WOT and 8 inch use and what it can see. Joe.... what do you think the difference sensitivity wise is between the 8 and 10 inch? DD separate well especially if worked slower and depth... well that does depend on sensitivity some what when it comes to gold. How much sensitivity to smaller gold do you think the 8 inch may be over the 10.... or is it? I would believe its much greater between the WOT and 8. Anyone tested something .... like small white gold?

Dew

I don't have a 10" for the Excal but if I did I'd sure take both to the beach and do some testing with some small white gold. Would be interesting. I wouldn't think there would be a significant difference?

And here's something else, that 8" coil on the Excal is really only 7 1/2" so I assume the 10 is only 9 1/2"?

 

[bill from lachine]

bigscoop,

About 5 years ago I was using the Ace 250 at one of my picked over sites and I had a 4.5" coil on it.....lol.

Since it was so small I had to slow down my sweeps big time....that said it was powder dry conditions and I managed to pull out 6 silver dimes on edge at about 6" deep....repeatable signals one direction only.....if it wasn't for the smaller coil forcing me to slow down I doubt if I would have found them....kind of makes you wonder.

Regards + HH

Bill

 

[dewcon4414]

From tip to tail.... the Xcal 10 inch coil is 10 inches. However, on deep targets it tends to loose sensitivity on both ends of a couple of inches. The other aspect appears to be the amount of sensitivity on uses. The more sensitivity the greater the coil halo and sensitivity seemed to determine sweep speed with the Xcal. Higher the sensitivity....slower the sweep speed.

Dew

 

[bigscoop]

I think a big eye opener for me was a couple of those chains, good "tics" that were kind of here and there, gone and then back again, couldn't even get a good pinpoint on them. Switched to pinpoint and it was only slightly better, a bit more consistent with the tics but lower (denser) tones sometimes. I was figuring they were just tiny targets moving around in the surface sand. But, and I think this is a huge plus, once you make that first shallow scoop with an 8" scoop you can stick the small coil right in the hole to get a closer look. I do this "a lot" now on questionable and/or faint targets.

 

[bigscoop]

I find a lot more of this kind of stuff with the smaller coil, and at surprising depths sometimes. Looks copper but toned like faint silver so won't know for sure until I clean it up a bit. Just got a tic on this one until I stuck the coil in the hole then I got a much stronger tone.