To all my 6” coil uses out there, question on separation & depth

Truth

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To all my 6” coil uses out there, question on separation & depth

I’m going to my 1820’s where I’ve found my half dime busts with the 11” coil. It has a lot of iron square nail in the ground and with all the small falsing it was forced to dig. Although I found those halves I was doing a lot of digging in this man’s yard, so I got the 6” to lesson my odds. Question is since I found the coins 7” down, sometimes deeper than the nails, should I use the small coil in recovery speed 3 or 4? Since it’s a small 6” to get down to 7” will that mess up the separation more or do I just do it and remain slow a low? Pray you guys know what I’m asking. Thank you
 

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Calabash Digger

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5 or 6 imo would be about as slow as I would go. That needs to tested further though.
 

vferrari

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Agree with Calabash. You can back off a little on recovery speed to eek out some more depth on the 6" and to take advantage of its natural ability to separate because it is a small coil. Problem is you reach a point of diminishing returns because the Equinox is designed to operate with fast recovery. Slower recovery speeds force you to swing slower which tends to increase ground induced background noise which limits the effective maximum depth you can achieve by lowering recovery speed. And believe me, with that small coil you want to have a decent sweep speed to overcome the small coverage otherwise you feel like you are covering a square foot a minute as you tiptoe around the site. It does force you to go slow in terms of your forward progress as you traverse the site, which is probably a good thing.
 

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Truth

Truth

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Agree with Calabash. You can back off a little on recovery speed to eek out some more depth on the 6" and to take advantage of its natural ability to separate because it is a small coil. Problem is you reach a point of diminishing returns because the Equinox is designed to operate with fast recovery. Slower recovery speeds force you to swing slower which tends to increase ground induced background noise which limits the effective maximum depth you can achieve by lowering recovery speed. And believe me, with that small coil you want to have a decent sweep speed to overcome the small coverage otherwise you feel like you are covering a square foot a minute as you tiptoe around the site. It does force you to go slow in terms of your forward progress as you traverse the site, which is probably a good thing.

That 6” in like coloring a poster with a Bic pen. Too small for my liking.
 

gunsil

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Truth, I agree that the 6" coil is too small. Kindly e-mail Minelab and ask that they come out with a nice 8" coil which will still give superior separation over the 11" stock coil and give a little better coverage per sweep and depth than the 6". They seem to be getting more user friendly, maybe they will listen. Maybe I am dreaming, but if they don't get requests and input they will never know what their customers would like to see or have. After my second e-mail requesting an 8" coil Deb at customer service said she had relayed the request to Minelab HQ.
 

McKinney_5900

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Truth, I agree that the 6" coil is too small. Kindly e-mail Minelab and ask that they come out with a nice 8" coil which will still give superior separation over the 11" stock coil and give a little better coverage per sweep and depth than the 6". They seem to be getting more user friendly, maybe they will listen. Maybe I am dreaming, but if they don't get requests and input they will never know what their customers would like to see or have. After my second e-mail requesting an 8" coil Deb at customer service said she had relayed the request to Minelab HQ.

I'm waiting on an 8"coil as well.
 

vferrari

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I doubt ML is going to do that any time soon. The 15x12" elliptical is yet to be released which they announced (along with the 6") shortly after Equinox released last February and nothing further has been announced since. Hopefully, there will be third party coil options appearing in the coming months.
 

cudamark

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Truth, Id play around with a few settings to see what will work the best on that site. If it were me, in a nail infested site, I'd start with the recovery speed maxed out and see what finds and corresponding depths I'm getting. If it's not going deep enough, then lower the recovery speed a couple notches and check again. It might take a few trial and error sessions to find the optimum setting. If you are going to continually hunt this site, using different modes and settings should get all the available targets eventually......at least until the Equinox 1000 comes out! :laughing7:
 

gunsil

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I doubt ML is going to do that any time soon. The 15x12" elliptical is yet to be released which they announced (along with the 6") shortly after Equinox released last February and nothing further has been announced since. Hopefully, there will be third party coil options appearing in the coming months.

I also e-mailed NEL, Coiltek, and SunRay and they all said they had no immediate plans to make any Equinox coils. Minelab not doing it soon isn't a problem if they get around to it over the winter, and you're right, they may never do it, but there will be a better chance if they get a lot of feedback asking for an 8" one.
 

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Truth

Truth

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Truth, Id play around with a few settings to see what will work the best on that site. If it were me, in a nail infested site, I'd start with the recovery speed maxed out and see what finds and corresponding depths I'm getting. If it's not going deep enough, then lower the recovery speed a couple notches and check again. It might take a few trial and error sessions to find the optimum setting. If you are going to continually hunt this site, using different modes and settings should get all the available targets eventually......at least until the Equinox 1000 comes out! :laughing7:

Lol cuda. I personally think the 6” is too small. I’ll only be using it in our tight ass woods we have over here. It’s perfect for that.
 

cudamark

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I've debated over whether to get the 6" or not. I figure it's probably a good option at an old home site where there are tons of roofing nails in the yard and maybe ghost towning where there's tons of iron junk around, but, other than that, my other machines do pretty good with their small coils. I'm really wanting the big coil for the Nox. I hunt a lot of wide open spaces and could use the extra coverage.
 

relicmeister

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I don't yet have the 6" coil and I will get one soon I hope, but if I had a choice I would like a 10"x5" coil which would give somewhat better coverage. Pretty sure all that will be available for another year will be the 6" and the 12x15- and anyone's guess when any aftermarkets are introduced.
 

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