Gb pro coil

[taternut]

Does the 10" elliptical coil give more depth as well as radius? I've heard about a lot of people changing out the standard 5" for the 10" but I'm just curious if its an all around stronger coil or just a bigger surface area that it covers? Any input would help : D

 

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[jmoller99]

i swapped out my standard 6X11 inch DD coil on my Whites GMT to a 4X6 inch DD coil. Its more sensitive to small gold up to about 4 inchs down than the larger coil. A bigger coils will help you find deeper large nuggets, but it will miss a lot of the small surface gold. This is why the GB2 comes with a smaller coil. Also likely why you have a 5 inch coil.

If you were looking for relics or large items down deep, the larger coil will help, but my experience shows that the smaller coil allows you to work in rocky areas better and also has a smaller foot print so that trash will be in less of the target area - When I use my test targets - the smaller coil beats the larger one for most gold prospecting tasks. If all the gold in the area was all the size of coins, then the bigger coil would be my first choice - however, that has not been the case for me (I did find a 2.2 gram nugget, that was about 1/2 the diameter of a dime, so larger pieces do exist to find, there just are not a lot of them).

There are people who have done tests and these point to the benefits of the smaller coils for VLF gold detectors.

 

[nuggeteer]

Hi taternut,
Congratulations on your first piece of gold with the MD. Awesome.

I am nearly as new to metal detecting as you. I started detecting for gold with the GB Pro about 5 months ago. For the first 4 months I used the 5" round coil and found some nice pieces of gold. Three weeks ago, I bought the 10" elliptical coil and have used it only about a dozen times so my observations might change with more time and experience. However, in these past three weeks I have brought both coils with me when I detect and have been experimenting extensively. I have tested both coils in various conditions, geology, ground mineralization, in trashy areas, among hot rocks, etc. This is some of what I have learned so far...

--Since it is a larger coil, the ground coverage of the 10" coil is far better than the 5" round. Because of the geology in our area, you don't need to stick to waterways and locations that show evidence of mining to find gold. I have found early mining records indicating concentrations of gold in random surface patches all over this area. Although a knowledge of local geology has helped me greatly, because most of these patches are produced randomly, I spend a lot of time swinging blind. What I mean by this is that I detect areas away from waterways, that have never been mined, and that don't necessarily exhibit a geological setting that is especially conducive to the occurrence of gold. Having a larger coil has allowed me to more thoroughly cover an area, in less time, and while using less battery life.
--The tip of the elliptical coil is tapered to a point enabling it to reach into tighter spots than the round coil. The day after I bought the 10" I found a piece of gold that was situated amid a cluster of manzanita trunks. This piece was large enough and shallow enough to have been found with the 5", except for the simple fact that the 5" could not fit into such a tight spot. Although the round coil is small, when I'm detecting in a thicket or between cracks in a rocky outcrop, an extra inch is significant.
--The 10" coil is as sensitive as the 5" coil to small gold. When I bought the 10" coil, the guy at the shop told me that it was less sensitive to small (grain-size) gold than the 5", but more sensitive to larger gold. At first I didn't like the trade off, but after much experimenting I am certain that the 10" is finding small gold at the same depths as the 5" coil.
--The 10" coil is more sensitive than the 5" coil to larger gold that is deeper. At one of the areas I like to detect, there is an "island" of shallow bedrock surrounded by deeper sediments. I had completely detected the shallow areas many times with the 5" coil resulting in 16 pieces of gold. However, as soon as I got to the deeper areas... nothing, not even lead. I returned to this area recently with the 10" and detected the surrounding deeper areas. Along with many more lead signals that I had missed with the round coil, about five inches down I uncovered the largest piece of gold I have ever found. Afterward, out of curiosity I switched to the 5" round to see if it could've detected this piece. It did, but only at around 4 inches. Again, an extra inch is significant.
--The 10" coil is more sensitive to being bumped than the 5" coil. This is really the only problem I have with the 10". It seems that just about every bump gives out a gold tone and gold reading. Many times I find myself focusing more on keeping the coil from bumping into things and less on the display.

Both coils are excellent and very sensitive and I am pleased with both. Before you consider the spending $180 for a new coil, you must realize that depth-wise only 1 of my 22 pieces of gold found with the GB Pro was out of range for the 5" coil. I would suggest that you keep using the 5" round until you determine, if you ever do, that it is limiting you. There is more gold-sprinkled shallow bedrock out there than both of us will ever find, or detect.

 

[Ausgoldhunter]

I've been swinging the GB Pro for about the same amount of time as nuggeteer but detecting for years... I installed the 10" elliptical coil about 2 months ago and have not touched the 5" stock coil since... As for sensitivity loss *don't expect much if any* I got a flake a few days ago with my NEL 5.5x9.5" Sharpshooter coil 0.9 grains... Elliptical 10" picked it up a little cleaner.. If you can hit those you aren't missing much..

Anyway just my 2 cents.. The 10" is worth the investment for the ground coverage and depth advantage..

 

[taternut]

I've been swinging the GB Pro for about the same amount of time as nuggeteer but detecting for years... I installed the 10" elliptical coil about 2 months ago and have not touched the 5" stock coil since... As for sensitivity loss *don't expect much if any* I got a flake a few days ago with my NEL 5.5x9.5" Sharpshooter coil 0.9 grains... Elliptical 10" picked it up a little cleaner.. If you can hit those you aren't missing much..

Anyway just my 2 cents.. The 10" is worth the investment for the ground coverage and depth advantage..

I think I'm going to order one tomorrow

 

[trinityau]

Hello guys, there seems to be a bit of misinformation as far as the five inch and the ten inch coil. My experience with the five inch coil was great. I used several of them to be sure of how they performed. The five inch coil is very sensitive to extremely tiny gold. The drawback as mentioned is being able to get into tight places. You do not get the ground coverage that you do with the ten inch coil. Here is the difference between the two coils. I have found that the ten inch coil is just as sensitive as the five inch coil when detecting tiny, tiny sub-grain pieces, maybe even a tad more sensitive, but only at the front end of the coil. To achieve this maximum sensitivity from the ten inch coil on tiny sub-grain pieces you must detect with the ten inch coil tilted to the ground very slightly and hunt with only the coil tip. In the case of tiny sub-grain gold I have found that the ten inch coil is not as sensitive as the five inch coil if it is used flat on the surface, except for the front tip again. The remaining belly of the ten inch coil is quite a bit more sensitive and will give you more depth than the five inch coil on larger nuggets. My experience with coils in the past told me to check this out on several ten inch coils and I did. I tried several GB Pros that were outfitted with the ten inch coil and the results were the same. Some coils have hot spots that can be located anywhere on the coil and that can be advantageous to detecting. From what I have found out this is not the case with the ten inch coil, they all perform the same. Any of you can test this yourself and see what I am talking about. This is why I use the ten inch coil and have even brought the subject up to Fisher Labs that the GB Pro should have the ten inch coil as the stock coil, not the five inch coil as it is right now. I hope this helps some folks in determining whether or not to make the purchase of the ten inch coil.

I have been gone for a few days on a club outing in the Yuba River country. It was beautiful weather and fantastic country. I found only two pieces of gold, about a pennyweight each. I ended up giving both pieces away as we had two kids turning sixteen on the same day. What better birthday gift in a prospecting community ... Here are a few pictures you can check out. Thanks, TRINITYAU/RAYMILLS

 

[Ausgoldhunter]

Nice gold, and great info, thanks once again Ray..

 

[taternut]

Thanks again ray for the great info and input I'm going to order one in the morning from Arizona outback. And I'm excited to get back out there on Wednesday I hope!!!

 

[taternut]

Well I got the 10" elliptical today, seems like everywhere is short on them due to the popularity. So I went to a local shop to see if they had one and they did! But no coil covers in stock, so I think ill have to order one online. I'm excited to get out and use the bad boy now