ACE 300i and 400i Coils

[doggoneitdignit]

What coil in your soil conditions would you not spend most time using? What is your favorite and least favorite Garrett coils or 3rd part vendor coils, and what about the Cors or Nel brands in particular.

I tend to hunt in non ferrous type ground, trashy mostly, soil is dark grey glaysolic hard impact type soil, moisture moderately wet most of the time, dry areas not exposed too that much. Lots of pull tabs, screw caps not necessarily nail infested areas, most parks and tot parks. I will be hunting in Farm fields and possible some homestead older abandon areas within Southern Saskatchewan area. Where I live most of our soil is from ancient glacier lake type soil very bad. Only have the one coil right now for it the 7x10" and will be getting most use this year out of it yet but before I start thinking of getting another coil I am looking for suggestions. I am leaning towards these two. The Garrett 5x8 DD , maybe the Cors Shrew, and the larger Strike or Detonation type coils at 12x13" or 13x14". Have anyone used these Cors coils or what about the NEL similar size coils, which do you use and would recommended for the 300i at 8KHz machine. Want something for depth but with moderately good separation still if I can with pin point accuracy. Again my soil is mild to moderate, not high mineralization. For the NEL maybe the Thunder maybe a good option?

Are any of the aftermarket coils interchangeable with other metal detector brands or are they specific to the detector itself.

Thanks.

 

[Andy Nunez]

Well, I don't have the 400i, just the American version, the 400, so not sure if my data would be of any use to you. Being on a peninsula, my soil is not very rocky and the only mineralization is black sand on the beaches, except near railroad beds, which are full of hot rocks from clinker. The stock coil worked just fine for me and I thought the 400 went a bit deeper than the 350, my previous machine. I did acquire the Cors Cannon 10/5 by 14/5 coil and while I can't say with assurance that I am getting deeper coins, I find it helps me cover more ground, and it does help me on nickels. My deepest coin so far is a 9 inch wheat penny but I got a small piece of brass about the size of a 3 cent piece at nearly a foot. I tend to almost exclusively hunt farm fields, so the coil is just right for me, but there have been a couple of colonial building sites that are so full of nails that I did wish for a 5 x 8 coil. I consider the soil in my area to be very friendly to turn on and go machines and I have gotten one bust dime from 1830, three seated dimes from 1857-1891, numerous Indian Head and wheat pennies, lots and lots of buttons of all sizes, so I feel the big coil has good separation for small targets. Here people throw beer cans out of their car windows into the fields and it takes practice for your ear to determine a hunk of can versus a coin and most times, you dig it anyway because, well, you never know.

 

[doggoneitdignit]

Great job finding those dates on those dimes, and getting deep like that on nickels always a good thing. Thanks for your input any others want to share?

 

[VTColonialDigger]

I have an Ace 400. DD search coils work the best for most situations. The stock coil (8.5x11 inch DD) has worked quite well for me, but I want to get a 5x8 inch DD at some point. The 8.5x11 is great for depth. The 5x8 is good for picking out good targets in iron/trash infested areas. Both of these have very good pinpointing.

 

[doggoneitdignit]

These were my thoughts that the stock concentric or DD with the 300 or 400 were great at pinpointing and that the 5x8 for seperation and decent depth still, I was looking at the others and think with what Garret provides one just needs to slow down, listen, and switch off between these two coils, a sniper maybe helpful at times going anything bigger you likely would gain a max of 2" I am thinking not sure if that warrants me enough to go out and buy another coil? My thoughts exact, and if anything for what I own so far pinpointing is key for me more over then seperation and depth.