I too have a selection of coils I use with the Excal. I have two with interchangeable coils ( a blue and a 2) and a stock blue with the stock 10". The interchangeable ones have the stock 8", WOT 15" , and NEL Attack 15" coils to choose from, and also have the pin point mod and improved headphones. Regardless of which combo I use, where I use it, and setting used, I get more depth with the bigger coils. As with all detectors, the smaller the coil, the easier it is to get target separation in trashy areas. I just haven't been in an area where using a smaller coil gives me better depth. Even in the trashy areas where I've hunted, if I get a nail next to a good target, I still get a slight non-ferrous blip along with the null. Not quite as pronounced as a FBS machine, but, it still gives you a slight chirp. Now if you're swinging the coil too fast, yeah, you're going to miss it, but, when you hit a trashy area(especially iron infested), you have to slow way down so you don't miss those targets. This applies to highly mineralized ground too. When I get in some nasty black sand, depth can be severely affected, but that applies to all the coils I've used. You just slow down to a snail's pace and work it. The small coil just allows me to move a bit faster and get a better signal on a partially masked signal in trashy ground. It doesn't give me any better depth though.....quite the contrary.
