Looking to trade up to a Deus, but could use some advice on coil choices

[paleomaxx]

I've been using the AT Pro for the past year and it's a great machine, but I've definitely been hitting the limits of its abilities. I've wanted to graduate to an XP Deus for awhile now and I think I have enough of a skill set for it to make sense, but I want to make sure I'm getting coils that are appropriate for my usual sites. I have two main ground conditions that I'm aware would probably require two different coils to get the best response.

The first is mineralization. I have many yards with rocky/sandy soil that require me to turn the sensitivity almost to the bottom on the AT Pro to get even basic repeatable signals and it limits the search depth to 4" or less. I also have a good number of high iron areas, and while I do have a sniper coil for the AT Pro; many of those sites have targets 4-8" down so that's no good.

The others are deep areas where the relics are stratified based on age and I've so far done a good job pulling out all of the more recent targets in the first 8", but I know there are older deeper targets that I can't get to on the AT Pro even with discrimination off and sensitivity cranked. Reasonable target separation at 10-14" would be fantastic at those sites.

So what are your thoughts? Is the standard 9" coil sufficient for the mineralized areas? Do I need an 11" or 13" coil for my deeper sites or is that overkill?

 

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[Calabash Digger]

9 inch coil is my favorite by far. I hunt with a 9 whether it be the hf or lf coil 99% of the time. The deus nine inch coil is not like other brands nine inch coils. It seperates great and is super deep ! 10 inchs on a merc dime in my garden and a 12 inchs on silver half.

 

[smokeythecat]

I'm with Calabash digger. The regular coil is great. For nail pits looking for tiny gold or silver, one day add the HF 9" elliptical.

 

[paleomaxx]

9 inch coil is my favorite by far. I hunt with a 9 whether it be the hf or lf coil 99% of the time. The deus nine inch coil is not like other brands nine inch coils. It seperates great and is super deep ! 10 inchs on a merc dime in my garden and a 12 inchs on silver half.

That's great to know; there were so many coil bundle options available I wasn't sure if I needed to have a selection to get the full functionality. I know it's orders of magnitude easier to swap coils on the Deus versus the AT Pro so it wouldn't have bothered me, but it's great if the stock 9" will work with both site conditions.

 

[smokeythecat]

It certainly will. I even found HALF of a 14k ring and a HALF of a tungsten ring this week. Go figure. Half Having the gold ring restored, although it's really a waste of money, but I will have a whole ring when I'm done. Lady at the jewelry store today said the tunsten ones are tough, but brittle and will snap in half frequently.

 

[paleomaxx]

It certainly will. I even found HALF of a 14k ring and a HALF of a tungsten ring this week. Go figure. Half Having the gold ring restored, although it's really a waste of money, but I will have a whole ring when I'm done. Lady at the jewelry store today said the tunsten ones are tough, but brittle and will snap in half frequently.

I must say, your other big find of the day is certainly a solid selling point for the Deus! Congratulations on the terrific score!

 

[RustyGold]

I would agree! The 9" LF Coil and an HF Elliptical Coil for the tight places.
Although, I would like to add the 9" HF Round Coil later so I can use it on wide beach expanses.

 

[CharlesUpstateNY]

I opted for the 11 inch LF coil plus a 9 inch HF round coil. After a couple test hunts with the 11 due to our heavy trash and iron I have been using the 9 inch HF and liking it. It loves mid conductors and my soil sucks both volcanic black sand and is littered with rusty nails. You think your rusty nail patch is bad, try rusty nails in black sand its the double whammy.

The 9 inch round HF coil is cutting through this black sand, iron mess and getting solid hits. Two of note, a rusted nickel weekend before last about 8 inches down, at 14.4 kHz it was a solid BANG hit from every angle.

This past weekend the target was a small square piece of flat brass, maybe .300 x .500 inches, solid repeating hit from all directions on a site that is blanketed in iron. I made a pass on this site about 300 yards long with my Explorer SE Pro and didn't dig a single target, multiple nails and iron bits on every swing. Took the Deus and the HF coil across the field in the same area first at 14.4 kHz from the truck to the far side of the field, about 150 yards. Dug a couple older trash targets, a bent ring off a really old ring tab, smaller than a nickel, then one of those metal hook tabs that hold an Ace bandage wrap together.

I switched to 54 kHz (becoming my favorite frequency) back across the field towards the truck, so another 150 yards. A LOT more solid mid conductive signals and dug the small brass square about 6 inches down. Again this field is solid iron. I have dug east coast cellar holes that had fewer nails.

 

[namxat]

I have no experience with the new HF coils but had an one to one race between the 11 inch and the 9 inch coil.

Several times he called if this or that signal would also come through w/ the nine inch -> it alsways did. So I could not find addtional depht in the 11 inch coil.

But I have been told that he has considerable problems near power lines, railway lines ect. I not so much.

In a nutshell:

Tight areas, areas with mineralized soil and/or near potential magnetic fields -> 9 inch

Open areas, low mineralized soil, no magnetic interfernence -> give the 11 inch a shot, you will make more area in the same time.

As sidenote: Neiterh of us had problem w/ target separation, despite a lot of iron in the ground

Greet Namxat

 

[rks1949]

I have the 9 inch LF coil (only one I have) and never noticed any disavantage with it? I've hit mercs,at 11 inches,plus you have to remember the Deus is fast! You can swing fast and cover a lot of ground,even using the 9 inch coil!

 

[DigDeepNow]

I bought the 11" to maximize depth
Lately I've been hunting a spot with tons of trash and wishing I had a 9" to compare
Sounds like the 9" might have been a better choice

 

[vferrari]

With a DD coil going from 9" to 11" does not do much to improve depth vs. the difference in depth performance between similarly sized concentric coils. The main advantage of the 11" coil is increased coverage per swing. Also note that side-to-side separation for a DD coil determined by the width of the center "spine" of the coil where the two D-coils intersect, so with the same spine width, there is not much separation difference between the 11" and 9" coils either.

Knowing what I now know regarding the various LF and HF coil combinations here are my optimal setups for one, two, and three-coil kits assuming you have to purchase a Deus (control box, stem, and WS4 wireless headphones - which I prefer over WS5's for about 10 reasons which are the subject of a whole other thread):

Single Coil: 9" LF>only because you can't purchase the HF Coils in combination with the Deus without also buying an lf coil. Otherwise, my choice would be the 9" HF.

Two-Coil: 11" lf (with the Deus) and 9" HF add-on. Rationale - 11" for coverage and smidge extra depth for high conductors primarily due to be able to operate it at 4 khz vs. the actual coil size.

Three-Coil: Same as two-coil but add the elliptical. Primarily for the higher frequency advantage for small gold and shallow target separation and for the ability to maneuver better in tight areas.

Do not recommend the 11x13" at all. Too heavy such that it flexes the standard shaft requiring investment in a new third-party straight shaft such as that offered by Anderson. Not a fan of this red-headed step child of a coil that brings practically nothing good to the table other than some additional coverage (remember what I said about depth - i.e., not much of an improvement over the 11" coil) but not at all worth the price of admission (shaft + coil will set you back nearly 600 big ones).