First off, let me offer a HUGE thank you to Kellyco for sponsoring the Charter Membership. I won the June drawing, and used the $50 gift card toward the NEL Hunter coil! The support was great, and shipping was done nicely.
My NEL Hunter Coil for the AT Pro experience:
When I first got the coil, I was impressed again that it CAME with a coil cover... Very nice! And then on top of that, the coil is completely sealed up. No epoxy showing with the coil cover off. Very well constructed.
Right away, I tried to connect it up to my lower rod using the AT Pro's screw. Bad idea. Didn't quite work right, and I broke the stock plastic screw. Definitely use the one that comes with the coil! Also, the coil is definitely a little bigger than the stock! It just looks "weird" under the lower rod. But that WEIRD is so freaking amazing when I'm swinging it.
Swinging the coil: The 12.5" coil length apparently matches my stepping when I'm swinging. I felt like I was ALWAYS slowing down when using the stock AT Pro (11 inches)... and was always having a small gap between swings. With the NEL hunter, it's like my swing has become "perfect" with nearly exact swinging coverage. I feel like I'm totally doing a better job swinging without wasting overlap. My find rate feels like it's gone up a bit, too, but that's for another reason as well.
Discrimination I'd swear... really I would!... that this coil actually discriminates better on targets. Foil is a little more "foily" and rings and coins are a little more "solid." Sure the pop tab also rings up more nicely, but after about 20 hours of using it, I've gotten to the point I'm now skipping over even more trash. I just know it's trash. The last hunt, I called out everything in my head and was 100% correct, with the exception of pop-tabs, which always sound too nice to know (so... for those, I always called out in my brain, "let's check if it's gold!")
I've had no shortage of rings found with it, and have now found 8. 2 silvers. They hit "harder" than the stock AT Pro coil did.
Depth most of you who know me, know that I'm a park and school hunter and I don't do deep. But that being said, I've had to back off a notch on sensitivity over what I was running. I was catching items that were too deep for the 8" I'm allowed in the parks (by ordinance). Basically, if I can't catch it with the Lesche, it's too deep.... Now I'm running at sensitivity 3. And I can confirm I'm finding quarters at the 8" mark and then a little (if they're in the bottom I'll still root around for them). I had to run a 4 sensitivity on the Stock coil to pull those, and with stock it was always an "iffy" signal. With the NEL, these are loud and clear. Quarters ring up like church bells now.
Target Separation I was a bit concerned that the larger length in the coil would catch more double targets. It does. Of course it does. It's got another 1.5" to catch double targets. It's not that big of a deal though, as a shift in stance, or simply wiggle method reveals that there are two targets. I even managed to pull a quarter off the top of a nail, yesterday. The targets were so dang close it just rang up as blipping to 00 and 88. Unsure what it was, I pulled the sod back and about 5" down there was the quarter. I don't think I'd have had such a nice 88 with the AT Pro, as it typically would "average" some of the targets if they were too close (such as when coins were stacked). I still got the average effect with the NEL hunter for stacked coins, but if they're off just a little bit, the coil seems to report it. It's quite nice.
I ran it in the water, and found it was just fine. Had no problems swinging or getting coverage. Worked great.
Lastly, the weight is negligible. I can tell there's a difference, but it wasn't even enough to result in muscle fatigue. Clearly, it's close enough to have my arm simply "adapt" to the extra ounce or two at the end of the lower rod.
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Final thoughts:
That thing looks WEIRD at the end of my lower rod. Kind of an oblong shaped coil of awesomeness. I love it. I love the coverage, the better discrimination, and the target separation. I don't think I'll ever go back to the stock coil.
Cheers!
Skippy
