5" Sun Ray and Target Response

[steve herschbach]

Hi,

I'm an Explorer II neophyte and have a new one to play with. I like small coils and so got the 5" Sun Ray coil that I plan on using very soon. I'm pretty good with my GP 3500 but could use a bit of advice with the Explorer II.

Small coils often change depth readings. What should I expect with the 5" Sun Ray as far as depth readings compared to stock coil? How about target id? I'd assume a smaller coil to be more accurate on target id, but thought I'd ask since I'm at it.

I plan on digging all non-ferrous targets for awhile. Any "dig anything not iron" tips you can offer? Should I go wide open or reject iron targets?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Steve Herschbach
Steve's Mining Journal

 

[steve herschbach]

Hi,

I guess you guys don't use small coils on your Explorers. Thanks anyway.

Steve Herschbach

 

[MAcle1997]

Hi Steve,
I love my Sunray X5 coil. Found my first silver dollar with it last year.
I'm not sure of the exact change in depth scale readings on
the Explorer. Usually I just subtract about two inches from the scale
reading would be with a stock coil. That gets me close enough to
find the target with the X1 probe. I think that another season or two
using the X5 coil will be enough for me to memorize the differences
between it and the stock coil. I'm planning on getting used to using
the Coiltek WOT this year as well.

Mark


[quote steve herschbach]Hi,

I guess you guys don't use small coils on your Explorers. Thanks anyway.

Steve Herschbach[/quote]

 

[RingProfessional]

Cant speak for the sunray but i use an detech excellerator 5 inch coil on trashy sites but i personally never run it wide open as it picks too many iron targets up and the depth is no better wide open than using iron mask 12 , i run mine iron mask 12. The depth readings are way out on the 5 inch coils i dont even look at the depth indicator with a five inch coil because its about 30% out of calibration approx. The depth is pretty crap too compared to the stock coil - useless on any sits other than trash loaded sites i Know this for sure ha ha. It takes ages to even cover smallish areas of ground!. The excellerator coils are good at finding silver though especially the 8 inch i have found a dozen silvers with the 8 inch excellerator and one silver coin with the 5 inch.

 

[steve herschbach]

Hi RingProfessional,

Thanks for the info, especially on the Iron Mask setting. I do pretty well hitting really trashy sites others avoid getting shallow coins missed all these years from sitting in the trash. I have half a dozen other units with 5-6" coils and am going to see how the Explorer stacks up against them. Battle of the hockey pucks!

Steve Herschbach
Steve's Mining Journal

 

[Wirechief]

Hi Steve, this is John at John's Detectors and I have played around with the Exp. II with the X5 SunRay coil. Depth guages don't mean a thing to me and so I don't pay any attention to them. You do have to use a very slow sweep speed. If I'm not careful I catch myself trying to go too fast sometimes since your not covering much real estate with a 5" coil. But when ya come across a coin you know it. I haven't found anything very deep with it yet. I think the X5 SunRay coil is cool. Ok CU later Steve and you take care, God Bless you too.

John Tomlinson, CET

 

[minelab marcus]

I've heard that some have had problems with it messing up their explorer. Is this true or just a rumour?
Thanks,
MM

 

[RingProfessional]

Well i have not had any problems with it messing up my explorer - how the hell can a coil mess up an explorer! The detech coils are in my opinion great coils. My best finds have been with detech excelerators thats because they accelerate the good finds.

 

[outdoorsman]

Nickles,yea strange.Had trouble finding nickles and the 5 inch is right on in digital and smart screen.I know nickles are nothing to be excited about. My sons tesoro never finds them as we tune the discrim to keep pull tabs out so nickles are lower so we never find them.I started to see where the nickles hit in digital, its like 11-06 and in smart, the cursor is just above the iron mask on black dot.So if i see it i dig it and 9 times out of ten its a nickle.thats that,scott.

 

[au4greg]

Steve,

I tested the 5" Excelerator against the 5" Sun Ray and the Sun Ray seemed to have about a 30% advantage in sensitivity.

Dave Clark aka Cabinet Dave, our club president uses one on his Quattro and has pulled coins and targets out on the Peninsula over 7", I believe 9" in one case. All my other customers have had NO complaints.

It is an excellent coil.