Does Your 15x12 Get Less Depth In Mineralized Ground?

[Critterhunter]

I've owned a 15x12 for several months and I love this coil. It pinpoints and separates better than my stock 10" coil on my GT, runs very smooth, and is just all around a better coil. I also love it's coverage in large open areas such as the beach. Just about all the reports I've read about it say it's deeper than the 10" Tornado or even the 11" Pro Coil, along with being slightly deeper on dimes and bigger than the 12x10.

However, in my medium to high mineralized soil while it's depth is good (around 8 to 9" on a coin) it doesn't seem to go as deep as my 10" coil, which I've dug coins at roughly 11" deep with. The weird thing is that on the beach these two coils seem to swap places, with both getting deeper (around 12 to 14") but the 15x12 seems to go another few inches deeper.

I suspect that my land hunting sites being fair to high in mineralization is putting this coil past the point of no return in terms of depth increase with it's larger size. I believe it's just taking in too much ground matrix and losing or degrading the target at depths beyond around 8 or 9" deep. This coil will run stable at higher sensitivity settings than the 10" coil, but I've found that highest stable sensitivity doesn't equal best depth on these Minelabs. My usual routine is to stick a dime in the ground and calibrate sensitivity for best response on that at depth, and this setting often is much lower than max stable sensitivity for either coil. Going higher can null or degrade the target just like too low of sensitivity can.

What I'm curious about is if any of you Explorer users have also found the 15x12 seems to get less depth for you in a fair amount of minerals. Don't get me wrong, it's one awesome coil for all the above reasons and even seems to hit coins on edge or masked better than conventional concentric or DD designs. It just hasn't shown me greater depths. I am thinking that perhaps in my soil the 12x10 or S12 is about max in coil size I can go to while still seeing increased depths on targets.

Also, have any of you Explorer users tested the S-12 against the 12x10? I would suspect the depth of both is about the same but with the 12x10 being much better at separation. Based on my experience with the 15x12 it feels like it separates left/right width wise better than coils as small as 8 or 9" in size on other machines, and as said I feel it's better than the stock 10" as well.

So are you getting deeper in mineralized ground with this coil. If not, have you found the 12x10 or S-12 is giving you more depth than it due to seeing less ground matrix in medium to high mineral locations? I suspect the 15x12 only shines in terms of more depth in lower mineral sites, or as said for some reason on the beach. Thanks for any input.

 

[dewcon4414]

You have just said what i said last winter about sensitivity. More does not always mean more depth with the explorer. I hunted on the beach and found i had no problem running full sensitivity, but when tested on a deep target i found better depth and tone from less sensitivity. I dont know any coil that wont get less depth in serious mineralization or trash. Like you said, there is a lot of targets that have to be processed. You also loose depth on smaller targets the larger the coil gets as well. Its just a fact. Finding that coil that best serves your needs for the type of hunting you do sometimes isnt easy.

Dew

 

[Critterhunter]

Even if the target isn't masked by trash I'm finding the 15x12 gets less depth than my stock 10" Tornado on my GT in mineralized ground. I believe even though the machine is stable the target is being lost in the extra ground matrix that the machine is taking in. Interestingly enough, on my fresh water beaches that are mineralized I get another 2" or more depth with the 15x12 than I do the stock coil. That doesn't make much sense that the two coils would trade leads on the beach. Yesterday I re-hunted a beach that the 15x12 was very stable on in manual and got great depth. Using the 10" stock coil yesterday (same moisture content to the sand) the stock coil wouldn't run stable unless I flipped over to Auto sensitivity. For some reason the 15x12 gets less depth on land but more depth than the stock coil on the beach and also runs more stable.

Yea, when I owned my Explorers I also found that just like the Sovereign they would get blinded by too high of sensitivity even if the machine seemed stable. My standard procedure these days is to stick a silver dime in the ground at fringe depth (for that location) and then play with sensitivity until I get the best and easiest proper ID/audio. Often that setting is MUCH lower than what anybody would consider a stable machine. Something too high will null or badly degrade the target just like too low can. Often the best spot is only about 1/3rd full sensitivity even if the machine will run stable at something much higher.

 

[JW]

n/t