Getting maximum depth out of my 17" coil.

[broome1000]

I seem to be getting about 9" max depth out of my 17" coil even though it's reading the depth as 12". I am using gonehuntings original combined pattern. I just went into my universal settings and changed the sensitivity from auto to auto +3. Here are the rest of my settings. Any ideas on how to get a little more depth?

 

["Dr.Tones"]

Try setting your gain at 30. I personally feel like auto +3 is the best.

 

[nolanation]

What average sens you running? Ground conditions, of course, matter

 

[broome1000]

I have not been monitoring the avg sensitivity and haven't had anything displaying on the screen. I am going to take a look at that feature my next outing. I am going to take a guess that the new york state soil I am hunting is not highly mineralized. There is some iron scattered around but not much trash present.

 

[Doctorcoinz]

I don't want to rain on your parade but larger coils only go deeper on larger targets , so targets like coins will hardly be found any deeper than using a standard sized coil. You might get a little bit extra depth using the very large coil on coins , an inch at best .

 

[broome1000]

understood. I was mainly interested in the larger footprint of the 17" coil. 1" increase in depth would be a bonus. I just want to get dialed in now to get the detector performing at it's fullest capability.

 

[squirrel1]

Try running your detector at least 26 manual if you can without your detector getting too noisy even higher if you can. Make sure you do a noise cancel. I personally don't have the 17 inch coil. I would suspect your ctx with larger coil would be maybe better at finding the deeper coins on edge down to say 9-10 inches. I wouldn't expect much extra depth until you get to quarter sized targets and bigger. If your soil is warm I definitely wouldn't expect much improvement over stock coil. If your ground is getting on the hotter side the stock coil will probably outdo the big 17"er. I have actually had better results on hot ground when using etrac with a 6x8 sef coil over both a stock pro coil and 10x12 sef. This hot soil wouldn't as hot as the soil talked so much about in Va and the soil around the Birmingham Al area. Bigger is not always better, plus the extra weight can turn would could have been a nice hunt into a not so nice of a hunt with tennis elbow the next morning. Good luck with your coil.

 

[broome1000]

thx. I will give it a try.

 

[JamesM]

As Dr.Tones said, I would run the gain up to 30 in auto + 2-3. I would also cut the threshold down to where it is barely audable, at 30, it might cover up a small, deep target. I'm sure that you know this, but those audio settings need to be set individually, depending on whether you are wearing a headset, using the WM10, or using the CTX speaker.

 

[broome1000]

I am using the wireless module and see there are individual settings in the universal settings as you mention. I have to admit this is new to me and is an area I am less familiar with. What would you recommend as a barely audible level for the threshold?

 

[JamesM]

What would you recommend as a barely audible level for the threshold?

It depends a lot on your hearing, and whether you are wearing headphones. I have mine set on 23 with the head phones plugged into the WM10, and set on 25 when using the CTX speaker (wireless turned off in settings). If you set it with wireless turned off, and then turn wireless on and plug the phones in, you will find that it is different (separate settings, as I mentioned). You want the threshold set loud enough that you can hear it, but not so loud that it will keep you from hearing a small deep target (barely audible).

 

[Nes (south Coast-CA)]

I'm not sure how much deeper the 17" coil will go, but on the beach in wet conditions, it seems I never get a depth reading under 12" on any target. I've been thinking something was wrong with the machine or coil. When I dig a target at those readings, they are deep. With the 11" coil I get lesser readings which seem to be more in line with a coil that doesn't go as deep as the larger coil. On the beach last week, I dug what seemed to be a reasonable target reading and it was deep (using the 17" coil). When I finally separated it from the sand it turned out to be an alloy zipper pull that measured about 5/8" x 1/4". Someone who was watching me was flabbergasted that a metal detector could find objects that small that deep. Since the CTX is still new to me, I'm still experimenting, but I'm pretty sure by now that if the coil passes over a good target the machine will sound off.

 

[Atlas]

I recently tested the CTX 17" coil on a Florida trip. That coil went plenty deep on coins say 12-14" no problem on dry and wet sand. Of course Florida beaches are not loaded with black sand like Cali beaches can be.

The manual says don't run Auto at the beach so you might check that. I ran both Auto and Manual and didn't see much diff in Florida. My deepest coin in Fla. was a zinc at around 18" with the 11" coil. it was a scratch signal but deep. I also hit a pocket of sinkers in a reef rock pot hole at over 2 ft with the 11" coil also.

I'm assuming that you are using the seawater setting from the update? If not you should load that up and use it. I ran that setting in Florida all the time. Probably not as important on the dry sand but better for me on the wet sand.

 

[Big Boys Hobbies]

9" inches? Is this an air test or recent coin plant? If so these are not test aren't near accurate.