Great report! Thanks for posting it. And congradulations on the finds. I'm still looking for my first sheild nickel. Dug a ton of Vs, buffalos, and war nickels, but no shield for some reason thus far.
For sure the Ultimate is easier to cover ground with it, even over the 12x10 a bit, so it might be the better option for people trying to grid out large areas faster. I too, like you, find I don't seem to have to concentrate as much not to miss the ground in spots in front of me while I work the coil. I was suspicious this might just be a perception of the eye thing due to it's white color and size, so I tested the width detection of the Ultimate and it seems to see a target all the way to the edge of the coil, which in some respects is a good thing for covering ground faster, but I'm not sure how it'll compare in left/right separation to the SEF.
My Youtube nail masking test of both coils shows the Ultimate has very good left/right separation for a coil of it's size. I couldn't really see it doing any worse than the 12x10 at the various tests, but just the same I suspect just the unique shape of the SEF that really compresses the width of the DD line probably will give it the edge on that, but for a 13" wide coil the Ultimate is shocking me in it's separation abilities left/right wise. It's only 12 & 1/2" long at it's longest axis point but is a true 13" wide. But coverage with a DD coil is more relied on it's length than it's width. The Ultimate in reality is only covering 1/2" more ground per sweep like a wiper blade length wise. The left/right extra coverage of 1.5" on each side of the Ultimate (for a total of 13" versus 10 for the 12x10), in reality is only giving you that extra coverage at the end of each sweep if you know what I mean.
The louder voice/more crisp response is also what I see. The 12x10 has a crisper/louder voice than the 10" Tornado, but the Ultimate is for sure louder than the 12x10 even, but I keep the volume all the way down and even then I can hear the 12x10 at depth no problem.
It does just "feel good" on the shaft, don't it? It's the same weight as the 12x10 but darn if it don't feel a bit lighter to me. I'm thinking it's round shape makes it more balanced?
Far as the chatter, I found the Ultimate no less stable than the 10" Tornado, but I only adjust my sensitivity to where it's just a tad unstable when I hunt with any of my coils. Too much chatter or nulling will miss targets. For a coil of it's size the Ultimate is very stable IMO. I've ran it over some pretty bad soils and sands and it's rock solid. Not quite as rock solid as the 12x10 but very good just the same. Main issue I found is that it often has to have the sensitivity lowered than the 12x10 to prevent nulling out on ground minerals. Not a lot lower, but lower. That would only be expected since it's taking in more ground matrix. It also seems a bit more prone to EMI and even if the ground isn't mineralized I've had to lower it a bit more than the 12x10 for that reason. But I have been able to run the Ultimate at full sensitivity at a low EMI/low minerals site and it only had a tad of instability to it. I could easily hunt with that, because that's the slight edge I'll ride a coil. Being able to run at full blast sensitivity at least at some sites tells me it's a very stable and well built coil.
Yep, I've found that using the tip as my normal routine to PP in disc is a bit harder, but I suspect with time it'll be just as easy to do as it is on my 12x10. I've been practicing using the center of the coil to PP on the beach to learn faster how to do that with both my 12x10 and the Ultimate. Sometimes I use PP for that and sometimes I use disc, but even in disc I'm finding it's pretty easy to get a good centering on the target with both coils and the center of the coil. Loudest response seems to be right in front of the shaft by about an inch or two maybe (still figuring that out with both of them).
Using PP mode and the center of the coil too some for that and it also seems pretty easy with both coils. I just wiggle forward until the loudest hit, then past it to be sure that's the loudest spot, then back to that loudest spot again, and then I rotate 90 degrees and do it again and both coils in disc or PP seem right on at using the center for the very little experience I have using the center of a DD coil to find targets. The beach makes the learning process so much faster.
But for sure using the tip of the ultimate seems more broad to me to PP with (at least in disc). The 12x10 always puts the target right between the "V" shape at the edge of the coil at the V's base. I suspect the Ultimate will be easier to do that with practice though. Just like I'm getting fooled by iron with it more where as when I re-check the same marked targets I thought might be deep wheats or something with the 12x10 I could obviously tell they were iron. Once again though I think it's just a matter of not knowing the traits of the Ultimate yet.
When I had my Explorers and the stock 10" coil I always used the center of the coil. The Explorer II was terrible with that coil at PPing. The Sun Ray probe was a must have for me to track down targets because of that. The SE is much better though thanks to it's special PPing software and also probably because of the Pro Coil. I suspect a 12x10 on the Explorer II would probably enhance it's center PPing over the stock 10" coil, or at the very least using the base of the V at the tip would make it much better at it. But once I went onto the GT I never really tried using the center of the coil. I heard it was much better at it but just the same I just used the tip on both the stock 10" Tornado and the SEF coils. Only recently, spending a lot of time at the beach, did I figure it'd be a good time to learn to use the center in either PP or disc to PP and it's not hard at all. For sure more easy than my Explorer IIs were at that.
Only reason I decided I better learn using the center is because sometimes I'll get a very deep signal on land that the tip of the coil doesn't seem to see, and when I try checking it with the tip from two different 90 degree angles I can't narrow down where it's at. Even a DD coil will have slightly more depth at it's very center, so I figured I'd better learn using the center like I should so I can PP those super deep ones with the ability of the center of the coil to see a little deeper. I've dug many real deep targets that the tip of the coil could easily see, but there have been some that I've had such issues trying to find with the tip in the same spot from two angles that I just gave up on them.
That always bothered me, because I don't like leaving any deep target behind once I'm interested in it. And these were even targets I was trying to PP in disc, so no issues with PP mode dragging me off target or with it being a false coin hit from iron that will often PP off center of where disc says it is. That's one of the reasons why I don't trust using PP mode for PPing targets I found in disc, because I don't want it talking me out of a coin that might just be laying near iron by dragging me off center to indicate it's an iron false.
Once again great report! I just hope I can get my hands on this coil down the road if for some reason Detech stops making a Sovereign version or something. There aren't many of the BBS versions out there yet, so if Detech stops production it might be very hard to find a used one. Just look at how hard it is to find a 12x10 used even though there are a ton of them out there. People hold onto them because of how good of coils they are.
