LawrencetheMDer
Well-known member
I enjoy browsing the various metal detecting sites and recently came across comments about the M15 coil and its ability or lack thereof to detect small targets. This rose my interest because I became a big coil guy since the CTX3030 17” coil about 10 yrs ago. Have 2 - 15” coils for Equinox 800 back-up. This was in the back of my mind when I came home from a recent dry sand beach hunt and laid out my finds. Because Winter hunting in Florida is slow due to cold (ok you Northerners “cool”) weather and lack of Donors, I emphasize digging smaller targets in search of the elusive diamond studded ear ring.
The M15 allowed me to dig not only several whole ear rings but even parts of studded ear rings; one with just the stem/cup and another holding a clear stone w/o a post. The nose ring, middle-bottom, is marked 925 and measures 3/8”. Also, the minute claw clamp below the nose ring is marked 925. It weighs a solid 0.23 grams and is approx 1/8” x 3/8”. Besides the fishing weights and fishing shot (small balls of lead that clamp on lines), one of the small clumps might be a melted dental filling and have to test further. [I wrote a post recently on cremation tags and the gold that follows.] Also note the small gold colored charm and other very small charms/jewelry.
In another recent hunt, I also note the smalls and have a measuring tape for comparison.
These are the more-or-less good finds and sorry but to lazy to go search through the junk bucket for unbelievably smaller junk targets I come across. The point is, if the M15 coil misses smaller targets, quite frankly, I would not want to detect them, anyway, or recover them at least not while beach hunting. Because I was really concentrating on smalls, after uncovering the target based on the Manticore at least 4-5 times I could not then detect the target in the sand with my Garrett carrot pointer. I ended up grabbing a hand full of sand the target was in and placed all of it in my Garrett pouch w mesh (later I just wash out the sand). Talk about small.
What about small gold? Found 2 gold bands and a gold grillz, but those don’t count since too big. Haven’t found any real small gold this season (Dec – May) unless you count the “AU750” 18k gold tennis bracelet (small links and clamp) with 7 ct of diamonds found late last year with M15. Bracelet was deep. I hope I’m not missing anything.
Happy Huntng
The M15 allowed me to dig not only several whole ear rings but even parts of studded ear rings; one with just the stem/cup and another holding a clear stone w/o a post. The nose ring, middle-bottom, is marked 925 and measures 3/8”. Also, the minute claw clamp below the nose ring is marked 925. It weighs a solid 0.23 grams and is approx 1/8” x 3/8”. Besides the fishing weights and fishing shot (small balls of lead that clamp on lines), one of the small clumps might be a melted dental filling and have to test further. [I wrote a post recently on cremation tags and the gold that follows.] Also note the small gold colored charm and other very small charms/jewelry.
In another recent hunt, I also note the smalls and have a measuring tape for comparison.
These are the more-or-less good finds and sorry but to lazy to go search through the junk bucket for unbelievably smaller junk targets I come across. The point is, if the M15 coil misses smaller targets, quite frankly, I would not want to detect them, anyway, or recover them at least not while beach hunting. Because I was really concentrating on smalls, after uncovering the target based on the Manticore at least 4-5 times I could not then detect the target in the sand with my Garrett carrot pointer. I ended up grabbing a hand full of sand the target was in and placed all of it in my Garrett pouch w mesh (later I just wash out the sand). Talk about small.
What about small gold? Found 2 gold bands and a gold grillz, but those don’t count since too big. Haven’t found any real small gold this season (Dec – May) unless you count the “AU750” 18k gold tennis bracelet (small links and clamp) with 7 ct of diamonds found late last year with M15. Bracelet was deep. I hope I’m not missing anything.
Happy Huntng
