MX7 Six Shooter And Deteck 7" DD Opinion After Some Extended Use In The Field

[Bill G]

I have put both these coils the 6” Six Shooter and the 7” Deteck DD on the MX7 in the last week through the paces at an older iron infested 1800 small town where most of the homes are now vacant lots. This area is one of the toughest areas I have ever hunted. I have been hunting this area off and on for years and have run more than a few different detectors through the paces there.

Both coils do their job well and both got great depth on the MX7. I found many junk and some good items at impressive depths for the size of both these coils no problems detecting 6” to 8” on some of the smaller targets. At first I thought the 7” Deteck DD was going to perform better because the mineralization is high at 77 to 82 but as time went on my mind was changed. The DD covers more ground faster because of the knife or blade penetration into the ground from the coil. It also separates well but like most DD coils it does not do aswell at rejecting old iron type screw caps and does not ID quite as accurate but still ID very well with that said.

For me and to my surprise the 6” Six Shooter concentric coil ended up being my coil of choice. It flat out got the overall same depth and ended up being almost if not as smooth running as the DD coil was in the mineralized ground in this area. The 6” Six Shooter kicked but on the Iron screw caps and ID very well. I hunted this area slower with both coils but I did have to hunt a little slower with the Six Shooter making sure to get good overlap but it picked the targets up very well between the trash and was worth the slower pace.

I hunt a lot of trash areas and the MX7 with the 6” Six Shooter coil is a force to be reckoned with and flat kicks but on old iron screw caps an area where the7” Deteck DD struggled. Both of these coils are superb on the MX7 but for me if I could only have one of these two coils it would be the Six Shooter on the MX7 followed by the 7” Deteck DD.


All The Best,
Bill G

 

[dfmike]

Good report Bill. I have yet to try a DD coil on my MX7 although I'm starting to really wonder if I even need one. My GB numbers are the same as yours and I've hunted exclusively with DD coils these last couple of years thinking they would automatically outperform any concentric coil. Because I got an MX7 last summer, I used it for some time with the stock coil and liked it. I bought the six shooter a few months ago and it has been on the detector ever since. It is indeed very good in trash where bottle caps are plentiful.

 

[Bill G]

Thank's Mike,

The time saved not digging iron screw/bottle caps because the DD coil gets fooled buy them really makes the Six Shooter a champion in performance and ID but you already know that...Lol

Happy hunting my friend.

Bill G

 

[Monte]

I got my MX-7 13+ months ago and bought the 7" DD Detech coil at White's at the same time. I also got a 'prototype' 6½" Concentric coil in the earlier version configuration with the bowl-shaped lower half. Later they finished the new production version with the flat-bottom design and named it the Six Shooter. Because I got it in November the wintry weather kept me out of the dense iron contaminated ghost towns I prefer to hunt. That limited me to urban Park Hunting until last January 12th. By then I worked the two coils enough to have made my decision favorite and have kept the 6½" Concentric mounted full-time and seldom opted to swap coils for a particular site.

On January 12th, with a very mild winter and early ground-thawing arrival, I started hunting house demolitions sites as the ground was easily recoverable. My first two coins with the MX-7 / 6½" Concentric to start the year were a 1951 Wheat-back 1¢ and 1947 silver Roosevelt 10¢. Good start. The bulk of my urban detecting this year were vacant lots and current demo sites, then getting away to heavily iron debris-filled ghost towns, gold mining settlements and other early-use places where ferrous-based junk rules as the biggest challenge to deal with.

I agree, the depth-of-detection ability really goes to the MX-7's circuitry design more than these two search coils. They do deserve credit, however, as they provide favorable performance for their size. The bulk of my sites have a ground phase read-out from '76' to '86' so the ground, alone, poses some challenges. But search coil design as well as detector design has progressed over a few decades ago. I recall how those earlier days of "Electronic Prospecting" from the latter '70s into the mid to late '80s did suggest some makes and models seemed to handle higher mineralized ground a little better with a Double-D coil than a Concentric design, but not always. And since the latter '80s I have enjoyed the progress in both detector circuitry design as well as search coil design and have found most detectors I favor also perform very favorably with a Concentric coil and can match or better the bad-ground handling abilities of a comparable-size Double-D coil.

With the MX-7 both of these coils are at-their-best when used with a slow and methodical sweep speed, and with proper overlapping they do a great job when it comes to finding non-ferrous keepers in a debris-filled site. The Concentric gets the nod in iron. One good example is how DD's do not Discriminate as well, or as cleanly you could say, as a comparable Concentric coil when encountering ferrous debris. This is especially true with the family of flat-iron annoyances such as rusty tin and the 'crown cap' or 'bottle cap' type junk.

The smaller Concentric coil is also my preferred coil choice for most detecting with the MX-7. I do have one application where I always swap over to my 7" Detech Double-D that I keep at-the-ready on its one lower and middle rods and that is when I hunt some freshwater rivers or lakes and want to submerse the search coil. The 7" DD coil's open-frame design handles in-water environments quite well because it lacks the buoyancy issues that most enclosed coils have, and it doesn't get sand build-up on top of the coil like a solid-body design.

The MX-7, making use of the MX Sport circuitry, can be a very deep-seeking detector regardless of the search coil in use. It is probably the one model I have in my entire Detector Outfit where I might drop the Sensitivity very low, even to the 2 to 4 setting, just because it has some extra oomph. Very decent detection depth, and especially notable with either of these smaller coils, but the 6½" Concentric is still my favorite. I take it your reference to "iron screw caps" refers to what most call a "bottle cap," correct? If so, then I am in agreement. Either coil type will let an operator audibly classify most bottle caps or rusty tin, but the Concentric design makes it easier.

I keep the stock 950 Concentric, the 7" Detech DD and the 6½" Concentric all on their own lower and middle rods for quicker coil changes afield, but the 6½" stays mounted for about 95% of the MX-7's chores.

That coil and the MX-7 make a great combination.

Monte

 

[Bill G]

Well written Monte and I fully agree with your posting 100% and yes my experience has been the same with the MX7 and the two coils being discussed. I did not state it quite as articulate as you in my posting you my friend have superb writing skills.

It sounds like we hit allot of the same types of areas. Oh and yes when I mentioned the iron screw caps I meant bottle caps that is just what I refer to them as. I also keep the same coils with me you mentioned for the MX7. I even break out the 6x10 Sport DD coil every now and then in some spots.

I hope your doing well and appreciate your insight and the way you put it in words.

All The Best To You,
Bill G