Mike Moutray - St.Louis MO
Member
Man, it seems like forever since I posted anything here. My detecting time has been nearly non-existant, but I've still been lurking on the forums. The new SEF coils caught my attention and through someone's very well appreciated generosity I received a 15"X12" SEF coil. I intended to do some bench testing with it to determine it's raw ability, but my shortage of time forced me to take it straight to the proving grounds.
I have a local park where there is some insanly deep coins out of reach of the detectors and coils we've run over it many times in the past. This would be a good spot to start. I dragged my stock coil from my EXII along to switch back and forth in comparison on the targets I would find. Unfortunately, the grass at this park was very thick and high - we had too wet of a season for the grass to die back down to the ground like it normally does, but the ground was good and moist and I did get a few faint signals to dig. The ground is also high in clay content which tends to kill the deep signals somewhat unless the halos build up around the targets after a long wet winter.
I noticed a couple things right away... the SEF was getting about 1/2 - 1 " deeper than the stock coil in this spot. a couple of the very faint hits with the SEF were not detectable with the stock coil. I was only slightly impressed with the added depth - I expected more - but the thick grass made it tough to get close to the ground to let the coils work to their capability. I also noticed that when i took it into the heavy trash area, the SEF held it's own remarkably well. Target seperation was better than expected, it detected every one-way masked hit that the stock coil did, but the target tone was a little lower on a couple hits - probably because of the larger coil having to average the trash hits on the fringe that the stock coil got inside of.
One target was a wheat penny 8" deep at a 45 degree angle without any masking trash - the SEF hit it pretty solid, where the stock coil was choppy.
Another target was a memorial penny 6" deep on edge with 3 iron targets and one pulltab all around it within 6-8" both the stock and SEF coil would lock into the penny once you got it over the center and did the "wiggle".
Another target was an old square tab at 10" deep... with the SEF the signal bounced up and down the right side of the screen with the tone alternating back and forth between a high coin hit and a low foil hit - a signal I definitely wanted to dig. The stock coil would barely register an ocassional hit on the lower right of the screen with a low tone hit -something I would not have dug.
The SEF also hit an aluminum can top at 12"+ with an erratic reading all over the upper right corner with nulling out mixed in. The stock coil got no reading othe than an ocassional very slight nulling. This can top had the rusted remains of the rest of the can in the hole with it.
The only decent target was a Buffalo Nickel at 5-6" the SEF hit it very steady and in pinpoint mode the target sounded a little softer and bigger - like a nickel would compared to the shorter choppier hit that a tab tail would produce, therefore I dug it thinking it had a better chance of being a nickel than a tab tail, and I was right. The WOT would not have given me this slight difference in target size, that's why I never did good with it hunting nickels in a trashy park.
In conclusion I was pleased with this coil and I definitely will use it instead of the stock coil for a while in my old hunting sites. I think it will give me a slight advantage in depth than the stock coil, but still seperate targets just as well as the stock coil in all but the trashiest spots. It's larger size will also allow me to cover more ground - which is increasingly important in some of the large old parks where signals are few and far between.
I liked it's balance - it didn't feel heavy or clunky like some other big coils I've used in the past.
I will bring it along to NH this coming weekend, and I can't wait to hunt with it up there and see what it can do. I will post some more results with this coil in the next coming weeks, so stay tuned!
Take care and HH, Mike.
I have a local park where there is some insanly deep coins out of reach of the detectors and coils we've run over it many times in the past. This would be a good spot to start. I dragged my stock coil from my EXII along to switch back and forth in comparison on the targets I would find. Unfortunately, the grass at this park was very thick and high - we had too wet of a season for the grass to die back down to the ground like it normally does, but the ground was good and moist and I did get a few faint signals to dig. The ground is also high in clay content which tends to kill the deep signals somewhat unless the halos build up around the targets after a long wet winter.
I noticed a couple things right away... the SEF was getting about 1/2 - 1 " deeper than the stock coil in this spot. a couple of the very faint hits with the SEF were not detectable with the stock coil. I was only slightly impressed with the added depth - I expected more - but the thick grass made it tough to get close to the ground to let the coils work to their capability. I also noticed that when i took it into the heavy trash area, the SEF held it's own remarkably well. Target seperation was better than expected, it detected every one-way masked hit that the stock coil did, but the target tone was a little lower on a couple hits - probably because of the larger coil having to average the trash hits on the fringe that the stock coil got inside of.
One target was a wheat penny 8" deep at a 45 degree angle without any masking trash - the SEF hit it pretty solid, where the stock coil was choppy.
Another target was a memorial penny 6" deep on edge with 3 iron targets and one pulltab all around it within 6-8" both the stock and SEF coil would lock into the penny once you got it over the center and did the "wiggle".
Another target was an old square tab at 10" deep... with the SEF the signal bounced up and down the right side of the screen with the tone alternating back and forth between a high coin hit and a low foil hit - a signal I definitely wanted to dig. The stock coil would barely register an ocassional hit on the lower right of the screen with a low tone hit -something I would not have dug.
The SEF also hit an aluminum can top at 12"+ with an erratic reading all over the upper right corner with nulling out mixed in. The stock coil got no reading othe than an ocassional very slight nulling. This can top had the rusted remains of the rest of the can in the hole with it.
The only decent target was a Buffalo Nickel at 5-6" the SEF hit it very steady and in pinpoint mode the target sounded a little softer and bigger - like a nickel would compared to the shorter choppier hit that a tab tail would produce, therefore I dug it thinking it had a better chance of being a nickel than a tab tail, and I was right. The WOT would not have given me this slight difference in target size, that's why I never did good with it hunting nickels in a trashy park.
In conclusion I was pleased with this coil and I definitely will use it instead of the stock coil for a while in my old hunting sites. I think it will give me a slight advantage in depth than the stock coil, but still seperate targets just as well as the stock coil in all but the trashiest spots. It's larger size will also allow me to cover more ground - which is increasingly important in some of the large old parks where signals are few and far between.
I liked it's balance - it didn't feel heavy or clunky like some other big coils I've used in the past.
I will bring it along to NH this coming weekend, and I can't wait to hunt with it up there and see what it can do. I will post some more results with this coil in the next coming weeks, so stay tuned!
Take care and HH, Mike.
The St. Louis parks will come to life again my friend. Good luck...and keep us posted.
