Ok Fisher platform guys, need opinions on a new Nel coil...

[REVIER]

Santa was good to me this year, he left me a lot of money in a casino slot machine.

I had no plans to buy anything new for 2018 but now I am going to spend a little of this money and take a chance on a new coil to see if it can help me even a little in this very strange world I hunt in.
I use an F70 and did well with the Fisher coils including an 11" DD but early this year I got a Nel Sharpshooter and that coil surprised me on how well it could handle my dirt and conditions.
Nothing is normal here in the SE. and specifically in my area of the state, the depth and ID's I could get in much better soil out west is unattainable here using any coil in my mineralized devil dirt that is also loaded with an unusual amount of extra iron I have to deal with but through some hard work I have figured out a new language that has helped me get a bit deeper than I thought possible with some strange but repeatable behavior at depth that has helped me find some great treasure since I returned.
So far I have succeeded in recovering some extremely masked targets that were sitting only at the 5-6" area that many missed in the past and I have even dug a few up to about 8" in the bad stuff which is almost unbelievable if you know what we are up against around here.

That big Fisher DD coil does pretty good here but I would sure love to get deeper or at least get better more solid info on deeper targets if that is even possible.
Unmasking is the big job for hunting here but I suspect there is a whole other world of targets a bit deeper than I can get to now as decent as that is.
I am not asking for miracles just an extra inch or two would be great, just that little better solid ID's at depth on the few deeper ones I come across I would gladly settle for.

I am aiming for the Tornado coil and this is my thought process...

The Sharpshooter is quieter than the Fisher coils on my non DST F70 but I am not expecting that on this bigger coil so much but it would nice if that happened.
I can deal with noise and chatter so not a huge deal for me plus I found some settings where I can pretty much max out the gain and sense in disc quietly.

The Hunter coil is said to be better around iron which I live in here and there is a possibility it could be a bit better than my existing big DD even though it is about the same size but I can't be sure.
Nobody around here that I know uses any detector on this platform so no data is available to me to compare any of this stuff.

The Tornado is bigger and I think I can push it to this size despite the larger coverage that could be problematic around all this extra iron I deal with.
A friend has a Tornado on his AT Pro and he says it does go deeper than his stock coil and he seems to deal with the iron problem fairly well.
I can't say for sure but logic says if the hunter is good the Tornado might be a bit better due to the larger size and give me the extra performance I hope for.
Getting a Hunter and not gaining anything on my 11"DD would be a waste so it is worth rolling the dice on the bigger coil.
I considered the Thunder coil but I have had a few tell me it wasn't much deeper or better for them than the Hunter coil...in their dirt.
Plus it is nose heavy.
Can't say for sure but it seems to me the Tornado and Sharpshooter coils appear to be two of the most popular coils they sell and I figure there must be a reason.
On YouTube vids I have noticed many that use that Tornado and they seem happy.
I have asked for opinions on other forums and the Tornado seems to be the larger coil of choice for those that have experience using it and a few of the other large coils in this line.

Again all of this is a crapshoot, any experiences you guys have might not come close to what will actually happen in my strange soil but I welcome any and all opinions, thoughts and insights.
This money came into my life out of the blue and what the heck, I will be getting something new because I deserve it.
New toys and accessories are always fun to use and who knows...like the Sharpshooter whatever I choose if I choose right it might all might come together and surprise me.

Thanks.

 

[dfmike]

A coil that impressed me a lot this year is the Mars Tiger. It added about an inch to the 11 DD and more on bigger targets. Very light for its size and super solid. It unmasked surprisingly well for its size. It can't equal a 5" round coil (duh) but I felt it was as good as the 11 DD in that area. I had a Mars Discovery for some time and preferred the Tiger for overall weight balance and unmasking vs depth capabilities. The Tiger is slightly bigger than the NEL Hunter but smaller than the Tornado. I found a lot of goodies in moderate to heavy trash with it last summer on my F19.

Congrats on your winnings. That's a very cool Christmas surprise indeed.

 

[hsimmons75]

Hey Revier,
I got the NEL Hunter just to battle EMI and all the chatter with my Patriot. It has done what I wanted. It does ID targets well and is accurate at the depth readings. It swings better than the factory coil (factory coil feels nose heavy after the Sharpshooter). Their claim of 20% deeper, I am not so sure about. I am not really impressed by the coil since it is so close to the factory size. I can honestly say that I get almost exactly the same depth air testing at the same settings. But as I said, it is a much quieter coil than the factory. That little NEL Sharpshooter was refreshing, good depth and great separation with hardly any chatter. I switch between the two, usually start with the Hunter and then rescan everything with the Sharpshooter. I definitely like the weight and balance of the Sharpshooter, but you're already aware at how nice it swings. I've had good finds with both. I personally like the look of the Thunder over the Tornado. NEL rates the Thunder better on depth and separation compared to the Tornado and it is only 10 grams heavier. Plus the Thunder was new to the market in 2016 which hopefully means they had a good learning curve to perfect it. Just my thoughts. Hope I'm not making your decision harder, lol.

 

[REVIER]

Hey Revier,
I got the NEL Hunter just to battle EMI and all the chatter with my Patriot. It has done what I wanted. It does ID targets well and is accurate at the depth readings. It swings better than the factory coil (factory coil feels nose heavy after the Sharpshooter). Their claim of 20% deeper, I am not so sure about. I am not really impressed by the coil since it is so close to the factory size. I can honestly say that I get almost exactly the same depth air testing at the same settings. But as I said, it is a much quieter coil than the factory. That little NEL Sharpshooter was refreshing, good depth and great separation with hardly any chatter. I switch between the two, usually start with the Hunter and then rescan everything with the Sharpshooter. I definitely like the weight and balance of the Sharpshooter, but you're already aware at how nice it swings. I've had good finds with both. I personally like the look of the Thunder over the Tornado. NEL rates the Thunder better on depth and separation compared to the Tornado and it is only 10 grams heavier. Plus the Thunder was new to the market in 2016 which hopefully means they had a good learning curve to perfect it. Just my thoughts. Hope I'm not making your decision harder, lol.

Still thinking about the Tornado but the Thunder's configuration does look better to me too.
And yes, Nel does rate it a bit better on separation in iron and they mention improvements in mineralized soil which I have both of in spades...maybe they learned a few things from the others before they designed it.
Nice to know the bigger coils can be quiet, too.

Yea, you made it harder, LOL...but a few others have sent me messages and said the Thunder coil seemed to be balanced pretty good and even if it didn't get a whole lot deeper than the Hunter or the Fisher coil they got more solid and better ID's on the deeper ones.
As I mentioned both better depth and ID's are the goal but just one or the other would be a victory here, also.

 

[dfmike]

I had the Thunder. It didn't impress me but I only used it at the beach where my Detech Ultimate is still king. It didn't balance well on my F19 but the build of the Thunder was very solid.

 

[Welgund]

I just picked up a 12 x 10 sef detech coil for my f 75 for real cheap from kellyco to just try. I have a 10in quarter buried in my yard that none of my other machines could hit anymore do to my bad soil here in Colorado and that sef coil hit it with good repeatables both ways. I always lim we d how the sef coils performed on my mxt pro but this surprised me.

 

[D&P-OR]

Is there a dealer in the U.S. that sells Mars coils?

A coil that impressed me a lot this year is the Mars Tiger. It added about an inch to the 11 DD and more on bigger targets. Very light for its size and super solid. It unmasked surprisingly well for its size. It can't equal a 5" round coil (duh) but I felt it was as good as the 11 DD in that area. I had a Mars Discovery for some time and preferred the Tiger for overall weight balance and unmasking vs depth capabilities. The Tiger is slightly bigger than the NEL Hunter but smaller than the Tornado. I found a lot of goodies in moderate to heavy trash with it last summer on my F19.

Congrats on your winnings. That's a very cool Christmas surprise indeed.

 

[rod-pa]

SEF 15x12 is too heavy.

 

[UtahRich]

Just another line of thought here. Set some of it aside for a detecting road trip.

Do some research, find yourself a destination (you might already have one in mind) and give that F70 an opportunity to breathe some fresh air from outside your regular neighborhood.


Rich -

 

[dfmike]

D&P-OR, Serious Detecting has some for the F19/G2 platform which is what you use I think. As far as I know the Sniper, Tiger and Discovery are available. Sometimes they don't have it listed on their main site. Just ask. I've had good customer service from them.

I've just checked on ebay and they have all 3 listed there for the G2. If you decide to buy, make sure the coil has the G2 sticker on it. Mars sent me a personal email to say that the coil is specific for the 19 kHz machines. In other words don't get the ones for the 7.8 kHz machines like the F5, Omega, etc. Although they will also work perfectly on the G2/F19, Mars implied that the 19 kHz version of the coil is optimized for these specific machines.

 

[D&P-OR]

Yeah I got both the F-19 & G2+.----Thanks for that info Mike.---I think I'm going to check in with them on a Tiger coil for those two detectors.-----Do you happen to know the weight difference between the Tiger & stock 11" coil?-------Thanks again.------------Del

 

[rob.ream258]

Mr. Revier - please please please let us all know how this search for a big coil turns out.

I'm also in the market for a big coil and hate to take the Sharpshooter off the machine but I really need to cover more ground and deeper if possible. My primary grounds I hunt on almost every lunch hour is quite expansive with practically no recent drops. Everything that lives towards the surface is either iron or can slaw while all good targets live at least 8-10 inches down,......probably deeper if I could get positive ID and not a bunch of ghost signals that equate to nothing.....

 

[REVIER]

Mr. Revier - please please please let us all know how this search for a big coil turns out.

I'm also in the market for a big coil and hate to take the Sharpshooter off the machine but I really need to cover more ground and deeper if possible. My primary grounds I hunt on almost every lunch hour is quite expansive with practically no recent drops. Everything that lives towards the surface is either iron or can slaw while all good targets live at least 8-10 inches down,......probably deeper if I could get positive ID and not a bunch of ghost signals that equate to nothing.....

As soon as I decide I will let you know.
Probably it will be the Thunder...then I will do a write up after a few hunts.

 

[Trailduster]

REVIER

I bought the Thunder last spring for my F70. I dont get out very often so I don't have mountains of experience with it but I will say this. We have had very dry summers the past couple years up in the NE and that greatly decreased the depth of my stock coils. After io bought the Thunder I went back to places that have been very good to me with Silver and wheats. In those places I dug up Indians and more silver that were no deeper than 5" that I missed with the 11" DD and Sharpshooter.

Another place that is well drained soil and stays somewhat moist I was getting deep targets I missed with the 11dd but they were mostly junk.

So to sum that all up. I belive the Thunder does do much better. In dry soil not so deep but found worthy targets I missed. In better soil again, I found quite a few targets I missed that were in the 8"-10" range that were not so noteworthy but still an eye opener in the bigger picture.

 

[REVIER]

REVIER

I bought the Thunder last spring for my F70. I dont get out very often so I don't have mountains of experience with it but I will say this. We have had very dry summers the past couple years up in the NE and that greatly decreased the depth of my stock coils. After io bought the Thunder I went back to places that have been very good to me with Silver and wheats. In those places I dug up Indians and more silver that were no deeper than 5" that I missed with the 11" DD and Sharpshooter.

Another place that is well drained soil and stays somewhat moist I was getting deep targets I missed with the 11dd but they were mostly junk.

So to sum that all up. I belive the Thunder does do much better. In dry soil not so deep but found worthy targets I missed. In better soil again, I found quite a few targets I missed that were in the 8"-10" range that were not so noteworthy but still an eye opener in the bigger picture.

Great info, just what I need to know to make an informed decision.
Thanks!

 

[Trailduster]

Also. Again, just a refresher. I don't have mountains of experience, but...

The last two outings I was playing with a new pin pointing technique. When I found a good signal I was interested in, I would float the coil 6" off the ground while zeroing in on the target and this made the target fall within 2"-3" of the center of the coil. To where I could make a small plug and it would be within the small cut and I wouldn't have to widen the cut and make a mess.

Before I tried that technique I had a hard time pin pointing a roughly exact location. Sometimes the target was centered under the coil, but sometimes it was near the outer rim and I was digging large circumference holes to lessen the aggravation of finding it with the garrett handheld. Mind you, this was woods and field hunting so making a large hole wasn't an unsightly issue, just made sure I filled well so no ankle breakers for hikers.

My guess is, it sends out too much signal. Which is good...you just need to figure out how to harness that horse. Which I think I finally did.

The fact I could float the coil 6" and still pin point a target 5" down leads me to believe I have a good chance of increasing the odds of finding deeper targets than what I have found so far in the dry area's and the one or two moist'ish area's I know to be fruitful to me.

 

[REVIER]

Thanks again for that extra info.
I wonder why that is, maybe these coils can utilize the power emitted by these high power machines better than stock.
Whatever, if it will actually get me better signals than before or, in my wildest dreams, deeper...it will be well worth it.

I found a deal on a Cors Cannon coil, exact same coil as the Thunder and a sister company to Nel.

Tracking shows me this...

Expected Delivery by

MONDAY
8
JANUARY
2018
by
8:00pm

Status

In-Transit
January 7, 2018 at 12:03 pm
IN TRANSIT TO DESTINATION
On its way to BIRMINGHAM, AL 35205


Should be here by 10-11am tomorrow, we are expecting rain all day but hopefully I will be able to get out with a little.
By Tesday the rain should clear out after making the dirt nice to dig in and the temps will be back into the 60's again.
I plan on resting up, might be a nice long hunt that day.

 

[Trailduster]

Cool. Keep us informed. I was curious about the CORS equivalent models, but IIRC I had ebay bucks to use or a discount code, and went that route straight from Mother Russia and NEL. hehe.

 

[Trailduster]

REIVER

Any updates? Just curious how you're making out. Opinions?

 

[REVIER]

REIVER

Any updates? Just curious how you're making out. Opinions?

I ended up with a Cors Cannon coil, similar to the Nel Thunder that I got in a great deal from a dealer I have dealt with in the past.

Been going well but it has been colder than I like for most of the time since I got the big coil so only a couple of short hunts under my belt with it since I got it.
That should change soon and after a few more hours I will write up a more thorough review.
I can tell you it seemed pretty heavy at first, balanced well on the F70 but I could definitely feel the weight difference between this one and the 11" Fisher DD coil which is fairly weightless to me.
After about 5 hours swinging the bigger coil most of that weight didn't seem to matter as much so I guess I just got used to it.
The sensitivity seems great, I could pick up small things easily and like the Sharpshooter coil it definitely is quieter on higher settings than my Fisher factory coils.
I think it is pretty deep, I seem to be getting to a slightly deeper level consistently but I haven't come across and targets that have shocked me with their depth in my mineralized soil...yet.
There aren't all that many anyway but I am sure there are a few, the most target rich area I seem to have around here is from 4-6" and I am getting some decently solid and stable signals with a lot less jumping than usual at that same area with most of my other coils so I have hope it will actually do well what I bought it to do.

Overall I believe this is going to end up being an excellent purchase for me, a coil that might just get me a bit deeper as I hoped and covers large areas better than any other I have ever used before.
I think I can learn to deal with my trash filled and iron infested sites with it too.

A few more hours observation on a couple more hunts and I will post my thoughts and opinions but right now the few I have are good.