should I sell my XLT and buy a NEL snake coil for G2?

[Coinshooter1973]

Hello All,
I have been addicted to the hobby since 2003, all I have owned so far was a whites XLT.
I am mainly a coinshooter at Sardinian salty beaches. Most of the time I hunt near bars in front of the sea. I must say those areas are super rich in all sort of trash, especially bottle cap and aluminum junk.

after reading all good feedbacks on this forum and needing a very light machine, I have just bought a G2 (11DD coil) ,
After first 15 hours of usage and, more than 60 euros in coin already collected, I have started mastering the sounds of this G2 machine.
Much lighter than my back up XLT, super quiet and stable, even on nasty wet sand pools ( very salty because strong evaporation occurs). No need to sweep like crazy, I have noticed even moving the coil very slowly, it looks the target and get a tight ID.

Here the questions;
I own a Whites XLT rigged with a 6-inch coil, should I sell it and buy a NEL snake coil for G2? Would the Snake coil better a rejecting bottle caps? is there on the market any concentric small coil for G2?
I am not after depth at all costs, rather discrimination and stability are important for me.
Would the two machine complement each other?

Today, with the XLT and BLM600, I went back to the ground I hunted yesterday with G2 and found no coin left behind, found them only in tight spots where the G2's 11 coil could not fit.....so snake would be worth buying?
when searching the pile of trash discarded by beach cleaner,...with G2 is like a machine gun, simply not bearable(!? even at disc 59...) Would NEL coil Snake or Sharp help to solve the issue? XLT performed great at cherry picking coins from pile of trash, I wonder if I can rig the g2 in the same way with the same performance.
Thank you for advising.

 

[dfmike]

I have an F19 which is pretty much the same as your G2. I've had numerous coils on it (NEL Thunder, Detech Ultimate, stock 11 DD, Detech SEF 5 X 10, 5 inch round, Mars Tiger and Mars Discovery). Personally I've never had a coil that could discriminate bottle caps better than another one. Concentric coils will do it but the G2 is not compatible with any concentric coil. You can still try any concentric that is available for the Greek series or the F5 and it will work but with unpredictable and sometimes strange results. I tried it myself and I didn't like it. I lost the F19's reliability. That being said, there is a way to know if there is a bottle cap under the coil with the G2. Dave J has a post on that right here or on the Teknetics forum. You have to slow down a bit, start swinging the coil over a potentially good target and when the heel of the coil passes on top of the target, the high conductor numbers should drop. The drop can be as low as a ten count or it can get way down to the lower mid conductors or even iron. Typically bottle caps are between 80 and 83 for me (sometimes in the 70's). When I do this the numbers drop to the lower 70's and sometimes much lower in the 50's or iron range. It will do this just before the number disappears because the coil is too far from the target. Sometimes you will get a distorted audio signal just before the target ID number fades out.

Any smaller coil than your 11 DD would give you better separation. If the places you like to hunt are heavily littered with trash, you can start with the 11 DD and then clean house with a smaller coil. By the way, NEL is not the only option. Fisher/Tek has the excellent 5 X 10 closed coil and the 5 inch round. Detech has the 5 X 10 and Mars has the Sniper coil.

I can't speak for the XLT. I never had one.

 

[Coinshooter1973]

Mike, noted your advice on considering other coil brands as well, I suppose Fisher coils should be more compatible with G2 as they made by same company.

I applied all Dave's suggested technics to discriminate Bottlecaps and they work most of the time, unfortunately, bottlecaps VID is just like 1 euro coin VID (79), so to be sure I dig them just to confirm my guess and improve understanding of the machine.
Results: if VDI drops or I hear Iron grunt...they are 100% BC, but if the test is negative.... still I dig more BC than coins.
Still wondering whether to keep the XLT for cherry picking or add a small coil to G2....

 

[Coinshooter1973]

G2+ updates, after 15 hunting trips, 36 hours of usage and just 2 weeks and a half of ownership, I collected 132Euro (156 USD) in current coins (293 pieces). Plus dozens of old coins Liras (mostly deep buried 200 Liras), earrings, pounds of fishing leads etc. etc
I can say the 11DD coil is super effective even in moderate littered areas, I am confident where I swept the coil no coins have been left behind...and no Bottle Caps too!
I set my mind I will buy a smaller coil maybe the snake ( because is cheaper than original ones),,,, and I will keep the XLT as the lending machine or just in case as back up.

 

[Coinshooter1973]

Hi,
I have just received the new coil NEL snake (bought because it was on cheap offer), tested right away.... the first impression really stable ( gain max 75) and light.
I Gone back to a place I had hunted before full of bottle caps, I managed to find other coins ( 5.20 euros). But most important all VDI numbers are 2 digits lower respect 11dd coil, and the majority of BC VDI dropped from 81/79 to 54/57, so I was able to easily reject BC and focus on coins. Can't speak about dept, as all coins were superficial I have just dug out some deeper soda cans maybe at 7/8 inches.
I did also another test in the backyard, which is completely littered with rust scales and I could pull out some high VDI targets (a broken yale key, aluminum door hinge, a decorative keyhole) and no rusty junk sounded in high VDIs.

Has anyone else observed a drop in VDI numbers and better rejection of Bottle caps with small coils?

 

[Coinshooter1973]

Updates: Snake coil almost paid by itself after 10 days of ownership. It let G2 lock on coins no matter how much junk is there with surgical precision. Bottle caps are rejected easily.
I went back to places that I had thoroughly combed with XLT/Bluemax 6 inch coil couple of weeks ago, still, I managed to pull out more coins from what I thought it was an empty ground.
The other day, hunting side by side with a guy running a Notka Impact (11' coil), I was able to stay ahead in terms of value and number of found coins.


wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year