I spent a good portion of tonight's hunt trying to do tests between the Slimline and the Pro coill. I went to a park where, until the turn of the last century, there used to be an ice house (shipped all over the world) and is very trashy and, due to the compacted soil, can leave good targets fairly shallow. (I found a '43 Walker there a little over a month ago at about four inches.) For the first hour, I detected a swath of land with the Pro coil (which I've become quite accustomed to by now) marking good targets with orange golf tees and marking iffy targets with yellow golf tees. I had five of each to start and ended with that amount. (About when I was finishing that first stage, my friend with a Tesoro Silver uMax arrived and he couldn't hear half of the targets, although many were shallow to me.) Then I went back over the targets with the Slimline coil, adjusting NO other settings, to see how they compared. At first I was thinking that the Slimline coil was pinpointing better and giving me more solid readings but, when I hit one of the toughest readings that I'd run into, that thought started to belie itself. This was a target that just wouldn't lock on very well in a specific location with the Pro coil, either in normal or VCO mode. When I put the Slimline on and tested that area, it seemed to lock on to a specific spot more definitely. So I readjusted the golf tee to that spot and started digging. After I got down about 8 inches, I realized that the depth meter on both coils was way off, as the SunRay X-1 probe was still reading multiple inches away. BUT!, as I got deeper, my very specific reading from the Slimline coil seemed to be off, and I started having to dig towards the direction of the original Pro coil reading where I'd inserted the tee. Finally, at over 10" in depth, I recovered a piece of copper pipe (threaded on the inside), presumably from the original ice house. It was pretty much dead under my original (much more ambiguous) Pro coil reading and about three inches off my much more certain Slimline reading. Up until that point I had been thinking that the Slimline was giving me more accurate pinpoints but they were all shallower readings.
To try to put tonight's test in an abstract: shallower targets with the Slimline and the Pro coil both pinpointed well. The readings showing on the Smartfind screen and the Digital screen MAY have been more accurate with the Slimline coil but the deeper objects seemed to pinpoint more accurately with the Pro coil.
Overall: At this point, I expect to carry on mostly with the Pro coil. While I significantly appreciate the visual emptiness of the Slimline coil--it's easier to visually pinpoint objects with the red "M" on the Slimline coil, nothing leads me to believe that the Slimline is better than the Pro coil other than that. (Note that I have not had the bump/wet grass falsing issues many have reported with the Slimline coil.) The Pro coil seems to pinpoint more accurately in normal mode than the Slimline, almost making the VCO mode superfluous. I would eventually like to sell one of them to recoup my costs but have yet to determine that one has a significant advantage over the other. At this point, if I had to choose, I would stay with the Pro coil and sell the Slimline. I also expect that my thoughts about the two coils will refine over the coming months.
Another thought: One thing that seems to be becoming an apparent difference between the two coils is that the normal and the VCO (pinpoint) readings seem to clearly vary more with the Pro coil than the Slimline. The Pro coil MAY give slightly less accurate readings in normal mode but seems to give more accurate readings in VCO mode. I need to test this further to give a definitive opinion.
Anyone have any more thoughts/experience on this comparison?
To try to put tonight's test in an abstract: shallower targets with the Slimline and the Pro coil both pinpointed well. The readings showing on the Smartfind screen and the Digital screen MAY have been more accurate with the Slimline coil but the deeper objects seemed to pinpoint more accurately with the Pro coil.
Overall: At this point, I expect to carry on mostly with the Pro coil. While I significantly appreciate the visual emptiness of the Slimline coil--it's easier to visually pinpoint objects with the red "M" on the Slimline coil, nothing leads me to believe that the Slimline is better than the Pro coil other than that. (Note that I have not had the bump/wet grass falsing issues many have reported with the Slimline coil.) The Pro coil seems to pinpoint more accurately in normal mode than the Slimline, almost making the VCO mode superfluous. I would eventually like to sell one of them to recoup my costs but have yet to determine that one has a significant advantage over the other. At this point, if I had to choose, I would stay with the Pro coil and sell the Slimline. I also expect that my thoughts about the two coils will refine over the coming months.
Another thought: One thing that seems to be becoming an apparent difference between the two coils is that the normal and the VCO (pinpoint) readings seem to clearly vary more with the Pro coil than the Slimline. The Pro coil MAY give slightly less accurate readings in normal mode but seems to give more accurate readings in VCO mode. I need to test this further to give a definitive opinion.
Anyone have any more thoughts/experience on this comparison?
