Think I'm Going To Use The S-5 More

[Critterhunter]

I've got a lot of spots that have a lot of shallow trash and should have a good amount of shallow silver (less than 9") coins mixed in that stuff. I think I'm going to change my tatics for a while and start sifting through my more trashy spots with the S-5 and see if I can get some silver with it. So far in the few times I've used that coil I got a Rosie 6 or 7" deep that was in between two shallow pulltabs. I plan to dig even the iffy coin signals that null or degrade from other directions because severly masked coins can do that even with the S-5, although of course it's better at unmasking than a larger coil. After all, it's not like these targets will be super deep. Probably most of them will be 2 to 4" deep and so easy enough to dig a hole even if it ends up being a rusty piece of junk giving the iffy coin signal.

Anybody else have an S-5 who has had luck digging silver in trash with it? What's the deepest you've dug a coin with this coil?

As I said before, I need to take the 12x10 to some known deep coin spots to see what that coil can do on the deep stuff.

 

[matthias]

Hey Critter. I keep my S-5 on the GT most of the time. I'm always surprised how deep it goes in good soil. 6"+ easy. HH. Matt

 

[Critterhunter]

Have you had much luck popping silver with it? Many of my sites (not all) are hard packed clay so they aren't known for super deep coins. 6 or 7" max at those sites, but with probably the majority of even old coins in these areas only being 2 or 3" deep but masked by trash. I plan to start using this coil more at sites like this that are trashy and probably don't have the potential for real deep coins, so the S-5 would probably be the better tool than a larger coil to try to sniper coins out of the trash. I'll concentrate on using the 12x10 at sites that have produced deeper coins (7" or deeper) in the past.

That rosie I dug with the S-5 was 6 or 7" deep in bad ground and yet it hit so hard that I bet it could have been another 2 (maybe even 3?) inches deep and I'm sure I would have hit it fine. By that estimate I'm guessing this coil should at least hit coins 8" deep and maybe even a good bit deeper, but of course the proof is in the popping so I can't say that with any true confidence. I'm just shocked this coil will do 7" or so in my soil. Most of the machines I owned in the past would struggle to reach about 7.5" deep in my soil on a dime. That's why the Sovereign is so impressive to me. I can't believe such a little coil is getting that kind of depth.

 

[Critterhunter]

Brice has some field tests of the Sunray X-5...

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?19,1055627

And Sunray has field tests and customer reports on the X-5. Click on the two links at the bottom...

http://www.sunraydetector.com/sun_ray_stealth_x5_page.htm

I know these are for the Explorer/Etrac versions of the S-5 but it

 

[Critterhunter]

By the way, up until now I've only heard good things about the 6" Excelerator coil. On another website I read where some Sovereign user tested it against the S-5 and found the S-5 was deeper and an all around better coil. First time I've heard any kind of comparison of the two. The S-5 is 5.5" in diameter. Not sure how big the 6" Excelerator is.

 

[GunnarMN]

critter, I bet you find some reall nice stuff with it

 

[Critterhunter]

I just did a short hunt with it. I had hit this spot the other day. It's not super trashy but it's within 8 feet of a gravel road and as a result over the years some of this old gravel has been thrown into the grass area. Not on the surface, but it's mixed into the dirt here and there when you dig. As most of you guys know, a lot of times gravel will act like hot rocks and cause nulling and instability. The other day when I hunted this spot with the 12x10 I had to keep the sensitivity at about 3PM to keep it from nulling too bad, but it was still null city over much of the area. Today I tried the S-5 there and am happy to say I was able to run at full blast sensitivity and only experience a little nulling. That's the thing about these little coils. It isn't just about snaking your way through trash. They can get better signals and even better depth than a larger coil in areas with REALLY bad ground since they see less ground matrix. The S-5 was able to "see thru" or around the gravel hot rocks and hardly did any nulling at all.

It was just a short hunt and unfortunately I didn't dig any silver, but it was nice to see the coil make a spot that was an almost constant null become very huntable. I'll have to go back soon there with the S-5.

 

[Critterhunter]

Here's my thread on target mask testing of the S-5 compared to the 10" Tornado...

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?21,1131053,1213342#msg-1213342

 

[Tin Fin]

Nice links Critter - thanks much!

 

[Critterhunter]

Took the S-5 out for a short hunt today at a trashy old park. This park is one of the oldest and most trashy parks I've ever hunted. Didn't manage any silver but did find 3 or 4 copper pennies that had trash in very close proximity to them, so I'm sure they'd been missed by larger coils over the years. Was able to run the S-5 at full blast sensitivity and it was very stable.