Which is better for general MD -- 12x10 or 15x12 ?

[king-ghidorah]

I am in the process of getting a better coil for my SE. I know the 12x10 is a winner but why not go to the 15x12 and get a little more depth and coverage for $20 more?

I know the 15x12 weighs more than the 12x10 but what concerns me is the 15x12 sensitivity to smaller objects at shallow ranges. I have seen some vids where it still picked up objects at shallow depths but I am still a little concerned about that. Here is what I got from a written conclusion of the testing of these two coils. I did not personally write this. I think in our minds we think bigger is better but from what I have read the 15x12 wouldn't be that much better to justify the weight issue of the coil

"Conclusion
I was very impressed with the performance of all these coils. I
particularly liked the smallest of the three, the 12x10 which rarely falsed on iron and maintained its stability in every situation. On
paper the 15 x 12 is probably the better all round coil, still giving
reasonable depths on small hammered coins while increasing depths
attained on larger coins compared to the standard slim-line coil.
The 18 x 15 is the deepest of the three on larger coins; however it

 

[Jaichim24]

I have the 12X15 and I am very happy with it. I'm 37, not it particularly good shape, but not totally flabby, and my arm gets tired after a long hunt. I'm not complaining, but it is a factor with this coil. I switch arms a lot. It also could be that I'm left handed for writing, but my strong arm is my right one. I detect swinging with my left so my endurance isn't there.

Other than that, I am extremely happy with this coil. The seperation, and the pinpointing is very easy. I even have had success in trashy sites. I will admit though, I have often switched to my smallest coil (8" FBS) while hunting a trashy 1728 house. I struggle between losing dept vs dept but masking targets. Most old homesteads have a 10-15 foot swath around it that are iron minefields. I am still able to hunt with it and pic out very small items, such as buttons and smaller. You may have issues with the 12X15 in this scenario. I love the 12X15 for beach hunting btw. It also rocked for large field hunts, you cover more ground. It all depends on where you hunt the most. Perhaps the 10X12 would give you the ground coverage without as much masking. Since I have purchased my 12X15, I haven't put on my stock 10.5" coil. I have only switched between the 8" and 12X15.

Not sure if I helped, but it's all I can contribute to this question.

Jai

 

[king-ghidorah]

I guess it does depend on what type of hunting you are doing. I think maybe I'll roll with the 12x10 and get a smaller coil like a 6 or 8" as I do not have a small coil right now. I am in the process of building a practical arsenal for my MD needs.

 

[Bence]

You might want to think about getting a 15" round WOT coil, if you want outright depth. I'm not sure how it compares to a 15 x 12 but theoraticaly it should go deeper I use one and can swing it for 4 hours but I wouldn't want to swing it any longer!

 

[Crispytoo]

I have been considering the 12 x 10 SEF. What I have been hearing in various places is that it a deep coil, not too heavy considering it's size and probably most important - stable. I'm currently using the 8" Minelab for the majority of my hunting. I also have the 10" stock coil and the 5" Sun Ray coil. The 8" seems to be the most stable of the three. The Sun Ray seems to run hot and is erratic. I have to knock down the sensitivity quite a bit and that almost seems counterproductive on a smaller coil meant to pick things out between the trash.

 

[king-ghidorah]

I have the 10"stock coil and it's the only one I have right now and people say when they get an SEF how much more stable it is than the stock. I'm used to the stock so I can not wait to see what more stable is!

 

[digitrich]

In order of best to cheesiest. The 11" ML Pro coil is simply the best coil made for the SE. Will blow away the 10x12 in depth, weight, stability and separates better in trash, also falses less. If you have the PRO 11, you would never need the 10 x 12. As for the 12 x 15, the Excellerator 10 x14 is the best large coil I have found for the SE. It seems any larger and the machine tops out in depth, possibly because it starts to see to much mineralisation. The 10x 14 EXcelerator is lighter than the 12x15, gets better depth and better separation, it also, like the ML Pro 11" gets incredible separation for it's size. I absolutely love this coil, if it ever dies, I will immediately buy another. Smaller coils would be the Sun Ray 8" next, it's lighter than the ML 8, gets better separation and goes deeper. Awesome coil. Then I would go to an Excellerator 4.5 x 7. The SR 5, and Excel 6 are good too.

 

[king-ghidorah]

It's weird that you say that because all of the comments I have seen say the opposite of the 12x10 over the Pro coil? One in particular was Bryce saying he would never take his 12x10 off and he used the Pro coil beforehand. I have seen also where the Sunrays used there were more problems such as instability and running too hot compared to smaller Excelerator coils. I have read good things you said about the ML 8 in harmony with what you said. I think to some degree it is reflective of the owner's preference. Some of these coils are outright better than others and some it is a "leaning" toward it.

10x14 Excelerator coil?? Never heard of this except on Garrett's Infinium or other MD's.

Going back to bed now

 

[Rick(ND)]

Many people have different needs for their coils and some like some better than the others. The Pro coil is a great one when i used it on my SE Pro, the Sunray X12 was the one i did the best with with my EX II and had very good separation. Now that i have a E-Trac I have been using the X-8 of SunRays to help learn the detector and I love this coil on the E-trac and it does go deep, I read so much about this new 12X10 and how some like it so I ordered one, but must have hit the wrong button and got the 15X12 coil instead. I took it out to a very well worked area that is not super trashy and found it to be very sensitive even to small targets, little heavy but it did get me 2 IH pennies (1903 & 1884) we had missed before, but there were rusty nails in with the plug when i dug them out.
For me the SunRay 5,8 and 12 are very good coils plus the Joey also works good for me, but the WOT dont do much for me while the first outing with this new 15X12 SEF coil was impressive and would like to go out again, but may not be until spring as our ground is frozen now.
I guess it is different coils for different soils plus what works for some may not work for others.