Your opinion - a 16.5

[MIssouri Secessionist]

I kind of went on a Safari coil buying binge, and acquired a 16.5 Excelerator Coil off of eBay. The next size down that I have is a 12" SunRay X-12. If it were you, would you be looking at a coil that to fill in between the two, or, would they pretty much overlap as they are? I am amassing a covey of coils, but have not had the opportunity to use any of them, as I am preparing to move some distance from where I live now, and am house hunting in order to get the move behind me. Would a 15 WOT, or, a 14" coil be handy, or, is there another coil that you would suggest, like an SEF?

thank you for any help that you may give me in this quest. I have civil war books, maps, permits to hunt state park beaches, et al, reading the manuals to the Safari and the X-Terra 705, getting prepared for when I move and have the time to devote to the hunt. I plan to kick the Safari around a little this weekend, here locally, as users have said it is pretty much set up and go, out of the box, and you can learn the finer points as you go.

I just was kind of interested in what the well armed Minelab user had in his quiver as far as a wide selection of coils. I plan to hunt silver coins, lost jewelry, and civil war relics. Not much gold nugget prospects where I live. Rocky, clay good ole southern Missouri soil.

 

[TomH]

Missouri Secessionist,

I relic hunt in PA, MD and VA with my Safari and have three coils, the stock 11", a WOT 15" and a 5x7" excellerator. I bought the 15" for the extra coverage since I generally hunt in fields where the four inches of extra width makes a difference. I don't feel that I get much extra depth from the WOT over the stock coil but I can cover a large area faster. In heavily mineralized soil the larger coil can get confused with the mineralization and give lots of false targets, but if you stick to digging repeatable/pinpointable targets you can avoid digging some of the junk. At a recent organized dig in Orange County, VA the soil ran from light to heavy mineralization and the 15" WOT performed great. One field had yielded some rare .69 cal Gardner bullets in the past and several diggers went in with every known machine. None of the VLF machines found anything there except my Safari, a .69 Gardner at about ten to twelve inches! The signal wasn't what I would expect from a bullet that size in good dirt, but it was repeatable and pinpointable and gave a good tone even tough the VID was not what it should be (32-34). Once I dug about 6 inches out the signal corrected to a perfect tone/VID 34. The only other Garders to come out that weekend were found with Minelab GPX machines (4500/5000), so I was pretty pleased with the Safari.
The downside is the added weight, after a short time the WOT feels like you have a 5 pound bag of flour on the end of the detector and it beats the hell out of my old shoulder. I found that the "Swingy Thingy" works like a charm and takes all the weight of the machine, letting me go all day with the bigger coil.
I only use the 5x7 when I am in heavily wooded areas where I cannot swing the larger coils.
One thing that I found out with the safari is that it LOVES rusty iron, especially bent nails. They will give a perfect bullet, or worse button, tone until you start to dig. Once you get the plug out of the ground the target now moves to the edge of the hole. My theory: the heavily rusted iron leeches metal into the surrounding soil causing a band of iron that is seen by the machine, which detects the edge of the iron patch. Once you dig out some of the patch of rust the actual target gets read and it acts like the target has moved. If I dig a hole and the machine tells me that the target has moved I push the dirt back into the hole and walk away.

Hope this helps,
Tom Henrique

 

[MIssouri Secessionist]

TomH,

Thank you for your great evaluation of the different coils that you use in circumstances similar to what I plan to hunt in southeast Missouri. We didn't have a lot of pitched battles in the immediate area, mostly skirmishes of modest lengths. I have some books that I have picked up to help me locate those areas. Years ago, I did find a couple bullets in the sidewalk easement in Cape Girardeau, where Grant and a couple other Lincolnite rascals set up shop to occupy the area. I couldn't tell you what kind they are, because they are no longer in my possession. They, along with my gold HS ring, my Marine Corps dog tags, and my binder with pages upon pages of my silver coins in page pockets went into the ether, along with my last girlfriend. Not saying that she took them, which is most likely, but that all the above disappeared about the same time. Yeah, I was outfitted by the Great Metal Detectorist in the Sky, with a bad "chooser mechanism" at birth.

I sure will have to take a look at the Swingy Thingy. I have seen others post about it, but imagined myself that I wouldn't need one. Who am I kidding? A lot more of me aches now that it did back in the mid 80's when I belonged to a club in Cape Girardeau, MO Thanks for the suggestion.

I believe that most of the area where I am planning to hunt is overgrown with brush. Some areas may have a field like composition, but I pretty well know the landscape from Cape Girardeau to Springfield, and I do believe that it is mostly brush of varying density.

I do have a SunRay X-12, and the next up is a 16.5" WOT. I wonder if I need something in between them, like 15" or 14 " WOT, or, another gap filler, if indeed there is a gap in the two that I have. I plan to try what I have out, but the whole coil business is new to me in detecting. Back when I was in the club in the 80's, most but the "elite" in our club used the standard coil, so coil philosophy is something that I didn't learn back then. That is why your evaluation is so informative and beneficial to me.

I do appreciate it, TomH. Again, thank you.

 

[TomH]

Missouri Secessionist,

Glad to be of assistance. A couple of things:

Check your maps for camp locations. Pitched battle sites produce fired bullets and artillery frags, which are fun to find but the real treasures are in camps. Camps can be trashy, so the larger coil sometimes works against you in those environments. Also, we spend a bit of time in very mineralized soil and the larger coils can get confused by the return from the minerals in the ground. At that dig that I mentioned several of the seasoned vets used very small coils for that reason, they see through the mineralization and pick the targets better. My bud had a six inch coil on his Excaliber and found a perfect Isaac and Campell knapsack hook set (both pieces) and the prettiest Block "I" button that I have ever seen dug.

The Swingy-Thingy saves my shoulder every time. I am 58 and have abused my body through sports and other activities. While many people treat their bodies like a temple I have always treated mine like an amusement park and I am now paying the price. With the 15" WOT I can go for about an hour without the Thingy before my shoulder starts making noises like twigs snapping and rusty gates, but can go all day with the support system on.

If you are hunting in thick growth or brush the larger coil will produce more resistance when swinging. We joke that in some of the fields that we work we need to sharpen the sides of the coil so it can scythe through the growth. That way we can work the field and clear the brush at the same time.

Have fun and good luck finding the goodies. Remember in relic hunting swing low and slow and dig all the repeatable signals. Post any bullets that you find and I can help you identify them, CW bullets and Cartridges are my areas and I am always interested in seeing what people are finding in other places.

Happy Hunting,
Tom Henrique

 

[MIssouri Secessionist]

Thank you, Tom. This is great information for me as I begin to relic hunt. Disappointing is the fact that much of our good skirmish sites are in Federal Forests and their attitude toward Metal Detecting is not all that friendly. Then, there is a doofus, From what I understand, if you found a 1960 Lincoln Cent, they consider that to be an artifact under the antiquities act.

Then there is, Joe Davis, who used to live in Howell County, who is a hippie kayaker, and while now out of the area, is pushing hard to get a ten, or, so county southern Missouri counties declared some type of heritage region.. Just what America needs, More Federal control of our lives.

I will National Geographic TOPO software and maps for Missouri and some Civil War books with accounts of skirmishes. There are some skirmishes that are on private land. I will investigate if they are able to be hunted. Of course, with how Congress passed the "Enron Loophole" in the Republican Congress of 2000, which Democrat President Bill Clinton signed, that allowed these wall street bankers and oil speculators to go to Asia and Dubai, to do their betting, completely unregulated, on oil, and run their sleazy schemes, similar tto what they did to bring about the housing crisis and economic crash of 2008; the price of gas is going to determine how far that I can travel to hunt. Guess we are all in that boat.

Gotta get a SwingyThingy!

Again, Thank you, Tom for some great info.


Dex