Crocop, I was using an Explorer II. On this hunt, I had my 8" coil on. But the machine didn't have much to do with it. The coin was only 2 or 3" deep. It was more a matter of where I was hunting
Also speed of target retreival is important. There were 3 of us on this particular hunt: 2 of us were swinging Explorers, and the 3rd guy was swinging a DFX. At the end of the hunt, the 2 of us that were swinging Explorers had about 40 period targets each (green copper, pistol balls, buttons, etc...) The guy swinging the DFX had only about 10 or 12 period targets. I attribute that partly to the machine (I consider the DFX a very lacking machine in depth, TID, etc... but that's just my opinion after experimenting with it when it was first introduced), and partly to his lack of having a pinpointer. For example: Sometimes I'd see him stopping to dig a target, while I was still wandering around. Then I'd get a signal, drop to dig it, then stand back up to resume hunting. I'd look over, and the DFX guy would STILL be hunting around in his hole, waving handfuls of dirt in front of his coil, etc... So clearly, the faster you dig/retreive, the more targets you'll have at the end of your hunt, leading to increased potential to have a goodie in your target count. They do sell probes for the DFX, but I still think we'd have whooped the DFX even with a probe
(but detector wars are for another thread, haha).
Thanx for all the compliments guys and gals! Someday I'll do a group shot of all 11 and post them. For some reason, gold coins are more common finds on the west coast, verses the mid-states and east coast. I know of quite a few guys who have found 1, 2 or 3 gold coins here, that aren't even hard-core hunters. For some reason, they just circulated more out in the west. Still hard to find though, don't get me wrong
![:-\](https://www.treasurenet.com/smilies/undecided.gif "Undecided :-\")
