Considering an addition to the arsenal...

[CZconnoisseur]

Hello all - I've recently found a place where deep coins are starting to consistently show up, and they are almost always pre-1920...

I have a Deus with the 11" coil and do pretty well, and I continue to push it to the limits of detection looking for the deeper and older coins...since moving to Colorado I'm not able to (yet) get past the 10" mark with coin discoveries - and it may be that they are simply not there. While living in the Memphis area, I could hit 8" coins noticeably easier, I'm guessing that mineralization is the deciding factor on max detection depth. As far as I can tell, an 8" coin in clean ground here in Colorado indicates like a 10" coin in Tennessee, also in clean ground with identical settings.

So the closest machine I can think of besides PI would be an Etrac or CTX 3030, possibly with an NEL coil for a little more depth. With the Deus I don't get a VDI for coins beyond the 7" mark usually, as iron nails and coins at that depth indicate very similarly. I'd like a little more info before digging, and I realize the learning curve of either machine - I've been detecting for almost 30 years so I'm willing to learn its "language"

So I would like to explore the possibility of detecting those 10" plus targets - my question is simply this: What would some of you seasoned Minelab experts recommend for this task? I know FBS technology is better at IDing deeper coins and such, and this would be the next logical step for me. What detector/coil combination would you guys suggest for mineralized but fairly clean ground in the hunt for those deep ones?

Any and all help is appreciated! GL & HH

 

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[masterjedi]

Most all coins no matter where you live or what you use are 5" or less in the ground... 8" or more is not the norm anywhere... I hope you find what you are looking for... I have been digging since the late 70's... I have an eTrac and love it for clean ground and Fisher F75 (so powerful) for trashy ground... But max depth in Oregon on a dime size target is at most 8"...
Gary from Oregon...

 

[ChampFerguson/TN]

My max depth was 12" in rich loamy soil on a Barber half dollar that was on angle. CTX with stock coil and it ran up like a solid quarter. I honestly think I could have found it deeper due to the strength of the signal, but I think the rich moist soil played a huge factor.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Honestly, it all depends on the soil. As Champ said, that rich loamy soil will drop a coin 12". I've found dimes at 10", and a balled up cigarette pack at 15" in that Northwest Ohio loam. Down here in SW Virginia, the sod ends usually at about 5" and then begins the hard pack clay and rocks. So, what in the heck would I expect to find beyond 5"? Maybe a fluke or two here and there, realistically there's no every single day need for deep depth.

I've both the E-Trac and the CTX, and I also have a 32 year old Fisher 1260X (the one I found dimes at 10"). All 3 are equally capable here, as well as many other continental locations.

The real difference between the Minelabs and the Fisher is the language they speak. Over and over again I've mentioned on Tnet that we need to learn the sounds, what the heck is the machine telling you. I began in an era where that was our only discrimination. The Fisher is good, but the Minelabs speak a language of incredible information in the sounds alone - provided we focus on the sounds to learn them, versus expecting immediate gratification. You cannot learn a complicated sound machine in just a day - 2 1/2 years Minelab experience speaking there.

I'd say the E-Trac vs the CTX really is a draw, but the CTX is far more a computer than the E-Trac - with very valuable bells & whistles.

That's my $0.02 worth..

 

[cudamark]

My newest combo is an E-trac with a 15" NEL Attack coil. So far, I've just been to the beach, but, I'm very impressed with the depth I'm getting. I found a tiny silver toe ring at about 8" and an aluminum can at well over 2 feet. I could hold the coil 6 inches above the hole and still get a solid signal on the can. My buddy's Dual Field would still get a signal at about 4" above the hole. Not often you can out depth a PI machine! Now, with that said, the target ID was pretty sketchy on both. They varied all over the board but the sound was good and solid. I also scooped a nickel at about 14" with a good sound and target I.D. My previous coil (not counting the stock one and the 5 X 10 Joey) was a Coiltek WOT. So far, the NEL seems a bit better on depth and much better on pin pointing. I am getting a bit more chatter and false signals than the WOT with the same settings, but, not much more. It's easily compensated for. That kind of indicates to me that it's a bit more sensitive than the WOT. I've still yet to use it in a park or turf hunting however, so, take that with a grain of salt. I'll update as I get more field use. On a side note, the NEL is bigger than the WOT. I measured overall diameters and find the WOT actually measures 14 1/2 inches and the NEL Attack is 15 1/4". Size isn't everything, but, in this case, it helps you to cover more ground, which is one of the main reasons to get a big coil. The NEL looks well made and comes with a cover, very good quality nut/bolt, and a velcro strap.

 

[CZconnoisseur]

My second detector was a Fisher 1225-X, followed by a 1265-X shortly thereafter. I remember being 10 years old in 1987 and a guy my dad worked with was interested in selling his 1265-X for $200. This motivated me to do a lot of extra summer jobs but we lived in the country and of course I couldn't drive. So my dad had me level out a bunch of uneven land in the backyard with hand tools (that was a LOT of work!), and then once the summer was over I grabbed the chainsaw and found some dead trees on our property and began harvesting those for the wintertime...my mother was NOT happy with me operating a chainsaw at 10-11 years old, but she got over it and I always played it safe with something like that...

In the end, when I had the $200 saved up, he secretly bought the detector and hid it from me, and for Christmas I got it - and a happy lad I was! He wanted the 1225-X for himself, and I got to keep the $200 (which I spent on semi-key date Wheat cents for my Whitman album)...they were a lot cheaper back then!

Over the next 6-7 years I became one with that 1265-X and I can remember riding my bike at 14-15 years old to places 5-10 miles from home and hoping to find just a couple of Wheats - sometimes I did, sometimes I didn't, and when I found a Rosie one day you could have bottled my excitement and sold it on the black market! TO this day, even when I find a single Wheat after hours of hunting, I get a little taste of that excitement all over again...even if it is dated 1958 LOL

Didn't mean to take a trip down Memory Ln, but detecting is something that is so engrained in my childhood and current life that it takes up a large portion of my free time, and almost never lets me down. The first few weeks in Colorado were a little dry, but now that I have a good (uncontested as well) spot, I don't want to leave anything for the next generation of detectors if I can't help it. If there's a coin at the 11-12" level, I want to get as much information as possible to determine whether I need to dig or pass on such a target. At this location a 10" or deeper coin is no doubt going to be at least 115 years old, maybe more; and it could very well be a gold coin - something that has always been on my bucket list.

I know that out of the box the Etrac and CTX are deep with stock coils and stock programs, and although I know there is a learning curve involved with either machine, I am more than willing to use and learn the right tools for the job. Still haven't pushed the Deus to it's maximum - I just learned last night of another mode to run that machine in to uncover deeper targets with at least a little degree of ferrous vs non-ferrous identification.

I can't wait to see Minelab's next step beyond the CTX and Etrac - FBS really opened up a lot of older sites being a proprietary technology and personally I think has an edge with deeper high conductors. Thank you for the input so far!

 

[marjam]

I love my etrac. I still have a dfx and it was my go to machine until I got the etrac. I have found more silver and deeper targets in general since owning it, but I would say my deepest coin was a merc at almost 10 inches. It serves me well but I would like the waterproof capability to hunt in rhe water, so if you have the extra money, if it was me I would opt for the ctx if you think water hunting is in your future.

 

[cudamark]

I think the Excalibur with the right coil goes deeper in the water than the CTX (or the E-trac for that matter), and it's a lot less expensive too.

 

[Mach1Pilot]

The Etrac or CTX are both well noted for their ability to find those deeper coins.... I don't think you can go wrong with ether one. The target ID and recovery speed are a bit better on the CTX than the Etrac, and the target trace features are handy too.

With either of them, though the deepest of targets will probably be just a tiny peep... Heard only through the headphones and without a good visual ID. You need to trust your ears with either one of them.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

You need to trust your ears with either one of them.

Yep!!! It will talk to you, and if you'll become a student, it will write the history of the world! At least at the spot of the signal