Excelerator Coils - Goes well with a new MD?

[childoftechnology]

After weeks of research, I've finally decided to buy a Minelab Musketeer advantage. Judging from what I've read, it has the best performance for the price, and is well-suited to mineralized and trashy soil such as mine. Now comes the question of what, if any, extra coils to order along with it. I've read great things about the "Excelerator" series of coils, and I'm considering buying a 5" and 18" along with my detector, to give me the best of all three worlds. The 5" for shallow items in trashy ground, the supplied 8" for general purpose, and the 18" for the really deep stuff (especially in grassy fields). But before I actually place the order, I have three questions I'd like some advice on:
1. In general, how do the Excelerator coils perform, especially with the MD I mentioned?
2. For a large coil, would a 14" or 18" be better? I want something that's as deep as possible, without sacrificing too many shallow items or signal stability, accuracy, etc.
3. Just how much stability, accuracy, and sensitivity to shallow items does one sacrifice when using a bigger coil?
My previous detector (which I sold some time ago due to financial problems) was a Whites XLT. Though a nice machine, it's performance was only slightly better than my Dads $200 Radio Shack. I blame it on my highly mineralized and trashy soil, as learning to operate the unit was not a problem for me. The reason I'm leaning towards Minelab, apart from the price, is the highly positive user reviews and field tests that I've read.
Thanks for any advice.

 

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[MUD(S.W.A.T)]

Sounds like to me you have it down pat with the coils. Get the smaller coil for trashy areas and better pinpointing and the larger coils for deep targets. I would use the 5" coil first search with that and get all the easy treasures. Then use the 8" and clear the trash and get some deeper treasures. After that use the 18" and get the deeper treasures and trash. But then again I am still new too so I don't know much thats just what I would do.

HH (Happy Hunting)

 

[Oddfello]

I'm new myself and not familiar with your detector but I can say that I have had good success with my Excelerators on a DFX. I have both the 5 and 14" and am hunting an area where I use the 5" almost exclusively. The 5" was very easy to get used to and very easy to use. The 14" for some reason was much more difficult for me but this most likely has a lot to do with the areas I hunt (trashy) as well as getting used to target separation in general. I will say this though, the 14" is very heavy to me. I recently took it on vacation and hit a beach and after a relatively short while my arm was hurting, the 18" would be killer. On the other hand I have hunted for 7 hrs. straight with the 5". Like I said this is my first real season of hunting but I reccomend the Excelerator coils based on my experience so far.

 

[TOWcritter]

I have a 5" excellerator for my MXT and it really performs well. In trashy areas it really shine. It can separate targets very well and still has a decent depth. I like it.