Large Loops - do they really work?

gwdigger

gwdigger

Bronze Member
Dec 3, 2006
1,421
1,827
Ocean City, Md
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Detector(s) used
XP Deus
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
Relic hunter here. Have been detecting seriously for 16 years and I primarily detect farm fields. Most of the areas are fairly sandy. I have many colonial sites that I am sure have much deeper targets that i can not reach - the sites where you find just pieces of an item and wonder where the hell the other pieces are. . I use both the DFX and and XLT as a back up and both have 9.5" coils. Would like to know if anyone has used one of the larger coils and if they are really worth while or not. The soil around here is not generally heavily mineralized. Don't want to waste money if the loops can't penetrate the ground. I am after buttons and buckles in general. Thanks, Gary
 

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In most cases its more productive to drop a coil size than to go bigger.
If you are in a low or no mineralisation area you might gain depth. Medium or high minerals could mean little gain or even a loss. Depends on the machine and how well it deals with mineralisation. If a small coil only just copes then a big won't.
Then there is coil design. The Whites 15" loses sensitivity at a rate so not good for small targets. Stick to large and there could be an improvement. The Hot Shot manages to use a larger coil and still retain sensitivity.
Your going to get a wider sweep with the coils but also increased target masking.
A better option would be to either reduce discrimination to a minimum or run the detectors wide open with no discrim. Or get a non motion machine with just a ferrous/non ferrous I.D. meter. Gets maximum depth whilst indicating every metal targets. Those that do positivly I.D. as iron can be ignored. No meter movement and you take off a few of inches of soil until you do start to get a proper I.D. Means more work but you know nothing has been missed.
 

Appreciate the info. I currently use relic mode and most all metals are accepted. The ground generally has very low mineralization therefore I am able to really crank up the preset gain and sensitivity and yet the detector remains quite stable. I also lower the recovery speed as well as any otehr settings that affect the operation. Have to admit it doesnt really sound like the large loops penetrate the ground by what you are saying. Surely when I air test a nickel size button I can reach depths of 15-18 inches but the deepest similar target I have ever detected at these sites is more like 10 inches, yet when I dig I am still getting small non metal relics like pottery shards and small pieces of brick at depths of 2 feet. I know these sites hold great finds but they may well always be too deep for any machine? i will venture back to these sites as always and try new settings. Thanks, Gary
 

I purchased a 14" Excelerator coil from Kelly Co. this summer and have been very disappointed with it. Maybe my expectations were to high for it. I'm sure I haven't used it enough to learn it well. There was no helpful hints included as to setting it up. I use a Minelab Explorer XS and the 10.5" coil works very well. I use the 14" coil sparingly and hopefully I'll learn its idiosyncrasies. I usually run my sensitivity at 15 but have to turn this coil down to 1 or I get lots of dead air. If I had it to do over again, I would have purchased the 5" coil instead of the 14".


Rick
 

Rick, I own a Whites blue max 15" coil that I bought ages ago. I tried it on only one low mineralized field where I had found pretty deep targets with the standard 9.5 inch coil but I was not impressed. I bought a 6" blue max coil for when I searched school yards (back when I did that sort of thing) and that loop got suprising depth - in fact I saw no difference in it and the 9.5" coil. In this case I think Brian is right. Perhaps the larger the loop; the more "information" in the form of more mineralized ground, more tid bits of iron and such are in the "field of view" of the loop and it loses its punch or depth in this case becasue its just saturated with signals and inteference.

Most farmers have stopped really plowing the fields around here due to run off...this doesnt help us detectorists.

A friend of mine and I took some sifting screens out to one colonial site (with permission of course) and excavated a 4' by 2' section of its heart and we are convinced we detectorists are missing an extraoridinary amount of good finds. Even a button the size of a half dollar may be well out of the range of a detector at just 15"??? Who knows...

The longer I metal detect the less descrimination and features I use which seems to contradict the reason for such a sophisticated metal detector in the first place.

Maybe I can pay the farmers to just mega plow the good spots?

Thanks & HH, Gary
 

Hola, as a crude general rule, doubling the size of the coil gains perhaps 20 30% in depth on large objects, but inversely lowers the sensitivity to smaller objects approximentally at the same ratio. In cache hunting one does not uses any discrimination, dig em all. Luck.

Tropical Tramp
 

I remember many years ago detecting a park with a standard 8" coil. I hunted this park for most of the summer to the point where I couldn't find much any more. Then I put on a 12" coil and went over the same areas and it was like starting all over again. The coins were a couple inches deeper and were totally missed by using the smaller coil. I was using an older TR detector.
 

I use a Whites MXT and purchased the 14' EXcelerator Searchcoil from KellyCo. I have to say that I am also dissapointed with the coil. I also purchased the Whites 4x6 Shooter coil and am more impressed with it. I hunt on a farm located in central Va. I was expecting the large coil to produce deeper finds vs. the standard coil. That, however, has not been the case. One thing I noticed about the 14' coil is that I get false readings severy time the coil bumps against something, such as the remains of a soy bean plant or corn stalk. Yes, I have found some bullets down around 10+ inches, but my standard coil produces the same results.

The Whites 4x6 coil has performed well out in the fields. Yes, I do have to swing more to cover the same area, but the coil is very light and very sensitive. I have pulled out some very small items with it such as an 1845 dime, 2 IH pennies, a silver "I love you" heart pendent, and lots of small brass whats-its..

I would be interested in trying the Whites 8" x 14" coil to see how it performs vs. the EXcelerator.
 

The onlly thing a bigger coil does for me is give me a little more depth and a wider search patern. It is also heavier and more tiring to swing. I seldom ever use it and stick with the 9 1/2' coil for general use. Monty
 

Monty said:
The onlly thing a bigger coil does for me is give me a little more depth and a wider search patern. It is also heavier and more tiring to swing. I seldom ever use it and stick with the 9 1/2' coil for general use. Monty
Click to expand...

I second what Monty says-- the bigger Coil has uses but I much prefer the stock 9.5". I've thought about
the smaller 4.5", but haven't bought one yet.
 

RealdeTayopa said:
I imagine that it means, "to look for coins, stick to the smaller coils, for caches go for the biggist".

Tropical Tramp
Click to expand...

maybe thats why i havent really found a lot of use for my large coil. i dont really look for cashes or large targets much. i havent noticed any major depth increase with the big coil, and i agree with monty, its heavy and it feels like swinging a trash can lid! the only plus i have found is that you can cover the ground faster because of the coils bigger footprint. other than that, i dont have much use for mine. if it hadnt been included in the package deal with my 2500, i wouldnt have bought it.
 

I also have a white's 5.2" coil, it's great for target isolation and also pinpointing is easy.I use that more often then the big coil.
 

RealdeTayopa said:
Hi Monty my friend: The name of the game is not to cover the ground quickly, but thoroughly.

Tropica Tramp
Click to expand...

i think you might have been responding to me, and right you are! ;)
 

I don't profess to know everything about metal detecting,but I do have 40years experience. I'll tell you this. when relic hunting I look for the larger objects first, no discrimination, low VLF frequency,the largest coil I can use given the terrain, And most important a detector, that does not boost signal received. In other words,I want to hear an unprocessed signal. The WHISPER from the speaker, I have found, turns out to be the best finds! (anyone out there have a 15" coil for a White's 6000D series II?)
 

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