Venner
Greenie
- Jun 17, 2013
- 12
- 6
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab X-Terra 705, 6" DD 3khz 'Digger' coil, 5x8" DD 18.75khz coil
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
I had an X-Terra 705 and the 3kHz 6" Digger coil, which is terrific, and decided I'd like a big 3kHz coil to hopefully recover some deeper targets. I am one of those people who weighs all of the options based on lots and lots of research. As with my previous detecting decisions, I based my purchases based on the experiences and observations people were kind enough to post on this and a couple of other forums. I thought I would put my experience with the 3Khz WOT (so far) out there for others to find, and welcome any other owners to contribute their thoughts as well.
1. Depth: It seems to go deep. After using it for about 25-30 hours now, I am somewhat stumped that I haven't found any deep silver, but I have dug a couple of half-dollar-sized pieces of aluminum from 18 inches that hit hard at 40-42 on the VDI. My main haunt has been thoroughly combed over the years, but I'd have expected to find a few deep stragglers by now.
2. Dimes: I seem to be finding lots of shallow targets in the 1-3" range that I'd somehow passed over despite a thorough search with my Digger. Almost all of the coins were dimes on edge, but they generally hit clearly in the 38-40 range on the WOT (including 5 silver Roosevelts) . I read a comment somewhere that this coil was a "dime magnet" and they were not kidding; I'm shocked, since it is a big coil vs. a relatively small target. Don't be too worried about missing small coins with this thing.
3. Nickels: On the flip side, as with the Digger, 3kHz is not well suited for finding nickels. I dig just about every target with a positive VDI, but for the WOT, nickels jump around anywhere from 8 to 20.
4. EMI: Since coils are really just round antennas, it's no surprise that a large 15" coil is more susceptible to electromagnetic interference. I definitely have to be further away from an electric fence than I do with my Digger coil. (And in turn, my 18.75kHz is even better-yet behaved, although I don't use it often.) What surprised me what that I couldn't even get near some overhead residential powerlines near my house; 25 feet away the machine would just go crazy until I dropped the sensitivity into the single digits. In the same area, I never had an issue with my other 705 coils. If you are having trouble with stability with the WOT, look around for some wires or a nearby transformer you might have missed.
5. Sweep Speed & Ground Chatter: As I've mentioned in many previous posts, we have pretty mineralized ground around me, and I like to run a coil at the highest sensitivity I can. This can result in some slight, acceptable (non-repeatable) falsing at times. Yes, this coil needs to be swept more slowly to keep it stable, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it is often less noisy than my Digger coil in the same soil conditions. I didn't expect that at all, given that the WOT has a much larger slice of ground to process on each sweep. (I find that where I can run the Digger at sensitivity 26-28, the WOT can usually go 24-26 no problem.)
6. Pinpointing: Pinpointing takes a little more getting used to. There are three 'hot zones' on the coil - the leading edge, the center, and the trailing edge of the coil circle. If you have a large target, or the sensitivity is up high, sometimes you can mistake a signal at the edge for one at the center. Always use the cross method to pinpoint, checking at 90°, and you'll generally hone in on the 'true' center. The exception is in trashy sites with multiple targets (yes, this coil can do fine in those conditions if you are careful, but you'll probably want to avoid all-metal mode in those conditions) or with large targets that might overlap zones; either can make it aggravating to pinpoint with a large coil at times.
Would anyone else care to share their experiences with this coil?
1. Depth: It seems to go deep. After using it for about 25-30 hours now, I am somewhat stumped that I haven't found any deep silver, but I have dug a couple of half-dollar-sized pieces of aluminum from 18 inches that hit hard at 40-42 on the VDI. My main haunt has been thoroughly combed over the years, but I'd have expected to find a few deep stragglers by now.
2. Dimes: I seem to be finding lots of shallow targets in the 1-3" range that I'd somehow passed over despite a thorough search with my Digger. Almost all of the coins were dimes on edge, but they generally hit clearly in the 38-40 range on the WOT (including 5 silver Roosevelts) . I read a comment somewhere that this coil was a "dime magnet" and they were not kidding; I'm shocked, since it is a big coil vs. a relatively small target. Don't be too worried about missing small coins with this thing.
3. Nickels: On the flip side, as with the Digger, 3kHz is not well suited for finding nickels. I dig just about every target with a positive VDI, but for the WOT, nickels jump around anywhere from 8 to 20.
4. EMI: Since coils are really just round antennas, it's no surprise that a large 15" coil is more susceptible to electromagnetic interference. I definitely have to be further away from an electric fence than I do with my Digger coil. (And in turn, my 18.75kHz is even better-yet behaved, although I don't use it often.) What surprised me what that I couldn't even get near some overhead residential powerlines near my house; 25 feet away the machine would just go crazy until I dropped the sensitivity into the single digits. In the same area, I never had an issue with my other 705 coils. If you are having trouble with stability with the WOT, look around for some wires or a nearby transformer you might have missed.
5. Sweep Speed & Ground Chatter: As I've mentioned in many previous posts, we have pretty mineralized ground around me, and I like to run a coil at the highest sensitivity I can. This can result in some slight, acceptable (non-repeatable) falsing at times. Yes, this coil needs to be swept more slowly to keep it stable, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it is often less noisy than my Digger coil in the same soil conditions. I didn't expect that at all, given that the WOT has a much larger slice of ground to process on each sweep. (I find that where I can run the Digger at sensitivity 26-28, the WOT can usually go 24-26 no problem.)
6. Pinpointing: Pinpointing takes a little more getting used to. There are three 'hot zones' on the coil - the leading edge, the center, and the trailing edge of the coil circle. If you have a large target, or the sensitivity is up high, sometimes you can mistake a signal at the edge for one at the center. Always use the cross method to pinpoint, checking at 90°, and you'll generally hone in on the 'true' center. The exception is in trashy sites with multiple targets (yes, this coil can do fine in those conditions if you are careful, but you'll probably want to avoid all-metal mode in those conditions) or with large targets that might overlap zones; either can make it aggravating to pinpoint with a large coil at times.
Would anyone else care to share their experiences with this coil?
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