Coil Sizes

[Steve Dixon1968]

Looking for a few pointers here please detector swingers.

Question 1.
I have one field on my permission which gradually turns into an iron storm. This covers around half of the field, possibly around 4 acres. This is my "giving" field and I love going on here.
I'm considering buying a small coil for this area as it's throwing a lot up.
Being honest the iron is overwhelming in places.
I've never used a small coil so want to now if its worth the outlay.
Also this would be used on a local foreshore if I get one.

Question 2.
Are larger coils worth getting?
I have a pasture field & a very quiet field which I'm tempted to go over with a big coil.

I have only really used the stock coils on my detectors so need some feedback please.

Thanks Steve

[Jamesey1981]

Bigger coils can sometimes give you an advantage on bigger deep targets, but the main benefit they give is ground coverage.

Sometimes aftermarket coils can be a lot better than the original due to being made better/differently, certainly for the safari some of the detech coils are pretty well regarded, although the safari coil isn't bad, certainly better than the original explorer coil that the machine is based on.

I personally wouldn't go for huge coils but that's not down to performance, I have a bad back and some of them add a lot of weight and unbalance the machine, a lot of the performance is kind of subjective and even if you got much better results with a big coil in a test bed so much can affect detector performance that that might not translate into the real world.

Basically it comes down to money, if you have the cash to spend on a new coil and you think that it is worth the outlay for what might only be a small improvement then go for it, you probably will see an improvement, but if your machine has a good coil on it anyway that improvement might be a small one.

Even if it give you an extra two inches in depth, you still need to walk over a target within those two inches, and it just might not be there.

[Stubble trouble]

Hi Steve, I operate a deus and after a lot of deliberation purchased an elliptical HF coil after previously using the larger coils. I haven't looked back since using it, particularly on an iron infested roman site, it has been superb at wrinkling out the small roman coins. It maybe doesn't have the depth, but when working on a freshly ploughed or seeded field that really doesn't come into the equation for me, I'm purely looking to work the first 6 inches, the results speak for themselves. Another huge advantage is its agility at working up and down plough furrows, I'd seriously recommend investing in one, trust me, you won't look back.

[EquinoxHunter]

I recently swapped from 11" to 6" on my Nox 800 for the same reason,

its not a waste of money, the 6" coil is a useful addition for trashy sites where winkling out the none ferrous from all the iron junk is more important than depth & coverage,

it does what you would expect, not as deep as 11" & covers less ground but gives better separation when you have lots of iron near none ferrous,

since I started using the 6" on 2 trashy fields my none ferrous/ junk ratio has gone up notably,
pinpointing is more accurate,
I don't need to use pinpoint with the 6" coil & never had a target in the side wall like I sometimes had using the 11" coil in the same fields,

its easier to find a clear patch to ground balance against with the 6" coil, I had problems finding anywhere clear of targets to ground balance the 11" coil in one field I detect,

its low weight & small size make it easier to get around in & out of obstacles.

[Steve Dixon1968]

#Manythanksall
I'm getting one