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Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Extra large search coils

I see more and more beach hunters using extra large 14 inch plus search coils on the beach and in the water.
In my opinion, using such large search coils for all of your beach and shallow water hunting needs is not a good thing.  
Large search coils are like pulse induction metal detectors, they are just too situational to be used all the time on anything other than trash free beach sites.
Dont get me wrong I do use extra large search coils, just not all the time. 
I use my CTX 3030 and can change search coils within minutes, the 17 X 13 is a monster size search coil.  
My monster accessory has a time and a place to shine, but only when I know using it gives me a big advantage.
Many people get too carried away because of the increased competition for finds or prolonged periods of sanded in conditions.  
Mistakenly believing that they must use the extra large search coil all the time in order to find anything at all.
If it is not a massive search coil, it is a pair of magic headphones or a bag of magic beans ! 
No accessory is going to take care of the competition for finds or sanded in conditions,  learning to use your stock search coil and tuning your metal detector to maximize sensitivity and depth will. 
My view is that if a beach or water hunter cannot be successful with a stock size search coil, they have little chance of success using a very large search coil.
The ground coverage of the extra large search coil is good but a poor trade off when you put iron masking and the risk of missing small gold on the beach into the equation.
Some of the most sought after jewelry finds for a beach or water hunter are gold ladies rings with stones and gold chains. 
These kind of finds take skill to discover with a regular size search coil, they are much more difficult to find when you increase the size of your search coil by several inches.
It is not only small gold jewelry that you have to worry about missing when using the extra large search coil on beaches all the time.
After erosion has taken place, a beach is often littered with small ferrous trash that causes iron masking.
These Spanish shipwreck artifacts were found last year, the old hinge and two ship spikes were found using my large search coil. 


I did the opposite to what most hunters would do, I  switched to the stock size coil to make sure no good targets were being masked by the many ferrous nails in the area.  
The Spanish 1715 fleet silver one reale was found not long after changing search coils, because I understood the need for depth and the need for target separation. 


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