The Whites MXT and It's Coils

G'day Folks, I wrote this post a few months back and I would like to share it here,

John.

G'day Folks. This past month I have Bought 4 Whites coils and I have been testing them Doing Air Tests and IN Ground tests and I think a lot of folks look at coils the wrong way, In the past people have come to rely on DD's swearing that in ground that reads from the mid 50 to the mid 60s that they have to have a DD when this is not the case,

There are a few things that I have found out, As I have said before some of Whites concentric coils will lower the ground balance setting by a fair margin and because of their small foot print you can get away with using them in hot ground,

This past month I bought the 6x10 (5x9) Eclipse DD and the 4x6 DD Shooter and the 5.3 (6 inch) Eclipse round Concentric and today I got the X pattern 950 Eclipse Concentric, When I compared the 6x10 to the standard 10"DD in and air test on coins it looses about 2 to 2.5 inches to the 10" DD, and on bits of lead weighing 0.02 grams they were both equal, The 4x6 shooter looses about 4 to 5 inches in the Air to the 10" DD on Coins but see's the 0.02gram bit at the same distance, Now I have never understood what all the fuss was about with that 4x6 because a heck of a lot of people use them, but I have always thought of it as a Dog of a thing,

Anyways, had to order another set of Scales because I need some that had a 5 1/2 digit read out because although I already have 3 sets and one set being worth about $1400.00 they still did not go down low enough, Having read GSA's story about the MXT and the 5.3 coil I thought I would give it a another try because I have always had a 5.3 up until about 4 years ago. And I have to admit is what GSA say about that setup is 100% correct and then some.

So now it was time to start testing the 5.3 (6") concentric, This is where things really made a difference, Once fitted to the MXT A/P ( All Pro ) I cranked up the gain (As Before) and now the MXT is seeing bits well into GMT, GB II and GR Territory on Very Tiny bits and on a US Quarter it see's them at the same distance as the 10" DD depending what mode I use, So after some head scratching I thought I would take the whole setup out side and see what faint targets I could find,

The builders replaced the Lead on the roof and from around the windows here about 2 years ago, So you can imagine what I found, Anyways I got this soft target come through the head phones after about 30 minutes and when I worked out exactly where it was it then took me another 20 minutes on my hands and knees to find It with a 10x power magnifying glass, So once I had it safe it was back indoors to clean it and weight it, It turns out to be the Tiniest piece of metal/Lead I have ever found with a VLF as in the VLF range Not LF machine,

As some of you know I made my GMT as hot as the GB II if not more so just by adding the GM II coil to it and That also lowered the GB setting too, So that was another bonus, and it is a lot hotter than the 4x6 shooter when fitted on the GMT and it see's Extremely tiny targets at 3 X the distance that the Factory Twin "D" coil does. As in bits that can't be weighed the size of a piece of Glitter,

Anyway back to the MXT A/P and the 5.3 Coil, That bit I found was about 3/4" Deep in the ground, so I got out the new scales and calibrated them to make sure they were spot On

AND.... It weighed 0.00019 ozt, or 0.0925 grains, or 0.006 grams.

Now in my books that is pretty good going for a VLF regardless of the brand, And in the Air that coil can see a bit weighing 0.010 grams at about 2 to 3 inches depending on the EMI.

If you happen to own an MXT then the 5.3 coil has many other uses and it can hit coins in to the 7 to 10" inch range In the Ground and it is a real Gem in junk filled ground, truly I think that the 4x6 is a dog of a thing in comparison But it could be the perfect Coil if Whites made it in to a Concentric Coil which would make it extremely hot on Gold weighing less than 0.09 Grains in to Pan sized Gold,

And another thing about the 10" DD and the 950 coils,,, we always see people testing two such coils comparing them together, and folks complain that the 950 is not a fair comparison because it is a concentric, well these two coils break the rules, because the 950 will see 0.03 bits at about 3 to 4" inches where as the 10" DD will see them at about 2 to 3" max depending on the EMI,, Yet once the Items get up around 1.00gm they start to become equal and when they get up to 1.89 gram they are equal and then after that the 10" DD starts to pull away ever so slightly and as things get larger the 10" DD begins to Rule the roost, So what ever Whites did to that 10" DD it is really not normal and it breaks all the rules. Which is a bonus for Prospecting because of the hot ground etc,

I Air tested these 1.00 gram and 1.89 gram pieces and they were really out there a person would be happy to get half that distance in hot ground.

One thing I need to add is on a thin flat piece weighing 0.05 it see's it at 15 to 16 cm's an on 0.17 grams it see's them up to 20 cm's, So the flatter ones it see's a lot further in the Air, even sitting on the ground/Dirt which is yellow clay with blue clay/ black sand mixed in.

It is a well know fact that Concentric Coils of equal size have more depth than DD's and Air Test around 2 to 4 inches deeper and knowing this was the reason behind buying the 950 Coil, The 950 is a lot more sensitive to tiny items but on coin sized items and nuggets over a certain size the 10" DD pulls ahead and although this is not the result I was looking for, It has an up side to it in that I have the Depth of the Concentric but in a DD format which is good where the ground starts to heat up.

When I tested the 12" Concentric, I found that it had a 2 to 3 inches depth increase compared to the 950 Coil and the 950 will pull Coins from between 11 to 13 inches where 10 to 12" in a common occurrence, And I have actually seen the 12" Coil pull coins from a measured 13 and a half inches with the Gain set on 6.5 to 6.7. The 12" Should add another 1 to 3 inches over the 10" DD although some of that will be lost in the ground.

The 10"DD can see your bare hand between 4 to 6 inches and Air Tests on larger targets at huge distances, So even if it losses 50% of that depth in the ground then it is still going to be very deep, And using this Coil In the Prospecting Mode will give even the best PI's a run for there money and in normal Ground the 12" Concentric will without a doubt.

The 6x10 Eclipse Coil is a nice Coil but it looses about 1.5 to 2 inches In Air when compared to the 10" DD using a US Quarter and on UK coins that can hit them a bit deeper. It is a good Coil for poking around it the woods and rocky places, But because of the depth difference between it and other Coils I tend not to use the 6x10 and when I do it is only when detecting in tight places, But it is still a great Coil and it was seeing what the 6x10 and the MXT can do that made me want an MXT in the first place and they are an impressive pair.

In all the years that I have been using and testing the MXT's I have never owned the 4x6 Shooter Coil, to me it always seemed stupidly small and is equal to a 5" round DD, Anyway I caved in and about one this past month and every thing I thought about it has come true, It lacks depth and covers very little ground and it has the same sensitivity of all the other DD's, So for Prospecting it offers Nothing apart from being able to fit in tight places and for a Coils so small it is quite solid weighing 398.99 grams which does not sound like much but for it's size out of all the Coils it really feels like a Brick in your hand, and when it comes to nuggets, what the 4x6 see's at 1 inch the 5.3 will see at 3 inches and on a US Quarter it looses a good few inches,

When it comes to the 5.3 (6") Concentric Coil, it has the depth in most cases that rivals the 6x10 DD Eclipse and again on tiny bits, what the 6x10 see's at 1 inch the 5.3 will see at 3 inches and it can see bits a lot smaller down to the size of a grain of Sugar and then some and I have No Doubts that it will see bits half the size I have listed and no doubt before long I will attempt to find out how small it will go,

One Coil I have owned and never took to is the 8x14, people claim it is heavy and prefer to use after market coils when it comes to coils of this size, Last year I bought one of the Whites 8x14 Sierra Max Concentric Coils second hand from the US Which was made for the GMT/ Goldmaster series, They don't make them anymore and I think that they have just stopped making the DD versions for the GMT and the MXT series.

Knowing what a huge difference the GM II Longscan Coil made to my GMT, I decided to buy the 8x14 Sierra Max and to my shock it was not as hot as the standard GMT Twin "D" Coil and I was expecting huge depth increases, But to be honest even in Air tests I could not see any difference on normal sized Items, The Concentric Sierra Max Coil is White in colour where as the DD versions for the GMT and the MXTs are Black, It is common knowledge that larger Coils loose sensitivity to small Items but that is not always the case as I found out when I bought the 15" Concentric MXT Max Coil, It will easily find things 3 or 4 feet deep and no doubt it will go a lot deeper, But at the other end of the scale it can see bits smaller than 0.02grams. The only down side to it is it weighs 1047.78 grams including the lead and the plug, To say it has depth is an understatement, heaven forbid if it ever locks on to a big/large target at depth.

All the coils have some really good merits except the 4x6 and the 8x14 and the only time I would use the 4x6 is in tight spaces and the 8x14 seems to draw a blank with me.

A simple test is to use a quarter and Air test it in the default relic mode and measure it at the same time and then press the music notes button once and then do the Air Test it again and run it as hot as to can and you will see that the depth increase signal will be huge, It will bleep at a certain distance and then you will get an all metal sound, That mode is Called Mixed Mode and the words will appear on the screen, that is why you are missing nuggets and the hotter you can run it the better, So Items that are within the Disc range will Bleep and Iron will give a low tone, those Targets that are deeper will give an All Metal Tone and depending where you set the Gain it will do that all the way out to 19 to 21 inches depending on the EMI.

In that mode the Disc control has no effect but Iron will still give a low tone, So what you end up with is like the prospecting mode with the ability to Disc out Junk, And when you use it set up like that you should use it and listen for the same signal as you do with your GPX because it turns your MXT in to a VLF version of the GPX and you will blow the doors off any other detector using it like that, If you want to find Gold with it in the Relic mode that is the way to do it, So what you are getting is a high Bleep for wanted targets and a low tone for Iron for targets that are within Disc range and what is known as the 3rd Tone which tells you there is a target down deep beyond the range of the Disc, and remember forget the Disc knob because it has no effect but most of the junk will be gone,

If you want to find the Tiny Gold below 1 grain you want to turn the Gain way up high and set your threshold so you can only just hear it so it is almost like a whisper So the soft signals still come through,

My Latest Hot Coil is the Discontinued Detech 14X10 DD Excelerator EQ 2 Pro, After the first day with it I was that Impressed I ordered another one

It only weighs 4.7 grams heavier than the standard 10" dd 2D coil including the cable and the plug and the Skid Plate,

The one for the MXT all up Weighs 675.8 grams or 23.838 oz and it just Glides across the ground even though it weights 4.7 grams heavier it actually feels lighter, It seems to reach right out there because was using it today and it was picking up my pick 5 feet away, I kept hearing this noise and I thought it was a sudden attack of EMI til I realized what was going on,, This is going to become my everyday Coil.

Hope this helps.

John.

Great writeup John, I can tell you have spent a lot of time testing all these coils. Thanks for all the information. Lots of hard work involved.

Yeah great report.
   I have used the 4 x 6  on my old Vsat and found it to be very good for bed rock crevice work and it is very hot on tiny gold within an inch of the coil and is better for that purpose than my 6 x 10, although the 6 x 10 can detect whatever the 4 x 6 can find.
  My 4 x 6 and Vsat combo  with gain at around 70%. (There is too much EMI here to set it higher) can air test a 0.12g nugg at approx 5 inches with a soft signal.

adrian ss wrote:Yeah great report.
   I have used the 4 x 6  on my old Vsat and found it to be very good for bed rock crevice work and it is very hot on tiny gold within an inch of the coil and is better for that purpose than my 6 x 10, although the 6 x 10 can detect whatever the 4 x 6 can find.
  My 4 x 6 and Vsat combo  with gain at around 70%. (There is too much EMI here to set it higher) can air test a 0.12g nugg at approx 5 inches with a soft signal.

Sorry for the late reply,

Adrian, does your V-sat have the 6x10 Longscan Coil or has it got the Twin D, because the Longscan runs a lot hotter and see's those tiny bits a lot further,

John.

This one. 6 x 10 DD

adrian ss wrote:This one. 6 x 10 DD

Oh right well the One you want is the GMII or the V-sat and the GM-3 6x10 Longscan Coil, it is a Concentric and what your Twin D Coil will see at 1" the Longscan will see at 2 to 3 inches,

I will try and Post a picture of the one I am talking about, But it can see bits that can't be weighed, Smaller than 0.0001oz.

John.

Here ya go have a look at this,

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?id=12795

I have that one but it has seen better days and I replaced it with the newish 6 x 10 DD.
The old one was a better coil I think.

adrian ss wrote:I have that one but it has seen better days and I replaced it with the newish 6 x 10 DD.
The old one was a better coil I think.

Well I think that coil is the reason so many say the newer GMT's are not as good as the old ones, But they are, IBecause when I stuck that Coil on my GMT it made it as Hot as the Gold Bug 2, and the GM II coil is also hotter than the 4x6 DD,

I pestered Whites a while back to make the round 5.3 concentric for the GMT and then about 18 months 2 years later they came out with one so if you cant get a Good GM II coil then maybe the 5.3 might be your best option.

I got my GM II coil for about $100.00 USD but the postage and import duty took it up to about 215.00 USD but My one has never been used and it like New.

I also use these on the Vsat. The Shooter is good on the small stuff and the 6 x 10 can find whatever the Shooter can find but the shooter is great over the creek bed rock cracks.

Yep that is one of the longscan coils, I Air tested mine and they are a lot hotter than the DD's, Even the round 5.3 on the MXT is hotter than the 6x4dd, with about the same amount of difference as the GMT has with the Twin D and the Longscan.