24"coiltek coil.

Hi guys, just wondering if anyone has used the 24" coiltek DD coil, and if so , what did you think of it .

G`day Luckyeddie, i recently dug a measured 3ft hole on a piece of metal about the size of a fist, using the 24dd on my SD2200d. I will say this, it is extremely heavy for prolonged use, you will need some kind of bungy setup or else go smaller.
And this; i`m a little suspicious of the supposed gains these large coils are supposed to give, i did some testing when i was last in vic, i buried a squashed can, squashed straight down, so it was only a little wider than a normal standing can. I buried this can at a measured 1m in the side of an oldtimers hole, first i wacked on the 24dd , picked it up easily, then to my shock, put on the 11dd and still managed to pick up the signal easily.
To settle things once and for all i will be doing some more thorough testing, next time i`m down in vic, i will be burying targets down to 4-6 feet and then i will know for sure if this big coil really does give us an advantage, or if it`s just a smokescreen to get us to purchase these more expensive coils.
I hope i`ve helped out and sorry if i`ve gone on a bit of a rant!!

Thanks very much for sharing your test with me Ivan.Hopefully i wll be able to test before I buy. Looking forward to your next tests. Cheers L.E.

When you buried the can did you fill the hole to ground level, if not I think it would not be a fair test. Cheers

No worries luckyed, not sure when that will be, hopefully soon coz i`m hanging to get out there again.
Grandfather; to answer your question, i jumped in the old timers hole, measured 1m depth then dug a small hole into the SIDE of the hole, so no ground above was disturbed.
You might own a 7 and are somewhat surprised that an old machine can hit this sought of depth, i know of at least one engineer that has told me these machined are still the deepest minelab have made, and i believe him, and when i say deepest, i`m talking larger objects, for what i`ve read the zed rules depth on the smaller stuff, but were are all the 20oz plus slugs at 4ft that the zed should be finding, i for one have`nt seen any, and if anyone has dug up as such, would you care to show us the filmed evidence.
I`m not trying to start a ****fight just putting it out there for what i know to be true!!!

[quote=     Ivan N    
"You might own a 7 and are somewhat surprised that an old machine can hit this sought of depth, i know of at least one engineer that has told me these machined are still the deepest minelab have made, and i believe him, and when i say deepest, i`m talking larger objects, for what i`ve read the zed rules depth on the smaller stuff, but where are all the 20 oz plus slugs at 4 ft that the zed should be finding,I for one haven't seen any, and if anyone has dug up as such, would you care to show us the filmed evidence.
I`m not trying to start a ****fight just putting it out there for what i know to be true!!!  ?"    [/quote]

"You might own a 7 and are somewhat surprised that an old machine can hit this sought of depth, i know of at least one engineer that has told me these machined are still the deepest minelab have made, and i believe him, and when i say deepest, i`m talking larger objects, for what i`ve read the zed rules depth on the smaller stuff, but where are all the 20 oz plus slugs at 4 ft that the zed should be finding,I for one haven't seen any, and if anyone has dug up as such, would you care to show us the filmed evidence.
I`m not trying to start a ****fight just putting it out there for what i know to be true!!!  ?"

"You might own a 7 and are somewhat surprised that an old machine can hit this sought of depth, i know of at least one engineer that has told me these machined are still the deepest minelab have made, and i believe him, and when i say deepest, i`m talking larger objects, for what i`ve read the zed rules depth on the smaller stuff, but where are all the 20 oz plus slugs at 4 ft that the zed should be finding,I for one haven't seen any, and if anyone has dug up as such, would you care to show us the filmed evidence.
I`m not trying to start a ****fight just putting it out there for what i know to be true!!!  ?"

"You might own a 7 and are somewhat surprised that an old machine can hit this sought of depth, i know of at least one engineer that has told me these machined are still the deepest minelab have made, and i believe him, and when i say deepest, i`m talking larger objects, for what i`ve read the zed rules depth on the smaller stuff, but where are all the 20 oz plus slugs at 4 ft that the zed should be finding,I for one haven't seen any, and if anyone has dug up as such, would you care to show us the filmed evidence.
I`m not trying to start a ****fight just putting it out there for what i know to be true!!!  ?"

"You might own a 7 and are somewhat surprised that an old machine can hit this sought of depth, i know of at least one engineer that has told me these machined are still the deepest minelab have made, and i believe him, and when i say deepest, i`m talking larger objects, for what i`ve read the zed rules depth on the smaller stuff, but where are all the 20 oz plus slugs at 4 ft that the zed should be finding,I for one haven't seen any, and if anyone has dug up as such, would you care to show us the filmed evidence.

No truer words have been written of the limitations of what is regarded the finest metal detector ever conceived. Thanks Ivan

****I`m not trying to start a ****fight just putting it out there for what i know to be true!!!  ?"

**** PS. If anyone would like to start an educated  civilised ****fight as to why the Zed is deliberately avoiding the lumpers that's fine by me. Slim Pickens

No don't own the 7 ZED and agree the old SD's go great. My question was why the 11" was getting as deep as the 24" on a even test I would have thought the 24" would go much deeper . No need to get touchy. Cheers Bruce

Slim, Ditto

Grandfather Johnson wrote:No don't own the 7 ZED and agree the old SD's go great. My question was why the 11" was getting as deep as the  24"  on a even test I would have thought the 24" would go much deeper . No need to get touchy. Cheers Bruce

Just like there's more than one way to skin a cat... the 11" coil has the same length of wire in it as the 24" (I am led to believe) only with a more concentrated field due to being less than half the size. It just sees the target differently.

Na bruce, i`m sorry if you thought i was being a little aggressive, not my intention, just trying to point out a few things, that`s all.Glad you liked the post Slimpickens!!!
But this seemingly little difference between the two different coils, has really got me wondering, if there is any difference at all? Cant wait to test this out and find out for sure. Just need to get out there........

I have found in the past that I have always done better with medium and small sized coils than I have with larger coils, one of the draw backs with a large coil is the weight factor, the heavier the coil and the more you have to struggle to swing it the less you can concentrate on listening the ground signals, in my experience a larger coil does not always mean larger nuggets and the ability to concentrate and be comfortable in what you are doing is a far more important factor, I carry a large 18" mono coil to do a final check over an area or patch but view it as a limited use type of coil that I might use for a couple of hours only just to be sure I have not missed anything but its rare that there's anything that the 14"- 11"- or 8" mono has missed.

A large coil is beneficial for more ground coverage and to do a final check over of a spot, but a medium sized or small coil will allow you to swing for longer and be more precise in your coverage of the ground, I have found many more large nuggets and specimens at astounding depths with small coils than I have with larger ones, a more important factor is that every detector I have owned has worked better with some coils over others and I will always spend the time to try and test various coils before I settle on a few that are the most productive, the trick is to have a few choices of coils that are better suited to the varying ground conditions and coils that you have faith in to work well.

The early machines such as the Sd's were well known for depth and I don't really think that much has changed depth wise between the Sd and the Gpx but what has changed is the detectors ability to smooth out the ground to make it possible to hear the real targets better and having far better sensitivity on the small gold, which these days is the bread and butter if you work known areas, as most of the large easy stuff is long gone its makes more sense to gear yourself up to get what small stuff has been missed, at the end of the day gold is gold and its always better to go home with some rattles in the jar rather than nothing.

As far as the gpz goes I will never be convinced that it is the be all and end all of gold detectors, and I still wonder what the hell minelab were thinking when producing it, I understand that its all about progress in technology but at what cost?, from what I have seen many people are struggling with the weight of it and discomfort of having to wear a heavy harness and extra handles to use the thing, and all that just to get deeper smaller nuggets?, a main contributing factor in getting gold is your ability to maintain your concentration, so in reality excessive weight and discomfort will only contribute to hasten the onset of fatigue and that equates to loss of concentration and so on, the older you get the harder is to maintain both comfort and concentration so in my book better comfortable and focussed than dealing with the aches and pains and getting bugger all gold to boot.

au-fever

Yep those old 24" DD coils were heavy.. nearly 2kgs! due to the solid design there wasn't a way around it. Best to get 3 bungees!!

We now have a 22" DD which is open web like the mono version but is half the weight of the 24" version!

When it comes to larger coils the gains are really only evident on very large targets at depth. like 1mtr plus. A large target in this range may still be seen by medium sized coils.

say take a 14" and 22" mono coil... 90%(maybe more but just take this percentage as an educated guess) of targets will be seen by both coils. the 14" will be better on the 10% of smaller targets in the field range where as the 22" will be better on the 10% of larger targets out of the 14" range. some of the smaller targets are in the field range of the 22" but this larger coil doesn't have the sensitivity to see these smaller ones...

Its not to say the 22" wont see a 1gmer at pretty good depths for the size of the coil...

Main question to ask before you get a larger coil is do you have good open deep ground to maximise the benefits of the coil? I have discussed this with many prospectors over the years who just want a big coil to find the big one but end up missing all the smaller ones which all add up.

I usually suggest that the larger coils are best swung early for a few hours while your fresh and keen and if no luck switch back to a medium/small coil to get some gold in the kitty!

I only put on the 24 when its deep gold and on ground I've already found gold before, usually towards the bottom of a hill as the ground gets deeper. Simply too heavy even using a hipstick to swing for more than a few hours though. I use sharp or normal timings. Heres a picture showing the size difference between coils.

Thanks for your input (au-fever / coiltek M and Rick), last time out, i swung that 24dd for 2 hours without a harness, thank ***** for all the hours spent years ago in the gym, other wise my bloody arm would of fell off.
Yes, you need the right deep ground to swing this monster and if you want to come home with some gold in your poke most days anyway, you need a newer model minelab, something i will be buying soon probably a 4500. I have a new 8 inch detech coil but have`nt had a real chance to test it out, i know the sd`s are`nt really sensitive to the smaller gold, but i did find a 2 grammer with my 11dd a while back, i have seen some vids of people finding sub gram pieces with these older machines, but i know i will need a newer machine to compliment my sd and to be consistently successful!!!
Cheers!!!!

Ivan N wrote:Thanks for your input (au-fever / coiltek M and Rick), last time out, i swung that 24dd for 2 hours without a harness, thank ***** for all the hours spent years ago in the gym, other wise my bloody arm would of fell off.
Yes, you need the right deep ground to swing this monster and if you want to come home with some gold in your poke most days anyway, you need a newer model minelab, something i will be buying soon probably a 4500. I have a new 8 inch detech coil but have`nt had a real chance to test it out, i know the sd`s are`nt really sensitive to the smaller gold, but i did find a 2 grammer with my 11dd a while back, i have seen some vids of people finding sub gram pieces with these older machines, but i know i will need a newer machine to compliment my sd and to be consistently successful!!!
Cheers!!!!

No worries Ivan, the Gpx4500 is the best bang for your buck, the earlier version is best for depth and the later release one is (more like a 5000) and a tad more sensitive on small stuff and maybe a little quieter, but not as good depth wise on the bigger bits, the reality is that we do it for some fun and maybe as a bit of a hobby for the most part so getting gold is not all there is to it, but if you get consistent gold even if its only a little each time you are out you will feel more confident that if there is a big piece out there somewhere and providing you get the coil over it then you have a good chance of finding it.

cheers

au-fever
                                                                                                                                                                                             

Just got back from a trip to the GT where I was using a new NF19" mono and my mate was using the brand new CoilTek 22" DD. We found plenty of targets at shallow and deeper soils but no gold. I found the 19" mono to be pretty easy to use, not too heavy, quiet plus sensitive. Found musket ball at depth and a 1877 penny which damn near deafened me at about 10" deep.

Mate used his new 22" DD and really liked it and did not complain about the weight. I'll send him a link to this thread and see if he wants to give his experience of using this coil.

Once I work out how to attach a photo I'll put up a picture of the new Coiltek 22" DD. (used Imgur for attaching photo)

I tryed the 22'' the other day and found it very light to use, i also used this coil (dd) on a recent patch coverd with a lot of iron stone which went into granet soil on the slope of the hill. I found it rather noisy and unstable amongst the iron stone but found it getting quieter as we went into the granite soil.