Patch Finding Coils

G/day All, I was wondering, What is your preffered patch finding coil and why.
I have tried the Nugget Finder 30x7 and found it pretty good but still go back to my 12" round Nugget Finder mono.

Cheers Mono

I have tried many coils over the years for patch hunting (including the NF 30x7) and have found there are few things that are desirable in the type of coil you use, one is the obvious and that is ground coverage, but having said that it is only really useful thing when you are covering reasonably clean open areas and can swing the coil level and close to the ground, but the downside is that the larger the coil the less sensitive it is to small nuggets and they are often the first indicators that you have walked on to a patch and not necessarily finding a clunker first up.

The coil I would use the most for patch hunting open areas is the nugget finder 14x9 advantage mono, I use this for a lot of reasons the first being it is lightweight and you can swing it reasonably fast, they are sensitive to small gold ,get good depth and have fairly good ground coverage, also due it its elliptical shape its easy to poke and probe around and under bushes and around rocks, and also its comfortable to use for hours on end.

If I were patch hunting rocky rubbly ground, scrubby areas, spinifex my first choice is the minelab 8" round mono, then followed up by the nugget finder 12x7 advantage mono, very often patches are missed because the small indicator nuggets are not detected as you walk over the area with a large coil, these are the bits that will pull you up and get you to start working the area, the last patch I found I walked over and about with the 4500 and I think a 14" round coil, and found zilch, later I went back to the spot with the sdc2300 and stated getting pieces, ended up with quite a few ounces of tiny nuggets and specimens, and some bigger bits were found as well.

Don't discount the sdc2300 as a patch finder because its really good at getting the porous type nuggets and specimens so any broken crappy ground that is hard to cover with a bigger coil is where its real strength lies, up until the 2300 came out that's exactly why I would always use the 4500 with an 8" round mono, out of all my coils I would have found more gold and more patches overall with the 8" mono than any other coil that I have had.

cheers

au-fever

Best coil is the one you find gold with......