6" Mono Coiltek or 8" Mono Minelab ??

Hi All,

I am on a spending spree to stock up on parts before I head off prospecting in a couple of months. Planning on Cue / Sandstone area in WA.

I am very new to prospecting.... so limited field experience, but lots of hours research so far.

I will be using a GP Extreme, and have the stock DD Coils that came with the machine (11" DD and 18" DD) as well as a 14x9 Coiltek Mono (thanks to forum member Eureka Dreams).

I am after one more small mono, as I am heading to some sites where I hope to pick up small sub grammers. I am in two minds whether to get the 8" Minelab Mono or the 6" Coiltek Mono. I believe there is also a small 10x5" NuggetFinder as well.

So far, there seems to be a lot of praise for the 8" Minelab Mono, but not so much info on the 6" Mono Coiltek?

Any of you experienced prospectors have opinions on the small mono coils (ie.. directly comparing the 6" to the 8").

My plan is to locate fist nugget with the 14x9... grid the area and work it with the 14x9, then redo with the smaller mono.

Many thanks in advance for any replies.

Bushy

G'day Bushy.

The 6" coiltek mono will find tiny gold but the 8"inch commander will find the same tiny gold and sub gramers at slightly better depths.
The only advantage you'll get with the six inch is better pinpointing capability,on the tiny gold.
Bushy you already have the 14x9,which will find gold 0.1g to within 1 to 2 inches depth,how small a gold are you looking for.
Sounds to me like,you're a step away from what i call "Electronic Panning".

Cheers kon61.

hi Bushy69, i have a gpx 4000 and i use a 8" commander coil and it's a great little coil a lot off people are buying them now, i have not seen much on the 6" coils at all tho, ...
cheers
stoppsy

Hmmmm.... you might be right kon61..... I guess the 14x9 is not that much different to an 8", just better ground coverage.

As the 14x9 will be my only mono coil, I am also thinking the 8" (and possibly 6") could also be good spares (and small to pack).

Although I am concerned the 6" may be a bit noisy on the Extreme, hence wondering if anyone has played with the 6"

"Electronic Panning"... that is probably what my children will be doing when all the nuggets are gone..... a lot of tiny stuff all adds up after a while.

Cheers,

Bushy

Hi Bushy69 i just bought a 8" commander mono this week for those tight spots.Tryed it out today and got a
.1 gram bit,my smallest piece yet.As a newbie i was happy with the coil and easy to use.Frog

Good stuff Frog... 0.1g, must be tiny.

Smallest I have found is 1.27g (in fact, the only piece I have found.. LOL).... but only spent a few days in the field last November to test the waters, and loved it.

I am leaning towards the 8" Mono, just not enough info out on the 6" Mono.

Cheers,

Bushy

Hi Bushy I've had both.

The 6" I bought for a purpose and once it served it's purpose I sold it.
In hindsite I'm pretty sure the 8" would have done the job it was a space problem nothing to do with nugget size.

The 8" is always in my kit, one coil I never leave home without.

Still, I doubt I've ever found a small nugget with the 8" that my 11" mono could not have picked up or maybe even my 14" for that matter. But the size is perfect for poking under and into the really tight spots...that's where it shines.

.

I will be using a GP Extreme My suggestion would be to go for a 17" DD or 14" round DD, and use mono mode.
Your going to find the tiny mono's a problem when you encounter ironstone country and hot ground.
The DD has ground canceling abilities which your going to need, and by using mono mode with a DD you will retain much of this.
Switch between sensitive and normal on your soil timings as the ground changes.
Avoid the use of deep on the rear end cap when on hot ground as this will cause the ground to moan, use normal unless your accustom to the deep audio setting.
Remember with a large DD coil in DD mode, you still have good depth, in effect you will be carrying around two coils, the DD and pseudo mono.

Just my opinion.

Gday Bushy


When I had my extreme I used the 8" minelab mono a lot of the time, it was not the commander mono but one of the earlier 8" mono's that I got with my first sd2100, as a matter of fact I still have it and use it regularly on my 4500, there have been a lot of coils come and go over the years but I wont part with that one.

I have used this coil successfully for patch hunting rocky hillsides and spinifex covered ground just looking for indicators, small bits and pieces on new ground, and for working dry blowings, creeks and shrubby areas that bigger coils are hard to manouver in, its also very good for hunting rubbly mullock heaps for specimen nuggets.

Some other coils that I used that were also very good on the extreme were the Coiltek 14" round dd pro (orange one) not the later tan one (dd pro elite version), the Coiltek 11" round mono coil, and the Coilek 14" round mono, I used the mono's for the bulk of the time but used the 14" dd pro on the worst noisy ground, for the most part the monos were ok for most places I detected in WA.

cheers

stayyerAU

Bumpertybump, is anyone using this Coiltek 6" mono coil? Thinking of getting it for a special purpose. What are your thoughts on it? Thanks, Harry

I've got one, it's a hoover! It is more reactive to hot rocks as you would imagine being so sensitive, but a flick back to Enhance normally sorts them out.
I use it in small areas where I've pulled some gold just to make sure I havent left any bits behind. You'd be nuts using it as your main search coil as you don't cover any ground. Haven't used a nf Sadie, but I've heard they are good too.

What about the coiltek 10 x 5 joey mono. Thats been a great coil for me & deadly on the small stuff & very good for poking & prodding in to tight spots. I also have the 6" but these days I only use it for under water detecting in shallow creeks. I also have the commander 8" but havnt used it for ages, prefering the 11" commander. As Narrawa said, gold he found with the 8" would probably have been found with the
11". The benefit of the 11" is that it gives you that bit more depth than the 8" on deeper gold but still good sensitivity on small gold at more depth than the 8". It does pay to have a good selection of coils though to cover all options.

Good luck out there

JW

Hey mate,

Ive got an 8x6 sadie for my extreme and find it to be a bit too noisy to really use. I was told by someone (cant remember who) that an 11 mono is about as small as you want to go with an older style detector (up here in the Pilbara anyway), and from my experience id be inclined to agree. As is mentioned above I often run my DD in mono mode when possible (not often) which I reckon is a good compromise. Also when it comes to the small stuff I don't reckon you will leave too much behind if using the 11DD which has been my favourite coil lately, with which ive picked up a few half grammers lately.

Anyway that's my 2 cents worth. Good luck out there.