How to work large coils

There is a lot of good information on this site about large coils, small coils, but very little information about using large coils.

Can anyone out there provide some good useful information covering the use of large coils 18" and above, what a target signal sounds like, and any further information to help people use these.

I really want to know that info also, and perhaps some successful settings. cheers Pete

G'day Guys.

When swinging large mono coils at 180 degrees(left to right),swing at a much slower speed(say at least half or even a third the speed) than what you would normally swing with a small coil.Keep the coil 1 inch or so off the ground and concentrate on keeping it at that 1 inch level height throughout the 180 degree swing duration.Overlap your coil swing by half or at least a third that the size of coil your using. Remember,when using large coils your obviously after larger gold at depth,hence the slower swing speed so that faint targets at depth as well as tiny gold nearer the surface can be heard.
That's the way I swing large coils and with good results.Others members on this Forum might have a different approach as to ways of swinging large coils.
You've brought up a good topic here Goldbait,one of which I'm keen to hear more from other members as well.

Cheers kon61.

Hipstick,don't leave home without it. Settings don't vary that much from a small, maybe back off the Stabilizer a couple of notches ( or more ) and put in Deep on audio ( if the ground is permits ). EMI can sometimes be a problem especially on a 18" and above, keep the coil as flat and low on the ground as possible and swing slow. Tell your mates to keep there distance, big coils pick up everything including your mates small coil.
You also need to concentrate to pick up the sub gramers, they arent going to boom in like an 8" inch coil, they are going to be faint signals, but then again a 8" coil ain't going pick up an ounce nugget at 20 plus inches where a bigger coil like a 18" gives you a good chance.

GDAY GOLDBAIT
my advice to you is listen to KON61 and never come to the pilbarra (wa) very hot ground (mineralization ,emi) swing very slow
good scratchin
cheers the speciman

Hi Goldbait
The two tips I would give in relation to using large coils would be bury lead targets in the ground at varying depths and get used to the different target sounds, get your ears in sink with what your coil is telling you, also get yourself a pin pointer as digging deep holes isn't fun and locating the target with a big coil isn't easy especially if you have dug past it and it's in the sidewall of the hole.
Cheers Mark

Gday

As previously mentioned swing speed is a very important factor when using a large coil, keeping it level with the ground will give the best results so keeping your swing arc shorter will stop you from lifting the coil further from the ground at the end of each swing, combine this with an overlapping sweep as well will insure that you dont miss much.

One of the best aids ever for big coil use is the hipstick, as it takes most of the weight off your arm and also when adjusted right will help to maintain the coil at the desired height, so all you have to do is concentrate on your swing speed and swing distance and its easier to do without the burden of the weight on your arm.

Depending on the machine you are using altering your settings will be necessary as well to get the best results, this will vary for the soil conditions you are working in, the best way I have found to get the settings right is to adjust them when you have located a buried target, sometimes you have to restrain yourself from digging it first in your exitement, but if you take the time to do this you will get far better results, and when you do dig the target it will give you a far better idea of the ground conditions once you see the depth it was laying at etc.

Deep gold and small pieces detected with a big coil can easily be missed if not recognised for what they are, and its a case of investigating any murmur or waver in the threshold so that is why a smooth and steady threshold is very important as you have to be able to recognise any shift in it, if you are not using headphones and using an external speaker then I have found it sometimes better to run it with a fairly high threshold level particularly if its windy or there is other noise nearby like road traffic or whatever.

Lastly take your time and cover a selected area at a time, then when you are happy that you have covered it effectively then select another spot and do the same thing, if you are still not convinced that you have covered it then try detecting it from a different direction, you may be surprised at the results as sometimes the approach angle/direction to a target can be the difference to hearing it or not hearing it.

cheers

stayyerAU

I will take your advice onboard. cheers Pete

Hi Goldbait, My advice is to go slow, motion slow or Vslow, use inverted or switch to deep and raise the audio tone a little above the factory preset. When walking look for deeper ground on the edges or down slope of where gold has been found or there are mines. By this i mean to swing at the lower part of slopes or ground where you think bigger nuggets maybe say 18-30 inches deep. Also try areas where some good nuggets have been scored if you have access to such areas.

Make sure you have a full sized pick and it is kept sharp, you may be digging some big holes. You will need to dig wider holes to check out if some signals are a target or ground noise.
If you have room in your vehicle throw in a crow bar in case you get a deep signal in hard ground. They can save alot of time.
You may also like to invest in some scales that go to 5kg and measure to the gram.

Most of all don't loose heart swinging a heavy coil and stick with it.

Tributer

I really like all the info in this thread!

I am thinking about getting a large mono and want to know how to work it proper and this thread has some great info... but I do have a question about large mono's though, with all the selections and sized offered from different company's is there a point when bigger is too big? does round VS elliptical make a difference in the way that you will work the coil or depth?

thanks for everyone who has replied so far. Was trying to get a good response from a question i haven't seen posted on the boards. I got it.

I am running a GPX 5000.