Hey everybody. I have enough experience with a few coils (not all) that I decided to make up this little comparison chart to those decide which coils to buy. These only consist of White's and EXcelerator from Kellyco. I added the Sunray DX-1 because it is indeed a 1" coil.
I have an MXT and hunt mostly in the southern Idaho area. Our soil is made from basalt flow rock, river rock and sand/silt and typically has a Ground value of 55-67. Remember, this is based on my experience. The dime depth is the maximum audio for a whisper with a possible inaccurate VDI, but a good sounding target (You veterans know what I'm talking about!!!). I always hunt in relic mode, set to 9 and high discrimination that starts allowing +60 VDI. I usually hunt in areas that are moist after rain or sprinklers. Feel free to chime in with your experience. Please restrain from "one off" finds.
Here is the Key:
Brand - Size - Type - Max Dime Depth - Best Used In - P: Pros - C: Cons
White's - 9.5" - Concentric - 7" - General Purpose with lower mineralization -P: Good for coins in moderate trashy areas - C: is easily masked if target is close together
White's - 6x10" Eclipse - DD - 6" - General Purpose with higher mineralization - P: Good for coins in moderate to more trashy areas; will not mask very easily; Bottle Caps ring up as Quarters - C: Slightly less depth
White's - 12" Spider - Concentric - 8" - Deep seeker in lower mineralized soil - P: Good depth for larger targets C: bad in cluttered areas. Will produce ghost signals for deep ferrous
EXcelerator - 5" Pro - DD - 7" - Trashy Areas, Trees, Tot lots around metal equipment, high mineralization, gold flakes - P: Can find the smallest ojects. VDI's are very accurate. Very accurate pin pointing. C: Depth indication is closer than indicated. You have to go very SLOW in trashy areas. Does not cover very much area. Easy to miss targets. Can overload on a surface quarter.
EXcelerator - 6" Pro - DD - 8" - Trashy Areas, Trees, Tot lots, small gold nuggets - P: Great depth, great separation of targets. great for trashy areas. Mostely accurate VDI. Accurate pin pointing. Accurate Depth. C: Not cover much area. Can overload on a surface half dollar. Will mistaken an occasional bottle cap for a quarter.
EXcelerator - 10" DD - DD - 10" - General Purpose, high mineralization - P: Good target seperation. Can be used in moderately trashy areas. Farely accurate VDI. Great depth. Accurate depth indication. Accurate Pin Pointing. C: Loves bottle caps and balls of foil.
EXcelerator - 10x14" DD - DD - 9" - open field, high mineralization - P: Accurate pin pointing. Accurate depth indicator for non-ferrious. C: Loss of depth for smaller objects. Will produce ghost signals in wet ground and deep ferrous material. Not so accurate VDIs. Heavy.
EXcelerator - 10x12" SEF - Butterfly -11" - General Purpose, high mineralization - P: Great target separation. Accurate VDI. Great Depth. Can be used in open fields or moderately trashy areas. Will find smaller objects. C: May be hard to pin point at times. If target is on edge, it will deflect the signal and give false position. May produce ghost signals in wet soil and ferrous material will be several inches farther away than the depth indicator shows. All targets are about 1" deeper than indicated if more than 3" deep. Heavy.
SunRay DX-1 Probe - 1" - Concentric - 4" - Special Purpose Inline Pin Pointer Probe - P: Extremely accurate VDI - It NEVER lies. Eliminates the use of a separate pin pointer probe. Uses native MD indications in headset and readings. C: A switch has to be thrown for operation, which may cause the user to forget to throw the switch back for MD operation. When switching back to main coil, the coil has to be pointed to the ground, or the MXT will have to take several seconds to "see" the ground fully. Adds a little more weight.
As mentioned before, this is based on my experience. I have not owned all the coils, just the ones listed. I believe the coils I own now is all I need and have been very successful at finding silver in parks and schools that have been hit hard in the past 30 years.
I hope this was informative.
Disclosure: I am not in any way influenced by Kellyco or EXcelerator. Everything is based on my experience. Not every coil is exactly the same within its own model number. Results may vary from location, soil conditions, equipment and the user.
Happy Hunting!!!!