SEF Coil Review Hunt!!! WINNER!!

gtoast99

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Dumfries, VA
HEY EVERYBODY!!!!
(sorry this is kinda long, wanted to be thorough)

So I've been anxiously awaiting my 10x12 SEF coil for the DFX from KellyCo today so I could go hunt a nearby field that just got cut. Well, after waiting like a dog expecting his master all day, it finally showed up at quarter to 6, not quite enough time for me to want to hit that field - it's on the agenda for tomorrow if I get my work done.

I headed out to the yard with the new coil and practiced pinpointing on some dropped clad. Then it was off swinging. The first thing that I noticed was, despite expecting to have to turn my sens DOWN on the DFX, I actually put the sens UP a few numbers and remained fairly stable. I typically run 75 on my farm, I turned it up to 80, and settled in at 77 by the end of the hunt. Both the stability at higher sens and the consistency of the ground balance seemed superior to the stock coil, in my opinion at least.

I swung across the yard and didn't find much in the way of new nonferrous targets - I've been over and over this yard with both my garrett gta1000 and the DFX stock 9.5. As I got to the road I found that the SEF picks up a good bit more EMF from the powerlines than the stock. So I went back to the yard proper.

I got a jumpy signal in the 20-40 range, but definitely a good signal. Repeatable, pinpointable, nonferrous, saying "Dig me Dig me!" I dug down, pinpointed, still in the hole. Dug down more, expected larger piece of maybe brass or canslaw. Scooped out some more dirt, PP in the hole. A little bit more - and now it wasn't in the hole. I thought it was an awfully small amount of dirt removed to contain the object, and I sure was surprised looking in the dirt to see a coin!! NO WAY!!! Ran inside and rinsed off my 1918 Buffalo Nickel!!!!

Now let me tell you, with the hours I've put into this yard, I never thought I'd find another old coin around the house, let alone in the first fifteen minutes. And this wasn't a blip of a signal - it yelled at me from 6 inches down, even if the ID wasn't dead on. Long story short - I couldn't be happier with this SEF coil.

I spent another hour back at the barn. I only found one more coin, yet another unknown Foster's Cafe token at 5 1/2 inches. I was really impressed with the depth of targets I was getting with this coil. This coil is DEEP! And the ground is dry as a bone, so it's not moisture helping out, quite the opposite. I have read that the weight on this coil was a bit much for some, but it's a lot lighter than it looks (though still heavier than stock). I came in worn out, but not from swinging, but from how deep I had to dig in the NC clay to get the targets out!!

The negatives - pinpointing is tricky. I feel like a newbie, diggin for the very first time. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it, but it's not as intuitive as the stock coil's "dig where you can see through the coil" LOL. Target separation is a bit trickier, and I find I'm dancing around the target a bunch to try to separate it out from nearby iron. Oh yea, and my garret propointer switch broke :( I have it rigged up to be "always on" and I unscrew the batter compartment to turn it off. That'll do till I can afford to send it in for repairs.

Overall, I'm thrilled. Really over the moon with this coil. I can't wait to go hit that relic field tomorrow :D

THANKS KELLYCO!!!
 

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I got the 10x12 SEF for my T2 a few months back and have been very pleased. My nickel count has gone through the roof with this thing. This year i have found six buffalos, three V nickels and two war nickels. And this is in an area i have absolutely pounded, lots of silver coins and jewelery, but with all the bullets and shell casings in the area i never dug anything that was in the nickel range. Now when i get a nickel signal i know without a doubt if its a nickel or not before i dig.
 
That's exciting to hear about the new coil. Now all of your old hunting spots are new again. If we ever get a good soaking rain again you will be finding lots of new stuff.
 
Thanks, ya'll! I suppose one more thing I should note is the added confidence of knowing I have more ground coverage. So I don't have to walk at an absolute crawl to overlap quite so much, which in turn makes it easier to want to grid an area. I'm typically an aimless searcher, so if this helps me stay in a grid, I'm sure that alone will up my finds.

@wally, Ive always been pretty good at picking out nickels with the dfx. But I'm seriously impressed with being able to see it at depth in my terrible, terrible ground.

@screwy, you should update your signature for your new toy! I'm excited to hunt with you sometime and compare signals on different machines. And yes, I'm really looking forward to going back over some of my old spots when we get some much needed RAIN :)
 
10x12 is a phenomenal coil. I use it most of the time when I'm not using my 6x8. Congrats on your buffalo!
 
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