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Newbie CTX coil choice for beach when sanded in

Bklein

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2013
Messages
434
Hi,
I have the 6", 11" standard, and 17" coils. I usually use the 11" and suspect the 6" better for trashy parks than long stretches of beach - at least that was my first and only experience at the local So CA beach. I haven't tried the 17" yet. Would it be more advisible for conditions like now where more sand has come back onshore (less aggressive erosion)? I'm thinking you'd want to try and cover more territory - but I don't know how the coil does (is discrimination identical or must I create a new discriminate map). I don't get many opportunities to go so curious if any of you have experience with this.
 
Hi,
I have the 6", 11" standard, and 17" coils. I usually use the 11" and suspect the 6" better for trashy parks than long stretches of beach - at least that was my first and only experience at the local So CA beach. I haven't tried the 17" yet. Would it be more advisible for conditions like now where more sand has come back onshore (less aggressive erosion)? I'm thinking you'd want to try and cover more territory - but I don't know how the coil does (is discrimination identical or must I create a new discriminate map). I don't get many opportunities to go so curious if any of you have experience with this.

I quit using the 6"on the beach. New coiltek 10x5" isn't what I consider a beach coil. It floats. Fixing to put the 17" back on mine. I'm not good at pinpointing with the 17" though. Someone I hunt with every now and then even uses the 17" in the ocean in surf. Need the 17" to cover some ground this way now. Thinking about ditching the cover to clear up some falsing issues with the 11 and 17" coils. If it starts falsing on you with water and black sand under the cover, try cutting the machine off and back on with the coil sitting on the ground. Clears mine up, but may block out something by doing so.
 
I use the 17 in both dry and wet sand. It's too big a sail to use for long in the water. The discrimination will be the same between coils, so no new maps necessary. I would, though recommend not using discrim at SoCal beaches--sometimes big gold shows up in the iron area, and sometimes deep targets blank the audio just like discrimination. When you get used to the audio blanks during discrimination, you'll be ignoring good targets too.

Randall
 
I tried the 17" today and totally agree with you. It is great to use and cover a lot of area quickly but a lot of things that read as iron I wondered about. I didn't hit a single gold target. Several aluminum pull tabs, bottle caps, zipper pulls, 22 shells, and aluminum nuggets that got my hopes up. In one area there was a 4' cut or so that had an area register a lower tone that had me wondering - i lost patience trying to dig it as it was a flakey hit that didn't always repeat. I thought a ring would so screw it. It detected a 1/4" aluminum nugget about a foot down!
 
First figure out whats on your beach.... the 11" is ALWAYS a good choice if there are targets and you find yourself digging a lot. 17 is heavier, less sensitive to smaller targets, hard to PP with, yes you cover a lot of beach.... but a heavy coil and NO targets can make for a long day as well. Beaches do different things when sanded in..... some are correlated especially flat areas where smaller, lighter, surface targets get pushed and pulled around and the heavy stuff gets buried, others...... well everything gets buried. Then you have to decide do i want to work an area..... which often is a better way than just taking your machine for a walk. Take a peak at your holes and concentrate more in that area. It could be the wave line, high or low tide line... or ankle deep.

I use the 13" coil on my Sov when i CANT get in the water.... but honestly the standard coil for just swinging is as good as it gets IMO. Concentrating on overlapping your coil and really working an area would be a better way to start out..... and id use the standard coil. More times than not when a beach is sanded in.... the sand is so deep a PI wont even get to those deep golds. Also you need to know when it aint working it aint working and move to another area.

Dew
 
I found that the 17" could pinpoint pretty good if you use the left side of the coil (rim) at a 45 degree angle or more. I never tried this with the 11".
 
I took my CTX to my front lawn to try some targets. It was so sensitive to EMI that I had to move to the backyard (11" worked ok in front yard). Well, I got surprised. The 11" in air tests actually outperformed the 17" - on all coins and silver. The 17" really was useless on gold nuggets - the 11" a little better but not recommended - you'd have to be 1/2" above them to hear them. I tried several modes and settings. Aluminum nuggets even smaller would detect better. The 17" does detect gold rings but the 11" did better at it for air tests. Is this what you guys have seen? Could something be wrong with my 17" coil (poor HF response)?
Bummer. Now I really don't understand the guys finding nuggets with the CTX.
 
I took my CTX to my front lawn to try some targets. It was so sensitive to EMI that I had to move to the backyard (11" worked ok in front yard). Well, I got surprised. The 11" in air tests actually outperformed the 17" - on all coins and silver. The 17" really was useless on gold nuggets - the 11" a little better but not recommended - you'd have to be 1/2" above them to hear them. I tried several modes and settings. Aluminum nuggets even smaller would detect better. The 17" does detect gold rings but the 11" did better at it for air tests. Is this what you guys have seen? Could something be wrong with my 17" coil (poor HF response)?
Bummer. Now I really don't understand the guys finding nuggets with the CTX.

CTX sux on small gold. May want to tamper with beach mode if you weren't. Just tested mine for tomorrow. 17"picked up farther on small gold than the 11" set for the beach. FWIW most Minelabs stink at air tests. Had my CTX cranked up and only went 8" on a gold test ring. DFX went 13.5" on the same ring:lol:
 
I ran my CTX with the 17" coil and found a iPhone a gold ring and a Tiffany&Co necklace. I love the 17" coil and pinpointing is a breeze to me because I pinpoint one way then I pinpoint it at a 90 degree turn the once more the other direction. It's just as accurate as the 6" coil after you use it fir more than 2000 hours lol


Minelab CTX Dirty30-Minelab E-Trac/Sunray Probe
 
[!;2214925]CTX sux on small gold. May want to tamper with beach mode if you weren't. Just tested mine for tomorrow. 17"picked up farther on small gold than the 11" set for the beach. FWIW most Minelabs stink at air tests. Had my CTX cranked up and only went 8" on a gold test ring. DFX went 13.5" on the same ring:lol:[/QUOTE]

I agree, the 17 does dig deeper which is a problem for me with my poor PP abilities. I dig and dig at no avail sometimes. And they do suck on air test
 
I really don't understand how people have difficulty pinpointing with the big coil. Like Whisperer, I do the PP then turn 90 degrees to PP again and the target is always in that 2 inch square box where the coil center intersects the first PP.
 
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