GPX6000 Coils, Opinions Sought

[Davent]

I would agree that depth would be all you are giving up, but not much.
What you gain is more important imo.
I find the 12" nf a quieter coil, which means you might hear signals that were covered up by the 14".
I have found some really good gold with the 12" including a 5.3 oz nugget and a 64 gram nugget, but the deepest one was 11 grams, and it was a whisper at the top which I often wondered if I would have got it with the 14".
Have also found some surprisingly small gold at depth with it as well. I have the 17x 13 nf as well, and so far it has been good, but not as quiet as the 12". Nothing really big as yet with it, 7grams is the best so far, but it does cover a lot of ground.

 

[Mountaineer]

I would agree that depth would be all you are giving up, but not much.
What you gain is more important imo.
I find the 12" nf a quieter coil, which means you might hear signals that were covered up by the 14".
I have found some really good gold with the 12" including a 5.3 oz nugget and a 64 gram nugget, but the deepest one was 11 grams, and it was a whisper at the top which I often wondered if I would have got it with the 14".
Have also found some surprisingly small gold at depth with it as well. I have the 17x 13 nf as well, and so far it has been good, but not as quiet as the 12". Nothing really big as yet with it, 7grams is the best so far, but it does cover a lot of ground.

Dear Davent, I would like to ask you to please delve a bit more on the NF 17x13" if you like, because I - and hopefully some other members too - would find your further comments/opinions very helpful! I have been considering the 17x13" for quite some time now, exactly because of what we already mentioned here: the quietness of the 12" compared to the instability of the 14", so basically I was thinking: if the 17x13" runs as quiet as the 12", it would become my favourite coil, given that, being bigger, it would almost certainly punch deeper than the 12" and the 14"!
Anyway, you have already said that the 17" isn't as quiet as the 12"... but is it at least still quieter than the 14"? Do you think that it really could punch deeper than the other two coils?
Thank you in advance for any further comments!

 

[Davent]

To be fair, I really have not uses the 17 x 13 as much as I would have hoped, but, it is definitely not as quiet as my 12", and probably not much better than the standard 14. As for depth, I am yet to find a deep target with it yet, so sorry, can't really comment. I didvfilm a short video, it is on you tube, top end gold is name of the channel.

 

[Davent]

 

[Mountaineer]

No worries, thanks for sharing your experience and the interesting video!

 

[NedK]

In my experience, by not using the standard 14" coil you're probably just losing some depth, quantifiable (depending on ground type, specific settings and nugget sizes) at best in something like 1 inch, or 25 mm - after all, the 14x13" coil is bigger and therefore it will inevitably punch a little deeper, but not to the point of making a huge difference when tested against the NF 12" coil. I recently tried them both on a test pad with 4 differently-sized targets buried at 300mm, 350mm, 450mm and 600mm and I must say that I did not notice such a big difference; only with the last one, a 1 oz target 600mm deep, the 14" performed better than the 12", meaning with the 14" I could hear a very faint signal that would have made me stop and investigate, while the 12" didn't really pick it up - anyway hard to say it exactly because the test pad is unfortunately positioned in a highly mineralised ground. In any case, for me the biggest problem with the 14" is its instability, especially if compared to how quietly the 12" runs. Just my two cents, I'd love to hear the opinion of more experienced detectorists!

Great info thanks M. The whole thing I guess is a trade off for me. Extended hours detecting and comfort vs a little extra depth. Metal in my boots and ankle also make the 14" problematic at the moment.
Interested to find out more about using the ML14" coil for patch hunting in the future from the more experienced.
Thanks to all that have contributed and helped my transition to the 7k.b