Well I finally had a couple hours to take the coil out. With my limited time I wanted to initially get a feel for the coil and what it is capable of, so just took it to my test patch to Jupiter Creek. The ground at this spot is not what I'd call super hot, maybe a 5.5/10 on the mineralisation scale, but there are patches of hot clay, and the ground being saturated at the moment definitely woke up the mineralisation that is there, taking it to a 7/10.
I've got about 2 pages of testing notes which I don't have time to type up in it's entirety, so I'll highlight a few interesting observations.
Yes it ran beautifully in Normal/DD on both the 4500 & 5000. There is no way I could run the 19" Evo in Normal - it was moaning and carrying on, even with the Rx Gain dropped to 5 on the 5000.
It was less affected by EMI compared to the 19" Evo in Fine Gold and Enhance. Stability wise it was as stable as the 14x9". Not bad for such a big coil.
Weight - yes it's a little heavy, but with the control box pushed back, and with my stock pro-swing bungy, it felt fine. Much lighter overall than the 7000 and Z19 combo. Remember this is not an every day coil, it is a specialist coil that you'll pull out in areas you suspect some big lumps may be lurking.
On my test patch I have a "hard" target. It is a hackly bit of lead that was buried at an angle and at depth (can't remember exact depth), but they key thing is that many detectors and coils struggle on it. The 15" Evo in Enhance sees it most consistently, but the target signal is a faint drop tone or sometimes a wobble, and you have to have perfect coil control and speed in order for it to pull you up. With the 25" running in Normal/DD it surprisingly got it easy, and it was a traditional High/Low signal! This was most impressive, as I was expecting a much larger target would be needed to see the benefit of this coil.
Not surprisingly was the fact it smashed the 7g lump of lead at 40cm+.
I did a bunch of air tests just out of interest, ground balancing each coil over the exact same patch of ground. Here's a few interesting comparisons:
Target 1 - 2.35g nugget:
5000 - 14x9" Evo - FG - 19.5cm
4500 - 19" Evo - Enhance - 24cm
4500 - 19" Evo - Normal - 32cm
4500 - 25" XDD - Normal - 32cm
4500 - 25" XDD - Sens Extra & Mono - 34cm
So the 19" in Normal could match the 25" but remember, it was impossible to run the 19" in Normal on that ground. The added depth in Sens Extra and Mono on the coil switch was a real eye opener but kind of what you'd expect on a relatively small target, but the thing that has me excited is that it also ran great across the ground!
Now I probably should mention, I wasn't playing around with any menu settings to optimise each coil and timing selection as that would take weeks to factor in all the variables, so settings were pretty much factory settings, with Volume & Signal slightly up as I always do. Gain on the 4500 was 8, and on the 5000 - 10.
Target 2 - 50c coin
5000 - 14x9" Evo - F Gold - 51cm
4500 - 15" Evo - Enhance - 61cm
5000 - 19" Evo - Normal - 64cm
4500 - 19" Evo - Enhance - 65cm
4500 & 5000 - 25" XDD - Normal - 66cm
4500 & 5000 - 25" XDD - S Extra & Mono - 67cm
Not a lot of surprises here, big DD coil in Normal doing what it is supposed to do, better depth on bigger targets, but again that Sensitive Extra and Mono combo is going to be deadly in less mineralised ground. Also proved the 19" Evo on the 4500 is a bit of beast as well and did very well on my test bed too.
I leave it there for now as that is a fair bit to digest, and I'm still pouring over my results thinking of where I might get some results in the field.....
I've got about 2 pages of testing notes which I don't have time to type up in it's entirety, so I'll highlight a few interesting observations.
Yes it ran beautifully in Normal/DD on both the 4500 & 5000. There is no way I could run the 19" Evo in Normal - it was moaning and carrying on, even with the Rx Gain dropped to 5 on the 5000.
It was less affected by EMI compared to the 19" Evo in Fine Gold and Enhance. Stability wise it was as stable as the 14x9". Not bad for such a big coil.
Weight - yes it's a little heavy, but with the control box pushed back, and with my stock pro-swing bungy, it felt fine. Much lighter overall than the 7000 and Z19 combo. Remember this is not an every day coil, it is a specialist coil that you'll pull out in areas you suspect some big lumps may be lurking.
On my test patch I have a "hard" target. It is a hackly bit of lead that was buried at an angle and at depth (can't remember exact depth), but they key thing is that many detectors and coils struggle on it. The 15" Evo in Enhance sees it most consistently, but the target signal is a faint drop tone or sometimes a wobble, and you have to have perfect coil control and speed in order for it to pull you up. With the 25" running in Normal/DD it surprisingly got it easy, and it was a traditional High/Low signal! This was most impressive, as I was expecting a much larger target would be needed to see the benefit of this coil.
Not surprisingly was the fact it smashed the 7g lump of lead at 40cm+.
I did a bunch of air tests just out of interest, ground balancing each coil over the exact same patch of ground. Here's a few interesting comparisons:
Target 1 - 2.35g nugget:
5000 - 14x9" Evo - FG - 19.5cm
4500 - 19" Evo - Enhance - 24cm
4500 - 19" Evo - Normal - 32cm
4500 - 25" XDD - Normal - 32cm
4500 - 25" XDD - Sens Extra & Mono - 34cm
So the 19" in Normal could match the 25" but remember, it was impossible to run the 19" in Normal on that ground. The added depth in Sens Extra and Mono on the coil switch was a real eye opener but kind of what you'd expect on a relatively small target, but the thing that has me excited is that it also ran great across the ground!
Now I probably should mention, I wasn't playing around with any menu settings to optimise each coil and timing selection as that would take weeks to factor in all the variables, so settings were pretty much factory settings, with Volume & Signal slightly up as I always do. Gain on the 4500 was 8, and on the 5000 - 10.
Target 2 - 50c coin
5000 - 14x9" Evo - F Gold - 51cm
4500 - 15" Evo - Enhance - 61cm
5000 - 19" Evo - Normal - 64cm
4500 - 19" Evo - Enhance - 65cm
4500 & 5000 - 25" XDD - Normal - 66cm
4500 & 5000 - 25" XDD - S Extra & Mono - 67cm
Not a lot of surprises here, big DD coil in Normal doing what it is supposed to do, better depth on bigger targets, but again that Sensitive Extra and Mono combo is going to be deadly in less mineralised ground. Also proved the 19" Evo on the 4500 is a bit of beast as well and did very well on my test bed too.
I leave it there for now as that is a fair bit to digest, and I'm still pouring over my results thinking of where I might get some results in the field.....
ickshovel:
