Best Coil for my SD 2200

[Patrick in Havasu]

I'd like to get some opinions on the best "all around" coil for my SD 2200

My hunting grounds are: Gold Basin, Rich Hill, LSD, and Q.

I'll apprecate any and all comment's.

Thanks,

Patrick .....

[frank c]

Pat , you want to tightly cover a smal rock littered wash, from all angles

you want to git up under dem bu-shes , OR maybe also cover some slanted bush an rock littered hillsides and hiltops or YEAH,
A mid -sized oval coil will cover all these bases well.
When I say mid sized I mean as large an elippiticle coil as the user can easily handle for extended hours of swingin.

If you wanted 1 coil that covered the bases well mid sized Nuggetfinder Ellipticle.

Then work yer way up to a 20" superlite fer the deep ones :ph34r:

[Patrick in Havasu]

Thanks Frank.

But I need it narrowed down to ONE COIL....

Thanks,

Me

[frank c]

1 coil will be a mid sized ellipticle. Mid size is anywhere close to these measurements 11x17 approximate sized sounds about right for you. And I think you will like the Nuggetfinders brand.
It will do it all.

Minelab , Nuggetfinder, and Coiltek all make mid sized ellipticle coils they vary in shape and weight so yer best to have a look feel of them to get the drift of what you would prefer to swing for hours on end.

[nuggethunting]

Hey Patrick,

Most guys hunting for nuggets are using the mid-sized ellipticals. The most popular seller is the 14x9 elliptical Mono. Coiltek make two of them, one is a normal Mono, the other is the Blitz with Litz wire and is super sensitive. Nuggetfinder also makes two version of the same coil, one is a solid and the other is a open-webbed design.

Minelab makes a 15x12 Mono solid that is much heavier, but many like it working high grass and areas where the coil weight helps to get the coil closer to the ground.

Here are some prices, I'm offering free shipping and have all in stock -

Coiltek Goldstalker 14x9 Mono - $350.00

Coiltek Goldstalker 14x9 Mono "Blitz" - $442.50

Nuggetfinder 14x9 Mono (solid or open) - $439.00

Minelab 15x12 Commander Mono Solid - $366.00

You can't go wrong with any of these coils listed above for a mid-sized prospecting coil that will work find on your Minelab SD2200.

Hope this helps,

Rob Allison

[Patrick in Havasu]

Thanks everyone. I REALLY appreciate all the good info I recieved.

These forums are a super place to get this type of advice.

Thanks again,

Patrick .....

[AZNuggetBob]

Patrick

I think what it really comes down to is, if the ground looks deep or wide open use a larger elliptical mono coil.

If the ground looks shallow or the area is brushy use a lightweight smaller mono elliptical coil.

If there is a lot of hot rocks use a DD coil.

I dont think there is a single best coil for several different areas.

My favorite all around coil is Coiltek 14x9 elliptical Mono but it dosent the work the best everywhere.

AzNuggetBob

[nvchris]

I disagree with you Bob, if the ground is open the best choice is a round coil.

[AZNuggetBob]

I disagree with you Bob, if the ground is open the best choice is a round coil.

Chris You are correct. I should have said round coils for open ground. they do have their advantages. AzNuggetBob

[Nuggetslayer]

If I had to pick one coil for any machine it would be the Minelab 11" round Mono. It's on my machine 90% of the time, and found more nugs than I care to count

[AZNuggetBob]

Nuggetslayer
I agree on the 11" Minelab mono. It was one of my favorite first coils on my 2100 or even the 11" DD on my 2000 and that found me a lot of gold in those too hot patches that my VLF missed!!!. and because they worked so well Minelab did not make much in the way of changes to those coils for several years. I beat my mono almost to death for many years. even smacked those annoying wasps out of the air with it, that's what I call a high performance coil.
anyway after all those years of abuse It finally started getting loose on me, shake it and it started acting up. but because I liked it so much I decided to try and fix it.
OK I'm off on another rant but if you have a Minelab coil you want to try and fix or just need little coil info here you go.
after determining the problem wasn't the wire or plug which I had already fixed several times from abuse. I carefully pried the PVC coil housing apart at the seam with a pocket knife, it wasn't difficult the glue was old and had seen a lot of rocks up real close. I found that the foam winding core and carbon shielding paper had started to separate and was sliding around inside the coil housing. you also need to loosen and slide the jam nut up on the coax wire and push the coax wire into the top of the coil housing as you separate the two half's to work on the winding core. you may need to take a very small screw driver and carefully loosen the male side of the jam nut from the wire. it makes it easier to push the coax in and pull it back out when you re-assemble it. its compressed with the cap or jam nut to keep water out. anyway I just re-taped the shielding paper with (masking or coil cover tape) and used a silicone glue (use little dots, not lines) on both sides of the foam winding core and glued it back in. be careful of the balancing wire. that's the short approx. 4" wire that protrudes thru a hole on top of the shielding and lays flat on it. you may want to re-tape it too. They taped it across the wire, I taped it length ways to keep it from moving. I glued the PVC coil housing back together with PVC pipe glue and it has been a very solid light weight nugget finding coil ever since. I keep it for a back-up.

Here is another tip: Using the proper coil cover tape is important! Do not use regular electrical or duct tape to hold your coil cover on, some brands of tape can block some of the signal from your coil.
Take care AzNuggetBob

[wdu3164]

Bob... What kind of tape are you referring to as "Coil Tape"

Bill

[Grubstake1]

Capt D its a silk or fabric tape, I think Bill stocks it in rolls. Grubstake

[AZNuggetBob]

I agree Grubstake

I prefer the cloth myself. very durable too. Its not affected by the heat from the sun as much as polyvinyl tape.

Bill

They are a simple polyvinyl chloride PVC tape but contain no additives. some are a good quality cloth tape.
but some quality brands of electric tape have additives that reduce conductivity and have been found to have some negative effects on detector coils field. some types of duct tape are aluminized to reflect heat, but also dampen or alter the shape your coils transmission field. just to be safe you should only use approved coil cover tape from your detector dealer.

AzNuggetBob

I should mention that I think Minelab was also aware of this as far back as 1995 and even makes note of it in the SD2000 instruction manual on page 16

[Uncle Ron]

I have used the tape that we used to put on concrete floors for safety aisles, etc., in our manufacturing plant ... Takes serious abuse and lasts for years ... on the floors, you can drive semi-tractors and fork lifts over it for years without wearing out .... Kind of bright ugly yellow, but you won't lose your coil anyplace ...

[frank c]

Hey Unc that looks good for night hunting.

[wdu3164]

Thanks for all the info. I had been using a an electric tape that has great adheasive to keep the dirt out. I never thought about it interfering with the coil.

Also Unc, The coil I have an issue with just happens to be the Fiberglass NF Eliptical 17x11. Looks almost just like the one in your picture.

Bill