Uncle Ron Posted November 18, 2011 Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 Yo, All ... A while back, I got a smokin' deal on a GP 4500 from Bill .. . It is an awesome nugget finding detector on small nuggets but I don't think it is any better or worse than my ol' Baboo SD2100, except that it is much quieter and more enjoyable to use in the field ... I admit that I've pulled a couple of grams worth of nuggets out of old patches this year that ol' Baboo skipped over, but that could be at least 50% operator error ... Anyhow, I got out today to a patch that is so far up in the Vultures that NObody goes there unless they're riding a billy goat, but an area I have pounded to death over the past ten years ... Pulled many ounces but reached the point there were just no targets left ... Today I went in, enjoying the awesome weather and hiking a mile or so beyond where my ATV could take me ... Lots of hot black sand, but after some obnoxious cow aluminum I got this beauty, a half grammer, right under where I found a six gram slug about five years ago... I just love this time of year in the Big AZ!!! Wahoo... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Ron Posted November 18, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 OK, well, my original idea was to find out what you all think about the stock 11"DD that comes with the 4500 ... I just got side tracked...sorry...Cheers, Yer Unc in the Dubyah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOC Posted November 18, 2011 Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 It's a DD coil, nothing much to be said about it. I don't care for it myself. It's good if you want to discriminate trash. But everyone digs everything. I remember my first SD2200d, it came with the 11 inch DD. I used it because at the time I couldn't afford anything else.Hoss Blackman was using an SD2200d with a 11 inch mono. He would get a target he tought was gold and would tell me to come over and give it a listen so I would get used to what I should be hearing. Well 50% of the time if it was a 1 grammer at around 6 inches I couldn't hear it at all.So I finally got an 11 inch mono, and all of a sudden I started finding gold. So I guess that DD just left a bad taste in my mouth.Take care!Doc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azoverland Posted November 18, 2011 Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 I've never put on my DD coil however last week I found a vein of nasty black iron rock so hot I could not get the 5000 with the 15" mono coil with in 3 feet of it. Would this be the time to fire up the DD? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredm Posted November 18, 2011 Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 I like the stock dd, I think it is under-utilized. When using the dd of any size you have the option to use it in psuedo-mono which is very sensitive, when close to interference in cancel which will still detect 2-3 grain nuggies and if in iron trash you can descriminate and still get 1/2 gram bits...but for the most sensitivity the mono wins, no doubt...fred Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Border Boy Posted November 18, 2011 Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 Nice nugget Ron sadly since my first mono coil came in the mail years ago i have not used the stock dd. how ever i do on rare occasion use a platypus dd. Ron i pulled my 2100 out the other day for a friend to use and was amazed at how good it still worked, the thing that the 4500 loves is ironstone and hot rocks in enhanced thats the big advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkeye Posted November 18, 2011 Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 Ron I think the biggest advantage the DD brings to the table is it helps quiet the machine down in noisy ground and was an advantage with the older 2100, 2200, extreme and 3000's. The newer machines are so much better at handling the ground that I think the DD is not necessary. Like someone said most dig everything anyway and the discrimination, compared to a VLF anyway, is not that good so a mono is the way to go. I love the 11inch minelab mono and the coil I use the most the 11x17 NF mono.Good luck, take care, Wes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Dorado Posted November 18, 2011 Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 My best ever find, a 6.14 ozer was found with that coil..... in an area hit by many mono coils before me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlakMagnet Posted November 18, 2011 Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 Hi Ron,imho the DD stock coil absolutely has a place in your arsenal, most especially for very heavily mineralized areas that make a mono hard to work withand obviously in trashy areas where you may want to be able to discriminate.Someone (Fred?), has already talked about using them in psudo-mono for certain situationsand - very importantly - working under power lines in cancel with the gain cranked to the max.I read of some guys in Oz as well, that swear by them for these kinds of situations(including JP).All the best, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkeye Posted November 18, 2011 Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 I to have found gold with a DD where I have and where others have gone over ground with a mono. I think that is because of the different way the signal is shown to come from the coil and into the ground. They show the mono to have a cone shape to the penetrating signal and a flatter, more of a straight line the length of the diameter of the coil from the DD. Looking at the diagram Minelab has it would seem that unless you overlap your swings one hundred percent with a mono you will miss gold at depth where a DD the signal seems to show that it will actually overlap more completely but it comes with a little bit less depth and sensitivity. I use to go into an area first with a DD and get all the trash out of the way and then hit it again with a mono. Time just never seems to permit the swapping of coils over the same target to get a good idea of the difference between the two. I also had a target one time, while using a DD in discriminate mode, that was a piece of quartz and gold that had so much iron mineralization in the quartz that the GP 3000 discriminated it out as iron. I still dug the target and found a 15dwt specimen of quartz and wire gold. Weather to use a DD or a mono all comes with a lot of variables, depth of bedrock, mineralization, amount of trash, etc. etc. that both types of coils are a valuable tool to have.Luck to everyone, take care.Wes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeadair Posted November 21, 2011 Report Share Posted November 21, 2011 I agree with DOC the 11" dd left the same taste in my mouth.I haven"t tried it since my gold screamer maybe it will be different. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuckyLundy Posted November 21, 2011 Report Share Posted November 21, 2011 Ron, I've found so much gold with the stock DD...I'll never get rid of of it. Like all coils they have their times to use them. I'll swing a DD when patch hunting and on old patches that still have lots of big trash targets to cut close around them. This enables you to pull a few more out before digging all the trash targets and the nuggets that are right under the trash. That 11" will get down deep and shallow on nuggets of all sizes. The 11" stock mono is commonly found on the business end of my detector too! Commander coils are very good, but heavy.Talk to you soon,LuckyLundy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dakota Slim Posted November 22, 2011 Report Share Posted November 22, 2011 I use the 11" DD coil on my GP Extreme in highly mineralized places like Rich Hill because it is much more stable than a mono in those places. I found a bunch of gold with it too. I'll probably upgrade to a newer Minelab one of these days but I'll still use that coil now and then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam Posted November 22, 2011 Report Share Posted November 22, 2011 Hot damn Ron , Nice nugget !! I have the 14" DD Pro Elite, and hardly ever use it. It has however found me a couple nice Grammers in the LSD. I figure its good to have a DD laying around... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burta Posted November 22, 2011 Report Share Posted November 22, 2011 Heck Ron, looks like that DD is working pretty good for you. Nice little chunk you got there. For me the stock 11" DD that came with my 4500 did okay at first but that was because I already knew where the gold was. But once I got all the easy ones out of the patches I never found another piece with it. I went back to the spots with the GB2 and got a few more small ones that the DD had missed. My DD false so bad, that it isn't usable here where I have been working. To many weeds and tall grass. Up there where you are its good clean ground in most places, less weeds and tall grass, I would think it would be a good coil for you. The only place I use the 4500 now is back in Virginia where I spend a lot of time hunting Civil War sites. There, it is just amazing how well it works. The dirt there is blood red and hotter then hell but the DD plows right through it and goes deep. No grass or weeds I think is why it is the coil of choice there. I'd like to nugget hunt here but The stock DD just won't get it done here. I'd buy a different coil but I don't know what it would be to get through all this grass. You are in a good area Ron so keep swinging the 11" DD and keep showing us the nice gold you keep coming up with. I really enjoy your posts. Happy Hunting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredm Posted November 22, 2011 Report Share Posted November 22, 2011 Hey Al, I think your coil is, perhaps one of these:1. faulty2. you have a load of black sand under the coil cover 3. lose/frayed wires in the cable assembly4. a crack or leak in the coilI have never had a falsing problem with a Minelab dd coil...fred Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
way2cool Posted November 22, 2011 Report Share Posted November 22, 2011 Hi Al, The 11 x 17 Commander coil does a decent job on the grass mainly because of the weight of the coil. I don't know why they don't allow grazing down there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burta Posted November 22, 2011 Report Share Posted November 22, 2011 Thanks for the info Fred. I'll look at those and see if I can find anything. If not I'll have to send it in to have them look at it. Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin nuggethunting Posted November 24, 2011 Admin Report Share Posted November 24, 2011 Hey Uncle Ron, I think I have given away more of those stock coils then I ever used. However, they have a place like all other coils. On newer detectors, the ground balance control allows you to use a Monoloop where you couldn't before. Without a doubt, a Mono will give you a bit more depth and senstivity, but if the ground is too noisy you might have better benefit from a DD. I've always been a huge Monoloop fan. Just my thoughts,Rob Allison Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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