It sounded like the typical trade-off: Slightly more coverage, a wee bit better depth, but at the cost of being heavier making it a little more difficult to use, or be used comfortably for a prolonged time.

Most of the time I am searching areas with a lot of modern trash near a picnic bowery or old picnic grounds with ample bottle caps, or ghost towns and other old-use places with an over-supply of Iron Nails and debris plus Rusty Tin ... both bigger-size to small shards of tin from some decaying object.

Most of the time, due to where I mainly search, I keep a smaller-size to mid-size coil on my detectors. There is a 5" DD on my CoRe and Relic, a 6" Concentric coil on my Bandido II µMAX and Sliver Sabre µMAX, a 7" Concentric on my Inca, then I go to the mid-size coils with a 5X8 DD on my main-use Apex and a 5X9½ HF DD on my ORX. The ONLY detector I keep at-the-ready with a 'larger-size' coil is my 2nd Apex that sports the 8½X11 'Raider' coil. For me it is an ideal size for more open areas such as a beach or plowed field or pastureland. It works well and is less fatiguing.

When I was in high school I was on a church dance group that performed at 'intermission' during a dance. It was fun, and that was back in the days when we really danced with a partner and didn't just gyrate around. But other than that footwork, the only thing I paid attention to, both with my feet and those of others out detecting, was:

** How to work an area slowly and methodically

** How to take my time to cover an area more thoroughly

** And how to overlap efficiently.

Generally it was quite different from others I observed. Many, maybe most, of the people I have observed in the more recent two decades tend to move along briskly. They seldom overlap very much, and if anything don't even come close to overlapping a prior sweep. Instead they have the detector rods extended way out in front of them. They make big, broad, and fast sweeps, moving along more at a pace like they are in a hurry to cover ground.

I never liked the long rod extensions. I also do not make broad side-to-side sweeps which generally lead to faster movement and less efficient coverage. I like to 'waltz' my coil through most areas due to vegetation or trash being in the way. I was 'waltz' because that's 3/4 time, or One-Two-Three going side-to-side-to-side over the same sweep route, and THEN I advance to coil no more than 50% in order to get good coverage an hopefully unmask a keeper or two.

My side-to-side sweep route is typically about 20" to 36", and I always try to keep the search coil positioned maybe 12" to 18" in front of my lead toe. I've been using this more casual and comfortable method since about 1972 and it has been / is working well for me. That might also be why I like to visually or physically grid-off an area to search with the hope that I might unmask a keeper or two.

Anyway, we all have the methods or techniques we are comfortable with, and that's why I use smaller coils with the 'Raider' being my pick for open-area coverage.

Oh, and why do I like to 'waltz' a coil and sweep over the same route 3 times before advancing the coil? Because we often get a one-way target response. It might be when sweeping from the left or from the right, but there can be a piece of metal or ??? masking a good target and only allowing a 'Beep' from one direction. Going too fast and / or not overlapping efficiently and that means we might not get a good signal unless we cross the target from at least each direction once. This is especially true when using a Double-D coil which, unfortunately, most detectors are coming equipped with.

Thanks, again, for your Reaper coil report.

Monte

"Your EYES ... the only 100% accurate form of Discrimination!"
Stinkwater Wells Trading Post
Metal Detector Evaluations and Product ReviewsI'm now located in Clyde, Texas monte@ahrps.org ... or ... monte@stinkwaterwells.com 503-481-8147Detector Outfit: A selection of my favorite makes and models, with the best coils mounted for the tasks I'll take on.Apex .. FORS CoRe .. FORS Relic .. Inca .. Bandido II µMAX .. Silver Sabre µMAXPinpointers: Pulse-Dive Pointer and AT Pro-Pointer .. Headphones: 'Hornet' & 'Wasp' .. MS-3 Z-Lynk*** All working well today to make memories for tomorrow. ***