Hey folks…
I recently picked up one of the little 6″ DD High Frequency (18.75kHz) for my Minelab X-Terra 70. I figured it would help me out in some of the super trashy areas I hunt. The general rule is that those higher frequency coils are better at getting the lower conductive targets (ex. gold) while the lower frequency coils nab the higher conductive (silver) targets. I just wanted a little coil to get in between the junk, and the DD construction helps in my tough ground.
The weather wasn’t exactly conducive to extensive hunting. Temps in my parts of the woods have been in the low 20’s F, but cabin fever forced me outside for a couple hours anyway. I decided to layer-up and hit a late 1800’s homesite that I had hunted once before. The home is now in a field shared with roaming cows and hasn’t been inhabited in about 20 years.
The previous trip was disappointing – the only thing to turn up was screw caps, and a lot of them. To say the site was trashy would be an understatement. Every swing caused 4 or 5 “nulls” in my detectors threshold, indicating an object that was being discriminated out. When I got to the site I quickly did an auto ground balance and set the sensitivity to 24. It was smooth without any falsing.
Just a few minutes into my very cold outing I got my first good signal. I pinpointed and struggled to dig a shallow, small plug. Frozen ground! Ugh. Not something we have to contend with in these parts very often!
Scan plug..nothing.
Scan hole…yep, still in there, but off a little bit.
Widen the hole a little bit…still off.
I finally nabbed the target. A coin!
The entire time I was here last time I didn’t find a single coin. This one was a penny, and I was hoping for an Indian Head. Wiping away the red clay revealed a copper memorial. Eh, oh well. It was a coin. The little coil was doing what it was supposed to.
I covered my hole and kept at it. Not 10 feet away I get another signal, this one a little higher on the X-terra’s meter. For some reason this one was tough to pinpoint too. Then I figured out my error – this is a double d coil, not a concentric! A total “duh” moment. DD coils are “hot” from tip to toe, while concentric coils are more sensitive in the middle. I wiggled the coil over the target, then slowly pulled BACK until the signal went away. Keeping an eye on that spot, I turned 45 degrees and repeated to verify. The object should be right under the front edge of the coil. I dug down, and sure enough, there it was. A dime. Clad. From then on I had no trouble pinpointing and didn’t even use the pinpoint feature of the detector.
I detected in the frigid cold about another hour, dodging cow patties that littered the turf. I received several other good signals, but a few I had to abandon because the ground was rock-hard. I was plenty impressed with the little coil. I couldn’t test the depth limits because I just wasn’t able to dig deeper than 4 or so inches, but a couple of the coins I retrieved were at least 4”. Unfortunately all the coins were modern. I’ll have to give another report when the ground is more “digable”!

Thanks for visiting. If anyone wants to share some experiences with little coils, detecting in freezing cold, digging in frozen ground, dodging cow patties, or anything else, go for it!