15" Inch Equinox Coiltek Coil Review

I spend most of my time hunting both ploughed and pasture fields, my 11' inch coil does a fantastic job on both of these environments, in fact the Minelab 11' inch coil is super versatile in almost any hunting situation. I started to consider the idea of a larger coil because I wanted to cover more ground, not only that but I was interested to see if I could get a little bit more depth, even if I got an extra inch or two then I knew it would probably be worth the investment. I started to look at both the Minelab and Coiltek 15' inch coils, after some short consideration I opted to buy the 15' inch Coiltek. The reason I picked this over Minelab's offering was simply the shape, I liked the perfect circular design. 

15' Coiltek Equinox Coil

When the coil arrived I was instantly struck by the build quality, it was super sturdy and the coil ears where nice and thick, there wasn't going to be any issues with them snapping. Attaching the coil to my machine it became apparent straight away how much heavier it was than the 11' inch and, if you're like me, where you can find yourself swinging up to 12 hours on a single hunt, you could really start to feel it in your arm by the end of the day. To combat this problem I have a counter balance attached to the end of my detector shaft that helps to balance it out. I took the counter balance off to see what the coil felt like with a standard shaft design and it appeared to be nose heavy. If you're interested in this coil, having a counter balance installed on your shaft or purchasing a swing harness will make the hunting experience far more pleasant. 

Counter-Balance Of Shaft

The first time out I was on a small piece of land that I'd hunted throughly with both the 6' @ 11' coils. Due to the location of this specific site I was able to run my sensitivity on full, there wasn't any EMI interference at all, I always max out my sensitivity if I can get away with it. Hunting in my slightly modified 'Field 2' program I was pleasantly surprised how stable the machine ran. Hunting at my usual pace, with a slow swing speed, I was really taken at the size of the targets such a large coil picked up on, I was digging tiny littler bits of foil that you could balance on the tip of your pinky finger, not only that but the target separation was fantastic. I was able to isolate the targets easily and even managed a button dug from amongst the iron.

Pulled From Heavy Iron

On my second trip out I decided to hunt one of my fields that contained large overhead electricity cables, once again I was surprised that I could manage to search with full sensitivity. However I did find that after a while the machine had the tendency to chatter a little more than usual, this problem was easily solved by periodically noise cancelling and ground balancing. I always make a habit of performing both these actions a number of times throughout my hunting day, I like to know that the machine is running at its optimum level most of time. When you're hunting really trashy sites things can get a little crazy because you can have a large number of targets under the coil at the same time, with both experience and time in the field you will get use to this. I hunt in 50 tones on super trashy sites and, eventually, distinguishing the good targets through the bombardment of tones and noise becomes second nature. 

Practice Pinpointing

In regards to extra depth, from what I see online the jury is still very much open on this subject, I decided to not have an opinion until I had put serious hours in with the coil. Firstly in air-tests, 'which I know are pointless', with my normal settings, I could get a tiny response on a large cartwheel penny at nearly two feet. All other coins and relics that I tested could be detected a few inches further up the tape measure scale than the 11' inch Minelab coil - remember I run my sensitive at maximum with a recovery speed of 4 - so before you call bullshit on the two foot cartwheel, please bare that in mind.

Perfect For Extra Ground Coverage

Out in the field there have been a fair few targets that I've found about an inch and a half deeper than my 9' inch Garret Pinpointer, I've dug more targets slightly deeper than the Pinpointer with the 15' inch coil than I have the 11'. One thing I'll add, I've dug a lot of 10' - 11' inch coins because I've learnt my Equinox 800 inside and out, I know what to listen for in regards to deeper targets or items on the edge of detection - this subject is a different blog entirely which I will write in the future, to get the really deep objects with the Equinox you have to throw the manual out the window. My conclusion to the depth question is - I believe, depending on soil conditions, you get at least an extra inch, maybe an inch and a half in the right environment.  

To conclude, the 15' inch Coiltek equinox coil is fantastic, it's sensitive to the smallest of targets, I'd say on par with both the 6' and 11' inch coils. The separation is pretty good and if you know what to listen for you can pull larger items out of iron infested sites and hit items at a really good depth when the ground is clearer. I'd say that the build quality is very good, it's a proper piece of kit and I can't see anything breaking or snapping off. Out in the fields this coil is going to allow you to cover a lot more ground in a shorter space of time. A couple of points I'd like to stress, it is quite heavy so additional support such as a harness or counter-balance might be required, and importantly if you're going to purchase this coil with the sole view that you're going to be punching way deeper than the 11' inch, you might end up a little disappointed, though nothing is really conclusive yet, there's really not much in it from my experience but this might change the more I continue to use it. Lastly it takes a while to get the pinpointing spot on, due to the coil covering a larger surface area, it can be tricky to pinpoint correctly - practice will remedy this problem

All in all a fantastic coil for that extra coverage alone, it might be a little heavy for some and at £260 it's not exactly cheap but for me its still a top performer. 

Rating 9/10