Here is a picture of the stock coil next to the Minelab 8inch coil.  The Minelab coil comes complete with lower stem, washers and bolt. You can change from one coil to the other in about a minute.

 I hunt mostly in parks and was wondering if I might do better with a smaller coil in some of the trashy areas. The first thing that I had to decide was what size and wich model , cash flow was an issue so I had to do allot of second guessing before I could make a choice..

 For the size I e-mailed a few guys that I knew had the small  small 5 inch Sunray coil and asked two questions , do you like the coil and how much do you use it. As with all Sunray products heaps of praise but but most also said they really only used in real trashy areas around trees and the like but because it was so small you couldn't really cover any ground with it. This makes perfect sense of course but made me have a bit of a rethink.  Although I might not get the super target seperation of the 5 inch coil but was leaning to a more general use coil. This of course was going to be a compromise but with limited funds I decide to narrow it down to the 7.5 Minelab and the 8 inch Sunray coils.

 Now the issue was the full 8 inch Sunray coil against the 7.5 inch coil offered by Minelab. Well the Minelab was just that little bit smaller and I was looking for a smaller coil but what really tipped the balance was the cost. I got the Minelab coil complete with lower shaft for less  than what I could do on the Sunray coil at the time.

 Decession made by the pocket book I orderd the coil and awaited it's arrival.

 Well Since I have gotten the this coil it has actually become my default coil.  It has  a real nice balance on the Explorer. The stock coil can wear the arm abit an all day hunts but the smaller lighter coil makes using the Explore a dream... The pin pointings is real sweet with the much narrower center section and there seems to be no need for additional coil support to keep the coil from drooping as is required on the stock coil.

 One other real nice benifet to this coil is how it rides in the water. The stock coil  is really too boyant and I found very hard to stay down in the water but  the 7.5 is great at this task. I was a bit dubious about using the stock coil in the water because of the amount of friction as a result of it's large size, combined with the amount of force needed to submerge the coil would be too much stress  for the shaft assembly. The 7.5 just feels right for wadding with the Explorer .

Here is a picture showing the coil size in relation to the stock coil    Note how much narrower the center line section is on the 7.5

 Now everybody doing reviews tells storyies of going into hunted out areas and through the use of there new tool found a whole bunch more great goodies. My problem is that is where I always hunt, hunted out parks. So what I tried was to take a small area  and go over it with the stock coil and find a spot where I had trouble issolating targets and then see what what I could do with the smaller coil. I did this a couple of times and in general It was just a lot easyier hunting. I did fish out a few more goodies between the junk and this alone is why I bought the coil.

 Depth seems to be an over rated concern for allot of folks so I will adress this as best as I know how. Being able it get 15 inch deep targets is not first and formost inportance to us park hunters. That kinda depth tends to make one hell of a big hole something that can be frowned on by other park users. This is not to say that getting those deep ones is not something one has to give up on just that it need not be the only issue when thinking about a coil.   I have dug targets with this coil that rang in loud and clear and where 8inch plus depths so it's range is beyond that. I think for it's size it gets better than expected depth.

 Well there is much to like about this coil. Great for the water, much better in trashy area's, great balnce on the detector and easyier pin pointing.

 Nothing is perfect, but I did have to look pretty hard for any compliants on this coil. I guess like everyone I wish some of these things were a bit cheaper to buy.. One other little thing is something found on the stock coil that I wished they incorperated on the 7.5 in coil is the bevelled edge on the coil cover. The 7.5 has almost a right corner from the base to the edge of the coil where as the stock coil has a nice bevelled section wich  helps it skim the surface much better.

Here are the two coils edge profiles.   I like the bevelled edge found on the stock coils cover

What can I say I really like this coil. I have only used it in local parks and a test run in the water but It passed with flying colours.

 I would still love to have a crack at using the Sunray 5 inch coil for the ultimate trash areas but until then I can only say that you will not be disappointed if you are looking for a smaller coil than the stock 10.5.

 If you have any thoughts or questions please E-mail me and I will try to answer all of your questions. Thanks Sir Larry