I'll try to explain this as I understand it. With the 26g and three wraps you'd have too little wire for .5 to get a "good" heat flux. Basically it would instantly get hot and very quickly get too hot. You need a little more mass than those 3 wraps will get you to get some good/stable heat generation. The 24g would allow you to get to the same resistance and wattage but with more mass.
If you're using a regulated device, and 26g is what you're comfortable with, add another two wraps and see how it does. It won't be the same 0.5, but since the wattage part of your mod will supply the correct amount of power anyway, that part doesn't really matter.
Thank you for that, and no I'm not especially fond of ANY wire yet. I have 24 and 26 gauge in both Kanthal and Stainless because a kind soul here on ECF sent them to me.

I put 7 wraps SS326L in my isub coils no problem. I use contact coils so they fit. I'm sure you could make a spread coil if you want. They come out to around .54 or so. I use them in TC and wattage mod and they work fine. I just double checked and they use NR wire as leads so that is why they get .5 ohms with 5 wraps. The next one you take apart you can find the soldier points on the legs.
The one I put in there is reading .56 now on the Disrupter, and I have it set to 39 watts. It's OK, but I've had better. And you've solved the "mystery" surrounding the stock coils for me, thank you! That scenario had never occurred to me, and the coil was so blackened when I took it out, I didn't notice any solder points. Eeeuuuwwwww.... I will change out my coils more often from now on.
Now if there was just an easier way to get these dang things APART.