I have the F70, stood behind it for 100's of hours, maybe over 1000 at this point.
It came only with the 10" elliptical concentric and I used that for many hours. .. loved it and I found a ton.
I then got the 11" DD, used that one for many hours...loved it and also found a ton.
Then I switched to the 5" DD and guess what...I loved it and also found a ton.
As a matter of fact because I tend to hunt sites with tons of trash and an unusual amounts of iron that coil was the one that stuck and pretty much stayed mounted.
I know the coverage isn't as large as the bigger coils but what I need for my sites is the best target separation ability, not coverage, and as far as depth with that small coil I could get at least as deep as the 10" concentric and very close to the depth I could get with the big DD...10-12" in good dirt .
From time to time I switched back to the concentric since it is the best coil made you can use to find jewelry, IMO, and I also used the 11" a lot when I did hunt areas that could benefit from more coverage on that larger coil.
It is rare that I need that bigger footprint but it does happen from time to time.
I thought I was done, I had three coils that that would work and work well in just about any situation I could come across and I was perfectly happy using the 5" DD most of the time.
Turns out here in the SE and this more difficult soil that sniper worked very well here, got as deep as I could with the 11" DD, surprisingly, and as I said even here I found a ton.
I was happy, but then I had a chance to trade away my beloved high tone Vaq to a dealer out in Missouri that wanted to use one and I knew in that dirt it would work way better for him than it was working for me here in the land of iron so I wished a better life for it than just being a closet queen.
It was a lopsided deal, however, my used Vaq and some coils for a new Mojave so I looked for some other product I could get to even it out.
He was a Nel dealer and since he didn't sell much else I was interested in I chose to get the small round sniper, I didn't need it but I heard good things about the this brand and I was curious.
He told me he didn't have them in stock because they weren't that popular, not near as popular as the Sharpshooter according to his sales.
He was happy to order the round one for me but I said don't bother, he stocked the Sharpshooter so I said just send me that one instead and we can call it even.
Serendipity, I was so glad I got this one instead of the smaller one after I started using it. ..so glad.
It was just as deep as the 5" Fisher coil if not a bit deeper , it was just as great at target separation as the Fisher coil and the coverage was slightly bigger so it felt like I was hunting with a much bigger coil.
It wasn't much bigger than the small snipers but it FELT bigger and I loved hunting with it.
However the biggest advantage I saw with the Nel was that it was quieter, and I mean WAY quieter than any of the Fisher coils I owned.
A noticeable difference in every site I used it and that was in really heavy EMI filled sites or those that weren't so plagued with that problem.
I tend to hunt the same sites over and over so I had a lot of experience using the Fisher sniper and the Sharpshooter in the same exact sites.
Quieter and more stable meant I could experiment and use more settings which I happily did and went on to, again...find a ton using some settings that just aren't possible using my Fisher coils.
Better shielding, says the company, whatever it was they did it worked and I started wondering why Fisher couldn't make coils that were as quiet and stable.
In every site the thing could be used with different settings, much hotter settings if I wanted to, and it was quieter and more stable with much less falsing...everywhere.
Wouldn't have been a big issue if either of these things had DST...but they don't do we need to deal with all noise and instability issues as best as can.
I never mounted the Fisher 5" sniper coil again, no need since the Sharpshooter was a much better coil for my sites and for the way I set up my detector.
I have read many like the 6x9" Fisher coil over the Sharpshooter which is fine but I never tried one of those.
Considering I have 3 Fisher coils that are all way noisier, especially on hotter settings, than my Nel I won't be getting one of those.
Quieter hunting environments enable me to notice more of the sometimes very short but better signals which is way more important to me since most everything around here is masked so badly.
Yes, the two units are exactly the same except for the color scheme, the difference is the Patriot is now sold in a different way which is pretty much factory direct while the F70 was a stocking item and dealers that did stock them got stuck with them when they were discontinued so now they need to do anything they can to get rid of them which includes bundling them with other accessories to try to get their money back.
Also the F70 used to come with the 10" concentric only up until near the end where they finally started giving you a choice , if you found a dealer that is including that 11" DD instead they might have been ordered that way or the dealer switched them out before they advertised them with that 5" sniper.
I hunt in the SE as will you, in my opinion the Patriot with the 11" DD and a Sharpshooter as an accessory is going to be the better setup for hunting in our environment.
Plus, the F70 is technically discontinued.
I have full expectations that Fisher will honor the 5 year warranty on the F70 but me, I would still feel better owning new stock and a newer model that the company will probably be making for the foreseeable future.