HF Coil - 9" round or elliptical?

[KyJoe]

Can't get both so I have to pick one. My soil is mild in Ky and would be using it to hunt old homesites. From the info I've seen on this forum I'm leaning towards the round. The elliptical is better in EMI but that isn't a problem where I go. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Architex]

Each has 3 freqs, two of them are the same for each coil. I'd say one consideration might be whether or not you will be hunting in tight areas of brush or stubble & such. If so then the elliptical might be more maneuverable. Same for water hunting in streams. Or if you're going after very small gold and/or hunting in highly mineralized soil then elliptical. Otherwise only minor differences. JMHO.

 

[Micheal_R]

But I am hunting drowned towns with excessive nail beds.. It punches right through the, Areas that I had previously hit
with the 9 inch LF, are producing again..

Micheal

 

[enderman]

Tough call.

Since I assume the elliptical will be hot on chains you have to look at what it might give up, the usual suspect is depth. I've done a fair amount of detecting with a 5x10 elliptical, but I wouldn't want it for relic hunting I don't think. Or as a general purpose coil. If you find a gold chain the football coil will be your hero, but if you're already used to digging coins at depth, I think you will really miss them.

Those football coils really are a specialty coil, it will probably slam everything in the first 4" and be quiet as a mouse on everything else deeper.

I would go with the round. Round DD is deeper then a football DD of the same length, I think it is the more versatile of the two for what you want to do.

 

[Architex]

According to the tests I've seen the football coil is about the same on depth as the round. And I always believe tests, don't you? innochio

 

[enderman]

According to the tests I've seen the football coil is about the same on depth as the round. And I always believe tests, don't you? innochio

Well an air test does tell you a lot, if you can't hit something in air, it won't be any deeper in the ground. (Without getting into halos and all that hokum, there aren't enough of these magical halos to keep me interested)
It gives you a best case scenario to which you start subtracting due to mineralization and moisture. Although moisture seems to help sometimes.

XP likely wouldn't have made the coils if the depth was real close, it would make the round redundant. The nugget hunter absolutely wants the elliptical, on the other hand a nugget hunter isn't digging 1/16" nuggets at 10".

A DD coil already has a depth compromise by design compared to a concentric, which is why most manufactures make round DD's as stock coils. (XP, Minelab etc.) When you go to a elliptical shape, you lose depth again but seem to be able to hit the small stuff harder. Also the elliptical would see less minerlization which could be useful in hot sand prospecting.

I question the need for a typical relic/coin/jewellery guy needing Freqs over 20kHz, but I remain open minded, it seems to have some merit, who knows I might take up collecting pop-rivets.

A water hunter would have a much harder decision to make, because of the potential for chains and smaller jewelry with the football. Conversely you need depth too for when the conditions aren't optimal. (Mid summer stagnant deep sand)
When conditions are right, you can do it all with a elliptical, though a round will likely have more total productive days (barring the already good days) it just won't get you as much of the small stuff.

 

[squirrel1]

The elliptical coil will fool a persons for depth.

I have both round HF and elliptical.

Both coils do perform, but elliptical does have advantages in finding deeper nonferrous that is being cutoff from being able to see with round LF and HF coils.

For sites with high iron quantitties I like the elliptical better.
For more open field hunting I like the round better.

I will say I have been doing pretty good using elliptical for open field relic hunting.
It is so quiet, you can really hone in to every little pip squeak signal and study.
I can't do this with round HF coil, it chirps too much.

If a person already has a round LF I feel if trey can pick just one, they will extend their detecting capability moreso with elliptical HF coil.

I have dug coins sized nonferrous targets about an inch deeper than Garrett propointer length.

Round coil does allow for more coil height above ground on stand alone deeper targets.

The 54kha band on the round HF coil is IMO more useable for relic hunting vs the 74khz band using the elliptical coil.

But a person can't get some targets using the round HF coil using 54khz band that the elliptical,HF coil can get using 28.8khz band,

I think folks using either coil will certainly be surprised at just how much nonferous still exist at shallower depths.

 

[KyJoe]

Thanks for all the response. This is getting tough but there's probably no wrong answer here.

Squirrel1,
One question though, the test you did with the indian head penny where it was below and off to the side of some nails elevated on a small box, the Elliptical couldn't see it but both 9" rounds gave a good signal. Why couldn't the Elliptical see it?

 

[squirrel1]

Thanks for all the response. This is getting tough but there's probably no wrong answer here.

Squirrel1,
One question though, the test you did with the indian head penny where it was below and off to the side of some nails elevated on a small box, the Elliptical couldn't see it but both 9" rounds gave a good signal. Why couldn't the Elliptical see it?

O
Probably due to to shape of coil.

Remember the elliptical is flatter on the sides, vs the round.

I can say this with certainty.
Using elliptical coil at 28.8khz, a user will find some nonferrous off to the side of shallower iron around 5-6" ,,,nonferrous targets can be anywhere from shallow to around 10" deep.
No bs here,,and you try to locate these with round HF or round LF coils,,,some of the targets you will not hear tonally,,,or if you do they will be sounding like iron tones, basically being so compromised tonally,

Here may be a good way to explain this elliptical coil around iron to many other smaller coils.

If we take a square wave,,,many other smaller coils this square wave would be freq wise narrower (this span would denote how close iron could cramp a nonferrous (line of site when viewed above both iron and nonferrous target) and the amplitude of square wave (denoting depth of detection of nonferrous) would be shallower. (This would include coils like 4x6, round 5", round 5.5", 4x7" elliptical coils.

But this Deus elliptical,,,the square wave freq wise would be stretched a little,,,but the amplitude (denoting depth of detection) would be greater.

This Deus elliptical coil just might be for its size one of the deepest on the market,especially in minerlized soil.

This coil IMO can find things nonferrous in a site loaded with iron behind any detector/coil setup Vlf wise.