To Critterhunter On The Ferret Coil

[Boston]

These coils [ Hot Head ] were first made by Compass for Kellyco and later Wilson started making them followed by Discovery Electronics who made the Hot Head and later making the Ferret coil which was a 5.5 coil.

Discovery made these coils [ Ferret ] for White's and Garrett which were a concentric style only. I have a IDX Pro with the Ferret coil and it is a sharp little coil. Now for Minelab, Discovery went out of business before Minelab came along and maybe someone picked up their line and made a coil for Minelab...???

Just My Two Cents Worth

 

[Critterhunter]

Great info. Thanks for sharing that. I'd stick it in the coil sticky but it's been closed. I'll see if there is a thread link in the coil sticky to discussion on the Ferrets and stick it in that thread so people interested in the history of the Ferrets are likely to run across it.

I'm always interested in the history and variations that might have evolved on coils over time with later production runs. Those Ferret coils seem pretty darn rare among the BBS community. What little people or I could dig up on the net about them has been posted in the sticky.

I always assumed the Hot Heads/Ferrets were made by Detech years ago, prior to their Excelerator coils that came along shortly after that I think, because Kellyco sold the Hot Heads and then the Excelerators and I just figured they were all made by Detech as the same source?

I remember back in the day that the Hot Heads weren't said to be very good coils by most people. I used to know a guy locally who said a Hot Head was giving his Garret more depth on coins than his stock coil. I can't remember the coil size he was using, like maybe 8 to 12". It just stuck in my memory because it was the only good thing I ever heard about those coils giving people more depth. I would guess the trash coils had a better reputation just due to their small size with depth not being as critical of an issue.

You don't happen to know off hand if there was a 6" Excelerator made for the BBS units a couple years ago, do you? I could have swore I remember seeings a BBS version of the 6" Excelerator a while back on Kellyco's website, but then later I only saw a 5" Excelerator listed for it. Reason why I ask is that the 6" coil seems to be the trash coil of choice for the FBS units. They have the 5" available as well for them but seems like most prefer the 6" because it's said to get outstanding depth while still offering excellent separation.

Seems like among the BBS crowd the same is said of the 8" Tornado with it only being 7 & 1/4" in actual size. If I can get somebody to bite on trading my S-5 for one I'm going to do that and make it my heavy trash coil.