March of 2010 I was pestered with phone calls and e-mails asking what I thought about the Omega 8000, so I bought a pro-pack to find out.
I quickly got rid of the 11" BiAxial coil, mounted the 5" DD on a spare lower rod for periodic use, but hit the hunt-sites with the 10" Elliptical Concentric coil. I spent maybe two or three hours doing side-by-side comparisons of the 11" BiAxial and 10" Concentric and was favorably impressed with how the Concentric performed and enjoyed working just that elliptical Concentric and 5" round DD on the Omega 8000. It became my most popular urban Coin Hunting detector over the next 5" years. In time I did change it up to the round 8" Concentric, and with the two Omega 8000's I had last year I relied on the round 7" Concentric coil the most because it worked great in the very 'busy' modern trash around the picnic bowery areas, around big trees, and handled a lot of yard hunting I did.
I like the elliptical Concentric however, and I'll be ordering a new F5 today and I'm sure that 'standard' coil will stay in my coil outfit for the F5 as part of a 3-coil package for my hunt needs. I had used an 11" BiAxial off a different model later on with the Omega 8000 and the Concentric coil provided more accurate VDI read-out with a tighter numeric response on mid-depth to deeper coins than the 11" BiAxial.
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From what I gather in the past concentrics ruled, when the DD's came out they gathered a huge following and it continued to grow.
Deeper, wider scanning field at depth, better coverage overall, thinner scanning field for searching through trash, handles mineralization better...definitely these things had many abilities and advantages the previous generation of coils didn't possess.
The depth thing, since even before I have been in the hobby the call for greater depth over the years became a roar...if technology inherent in the detectors themselves had reached its peak, which some believe happened years ago, then maybe new kinds of coils can break though the barriers that prevent us from seeing the deepest targets we suspected were still there but unreachable.
The manufacturers played along and gave the people what they wanted, the F5 and F70 and others were designed with the concentrics in mind but optional DD coils became a big aftermarket sell for the factory models that didn't have them.
Then the models started being offered with a choice of either types of coils and then many times the DD coil just became the standard...F5's came in new boxes emblazed with "Now with an 11" DD coil" and when the F70 jumped lines and turned into the Patriot it was never even offered with that great 10" concentric anymore, just the DD.
Concentric coils became an option that most never thought to try.
Even some entry level models like the Eurok Pro and others that always just had concentrics changed, "New, Improved" packages were offered with DD's only, and who can blame the manufacturers for that...give the people what they want has always been prudent in retail...or at least give them what they think they want, anyway.
And in all this concentrics took a back seat, for many veteran hunters they were just forgotten and there is a whole new crop of hunters that have no experience using this type of coil, chances are they probably never will.
Nobody can blame hunters for this, if the DD's work and find them treasure why even try anything else?
However a few did.
I have read posts from extremely experienced and very successful hunters that have used the best technology available like E Tracs, CTx's, Deus's and more to hunt certain sites like farm fields for years until they couldn't find even one more good signal left and then as a lark a few brought in a lowly Compadre with a small concentric coil just as an experiment.
When buttons and coins and other good non ferrous targets started to show up again, and in pretty healthy volumes, some were shocked...all seemed impressed.
They posted about their success and finds with concentric coils in hunted out sites but I don't think many really noticed, just an amusing blip on the horizon...an oddity.
Now we have some new tech that's pretty good, FBS and BBS on the Minelabs came along became the thing, not just on beaches but in the dirt, too.
The Deus and other new models have many fans and the Multi-Q on the Nox is proving to be a game changer for many and the new crop of multi freak offerings are growing and all were designed with the DD's in mind, not a concentric coil in sight or even mentioned or offered for these platforms so concentrics are being pushed even further back into the dim memory of the past.
I can't blame the industry for this, or the hunters that never thought to even experience a concentric coil.
Ya gotta go with your strengths, what works, works and success rules all but I wonder what many of them would think if one day they did happen to take a concentric coil into one of their totally scoured and hunted out sites and were able to still find more.
As for myself I guess I am still old school to a certain extent, when it came time to buy a sniper coil for my Vaquero I went for a small concentric...never even had a thought to opt for a DD coil because for me, and in the kind of sites I hunted, the concentric just made much more sense.
It found me tiny gold on one of my first hunts, tons of coins and silver jewelry after that so no regrets, I knew I had made the right choice...for me.
When I got the F70 It only came with the 10" concentric and I already had thousands of hours using that kind of coil so I was fine with that and it was all I used for months and I found plenty.
Eventually I got DD's for that one, loved those too and used them a bunch but I never retired my 10" concentric , I still mounted it from time to time and used it in both great mild dirt and back here in the mineralized WE where I now live.
As we speak the F70 has the 10" concentric on the bottom of my rod now, ever at the ready even though I own four other DD's I can use instead which I do, alot, but there still is a special place in my heart for that lowly concentric.
I find great treasure with all of them, coins, jewelry and much more but nothing makes me smile like when I hear my first tone on a good target using that concentric on that F70...it is unlike any others I own for that one but I still have a great appreciation for all of them.
I am so happy I had all that experience with concentrics before I got into the DD's, I think my hunting life in this hobby would have been different if I hadn't and I suspect at least a little less fun overall if it would have gone differently for me.
Now I have the F5 that came with two great concentric coils so, joy, and right now I am learning it with the DD Sharpshooter I bought for it and it is doing great things but I am about to change to one of my concentrics and so looking forward to it.
Can this thing let me hear those beautiful sweet tones I hear on my F70 with a concentric coil, I assume it will or hope it does, anyway.
I have no doubt I will find treasure with those concentrics even in my very rough dirt if past experiences hold true to form, and the fun I will have using them is a given.
Am I old school at least a little, yea, but I have been more than successful in both great and hot crazy dirt with both types of coils so there is that history.
Like I keep saying this is a hobby, not a job, the primary goal is to have fun while doing it no matter what you find and I am a lucky man to own a few different tools to do that and such a nice selection of different types of coils to enhance that experience even more.
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