Garrett Coil Design - Blunt Ends?

[timbus59]

I have an Axiom and a good old AT-Gold for hunting in water. I've been trying to find out why Garrett favors blunt ends on it's coils. I've found one brief reference in a forum that the design provides more depth on the front and back end of the coil.  I've also seen a reference that stated that the rounded corners may be the hottest part of the edge. They seem to use this design for both DD and Mono coils across all of their products.

Can anyone talk about the good and bad aspects of the blunt end design?  Why is the round coil design better or worse?

[Steve Herschbach]

The flat back makes it less prone to tipping over when set down. The front is blunt because the back is blunt. It's different than the other guys coils. Kind of like Deeptech making some octagonal coils. No good reason for it, somebody just thought it looked cool and was different.

I know of no reason why they are better than a normal pointy tip elliptical and would prefer those myself in the smaller coils. It is not a big deal with the 11x13 and I don't mind that design at all versus a round, maybe even prefer it. But the 7x11 I really wish was a pointy tip. Yes, the corners are hot on the mono, but not as hot as the tip and toe would be if it were a pointed tip. I think a pointed tip in a small coil is better for poking in nooks and crannies and for pinpointing with the tip.

The 11x13 though would normally be a round coil, and here the squared off design I actually like. But a case can be made that round coils are the natural shape for any detector coil and give the most consistent detection pattern. 

[DSMITH]

27 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

The flat back makes it less prone to tipping over when set down. The front is blunt because the back is blunt. It's different than the other guys coils. Kind of like Deeptech making some octagonal coils. No good reason for it, somebody just thought it looked cool and was different.

I know of no reason why they are better than a normal pointy tip elliptical and would prefer those myself in the smaller coils. It is not a big deal with the 11x13 and I don't mind that design at all versus a round, maybe even prefer it. But the 7x11 I really wish was a pointy tip. Yes, the corners are hot on the mono, but not as hot as the tip and toe would be if it were a pointed tip. I think a pointed tip in a small coil is better for poking in nooks and crannies and for pinpointing with the tip.

The 11x13 though would normally be a round coil, and here the squared off design I actually like. But a case can be made that round coils are the natural shape for any detector coil and give the most consistent detection pattern. 

Those Blunt squared off coils is my only complaint with the Axiom also, on the Smaller Coils only though, the two bigger size coils I would never swing either of those in an area that a more pointed tipped small coil would work better, I do wish Garrett would at the very Least produce a couple of smaller pointed coils for the Axiom though, I only use the 16x14 mono and the 13x11 DD in areas where I have a open flat area to swing in, which is few and far between, maybe 7-10% of the time, the rest of the areas I detect I am trying to get in and around all kinds of obstacles and those squared off blunt noses and tails makes it tough

Come on Garrett or someone give us some smaller and more pointed or small and round coils for the Axiom, I don't care who it is just give us what we want and need for the task at hand LOL, a 6 or 8 inch round in Mono or DD or a 9x5 pointed in Mono or DD, I would be a happy camper for sure LOL

[timbus59]

Thanks for your replies. Wow.. I really wasn't expecting that the answer would be ergonomics. I thought for sure there was some sort of engineering reason that improved depth or sensitivity. I think I too would prefer a smaller mono coil that was more pointed and sensitive at the front tip. 

[timbus59]

Check it out.  I finally found this graphic on metaldetector.com for the Garrett ACE series. Looking at it, I kinda remember now the same graphic being on the outside of the AT-Gold box.  They claim the design helps improve the width of the scan field along the sides of obstacles like walls, fences, (for the Axiom, maybe rocks & trees if your hunting nuggets). 

I still think we need a small mono coil with a hot pointed end for bedrock cracks. There's more nuggets in crevices than next to rocks, I think. 🙂