I’ve been swinging the Coiltek Goldhawk 10×5 on the end of the 6000 for about two months now and decided it was time to put together a review of the coil. I originally purchased the 10×5 as I thought it would be a good little cleanup coil to pick up the scraps of gold missed by other detectors in tight areas or on old workings that have been flogged over the years. The standard 11” coil works very well but has limitations in my area due to the undergrowth that has popped up after the bush fires.
When I initially picked up the coil, the first thing that I noticed was the simple, box like lines of the 10×5. The skid plate clipped in place rather than being taped on and was easily removed by hand. In saying that, it holds in place very well when in use. Due to the square lines of the coil and skid plate junction, taping would be a simple task if you wanted to head down that path. I removed the skid plate today for the first time and noticed there was very little dust inside. I would expect regular cleaning would need to occur if you used the coil in water. (Unless the coil was taped.) The winged lugs on the coil appear to be quite strong and have not shown any signs of cracking to date.
The coil is quite light, (as you would expect) coming in at 580 grams compared to 666 grams for the standard 11”. When attached to the detector, the balance point is at the second knuckle which makes the machine quite light in the front end. It is a lovely coil to swing and it glides well over uneven surfaces. The pointy nose of the coil slips into tight spots between shrubs or rocks that other coils have difficulty reaching. The coil has good sensitivity close to the nose which helps with this advantage.
The coil is stable in operation and appears to be less prone to emi than the standard coil. When using the 10×5, I can normally run the detector at a higher sensitivity than my detecting mate who is running the 11” coil on his 6k. Quite often he is running at sensitivity 3 whereas I will be in auto plus. If I am able to run in auto plus, threshold is always turned on as small targets will often not trigger a response from the detector.
My mate and I regularly compare the two different coils on undug targets. This gives us an opportunity to compare settings and in this case, the performance of the two coils in real life situations. It’s a time consuming process but we enjoy discovering the characteristics of each coil. We will detect in close proximity to each other and call the other person over if a target is detected. Where possible, we try not to disturb the ground at all so that the comparison is fair. What we have found is quite interesting. The sound that each machine gives off on targets is different. The standard coil produces a mellow, rounded response to a target whereas the 10×5 gives a sharp, crisp signal. In about 90% of cases, the volume coming through is higher on the Coiltek coil. It’s narrow, elliptical shape and the sensitivity gain due its smaller size may contribute to this. If the nuggets are a little larger (just under .1 of a gram and up), the 11” coil comes into its own if they are deep in the ground. In saying that, we have not detected a piece of gold that the Goldhawk can not hear. It’s depth capability on micro nuggets is impressive. I have pulled small pieces from over 6” which is outstanding. Pinpointing is a breeze with this coil due to its narrow profile.
You can probably gauge that my mate and I are pretty impressed with this coil. It has made detecting trips to to old haunts a pleasant experience as we can generally come home with some yellow in the rattle jar. There has been many “wow” moments over the past month or so. When we run both coils over a target, that word tends to be my mates “go to“ comment. To pick up a sweet little signal on the 10×5 and have the standard coil give absolutely no response at all blows us away. It has happened on such a regular basis that we are no longer surprised by it. We have found incredibly small pieces with the standard coil but the Coiltek coil finds the micro bits deeper than what the 11” coil can hear. Last week I went out to an old spot that I’d run all my detectors over In the past. Even the 6000 with the standard coil was used in this particular area. Had a great day pulling tiny bits out of the ground.
The negatives of this coil are what you would expect. It will occasionally false signal on wet or highly mineralised ground and it loves hot rocks to bits. I suppose this is the price you pay for sensitivity.
My detecting mate has been so impressed with this coil that he went out and bought one a couple of days ago. Thumbs up to Coiltek. You have produced a winner here.
Cheers
Les
