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Fisher F44: concentric or DD

Garball77

Junior Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2021
Messages
45
Location
NW Louisiana
Greetings-
I have gotten into this wonderful hobby using a Bounty Hunter IV and I am looking to make a small upgrade. Right now, the Fisher F44 is piquing my interest, but before making the purchase, I was thrown a curveball. I can order it with either the 11" concentric teardrop that most come with, or for a few dollars more, the 11" DD. Google has turned up no helpful answers on what the better coil to go with would be.

Most of my hunting is done on old homestead sites, river banks, barnyards, and a couple Indian mounds. I'm interested in finding anything from relics to coins.
I live in NW Louisiana where we have a good amount of clay.

Any suggestions?

Thanks-
 
The first thing I learned on was a concentric coil. Both have their uses. All I can say is Concentric coils will pin point better for someone new to detecting. Besides it will give you a reason to get the DD for Christmas. Good luck
 
I currently use 2 Fishers, an F5 and an F70, and have concentrics and DD's for both.
Also used an F2 for a few years and a couple thousand hours and used only concentrics on that one, did the best with a small round concentric Fisher hockey puck coil.
I have lived and hunted in areas with both fantastic dream dirt and also with high mineralized soil and in many different sites both clean and with insane amounts of iron and trash.

Honestly I am a big fan of both coil types but I usually let site and dirt conditions govern what I choose to use and since I now live in an area with highly mineralized red dirt and clay and massive iron and trash challenges DD's have the upper hand nowadays...usually.
Still pull out my concentrics though, here and there, the pure sweet tone I hear over good targets and especially high tone silver using a concentric is something I learned to notice and listen for after hundreds of hours swinging Fishers with concentric coils.
It's there, just slightly different than the sound of a DD coil over the same kind of targets and something you can pick up on with a several hours experience listening to and noticing that unique tone.
Silver especially just sings on a Fisher with a concentric coil...in my experience, anyway.

Concentrics are actually a bit deeper in good dirt although the deeper scanning areas are quite a bit smaller than the full width of a DD field at depth.
In mineralized dirt DD's do actually seem to be slightly deeper or at least seem to have a little more stable and accurate ID's but it is not a huge difference over most concentrics I have used on my Fishers.

I hunt public parks and other areas with heavy iron and crazy amounts of trash and bottle caps can be a problem but using a concentric coil not hardly all because disc is actually a bit sharper and better on concentrics vs DD's.
I can ID them about 95% of the time if not more with a concentric mounted on a Fisher by their behavior, they just won't lock on or seem stable using them.
More of an issue when you swing over these with DD coils using most every brand or they could be because so many can come in solid and sound pretty good but using the wiggle and pull back method with a DD mounted on a Fisher unit problem caps will usually drop down from high number, solid seeming dig me targets to low foil or into iron as you pass the front end of the coil over them about that same 95% of the time or more.
This technique saved me and my sanity after I learned to do this and is one of the most helpful and useful things I have learned in this hobby after I gained confidence with this technique.

As far as sizes I have used concentrics and DD's in a few different sizes on my Fishers for years including that 11" DD.
Not sure how it works on that 44 but on both the F5 and the F70 the big DD not only works great at most sites and has great separation and depth but by turning down the gain to lower levels it seems to make that bigger DD think it changed into a laser-like smaller sniper coil with excellent separation and still gets scary deep.
Don't know how or why it can do this but it just does.

All coil sizes work pretty well but since 99% of the time I hunt in very trashy site conditions smaller sniper coils have become my favorites.
I have used Fisher small round DD coils for years and have done extremely well with tons of coins and a shocking amount of jewelry added to my collections but over the years I have come to believe a Nel Sharpshooter coil, or I suppose the Cors Fortune coil which is exactly the same thing, mounted on a Fisher detector is a combination than can be hard to beat.
Shockingly deep and surprisingly stable even deep or in difficult and challenging soil vs my Fisher coils probably due to better shielding those companies seem to add to their products.
I don't feel my detectors are complete until I have a Sharpshooter coil in the arsenal for any of my Fishers and if you come across me hunting out there with a Fisher chances are that coil will be the one I have mounted.

All Fishers seem to work great, as you can tell I am a big fan of that brand and like I said I have done better than well using all kinds and sizes of coils but put a Fisher in my hands with a Sharpshooter mounted on the end of my rod and you will be looking at a very confident and happy hunter.

With your two choices knowing what I know now as the better overall I would probably opt for the 11" DD.
Or, the teardrop concentric is supposedly pretty good and you can go for that and think about getting a DD later if you think that would be prudent.
All my Fishers found me enough clad and treasure to pay for any and all of my accessories very quickly.
 
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If you don't mind a suggestion, have you looked at other detectors? I'm a fan of Fisher having owned a Fisher F2 and still owning a F75, but for the price of a new Fisher F44 you could get a Nokta Simplex + or a Minelab Vanquish 440. Both are new technology and have been getting rave reviews.
 
If you don't mind a suggestion, have you looked at other detectors? I'm a fan of Fisher having owned a Fisher F2 and still owning a F75, but for the price of a new Fisher F44 you could get a Nokta Simplex + or a Minelab Vanquish 440. Both are new technology and have been getting rave reviews.

X2 I loved my simplex
 
If you don't mind a suggestion, have you looked at other detectors? I'm a fan of Fisher having owned a Fisher F2 and still owning a F75, but for the price of a new Fisher F44 you could get a Nokta Simplex + or a Minelab Vanquish 440. Both are new technology and have been getting rave reviews.
I’ve actually spent all morning reading about both of those machines and think I would like to go with one of those options. Is there one that would be better for homestead sites and clay river bottoms?
 
I’ve actually spent all morning reading about both of those machines and think I would like to go with one of those options. Is there one that would be better for homestead sites and clay river bottoms?

I'll let someone with experience with these machines answer that, however it should be noted that the Simplex + is waterproof and single frequency while the Vanquish is multifrequency but not waterproof. So each machine has its strengths and weaknesses.
 
I own both the simplex and a 440. Both are great detectors and each one is better than the other in certain aspects. If I had to pick one it would probably be the simplex, due mostly the the wireless phones, and the rechargable battery. Both are great performing machines, and you'd be happy with either as an upgrade.
 
I only ask this because I don't know. Is there a huge difference between the Vanquish 440 and 540? I know it's a price jump but I was wondering about the difference in features
 
Well, to completely change the course of the conversation, I ordered an F44 DD. I was sent a generic, no name POS. I promptly returned it and found the simplex+ and Vanquish 440. I decided on the Vanquish 540 and hope to be off to happy hunting.
 
Differences between Vanquish 440 & 540.....

There are several differences, all explained here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bO-rmiYZOY

in a nutshell.....

The 540 has a backlight and a low iron bias setting. The 540 also has a low volume setting for iron tones.

The 540 has 5 target tones and the 440 has 3 tones.

When you want to dial down sensitivity the 440 has 10 segments and the 540 has 25.

The 440 has 12 discrimination segments and the 540 has 25 segments.

The 540 comes with a charger and rechargeable batteries, the 440 doesn't.

Lastly, the 540 comes with a 12" coil and the 440 comes with a 10" coil.

I've read postings saying the preferred coil is the 10" coil.

The 540 has a more expensive package that adds wireless headphones and adds an 8" coil to go with the 12" coil.
 
You need to share the name of the place or dealer that tried to screw you on the F44 purchase. We all need to know who these people are.

Thanks.
 
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