Just got back from a half day out with the 17x13.
Picked up two bits at 0.26g each (will post up pics later).
On the 4500 I was running enhance, gain 7, stab 6 and alternated between audio types. I was in highly mineralised ground and the ground noises were driving me crazy so I switched audio to quiet. Both finds were found in quiet, the first was at about 7 inches and was a really bright signal, one thing I noticed was there was no trail in or out, that made it stand out from the hot rocks and ground noise.
The second one was about 10m away, after scraping off the top soil it was only another inch into the good stuff. Again a nice bright signal first thought was that it was rubbish.
So compared to the elite which I only used for a day, I thought the two were pretty similar, I thought the elite maybe ground balanced a little better although the ground I was in today was a bit more mineralised than the ground I used the elite on.
The NF was a bit easier to swing being lighter but I don't use a bungee, if you do then I don't think the weight difference would realy mean too much.
The NF "felt" better to swing, I think because of the shape, feels like your covering more ground, at what depths your covering the same ground I'm not sure.. I did have a little trouble with the mould catching dirt but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, certainly nothing on my old NF 18" solid. The other thing I love about this coil is the smooth skid plate, it glides over everything without getting hung up.
The NF ran really quiet all day with no falsing at all.
So yes it finds gold, the only other targets I had were 1 bit of shot and a couple of small bits of iron oh and 1 tiny little clip thing that I thought was gold for sure.
I think anyone looking to buy would be happy, same goes for the elite, weigh up their minor differences or try and take both for a test run. Putting everything aside I think I would have gone with the NF anyway, purely based on the feel of the thing.