Like all coils an elliptical coil is a compromise. If we start with a 12" round coil as the reference & look at an "equivalent" elliptical coil of 14"x9" ( 14+9=23)/2=11.5" ( near enough to 12" ), the much tighter radii on the narrow ends of the elliptical significantly improve small gold performance over an area roughly cup sized at each tip BUT small gold performance is decreased on the long sides, which have a larger radius than the round coil. Max depth at centre of coil on a bigger target is better than a 9" coil & not as good as 14" coil, in fact it is a little lower than a 12" coil maybe equal to a 10.5" coil.
The sensititivity improvement of the tip vs round coil is related to the elliptisicity ie 10x5 coil is 2:1 whereas a 9x6 , 12x8 & 14x9 are all 1.5:1. There will be a bigger difference in tip sensitivity from an 8" round coil to a 10x5 than to a 9x6 , but the 10x 5 will have a lower maximum depth, closer to a 6"coil whereas the 9x6 max depth will be closer to a 7" coil.
The elliptical offers the ability to find smaller gold than the equivalent round coil but to truly cover the ground properly with the two sensitive patches you need to do about a 70% overlap & pretty much noone does that unless they are scouring a patch. At least you have a chance of small gold on a normal partially overlapped swing and you dont have to change coils to scour.
If you turn the elliptical sideways you neither gain nor lose anything on maximum depth but you are now covering the same bit of ground twice with the sensitive patches and have reduced your total forward distance covered per swing by 30-50%. I would say that you havent achieved anything you couldnt have achieved by doing a 50% overlap with the coil in its usual orientation.
PS: I hate to think what most people googling "sensitive patch" are going to make of this post
PPS: Much luck with overlapping sweeps with the Stellarvue?
