All Products
Shovels, Diggers & Picks
Teardrop coils narrow to a point at the front and widen toward the back, giving the coil a small, defined leading edge instead of a uniform footprint. That taper is the whole point of the shape: the nose slips into places a wider coil cannot reach and marks a target's position clearly, while the broader rear section keeps enough coil area to hold usable depth. Most teardrop coils reach the market as stock or replacement coils for specific Fisher, Teknetics, and Garrett platforms rather than as universal aftermarket upgrades.
The narrow nose lets you work right up against foundations, tree roots, fence posts, and rock edges — the boundary areas where targets collect and where a wide coil simply cannot sit flat. It also makes pinpointing straightforward: sweeping the tip across a signal narrows the target to a small area without switching into pinpoint mode. In rocky prospecting ground the same taper helps you sneak the coil between stones and into crevices where nuggets settle.
Teardrop coils are commonly wound as concentric coils, with the transmit and receive windings sharing a center. That layout produces a cone-shaped detection field that tends to give clean target ID and easy center-of-coil pinpointing in mild to moderate ground. Double-D teardrop coils also exist for machines meant to run in mineralized soil, where a DD field holds up better than a concentric one. Which winding a given coil uses is listed on the product page, and it matters more to performance than the outline does.
The shape shows up frequently on prospecting and general-purpose detectors, including the Garrett Goldmaster 24K and the Fisher Gold Bug series, as well as Fisher's F-series coin and relic machines. On these detectors a teardrop coil is often the middle option in the lineup — more reach into tight ground than a large coil, more coverage than a small sniper coil. Hunters chasing small gold in rough terrain generally value the tip access more than the raw coil area.
Pick by the problem you are solving. Iron-sown ground where two targets sit inches apart calls for a slim elliptical coil and its narrow separation field. Open ground where raw depth per coil size is the priority points to a round coil. If one coil has to handle every site you hunt, the semi-elliptical middle ground is the usual answer, and wide acreage worked fast is where the butterfly layout pays off. Teardrop earns its place when access and pinpoint precision at the tip matter most.
Because teardrop coils are built for particular platforms, fitment is model-specific — confirm the detector model, connector, and operating frequency before ordering, and note that a coil built for one brand will not adapt to another. Use the brand and detector filters to narrow the list to coils confirmed for your machine. Browse all search coils to compare sizes and windings across every shape we carry.
Related Guides: Metal Detector Coil Guide | Metal Detector Technologies
Get real answers from outdoor explorers and our product experts. Browse questions about performance, features, and setup —or ask your own to make sure this gear fits your next adventure.
Visit our Ypsilanti, MI store to handle metal detectors before you buy. Authorized US dealer.
