Anxiously Awaiting my F75

[wallyblackburn]

New poster here - been lurking. I was leaning towards an Explorer SE, but have decided to give the F75 a try. I like what I hear about target separation in iron-infested areas. That's really what I need.

I have an MXT and a Quattro, and I like them both in some ways and have found a lot of nice stuff with each, but I am looking for more depth and target separation. The Quattro is a deep machine, but you have to go really slooowww in iron and it is still tricky to pull coins out of the trash.

I am HOPING I don't have the new-user problems I've been reading about. I don't think I will because:

- I use DD coils almost exclusively - even on MXT
- I use all-metal on Quattro, so I am used to noise and using my brain to identify targets
- I am carefully reading all of your great info posts and the manual

So, anyway, just wanted to say Hi and introduce myself.

Thanks,
Wally

 

[Bill Ladd]

I think you will have no problems at all learning the F75. I think your going to love it! Take your time & any questions feel free to post 'em here.....
good luck,
Bill

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

I think you'll like it. I came off a DD Minelab Musketeer and the F-75 behaves very much the same in many ways. Don't be afraid to move the coil right along. Faster sweep actually penetrates better than a slow one (so say the instructions). And give a 2 ft wide sweep when returning to a target. Don't "wobble" it like a Soverign or a Musketeer. "X"ing is every bit as important as ever, helping to seperate multiple objects. I had a fun time a few days ago with three cents spread in a triangle of about 7" on a side and maybe 3 or 4" deep. It would ring them all true on a wide sweep, but in the narrower sweeps I wasn't getting far enough outside the coil's field to allow it to register them properly. I thought I was getting the triple beep of a shallow target (which is how my Musky would react).

Don't crank the sensitivity too high. I start at 30 and slowly go up until it begins to false, then back off five. And give yourself time. The trick about ground balancing then adding two or three for a slightly positive balance can help settle her down, also.

I've been having so much fun coin-shooting I haven't begun to explore the All Metal side of life.

 

[Idaho-Marke]

My first Bounty Hunter was silent, but not good in my 83 (MXT) soil so I lost interest after all the parks were hunted out.

Then I got an MXT with DD coils for the soil. Much better machine, but the constant threshold dragged on me but I put up with it.

Now I'm hunting in silence again and I love it. The newbie thing you're reading about, my experiences included, may be because the leap up for an MXT user is so high. The machine only talks to you when it has found something and it finds an ton of stuff with that bigger coil which has been tricky to get used to.

I use a 4x6 coil almost all the time. This big coil is quite different and doesn't pinpoint like a MXT coil. In fact, mine doesn't pinpoint in the way I've been told here on the forums either!
The coin (on my machine) is not under the dot on the coil, it's under where the coil hooks into the rod which is way different than looking under the tip of a MXT DD coil. I've been playing in the sand box trying to get pinpointing down and I think I've got it this time.

I'll look forward to your posts.

Mark

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Good observations. A gozillion years ago ('70's) I had a kit built P.O.S. (I believe a "Science Fair" kit from Radio Shack) that had a threshold tone, but since then I have had silent search machines. If you're not getting the occasional false you have no idea it's even turned on at times. That worries me almost as much as too much noise. Perhaps that is why some of us don't seem to mind that the F-75 can get a little sparky at times. If it continues I either ground balance again or set the sensitivity down a few points. There is a world of difference between occasional false positives and steady interference noice/chatter. The occasional phantom (say every fourth or fifth sweep) becomes something like a threshold and you also then know you're "on the line" or slightly over for soil balance.

 

[wallyblackburn]

How does it respond to discriminated targets? Popping/cracking like MXT or just quiet like Quattro?

Thanks,
Wally

 

[Neugene]

If the target does not break the discrimination (like iron can sometimes do) you will never hear a thing.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

[quote wallyblackburn]How does it respond to discriminated targets? Popping/cracking like MXT or just quiet like Quattro?

Thanks,
Wally[/quote]

I'll disagree courtesouly with Neugene on that. BIG, especially shallow, iron will beat the discrimination by showing higher up the conductivity scale. You will get a siren telling you the unit is overloaded. You'll also get a signal from large iron/steel if you get too close (fences, swings, etc.)

 

[Digger]

The MXT has an adjustable threshold tone via the Threshold knob. Adjusting this knob allows you to vary the sound of the background tone or operate in silent search. HH Randy

 

[Digger]

As you are learning with the F-75, a wider sweep will also improve the performance of your Musky. A slow "wiggle" will improve the accuracy of the Sovereign. But the Musky prefers a longer, much quicker sweep. HH Randy

 

[Jackpine Savage]

Mode 1 on the T2 and I assume the F-75 is similar to the MXT in C/J mode. As Neugene said, some iron near the disc setting will bleed thru. In the other modes any iron not disced out is a low tone and you will get an occasional abrupt tone from iron breaking thru the disc setting especially if you get a little sloppy with coil control. All in all IMO its a major improvement over most other detectors when using low disc around iron.

Tom

 

[Neugene]

I don't think that you disagreed with me at all Charlie P. What I meant is that if the target does not break through the discrimination you will not hear it. If iron registers high in the conductivity scale and beats the discrimination I agree that it will sound off. Sorry for the confusion.
HH