Any advice to set up a F70 ?

[Tim LeBlanc]

All replies would be helpfull. Thank yo. TiM

 

[mudpuppy]

Welcome Tim! Everyone will be along shortly...When you start fooling with modifying your program, remember the factory reset, push and hold ground grab and menu as you turn the power on, and hold them for a few seconds...that will reset your machine to factory settings which should allow you to hunt pretty much anywhere. The disc feature you will find helpful, as well as tones...so after a factory reset, I run disc up to 15, and thresh to -3, and tones to dp...you may want to run up sens, but if you get chatters, run it back down to 60-70 range...the hz button is helpful if you get around emi, like power lines or a transformer, your machine will really spaz out until you find a hz setting that settles it down. If you run disc down to zero, you are in Autotune, in which you will hear everything, and may drive you crazy...all the programs modifications have their place for each specific area and soil moisture content, it just takes some fooling with to understand what they all do, still, out of the box, you should be finding things immediately...read alot of this forums postings as we were all there not too long ago asking for help too.
Good Luck!

 

[Tim LeBlanc]

Thank you for the info mudpuppy. Yeah this machine is like learning latin. My old machine is a 1270. This is very different. I have found clad coins with the F70. I just need a lot of time with it. Tim

 

[mudpuppy]

I didn't know nothing, this is my first machine, got it last april..ran in AT all the time! seldom ground balanced, and still managed to find some great stuff that paid for it in a few months...just really lucky, but committed too. now I go back to places I thought I cleaned out, and am finding better stuff than before. Sometimes in real trashy areas, I'll run the disc up to 50, and can finds dimes, Q's and pennys...I have the 11" DD coil...You'll really like the F70 I think, its fast, light, great battery life, once you have some confidence in it, your finds will go way up...I try to dig 50 zincs every day, just to up the odds of a big ring, I think target retrieval skills are more important than just about anything, the faster you can locate and pull a target, the more ground you can cover in an outing...seems like I'm good for 200 targets in 4/5 hours of swinging before I cant concentrate anymore...spills and stacks really up the numbers...and shallow coins from surface to 4/5" range popped with a screwdriver are the norm.

 

[Tim LeBlanc]

I def need more practice with retrieval skills. A screw driver for a probe. Cool. I also have the 11"DD coil. I'm having a tough time pinpointing targets. Which recovery rate is killing me.

 

[mudpuppy]

Hey man, I dont aim to hijack your thread...I just ran out to a park before the storm and pulled 44 coins for 5.35 total...hit a Anthony dollar, and then this stack of q's It was early in the hunt, thats why my finger is still pretty clean! I use that stanley long blade flat screwdriver, of course the end is pretty spear tipped now, but when I hit a signal, I stab with this, then drop to one knee, and use two hands to ream out the hole, stick a finger down it, slide the target between blade and finger, and pull it up. Its really fast, and leaves no trace...if the target is deeper than I can reach, I whip out a little cheap lock blade knife I found, cut a small plug right around the screwdriver shaft thats still stuck in the ground, pull up the sod, and get it that way...try it, you should really like it..your digging finger takes quite a beating though..we have very soft sandy soil here, so it may not work in other places...Good Luck!

 

[Tim LeBlanc]

That is awesome. Nice pics. I thank you for your advice. I have to try the screwdriver thing in the yard then out at the locale park.right now I'm hunting a old girls camp. I need to research the history of it. But 2 indian heads from the site. . 3 weeks ago I was oiut with the 1270. Found a 1865 indian. Tonight I found another. And I thank you for your help with the advice. The place is over grown so I don't need a screwdriver. Dig a plug. That is my first good find with the F70. And I had the disc at 50. Sens at 80. DE mode thresh -3. Tone 3h. It rang high as a pull tab. The conf meter bars all 4.it jumped a little to zinc. But said it was a tab. But the tone sounded great. I dug it. 3". Indian head. I hope to find more and different. Let you know the date as soon as I clean. Tim

 

[obolus]

Mudpuppy: I want to watch a video that you are using a screwdriver technique. Sounds good. I need a clear recovery technic for park hunting.
Very interesting, the detectorist work total different style in US as in Europe. The old US coins are very big usualy as a mill wheel

The coins are much smaller here. In Hungary, for example my last park hunting.

Disc 0, DE mode, 2tone, 5"dd

I dug everything above 20 TDI.

There are bigger coins also but also much rarely

 

[mudpuppy]

the F70 seems to do a great job pinpointing dimes, which are our smallest common coin better than the big quarters for some reason...I make a "sport" out of how many stabs I have to make to stick the coin...its good practice for pinpointing skills, usually I can stab a dime with 3 or less attempts...getting lots of them on the first try..which is where i want to be by the end of the summer on everything...so really any coin within 4" of the surface can be targeted, pinpointed, and retrieved in @ 30seconds or less...you will really develop a "feel" for whats metal, and whats a pebble too...they have a differrent feel when you touch them, I popped a quarter at 5" yesterday through a lot of gravel..thats tough! usually I'd dig a target like that, but thought I'd give it a try. I have a differrent style than some of the videos I've seen, but all of them will point you in the right direction..stab coin, drop to one knee, (left), grab screwdriver with both hands, raise tip a little off the target, rip shaft of screwdriver back and forth in an X pattern, retouch coin, stick left index finger down hole, touch coin, gently raise edge of coin with screwdriver tip, and hold between tip and finger while pulling up.. hope this helps a little, and Good Luck!

 

[TerraDigger]

Here is my repost regarding pinpointing with the 11"DD coil for another user........

The center of the 11" DD coil is a small circle just forward of where the stem attaches to the coil. Looks like a little circular plastic injection molding mark. As previously posted, raise the coil a 3" inches from the ground, do the standard X'ing of the target to get a rough center. Once centered that way, start using the pinpoint mode, remembering that the little circle is the coils center. Maintain the coil 3" above ground when pinpointing.
Why 3"..............because this 11" DD coil will mis-center objects within 3" of the coils bottom. This is due to the inherent design of DD coils, not a flaw with your unit.
I was out practicing in the park today doing it this way. Nailed the coins right on the money every time using this technique.

 

[Tim LeBlanc]

Thanks on the advice for pin pointing TerraDigger. That will help. HH