F5 Questions HELP - New to this!

[cincyjon]

Sorry for the question but I am new to metal detecting.
My wife bought me a Fisher F5 for Christmas, since then I've been out for a total of 5-6 hours....Now have some questions.....

- When notching out to the max I will get a hit, then go back and its gone.....Is this normal?

- Notching things out.....I still find or hit on junk??

- What is the best settings for coin hunting?

- the numbers confidence/Iron levels seem to be jumpy is that normal, plus tones when in 3 tone mod seem to be all over the place...Normal??


I know I've only been out a hand full of times but I'm questioning myself, the unit and pretty much everything about it. I've found a few coins in an old school/playground. I hope with time and practice I will get better, but any help, hints, ANYTHING is welcome!!!

Also I know I haven't given a ton of info out as far as settings, I've read several posts and the manual several times and still get confused. I pretty much set the ground phase, turn the gain to 50, the Thresh to 0 ish, Discrim to approx 3/4 up to max. Heck, then I get a little overwhelmed and start turning knobs.....

Thanks again

 

[marcomo]

Our F5 guru is Mike Hillis, any he is the most knowledgable user out there IMO.

Do a search for posts by Mike Hillis and go through the ones having to do with the F5. You should get most if not all of your questions answered plus learn a lot more about the F5.

Good luck!

 

[crusher28]

Check out my post today F5 2/16/11. You will find more junk with any detector until you get use to the sounds. I only notch Iron, foil, Ground balance sometimes if I remember. but always at salt water beaches.
The tones are the key to finding the good stuff. I use the 4 tone, gain around 65-80 thresh -2 -4. Your looking for solid hits, (sounds that come and go, squeak disappear I don't wast my time. Look at the meter and practice.
Also I been at this for forty years. (BFO DETECTOR)

 

[BH_Landstar_]

In DISC mode, notch out the foil, ground balance it and set the gain and threshold level so that the F5 runs with very little noise. Use tone mode 2 or 3 to begin with til you learn the unit. Also, I've found that the 2nd Freq setting to work better for me, this has allowed me to find gold rings with the following settings

Audio Tone Setting = 2 or 3

Gain = 65 - 95

Threshold = +4 - + 8

These settings work really well for me, and it's one hell of a coin finder too set like this.

Best advice anyone can give is for you to play and learn the unit. The F5 is a wonderful detector and one of the best that I have used for finding jewelry and silver as well as coins. My typical coin finds total (clad) on a 3 hour hunt was around the $8.00 - $15.00, and most of these coins would be dimes and quarters, with about $1.00 - $1.50 in nickels in there too.

 

[cincyjon]

Thanks guys, this is very helpful.
I don't have much patience and most things in my life I learn extremely quick...... but this not this!

When I was a kid my father and I went metal detecting all the time and those are some of the coolest memories I have. As that's been 30 years ago my mind only remembers the "finds" and not the foil and pull tabs and now that's all I seem to find so I start questioning the unit, myself, etc.... So, my wife got me and my 4 year old son this as a Christmas gift and its fun for my son no matter what we find.....foil it a treasure for him!!

For coin shooting do you guys recommend a different coil?

 

[BrewCity]

The stock coil is just fine for coins. Make sure you try the different tone settings, with 4 tone dimes and quarters will sing and are almost impossible to miss.