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f5 settings when just starting out

M

merlinthwise1

New member
i bought the f5 and was reading some of mikes in fo ..especialy about whatching the fe graphs to set your gain...i would apreciate any tips on setting starting out...thanks in advance and mike i like your post...im new here and am from ontario canada
 
Did you get the manual for the machine with it? The manual usually has a "quick start" guide to get you hunting right out of the box. I found one here from Kellyco in .PDF format. I checked.....it does have the quick start quide!!
 
I have been detecting for over 40 years and found that two people with the same detector hunting in the same area might have different settings and still get the same results. First I ground bal, at ball parks I use 4 tone, gain around 70-80,thresh -1-2,
notch out iron and foil. Yesterday 11/10/10 found in socker field 1 silver cross, 1 small gold earring 5 quarters, 7 Penny's, 3 dimes 6 nickles, pull tabs 10. Going back today and will detect close in to the nets. At lakes about the same settings.
Salt water beaches are a different story. Ground bal as best you can. Set gain around 50-60 thresh 1-3- but each detector will be a little different, I mostly hunt in dis mode notch out iron foil. Remember at beaches there will be tons of tabs and foil.
this is here in Virginia, your area will be different. ( most coin finds are 1-5 inches deep) in the hard Virginia clay.
 
Crusher, You found a small gold earring with foil notched out?? What VDI did the earring present? I have only seen small gold come in in the foil range.
 
Hi Merlin,
Hope you enjoy the F5.
I gave this advice to a person who was brand new to metal detecting.

Set the unit in DIsc mode, d4 (4 tone mode), Gain on 80, Theshold on -9, and Max out your Discrimination. Only recover repeatable high tones. All you'll be hunting is silver and copper and clad dimes/quarters/ etc. Just get use to doing that for awhile. Then when you are comfortable with both the digging and high tone targets, notch in the Nickel range and hunt that way for awhile until you learn that range of targets. Then as you feel comfortable, add in another segment, like the zinc segment. It has has a different tone and you'll be looking at a completely new range of targets.

It wont take long to learn whats good and whats bad, your recovery method will improve and you'll grow more comfortable with the unit. Then you can raise the threshold setting up to 0 and spend time on the deeper and smaller targets.

Most of all, don't be afraid to limit your audio input with the disc and/or notch settings. Keep the audio feed to your ears understandable. When the trash gets too heavy, raise your disc or notch it out so that you can still hunt the good stuff.

Maybe a few guys will post a picture of their trash next time out so you won't feel so bad about your trash ratio. As a gold jewelry hunter I dig quite a bit of alum trash. Foil and tabs, canslaw, and ring pull tails.

Hope that helps.
Mike
 
Here is the gold erring and silver cross and gold ring that I found on 11/10/10 all read Nickle 45-55. If I remember correct
 
Thanks for the response, crusher. When you mentioned 'small', I immediately pictured a stud earring. I have tested my F75 on them and (when I did get a signal) it was in the foil range. Thanks again!
 
I've only found couple of few stud earrings, I think most of them slip threw the sand scoop on the beach and account for some of those disappearing sounds that drive you crazy
 
Threshold 0 to +1 ,gain 80 to 85 %, disc 6 to 8 just enough knock out iron. Worked well for me here in highly mineralized soil. Fe graph showed when you had large iron objects in ground ,or high mineral. The sweet spot was one inch up from ear tabs golfball size on 6X10 coil elliptical coil. Mine went 8" on coins etc easy. I loved my F5 ,just moved up to a Minelab.Enjoy your F5
 
Woodchuck,
I would disagree about the moving up when you are talking about a 305 or even a 505. Its a stretch even saying you made a lateral move. The F5 is hotter at 7.8 kHz than the 305/505 is a 19kHz. The F5 has a better ground balance point, better tones and better iron discrimination. I know all this first hand as I've owned a 305, two 50s, and three 70s.

Enjoy your minelab but don't look down your nose at the F5, claiming you "moved up" when in fact you went "slumming".

HH
Mike
 
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