Finally decided on an F19 from Don at North Georgia Relics

[Shenandoah Digger]

Really nice guy to deal with and fast service. I was gonna order one a few months ago and have it ready for DIV, but then the Racer hype got in the way. I'm sure the Racer's a great detector, but with George and a few others talking up the F19, I decided to go that way for now. Anxious to see how it will handle our farm in the Shenandoah Valley, which makes DIV dirt seem like dry beach sand. My Omega did well at DIV, but on our farm it ID's an inch deep coin as iron if it hears it at all. Same with every other detector I've tried there, and I've used everything but a pulse machine. Hopefully the F19 will help it give up a few buttons and bullets. We'll see shortly.

 

[Juice in the hole]

I think you're making a good decision with the F19. If I didn't already have the F75 LTD, I would pick one up. Heck, I'm still tempted for several reasons. I think it may be the best unit out right now.

I was also attracted to the Racer until I read they were made in Turkey. Being turned off by that simple fact may have saved me a great deal of headaches. I believe we're about to see a flux of Racers for sale on all the boards.

 

[brianfloyd]

i would really love to see some head to head test between the 19 and the racer. I don't know something about racer just don't turn my buttons on. Gotta be something else new coming.

 

[El]

Good luck and be sure you let us know what kind of performance you get, depth, separation, etc. in your bad ground. Here in CA. where I hunt we have some nasty ground too but it doesn't sound as bad as yours.

El

 

[Shenandoah Digger]

I'll post my results after I get some hours on the F19. I have no problem with the Racer being made in Turkey. Most of the European made detectors are of high quality and the Makro and Nokta brands seem to be also. But after seeing tests by people I respect on this forum I came to the conclusion that the F19 might work for the conditions I'm facing, hot soil and a 250 year old house whose lawn is littered with 250 years full of junk. It'll be fun to find out.

 

[Daniel Tn]

I tried it in some of the areas that were loaded with ration can pieces, barrel bands, square nails, etc. I only hunted with it an hour or so and went back to the GPX. But I found an Eagle A button, several poncho grommets, camp lead, etc with it. I buried a nickel in the dirt up there to see how well or bad it would do on it. Nickel at about 6 inches gave a repeatable signal in disc mode....which is really outstanding for Culpeper soil.

BUT...this is not a machine for depth. It is made for small low conductors. For example...it will detect a cuff size eagle button deeper and better than it will a silver US quarter or minie ball. And it really excels at iron laden sites vs less trashy sites where you might need a machine geared more for overall depth. The all metal mode on it has some muscle though.

The one thing I don't like is that you can only use the ground grab/balance in all metal mode. Thats fine if you hunt in all metal but in ground where the ground changes a lot, if you are hunting in disc mode, you have to flip the knob from disc to all metal just to do a quick balance. There needed to be a way to do it from disc mode IMO. But so far, for a niche detector of working iron laden sites, I like it.

 

[Shenandoah Digger]

I read where you had used it at Brandy Daniel. I used a number of VLF machines and did pretty good, but of course couldn't approach the depth of a PI. You're right. It used to be where you'd see a couple of PI's, and wonder what the heck they were. Now that's about all you see. And if you want to dig good deep targets, you need one. But as many times as that place has been hunted, I was shocked at all the good shallow targets there. We went in a field that was a little off the beaten path of about 60 acres and there wasn't a soul there for three days. Between the three of us we dug a couple hundred bullets, a number of flat and eagle buttons, and my buddy dug a beautiful heart rosette. And we left a lot more than we found. We all used VLF machines so I'm sure there's a lot of good stuff deep. The dirt on that farm is pretty hot, but it doesn't compare to our farm 50 miles west of there. I'm the only one who has hunted it, at least legally, so I'm hoping the F19 will get me a few more good relics. As far as Brandy Rock is concerned, I'd jump at the chance to go back there, especially for four days. It just never quits giving up relics.

 

[Daniel Tn]

The trend has sure been pulse machines in the last several yrs. The last DIV I went to was maybe 2010 or 2011...and there were a lot of TDI and Infiniums but only a few GPX machines. A good chunck of the people were still using MXTs or F75s. I go away for a few years and come back to what looked like 80% of the people using a GPX. The thing I see people doing now is going to the 12x15 or 18 inch coils. Which really, IMO, what they are doing is being counter productive for when they get in those areas where the huts are with all the iron debris by having such large coils. But hey, they can do their thing and we do ours, and be all just as good.

I wish I would have used the F19 a little more now BUT it was unfamiliar to me and I kept worrying about missing stuff. Next time I will spend at least half a day with it in those areas. I also bought a small DD coil for the GPX to sort of do the same thing...except with more depth than the VLF.

If your soil is that bad, I highly recommend a pulse machine. Mines not as bad as Culpeper but close...and pulse machines reopened a lot of my sites that everybody around here had quit hunting due to no signals left. For the price of an F19 or Racer Pro pack, you could get a good used TDI and have a very strong machine. And you aint kiddin...Id go back to Brandy Rock without hesitation. In fact I told John we needed a whole week My mind is telling me YES but after that much digging my body would be singing a different tune. Haha.

 

[doc holiday]

Don at North Georgia Relics is a great guy to do business with---bought 5 detectors from him in the last 3 years.