I received my Racer Pro Pack last week, and eagerly put it together at home to run it through the usual air tests to get familiar with it's operation and target responses. I'm impressed with the build quality, it's very good, and the machine is very light. With the 11" DD coil it feels lighter (perhaps better balanced) then my F75. What a pleasure the menu system is to use, Makro definitely employed a KISS user interface, and they did a fine job.
I had a four day weekend to visit friends and family, and get in some detecting. My first test was just spending a couple of hours hunting around the yard of an old house that I've hunted before, but only found a couple of wheaties with my F75. This test was more about getting familiar with the Racer then expecting it to make any good finds. I did find several coins, it really locks onto coins. All the coins were modern. It does seem that IF it hits a crown cap, and you slide the coil towards you when it leaves the target you get a dirty iron mixed signal vs a coil which is a clean signal and just drops when the coins is pulled back over the target. I don't believe bottle caps will be a big issue, they were a challenge on my F75.
My next spot to really put the Racer through its paces was at an old park like setting that I've hunted with every machine I've owned multiple times over the years (Sovereign, Etrac, F70, F75, Omega, AT Pro, etc), and I haven't pulled a silver coin from there in several years. I'd work hard to eek out a green wheatie or an indian head. It's a very small spot, no larger then about 50'x75' but has yielded dozens of old silver coins, indian heads, tokens, victorian era jewelry, etc. First I went over the site with my upgraded F75 LTD2 with the 11" DD coil, and didn't get one decent signal, so no coins were dug using the F75. I then went over the same small spot with the Racer and it's 11" DD with stock settings, and to my amazement, I found two silver coins (a silver war nickel that was a strong 82, and a merc that came in as an 85) and two green wheaties, also of note was a deep root entangled 40's nickel (not a war nickel unfortunately), that was a strong signal . The last keeper coin I pulled out of this size was about half a year ago and it was a worn indian head. So I have to say that I was impressed how well the Racer at this worked out spot. The silver war nickel and two wheatbacks were on the stock settings, and I went over the same area again with the sensitivity raised to 90 and found the merc. Nothing was ultra deep, 6-7" range, but undetectable by the F75 LTD2 in boost mode.
The rest of the day I spent at an old ghost town site that dates to the mid 1800's. It is a tough place to detect, it's the absolute pinnicle of "iron infested" with carpets of old square and round nails, and plenty of mineralization.
This is typical of what the ground looks like, just littered with old square and round nails:
I have hunted there many times, and it's been hunted to death, but people still detect there as evident by the multitude of new dig holes encountered on each visit. We have found some very nice coins there, but it's a very tough spot to detect and it's not uncommon to get skunked. This area was a challenge for the Racer, even with the small coil, not actually because of the amount of iron, but because much of it is on the surface, and the Racer being a sensitive machine overloads like crazy on the surface nails. In the most iron ladden areas I would detect with the coil raised, and still get overloads galore, it was like listening to the death star battle scene in Star Wars. It had no issues with the mineralization, and was a pleasure to hunt the more open areas.
No keepers for this hunt. I really enjoy hunting ghost towns, and it's pretty common for ghost towns to have a surface debris field loaded with rusty flat iron, nails, and other small (and large) metal scattered about. I'm not sure how well the Racer will do in these environs.
Planning to try a couple of more spots tomorrow.
HH,
Brian
I had a four day weekend to visit friends and family, and get in some detecting. My first test was just spending a couple of hours hunting around the yard of an old house that I've hunted before, but only found a couple of wheaties with my F75. This test was more about getting familiar with the Racer then expecting it to make any good finds. I did find several coins, it really locks onto coins. All the coins were modern. It does seem that IF it hits a crown cap, and you slide the coil towards you when it leaves the target you get a dirty iron mixed signal vs a coil which is a clean signal and just drops when the coins is pulled back over the target. I don't believe bottle caps will be a big issue, they were a challenge on my F75.
My next spot to really put the Racer through its paces was at an old park like setting that I've hunted with every machine I've owned multiple times over the years (Sovereign, Etrac, F70, F75, Omega, AT Pro, etc), and I haven't pulled a silver coin from there in several years. I'd work hard to eek out a green wheatie or an indian head. It's a very small spot, no larger then about 50'x75' but has yielded dozens of old silver coins, indian heads, tokens, victorian era jewelry, etc. First I went over the site with my upgraded F75 LTD2 with the 11" DD coil, and didn't get one decent signal, so no coins were dug using the F75. I then went over the same small spot with the Racer and it's 11" DD with stock settings, and to my amazement, I found two silver coins (a silver war nickel that was a strong 82, and a merc that came in as an 85) and two green wheaties, also of note was a deep root entangled 40's nickel (not a war nickel unfortunately), that was a strong signal . The last keeper coin I pulled out of this size was about half a year ago and it was a worn indian head. So I have to say that I was impressed how well the Racer at this worked out spot. The silver war nickel and two wheatbacks were on the stock settings, and I went over the same area again with the sensitivity raised to 90 and found the merc. Nothing was ultra deep, 6-7" range, but undetectable by the F75 LTD2 in boost mode.
The rest of the day I spent at an old ghost town site that dates to the mid 1800's. It is a tough place to detect, it's the absolute pinnicle of "iron infested" with carpets of old square and round nails, and plenty of mineralization.
This is typical of what the ground looks like, just littered with old square and round nails:
I have hunted there many times, and it's been hunted to death, but people still detect there as evident by the multitude of new dig holes encountered on each visit. We have found some very nice coins there, but it's a very tough spot to detect and it's not uncommon to get skunked. This area was a challenge for the Racer, even with the small coil, not actually because of the amount of iron, but because much of it is on the surface, and the Racer being a sensitive machine overloads like crazy on the surface nails. In the most iron ladden areas I would detect with the coil raised, and still get overloads galore, it was like listening to the death star battle scene in Star Wars. It had no issues with the mineralization, and was a pleasure to hunt the more open areas.
No keepers for this hunt. I really enjoy hunting ghost towns, and it's pretty common for ghost towns to have a surface debris field loaded with rusty flat iron, nails, and other small (and large) metal scattered about. I'm not sure how well the Racer will do in these environs.
Planning to try a couple of more spots tomorrow.
HH,
Brian