First Test Run With My F70 :wiggle:

[MarkCZ]

Well this evening I was able to get out with my F70 for its first trial run. I only had a couple of hours before dark so I picked a local ball field where I had recently found a lot of clad for the size of the area. The F70 really surprised me with its ability to ping nickels, in fact I was shocked that I could pick them out as easy as I could the high conductor coins
The square stay tabs hit around the 33-35 range while the nickels were @ 28-30 and most came up to about middle on the confidence meter. What I don't know is how well it can sort nickels from the beaver tail pull rings?
It didn't take me to long to figure those 66-68 ID readings by raising the coil a foot or so above them that they were pop cans.

I started out with the sensitivity at 60 but I soon realized that that was unnecessary and I ended up moving that down to 40 for clad stabbing and it still had plenty of depth.
I like the F70's fast sweep ability, with some of the other units I've always felt I was going to outrun the detector.
Looking back on the evening I do wish I had rolled the threshold back to maybe a (-2) or (-3) I had it set to zero and on one side of the ball field it worked flawlessly, but on the other side I was getting a fair amount of tics and pops from the ground and I'm thinking just a little lower threshold would have calmed it down.

I setup a ground balance set of values in PROGRAM 2 for the Auto Tune search, which is pretty much lower power settings. That seemed to work very well for ground balancing and then I just switched back to PROGRAM 1 for my discrimination search mode settings.

The F70 is light and its lighting fast!
It seems to have good audio with a good range of volume adjustment.
I was using the 11" DD coil and the combination work very well.

Before this trip to the field with the F70 I had taken out 410 coins over a six day period, I knew that I hadn't cleaned the area out by a long shot, but still this evening was an impressive show of the F70, especially for Nickels and dimes! Oh, that reminds me the F70 has no trouble sorting clad dimes from copper pennies, I could easily call a dime before I dug it.

So far so GOOD! If the F70 keeps this up I'm thinking we're going to have a really great relationship and what a bonus that it loves nickels! I'm thinking I can beat out my big brother Ron on our nickel counts, I've had hundred coin days with less nickels than I got this evening.
The picture is of the finds I got this evening.

Mark

 

[mudpuppy]

Great observations and report!
Yes, its fast...I cant outrun it....you can walk at a very brisk pace and hold the coil along the edge of sidewalks, and when you get a ping, you are already 3 steps in front of it before you can stop!..you can just go on a nickel spree if you want...trouble is all the other coins getting in the way, so you have to grab them too!

Every once in a while a guy finds a nickel honey hole generally at a school sports field or someplace where somebody else just highgraded higher tones...you can sure grab up a heap O nickels at one of those places with that 70! Nice Work Mark!
Mud.

 

[WV62]

Looks good little brother, like to hear a good report when you get a new a new detector, as you know all mine are broken for the first couple of weeks.

Sounded like I am being called out for a little nickel competition, I can see a permanent nickel notch being set in my F75.

Brother Ron in WV

 

[IBdiggin]

Nice to hear you are getting along so well with the 70 Mark. This means you are going to be a natural with it. This detector bangs so hard on coins that I don't care a bit if it gets a little chatty in a random electrical area. I just hunt right through it and keep going. I have a habit of looking at my display every time I see a round foil bottle seal lying on the surface because they mimic a ladies small gold ring and I like to examine the tone they give off. Well yesterday I hit one that was golden in color and larger than normal 3" in diameter, This seal displayed a confusing 75 and high tone in 4H tones selection. Well needless to say this stopped me immediately. I heel and toed, crisscrossed and finally got a small beep at the mid tone. I pinpointed and determined there was a target at 2 to 3" and NOT on the surface. I was not surprised to see the clad dime that came out from directly under the foil, but very surprised to hear the dime tone over the big foil. I use the the 10" elliptical coil and can predict weather I will dig a folded over beaver tail rather than a nickel, and I never dig bottle caps, not even the steel rusty ones that love to false to high tones I'll bet with a little practice you will be able to do the same with the 11" DD. Always believe the audio. F70's are incredible if you are patient enough to learn them.-------------------IB

 

[HighPlainsHunter]

Thanks for the report Mark. Looks like you had a great maiden voyage with you F70. I've had one for awhile, but haven't had a chance to get out with it. If it ever stops raining in north Texas, I may actually get to hunt with it. Sure am anxious to do just that...

 

[MarkCZ]

I was clad stabbing so I had Iron, foil, and tabs disc out, Nickels notched in and for the first trial run I dropped back from DP tones to 3 tones to learn with, I think the 3 tone divided up the audio and gave it more of dedicated "Tone For Target" which helped me. I do figure later on switching over to the DP tones.
Mud, its all your fault that I ending up with a detector that loves nickels, So, it your fault that I'm going to have to dig more coins I mean I was happy just going for a nice little walks as I metal detected, now I have to keep stopping and digging nickels, Now I'm going to have to get a larger fines pouch!!! I should send you the bill

As far as chatty my F70 wasn't bad at all, it did get a little bit noisy on the one side of the field but it wasn't bad and I'm pretty sure that that area has had something mixed in with whatever they used for the parking area (gravel, slag, or other)? They're is one small section around a concession area that I can't hunt at all because somebody put in a load of that stuff that steel plants clean out of their furnaces, I always called it slag, but I do believe it has another name. But a metal detector just goes NUT if you get the coil even close to it, I'm glad that its concentrated to that one area.

I'm also getting the idea that the F70 with the right sweep speed and settings is going to do real good on depth too.

Mark

 

[MarkCZ]

Thanks for the report Mark. Looks like you had a great maiden voyage with you F70. I've had one for awhile, but haven't had a chance to get out with it. If it ever stops raining in north Texas, I may actually get to hunt with it. Sure am anxious to do just that...

I think your going to like it! and notch those nickels in, on mine they ID right around 30 plus/minus a digit, with the confidence reading at about 1/2 to 3/4. I have wanted a really good nickel machine for a lone time and this one seems to be right in there with the old Teknetics 9000/B I had years ago.
Pay attention to the manual for best depth and sweep speed, I don't believe you have to mow grass with it but don't be afraid to actually sweep the coil either.
I would start with the sensitivity at around 50 and the threshold at a minus 2 or minus 3 for learning.
I switched to program 2 and set it to "Auto Tune all metal", adjusted the threshold to a -5 and the sensitivity to like 20 and I used that to ground balance from, then I switched to program 1 for my discrimination mode hunting settings. The F70 stores the last used settings of both program channels even after the detector is powered off.
The biggest problem I have with the settings is setting and removing the notches! so if you've not worked with that then get some practice.
I also found for me the best way to exit the menu mode is to use a single push of the pinpoint button, or don't push anything for a few seconds and the detector will automatically time out and default to the search mode.

I'm not sure about the F70 and the 10" concentric coil, but WoW! with the 11" DD it seem to be super so far.

Mark

 

[REVIER]

Fantastic first outing with this thing, it was a good choice for your skills and that will grow as you get to know it better.
I assume you were in 3H or 4H tones, all the tone settings will hit on nickels but when they come in high you really notice them.
I always found a ton of nickels with anything I swung, but with this thing in 4H my usual nickel average total soared and I also picked up a couple nickel area gold rings surrounded by trash because I noticed that high tone instantly.

I use short quick side to side swipes with the target in the center of the coil, (there is a small circle just past the rod connection), to try to get all targets to stay within a 3 number jump.
For instance nickels might be a 30-31 or 30-32, when they jump more than that or change to a different set of numbers when hit from a 90 degree angle I usually find the target is trash.
Using this observation I can avoid most of those sta tabs because they usually jump more than 3 numbers but not all.
Shallow or laying flat in relation to the top of the ground and the coil they could be stable so I still dig all of those.
On mine 31 is my usual nickel number but I have found them a bit lower and several at 32 in the past.
Sta tabs for me are usually 33-34 but of course they also could differ from norm, still most of the time I see 33-34 on the screen I usually dig a sta tab.
Another trash target that mimics nickels almost exactly are certain size small pieces of can slaw that are also laying flat in the ground.
Irregular shaped slaw usually jumps, if it is not laying flat at angle it also jumps but I dig a lot of the solid stuff...more than I ever did with my F2 because the F70 seems to lock onto this sort of target better.
I dig all those solid targets in the entire nickel, tabs, lower zinc and foil from 23 on up because I am always looking for gold even if I can make a pretty good guess about trash targets which is possible with the F70 because it gives some pretty repetitive and solid info about certain garbage like those sta tabs.

I predict you will be amazed at what this thing will be able to tell you with just a bit more time.

 

[mudpuppy]

I got a park I hunt with the 70 that was built with Foundry slag, like you said, its like hunting inside a steel dumpster, nearly impossible, but not the the 70!

REVIER gave you some great advice, take your 70 into the here to fore 'unhuntable' places in your area you, your brothers, and everybody else have avoided and play with the settings...toss some coins on the ground if you want, dont be afraid to really drop sens into the low 30's and go deep neg on the thresh too...like -5 or so...then, manipulate the coil, change how you traditionally worked a coil, hover it, tap and pump it, fast sweep it, (the 70 likes that quick broom sweep speed) whatever, thinking to yourself that only the very center of that 11"dd works...like about a golfball sized footprint as if you had on a sniper coil..'hopping coil' has a better effect in tight trash or spills with multiple targets under the coil, it throws the signal straight down instead of side to side, which can confuse the brain of this fast rig with multiple targets under the 11"dd...In that slag area, consider anything in the top 3" is what you are after, if you can master that place, you can hunt about anywhere!....

Dont use the PP feature or you will drive yourself insane! Just concentrate and try to hit a good ping as a challenge, and center it without using the PP feature, hop coil, hover coil and 'X' it, whatever...its really fast and easy!, You dont need a handheld PP tool at all, and once you get the hang of it, which doesnt take too long, you will never use the PP feature or a hand held EVER again...then, just stoop N stab that coin with a screwdriver! Its gonna be in that tight golfball sized profile...like REVIER said, you will never dig another piece of trash unless you get curious, even multidenom stacks or slanted spills are no problem...the modulated audio really shines when you are running soft sens settings, it tells you the targets depth, likely composition and profile without looking at the screen at all...

If you ever get a tight solid nickel tone and cant stab it immediately, slow way down, stab gently, feel around a bit...its a gold ring in the grassroots, maybe half a tab, but those come with the territory of gold hunters...so dont walk away from it or any really solid hit with this rig..get yourself 1000 targets with this rig and pay attention to what it is trying to teach you..like one old guy told me, "dig 1000 pulltabs and dig 1000 pennies" You should fool with the settings and find a comfortable one your internal CPU between your ears seem to understand the best...you and it will become 'one" in no time! Good Luck, and report back please! Very excited for you and what you WILL find with this sleeper! Its one hot rig, and I think the main trouble is most people try to run it too hot too soon and get frustrated...It will pay itself off in no time if you dedicate yourself to learning it..
Mud

 

[still looking 52]

I've got a great idea , let's take that f70 over to the silver den(which we think is all cleaned out of silver) and see if it can get some silver that we missed. If that machine turns up silver after all the hunting we've done there , that would be impressive.

 

[MarkCZ]

I've got a great idea , let's take that f70 over to the silver den(which we think is all cleaned out of silver) and see if it can get some silver that we missed. If that machine turns up silver after all the hunting we've done there , that would be impressive.

I haven't dug enough quarters with it yet to predict the total outcome of the targets in that ID range, but dimes are a different story, its great on them! so, I'm certain that silver dimes is going to be a big hit with the F70, I'm not sure as to what depth the ID will start to fall off?

Mark

 

[IBdiggin]

In soil that balances in the mid 70's I hit a one way signal with the elliptical 10" coil on a Mercury dime 5" deep running a sensitivity of 30 and threshold of -3 and discrimination of 1 in a very trashy park that is supposed to be hunted out. I raised sensitivity to 50 and a 2 way signal was clear and sweet but still stronger in one direction than it was in the other like it might have been on edge. I walked 20 more feet and found the second mercury. I haven't found one there since---------------IB

 

[farmer85j]

Hey Mark, i just got myself a great deal on another machine but reading all the posts you guys are putting up about the f70, i still want one!

 

[firefitr227]

I hope you enjoy yours as much as I have enjoyed mine. I still have a lot to learn about this machine, but that's part of the fun. Good luck with the f70 Mark

 

[MarkCZ]

Back to the same field this evening just a little bit before dark for another short hunt man, this F70 is nickel crazy!


Mark

 

[MarkCZ]

I hope you enjoy yours as much as I have enjoyed mine. I still have a lot to learn about this machine, but that's part of the fun. Good luck with the f70 Mark

It looks like I'm going to, its really showing its self for sure.

Mark

 

[MarkCZ]

Hey Mark, i just got myself a great deal on another machine but reading all the posts you guys are putting up about the f70, i still want one!

What happened, that was a really quick turn around?

Mark

 

[farmer85j]

Oh im keeping the omega, have not even recieved it yet but since i first got it in my head that i wanted a new detector i kind of had my heart set on an f70 but it was just out of my price range right now. The man who sold me the omega was very good to me, he could have gotten more for it but for me it came along at the right time.

 

[MarkCZ]

Altogether now and from two short hunts and from an area that I had already taken 410 coins from.
Check out the nickel ratio? that's just sweet

Mark

 

[farmer85j]

That really is a lot of nickles. For me it is rare to dig a nickle always trash when i try so i give up on those signals probably why i have only dug one gold ring.