Mike Hillis
Well-known member
I envy the new people entering into the treasure hunting hobby mostly because the equipment is more modern than even when I began treasure hunting at the very end of 2003. My budget at the time was a very modest amount and after researching what was available in my price range I ended up with a new Bounty Hunter Tracker IV. Once the metal detector treasure hunting bug bit me I naturally wanted to upgrade my equipment. While I drooled over the high end metal detectors in the magazines and detector brochures of the day, my budget, again, was very modest and my upgrades could only be incremental. To be truthful there were not a lot of units that were attractive to me at the time that were within my budgetary constraints. The one feature that I had found most important to me, discrimination tone id, was virtually non-existent outside of the Bounty Hunter/Pioneer lines for the amount of money I had to spend. Thankfully that is not the case anymore. Fisher Research Laboratories has made sure of it. The new Fisher F-11 is a new design that is engineered and priced for the newcomer.
The first thing you notice when you receive the detector is the graphics on the box, and, upon opening it, the way it is packed. You can tell that even the shipping container was thought about and engineered for the detector. I know that when I opened mine and saw that even the rods had a little bit of foam padding to stop rattle and make sure they stayed securely where they were placed that someone cared about first impressions. I had good feelings just looking at the contents after I raised the lid.
After you remove all the contents there are several things that stand out. First off is the coil design and construction. The F11 comes with a seven inch concentric search loop with an oblong inner receive winding. I like this search loop very much. It has decent separation and better ground coverage at depth as compared to other concentric search coils of the same size. It also doesn’t look cheap. It has some structural strength and includes a strain relief at the cable to search loop connection point. The cable itself is the same cable Fisher uses on all its new detectors. However they have changed the threaded nut that is used to attach the search loop to the control head. The old tiny, hard to grip, easily cross threaded nut has been replaced with a much better and larger threaded connector. The control box end of the cable has a nice stiff strain relief and the whole end has been covered in heat shrink tubing.
Another thing you may notice is that there are cam locks on the middle and upper rods. These are not usually found on the entry level detectors and speaks to the value verse price spent you receive with these new Fishers. Hopefully you will also notice that the lower rod can be inserted directly into the upper rod. This is important when you need to fit the detector to a child or need to reduce the length of the detector for hunting inside/beneath structures or in very steep terrain. With the middle rod removed it is a perfect fit for the younger grade school age children.
The control box needs to be held in the hand to fully appreciate what has been done. It is a new design for Fisher and it doesn’t feel nor look cheap. It doesn’t contain a lot of wasted space. The F11 has a little thicker control head as compared to its siblings (F22/F44) due to the single 9 volt battery required to power it and it has a nice heft to it. Some of you may know of what I speak of when I say it feels good in the hand. There is a certain quality of workmanship, of engineering that speaks to a hand. Even when it is plastic the hand still can tell that careful thought went into the design and that the design was successfully executed.
Assembly is required and a Phillips screw driver is needed to attach the control head and arm rest to the upper rod. If you are like me you may need to pay a little extra attention when attaching the arm rest to the upper rod as you can attach the arm rest on backwards. It will feel a bit uncomfortable backwards. The slant of the arm rest should be downward toward the control head. The F-11 does not come with an arm rest strap but it is slotted for one and I would encourage you to get one. They aren’t required but I have found that an arm rest strap really enhances the comfort and control I can exercise over my coil while hunting.
You will also appreciate the new search loop threaded connector over the older style small threaded nut when you attach the search loop to the control head. I found it rather difficult to tightened the the first couple of times I attached it but it loosened up nicely after a couple of on and offs. it is easy to grasp when you need to put it on or remove the search loop.
After the F11 is fully assembled with the lower rod extended out and locked in place it has that nice sleek, deadly stealthy look to it. The exterior is all black except for the faceplate itself. The faceplate color itself fades from a scarlet coloration at the top to a deep dark maroon at the bottom. There are no loud colors or graphics to draw attention. While in use it will appear to onlookers to be what it is… A serious, well designed metal detector.
Part two will review the operation of the F11.
HH
Mike
The first thing you notice when you receive the detector is the graphics on the box, and, upon opening it, the way it is packed. You can tell that even the shipping container was thought about and engineered for the detector. I know that when I opened mine and saw that even the rods had a little bit of foam padding to stop rattle and make sure they stayed securely where they were placed that someone cared about first impressions. I had good feelings just looking at the contents after I raised the lid.
After you remove all the contents there are several things that stand out. First off is the coil design and construction. The F11 comes with a seven inch concentric search loop with an oblong inner receive winding. I like this search loop very much. It has decent separation and better ground coverage at depth as compared to other concentric search coils of the same size. It also doesn’t look cheap. It has some structural strength and includes a strain relief at the cable to search loop connection point. The cable itself is the same cable Fisher uses on all its new detectors. However they have changed the threaded nut that is used to attach the search loop to the control head. The old tiny, hard to grip, easily cross threaded nut has been replaced with a much better and larger threaded connector. The control box end of the cable has a nice stiff strain relief and the whole end has been covered in heat shrink tubing.
Another thing you may notice is that there are cam locks on the middle and upper rods. These are not usually found on the entry level detectors and speaks to the value verse price spent you receive with these new Fishers. Hopefully you will also notice that the lower rod can be inserted directly into the upper rod. This is important when you need to fit the detector to a child or need to reduce the length of the detector for hunting inside/beneath structures or in very steep terrain. With the middle rod removed it is a perfect fit for the younger grade school age children.
The control box needs to be held in the hand to fully appreciate what has been done. It is a new design for Fisher and it doesn’t feel nor look cheap. It doesn’t contain a lot of wasted space. The F11 has a little thicker control head as compared to its siblings (F22/F44) due to the single 9 volt battery required to power it and it has a nice heft to it. Some of you may know of what I speak of when I say it feels good in the hand. There is a certain quality of workmanship, of engineering that speaks to a hand. Even when it is plastic the hand still can tell that careful thought went into the design and that the design was successfully executed.
Assembly is required and a Phillips screw driver is needed to attach the control head and arm rest to the upper rod. If you are like me you may need to pay a little extra attention when attaching the arm rest to the upper rod as you can attach the arm rest on backwards. It will feel a bit uncomfortable backwards. The slant of the arm rest should be downward toward the control head. The F-11 does not come with an arm rest strap but it is slotted for one and I would encourage you to get one. They aren’t required but I have found that an arm rest strap really enhances the comfort and control I can exercise over my coil while hunting.
You will also appreciate the new search loop threaded connector over the older style small threaded nut when you attach the search loop to the control head. I found it rather difficult to tightened the the first couple of times I attached it but it loosened up nicely after a couple of on and offs. it is easy to grasp when you need to put it on or remove the search loop.
After the F11 is fully assembled with the lower rod extended out and locked in place it has that nice sleek, deadly stealthy look to it. The exterior is all black except for the faceplate itself. The faceplate color itself fades from a scarlet coloration at the top to a deep dark maroon at the bottom. There are no loud colors or graphics to draw attention. While in use it will appear to onlookers to be what it is… A serious, well designed metal detector.
Part two will review the operation of the F11.
HH
Mike