Fisher F2 .....strange experience....can you help?

[jdmartin]

I just purchased an F2 Friday, and am experiencing a few rather strange things when using it.
I air tested the machine using a quarter, dime, nickel, and penny, and it passed with flying colors, both with the 8" and 4" coil.
I then went outside and placed the same coins on the top of the lawn, again, no problem with id.

I went and buried each coin in my test bed, all between 2 and 3 inches.

Then using the 8" coil, I swept the quarter...no problems...83 everytime
Then I swept the penny.....high tone and about a 72 each time
Then I swept the nickel.....nothing steady....erratic tones
Then I swept the dime.....detector couldn't hardly even find it!

I tried everything again using the 4" coil....nearly identical results!
I was operating with Iron discriminated out, and tried also in all metal mode...no difference in results.

Any ideas what the heck is going on here? I live in Northern Indiana, and we don't have mineralized soil here (at least I don't!)
Everything I have read said that this little machine is a great coinshooter.....

Thanks..
Jim

 

[pullringking]

Hi JDM, I have had some trouble with the F2 also but only on wet sand and in water where it just gives ghost signals so dont bother in these areas or if you solve this issue, let me know. Anyway back to you... I think if you reduce sensitivity you will get better results, I have found the F2 a great dry use unit and have found coins up to 12" deep. One other thing I would suggest is to replace the batteries immediatley with fresh ones as I found the ones supplied with the detector were zapped very quickly and dont bother with rechargables as they are too unreliable after a few charges.
Best of luck,
pullringking.

 

[jdmartin]

Thanks, PullRingKing. I did pop in some fresh batteries (although the ones used during the test indicated "full" on the display), and it appears to be performing a little better. The ground in the test bed is a little damp, but not overly so. I was running 4 bars sensitivity, and dialed it back to 3. I'll keep trying other things...

Jim