Fisher F70 settings.

[Coinseeker 78]

I find it interesting what settings many people use on there F70 detectors. especially there threshold settings. I find the setting of -3 will quiet the detector down but at a loss of 2 inches or more depth. I use sensitivity of as low as sixty with a threshold as high as I can get with a slight chatter or none at all at settings of 0 or higher. My setting is set at SL where possible without getting very little noise if any. My disc at 0. I get fantastic depth at these settings and after air testing the 5 inch DD coil find depths out to 11 inches. I have been able to use these settings in moderate soil with some EMI present. I am digging dimes at 8 inches with this little coil. The threshold setting from 9 down to 0 seems to have little effect on depth where the -3 settings effect depth more than the 60 sensitivity setting. Just my opinion. I want as much depth as I can get with any coil I use.

 

[mudpuppy]

Thanks for the study Coinseeker! I've been running that -3 thresh for a while now combined with low sens...I'll try to see if I can bring it up some. I've been in transition, working the beaches in the mornings, so not too much dirt work lately...running 75 sens, and -3, i'm hitting deep coins in the wet sand really good. Compared to dirt work, the beach is horrible! Miles and miles of sand with few hotspots in between..a real workout and exhausting, I'm there by 5am and gone by 7:30 or so..the season is off to a slow start and very weather dependant, so maybe I'll give it a rest and let it fill up some...
Mud

 

[ElginTim]

I hadn't noticed a loss of depth from the threshold setting while hunting but i did not pick up the ground mineralization and tiny targets as much with it cranked up to as much as -5 so chatter was greatly reduced. But in picking targets apart and getting better ID I think the threshold number is a major factor. Then again I may be misinterpreting what I'm doing and proving your point as well. My deepest dimes come in at 7" with the small coil but I rarely use SL mode since I'm in trashy ground most of the time. I can usually run it near full on, mid to upper 90's sense and 0 thresh with the small coil but not nearly the same with the big coil unless in clean mild ground.

Both coils exhibit excellent air test capabilities but the ground adds a whole new set of variables that take a lot of that back. I've gotten small gold and pot metal cuff links at depths to 8" with very consistent reads using these settings also. I try to stay away from SL mode because it will up-average some of the junk to higher values and that means I cannot rely on target ID in trashy ground. It also picks up the real tiny stuff, including a single thin chain link last Monday under a swing while totlot gold hunting. What a time killer to locate even with the Pro pointer! Next target was a single bead from a bead chain, the kind that's about 2mm dia. or less! Ow! Both items were almost an inch deep in sand. So back off of SL mode I went. Need the bigger stuff that's more yellow.

 

[Coinseeker 78]

Yes you can dig some pretty small stuff with the SL mode but if you can run in that mode without much if any EMI it gives you 2 to three more inches of depth over the DE setting. This can mean the difference in a deep find.

 

[kascinoh]

I try to run SL were ever I can. Typically the urban parks I'm at with EMI present require backing off the threshold to -3 or if I'm lucky, -2, with mid to high 80s sensitivity. With these settings, I can still snag wheats at 8" in this mild ground (60 gb). As ElginTim said, I too have found the '70 up-averages some deep stuff, so every once and awhile I still dig that piece of aluminum at 7". The past couple times out, I have been trying 2F tones as another '70 user, I think it was Treasurebone, noted that 2F tends to produce less chatter and "tone overload". I am undecided on this point so far....

If we just had more hours in the day........

 

[Coinseeker 78]

I forgot to mention that the settings I use where I am able are with the 5 inch DD coil in trashy areas. This makes the coil work at its maximum capability. The 11 inch coil will not work well set at the SL setting in trashy areas.

 

[ez4sure]

try running in all metal at mode thats where you will get the most depth exept in really trashy areas, i also think at mode works a little better in heavy emi spots hh

 

[ElginTim]

try running in all metal at mode thats where you will get the most depth exept in really trashy areas, i also think at mode works a little better in heavy emi spots hh

Yeah that's my bugaboo, not having the at mode experience. Relying on that ID mode does limit some of the hunting opportunities and depth. But since I'm in the trash zone most often when using the F70, it seems counter-intuitive. I have noticed that chatter really disappears in at mode in the few instances where I've used it though, makes sense.

 

[treasurebone]

Wow some really great info here guys! I love reading what everyone else is doing. I may try to experiment with some of these as a few of your comments rang true to my ears and made go "Hmmmmm?"

I try to keep my sensitivity at 99 when possible and try never to go below 82. I adjust the "chatter" with my threshold and for that setting the lowest I've been was -4 but I like to keep it as high as possible...most often times I run in the -3 to -1 realm. I use to run in the dE mode regarding speed but have been experimenting with the SL mode when I can. Most of my areas are trashy which makes dE a better choice. As far as # of Tones I swear by 2F lol for me, it cuts way down on all the chatter and seems to not be affected by iron masking.

That's my two cent's worth...probably more like 1.5 cents worth.

Happy Hunting

 

[dbax]

I have been using my new Fisher F70 11" DD coilfor about 6 months now. I sent it in to Fisher because of the constant chatter. I used the DISC mode and Notched out certain metals except for Nickle -- in the beginning I found some nickel and dimes quarter and pennies. I was really impressed with finding targets in areas I had searched before. I had a Fisher F2 before, now my backup. The chatter kept getting worse, i sent the machine into Fisher and they replaced the DD coil and returned it. Okay, not as bad as it was but the DISC tuning does not seem to be working. I do not find nickles anymore, which impressed be because my F2 rarely found nickel. There is always sound clicking, chattering, etc. not as bad but still very annoying and then there the the bottle cap issue which I see no one here mentions??? For every qurater I find I dig 10 bottle caps. This machine is a bottle cap magnet. I have tried various settings and i'm continuing to be fooled. They sound off like quarter, sometime then go into the 90 range and I know not to dig, but most often they sound of in the high quarter range. What puzzles me is that on another forum someone mention the bottle caps hitin the lower ranges -- ? I also have a cheap Bounty Treasure hunter and it sounds out bottle caps in a low tone and range, while the F70 they sound off like quarters? On my F2 Bottle caps can be cut out merely by using the DISC mode. Has anyone else had this problem? If I could I would return this machine and go with something else. It is a beautiful machine, and balance is super and the battery life is incredible, but the discrimination feature is terrible. I cut the SENS way back but lost depth really fast, it did cut down on the chatter. Wathing the meter levels (LCD) the number blip up foil and other low metals, bouncing all around as though the DISC mode is not working. in my F2 I can set the DISC mode to accept only dimes and quarters and the machine is completely quiet until it hits a solid dime or quarter, but this F70 does not seem to be able to do this. Is this only my machine or is this similar to others experience?

 

[mudpuppy]

Ok...I think from your post theres nothing wrong with your detector or coil... do a factory reset..push and hold both Ground Grab and Menu with machine off, turn machine on while holding those two buttons, 88 appears on the screen, release buttons. Crown bottle caps do ping high, like a Q, and if you hover over them, you can convince yourself its a Q..a flattened one sounds more like a Q than the others, however, you CAN distinguish them from a Q!

I assume you are hunting really trashy areas...which I love to hunt with the F70 set up like this. Disc1, thresh -3 DE mode, sens 53, DP tones. With these settings you can wade through some heavy trash and easily tell what is a bottlecap.
The thing is, dont worry about depth so much as accuracy. If theres a silver Q at 6" you wont miss it..you will also be raising and lowering your coil over a target as you sweep, bottlecaps signal is washy and breaks up, Q's and D's dont...C'mon man, give it a try...I hunt with this set up nearly all the time, totlots, parks, sportsfields.
Dont try to disc or notch out anything much, you want to hear those 23's, 32's, 37's 57's, and 61's...the DP tones will tell you what it is immediately, what with modulated audio and all...this is a very stable and comfortable set up for general park hunting for jewelry as well as coins. Dont watch the meter too much, its fatigueing on the brain, your ears process info quicker and more accurate than your eyes do. I think you are right at the top of something good if you can just get down the other side of this, and try an alternate strategy with this machine, you CAN hunt the hell out an area no one else even attempts..
Mud

 

[azsh07]

Remember also that the DD coils have a harder time with bottlecaps...and iron in general. This is pretty much standard on most any machine but shows up more on some than others.

Try using the 10" concentric for one.

Also, read the manual on bottlecap section. They often will drop low when you scan them twoards the rear or the toe of the coil whereas quarters are less likely. Another is to try different sweep speeds...either real slow or fast and see if you can create a real jumpy ID on the bottlecaps.

Although if they are deep this is less likely to work.

Take a few bottlecaps home. Make a test garden in your yard if you have one. Bury a quarter at say 6" and a bottlecap or two at 6". Now spend time with testing what I said as well as others....try a concentric coil....the concentric as well asthe settings above usually works...but again bottlecaps can be pesky on certain machines. The hotter the machine the peskier they can be. Hence the BH has no problems and probably also uses a round concentric coil

 

[tater]

Im learning a lot here. I have had my F70 for a little over a month. I have found 6 indianheads so i know im in some good sites just lack depth. Havent dug anything over 6 inches. -3 sensitivity at 85 F2

 

[dbax]

Thanks Mudpuppy, I will give your set a try. I might as well turn, or set the DISC mode to off and forget about notching as these do not seem to work anyway. Don't get me wrong, I am finding targets and in areas thought to be searched out, and I am also finding bottle caps galore. I love the DD coil, and this is the best part of this machine. I run the sens, as you do, level low or the machine will drive me and crazy and everything i find seems to be from the surface to 3" max. But, that DD in working a school yard that had been hunted on a regular basis with White's (there is a whites dealer in this little town and everyone searches this school) Using this DD I found only 4 quarters, but 51 dimes and 8 pennies, in a lawn area heavy with foils and junk. This DD coil was able to split hairs and pick the dimes out. I found nothing below 4" with the coil pressed to the ground. Maybe there isn't any dimes below this level at this site. But I was pretty impress with the finds in such a heavily searched area. The quarters were fresh, two on top soil in the grass and the other two within one inch of the surface, nearly all of the dimes were at 3 and 4". When I get this machine to working right I will return. I will do the reset and try your settings but so far nothing has worked to quiet this thing down.

 

[dbax]

Mudpuppy thanks again, I got my F70 out and reset, then took the Discriminate mode way down and a funny thing happened, it stopped all the false signals, chattering I think some call it. Here i was trying to set the DISC mode up to help compensate for some of the trash and I defeated what I was trying to do too much. I turned the DISC mode down and just the opposite of what I thought should happen happened, the machine became quiet. I threw some coin, bottle caps and things on the ground and it ran like great. I was able to set the SENS to 80 --

update: after using these new settings successfully for about 20 minutes the same old problem came up again, continual beeping and bliping around the foil, nickle and tabs range, a constant chattering -- what the %^$# is going on? This machine does not seem stable at all. I was excited there for a minute or two. It reads the tragets and I am getting good "air" depth but the incessant bleeping in and out of the trash range is nuts.

 

[mudpuppy]

Push the HZ button and change freq! When mine starts to do that...that works like a charm, immediately!...and maybe back off the sens a little to the low 70's...man, I've never been able to run mine any hotter than 75 sens and thats on the beach, but it will hit a dime at a foot in the wet sand. Some of my parks here are built up on foundry waste, casting sand and slag to be danged, The 70 is very hot on dimes and Q's, and like you said, you can wade right through the scrapyard picking coins...These things will sometimes go nuts around something that sets them off...I dont know if its a cellphone or solar flares or what, but changing the HZ always settles it down. Once, during an approaching lightening storm, nothing worked and I had to go home.
Mud

 

[dbax]

azsh07 thanks for the good tips. Not sure I want to pony up another $150 for a concentric coil. I bought my F70 with the DD. I am toying with the settings mudpuppy suggests and leaving the DISC mode turned way down which for some reason seems to help. I will experiment some more as you suggest. But, what gets me is that for a machine that is supposed to be on the high end side why do I have to search for a setting that will work without all of the static and noise -- when I find the magic combination then what good is all the bells and whistle that I cannot use? I love the machine's design and the ergonomics is awesome, easy swing, after using it and then going back to the F2 or the Bounty Hunter they seem awkward and clumsy. But a beautiful machine that is easy to handle is not really the object is it? She may be beautiful and light weight but what a complainer, kinda like me right now. I thought I knew how to use a Metal detector, been using my Bounty and F2 for 2 years, hunting a least once a week, but i guess I don't. Thanks again for all of the great advice and encouragement. I will keep at it -- like I said I am finding targets, it is just the ever present twittering, bliping that is annoying as hell.

 

[mudpuppy]

Dbax, the F70 was my first one, I had not found this forum, didn't know anybody and just jumped in...I ran in full AT for a year not wanting to miss anything, talk about a chattering awful way to hunt, looking at the screen for those coin signals...anyway, I finally read the owners manual, and started fooling with the settings and was at the point you are now, really wanting all the power for depth, for I thought thats what this thing is for. Then I found this forum and devoured a lot of posts not only on the Fisher thread, and decided I'll forget about the depth and just find a BALANCED setting thats comfortable to use.(thanks Zeekeys) In my area its what works for me, now I did take it out back yesterday into the woods just to see, and I found I COULD run it high sens shooting over snow and down into the earth a good distance with no scrap around. I also have tried to run the thresh up higher than -3 but once I get near 0, the chattering starts again, so I believe you can run hot, just need to use a neg thresh,...sometimes I will notch iron, I guess the thing is, this machine has a lot of power and features, is sold all over the World, so a person has to use what works in a given area and situation. Thats why certain recommended settings may work here, but not at your site, I believe my settings are weak enough to pretty much work anywhere, so it was intended to get you going on good targets until you could find what works good for you..and although, I'm running a high tech machine at half its power, it finds me all sorts of stuff in a dang hurry! I will say this, the Delta Pitch tone modulated audio of this thing is really something, ! !
Mud

 

[azsh07]

Well o.k......you have to kind of look at it like this.

The other machines do not have the horsepower that the F-70 has. So if you push the F-70 it will start to chatter as it has more available sensitivity that the BH or F2.

The F2 is a nice beginner machine....when you teach a person to drive a car...you don't stick them first day in Ferrari...too much. O.K......go with something more tame...easy to handle.

Now they learn to drive and if they jump up into a car that has allot more ponies....that car is more sensitive to proper driving methods. It is a manual transmission.....verses some 4 speed auto...plus it has a real shallow quick clutch..easy to stall...etc etc.

So the first time you drive this it seems like a PITA....no fun at first...too much work. .....BUT months later when you learn to drive it correctly and fine tune your skills it is a hoot that your Toyota could not match.!!!!

But again...that Toyota is still an easy mellow car to drive in the heavy city traffic....I mean the Ferrari would be a pain to drive in rush hour traffic...upshift...downshift......it just wants to go...go...GO.

So...back to the detectors....similar thing. The F2 is a nice Toyota compact car for the new driver. When you move up to the F-70 or F75 then it is more of a machine and it takes more skill to learn how to drive it properly.....but it has far more get up and go then the F2. Now sometimes that F2 still has places to use it. I used the city rush hour traffic metaphor for this reason...in heavy metal trash that F2 is like the Toyota in rush hour traffic...allot easier to drive an automatic in stop and go trash than the Ferrari......same with the F2...easier to use.....not that the F-70 isn't great it is...but you have to throttle it back. Too much horsepower in trash to run it with the throttle wide open....gotta idle it.

So drop your sensitivity down....or reduce the threshold some......it is a ba;ance between those settings. I..personally keep the threshold up and drop sensitivity. I don't like to flip it for my own reasons. The Threshold adjust sens to small deep targets so I keep it up and lower sens a bit......but hey flip it if you prefer.

Run the disc low...like 0-3 or so...that way you can hear the iron tones on bottle caps. If you run the disc so that iron is kicked out you just defeated everything on bottle caps by using audio. The deepest you can run these Fishers is always partially tied into running disc near 0 as possible. Sometimes you have to kick it up around 3 but that is fine....just don't knock out all iron.

Look at all us long time relic hunters....we all run our discrimination wide open...we do that for a reason....and it is not because we like the noise.

As for the coils...well you have snow tires and street tires and AT tires for your car. If you choose to put just one tire on then it will handle the road that tire was designed for. Don't drive in snow and expect street tires to get you up a hill. If you can afford snow tires then you aren't going up that hill.

Anyone who buys a detector should expect to own 2 coils.....and never more than 3. I have been detecting since 1976 and have owned butt loads of machines and coils. I find I use 2 coils 99% of the time on any machine with a 3rd for special places. So you don't need 4 or 5 coils unless you want wall art.

So...wanna drive a sports car...gotta take her out on a test course and learn to drive it properly...sorry but experience can not be downloaded into any specific settings. You have to learn the machine and it takes time but in the end it will pay off. Also..some machines just suck on bottle caps...I think the F-70-75 are not the best in this category...not bad just not best. there are some trash targets you just have to live with and dig....if you are after jewelry lets say..well gotta dig pull tabs...just the way it is.
Scott

 

[mudpuppy]

n/t