Hello from NJ

[diggindad]

Hello everyone. First post on this forum. Been lurking here for a long time, but never registered. I am a member on FMDF for a little while now and post under the name "Carlo"

While I like the other forum for a few of it sub-categories, I feel this is where I belong. Someplace I can talk about the F70 as much as I want and chime in on some of the funny stories that I read here on a daily basis.

I am relatively new to the F70, as I only purchased it a few months back and only have about 50 hours on it or so. I'm on my second set of batteries, but only cause I forgot to turn it off once when I put it back in the car

I started this hobby with a pawn shop purchased bounty hunter 3300 early last year and did surprisingly well. I cherry picked all my local parks and found a few hundred dollars in clad and a few pieces of gold and silver to boot. Once I knew this hobby was for me, I knew I needed to upgrade. The bounty hunter is an excellent coin shooter, no doubt, but I hunt in some trashy areas and I wanted something with lightening fast recovery speed and the ability to find good targets being masked by trash. I think I made a good choice so far with the F70, although no precious metals or silver finds this year with it yet. Due to my work hours, I don't get to hunt as much as I would like, but who does?

I thought my son would really like this hobby, especially when we pulled a honking big 9.6g 14k wedding band out of the ground while hunting together, but nope. He'd rather play video games

Thanks for reading my intro! I look forward to commenting and sharing some hunting stories real soon!

 

[mudpuppy]

Excellent! Welcome! Glad you joined, we could use some funny stories! Sounds like this sport really jumped up and bit you hard and rewarded you with some great finds...Its sort of strange how this sport captures certain people, and others just dont have any interest at all...

I thought my Wife would enjoy it, you know, long walks on the beach, watching the sun rise and set, all sorts of gold and silver, daily adventures...maybe if I wasnt involved she would have more interest?

I see you are up early, thats about the only time I get to hunt too...I saw a sidewalk tearout on my way home yesterday I'm thinking of hitting before the workers show up...
Mud

 

[IBdiggin]

Welcome diggindad, I think you picked a great mid priced detector with the F70. It does real good against the upper end units as well. Many happy hunts to you----------------IB

 

[After-1-]

Welcome DD, this hobby is a good addiction. What part of NJ?????--------after1----

 

[still looking 52]

Welcome aboard diddingdad, my little brother cz5 bought him a used F70 off a forum member not to long ago and seems to like it but like you he hasn't had it out as much as he wants to. My other brother WV62 is also a forum member and we spend a lot of good times hunting together here in WV. Great to have you here as a new member, keep us posted on your hunts.

 

[Elton]

n/t

 

[diggindad]

Thank you everyone!

Not sure why I hadn't joined sooner. You have all taught me many tricks about the F70. When I first read Mud state that he swings this thing like a weed whacker, I tried it in the field myself and almost fell over. This machine does like a fast swing for sure. I wasn't quite used to that, hunting with the much slower bounty hunter previously. Now, I swing fast with confidence. This thing will not miss a solid target on a fast swing. I can't seem to pass up most foil and tab signals as I know this is where the gold is hiding but low and behold, the ID is always correct. If it says foil, its foil etc.

I hunt parks and sports fields for the most part. I haven't quite worked up the nerve to knock on any doors yet and I'm in my second year hunting. Recently found a hunting buddy in my area, so maybe together we'll find a nice, lonely, rich, old lady willing to let the two of us pluck her property clean, maybe bake us a batch of cookies too! One can dream, but someday its bound to happen. So if any of you know where the lonely old rich ladies that like to bake and live in my area, pass along the tip, will ya?

 

[mudpuppy]

Lonely Rich old Ladies you ask?...They are ALL Lonely, the trick is to find a RICH one! Best way to procure one is to go hang out at Dennys when the Red Hat society meets...target carefully, you want the rich half crazy one! ...You dont need a wing man for these dames, so lose your buddy, take a bath and dress nice, maybe stop at Rite Aid and squirt yourself with a bit of stinkwater from the perfume sample case....introduce yourself, preferably in a crisp British accent, like the butler from 'Downton Abbey'... and tell them you like to give foot massages, can cook and can dance! Also, have some pictures of your grandkids handy, better yet, you can pretty much just clip a nice family shot out of a magazine to take along. Have a woeful but interesting yarn...finish on the upbeat though, as if you have had an interesting Life with no regrets.....Try to appear Fun and Harmless, do not smoke, swear or talk politics or religion, remember, this is just a first date...Anyway, to keep this on topic,

I went out this morning and flailed the heads off of a couple acres of dandelions in some parks...got a dollar coin....really love the 'hot rodded 70' with the fins cut off the 11"dd coil! No more annoying 'whoosh whoosh' on every swing...I'm working on an alternative coil swing pattern this year, not the traditional arc/grid tick tocking along in a straight line like a Human metronome, No, This is more of a Tasmanian Devil Wide Legged Whirl with a herringbone overlapping pattern that hits the dirt from multiple angles in a 360 degree spinning and stumbling stagger!

I got the idea from watching a cooking show where one of those industrial bread kneeding Kitchen aids was operating...I think it was when Guy Fieri visited a pizza place?..anyway, it seems to work, and momentum makes it easy...good cardio for stabbing clad or landing a rich old Granny, go all Tasmanian Devil in field and on that dance floor, but keep a bit of momentum in reserve for that after hour foot rub!! You may just get 'lucky' and get a free 'coin tumble' out of the deal! Especially if you are still wearing your finds toolbelt and kneepads!

Some of the older dames find a 'man in uniform' exciting, brings back memories, like you are the wandering tinker showing up at the farm to fix the roof, and they are the farmers lonely daughter, get the picture?.....
Mud

 

[IBdiggin]

Hey Mud, if you were any more colorful in your technique description it would be like watching a blinding rainbow and I like it----------- HH everyone---------IB

 

[mudpuppy]

This is a tough World...and since we dont have a lot of $1 or $2 dollar coins just laying around all over the place, a guy has to get by somehow...
Mud

 

[doc holiday]

Ole Mud--the ole find'em,fool'em man~~

 

[always diggin 2]

welcome from doe run Mo.

 

[diggindad]

Oh mud...you crack me up. I aim for the dandelions too and also the mushrooms! Love knocking the heads off those little mushrooms early in the morning. Perhaps I should eat one? Ya never know. right? I might get xray vision or something! Gonna try and get out for a bit today. Been trying to run 0 disc, 50 Sens. -3 Thresh 4 Tones. I'm also trying not to cherry pick, but rather learn masked targets but that can get old after digging too much trash.

Strange thing last time I hunted with these settings though was the site had a lot of pennies. Some would trick me and give me an 84 so I'm thinking I got a quarter. Nope...another zinc penny
It was very early in the morning and the ground was quite wet. So much so it looked like my coil was spitting each time I swung towards the sidewalk! lol

I do not have the 11" yet. I bought Felicia with 10". I don't like my girls too big, ya know?

I did pick up a 5" DD that a hunting buddy had as a spare (thanks tip)!
Not sure if my next coil will be the 11 or a NEL Sharpshooter. I had that coil for my bounty hunter and I really liked it and considering I'm a park hunter, I can't be digging to china!

I really want to get out there with just a screwdriver and stab like you do. If I need practice with anything, that would be it! Also helps to have a good site with plenty of traffic and fresh drops too. Haven't found THAT place yet! But I always got my eyes open. Same goes for the farmers daughter

 

[mudpuppy]

I tell ya, that screwdriver is the slickest tool for stabbing shallow finds and really blasting through a place...you may want to try 1 disc and DP tones, 50 sens and -3 thresh...hopping the coil to PP, and a screwdriver...I dont know how it works with the 10", but it is deadly killer with the 11"dd...there is no mistake whats under the coil..the pings are so crisp and tight and accurate..hopping that coil zeros you right in on top of the target very fast...even big spills....

When I was new to this addiction, I ran into an old guy who told me to use a screwdriver and dig 1000 pennys and 1000 tabs....BEST advice I ever got! It really is pretty simple and does not take too much practice to master...

Now I cant and wont hunt a park without it.....I carry a spare just in case I break one off in my overzealousness reaming out a hole....I dont even have a handheld PP...the 70 is set up like I mentioned is just so crisp, a guy doesnt need one...the driver sharpens itself after a month of stabbing...starts out as a flat tip, and turns into an ice pick pretty fast...
Mud.

 

[IBdiggin]

Hey diggindad, You need to be in at least 1 discrimination. If you are in zero you will be hunting in all metal mode. I only have the 10" elliptical for my F70 and it's super for trash ID. I have a 11" DD on my AT Pro and they are a little deeper, not much, but very good in EFI. That 5"DD you have should be great in the park trash for sure.-------------IB

 

[diggindad]

IB, thanks for the tip. I'm still learning this beast! My train of thought runs amuck when I start thinking about discrimination and tones. You see, sometimes I want to hear the iron too but I know that with certain disc settings, my tones change also. Like if I go above 6, doesn't that alter the range of tones based on where they fall in the TID range? Its confusing to think about and even more confusing to write about, but I read about it in one of dankowskis' articles I believe.

If I find the correct wording, I'll update my post. I like to hunt in 4 tones. I can get by with 3 if I disc iron completely, but I prefer 4.

Now, compound this with the fact that I don't generally have tons of time to detect, I don't want to "experiment" too much when I only have a few hours to swing. Get me?

When I start experimenting, I dig lots and lots of trash. So after an hour or so of that my finds pouch starts pulling my pants down from all the trash, SO I switch back to my coin shooting settings and only go for the repeatable tones.

GL & HH. diggindad

 

[IBdiggin]

[ You see, sometimes I want to hear the iron too but I know that with certain disc settings, my tones change also. Like if I go above 6, doesn't that alter the range of tones based on where they fall in the TID range? Its confusing to think about and even more confusing to write about, but I read about it in one of dankowskis' articles I believe.]

It is confusing when starting with the 70 but trust me it will get better, I promise. To answer your question about TID#. The beauty of the F70 is the TID is completely independent of the audio signal. There are algorithms built in to the system that control changes in sensitivity settings that are way to confusing for me to explain. This may explain why the audio sounds a little different at times. I think threshold numbers control some of these algorithms and maybe discrimination does as well, don't know. If things get too wacky maybe you could do a factory reset.
I am like you and like to hear the iron grunt as well.The 10" coil is the perfect teacher because of it's killer ID abilities. The big DD is no doubt a step up when it comes to EMI, and a little deeper as well but the things you learn with the elliptical 10" will convert easily when and if you switch to the 11" DD. I am learning this now as I have that size coil on the AT Pro I am learning.
My settings are usually 1 or 2 disc. 50 to65 sensitivity and -1 threshold, especially on a new site. You will get false high tones weather you have iron discriminated out or not so if you hear the iron you can better determine where the high tone is coming from. This makes for a nicer audio hunt. If your getting lots of false high tones try decreasing your sensitivity a bit. I've gone as low as 35 and still get deep enough in most parks. Threshold will eliminate small rusted iron particles that cause the false high tones so dropping that setting to like a -3 will quiet things down a lot but remember it is like closing a door to small objects and the more negative the threshold setting get, the larger the items it will eliminate.
I love DP tones but have severe tinnitus and can no longer hear the nickels mixed in with the tabs so I now use 4h tones. This setting gives you a nice low grunt that is used to identify iron with enough different tones left over to cover all the other types od metal. The high tone signal covers all the upper silver well and will flicker between the 3rd and fourth tones to help with the crusty stinkin zincolns that can false from 67 to 83 with this coil depending how pitted they are. The chirpy signals you will become familiar with is the 2nd and 3rd tone competing for recognition which are associated with the different mix of tabs/beavertails/ broken or folded tails and yes lots of gold hides here.
Now the beauty of the 4h tones. You can have the chirp from the mix of tab trash, the high tone of the nickel but with a mixed in TID of 30 to 32 of the nickel. The tabs will try to TID with the nickels but by rimming them they will vary all the way up to a 35 where it will become an unstable 3rd tone and back down again to a 2nd tone as you rim the target.. And this my friend is how to find nickels with out digging tabs and why I still have the 10" elliptical on my F70. The little busted off tips of the beavertails will still fool you though but hey you need some trash in the bag to show interested parties what you have been digging, Right?.------------Hope this helps---------IB

 

[diggindad]

Thanks, IB! You are helping me to clear up the confusion. I found the article I read (copied and pasted it in a text doc awhile back for future reading!)

Im sure you have read this before as it has been linked to by many forum members in the past, but if not, here is the discussion on hunting around iron. All credit goes to Nasa Tom of course ;-)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some excerpts on hunting in iron fields....

With F-75 Disc on '6' and 'monotone',,,,,,.....,,,,,, the moment you invoke a different tone option; Say 2-tone, 3-tone, 4-tone, etc.... the audio portion of the Disc, ....even though Disc is set on '6'...... will instantly become a Disc setting of '15'. What does this mean? = Any target that is between a Disc level of "6 thru 15" will now audibly report as a "Low Tone" (iron tone). BIG PROBLEM for a multiplicity of reasoning's. Now, any target that is ABOVE a "15" (VDI reading)... MIGHT report a higher tone,,,, (tone freq depending on what tone option is invoked). -------Most folks do not dig iron. And most folks WILL miss masked non-ferrous targets when multi-tones are selected.


Say; you have a silver dime and a nail at a handful of inches deep. The two targets are close enough to each other.... and laying in such a fashion so as to give you a VDI ID of...say; '13'. Let's say your F-75 Discrimination is on a setting of '6'.

1. If you are in '1' tone (monotone).... the F-75 will give you a good audio response to the target. (((You will most probably recover the target))).

2. Say the F-75 is in 2-tone (or 3, 3H, 4, 4H tone options etc.....). Now......... the F-75 will respond with a audio response that most detectorists will NOT dig/recover. The F-75 will report a 'iron' tone (the lowest sounding audio tone). The non-ferrous silver target will most likely NOT be recovered....... even though most all nails will discriminate out at a Disc setting of '6'.

THIS IS BECAUSE; When 2-tone (or 3, 3H, 4, 4H etc.....) is selected = ANY target that results in a VDI ID reading of '15' or below....will report as a 'iron' low-tone. Most folks will NOT recover iron tones.


On both the T-2 & F-75..... running a higher Sens gain in the trash (especially iron) presents a MUCH enhanced resolution on non-ferrous targets amongst iron. This is a paradoxical contradiction; what is....... but should NEVER be. Next time you find a non-ferrous target amongst high iron trash concentration (with high Sens settings)....... drop the Sens and see what happens. The non-ferrous target audio resolution will decrease.......possibly even disappear completely (depends how badly masked the non-Fe target is). The more masking... the HIGHER the Sens needs to be on the T-2/F-75. ((( This is not a typo )))!

On the F-75 (and T-2), the VDI, audio tone-ID, and Disc are completely independent of each other. If anything, the audio ID vs. the Disc setting more closely parallel each other, yet still differ. This electronic design architect is deliberate..... and is a attribute that you will witness as you accrue some field experience.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If seems the original article is no longer available online. I cut and pasted this from another site. Just re-iterates what you stated. Not sure why, but its hard for me to wrap my head around

diggindad

 

[diggindad]

Don't think my post count is high enough to edit, but I wanted to add this. Even though the article speaks about the F75, most or all of this info translates over to the F70

Thanks for reading,

diggindad

 

[B.P.Beeper]

Like if I go above 6, doesn't that alter the range of tones based on where they fall in the TID range? Its confusing to think about and even more confusing to write about, but I read about it in one of dankowskis' articles I believe.

The range of tones wont change with different discrimination settings. What Tom was saying is that any target with tid below 15 in multi-tones will give an iron grunt tone. In single-tone, anything above the discrimination setting will just give the same tone.

So to find any non-ferrous that may be reporting below 15, it is easier to hear with the single tone. Also there is less processing and the detector may run more stable, and enable higher sensitivity.