REVIER
Well-known member
I wrote this last year at the start of the new hunting season for the many new F2 users and since another new season is upon us and there are so many more proud new F2 owners I will post it here.
The F2 is a powerful beast...overpowered really, and this can cause some frustration for brand new owners that for the most part are also brand new to the entire hobby.
This will help and hopefully answer some questions and help to avoid some problems a few new owners have posted about and get you by some of the initial learning curve a little faster.
The thing to remember is this thing can easily be tamed, and as you learn its little quirks and understand it you will be able to have some great fun finding some fantastic treasure as you learn about it's features and abilities which usually does not take all that long to do.
I will add a few real world tips below this post to get you started, also.
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Well, I can see all kinds of new people coming on board with all kinds of new detectors and I just want to say welcome, your life and the way you look at any patch of ground from now on will never be the same.
This post is directed to the new people that have decided their first detector is going to be the great F2...and I guess some F4 users can gleam some info from this, too.
I bought mine about two and a half years ago as a back-up/guest/ take on vacation unit only, but it turned out to be so much fun, so productive and easy to use, that I ended up using it way more than I ever thought I would, and it is still being used in heavy rotation today depending on the type of sites I am hunting and how I feel that day.
I am still learning about the F2 and adding every and all new insights, still posting when I find something great with it, and still thankful to anyone and everyone that would like to do the same because I am still learning... that stuff never ends in my opinion.
I also want to thank the many, many members that have PM'd me about this one, asked for my advice before purchasing, and thanked me after ordering one and using it themselves.
Since I got mine I have tried to notice every post I see about new people with the F2 and I have also noticed a trend.
Several new owners, which by the way for the most part are not only brand new to the F2 but brand new to the entire hobby, have put it together, got out and started finding great stuff right away with no problems at all.
Others have started out differently, with much concern and confusion.
99.9% of the time, this confusion goes away as they get out and use and understand the F2 more and more.
All detectors will have a learning curve, and there are basics in this hobby that a brand new newbie does not, and is not expected to know, but given a short time with it they discover and come to understand and figure these things out and all becomes well.
TIPS FOR NEW OWNERS...
These tips are for new users and I thought that putting most of the real world tips for assembling and using the F2 right out of the box could be of some use to the many new F2 owners in our ranks, so I will attempt to do that here.
ASSEMBLY
1...Tighten the cam locks on the rods.
When I first put mine together, I was not thrilled with the slight wobble I had on the coil.
Tighten up those cam locks, (which I neglected to do), and that will go away.
2...Correct battery installation.
This is a big one, and also something that I screwed up myself when I first put mine together before reading the directions in the manual.
(Directions?...I don't need no stinking directions!)
The 2 batteries that come with the unit, or any future batteries you install, have to be put in one way and one way only or this thing will just act wonky, won't work correctly at all, and probably won't even turn off when you hit that power button.
While looking at the screen, the batteries should be installed from the rear WITH THE + SIGN ON THE SIDE OF BOTH BATTERIES FACING TO THE RIGHT!
3...Battery clips
As long as we are talking about batteries, those clips that hold the batteries in are a very bad design, in my opinion, and awful tight on a brand new unit, and the chances of breaking these off can be high if you are not careful.
If you do, you are going to have problems because the cover is so flimsy that I don't think you have a chance of keeping the batteries connected and positioned correctly even if you stuff something in between the batteries and the cover.
The good thing is that over time I have found that these clips do seem to finally start to give a little, and battery replacement will go much easier for you in the future.
However...
Not all battery jackets are the same size, this would be regular alkaline or rechargeables, and no matter what you do there are some brands that will never fit into these slots no matter how hard you try.
I have found Duracells, Energizers, Walgreens and CVS brand batteries are fine, along with many others.
Several owners have had good luck using rechargables, also.
Just the other day, though, I did purchase an off brand set of batteries from a department store that did not fit no matter what, so if it is real hard to get them in just stop trying because it will be just as hard if not harder to get them out without a problem.
My first set I put in, the quality ones that came with the F2, were very tight, and I managed to bend open the end of one edge of the battery jacket on one, which then caught on one of those clips and so getting it out was not much fun at all...so be careful.
FIRST TIME POWERING UP
Ok, you got it together and the batteries in correctly so lets hit that power button, shall we?
What? Is this thing crazy?
All kinds of noise and numbers and jumping around!
I GOT A BAD ONE!!!
I have seen these comments stated in one form or another from a whole bunch of new users and I will address this problem here.
Lets just go talk about something called...
SENSITIVITY
The F series detectors are a very sensitive bunch, all of them, and this sensitivity can be both good and bad to veteran hunters, and mostly bad to brand new users.
When you power up, this thing isn't even at full power, more like 75%, and that extremely high sensitivity, even at this level, this can cause some great distress to owners that don't understand why their detectors seem to be loco and unusable.
Here is the deal.
If you turn this thing on inside your house, all kinds of things can affect it.
EMI, or electromagnetic interference is all around us indoors and out, and since your detector picks up these EM waves pretty easily, is it any wonder the thing seems to be a little crazy?
Inside the home, fluorescent lights, televisions, electric appliances of all kinds and especially WIFI can and will be picked up by this machine.
As a matter of fact, most detectors on the market will be affected EMI, and not only in how the signals are picked up but how it works and performs, too.
I have read owners air testing all kinds of brands indoors for depth, and then moving the unit outdoors they sometimes can get completely different and much better results.
Ok so now you get this, so lets just go outside the house and try it in the yard.
What?
Still seems to be going nuts!
Great, we finally got outdoors with it so you think it should be perfect but it is not.
Why?
Think about it...
That same WIFI hub you have in the center of the house that makes it so easy to get on the net with your laptop all over the home is not stopped by those walls in your dwelling.
Not the indoors walls and not even the outside ones.
Look around...do you happen to see some electric lines running overhead behind your house?
If not, good for you, you live in a more modern subdivision with out of sight underground lines.
Doesn't matter...that EMI is still all around you, and maybe even some other things that can cause interference are lurking about, too.
Got a cell-phone or radio tower within a block or two of your location?
Maybe you don't have WIFI but a close neighbor does.
Electric fences at certain sites can cause you some problem, too.
Even your own cell phone that you carry can cause you some problems, among many other things, so don't just automatically think you have a bad detector.
You could have, it happens, but this is actually very rare.
So, what to do?
Most detectors have to be turned up all the way to work correctly and find you some great targets!
I think this is something a lot of new users believe but in reality is not true.
In the thousands of posts I have read on this and all kinds of brands of detectors, it is a rare thing indeed that any hunter is able to set their units at full power without problems or noise which we call "chatter".
MXT's, the Tejon, and even the very popular E-trac, to name just a few, can also be virtually unusable and not much fun to swing with all kinds of noise on the highest power level which is usually controlled by your sensitivity settings.
Read a few of the more technical posts on tips for suggested settings of most detectors and the owners usually mention something about sensitivity levels on their detectors...and notice it usually is not at the highest levels they can achieve.
If you go outside your house for the first time, or to the local park, or anywhere for that matter, if your F2 is just too noisy and jumpy, for goodness sake, just turn it down till it is at a more manageable noise level!
It is true that you will lose a little depth with every power bar you take away, but in reality it is not all that much at all, and if you are brand new you don't need to be dealing with all kinds of false tones and other things while you are so shiny new and just learning the ropes.
I have not done any scientific tests, but I used to think that for every bar you take away on the F2, you will lose about 1/4" in depth, but now I think that might actually be a little less than that.
If you have the 8" coil mounted, and you are hunting in pretty good soil, that coil should reach about 7-8" on a dime.
Do the math and even if you do lose 1/4 inch you will see that even on one bar you should still be well within range of a huge percentage of the targets we seek, which many have the opinion that overall for the most part, are 6" in depth or less.
Just the other day I was at a site and I was fooling around with the sense levels and the small sniper coil trying to use a technique to see if I could determine whether a high tone signal was a pop top buried in the ground as opposed to a coin.
I actually forgot to turn the sense back up to my normal full power, (that's how I hunt...you don't have to), and went on scanning.
My next target was a loud, solid and very easy to tell dime that was at about 5 inches...and after I dug it I noticed that the sense level was still down at only one bar.
My first ever experience in this hobby was with an extra noisy, constantly falsing detector that gave me training that most don't have in determining false tones, or ghost signals, from real ones.
The extra noise I hear at some of my sites never bothers me so unless I am right under some high power lines, I rarely turn down that sense.
That is me, not you, and learning to ignore these false signals will be a skill you will learn in time, but for now, just turn it down to a level that actually makes hunting fun for you...not a hassle.
Some owners have gone to a few different sites and had chatter problems at all of them, but that 4th site it was quiet as a mouse.
All sites are not the same, and don't assume that they are and that your F2 will work the same at all of them.
As I said, I hunt on high sense most of the time and at many sites I get signals galore...lots of them false.
Not a problem for me, I can pick out the real ones, but last week I was at a new-to-me park where my F2 was absolutely silent except for real targets that were being picked up in the ground as I rolled over them.
This was strange to me, and I had to keep checking to see if the thing was actually working because this is so rare in my experience.
I must add that as far as depth, (some owners get more, some get less), keep in mind mineralization levels are different all over the country, and the depth that I now get in my wonderful Kansas soil is completely different then most of my sites in the devil soil I had to deal with when I lived in Alabama.
There, if I got past 3 inches using any of my detectors, (and I also own a Vaquero), I considered myself lucky.
OTHER STUFF
So I guess you are getting tired of reading this thing and my fingers already went numb long ago so I will wrap this up and maybe add a few more helpful things as I think of them in the future.
The only other thing I can think of to tell you right now is that if you use a decent pair of headphones your battery life will be extended by a lot.
That speaker on the F2 will use a ton of power vs any set of phones, and getting used to using headphones will actually give you a shot at hearing the differences in the tones you will hear...and make no mistake there are some slight differences in those 4 tones.
Also, if you are out in the field and you get real low on battery power and aren't carrying extras, (which you should), swap the position of the two batteries and you should gain an extra bar or two for a limited time.
The audio/tone generating circuit is actually run by only one of those batteries, not both, so the batteries will drain at different levels and time frames.
Lastly, if you are completely new, don't ever lose heart or feel like giving up.
So many new users have poured out their problems and frustrations in their first posts when they did not have a clue, but a few weeks later, and with a few hours of experience under their belt, everything seemed to have changed, miraculously, and from then on they are all pretty happy campers.
In this hobby as in life, the more you know and understand the better things get, overall.
My only wish for you is that you have the patience to learn how to use your fine new detector, continue to learn new things, always, and if you end up being half as happy and satisfied with your F2 as I am with mine, you will also end up being very happy indeed!
HH Always!
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NEW USER SUGGESTIONS AND A FEW TIPS
If you have the sniper coil I urge you to use this coil first and for awhile as you get used to your new detector because....
The F2 is very sensitive and can give many false signals in certain situations.
I have found your swing speed has a lot to do with falsing because if you swing over any target, good or bad, the F2 might just get a "piece" of this signal and will false in the higher ranges.
Many kinds of trash that is irregular shaped like can slaw, foil, targets with holes like tabs and many others will be hard to lock onto with the F2 and will cause numbers on your screen to jump, depth bars that will jump too, and sometimes falsing will occur and show signals in higher sections than what the trash really is.
Tabs can easily give you a quick false signal up in the zinc section or higher, zinc pop tops will show a quick false signal up in the dime section too, and much more.
Of course if you have more than one kind of target under the coil at the same time you can get a very jumpy signal in the sections and numbers.
Also you can get different signals while moving different parts of the coil over a target like this and you can even get signals from targets that are not even under the coil but just outside of the edge.
For all these reasons I suggest that you use the small sniper coil at first because instances of multiple targets under the coil will be lessened and you will get much less falsing and jumping as you learn and that coil, the DD coil and even the 10" all seem to be a little less susceptible to EMI problems than the 8" coil for some reason.
As far as swing speed I usually go about 4 seconds over a 3" path, one second per foot is even better but not easy to do.
Most detectors will lock onto targets better at slower speeds and as fast as the F2 is it is true with this one, too.
I used to swing way to fast and even though I found a ton my volume and quality of finds increased tremendously when I finally got a clue AND SLOWED DOWN!
Fast swinging is natural occurrence and can be a big problem for a lot of us so don't go 18 months like I did before I learned this lesson and missed who knows how many great targets because of it.
It is much easier to learn good habits starting out then to re-learn them and correct yourself in the future.
JUMPING NUMBERS ON THE SCREEN
Nothing is 100% in this hobby and different soil in different parts of the country can also affect readings, but I have experience in two different areas of the country with completely different kinds of soils and in my experience this will hold true for the most part.
Assuming you are swinging at the correct slow swing speed and not too fast, good targets will usually show stable numbers on the screen and will not jump or if they do they will not jump more than two numbers.
On mine a quarter is usually a solid 80 but many times I can get an 80-82 jump, for instance.
This will usually hold true for all coins, rings, most other jewelry, relics and more.
On the other hand as I mentioned above trash of all kinds will usually jump way more than 2 numbers like 4-6-8 or even more.
This is not in stone and your mileage can vary because strange things can happen out there, but when you are new and learning just try to home in on those targets that don't jump more than 2 numbers and you should be able to dig a hole with an actual target in it and not an empty one due to jumping and falsing of targets that are not even under your coil.
Another great tip is to watch those depth bars on the right side of your screen.
Trash will cause these to jump too, good targets will usually be stable and show the same bar on most passes.
Sometimes trash will be solid and stable, too.
Shallow targets, tabs, can slaw, foil and many other types can show up solid if it is laying flat in the soil and not on edge.
Luckily, lots of trash I come across is not flat, usually, so I use this jumping numbers and depth bars to avoid digging all trash when I am in that mood.
This jumping stuff never bothers me, and as a matter of fact I learned to use this stuff to determine trash from good targets and because I am a mostly a dig it all hunter I have checked thousands upon thousands of targets and for me this advice will usually hold true.
I have yet to dig a coin, silver or gold ring, other types of jewelry and most other good targets that were jumpy.
Again, the right swing speed really helps in determining targets, also.
FALSING TONES
When you are new there is no way for you to know or understand this, but even though those 4 tones on the F2 sound the same on each target type I can tell you there are differences in some of those tones but you will need many hours swinging to even begin to hear them.
I know in my bones when I swing over a quarter, I don't need a screen to tell me this...and in recent weeks I am even guessing right a lot of the time on a dime signal vs.a copper penny even though the numbers on the screen are usually about the same.
Just like most people can hear a silver coin dropped on a hard surface even if it is dropped with other clad coins, this ability to hear slight differences in tones can be learned with enough time listening to those tones, but alas, it is not innate.
One thing you can and should learn quickly is the difference between false tones and real tones in the field.
As I said before, you can definitely get false tones especially with big iron in the vicinity that can be a high tone up to a foot away from that coil, but even smaller trash can do it too.
Real targets are more solid than false one, they ring true are not "squeaky" and might have a sharper edge, but at first all tones will sound the same to you, false and real.
A big clue to help you out is real targets will always tone at the exact same place in the ground and usually from different angles, too.
As much as you might thing that false tone, (especially the high ones), might sound like it is signalling in the exact same place it really is not...but again a little experience in this area will make you much better at understanding this and ultimately you will dig many less empty holes.
SENSITIVITY
I mentioned this above but it bears repeating...
IF YOUR F2 IS TOO NOISY WITH LOTS OF JUMPING AND CHATTER JUST TURN IT DOWN!
With my sniper coil in my decent soil I can still get close to 6", the 8" can still get about 7" and the 10" I assume a little more ALL ON ONE BAR OF SENSITIVITY!
Turn it up when you can, turn it down if it is too noisy...you will still find plenty, believe me.
Finally, just get out and swing as much as you can because all the tips in the world can't take the place of experience.
As you learn and get better and better, this hobby will get better and more fun for you...a lot more fun.
Good Luck!
The F2 is a powerful beast...overpowered really, and this can cause some frustration for brand new owners that for the most part are also brand new to the entire hobby.
This will help and hopefully answer some questions and help to avoid some problems a few new owners have posted about and get you by some of the initial learning curve a little faster.
The thing to remember is this thing can easily be tamed, and as you learn its little quirks and understand it you will be able to have some great fun finding some fantastic treasure as you learn about it's features and abilities which usually does not take all that long to do.
I will add a few real world tips below this post to get you started, also.
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Well, I can see all kinds of new people coming on board with all kinds of new detectors and I just want to say welcome, your life and the way you look at any patch of ground from now on will never be the same.
This post is directed to the new people that have decided their first detector is going to be the great F2...and I guess some F4 users can gleam some info from this, too.
I bought mine about two and a half years ago as a back-up/guest/ take on vacation unit only, but it turned out to be so much fun, so productive and easy to use, that I ended up using it way more than I ever thought I would, and it is still being used in heavy rotation today depending on the type of sites I am hunting and how I feel that day.
I am still learning about the F2 and adding every and all new insights, still posting when I find something great with it, and still thankful to anyone and everyone that would like to do the same because I am still learning... that stuff never ends in my opinion.
I also want to thank the many, many members that have PM'd me about this one, asked for my advice before purchasing, and thanked me after ordering one and using it themselves.
Since I got mine I have tried to notice every post I see about new people with the F2 and I have also noticed a trend.
Several new owners, which by the way for the most part are not only brand new to the F2 but brand new to the entire hobby, have put it together, got out and started finding great stuff right away with no problems at all.
Others have started out differently, with much concern and confusion.
99.9% of the time, this confusion goes away as they get out and use and understand the F2 more and more.
All detectors will have a learning curve, and there are basics in this hobby that a brand new newbie does not, and is not expected to know, but given a short time with it they discover and come to understand and figure these things out and all becomes well.
TIPS FOR NEW OWNERS...
These tips are for new users and I thought that putting most of the real world tips for assembling and using the F2 right out of the box could be of some use to the many new F2 owners in our ranks, so I will attempt to do that here.
ASSEMBLY
1...Tighten the cam locks on the rods.
When I first put mine together, I was not thrilled with the slight wobble I had on the coil.
Tighten up those cam locks, (which I neglected to do), and that will go away.
2...Correct battery installation.
This is a big one, and also something that I screwed up myself when I first put mine together before reading the directions in the manual.
(Directions?...I don't need no stinking directions!)
The 2 batteries that come with the unit, or any future batteries you install, have to be put in one way and one way only or this thing will just act wonky, won't work correctly at all, and probably won't even turn off when you hit that power button.
While looking at the screen, the batteries should be installed from the rear WITH THE + SIGN ON THE SIDE OF BOTH BATTERIES FACING TO THE RIGHT!
3...Battery clips
As long as we are talking about batteries, those clips that hold the batteries in are a very bad design, in my opinion, and awful tight on a brand new unit, and the chances of breaking these off can be high if you are not careful.
If you do, you are going to have problems because the cover is so flimsy that I don't think you have a chance of keeping the batteries connected and positioned correctly even if you stuff something in between the batteries and the cover.
The good thing is that over time I have found that these clips do seem to finally start to give a little, and battery replacement will go much easier for you in the future.
However...
Not all battery jackets are the same size, this would be regular alkaline or rechargeables, and no matter what you do there are some brands that will never fit into these slots no matter how hard you try.
I have found Duracells, Energizers, Walgreens and CVS brand batteries are fine, along with many others.
Several owners have had good luck using rechargables, also.
Just the other day, though, I did purchase an off brand set of batteries from a department store that did not fit no matter what, so if it is real hard to get them in just stop trying because it will be just as hard if not harder to get them out without a problem.
My first set I put in, the quality ones that came with the F2, were very tight, and I managed to bend open the end of one edge of the battery jacket on one, which then caught on one of those clips and so getting it out was not much fun at all...so be careful.
FIRST TIME POWERING UP
Ok, you got it together and the batteries in correctly so lets hit that power button, shall we?
What? Is this thing crazy?
All kinds of noise and numbers and jumping around!
I GOT A BAD ONE!!!
I have seen these comments stated in one form or another from a whole bunch of new users and I will address this problem here.
Lets just go talk about something called...
SENSITIVITY
The F series detectors are a very sensitive bunch, all of them, and this sensitivity can be both good and bad to veteran hunters, and mostly bad to brand new users.
When you power up, this thing isn't even at full power, more like 75%, and that extremely high sensitivity, even at this level, this can cause some great distress to owners that don't understand why their detectors seem to be loco and unusable.
Here is the deal.
If you turn this thing on inside your house, all kinds of things can affect it.
EMI, or electromagnetic interference is all around us indoors and out, and since your detector picks up these EM waves pretty easily, is it any wonder the thing seems to be a little crazy?
Inside the home, fluorescent lights, televisions, electric appliances of all kinds and especially WIFI can and will be picked up by this machine.
As a matter of fact, most detectors on the market will be affected EMI, and not only in how the signals are picked up but how it works and performs, too.
I have read owners air testing all kinds of brands indoors for depth, and then moving the unit outdoors they sometimes can get completely different and much better results.
Ok so now you get this, so lets just go outside the house and try it in the yard.
What?
Still seems to be going nuts!
Great, we finally got outdoors with it so you think it should be perfect but it is not.
Why?
Think about it...
That same WIFI hub you have in the center of the house that makes it so easy to get on the net with your laptop all over the home is not stopped by those walls in your dwelling.
Not the indoors walls and not even the outside ones.
Look around...do you happen to see some electric lines running overhead behind your house?
If not, good for you, you live in a more modern subdivision with out of sight underground lines.
Doesn't matter...that EMI is still all around you, and maybe even some other things that can cause interference are lurking about, too.
Got a cell-phone or radio tower within a block or two of your location?
Maybe you don't have WIFI but a close neighbor does.
Electric fences at certain sites can cause you some problem, too.
Even your own cell phone that you carry can cause you some problems, among many other things, so don't just automatically think you have a bad detector.
You could have, it happens, but this is actually very rare.
So, what to do?
Most detectors have to be turned up all the way to work correctly and find you some great targets!
I think this is something a lot of new users believe but in reality is not true.
In the thousands of posts I have read on this and all kinds of brands of detectors, it is a rare thing indeed that any hunter is able to set their units at full power without problems or noise which we call "chatter".
MXT's, the Tejon, and even the very popular E-trac, to name just a few, can also be virtually unusable and not much fun to swing with all kinds of noise on the highest power level which is usually controlled by your sensitivity settings.
Read a few of the more technical posts on tips for suggested settings of most detectors and the owners usually mention something about sensitivity levels on their detectors...and notice it usually is not at the highest levels they can achieve.
If you go outside your house for the first time, or to the local park, or anywhere for that matter, if your F2 is just too noisy and jumpy, for goodness sake, just turn it down till it is at a more manageable noise level!
It is true that you will lose a little depth with every power bar you take away, but in reality it is not all that much at all, and if you are brand new you don't need to be dealing with all kinds of false tones and other things while you are so shiny new and just learning the ropes.
I have not done any scientific tests, but I used to think that for every bar you take away on the F2, you will lose about 1/4" in depth, but now I think that might actually be a little less than that.
If you have the 8" coil mounted, and you are hunting in pretty good soil, that coil should reach about 7-8" on a dime.
Do the math and even if you do lose 1/4 inch you will see that even on one bar you should still be well within range of a huge percentage of the targets we seek, which many have the opinion that overall for the most part, are 6" in depth or less.
Just the other day I was at a site and I was fooling around with the sense levels and the small sniper coil trying to use a technique to see if I could determine whether a high tone signal was a pop top buried in the ground as opposed to a coin.
I actually forgot to turn the sense back up to my normal full power, (that's how I hunt...you don't have to), and went on scanning.
My next target was a loud, solid and very easy to tell dime that was at about 5 inches...and after I dug it I noticed that the sense level was still down at only one bar.
My first ever experience in this hobby was with an extra noisy, constantly falsing detector that gave me training that most don't have in determining false tones, or ghost signals, from real ones.
The extra noise I hear at some of my sites never bothers me so unless I am right under some high power lines, I rarely turn down that sense.
That is me, not you, and learning to ignore these false signals will be a skill you will learn in time, but for now, just turn it down to a level that actually makes hunting fun for you...not a hassle.
Some owners have gone to a few different sites and had chatter problems at all of them, but that 4th site it was quiet as a mouse.
All sites are not the same, and don't assume that they are and that your F2 will work the same at all of them.
As I said, I hunt on high sense most of the time and at many sites I get signals galore...lots of them false.
Not a problem for me, I can pick out the real ones, but last week I was at a new-to-me park where my F2 was absolutely silent except for real targets that were being picked up in the ground as I rolled over them.
This was strange to me, and I had to keep checking to see if the thing was actually working because this is so rare in my experience.
I must add that as far as depth, (some owners get more, some get less), keep in mind mineralization levels are different all over the country, and the depth that I now get in my wonderful Kansas soil is completely different then most of my sites in the devil soil I had to deal with when I lived in Alabama.
There, if I got past 3 inches using any of my detectors, (and I also own a Vaquero), I considered myself lucky.
OTHER STUFF
So I guess you are getting tired of reading this thing and my fingers already went numb long ago so I will wrap this up and maybe add a few more helpful things as I think of them in the future.
The only other thing I can think of to tell you right now is that if you use a decent pair of headphones your battery life will be extended by a lot.
That speaker on the F2 will use a ton of power vs any set of phones, and getting used to using headphones will actually give you a shot at hearing the differences in the tones you will hear...and make no mistake there are some slight differences in those 4 tones.
Also, if you are out in the field and you get real low on battery power and aren't carrying extras, (which you should), swap the position of the two batteries and you should gain an extra bar or two for a limited time.
The audio/tone generating circuit is actually run by only one of those batteries, not both, so the batteries will drain at different levels and time frames.
Lastly, if you are completely new, don't ever lose heart or feel like giving up.
So many new users have poured out their problems and frustrations in their first posts when they did not have a clue, but a few weeks later, and with a few hours of experience under their belt, everything seemed to have changed, miraculously, and from then on they are all pretty happy campers.
In this hobby as in life, the more you know and understand the better things get, overall.
My only wish for you is that you have the patience to learn how to use your fine new detector, continue to learn new things, always, and if you end up being half as happy and satisfied with your F2 as I am with mine, you will also end up being very happy indeed!
HH Always!
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NEW USER SUGGESTIONS AND A FEW TIPS
If you have the sniper coil I urge you to use this coil first and for awhile as you get used to your new detector because....
The F2 is very sensitive and can give many false signals in certain situations.
I have found your swing speed has a lot to do with falsing because if you swing over any target, good or bad, the F2 might just get a "piece" of this signal and will false in the higher ranges.
Many kinds of trash that is irregular shaped like can slaw, foil, targets with holes like tabs and many others will be hard to lock onto with the F2 and will cause numbers on your screen to jump, depth bars that will jump too, and sometimes falsing will occur and show signals in higher sections than what the trash really is.
Tabs can easily give you a quick false signal up in the zinc section or higher, zinc pop tops will show a quick false signal up in the dime section too, and much more.
Of course if you have more than one kind of target under the coil at the same time you can get a very jumpy signal in the sections and numbers.
Also you can get different signals while moving different parts of the coil over a target like this and you can even get signals from targets that are not even under the coil but just outside of the edge.
For all these reasons I suggest that you use the small sniper coil at first because instances of multiple targets under the coil will be lessened and you will get much less falsing and jumping as you learn and that coil, the DD coil and even the 10" all seem to be a little less susceptible to EMI problems than the 8" coil for some reason.
As far as swing speed I usually go about 4 seconds over a 3" path, one second per foot is even better but not easy to do.
Most detectors will lock onto targets better at slower speeds and as fast as the F2 is it is true with this one, too.
I used to swing way to fast and even though I found a ton my volume and quality of finds increased tremendously when I finally got a clue AND SLOWED DOWN!
Fast swinging is natural occurrence and can be a big problem for a lot of us so don't go 18 months like I did before I learned this lesson and missed who knows how many great targets because of it.
It is much easier to learn good habits starting out then to re-learn them and correct yourself in the future.
JUMPING NUMBERS ON THE SCREEN
Nothing is 100% in this hobby and different soil in different parts of the country can also affect readings, but I have experience in two different areas of the country with completely different kinds of soils and in my experience this will hold true for the most part.
Assuming you are swinging at the correct slow swing speed and not too fast, good targets will usually show stable numbers on the screen and will not jump or if they do they will not jump more than two numbers.
On mine a quarter is usually a solid 80 but many times I can get an 80-82 jump, for instance.
This will usually hold true for all coins, rings, most other jewelry, relics and more.
On the other hand as I mentioned above trash of all kinds will usually jump way more than 2 numbers like 4-6-8 or even more.
This is not in stone and your mileage can vary because strange things can happen out there, but when you are new and learning just try to home in on those targets that don't jump more than 2 numbers and you should be able to dig a hole with an actual target in it and not an empty one due to jumping and falsing of targets that are not even under your coil.
Another great tip is to watch those depth bars on the right side of your screen.
Trash will cause these to jump too, good targets will usually be stable and show the same bar on most passes.
Sometimes trash will be solid and stable, too.
Shallow targets, tabs, can slaw, foil and many other types can show up solid if it is laying flat in the soil and not on edge.
Luckily, lots of trash I come across is not flat, usually, so I use this jumping numbers and depth bars to avoid digging all trash when I am in that mood.
This jumping stuff never bothers me, and as a matter of fact I learned to use this stuff to determine trash from good targets and because I am a mostly a dig it all hunter I have checked thousands upon thousands of targets and for me this advice will usually hold true.
I have yet to dig a coin, silver or gold ring, other types of jewelry and most other good targets that were jumpy.
Again, the right swing speed really helps in determining targets, also.
FALSING TONES
When you are new there is no way for you to know or understand this, but even though those 4 tones on the F2 sound the same on each target type I can tell you there are differences in some of those tones but you will need many hours swinging to even begin to hear them.
I know in my bones when I swing over a quarter, I don't need a screen to tell me this...and in recent weeks I am even guessing right a lot of the time on a dime signal vs.a copper penny even though the numbers on the screen are usually about the same.
Just like most people can hear a silver coin dropped on a hard surface even if it is dropped with other clad coins, this ability to hear slight differences in tones can be learned with enough time listening to those tones, but alas, it is not innate.
One thing you can and should learn quickly is the difference between false tones and real tones in the field.
As I said before, you can definitely get false tones especially with big iron in the vicinity that can be a high tone up to a foot away from that coil, but even smaller trash can do it too.
Real targets are more solid than false one, they ring true are not "squeaky" and might have a sharper edge, but at first all tones will sound the same to you, false and real.
A big clue to help you out is real targets will always tone at the exact same place in the ground and usually from different angles, too.
As much as you might thing that false tone, (especially the high ones), might sound like it is signalling in the exact same place it really is not...but again a little experience in this area will make you much better at understanding this and ultimately you will dig many less empty holes.
SENSITIVITY
I mentioned this above but it bears repeating...
IF YOUR F2 IS TOO NOISY WITH LOTS OF JUMPING AND CHATTER JUST TURN IT DOWN!
With my sniper coil in my decent soil I can still get close to 6", the 8" can still get about 7" and the 10" I assume a little more ALL ON ONE BAR OF SENSITIVITY!
Turn it up when you can, turn it down if it is too noisy...you will still find plenty, believe me.
Finally, just get out and swing as much as you can because all the tips in the world can't take the place of experience.
As you learn and get better and better, this hobby will get better and more fun for you...a lot more fun.
Good Luck!
The BAD news is,rain for the next 3 days!
Oh well,I guess that will give me time to get used to the features on it!
Ron