Move Over Miss SE! Big Fisher Dog F-75's in town!!!

[GoldenRoyBoy]

Well, being a little disgusted with the entire MD'ing experience I was ready to sell all my equipment a couple of weeks ago. I guess you could say I had a change of heart realizing how much I really like doing this "digging" thing! Anyway, I've added another member to my metal detecting family with the arrival of "Big Fisher Dog F-75!" I took delivery late yesterday; giving him a good 6 hour workout today. I've never owned a metal detector so easy to use right out of the box and to pinpoint with! I opted to go ALL METAL and the machine was a breeze to setup and ground balance. I literally began finding targets as soon as the coil hit the ground! I know my take is not all that impressive but what thrills me is the variety and the "small-ness" of some items. I worked Central Park in Trinidad. It's been hit hard and often by one particular fellow by the name of John! I actually met him there this morning although he'd left his detector at home. He could have hidden it in the bushes for all I know. He didn't seem to like all the goodies I found in "his" kiddie section. Anyway, here's my take; the Fisher's hot on quarters and dimes.

23 Pennies
4 Nickels
18 dimes
25 Quarters

Total 70 Coins​

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Looks like you're off to a great start. Glad you got some excitement back in your detecting.

 

[spotmom]

I am looking to upgrade from my Fisher 1270 to something new with perhaps more recovery speed, maybe just new technology that might be better.
I don't want bells and whistles, don't want push buttons and lcd's, I like knobbies I can twist at the blink of an eye when the terrain changes. I also have a goldstrike and hate the push button menus. Clumsy! My memory ain't so good anymore and I have to read the manual every time I use it!
I was looking at the reviews for the CZ5 and CZ3D, but are they really any better than the 1270 (a sweet little machine anyway)?
I love the 1270, I just was wondering if there was something as simple to use,but newer technology.
Thanks!

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Not really familiar with the 1270 other than the face plate (I just rechecked to make sure of which it is) and the reviews I've read.

Ground balance on the F-75 takes two or three seconds with FASTGRAB, maybe 15 to 20 seconds if you go through the manual process (carefully). With the split columns and the button/knob combination there is no adjustment on the F-75 that doesn't take more than 10 seconds to select and then it is the knob twist to adjust it. With nice big display digits to show you the setting and help you repeat/remember for future reference. Flipping between All Metal and Discrimination takes less than two seconds and I do this frequently in analyzing deeper/weaker signals (to rule out iron or buried services).

The F-75 works very well as a "close-and-play" detector. After an initial 15 or 30 second set-up for the kind of spot I'm searching (clad in parks trashy vs. anything non-iron in the woods, etc.) I pretty much leave it alone except for occasional FASTGRAB balancing.

My other detector is a analog Minelab Musketeer (three knobs, two switches - similar to your 1270 though it lacks a volume knob) and I used it yesterday after two months with the F-75. Gaaaaa. What had been a delight to use is now a heavy club that finds pulltabs. How did I ever survive without a TID to tip me off to pulltabs and bottlecaps? Didn't take me long to convert from something I never thought I wanted to something I hate to be without.

I don't know the kind of depths you reach with the 1270, but I'm finding dimes and cents at 8", one at 9" and nickels from 5" to 6" in spots my Musketeer has been over many times before. Haven't hit a really deep quarter yet, but it's only been two months. I have two in my test garden at 12" (one sliver flat & one clad on it's side) and I hit them when the soil is damp. We've been in a draught and I have to go All Metal to hit them lately (near power/telephone lines & I can't get the sensitivity up over 40% or so).

I really don't know if the F-75 is any better of a detector. Certainly different, and certainly one or the other will appeal to the individual in what features they enjoy. If you hunt trashy sites the F-75 is probably faster and better at picking coins out from between trash. I can have two tabs and a coin under the shadow of the coil and find the coin with some cross-sweeping and backing up the nose to ferret out the good signal. Done it several times and continue to be impressed. You'll dig less trash with the F-75. At an hour hunt at a picnic pavilion I dug 21 coins in a row (no multiples) and ZERO trash. Nada. I was ecstatic. Might miss a brass button, ring or a three cent nickel if you live by the TID, so if you hunt where such things are common and trash is not you might not get much out of the F-75 beyond the 1270.