new F5 owner which coil

[tc1967]

Hello Everyone,
I've been out a few times with my f5 with the 11" DD coil. I'm not very satisfied with the coil. Its heavy on my arm,not balanced very good and the vid numbers arent steady like my f2. It showed pop, tops as quarters and I am having lost of trouble in iron loaded areas. I've looked at the 10" elliptical by fisher, the nel sharpshooter, the fisher 5×10 solid DD and the 5" round DD. I have a 4" sniper on the f2love it. I'm thinking the standard 10" elliptical. What do you people think and why? Also do all DD read pop tops as quarters?

 

[Coin Rescue Inc]

What are you calling "pop tops"
Pull tabs?
Round aluminum bottle screw caps?
Something else?

 

[tc1967]

The crown metal beer bottle tops

 

[Coin Rescue Inc]

Double D coils are famous for catching those on most units.
My Ace 350 does that too.
If you can operate in two, or three tones you can get an iron grunt out of them especially by rimming the signal. Also pumping the coil over it can give it away. A real quarter won't can number value and rimming can cause it to grunt. You tube has demonstrations on these techniques.

 

[still looking 52]

I own an f5 myself and run an 11" dd coil,the best way I've found to avoid those metal bottle caps is to run your disc as high as it will go.also I run with one tone only,this gets you use to that one particular sound. A coin has a crisper sound than a bottle cap " usually " but not always. I hunt with my two brothers and they both dig a lot more bottle caps than I do,they run lower disc and multi tones. Also a coin usually gives you a steady read in all four directions that you sweep. There's no way you can avoid all bottle caps but you can lower your percentages.

 

[tc1967]

I have studied up on all that and watched videos too. But the 11" DD is heavy and the vid numbers are just as jumpy on quarters as they are on crown tops. I am centering the coil also. My f2 only doesn't jump numbers hardly any. Can anyone tell me about the new sharpshooter coil

 

[Hightone]

You can help fix that with the gain and threshold controls. The threshold works best at 0 or slightly below for coin hunting. The way the threshold works in disc mode is the higher it is set, the better detection on smaller targets, like tiny gold nuggets. A too high setting will see caps and quarters so loud that it is harder to distinguish between the two.

Once the T is set, you can crank the gain to between 60-70. Not too high. Gain is not as much as a deeper control as it is a "proper setting for receiving metal conductivity".

Use the numbers effectively. You should find that a quarter and caps can light up the Quarter segment, but the numbers, though being relatively close, are not the same. For Nickels, it may always hit 30-33, but tabs usually hit 34-37 even though they both light up the Nickel segment.

Also, for all detectors, once you detect something passed 7-8", ID is much less effective.

The F5 is one great machine. It was my fave for 6 years. I preferred the 10" elliptical concentric over the 11" DD. Same depth, better PP and IDing.

 

[Hightone]

I have a Sharpshooter on my F2. It IDs no better than the 8" stock coil.

Depending on how the coin lies, expect jumpy numbers. When it's at an angle, it will read differently sweeping one way as it does another. THAT's just metal detecting 101.

 

[MarkCZ]

Hello Everyone,
I've been out a few times with my f5 with the 11" DD coil. I'm not very satisfied with the coil. Its heavy on my arm,not balanced very good and the vid numbers arent steady like my f2. It showed pop, tops as quarters and I am having lost of trouble in iron loaded areas. I've looked at the 10" elliptical by fisher, the nel sharpshooter, the fisher 5×10 solid DD and the 5" round DD. I have a 4" sniper on the f2love it. I'm thinking the standard 10" elliptical. What do you people think and why? Also do all DD read pop tops as quarters?

Is your F5 a new, or a new model, or an earlier version with the push-in coil connector?
I have an Omega (same platform as the F5) and I tried the NEL sharpshooter and didn't find anything about it that was a gain for what I hunt and how I hunt.
The Double DD coils give me better ID on targets than the concentric do, but the DD's are more fooled by the crown caps. These crown caps are a problem with many detectors and one reason is many of them are not just "Steel" rusty caps, they are an alloy mix with both low conductor metals and high conductor metals, plus the size puts them in the class for coin sized targets. The High conductive parts raises the target range into the upper class, the rusty alloy creates a LARGE halo around the cap making appear to the detector like a much more shallow coin, that is to say they can have a very strong response. The claims are that the concentric coils can better discern these as being junk that the DD's can.
I've tried the,
5" DD, the
NEL Sharpshooter, the,
10" Concentric, and the,
11" DD and always keep going back to the 11" DD

I wouldn't spend 5 cents for another 10" concentric coil! (for the Omega anyway)
I like the idea of the 5"X 10" but it may have the same or more weight issue that you have with the 11" DD.

I've owned an F2 and I now own an Omega and I can say with some certainty that its going to take some time to learn the in and outs of the F5, and I can safely say that the F5 is an upgrade to the F2, but the change is going to take a fair amount of time to get proficient with the upgrade.

Mark

 

[REVIER]

You can get the numbers to calm down with more practice.
Swing at the right speed with the center of the coil over all targets and you can get them to calm down to no more than a 2-3 number jump on good targets that are 6" or less in depth...even in sites with a ton of normal trash.
It took me awhile to do this with the F2 but eventually I got it down and after I rarely dug any target that jumped more than 2 numbers and dug a huge amount of quality finds and avoided about 85% of of the trash out there because that is about the amount that you can never get stable signals on no matter what you do.
After over 1000 hours with the F2 I switched to the F70 and used that same 11" DD for it as an accessory and used it most of last year.
Even with all those hours with the F2 it still took quite awhile, many hours until I was able to get my new detector and that coil to calm down to get those same stable signals with no more than that 2 number jump on good targets.
Because of the greater power I have amended that digging rule to include up to a 3 number jump.
I usually stick to that, rarely dig any targets that don't stay within this rule and still belive I have cut out 85% or more of the trash I could be digging and still find more than my share of good targets.

Unless you have a problem with the coil or the machine, you still need more time with them to get stable numbers..."a few times out" is just not enough.
If you have a weight or balance issue with that coil that is something you should deal with by switching, but unstable numbers are not the coil's fault...it is your lack of experience with it and your new detector.
More time with both will remedy that, and even if you don't use this as your prime coil I would still spend time with it because if the F5 is anything like my F70, this coil can get you major depth if you need it.


Regarding hunting sites with tons of iron, that is something I learned to do this summer and it took experimenting with settings and lots of practice before I was able to even begin to recognize good targets and dig them.
Well worth the time spent because I succeeded doing it at a site that nobody else could including me in 2 years of trying.
There are probably similar settings you can use on your F5 to achieve success, here is how I did it so I hope you might be able to adapt this method and try it.
I ended up finding plenty of great things, but not one target ever came in solid like a coin would have in a normal area...every one jumped like mad but I learned that even in all that crazy mess there was a pattern I learned to recognize and eventually use to my advantage.
Again, this took some time and effort, but it was more than well worth it after all was said and done.
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?91,2091738,2091738#msg-2091738

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?37,2105767,2113762#msg-2113762


Now let's talk about DD coils and those pop tops.
Man, I hate those things...they are my arch enemy and I have a few park sites where there is an unusually large number of these things at all depths.
They used to drive me crazy and I usually avoided using any DD coil on any detector at sites like this when I could, but then I learned to successfully use this method and now I can avoid digging about 95% of these things no matter how bad the site is.
Monte called it edge pass rejection...I call it rimming the coil.
It is explained here in this thread.
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?37,2111527,2112042#msg-2112042

You are new with that F5, and even though all the Fishers have a similar language and share some similar behavior, also, don't think the F5 is just your F2 with more settings.
It is to a certain point but then it isn't in the things you can do once you learn what that extra power and all those different settings now available to you are all about.
Spend more time learning this thing with that coil and then others if that is what you think you need to buy because of the weight and balance issue.

Make a note of this thread and then revisit it in several weeks or months down the road after you get more experience.
Things will look way different to you then I promise you.

HH

 

[WV62]

Could there be a problem with your F5 or the coil? I would think if there is no problems with either you should be able to air test it on a coin and get a pretty clean ID number. If not you may need to give FT a call.

I ran a F5 for a few months and I didn't have any problems, and I sold it to my brother and he was using a BH before that. He is doing very well with his F5.

Ron in WV

 

[MarkCZ]

I own an f5 myself and run an 11" dd coil,the best way I've found to avoid those metal bottle caps is to run your disc as high as it will go.also I run with one tone only,this gets you use to that one particular sound. A coin has a crisper sound than a bottle cap " usually " but not always. I hunt with my two brothers and they both dig a lot more bottle caps than I do, they run lower disc and multi tones. Also a coin usually gives you a steady read in all four directions that you sweep. There's no way you can avoid all bottle caps but you can lower your percentages.

Yea, Ron and I our those two brothers! Brother Greg's style of hunting has been paying off in silver coins in our latest silver honey hole, its unbelievably trashy,
Old fire pits, with the picnic trash to go along with them,
Old rusty pieces of steel laying around,
And something I thought to be odd, they are still many of the old pull & toss tab "Cans" laying around on top of the ground in plain view! not the tabs, but the CANS!
Old beer bottles, not just the crown caps, the bottles!
Greg runs the F5 with that 11" DD coil with GREAT success in this place and me and Ron have tried different detectors, different coils and Greg and his F5 just keeps dragging the silver out of there.
If you take a beep and dig machine in this area your likely to pull your hair out trying to use it for all the trash! I sometimes think about the hunters who claim to ONLY hunt in all metal and walking into this wooded place and attempting to hunt it in all-metal, not happening!

Ron's done really good on the silver coins too, Greg has done the best, I've only gotten one piece of silver (a half dollar) out of the area so far, but Ron and Greg has got a lot more time in the area than I have, well that's my excuse anyway, I'm semi retired and both of them are on full retirement.

P.S. The half dollar at the bottom right of my Avatar is the one I found at the honey hole, the other two is the only other silver halves I've ever found and that was like 30 years ago.

Mark

 

[tc1967]

Thanks for all the tips and help. I just thought, I'm new to the f5 but I'm also new to DD coils too. I'm going to just keep learning trying the things you guys suggested and give it more time. I do think the standard 10" elliptical would be easier for me to learn, but if I go to that type of cool I'll never learn a DD type of coil. So I'm going to stick it out and keep swing and hopefully learning. Thanks everyone

 

[mudpuppy]

Yeah give that DD a bit more.....tap it up and down on top of the target briskly using multitones...a Q ping will stay crisp and high, the 'iron' crown cap washes out into iron immediately..

You CAN quite successfully hunt a heavy crown cap field with an 11"dd by doing this...your ears are what you want to use, not your eyes on the screen...You will know the diff between a crown cap and a Q within 3sec of the first ping if you tap that coil in a vertical pattern instead of side to side......you will never dig a crown cap again, unless you want to...

You got a lot of advice from some great hunters here...you will find one that suits your area and hunting style!
Mud

 

[tc1967]

Yeah give that DD a bit more.....tap it up and down on top of the target briskly using multitones...a Q ping will stay crisp and high, the 'iron' crown cap washes out into iron immediately..

You CAN quite successfully hunt a heavy crown cap field with an 11"dd by doing this...your ears are what you want to use, not your eyes on the screen...You will know the diff between a crown cap and a Q within 3sec of the first ping if you tap that coil in a vertical pattern instead of side to side......you will never dig a crown cap again, unless you want to...

You got a lot of advice from some great hunters here...you will find one that suits your area and hunting style!
Mud

Been out a couple more times, experimenting with y'all suggestions. I found my coil connection was loose, got that tightened up. Now things are so much better and making more since. Mud I tried your method of tapping those crown tops and I can't believe how good and easily it works. I dug three crown tops just to see if I was right and I did find 3 quarters too. Thanks so much to all you guys help ,I know I still have a long way to go ,but things are really making more since to me now!!!!!!!!!!