Nuggets and coins

[goldbrick]

With all the info on this forum I was able to make an informed choice about purchasing an f75. I started nugget hunting with a Minelab 3500 less than a year ago. Eventually added a GBII for the smaller stuff but felt the discrimination leaves a lot to be desired. Some areas of the gold fields that I hunt are littered with an extreme amount of ferrous and bullets to the point where detecting with a PI will drive you nuts.This fall I found an 1855 Seated Liberty dime in the goldfields in California with the 3500 and that gave me the coin shooting bug. I will use the f75 primarily as my coin machine but I think the f75 will also be great for shallow nuggets in the worst trash laden areas. My other choice was an Xterra 70 but I believe the Fisher will do a better job of getting coins and those nuggets that are close to square nails.
Thanks for the great forum.
Merton

 

[willy]

Hey there Merton. You might want to do some testing between the F75 & GB2 with some really tiny gold on/in the ground. The results might just surprise you. I had a GB2 and it tanked up here in B.C. whereas the GMT does quite nicely. Interestingly enough, my F75 can see smaller gold than the GB2, almost as small as the GMT, with the stock coil in/on the ground. With the small DD it could be a real killer on the small stuff. ..Willy.

 

[goldbrick]

Thanks for the tip Willy, I will have to test to see if I can obtain the same results. I will try out the small DD as I also purchased it, should be interesting.
L8tr,
Merton

 

[ziphius]

I'm willing to bet that the F75 will be a lot more sensitive to small gold nuggets in all-metal mode. You could 'reverse cherry-pick' a site and ignore shallow and mid-depth signals, which are more likely to be surface bullets, etc. Good luck. - Jim

 

[Idaho-Marke]

Hi,

Good choice on the F-75 over the XT-70. As I mentioned, I have both machines and I've used both hunting the same area (Rye Patch, NV).

I specifically bought the XT-70 because it is a well tested gold machine and since there was no info of the F-75 in Gold Fields and since I was spending $600 to get to the gold fields, I wanted to have the best chance to find gold. I used the XT-70 with the small DD coil the first few days and I couldn't believe the tiny, tiny, tiny piece of gold it found. Very impressed. Found about 3 pieces the first two days, but the foot print of the smaller coil bothered me. I bought the F-75 because I like the quick swing speed and 11" stock DD coil. So the third day, I took my tiny, tiny, tiny piece of gold, laid it on the ground (in a glass bottle so not to lose it) and gathered my hunting buddies and asked them (six of them) to test both machines and tell me which they thought got better depth. They all agreed. The F-75 won so I used that for my final day and long story short, I picked up four more small nuggets to give me the top finds of the weekend. I should mention both machines were wide open and the F-75 was in JE mode. Both are fine machines, but out in the boonies where there is little trash, I really felt the 11" foot print helped me find more because I was able to cover more ground.

HH

Idaho Marke

 

[willy]

I had the XTerra 70 (for something like 3 yrs) and thought that, with the 5x10" HF DD and 6" HF DD that it was sure somethin'. Man, could it ever pick up small gold. Fast forward to now; the XT 70 is history. It couldn't handle the ground here very well and the F75 with the STOCK coil will pick up smaller gold at a greater distance. I'll have to see how it handles the ground (lousy weather & snow keeping me inside), but it seems to act much like a GB2 or MXT. Of course, it doesn't have ground tracking, which is puzzling given the high price, but it can do the auto GB thing, saving some time/effort. I might get out in a week or so and do some testing on the Coquihalla (hot-rock hell). ..Willy.

 

[goldbrick]

Hey Marke,
I was surprised to see that you were able to run the f75 in JE mode at Rye Patch. And by wide open did you mean sensitivity at 99? I ran my Minelab 3500 with a 16" mono there and in spots had a lot of ground noise. Wide open sounds like good news to me as one of my concerns was how it would handle the ground. Thanks for the info.
Merton

 

[HumblePie]

Idaho Marke,

I'm not surprised you used the JE mode. This mode will surprise those who use it, as it will go just as deep on a two and a half grain nugget (all I have to try presently) as the motion all-metal mode, but give a much crisper signal. Question is, did you experiment with it and see how high you could raise the disc level prior to losing any given target? Here, the disc can be raised to 12 but no higher for a clear, clean response to that size nugget at the same (3") depth (ground phase 84ish, magnetite @ 0.1%).

As you may know, a setting of 12 in JE will provide small iron discrimination, whereas for example, in the other disc modes a setting of only 6ish will achieve the same task..in this ground. This type of statement would have sounded ludicrous in years gone by with other machines, but not now with the JE mode. Astonishing. Willy do give it a try out in your tough ground and let us know your thoughts. Thanks,

Jim (in Ontario)

 

[liquid1]

I for one love the JE Mode It is my preferred setting..And the sense can be lowered a bit if needed for stability without much depth loss..I believe like with any other unit a good Ground Balance is
key to best stability..I have found a few tiny gold Items even in this red clay NC dirt..and have even used je at the Beach in wet salt sand..The F75 is fast and sensitive as Heck....
Goldbrick keep us posted on what you get and how ya like it..good luck..I even like the small coil it works great with decent depth..james