Thanks for the replies.
Monte, my soil is mostly sandy with little mineralization and coins in this sand run deep. Trash can be a real problem in some of these areas. Most of the silver I found last season was in the trash and was found because I took my time with my Silver uMax and overlapped my swings. Surprisingly, most the silver was real shallow, but that was because there was an old gravel road 3-4 inches down and they were laying right on top of the old road and parking area. One of my silvers found there was a 1894 Barber quarter in pretty good condition. Outside of this area I find 20's,30's, and 40's wheaties in the 6-7" range. Oddly enough I have found a fair amount of 70's quarters in that range also. These are all old parks near the water and these areas are mostly sand. I live by three big river systems, lakes, and that big bay named after americas's favorite football team that Favre use to play for, and sand dominates these areas.
I agree that in most areas depth may not be such a big factor with the different soil types. My sandy area, depth is important from what I have seen. Are there old coins there deeper? There might not be, but the only way to know is have a detector capable of deep coins, and that one would have to be within my budget. I won't sleep well at night until I know the answer to that question. I guess that is what you get when you have an addicting hobby.
I am a fan of air test because as you noted it suggest the potential of the detector. To me the detector has to have potential to start with.
I would love to visit a brick and mortar store. There are none around. The closest one I have found and been too was over 4 hours away and was staffed by a hired girl that didn't detect or know a thing about them. The owner works a second job to make ends meet so he was not there. The other places selling detectors all operate out of a garage or basement at night and don't want to take anything out of the box to demo it, because then it is not new. Most of them appear to drop ship and don't have much if anything in stock except a Garrett AT. Most, but not all of the forum sponsors when called, try to upgrade you to an E-Trac right off the bat. I won't buy from them. When you ask about a detector in the $600-700 dollar range, they shouldn't be trying to stuff an E-trac down your throat and make you feel guilty for not trying one. I would have to drive 5-6 hours to Chicago for a real brick and mortar store, and I would, BUT my wife would cut my nads off! I personally feel that unless you are in real populated area it is hard to justify the overhead and make a living selling just detectors. The internet has not probably helped this at all, but that is just the way things are going. That is why I come to forums like this seek valuable opinions from other users.
My statement on the F70 is being deep is derived from the great bunch of guys over on the Fisher forum. Like you, I trust them and value their opinions.
