I have always been a big fan of the Omega series and have found it to love silver coins. I had version 4 and version 5 and used each of them for an entire summer. The silver coins in the places I detect are generally in the 7 to 8 inch deep range so it is important for any detector to have this capability. Both previous Omegas would do this, but with extremely faint audio at these depths. At first, I did not like this weak proportional audio, but quickly came to recognize the sound of these deep coins.
I have a test garden with coins buried from 5 to 8 inches deep. I have a silver dime and a silver quarter both buried at 8 inches. My Fisher F5 with the NEL Sharpshooter coil can hit all targets, but with very weak audio on the 8 inch coins. I pre-programmed the 8500 in the house to lower the audio on junk targets with the copper-silver coins maxed out on volume. I started with disc 10, deep 1, master volume 7, and tones 3(proportional audio.
I breezed through the shallow coins with perfect audio. When I hit my 5 inch nickel, it was almost nonexistant. I was shocked. When I came to the deep silver coins, I could only hit them occasionally. I was now concerned. I forgot to mention that I had the 11 inch dd coil on the 8500. I can hit these coins perfectly with the F5 at 70 sens, but with weak but repeatable audio.
What now I thought. I kept the settings the same and upped the sens to 80. I got every target just about exactly like I could with the F5 at sens of 70. Now for the weirdest target I experimented with. The 5 inch nickel got an audio signal that sounded more like a static buzz. As I swept this nickel from all angles, I came to realize this was the audio signal for nickel in three tone, four tone, and 5 tone. It could easily be dismissed as static, but it is the real tone id for nickel. I don't like that sound at all, but will get used to it as I spend more time with the 8500.
I experimented with the deep settings and found deep 2 and deep 3 to do nothing to enhance the deep target audio. I have some three-four bar ground so maybe this is why these settings don't help. I tried deep 2 and 3 with a multitude of sensitivity settings and nothing changed.
Now for the eye opener. I went from three tone to 5 tone with eliminated proportional audio. I have used every Explorer series for many years and I never ran them with wide open gain which is what the 8500 in 5 tones does. With the sens on 70 in 5 tone, every target hit like it was two inches deep! I like to hear deep coins with weak, but repeatable audio, but this setting 'wakes up the ground". I did find it also causes many high tone pops and clicks, but deeper targets will repeat perfectly.
With a somewhat base of knowledge, I found a south facing hill in my backyard to try it "in real life" My first settings sens75, deep 1, 5 tone, disc 8. I have hunted my yard many times and was hoping for at least one clad coin. After 5 minutes of this five tone, I was quickly tiring of all the surface pops and clicks which are very loud. I upped the sens to 85, tone to 4 and kept all other settings the same. I found a 6 inch deep quarter next to a piece of wire. I found a 7 inch deep dime with weak but perfect audio. I was just about ready to quit when I heard a double high tone that read 86-87, i was expecting a shallow quarter which many time will give a double beep. When I pinpointed, I realized there were two targets about 4 inches apart and they were reading 5-6 inches deep in pinpoint. First came aclad quarter 7 inches deep and then a clad dime at about the same depth. This was a picture of perfection at separating two close targets and they were both fairly deep which was impressive.
Today it was 37 and misting so I headed to my favorite park and hunted a hill that was south facing. It was about half snow covered so I hit the clear spots. I opted for sens of 85, deep 1, four tones, and 0 disc. I got many one way high tones and ignored them as I had to chisel through frozen ground. I finally got a static buzz that high toned from a 90 degree angle. The buzz is that pesky nickel tone, but with the high tone, I dug it. For some reason, this type of audio has proven to be deep nickels with just about any single frequency Fisher detector I have ever used. Today's target confirmed my previous findings. It was a 7 inch deep 1954 nickel. I was quickly running out of desire to detect as my hands were starting to get cold. I wanted to hear one more deep target before I packed it in. Finally I got a 84-86 faint, repeatable target that pinpointed like a coin. It turned out to be an eight inch deep wheat penny.
With only a short time with the 8500 in my hands, I think I can grow to like and do well with this detector. As Mike said, it is a different detector from the 8000, but a very nice detector at that. I don't care for the nickel range audio, but the silver-copper audio is clear enough for me to do well. It will probably be several months before I can do more testing. I am hopeful that the deep 2 and 3 settings might come into play for some deeper coins, but only time will tell. At any rate, the 8500 is a solid bargain at 399.00
I have a test garden with coins buried from 5 to 8 inches deep. I have a silver dime and a silver quarter both buried at 8 inches. My Fisher F5 with the NEL Sharpshooter coil can hit all targets, but with very weak audio on the 8 inch coins. I pre-programmed the 8500 in the house to lower the audio on junk targets with the copper-silver coins maxed out on volume. I started with disc 10, deep 1, master volume 7, and tones 3(proportional audio.
I breezed through the shallow coins with perfect audio. When I hit my 5 inch nickel, it was almost nonexistant. I was shocked. When I came to the deep silver coins, I could only hit them occasionally. I was now concerned. I forgot to mention that I had the 11 inch dd coil on the 8500. I can hit these coins perfectly with the F5 at 70 sens, but with weak but repeatable audio.
What now I thought. I kept the settings the same and upped the sens to 80. I got every target just about exactly like I could with the F5 at sens of 70. Now for the weirdest target I experimented with. The 5 inch nickel got an audio signal that sounded more like a static buzz. As I swept this nickel from all angles, I came to realize this was the audio signal for nickel in three tone, four tone, and 5 tone. It could easily be dismissed as static, but it is the real tone id for nickel. I don't like that sound at all, but will get used to it as I spend more time with the 8500.
I experimented with the deep settings and found deep 2 and deep 3 to do nothing to enhance the deep target audio. I have some three-four bar ground so maybe this is why these settings don't help. I tried deep 2 and 3 with a multitude of sensitivity settings and nothing changed.
Now for the eye opener. I went from three tone to 5 tone with eliminated proportional audio. I have used every Explorer series for many years and I never ran them with wide open gain which is what the 8500 in 5 tones does. With the sens on 70 in 5 tone, every target hit like it was two inches deep! I like to hear deep coins with weak, but repeatable audio, but this setting 'wakes up the ground". I did find it also causes many high tone pops and clicks, but deeper targets will repeat perfectly.
With a somewhat base of knowledge, I found a south facing hill in my backyard to try it "in real life" My first settings sens75, deep 1, 5 tone, disc 8. I have hunted my yard many times and was hoping for at least one clad coin. After 5 minutes of this five tone, I was quickly tiring of all the surface pops and clicks which are very loud. I upped the sens to 85, tone to 4 and kept all other settings the same. I found a 6 inch deep quarter next to a piece of wire. I found a 7 inch deep dime with weak but perfect audio. I was just about ready to quit when I heard a double high tone that read 86-87, i was expecting a shallow quarter which many time will give a double beep. When I pinpointed, I realized there were two targets about 4 inches apart and they were reading 5-6 inches deep in pinpoint. First came aclad quarter 7 inches deep and then a clad dime at about the same depth. This was a picture of perfection at separating two close targets and they were both fairly deep which was impressive.
Today it was 37 and misting so I headed to my favorite park and hunted a hill that was south facing. It was about half snow covered so I hit the clear spots. I opted for sens of 85, deep 1, four tones, and 0 disc. I got many one way high tones and ignored them as I had to chisel through frozen ground. I finally got a static buzz that high toned from a 90 degree angle. The buzz is that pesky nickel tone, but with the high tone, I dug it. For some reason, this type of audio has proven to be deep nickels with just about any single frequency Fisher detector I have ever used. Today's target confirmed my previous findings. It was a 7 inch deep 1954 nickel. I was quickly running out of desire to detect as my hands were starting to get cold. I wanted to hear one more deep target before I packed it in. Finally I got a 84-86 faint, repeatable target that pinpointed like a coin. It turned out to be an eight inch deep wheat penny.
With only a short time with the 8500 in my hands, I think I can grow to like and do well with this detector. As Mike said, it is a different detector from the 8000, but a very nice detector at that. I don't care for the nickel range audio, but the silver-copper audio is clear enough for me to do well. It will probably be several months before I can do more testing. I am hopeful that the deep 2 and 3 settings might come into play for some deeper coins, but only time will tell. At any rate, the 8500 is a solid bargain at 399.00