I decided to give the f75 a spin in a place that has been hunted quite a bit(ctx 3030 etrac deus and thats just me and my dad). The last 6 times or so produced some wheaties but that's it.
I bring along the f75 with the ultimate 13". The last four times I hunted with this machine i was thoroughly frustrated. I was running the machine 80 sens boost mode 3 tone with discrimination up to nickels. For the first hour or so, nothing but falsing and junk. I stayed in an area I know I pounded to death, taunting my f75 to prove itself. At this time, I noticed alot of people milling about the park which is right next to a major road and I thought that was rather peculiar especially since it was cold and overcast. I heard sirens AND then came a parade!
Yep! A long parade came down the street. I thought, "well at least everyone will be watching that instead of bothering me". I kept swinging away and getting more frustrated with trying to determine a good signal to dig and all the sirens and music. I get a decent signal and start to dig down when I look up and all of the sudden, Santa, Mrs. Clause, dozen army guys, six cops, the chief of police, and the mayor came walking right toward me. It was so unreal I busted out laughing and thinking to myself, "Yea, there gonna throw my ass out of this park". They walk past me on the sidewalk and over to the xmas tree so Santa can plug it in LOL.
After all the silliness was done, I stood up and took a deep breath and said, "alright what am I doing wrong here". I dropped the discrimination down to 3, switched over to 2h tone, DE mode and bumped the sensitivity to 90 and that is when the magic happened! The first signal i got was a 77ish I dug down 6 inches and pulled out a rusted iron chain link about the size of a 50 cent piece. I knew that couldn't be it. Below it and to the right was a 1954 dime. Then, one good coin after another started to pop-up.
A 1942 walker(2nd one ever).
three silver dimes 1954, 1952, 1941
three silver nickels 1943 P and D and a 1945 P
two Buffs 1925(I think) and a nice 1926
a buncha wheats.
I was stunned! A place I know I hit so hard and these coins were so loud it would blow your ears off! Most were at the 7 inch mark with one buff at 8ish. The only reasons I think I found these were:
I usually hunt this site with a lot of discrimination. Using less i was able to target these coins better
The f75 is a depth monster! Coins there were 7 inches were literally so loud that I thought they were right under the coil.
Now, I have seen a trend which I was a part of, where people bought the new f75 and weren't happy with it. Well I understand what I did wrong so here are some tips for people who are having no luck with their f75s.
1. Stay the hell away from boost mode! On the onset, it seems like the way to go, but it isn't. Not only does it boost weak signals, but it boosts falses too. It's too much power for a crowded park. I would use it in specialty situations with low sensitivity(I will expand on this if requested). Ignore it all together until you are so comfortable with the machine that you can predict how it will react in most situations.
2. Avoid anything more than two tone. The magic of this machine is, it screams at you when it finds a target. However, if you are using more than two tones, the extra tones can confuses you to the point of frustration. I recommend 2h(High iron volume) in all but the most iron dense fields. 2L(low iron volume) can be used when you have machine gun iron.
3. Discrimination is NOT needed! With the tones telling you "dig me i'm conductive" Or "don't dig me i'm iron", you shouldn't need to wonder what under the coil. I set discrimination at 3(I believe this is what Tom recommends) to knock out some iron. Now if you are in a park like Bill S has(50 pull tabs with one swing), then take another detector with good discrimination or drop down to the 5 inch coil. The VDI on Fisher units are rather wonky IMO and if you discriminate out some numbers, you could be missing good stuff(coin numbers drop with depth(I saw a dime come in at 56 when it is supposed to be in the 70s).
4. Thank goodness for the VCO! The VCO can help you determine at what depth the target is. If it is a loud bubbly sound, then its close to the surface. If it is a faint wispy sound, then it is deep. Don't forget this can also mean the size of the target as well(Small targets close to the surface can be wispy). You will get used to this after a while.
5. 1n is good. Some don't like 1n, but I do. IMO, it seems to prevent falsing by muting out the iron audio. Experiment and see if you like it.
6. Fast audio in target dense areas. Don't be afraid to turn Fast audio loose in areas where there are multiple targets. Two potential drawbacks are: It is prone to EMI and loss of depth. The benefit is it can unmask better than other modes, especially if you use the 5 inch coil.
Well, I hope this helps some people out there with their f75s in the closet collecting dust. This machine is designed to make you notice targets. IMO, it isn't a "one stop shop" machine. But what it will do, if used right, is breath new life into some of your old sites, like it did for me! For more tips and info, check out Tom's write-ups. IMO, no one knows these machines better than he does.
I bring along the f75 with the ultimate 13". The last four times I hunted with this machine i was thoroughly frustrated. I was running the machine 80 sens boost mode 3 tone with discrimination up to nickels. For the first hour or so, nothing but falsing and junk. I stayed in an area I know I pounded to death, taunting my f75 to prove itself. At this time, I noticed alot of people milling about the park which is right next to a major road and I thought that was rather peculiar especially since it was cold and overcast. I heard sirens AND then came a parade!
Yep! A long parade came down the street. I thought, "well at least everyone will be watching that instead of bothering me". I kept swinging away and getting more frustrated with trying to determine a good signal to dig and all the sirens and music. I get a decent signal and start to dig down when I look up and all of the sudden, Santa, Mrs. Clause, dozen army guys, six cops, the chief of police, and the mayor came walking right toward me. It was so unreal I busted out laughing and thinking to myself, "Yea, there gonna throw my ass out of this park". They walk past me on the sidewalk and over to the xmas tree so Santa can plug it in LOL.
After all the silliness was done, I stood up and took a deep breath and said, "alright what am I doing wrong here". I dropped the discrimination down to 3, switched over to 2h tone, DE mode and bumped the sensitivity to 90 and that is when the magic happened! The first signal i got was a 77ish I dug down 6 inches and pulled out a rusted iron chain link about the size of a 50 cent piece. I knew that couldn't be it. Below it and to the right was a 1954 dime. Then, one good coin after another started to pop-up.
A 1942 walker(2nd one ever).
three silver dimes 1954, 1952, 1941
three silver nickels 1943 P and D and a 1945 P
two Buffs 1925(I think) and a nice 1926
a buncha wheats.
I was stunned! A place I know I hit so hard and these coins were so loud it would blow your ears off! Most were at the 7 inch mark with one buff at 8ish. The only reasons I think I found these were:
I usually hunt this site with a lot of discrimination. Using less i was able to target these coins better
The f75 is a depth monster! Coins there were 7 inches were literally so loud that I thought they were right under the coil.
Now, I have seen a trend which I was a part of, where people bought the new f75 and weren't happy with it. Well I understand what I did wrong so here are some tips for people who are having no luck with their f75s.
1. Stay the hell away from boost mode! On the onset, it seems like the way to go, but it isn't. Not only does it boost weak signals, but it boosts falses too. It's too much power for a crowded park. I would use it in specialty situations with low sensitivity(I will expand on this if requested). Ignore it all together until you are so comfortable with the machine that you can predict how it will react in most situations.
2. Avoid anything more than two tone. The magic of this machine is, it screams at you when it finds a target. However, if you are using more than two tones, the extra tones can confuses you to the point of frustration. I recommend 2h(High iron volume) in all but the most iron dense fields. 2L(low iron volume) can be used when you have machine gun iron.
3. Discrimination is NOT needed! With the tones telling you "dig me i'm conductive" Or "don't dig me i'm iron", you shouldn't need to wonder what under the coil. I set discrimination at 3(I believe this is what Tom recommends) to knock out some iron. Now if you are in a park like Bill S has(50 pull tabs with one swing), then take another detector with good discrimination or drop down to the 5 inch coil. The VDI on Fisher units are rather wonky IMO and if you discriminate out some numbers, you could be missing good stuff(coin numbers drop with depth(I saw a dime come in at 56 when it is supposed to be in the 70s).
4. Thank goodness for the VCO! The VCO can help you determine at what depth the target is. If it is a loud bubbly sound, then its close to the surface. If it is a faint wispy sound, then it is deep. Don't forget this can also mean the size of the target as well(Small targets close to the surface can be wispy). You will get used to this after a while.
5. 1n is good. Some don't like 1n, but I do. IMO, it seems to prevent falsing by muting out the iron audio. Experiment and see if you like it.
6. Fast audio in target dense areas. Don't be afraid to turn Fast audio loose in areas where there are multiple targets. Two potential drawbacks are: It is prone to EMI and loss of depth. The benefit is it can unmask better than other modes, especially if you use the 5 inch coil.
Well, I hope this helps some people out there with their f75s in the closet collecting dust. This machine is designed to make you notice targets. IMO, it isn't a "one stop shop" machine. But what it will do, if used right, is breath new life into some of your old sites, like it did for me! For more tips and info, check out Tom's write-ups. IMO, no one knows these machines better than he does.
