Looking at Fisher, F4, F5

[ryaan21]

Hey all. I am considering a new detector purchase. I am currently using a Garrett 550 and have become so fed up it that I am not having fun.

Using the machine I have found good stuff. But the AWFUL belltone is driving me nuts after 5 years of use.

I have been looking at youtube videos and reading reviews and it seems Fisher may have the cure to what ails me.

I am looking for a good coin shooter/silver slayer. The Garrett sounds off with the bell tone on just about all items that are metal. I can dig a perfect sounding tone and it is rusty crap that should be discriminated out.

I really like the way Fishers sound and the VDI is a no brainer. I never will go back to a machine without it. I know some people use machines without meters at all and still have good luck but my experience with Garrett has killed it for me. I hunted hard with the machine and have "learned" it the best I can. My sister was using it one day while I was at work and she scanned a target that was giving a one way signal. She dug around and finally my brother came over with his teknetics 8000 and the coin was giving a SOLID signal both ways. My sister ws ready to abandon the target but my brother scanned, pinpointed and dug a 1917 merc....that my garrett barely even noticed.

Anyways I am not here to bash Garrett, I am just on the lookout for a different brand.

Will the F4 or F5 give me better performance than my current machine in your opinions??

Thanks for your time and consideration.

[gleaner1]

No nasty belltone crap on atpro. The f4 and f5 will put some gas in your tank too..

[ryaan21]

No nasty belltone crap on atpro. The f4 and f5 will put some gas in your tank too..

I have heard that they didnt use the tone in the new machine. But to be honest, I am pretty much swearing off Garrett for a long while.

[Bart@Big Boys Hobbies]

Ryaan21,
The Fisher F4 and F5 are very good light weight machines with 5 year warranties. The F4 has a DD coil which separates very well and the F5 has some really nice features like gain control and freq shift that helps dial it in. Holler if you need any help or need more info. Sent you a PM.

[woof!]

The Omega 8000 and the F5 have an awful lot in common, very similar performance. The major diffs are the user interface and mechanical package. The standard searchcoil in both cases is the 10 inch concentric which is very light; however most users regard the slightly heavier 11 inch DD performance as superior to the 10 inch concentric, and the 5 inch DD is highly regarded for searching trashy areas and goes nearly as deep as the 11 incher. Dealers are usually negotiable on accessory searchcoils, and often on other things as well.

Buy whatever you want wherever you will: however I recommend giving forum sponsors first shot, and also dealers who post here contributing to the discussion. These are serious businesspeople who have skin in the game and want customers, happy customers because after all they're investing here. If in the end you go Bay with a dealer you've never heard of in order to save ten bucks, if something goes wrong, this forum would be the wrong place to ask for sympathy.

--Dave J.

PS: ryaan21 commented on the Garrett's tendency to give a belltone on many targets including "rusty crap". I'm not familiar with the specific model of Garrett in question, but I would like to head off some possible disillusionment. As I understand it, the Garrett belltone is supposed to indicate a high-conductivity target. Most of the things that can be done to a modern discriminator to improve discrimination and target ID in general, unfortunately make it more difficult to reject "rusty crap". It's one of those things you need to learn a few tricks about to manage the challenge. I've discussed this issue in some detail "on another forum" which out of courtesy to this forum shall remain unnamed.

[sqwaby]

If you want a fun machine, decent depth, easy to use interface and a fairly easy learning curve get an F5.

[DEK1]

"I've discussed this issue in some detail "on another forum" which out of courtesy to this forum shall remain unnamed. "

I'm sure most of the people here visit other forums besides just this one. Probably even the Mods.