Fisher F19

[Texas Ed]

i just about to order a F19 for coin & jewelry hunting - have watched videos where several have been very successful. Area along Texas Gulf Coast where I live the ground soil is moderate to mild mineralized and I think the high kHz machine will work for me. If there are others that use the F19 for coin & jewelry hunting instead of relic please reply with your thoughts & experiences. I am open for all suggestions on the F19 or another machine within the price range.

 

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[digger27]

Don't hunt with the F19 but did use the F2 for 3 years and the F70, (13kHZ) for about 2 years the last 7 months in mineralized SE. clay filled soil that also has some major iron problems on top of that.
The dirt here us infused with tiny nodules of iron and there are bits of iron slag mixed into most of the soil, also.
Common GB levels around here usually range from the the mid 60's to about 80...maxed out bars on the dirt meter is also normal.
5" is about the limit around here with most detectors even in the black dirt areas, the iron seems to set a curtain at the 4-5" level that even if you can get by the signals are not normal, skewed and make very little sense.
Actually 3" was a common depth area on most targets I used to dig, past that was more of a rare occurrence but I still did well in the clad and jewelry area in this small range.
I worked hard for the last few months to break this code and get by that 5" area to reach levels that I suspected had good targets but we're so masked they have been passed by for decades.
Using several different settings both in disc and all metal I have succeeded far beyond anything I would have thought possible thanks to the abilities and power of the F70 using 3 different coils, a 12" DD, a 5" DD and even the standard 10" elliptical concentric.
I can now easily reach to the 6-8" level and even though most great older targets hover around the 5-6" level I have hit a few at that 7-8" area also.
A thinner than a dime 1880's V nickel found at 7.5" with my sniper coil dropped my jaw, a silver Masonic coin at that same depth also surprised me, several Indians, old wheats, silver dimes at past that 5" level pleased me and a Peace dollar at only 4" but buried in an iron saturated area in bone dry soil that used to be a landfill thrilled me.
In an area near the entrance to a well hunted park in an area with severe problems I smiled when I dug a very surprising silver dime...I about fell over when I cleaned it off and saw it was my first seated.
Also I have found some silver religious medals and a very expensive gold one also in this devil dirt at areas past that 3" mark.
Just 2 days ago I dug my first SLQ ever that was at about the 4" level and masked by a non silver war nickel in the same hole and a large round piece of rusted iron slag at the same level with a more modern copper cent shallow a few inches above it.

If I can do all this with that F70 I bet the higher kHz F19 can match it and maybe surpass it...if that is possible.
It just takes a little time learning the Fisher language and then a little more learning the hidden language that I believe all Fishers also have.
F70, F75, F19...all have remarkable abilities and features, I bet you can throw the F5 in there too.
Can you tell I am a Fisher guy?
I have good reasons, if you could hunt once in my devil dirt you can easily understand why.
A few reasons in picture from below.

 

[Fletch88]

The F-19, G2+ and Gold Bug Pro are all very similar machines and very good at picking non-ferrous targets out of trash and heavy iron. The red backlight is awesome too! I usually run vbreak at 39 and and volume around 11-14 depending on how loud you want the low iron tones to sound. The red backlight on lowest setting is awesome at night

 

[williedigit]

The tersoro tejon is a better machine for that in my opinion

 

[Fletch88]

Oh no! Not again

 

[Texas Ed]

Digger27 - Thanks for the F70 info I am considering it however I am a little afraid of EMI which I have experience a little with the AT Pro - have you experience it? Do you think the F70's depth would surpass the AT (quarter @ 9.5")? Average clad & silver coin stratum in the area where I live is approx 6 to 7 inches and the soil is mild to medium mineralized without the is iron problem that you have. CZ-3D is for the deepest silver but heavy. "THANK'S AGAIN"

 

[digger27]

Digger27 - Thanks for the F70 info I am considering it however I am a little afraid of EMI which I have experience a little with the AT Pro - have you experience it? Do you think the F70's depth would surpass the AT (quarter @ 9.5")? Average clad & silver coin stratum in the area where I live is approx 6 to 7 inches and the soil is mild to medium mineralized without the is iron problem that you have. CZ-3D is for the deepest silver but heavy. "THANK'S AGAIN"

EMI has been a problem for several ex F70 users, we love that because others get to pick up these horrible units that are hardly used at fire sale prices.
Basically most Fishers are overpowered out of the factory, even factory start up settings can be noisy in certain sites so if you really want to hunt quietly just turn it down.
The sense setting is not what many people think and does not work like a stereo volume knob does.
99 is full power but 75 is not 2/3rd power, 50 is not 50%power, 33 is not one third power and so on.
All those lower power levels are higher than most think, there are even vids on YouTube that show owners with F75's on a sense setting under 10 and still hitting deep targets.
Is the F70 the quietest unit on the market, not on higher power settings because it is a very sensitive high gain detector, but you don't have to hunt on really high settings if you don't want to and still get surprisingly deep.
Supposedly the new DST shielding and upgrade on the F75's makes them quiet, it would be nice if they offered it on the F70 but that will never happen till they stop selling the F75 so I just learned to deal with whatever goes on at all times

I hunt at low power levels very quietly and still can hit pretty deep, I also hunt on high or even maxed out settings and have learned to deal with any extra noise and just ignore it.
Fishers will stop and tell you they are swinging over something good no matter what is happening once you learn their language.
As far as depth in great Kansas soil I regularly dug targets at the 9-10" level, my deepest was a measured 15".
Here in my bad soil that 6-7" area is what I aim to hit also and I can do that with all 3 coils I own...The standard 10 elliptical concentric, a 5" DD and a 12"DD that comes standard on the F75.

Most hunters I know or have talked to around here don't dig much past 5" in the bad stuff, not that they can't get deeper but because of the problems most signals past that depth are super jumpy and don't make much sense.
I learned to make sense of those deeper signals and have had good luck when I dig them.
Still get fooled once in awhile and dig some iron but not often and my track record is pretty good and improving as I experiment and practice.

As far as an AT Pro never used one so I have no idea how well it would compare to the F70 or work in my soil with this many problems.

 

[dirtscratcher]

EMI has been a problem for several ex F70 users, we love that because others get to pick up these horrible units that are hardly used at fire sale prices.
Basically most Fishers are overpowered out of the factory, even factory start up settings can be noisy in certain sites so if you really want to hunt quietly just turn it down.
The sense setting is not what many people think and does not work like a stereo volume knob does.
99 is full power but 75 is not 2/3rd power, 50 is not 50%power, 33 is not one third power and so on.
All those lower power levels are higher than most think, there are even vids on YouTube that show owners with F75's on a sense setting under 10 and still hitting deep targets.
Is the F70 the quietest unit on the market, not on higher power settings because it is a very sensitive high gain detector, but you don't have to hunt on really high settings if you don't want to and still get surprisingly deep.
Supposedly the new DST shielding and upgrade on the F75's makes them quiet, it would be nice if they offered it on the F70 but that will never happen till they stop selling the F75 so I just learned to deal with whatever goes on at all times

I hunt at low power levels very quietly and still can hit pretty deep, I also hunt on high or even maxed out settings and have learned to deal with any extra noise and just ignore it.
Fishers will stop and tell you they are swinging over something good no matter what is happening once you learn their language.
As far as depth in great Kansas soil I regularly dug targets at the 9-10" level, my deepest was a measured 15".
Here in my bad soil that 6-7" area is what I aim to hit also and I can do that with all 3 coils I own...The standard 10 elliptical concentric, a 5" DD and a 12"DD that comes standard on the F75.

Most hunters I know or have talked to around here don't dig much past 5" in the bad stuff, not that they can't get deeper but because of the problems most signals past that depth are super jumpy and don't make much sense.
I learned to make sense of those deeper signals and have had good luck when I dig them.
Still get fooled once in awhile and dig some iron but not often and my track record is pretty good and improving as I experiment and practice.

As far as an AT Pro never used one so I have no idea how well it would compare to the F70 or work in my soil with this many problems.

Well said. When people ask about F75 or T2, the subject of EMI comes up many times from people who have never used them. They hear it repeated so often it must be true. Everyone thinks if your running in the 90s you won't get any depth. Jokes on them.

 

[digger27]

Here are a couple of vids.

https://m.youtube.com/?#/watch?v=nKLFMp_kwo4

This first one shows an F75 not liking a heat pump in the vicinity and hitting coins deep at 30 sense.

Here is one with an F70.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KaJG8ohPbjE

Settings are sense at 1...yes one...thresh at 9, SL speed and hitting a buried quarter at 8".
Seems pretty quiet too.

In the field in real life with junk everywhere under not so controlled conditions these settings might not work the same way but I can tell you I hunt in total garbage sometimes and versions of these settings can definitely work.

The way I have heard it described is on the top Fishers and the T2 there are two sub sections for the sense.
One that runs from 1-30, the other runs from 31-99.
Each section has a reverse governor of sorts, turn it down to the lowest number in each section and that is NOT as low as the machine will go.
This is why the F70 at 1 sense can still work and work well.
Experimenting I picked up a 5" dime in real life once at 19 sense, -2 thresh and SL speed clear as a bell in otherwise dead silence.
By popping the thresh up to 9 it is possible I might have been able to lower that sense way more but I didn't think to try that at the time.
Just a theory but I believe that 60 start up level is something close to 80% of the power possible and the rest of the 40 numbers above 60 control that last 20%.
The thresh also controls how this thing acts, and above 20 and below 5 on the disc there is a slight boost programmed in...set the disc between these numbers and it also gets a bit quieter.

There are so many ways to set these things up and be successful.
Quiet, noisy, a bit of both or either way.
Believe me I experiment all the time and even though I will never find the single exact perfect settings for all sites and conditions I have several favorites that work for me and have made my hunts surprisingly effective and productive.
Sometimes I don't mind noise, sometimes I would rather hunt quietly...I love to find great things no matter what and the Fishers let me do exactly that.

 

[Fletch88]

I still know the F-19 to be an awesome machine for coin and relics. I never experience any EMI issues with it even in town. I had a T2 classic that was pretty EMI resistant and the worst I ever owned was 2 different Omegas.

 

[atomicscott]

Well said. When people ask about F75 or T2, the subject of EMI comes up many times from people who have never used them. They hear it repeated so often it must be true. Everyone thinks if your running in the 90s you won't get any depth. Jokes on them.

Exactly right again. The Omega is the same way. You get a bit more depth with sense at 99 than 69, but not much. I noticed on my Minelab, the 7.5 kHz coil did not handle the EMI as well the 18.75 kHz which I could usually max out.

 

[Fletch88]

Scott, I think the omega and most FT machines max out at about 70 % sensitivity. I did find the omega to run fine at 50-60% and seemed to be as deep as trying to run at 99-100% and having it running unstable.

 

[supertraq]

Fantastic write up Digger27

 

[digger27]

Thanks.
And just to add I have a friend that lives in AZ and was a Tesoro guy, still is but he likes to swing others also.
He got an F70 and was confused at first but with a few tips he got it working fine to hunt for the coins and mostly jewelry he goes after.
Then a few months later he picked up an F19 and with that one he really clicked.
The features on that one fit his style of hunting perfectly even more than the F70.
All Fisher F series work and work well if you learn to understand them from the F2 on up.

 

[steve1357]

My GoldBugPro (similar to F19) doesnt come close in depth to my F70 or F75 fwiw.