Fisher F75

[BamaBill]

All I can say is WOW. Now I see what other people have been crowing about. You can setup this machine to be stone cold quiet and stable to hunt coins at up to 6" or you can push the ragged edge, put up with a little (and I mean only a little) noise and detect bullets, buttons, etc. deep. To give you an idea the ground in my backyard is considered moderate, but I would term it boderline bad and I can pick up bullets at 11" that my MXT can't touch. I have a fake CW buckle buried at 11" in the backyard, that's been there for a year. Its only about half the mass of the real thing and my MXT can't pick it up. In fact, because of the grass growing back in and the profile blending back in, I lost the target until tonight when I found it with the F75. I had it set on de mode, 94 sens, 10 disc, and 1 tone. Then I flipped into je mode and got a very little noise on the sweep, but was able to pick up the fake CW buckle clear as a bell. Its clear that I'll have to work with this machine to become one with it, but I am very glad I got to know the MXT first. I do NOT recommend this as a first machine. Anyway, relics look out, here I come !!!

 

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[utah hunter]

The other nice thing is that with that DD coil you cover a lot of ground every sweep. A dime at 7 or 8 inches hits hard basically the whole length of the coil. For covering a soccer field for clad you can go fast and just listen for the repeatable tones. You can also swing fast for deep coins, and those good tones pop through even in trash. I was going under a swingset and got a signal from the metal connecting to the swingseat above the coil. It was over 3 feet above it and gave a strong signal. I also like pushing it to the edge in old spots, and the little bit of chatter becomes background noise to me. Welcome to the dark side. I have only owned mine for 3 weeks, but I am beyond impressed. My first Fisher, and it was easy to learn if you have a lot of detecting experience.

 

[thompy]

Jim you might have to try the t-2 to get the expanded iron disc, and simular performance to the f-75, Bill how do you like it weight, and ballance, i didnt even like to pick up the xterra after swinging the t-2, now the f-70's sound pretty hot as well, at some point i want to try the MXT, looked hard and long at it before i bought the t-2

 

[BamaBill]

"Q: Did you detect the buckle in the DE mode with those settings, or did you detect it once you switched over to the JE mode? One more item that would be helpful, what is your ground balance in the backyard?"

Jim, the ground balance in the backyard is reading as 56 on my machine. It took switching over to JE to find the buckle. On my machine it seems that I can get reasonable depth in the DE mode, in moderate to borderline bad ground, but in that ground it really will take JE mode or all metal to really punch down. In the next couple of months (too hot right now) I'll be taking it up to TN, where the ground is better and giving it a try there, but since I'm figuring how to get the most out of it in worse than optimal ground I have high hopes for hunting some "hunted out" sites. Jim, really appreciate your suggestions on combinations to try. I'll print them out and get back to the forum about what kind of results I got.

Thompy,
The machine is just perfect for me weight-wise. One of the things I've been saying about the MXT for some time now is that I wish it was about .5 to 1 lb lighter, then it would be the perfect machine for me. Now I have the perfect machine for me as its a pound lighter than my MXT and can see deeper. I also have the F70, got it for the wife. The F70 is a good machine, but the F75 is better.

 

[BamaBill]

Hey Jim, you've got some very valuable info there. I already knew about adding to the GB number to get a slightly positive GB, its something I always did with my Eldorado when manually ground balancing. And, yes I did find out last night while testing out the machine that the all metal mode gave the best depth, but I also noticed that to quiet the machine a bit in all metal it was necessary to turn down the threshold to -3. And, I had proven to myself with my MXT that discrimination robs the machine of depth, so I can really see the value of running with minimal discrimination. However, its really good to know that the iron discrimination level can work in concert with the JE mode to maintain most of the depth its capable of, since a lot of the Civil War sites left that haven't been picked clean have an abundance of iron present and digging everything sometimes isn't real practical (especially when construction is tearing up a site you're trying to get the most out of).

You know, the interesting thing is I'm keeping a file open where I'm posting all the little nuances and hints that people are sharing and I'm already up to 9 pages worth. If I don't see a third party book on this machine come out in the next 6 months I'll just have to write one myself.

 

[thompy]

Bill i wouldn't think your minerals would cause much of a problem with the f-75, the lowest Ive found here is a 72 in a drained lake area, generally around 87 here and have ran idx,s around here that did pretty well, no GB, when i head north i get into the upper 80s to low 90s with the t-2 and still runs well but have to GB often because conditions change fast, in the hills around the old gold mines, we have a lot of iron ores, some copper silver lead, generally can run 80 on the sens, don't know if the f-75 and t-2's are on the same scale. i have a hard time believing there is actually a need for the JE mode. havent had any durability issues yet an I am pretty hard on the T-2, but they arent built like a whites, but you would think whites could build a lighter machine, half the batteries and double the run time like the f-75 and t-2

 

[BamaBill]

Jim, the way I see it, there is absolutely nothing wrong with open discussion on our perceptions of performance. As long as nobody else reads this and takes it as gospel. In fact, I'll issue a disclaimer that anything I've said so far is based soley on my experience with conditions that exist at my site. Your experience may vary.

 

[BamaBill]

I ran some more tests tonight and indeed O discrimination works well and gets great depth, however its a little noisy (I suspect a lot of EM interference around our yard). What I did notice is that over my bad case test targets part of the garden (mixed iron and good targets in real close proximity) it only registers the iron. These targets are at 6"-7" deep. Maybe in an area with less EM interference it will work better. As I turned the disc up (in DE mode) to 1 it wasn't much change in depth, up until 3 and then I started to notice that the 6-7" targets were getting hard to hear. At 6 disc I couldn't pick them up any more. However, in JE mode and 10 disc I got great depth and better target seperation. Running JE mode I would have dug these mixed targets. When I tested the bottle cap (bc) mode, I didn't care for it. It gave me clipped tones. In PF mode I couldn't tell the difference between it and de mode. All metal Stat does give fantastic depth, but again target ID is practically out the window because in the mixed targets area it beeped, but it blanked out the screen. Most of the Civil War targets we find are at 7-8" and deeper and frequently mixed in with iron, so seperation at depth is one of the most important qualities to finding stuff in a hard hunted area. It sounds like some of the other F75s you guys have are better in de mode than mine is. I seem to have a machine that gets its best untilization in JE mode, with target seperation, depth and tonal seperation. I have a 10" concentric on order and it will be interesting to see if it helps tame EM interference and consequently be a little quieter and get about the same depth as the DD coil.

Bill

 

[BamaBill]

Jim, I got everything you said and I really appreciate the feedback, but when I said, ""What I did notice is that over my bad case test targets part of the garden (mixed iron and good targets in real close proximity) it only registers the iron," I thought I had stated that I had iron and good targets mixed together in small holes for this test. I apologize if that wasn't clear. For me, most of the worthwhile sites I hunt have some mixture of bad and good targets in close proximity. The MXT has been able to handle that for the most part, with a high signal and iron grunt mixed together, its just not quite deep enough to pick up the rare buckle or other real valuable target that has been missed and is laying at the bottom of the plow zone (but its such a good machine I still have mine). That's where I was hoping the F75 comes in. And, yes you are absolutely, 110% correct in saying that I need to get out and start real world hunting with this to test it out. As soon as the weather is not so unbearably hot I will be testing it out. And, yes I'm completely aware of digging pretty much everything below 6" when relic hunting and I have the iron to prove it.

 

[BamaBill]

Thanks for clarifying on the mixed iron/non-iron targets; Bill how long have your targets been buried?
A: Only two weeks, but hey if I get seperation and response on fresh buried targets it can only get better with targets in the field.

2nd question: Your MXT, have you the 12" Super coil?
A: Nope, I've been undecided on that one, basically a weight vs. utility conundrum.

Prefer the smooth stability, decent depth, iron discrimination and otherwise excellent performance of my Spectrum XLT for coin hunting...particularly in public places.
A: I preferred my Tesoro Eldorado up until I got the F75. If the 10" concentric coil works out I think the Eldorado will be relegated strictly to backup.

I am well pleased with the MXT as a complete package, build quality, iron resolution/identification, audible and visual information in prospecting mode, coil type/size availability, good depth...what is there not to like about this unit.
A: Yeah, I've gotten so familiar with mine that I'l probably keep using it until it falls apart.

OK yes, it's more weighty, but I'll be happy to live with it for the sake of it's other many virtues. The MXT smacks of professionalism/quality, the F-75 smacks of irony...with it's tremendous depth/separation features...yet 2nd rate build quality, unusual disc/gain settings, and instability issues... especially with the JE mode. Still though, I like 'em both for what they offer. I will add two comments here: (a) when the weather stripping suddenly commenced peeling off from the meter just the other day, I was pi$$ed right off. (b) if I had to choose between the two units overall, no doubt at all, I'd settle on the MXT. How's that for clarity?

A: Yeah, I agree with everything you've said and until Fisher really takes a hard look at their build quality, streamlining their design, and using composites their business is going to suffer. Again, its one of the reasons I've kept my MXT, even though the machine is just at the edge of comfort for me right now with the stock coil. I tried to get somebody to give a clear idea of how much weight the Super 12 would add and its funny how hard it is to get a published weight on anything.

Bill, did you notice on the Detech site that they will be soon be presenting the SEF coils in various sizes for the 75?
A: I gotta wonder if a coil like that isn't going to offer more problems with instability. Just have to wait and see.

Bill W.

 

[BamaBill]

Many Many Thanks Jim, this kind of frank and open (as well as factual) discussion is why I thank my lucky stars that there are people such as yourself. Now I know that picking up a 12" coil for my MXT is worthwhile.

 

[SamsSon]

Glad to see good reviews on the 75. Back last year it seemed they were mostly very negative.

My dealer bud was getting them in on trade left and right.

I think I understand you though. The really deep machines are definitely not for beginners or the impatient.

I once put about 500 to maybe 1000 hours on a Nautilus IIB and I'll tell you that puppy is deep! But at first I thought it might make a good post for my mailbox. The real depth with this machine is with the 15 inch coil. I once dug a tiny very old shoe buckle that was about 15 inches deep in fill area. But that detector with the 15 inch coil will pick up powerlines on Mars! It's almost worthless in very high trash areas.

This is the same with the Tejon and Minelabs and lots of others. It's all about understanding the machine.

Hope you find a bunch with that 75.

 

[cosmic]

Hope you don't mind if I jump in here.. Well, I'm holding my opinion about the F75.. Even though its heading back to FTP with some problems, I think it will be a great detector if it works correctly!! I don't have a MXT but I do have a M6 and the 12" is my favorite coil!! I don't have a problem with it in the trash you just have to be quick on the trigger in the pinpoint mode.. If you get a high blib move around a little and sometimes you'll get a clear tone at a different angle.. Great depth and easy pinpointing..Sorry I butted in...