Anyone familiar with the Fisher F5?

[eddiecurrent]

I been considering adding it as a backup and beach machine. My dirt is S. Fl. mild, except of course for the wet beach sand.
The videos seem to show it as more stable than the F75, albeit maybe an inch or 2 less deep.

 

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[TheHunterGT]

The F5 is the early template for the newer Teknetics and Bounty Hunter (Frats Bros) machines at 7.69khz. The F5 is often considered by many as the best of the bunch because of the feature set. Performance however is very similar to the other Frat Bros machines as far as depth/recovery speed/unmasking etc etc....especially the ones that have manual Ground Balance (Land Ranger Pro, Gamma, Omega)

It is very stable because it is not anywhere as hot as the F75. The depth differences are probably more like 3-4 inches with the F75 being deeper and a much better ID at depth.

If you can spend a little more...most dealers are offering the anniversary F75 for $500 with a phone call.

 

[eddiecurrent]

Thanks Hunter, I'm on the treasure coast, and most of the time I beach hunt with an upgraded cz-20, but it's a little heavy for the dry sand.
I'm in the hurricane eyewall target, all boarded up and waiting for the first chance to hitail it to the beaches by the 1715 plate fleet wrecks. Hoping to find my first Spanish reale or...ahem...escoudo.
I've been doing this post-hurricane hunting for 20 yrs..

 

[digger27]

Just do a Google search with the name Mike Hillis and the words F5, settings, and so on.
He is a guru with many detectors but he has been able to get deep into the settings, the relationship between the gain, thresh and disc, and figured out how to do more amazing things with this one than most others.
His many posts from over the years and theories on settings and how to get the best out of this thing have been put together into something called the F5 Bible that can be downloaded from a few sites.
Here is one place you can get it, the bottom of the page titled F5 Tips and Tricks.
Fisher Metal Detectors

He is a serious hunter, great at coins and other things plus he is a jewelry hunter supreme and he believes this is one of the most underrated detectors on the market.
Also it has knobs...and who doesn't like them?

 

[TheHunterGT]

Also it has knobs...and who doesn't like them?

I laughed my butt off at that....amused easily I suppose.

Must say I love knobs over membrane buttons any day!

 

[roygpa]

A have an F5. Used for a couple months until I got schooled by a buddy on silver coins with an Etrac. Bought an Etrac the next day. Kept the F5 for a back up. Going to put fresh batteries in it this weekend and try it out again.

 

[TheHunterGT]

A have an F5. Used for a couple months until I got schooled by a buddy on silver coins with an Etrac. Bought an Etrac the next day. Kept the F5 for a back up. Going to put fresh batteries in it this weekend and try it out again.

Fairly certain the $2400 Etrac schools most detectors in the $300-500 range.

 

[Rogue Relic Hunter]

Fairly certain the $2400 Etrac schools most detectors in the $300-500 range.

agreed. not really fair to compare a $2400 detector to those in the $500-$600 class. I will take my $550 Pro and let the Etrac users get a little more depth (if they really do, i dont know). take the extra $ and go on a vacation somewhere and dig history.

 

[roygpa]

Good point and not that it makes much of a difference but the Etrac is around 1500.

 

[Rogue Relic Hunter]

Good point and not that it makes much of a difference but the Etrac is around 1500.

ya, i was thinking of the Minelab CTX 3030. even so...

 

[Fletch88]

For beach detecting the lower priced Safari will hang with the Etrac or ctx on wet/dry salt sand. You can pick them up fairly cheap and they will handle wet salt sand and be very deep.

 

[timelord]

I have both, if you have the money buy the Safari over the f5 you will enjoy detecting much more. Then again it's twice the price.

 

[eddiecurrent]

Just do a Google search with the name Mike Hillis and the words F5, settings, and so on.
He is a guru with many detectors but he has been able to get deep into the settings, the relationship between the gain, thresh and disc, and figured out how to do more amazing things with this one than most others.
His many posts from over the years and theories on settings and how to get the best out of this thing have been put together into something called the F5 Bible that can be downloaded from a few sites.
Here is one place you can get it, the bottom of the page titled F5 Tips and Tricks.
Fisher Metal Detectors

He is a serious hunter, great at coins and other things plus he is a jewelry hunter supreme and he believes this is one of the most underrated detectors on the market.
Also it has knobs...and who doesn't like them?

Thanks for the info!

 

[eddiecurrent]

I have both, if you have the money buy the Safari over the f5 you will enjoy detecting much more. Then again it's twice the price.

Funny you should say that, the local pawn shop has a safari out of pawn, I tried to check it's air depth, but I couldn't initiate it or get a response from a target because I'm unfamiliar with the set up and the pawnshop put the price sticker( $350) right over the screen, blocking everything.
Maybe I can read the online manual and go back and peel the sticker off, see if it works properly...I always offer pawn shops 20% less than their sticker and 9 times out of ten they agree.
But a new F5 is still tempting.
The few minelabs I borrowed from friends had a different response style from whites and fishers, they seemed to have a broader, delayish response signal over a target. I found them a little harder to pinpoint with.

 

[Fletch88]

Funny you should say that, the local pawn shop has a safari out of pawn, I tried to check it's air depth, but I couldn't initiate it or get a response from a target because I'm unfamiliar with the set up and the pawnshop put the price sticker( $350) right over the screen, blocking everything.
Maybe I can read the online manual and go back and peel the sticker off, see if it works properly...I always offer pawn shops 20% less than their sticker and 9 times out of ten they agree.
But a new F5 is still tempting.
The few minelabs I borrowed from friends had a different response style from whites and fishers, they seemed to have a broader, delayish response signal over a target. I found them a little harder to pinpoint with.

I would jump all over that! When you power up the machine just continue to hold down the power button. This will reset the machine and it will be in coin mode. Take a nickel, dime or quarter and check the tones. The nickel of course will be a mid tone and quarter sweet silvery high tone.

 

[timelord]

Safari does not air test well, just make sure it works and for $350 it a steal.... Go for it you will not regret it. Just for your info it take some time to learn it but it's worth the effort and will put the F5 to shame. Now for those F5 lovers I have both and I'm not trashing the F5 and with the Safari at twice the price it should do better....

 

[timelord]

One more thing the Safari will not give you any problem at the beach, just don't get the control box wet and your good to go.

When I do the beach here in WI I use a shoulder harness so I never drop it in the water works great, otherwise I use the strap for my 15"WOT....

 

[eddiecurrent]

I would jump all over that! When you power up the machine just continue to hold down the power button. This will reset the machine and it will be in coin mode. Take a nickel, dime or quarter and check the tones. The nickel of course will be a mid tone and quarter sweet silvery high tone.

Thanks! I'll try that.