F2 vs Ace 250

[robert roy]

Reading this thread gives me the impression that, while having an all around detector is nice, if one
is becoming a serious detectionist, one might WANT more than one detector just because one IS better at silver than another, or better at finding gold than XYZ brand etc. It seems that in trying to make the best all around detector , the manufacture has to sacrifice in one area or another. Any commets from the old timers?

Robert Roy

 

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[gallileo60]

As far as the Ace 250, and the Land Star goes the Ace spanks it all the way...I own both....Also once you learn how, pinpointing with the 250 is a breeze...I did have trouble at first, until i was shown the proper way to do it.....I am looking forward to trying the F-2, and if it has a bit more depth than the 250...AWESOME.....That is the only thing that I do not like about the 250, is the lack of depth.....For the money, it is still one of the best buys out there.....I have owned alot of detectors over the years, and it is by far the lightest, and the easiest to use.....I carry mine everywhere...The 1350 is no better than the Ace, except on beaches, which BTW it is true the 250 does not like salt....I am very disappointed with the 1350 I latched on to recently....The 1350 is a bit awkward to me, and slightly heavy.....As for the stem, I have moved rocks with my Ace, never had any problems there..........I will wait, but will for sure try the F-2..My buddy always buys new toys, so I will get to play with his F-2 when I talk him into buying it.....Happy Hunting Everyone........

 

[Merf]

There is a long thread about the F2 at this other forum. See link.
I was going to buy one but not sure now.
I will wait for more reviews I guess.


http://www.findmall.com/read.php?37,629213,page=1

 

[bavarianminister]

After seeing what Michigan Badger says about the F2 - I will not purchase one. Too many issues with the target I.D. not reading right. You may miss some really good finds if you purchase the F2. Hopefully - Fisher will get that resolved. I appreciate badger's input on the F2 - at least he's honest!

Bavarianminister

 

[ikes4ever]

yeah i am gonna hold off on the F2 for now thanks for all the input

 

[Felinepeachy]

Just my two cents worth but I think the Ace will go haywire at the beach. At least that has been my experience. As far as pretty much anywhere else, it's a great md to learn on.

 

[robert roy]

Yea, I'm no longer that keen on buying the F2
anymore either. I already have two excellent
detetors, so I will wait for a few months until I
see more posts regarding the F2.

RR

 

[r.r.warren]

Ive heard that the f2 and f4 where bounty hunters with a fisher sticker slapped on them is this true?

 

[Dan B]

Ive heard that the f2 and f4 where bounty hunters with a fisher sticker slapped on them is this true?

Depends who you ask. Those that like them would say no way. Everyone else would probably say yes, they are BH's. I've never used a BH, so I'm in no position to comment on whether being a BH is a good or bad thing, but it sure makes for some amusing discussions. I'm going to sit back with a bag of popcorn and watch this one!

Dan

 

[SC_hunter]

I have a BH Tracker IV.. It was my second detector at the time and I found a lot of coins with it. I have since used Whites and Garretts. I have the Ace 250 and love it with the sniper coil. The Whites gets the most use now but I still go back to the BH from time to time. I think it is not the detector but knowing how to use the one you have that makes the difference between finding and not finding.

 

[gallileo60]

Just my two cents worth but I think the Ace will go haywire at the beach. At least that has been my experience. As far as pretty much anywhere else, it's a great md to learn on.

My ace hatews the beach, but everywhere else it rocks...I love the sniper coil......If the ace had about 2 more inches, I swear it would be damn near perfect....Im holding oiff on the F2 also till I hear more about it......BH's are alright, just feel a little cheap I think...My ace goes deeper than my land star tho that is for sure.....

 

[robert roy]

It was my understanding that the Ace did ok on dry beach snad depending on how much black sna d was there, but was terrible in the salt water. Is suppose to be great in fresh water! I have the ace bt have never taken it to a fresh water lake.

I wonder how the Silvr uMax would do in any of those conditions?
ANyone know?

Regards
RObert R

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

well that is the truth. its a hobby not a way of living for me. just want to find some clad thats all.

Couple years back I found a used Minelab Muskateer Advantage with two coils, rechargeable batteries & wall wart, two coil covers and the hip bag for $250 and never looked back. It is deep and dependable. My Fisher F-75 edges it out in all categories, but cost a LOT more to do it. If you can find a used Musky it will eat the Ace 250 & F-2's lunches and Minelab will service it for something like $15/hr if it does need service (one of my coils had yanked the plug loose when the prior owner took a header off a wash-out with it). It's very much an analog detector and there is some "zen" to using it, but at least it doesn't lie to your with best-guess icons. I carry a nickle in my finds pouch and set it to just accept that in trashy sites.

It likes foil and pulltabs, but if you listen carefully you can usually tell the trash (dig the vowels, pass on the clicks and constants). For relics you have to spend quite a bit to beat it.

 

[dazoff]

I have an ace 250 at the ocean it does false a fair bit so I don't take it there. Only use the sniper coil on it. Have bought the Fisher F2 no time yet to get out with it and compare but will at some point. Just picked up a CZ-21 as well to run with my excals and sandshark. Dan

 

[Bill(de)]

Hi Charlie P.

I agree with you on the Advantage as i bought one shortly after the Muskateer became the Advantage and is one detector i will not sell at this point. There is a confidence factor with the Advantage on deep copper,brass and silver that is hard to beat.
Having said that i do enjoy using 2 filter, tone ID machines at very trashy sites and the F2 is competing with my Whites M6 as first grab detector at sites where potential older targets are relatively shallow but target masking (not depth) is the main obstacle to overcome. I firmly believe using any tool necessary to perform a certain task and look for the strong points of any detector or coil combination to achieve the best performance.The F2 is hard to beat at extremely trashy sites where target separation and isolation are the ultimate goal and detection depth is secondary. Just a few thoughts. HH Bill

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

You've hit on the Achilies Heel of the Musky - trash. Especially aluminum. I was just making the point that for a hunter on a budget that "just wants to find some clad that's all" there are used detectors out there that have a lot to offer.

I hunt in a town park that hosts a carnival and has more than a little foil and "can slaw" and it was a bit frustrating with the Musky. The notch and discrimination on my F-75 can make a fun lunch break from work when I bop down to the park for an hour and just want to dig coins and ignore trash. But in sites with potential jewelry and old, deep silver and copper I drop the discrimination and notch and don't loose much to the old Musky. The "99" digits of a TID still leave me debating whether a 45 is a ring or a pulltab, but when I want to dig nothing but coins I can.

If I had a gun to my head and a F2 vs Ace 250 to pick I'd grab the F2 and run.

 

[Sal]

Just wanted to say that the ground balance only works in the all metal mode not in the disc mode it is preset in disc on the lobo s.t ..............

I don't really have any opinions about the subject, I just shoot straight from the hip. If I don't know by experience, I won't write it to be so, count on it.

Many years ago Garrett and Fisher had the deepest all-metal detectors ever made except for the Nexus. This was back in the 70's. Garrett and White decided to chase the European and eastern US market so they didn't put as much into the makings of their detectors for high iron/salt soils any more. Garrett is more guilty of this than White's. Big mistake! A couple of years ago Garrett tried to remedy the situation by offering an aftermarket chip for bad soils. They didn't quite get it right though, they still suck.

I owned an Ace 250 (past tense) and compared it to the new F-2, and the Ace might as well be left in the truck if you brought another detector costing $150 or more, just like I did with mine. I too listened to the hype and when I got the thing I was really disappointed when I compared it to my cheapest Tesoros, BH's, old Compasses, and several different White's.

If someone is wanting a detector for the first time, the Ace is no better than a low-priced Bounty Hunter, because I own one, a Land Star. I paid 30 bucks for it, the right price. In fact the Land Star may be a bit better. One of the best BH I've owned (in the 70's) found more coins than any other detector I've ever owned, with the Silver Sabre finding the most silver rings and jewelry, and the CZ-70 finding the most gold rings. Out of all the detectors I've owned, all the I've used in the last 34 years and the ones that I've repaired, I can say that Tesoros and Fishers are the least trouble to work on and the least problematic. The A.H Pros were the worst. These new Fishers are the cream of the crop, and the Tesoros are a close second.

Right now, the best (new) all-around detector for the money is probably the Tesoro Lobo Supertraq, but it costs more than many others. It has the best and fastest automatic ground balance on the market, even better than Minelabs, and Minelab's auto GB is really good too. The LST does just about everything right, but doesn't have all the toys. It really is a professional's detector, an excellent cherry-picker, not a toy, and is great in bad ground, beaches, and nugget hunting too, nugget hunting anywhere. It will find BB sized nuggets at 5". The F-4 and F-2 are close, but they are not made for nugget hunting and the LST is.

The best low-priced detector for the money is the F-2, count on it. It is hot! It's light, precise, and keeps up with the high-priced VW's at the dragstrip too.

 

[FoundSomething]

Hi EasyMoney, have you tested the Tesoro Umax Silver against the F2? I bought an F2 and am thinking of getting another high performance, low cost machine as a back up. thanks, Stephen

I don't really have any opinions about the subject, I just shoot straight from the hip. If I don't know by experience, I won't write it to be so, count on it.

Many years ago Garrett and Fisher had the deepest all-metal detectors ever made except for the Nexus. This was back in the 70's. Garrett and White decided to chase the European and eastern US market so they didn't put as much into the makings of their detectors for high iron/salt soils any more. Garrett is more guilty of this than White's. Big mistake! A couple of years ago Garrett tried to remedy the situation by offering an aftermarket chip for bad soils. They didn't quite get it right though, they still suck.

I owned an Ace 250 (past tense) and compared it to the new F-2, and the Ace might as well be left in the truck if you brought another detector costing $150 or more, just like I did with mine. I too listened to the hype and when I got the thing I was really disappointed when I compared it to my cheapest Tesoros, BH's, old Compasses, and several different White's.

If someone is wanting a detector for the first time, the Ace is no better than a low-priced Bounty Hunter, because I own one, a Land Star. I paid 30 bucks for it, the right price. In fact the Land Star may be a bit better. One of the best BH I've owned (in the 70's) found more coins than any other detector I've ever owned, with the Silver Sabre finding the most silver rings and jewelry, and the CZ-70 finding the most gold rings. Out of all the detectors I've owned, all the I've used in the last 34 years and the ones that I've repaired, I can say that Tesoros and Fishers are the least trouble to work on and the least problematic. The A.H Pros were the worst. These new Fishers are the cream of the crop, and the Tesoros are a close second.

Right now, the best (new) all-around detector for the money is probably the Tesoro Lobo Supertraq, but it costs more than many others. It has the best and fastest automatic ground balance on the market, even better than Minelabs, and Minelab's auto GB is really good too. The LST does just about everything right, but doesn't have all the toys. It really is a professional's detector, an excellent cherry-picker, not a toy, and is great in bad ground, beaches, and nugget hunting too, nugget hunting anywhere. It will find BB sized nuggets at 5". The F-4 and F-2 are close, but they are not made for nugget hunting and the LST is.

The best low-priced detector for the money is the F-2, count on it. It is hot! It's light, precise, and keeps up with the high-priced VW's at the dragstrip too.

 

[EasyMoney]

Well, here is something interesting FoundSomething..

I tested my old and ancient

A H Pro Backpacker II,
an old 1980 Tesoro Silver Saber,
an Ace 250,
plus an F-2

..in a black sand beach area on the S. Santiam River in Lebanon, Oregon - about two months ago. It's where I go to see if a detector is worth a ....p!

There was a signal with the F-2 on three different targets in the sand there.

I ran the Ace 250 over the exact same spot and "nada". Zip. Nothing. Just a lot of howling and garbled noise. Couldn't tell if the noise was a target or just falsing, because it was doing it everywhere i looked. Even in all-metal.

Away from the soil, the Ace behaved a lot better, but few people look for coins in the air, or at least, I don't. I have better ways to spend my time.. Aces suck in black sand or salt soil.

The ancient Silver Saber found them, but just barely. A very soft sound.

Then I fired up the late 70's Backpacker II. Presto! Clear, but typically sort of a weak buzzy bee-like sound on all three of the targets. That unit is an old Induction Balance type and weighs only 2 pounds or so.

All four detectors were set to cancel small iron nails. Up 2 Inches away from the soil though, and none of them would make a noise. The F-2 gave the strongest signal and higher off the ground too.

Then I got out the cz-70. It gave a signal 4" off the ground.

All three targets turned out to be old crusted up 80's US pennies at 3 inches. That piece of crap Ace was about as worthless as a detector could get. Aces DO NOT work well in highly mineralized soil, but the F-2 gets greater depth if you scan it real quickly.

Aces completely lose the signal of scanned too fast.

The old Tesoro Silver Sabre gets less depth than the Silver uMax in normal black sand, about one inch less. The newer Silver uMax likes iron a bit more though, even in discriminate.


On Metaldetectorreviews.com there are a few posts about F-2's. Three or four of the people who tested them were complete beginners, or did not take the time to learn them or understand them. Another 3 or 4 did though, and there were complete opposites in their findings. You get the same results with any detector, some people absolutely hate some detectors and some just about love them, because of prejudice or brand-loyalty. Some detectors deserve the hating though. I don't have any patience for junk detectors., or for people who don't take the time to learn them and make false judgements like that.

The F-2 is an average detector with a cheap price tag, that (will) work anywhere.

So is the Silver uMax.

The Ace is a below average detector with a cheap price tag, that (won't) work everywhere. It should work better than the old BackPacker II, but it doesn't.

 

[Rifleman]

Save yourself a lot of trouble and get a Minelab X-Terra 70. It's the best all around detector going. Great on Gold too. Do a little research and you will find that 99% of the people that have bought one love them. I also have an Ace 250 and it's like a toy compared the the X-Terrra. The model 70 has a great beach mode, very sensitive prospecting mode and a fantastic coin and relic mode. Lots of coil choices also. The only bad point I have found is that it tends to ID coke bottle caps as quarters, that's the one and only flaw I have found. The 4 AA batteries last forever and the machine only weighs 2.9 pounds. What more could you want?

Good hunting, John K