F75 vs Etrac and AT Pro.

[Rawhide]

I have the privilege to own all three and can say hands down the F75 still out hunts the other two. Not that Etrac or AT Pro are slouches in any way. The F75 to me has a slight edge in how sensitive it is.

The scenario is city parks, mostly tot lots. Same parks, and many many many hunts lol.

The AT Pro will get the coins but misses the jewelry. Small stuff, rings of course it hits hard like any machine. Likes nails and wire.....

Etrac will do everything but mow the lawn. But haven't found a coil that can get within a foot of large iron. But the discrimination is fantastic, but it also misses stuff. On old silver I would say it has a edge on the F75 and AT Pro.

The F75 is light, great on battery's. I use the battery's out of my AT Pro when they get low. With the upgrade I can run stock 11" inch coil and get fairly close to poles. Nails and large iron are very easily identified by sound. It has large numbers for a blind old guy like me. It has a very fast recovery time so I can swing it, and the faster you swing the deeper it goes. There is also a lil trick of bouncing the coil to check for bottle caps and such. I really only dig trash when I choose to.

So the purpose of this post is to say the hype got me to buy two machines i really didnt need. I have four coils for the etrac and two coils for the AT Pro. I have diggers, pouches, pin pointers and such for all three. I setting here figuring out how much I actually have in these and how much I have been missing with the other two. Just my thoughts, Ill post pictures of what I found yesterday in hunted out parks(by me) yesterday. I was digging down to the tarp underneath the chips, would say ten inches or more on some targets. These targets I would not dig with the other two.

The only draw back of the F75 is it likes foil. You can not disc that out of you want it to work. Anyway folks dont sell your detectors just yet for the next new thing. Enjoy the pictures.

This is me under the play equipment. I didn't bother showing all the coins and junk as I did dig everything. But the dirty stuff was found in the same spots I hunt with the other two detectors. I switch off as I have my moods. The clean change was found under a chain rope, was using the pin pointer and found them. It was a quick hunt and I couldn't do the whole park. But I would think I could double or triple this easily. Happy Hunting.

 

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[Loco-Digger]

Thanks for the post Casca. I had an XP Deus for almost a year. Got it for a great deal, but ended up selling it since it never hit on anything my F75LTD would not have found. The Deus is a great machine, but my mindset (with 3 years experience with the Fisher) is I'd rather be super proficient on one machine than so-so on two.

I did get a great deal on a slightly used F70 which came with the stock concentric coil. I always wanted to see how the concentric coil works and after using it at a park I came to the realization that the DD works best for me. The F70 is so much like the F75 that I may keep it, just to keep a different coil installed than what I am swinging on the F75. This will allow me to pull it out when needed and not have to stop to swap coils. I know I must be getting lazy since all my coils are mounted on their own shafts.

 

[HighVDI]

Just posted the same thing to a member looking for a new machine. I think $600.00 for the SE f75 is a great deal. Has so many features for that price. People get caught up in the new is better but I keep seeing people swinging those old cz machines with awesome success amongst other brands like tesoro ect. Loco digger is spot on. Nothing beats knowing your machine.

 

[Rawhide]

I have the upgraded LTD 2, and run stock coil. Very happy with it. Guess I am the same as I am good with the F75.

 

[Opie]

Great post, I am fortunate to sorta have all three. I have the F70 instead of the 75. I don't know I would rate one over the other but rather say each has its own place. The At-Pro is my bad weather machine or water edge locator, the Etrac is great for locations shifting quickly in ground density or type, multi frequency keeps me from ground grabbing or balancing all the time in these conditions. Now the F-70 is the real Fisher/First Texas sleeper! lite quick and capable this is a very under-rated machine. Stay Gold! opie

 

[Loco-Digger]

Great post, I am fortunate to sorta have all three. I have the F70 instead of the 75. I don't know I would rate one over the other but rather say each has its own place. The At-Pro is my bad weather machine or water edge locator, the Etrac is great for locations shifting quickly in ground density or type, multi frequency keeps me from ground grabbing or balancing all the time in these conditions. Now the F-70 is the real Fisher/First Texas sleeper! lite quick and capable this is a very under-rated machine. Stay Gold! opie

Do you ever use SL mode?

 

[Rawhide]

Just a follow up. I have found if you swing low and slow next to large iron you can sometimes pull a coin or ring signal you would miss on a normal swing. The stock DST has really settled down the stock coil on the F75. Still love my etrac and AT Pro, and they still get hunted. Just been sidetracked around the house with other priority's.

 

[HighVDI]

Just a follow up. I have found if you swing low and slow next to large iron you can sometimes pull a coin or ring signal you would miss on a normal swing. The stock DST has really settled down the stock coil on the F75. Still love my etrac and AT Pro, and they still get hunted. Just been sidetracked around the house with other priority's.

After talking with Nasa Tom on the phone he mentioned a couple things and one was swing speed....or slowing down the swing. I've unlocked quite a bit of non ferrous targets just by doing this. One that really stands out to me was a toasty but legible matron head large cent. Been over that spot dozens of times with multiple machines.

Went in and slowed down the swing and kept getting a repeating faint high tone in between the iron. 7-8 inches down was the old copper! So, even swinging slow the f75 will still seek deep!

I've noticed some of my best targets are those little blips for signals in the trash.

 

[Rookster]

Hey Casca
I too own the F75 LTD. I also use the stock coil except in ares where emi is really bad. But me favorite coil is the
The 4" is super deep for a small coil. I run mind on old parks, old schools and such in notch a good bit. This past weekend on an old football field that I've hunted probably 125 times, I notched the first half of foil, the last have of nickel and all of tabs. Ran in BP with sens.60 to70 . Tones on 3 and ran ground balance factory settings +2. And had great success over the 81/2 ×11. If you don't have the 4", I suggest looking around for one. Got mind at Kellyco years ago. And it a ton lighter. This was last weekend's finds with the four".
And one coil spill about 4" down. Love this machine because you can notch out a lot of the chatter. On the foil notch, just knock out the first half. Then you will pick up most of the gold signals in the higher foil numbers. Good luck to all.

 

[HighVDI]

Pretty sure the hockey puck is a 5"...

Definitely turns the f75 into quite the sniper though!

 

[Rawhide]

Regardless of the size of the small coil, it is hard to take it off once you hunt with it. It is super light and separates very well. Nasa Tom has some great articles on the F75. I once turned my sensitivity all way to zero, guess what. It still hunted. The little zip that sounds like a bee is almost always silver. I use boost mode just to check targets, really dont need to run it maxed out. Just my 2 cents.

 

[aaroncr]

Regardless of the size of the small coil, it is hard to take it off once you hunt with it. It is super light and separates very well. Nasa Tom has some great articles on the F75. I once turned my sensitivity all way to zero, guess what. It still hunted. The little zip that sounds like a bee is almost always silver. I use boost mode just to check targets, really dont need to run it maxed out. Just my 2 cents.

Little zip that sounds like a bee?? Tell me more ! Or I would be happy to have a link to the article. Thanks -Aaron

 

[Rawhide]

Article was cross posted on several forums. I would try Big Boys Hobbies and see if they still have the write up. I dont know how deep you are digging with your F75 but I use headphones. I also started with a gold handled original F75 with not DST upgrade. It was very noisy around power lines and houses and such. But you had to hunt it noisy to get the good stuff. When swinging you could hear just a little wisp of a signal most would ignore. Do not ignore those deep signals like that. You will know when you dig one. Large iron will fool ya, but Im telling you there is some quirks about the F75 you wont read in a book. The reason I bought a Etrac was the science behind it and the sound it made over non ferrous targets. After seeing how the etrac performed I tried to simulate the same performance with my F75. It made me a much better detectorist. Im no expert, but I do find stuff. I really enjoy going out and trying fooling my detector.

 

[Rookster]

I like to hunt in BP in the wide open spaces where emi is not so bad. It's as deep as any machine in that mode with the right setup. I also run the NEL Tornado coil in low emi situations. It's a killer deep coil. And I too have been ground balancing with sensitivity at 0 and have picked up targets. It's just a good all round machine.

 

[aaroncr]

Thanks gents,..appreciate the info.