First impressions on Fisher F-75

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Came home tonight and found a package waiting. Bouncing baby F-75 on the doorstep. A little lightly constructed compared to my Musketeer, but noticably lighter and MUCH better balanced. The shaft has a little side play, but the fore & aft tip of the coil is much tighter. Beefier knob arrangement.

I took her out to my test garden and, on the default settings, did have trouble picking up both the 12" flat and 12" on edge clad quarters in my bed. It's been dry and I couldn't pick them up with my Minelab, either. In pinpoint mode it read 12" on the nose and pinpointed right smack on the plastic golf tees I use as markers. I did not experience the bothersome noises some complain of - and I was within 30 feet of powerlines. I also had the sensitivity set at 20. Cranking it up to 55 brought signals from the quarters, but also false signals. With the display it is easy to determine a good signal from a false.

I then wandered the yard and brushlot just to get a feel (didn't even bring a trowel). I found it very easy to make adjustments. One button to push, one knob to turn (the on/off/volume knob is at your elbow). I played around in all metal and had LOTS of hits from the roofing nails & c. around the house. The discrimination mode gave not a peep in those spots. Nice. I also note that the shotshell base in my test garden read "25" in every direction and sensitivity setting I tried. That is a blessing as in some spots I hunt they are the most common trash. Found the first coin I have turned in the year I've been here - a 1994D Roosevelt dime near the front door among the roofing nails. Display read "80" in all directions and the pinpoint minimum depth was 5, just flipping to 4 briefly. I found it at 4" in the 2" x 2" wide hole I struck with my Lesche (which I had to get out of the car just to see what this "high" signal was). Close enough.

I'm going to try the park tomorrow at lunchtime and then I'll wring her out in earnest in my test bed and start logging signals and the dig results. Tonight was just a preliminary get-the-feel session. I'm very happy so far. I do note a lot of tones when swinging through brush/weeds in rough areas, but no more than my Minelab produces. LOTS of experimenting yet to be done with discrimination, notching, tones, sensitivity and modes. It may be weeks before I know enough about this detector to judge her. Tomorrow we'll see how she does "close-and-play" on clad at the park.

I also got a single (half a pair) DetectorPro Rattler headphone. Keeps one ear open for noises around you. Worked very well, especially after I realized the off-side pad is also adjustable. Wasn't too comfortable until I worked that out. I think this is going to become my pimary equipment even though my Black Widows are wonderful.

On a related side note: the F-Point pinpointer that I was neutral about is much nicer than I imagined. I kind of like it! I had read a bum review that the cap did not stay in place. I can fix that! I put the battery into the base by pressing it into the foam and it fits snugly between the little flanges that engage recesses in the handel. I was afraid I might break it trying to remove the end cap again for these images! It is TIGHT when the battery is placed this way. Seems to work fine, fits perfectly in a sleeve that was already in my carpenter's belt pouch. I would prefer a momentary switch instead of a combined twist on/off & sensitivity knob. But for free you won't hear me complaining. Worked well in my trial digs tonight.

 

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[Montana Jim]

Nice looking outfit... Looks promising...

I'll be watching this post.

 

[EDDE]

nice find

 

[cosmic]

I use the F-Point pinpointer as well.. I seen a post where someone stretched a rubberband between the knob and the shaft back around the battery cap.. Does help from bumping the knob.. But your right, all that needs to be done is the foam in the cap to be crushed a bit to fit..One other thing if you use it like I do.. Coat about a inch of the tip with 2 ton epoxy...Wore through the tip by pushing it in the ground.. Probably not recommended but works great on soft soil conditions...
Ray

 

[SC_hunter]

I will also be watching to see how you like it Charlie...and good hunting over the weekend.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Here are today's lunch hour results. First "true" hunt at a local town park. 52 minutes on site. Sensitivity set to 42, Discrimination set at 50 out of 99 with Low Nickels range notched back in (33 on the VDI scale). Mode on dE (default), Tones on 2F (two tone - iron low, coins high). Ground balance was FASTGRAB (two seconds of pumping) and was hovering around 65 the whole time.

This park has four other detectorists that I know of, and I've been hitting it for four years now. The results were very encouraging. I found the F-75 to be very stable with none of the random noise complaints some have voiced (but I'm used to a talky detector and that may be why).

The oldest quarter (1978) was UNDER the monkey bars in 2" of woodchips. I was completely surrounded with bars (even banged my head on the hand loops standing up) and the detector was stable. I could hunt to within 8" or so of the ladders and legs before it screeched.

I note that all the individual coins stayed bang on VDI when I "X"ed over them. Within series the VDI moved two or three but was pretty consistant. VDI is new to me and so this is a vast improvement over "beep". The brass case returned a 60 when swept, but in the opposite direction read 45 then 53 and 53 to 45 (45 was the neck and 53 the base when dug) repeatedly with an obvious "be-deep" & "de-beep" in the headset. This tells me the Fisher is fast enough to register close targets as advertised.

All post 1982 cents (the corroded ones) read 58 or 59. The Canadian read 73 and the '82 read 60 and the '76 read 70. The chip quarter read 83, and the others 82 and 81 (they were about 4" deep - read "5" on pinpoint).

I found one piece of metal that read 81 in the sweep but did not respond in the fore & aft sweep of the "X" (a symptom of trash). Dug that just to see what it was. Not sure what it is. No corrosion or rust.

The little chunk or wire read "38" and was in sand at a volleyball court. I dug that just to see what it was. The depth registered as 16" and I was curious as all get out. I dug that deep and found nothing with the F-Point, waved the piles and it was there, again found nothing. Finally resorted to halving the pile of dug sand and sweeping, then halving the pile again and repeating. So, I found this 3/4" something that may indeed have been that deep but I can't be sure. Possibly a twisted & pitted hunk of aluminum wire? It was in the trash range and I wouldn't have dug it except I am still in the "test" mode on the F-75 (and may be for months yet).

So far in my hands with a moderate sensitivity setting I am finding the unit stable and capable. I will start upping the sensitivity to see if I can coax deeper coins out. The above is a pretty representative mix of coins (would like to find a nickel to test the Notch setting). Nothing excitingly old or deep, but I was running "close and play" defaults - and the park isn't that old (formerly pastureland and graded level). It certainly avoided foil and pulltabs. I have NEVER hunted this park and avoided them with my Musketeer. Certainly makes for a more pleasant lunchbreak (now I have to go back and see if I missed a gold ring, though).

So far I'm very pleased with the F-75.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Further adventures with my new F-75. Results of using her at my club's Spring Fun-Hunt on the fourth day of ownership.

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