Fisher 1260X - anyone still have one?

[DeepseekerADS]

I've mentioned my trusty Fisher 1260X on this site quite a number of times. I look back and put the chronology together and realize I actually purchased this baby in 1983, for something over $500 if my memory serves me well.

I still have it, and it still works great, just like the day I first filled it with batteries. Certainly I beat it up severely over time - the coil is now at about a 90 degree angle off the control box, so cumbersome to swing - but I'll continue to bring it out occasionally.

And I realize they are rare machines today.

Does anyone here still have one?

 

[woof!]

It was introduced approx. May 1982, so you have one of the earliest ones made. It had enormous impact on the industry-- its mechanical design made it almost impossible for anyone to sell a U-handle machine any more, and the second derivative discriminator pioneered by the 1260-X is still the industry standard discriminator topology-- with a lot of improvements since then of course.

 

[roaddust66]

I have one in the basement somewhere. Its design was a milepost in detecting. It changed everything. I had been using the Fisher 555-D with a 11" loop , hunting civil war. About the time I bought a 1260X a company called Tesoro started coming on strong. i used the 1260X for coin hunting. It worked like a bandit. But the Tesoro Inca was the undisputed KING DADDY of the civil war battle fields. Then came the 1265Xand the Tesoro El Dorado . Both tremendous relic machines with the El Dorado having a slight edge in depth and the 1265X becoming the better all around detector. I saw a guy wrap a brand new Fisher 1260X around a tree at the battlefields near Dallas/New Hope Georgia because everyone was hearing deep stuff and the proud new 1260X owner was not. it looked like a golf course scene where golf clubs were flying thru the air but it was a 1260X

 

[DeepseekerADS]

I must have bought mine in '82 then. I was swinging the Garrett Deepseeker ADS III, and there was a park in Monroe, MI which had an area with so much slag in it, the ADS just went too wild to use. I remember seeing an ad in W&E Treasure for the 1260X. I was happy with the Garrett, but was hearing so much good about the 1260X, I bought one. It hadn't been out long, and it certainly wasn't a full year after issue.

I went straight to that park and the slag area. The Fisher cut through that area like butter, and one of the first targets I pulled out was a WL half. I'd owned a number of machines by then, and they went idle on me because I was in love with the Fisher. I don't even remember what I did with the ADS, but I kept the 1260X all these years. I did pick up a Tesoro Royal Sabre for the notch discrimination - that would have been around '85. But I ended up using that only twice. Liked the Fisher better. You're right, it was the most comfortable beast I used. The White's and Garrett's got pretty heavy after serious swinging, and you had to swing the White's very fast for some reason I forget.....

As for depth, I was digging silver dimes at 8"+ with the 1260...

 

[roaddust66]

I had an ADS Deepseeker. Great Civil War Machine until I started running around with a bunch of guys using Fishers. I had a 553d and a 555D. They had better discriminators than the ADSDeepseeker. I could see why you would love hunting coins with the 1260X ....it would be like the difference between a sports car and a truck of all the machines mentioned

 

[bargee]

Just dug my old 1260X out of the attic and am going to power up. However I want to try it in streams. Anyone know if the standard coil is waterproof?

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Glad to hear you're powering it up after all these years.

I don't remember anything anywhere which said the coil was waterproof.

Please do a heck of a lot more research on that! I'd hate to hear of the death of another classic machine.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

By the way, the 1260X is the only original machine from my 80's hunting. I've replaced the others over time, just to have them back for my "history". Really don't know what I did to all the others = some (many) years of divorce turning the world upside down. She met another while I was working 12-16 hours a day to keep up with her spending. Had a whole lot of times sleeping on somebody else's couch. I ended up broke more than once. But, life AND FAITH are good if you try to be good. All is well here.

 

[smokeythecat]

Wow! I must be old! I now remember the "U" handles!

 

[bleeohio]

My first "good" machine was a 1260. I was still in high school and putzin around with the big blue box whites, which I did find a few goodies, but once I got my teenage claws on that Fisher I really piled up some good stuff. Bought my second car with silver I'd found. Girls be darned!!! I still have the rod and coil but I sent the box out years ago for a repair and never saw it again.. I'm sad now