Hey guys! I have a fisher f2 metal detector and I have a pretty solid grasp on It by now. I really want to get into the deeper coins, but I am not sure if I can reach them with the stock coil. My question to you is whether the 11in. DD coil would enable my detector to go fairly deeper than it does with the stock 8in. Coil. It is a pretty expensive coil, and I don't want to shed money on something that isn't worth it. I am also open to other coil suggestions such as he 10in. Concentric, 12x13 SEF, and NEL tornado coils. Thanks so much in advance!
Crazy4coins
My answer is try the 10" coil first.
Deeper than the 8", relatively cheap and easy to resell at a good price if you decide to go to another coil.
I bought the F2 as a take-on-vacation detector/backup about 3 years ago and it turned out this thing was so much fun, so easy to use and found me so much so easily it turned into one of, if not my main detector.
I also have a Vaquero and a Compadre and I rotate between the 3.
I have learned a ton about this great little unit, read all posts I come across about it and have written some pretty detailed posts about using it that have helped many others.
Because of what I have written about this one, (on other forums), the tips on using it and the insights I have learned and freely posted for others to learn from and the pictures of some of my great finds, I suspect I have sold many dozens of these for Fisher and have had several dozen new owners contact me or post that they made the decision to buy this great detector because of them, and have thanked me profusely.
Still learning, I try to do this on every hunt with any detector I use, but I do know a lot and this is what I have learned about coils.
The 8" is the one I used for close to 2 years and it found me a bunch, but out of all the coils available for me it seems to be the most susceptible to EMI.
Depth in good soil should be close to 8", and I have picked up solid dimes at 7-8" with mine in the past that were solid, repeatable and stable and were id'd correctly at this depth in the pinpoint numbers.
Many have used the 11"DD and have reported about 2" more in depth than the 8".
I have never used one because I have a large DD coil I use on my Vaquero, but the large area this kind of coil covers is fantastic, I don't feel like I miss much when using it, and have wide open areas to cover this coil gets the call.
In areas of heavier mineralization the DD coil should work a little better than the concentrics, but like most DD coils you will give up a little sharpness on the disc and some high end pop tops will react like dimes and quarters.
The 10" coil costs way less and I have acquired one for my F2.
Not a lot of time on it but I have discovered that it will give me a little more stable signals and numbers than the 8" coil on deeper targets, in my case seems to handle EMI better, (I usually hunt on max sense most of the time), and will actually go about those same extra 2" or so in depth over the 8" as the DD coil has been reported to do.
The 10" coil really shines in moist soil, however, and 2"
or more is very common under these conditions.
I have read posts from owners that have mounted NEL and SEF coils on the F2 and have gotten some scary depth, and others that have not seen much of a difference at all.
A lot of this depends on your soil conditions but most of the time these will get you a little deeper.
My opinion on these more expensive coil is they are not for me, I would rather put my money into a deeper overall unit like an F70 or F75, which will not only get deeper with standard coils but ID deeper targets a little better, too, but that is me.
About a year ago I finally mounted my sniper coil and pretty soon after regretted not doing this much earlier.
Much easier to isolate all signals and especially in the very trashy sites I tend to target, and it has found me so much more volume of targets, and also so many more better quality targets that it is my prime coil on my F2 and rarely leaves the bottom shaft unless I am looking for more depth and I will put the 10" coil on at that point.
My 8" coil is all but retired, now, the 10" and sniper is all that I will use and the sniper is mounted 98% of the time.
Another thing that shocked me when using the sniper is how many more targets I found using it, not only at trashy sites but sites that were not so trashy and I was sure I cleaned up very efficiently using the larger coils and other detectors, too.
Masking is a much bigger problem than most believe, I think, and that sniper makes my hunted out sites like new again and like I said this was shocking to me.
I find a lot of great targets with all my detectors and the F2 is no different but what it has found for me in the last 12 months after I mounted the sniper coil is almost unbelievable.
All finds in this pic were with the F2 and sniper coil.
Site selection has a lot to do with these finds in the pic below, as does techniques I have learned to recognize and dig these great items, but the fact is since I put on that sniper I have found several very nice silver chains, lots of silver rings including some huge ones, clad galore but also some older coins including silver, and most importantly to me because I am a jewelry hunter 8 gold rings and a gold chain among some other great treasure.
Looking for deeper items and coins the bigger coils would be your choice, if you are on the prowl for jewelry or most other targets at about 6" or less in depth there is nothing better than the sniper, especially in all sites with a good amount of trash.
If anyone is brand new to the F2 and have that sniper coil available I now recommend that as the one all newbies should start with.
It is way easier to learn on this than the bigger coils because you will get way less jumping number behavior due to the fact you will not have so many multiple targets under that coil at the same time, and it is just easier to deal with and more stable than the standard and bigger coils as you are learning.
