Those first few weeks with my F70, I was thinking the same thing. "Those numbers are crazy. How do you get an accurate reading?" Since then have noticed that a lot of my problem was with my swing. On deep targets, especially rusted iron, if my swing hits the side of the target I get numbers that are as much as 40 points different than when I hit the target in the center. That's one of the main reasons I like using 1F. When I was using 4F that one target was giving me multiple sounding as my coil approached, went directly over and than moved away from the object. It was on the verge of driving me crazy. Now with 1F and the Discrim set at "6" I sweep my coil until I get a clean solid signal. Then I concentrate on the location of that signal. When its location is known, I sweep the coil back and forth at a fairly rapid speed and the ID numbers are very accurate. Some targets will still be jumpy but I have found almost all of those to be junk. The one area I am still experimenting with is in very trashy sites where "masking" occurs often. In such sites there seems to be a discernible difference is the way the number jumps around. I can't really explain it but it seems to be that 6th sense kind of thing you get when you know your machine. Being new myself with the F70, I am averaging a coin about 10% of the time I dig in these trashy sites. Its very slow going at that rate but this is a fairground that has been hammered by others for years. Keep practicing and tinkering with your adjustments. It will come to you and when it does you will be amazed by what your Fisher can do. One side note about practice. I usually like working yards of existing homes. For learning a new machine that seems to be the worst place to hunt. So many signals need to be dug but you just can't dig that many in peoples yards. If at all possible find somewhere you can be alone where doing alot of digging won't upset anyone. Dig just about everything that reads above iron and learn what the machine is telling you.
