gallileo60 said:
I kinda like the looks of the F-75...I've heard good things about it...what is the learning curve like
? Are you pretty happy with it, and is it easy to use
? YES, for me this is a VERY BIG investment.....I have been saving for a long time now.....Thanks for your reply......Also LuckyLarry, thanks for your input...Tom
I agree with what MikeWaz said. I got my F75 back in the spring of 2007 and had used a Minelab Musketeer for five or so years prior to that. I played around in the yard in my test garden (in the dark) and the next day I took it to work. On my lunch hour (after reading the manual all morning on the company's dime) I took it to a nearby well-hunted park.
In 45 minutes I dug one ring tab, one aluminum bottle/carton lid, two quarters, a nickel, a dime and three cents. Also a "cheapie" gold ring. Now that may not sound like much, but I was happy, happy because up to then it would have taken me a few dozen bottle caps and pull-tabs to find that much coin in that area of the park. This was my first attempt at notching. So, my point, the F75 has a large learning curve. It is hyper-sensitive and you have to work at that as hard as ground-balancing (more-so than the three seconds it takes using the FASTGRAB, in fact). I still learn new tricks whenever I play around with her, but it is always easy to reset and start at the factory defaults. Takes half-a-minute to thumb through all the menus and options to tweak her as desired thereafter. Or just run the defaults if you're lazy. At that park where I spend lunchbreaks I have had many coin-only days (no trash dug and 15 or 20 coins) but the oppostunity cost is that to run discrimination and notch will be missed jewelry. I also believe the more discrimination you select the more your depth is hindered (most detectors, not just the F75). I usually run with only iron discriminated out and dig anything that sounds relatively good for that reason.
The F75 will frustrate the bejezus out of you if you crank the sensitivity or try air-testing (especally indoors). And stay out of Jewelery mode for the first three months. It goes ape near EMI, but keeping the coil down and setting the sensitivity low (or even switching frequencies) helps a tremendous amount. Set a coin on the ground to practice; or better still bury a test garden in your yard to practice at. When you get good and know some of it's responses set the discrimination to 4 and up the sensitivity with single or two tones and go dig deep coins (using the TID and sound quality/confidence meter to interpret trash).
My Musky is deep seeking, but loves aluminum and foil. The F75 goes deeper, probably because it responds faster and likely targets bring me back to check from several angles. I have coins and musket balls buried to 12" in my test garden ans side-by-side the F75 gives better tones (sometimes to silence from the Musky) in all conditions. And the Musky has a reputation of being a deep relic machine.
Is it "the deepest coin shooter?" I don't know. In it's price bracket it holds it's own. A good Explorer II driver could probably dust me, but at 30% more investment. I've hit silver quarters an honest foot down, a croatal bell 2" deeper than that and more than one dime at 8". Depends on the soil and how much trash or soil mineralization is present. I can say I hunt areas successfully the M6 and MXT/DFX users avoid . . . and in fact two of those users in my local club bought F75s after trying mine. It also pulls coins from beside and under iron or foil that nulls a lot of other detectors. You won't dig what you can't see or hear.
Depth usually comes from knowing your machine and being willing to dig the faint "iffy" signals.
