• Forum server maintanace Friday night.(around 7PM Centeral time)
    Website will be off line for a short while.

    You may need to log out, log back in after we're back online.

Which detector to get after the F2?

StratTone

Elite Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2017
Messages
765
Location
Warner Robins, GA
Ok so I was lured into the hobby by my son and now I'm the one that is hooked. lol

Anyway I found this forum and the fantastic thread about the F2 and I pulled the trigger and got me one about 3 months ago and have loved every minute with this machine.

My question is on where to go from here? I'm going to be looking for a detector that goes deeper next and love the way the F2 works so I'd rather stay Fisher if I can.

One thing I'd really like to hear is how the deeper fishers feel on your back? I borrowed my friends AT Pro and while it is supposed to only be .5 lbs heavier than my F2 you sure can feel it on your back. Is the Fisher models more balanced or is getting deeper just mean a heavier coil and something you will get with any more expensive models?
 
I recommend the F70 coming from a weak stick like me thats saying something!
I could swing it all day! Its perfect.
 
I recommend the F70 coming from a weak stick like me thats saying something!
I could swing it all day! Its perfect.

I also jumped from F2 to F70. My advice to the OP is to read posts by DIGGER27. He is a great big huge ball of knowledge when it comes to the Fisher line of products.
 
What kind of depth are you getting with it?

I believe you are probably referring to my F2 thread.
I went from that one to the F70...got one new in the box from a friend that won it for $400.
Regularly it was about $679 with the standard concentric coil.
If you added the big DD coil that brought it up to the $750 price range.
Now you can buy the exact same thing but it is called the Patriot and with a discount code it goes for $400 WITH that big DD coil.
It is the F2 on steroids...deeper, super sensitive, same great recovery speed if not faster and target separation with any coil is remarkable.
About a million more settings you can use that can help you conquer any and all sites but even the factory settings will find you more than the F2 ever could...and you saw in that thread how much I found with mine.
As far as weight I can't tell much difference at all between that and the F2.
Maybe a bit heavier than the sniper coils would be but the thing is so well balanced and ergonomic as long as you don't go to the biggest coils you probably won't tell the difference between this one and the F2.
The F2 with the 10" round concentric coil seems way more nose heavy to me than the F70/Patriot is with the 11"DD coil.

You also have many F75 versions to pick from including one that you can pick up from the right dealer at $500 without cache or boost but with more programs, settings and noise dampening DST or up to the fully loaded model with all the whistle and bells for about $700.

Also some new version is coming out, an F75+...but nobody really knows what that means so far.

I tried swinging the top F75 for a bit on a hunt with a friend and didn't like it for some reason...at all.
Don't know exactly why but it might be because I think it has a different handle that made it strange to hold and swing for me compared to my F70 which I had swung for hundreds of hours.
Nobody else has ever mentioned that in any posts I have read so that is probably just me.

I also like the fact that I have boost and can control the threshold in disc...I use them both and they seem to have an advantage in my soil so I would miss them if they were gone.

All the language I learned transferred over to the F70 but there was just much more to learn.
Once I did I became more successful than i thought possible and still am.
I moved back to some really rough soil in the southeast where I swung that F2 and others and I was shocked to find it could handle this place and this dirt better than anything else I have swung before and my bucket list has grown way shorter over the last few years thanks to its abilities.

In good soil out west in Kansas and Missouri using this one I have dug targets way deeper than I ever could with that F2, easily at the 10"+ area up to 12, 13, 14 and even 15".
I used it to hunt in a few sites with insane iron and figured out a few ways to have great success.
Back here in our devil dirt I am reaching deeper than I thought possible down to the 9"+ area on coin sized objects so far in the bad stuff, even a few inches deeper in the rare good soil we come across and the iron handling abilities and what I learned about taking advantage of them have come in very handy here in the land of red clay mineralization.



The F70 for its cost, abilities and value made it the very definition of the word "sleeper" for years...now the Patriot at several hundreds of dollars cheaper has only enhanced that definition.
Just ask those that now own them or an F70.

Smart to stay in the Fisher line if you liked how the F2 works, there are many flavors of the F75's or especially that Patriot that will probably serve you well.

I started a similar log to that F2 thread from day one when I got the F70 and put down every experience I had with it for the first several months while learning it.
I know way more about it now but this will give you a small idea of what it is capable of.

http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=173474

If you want to see what I have been able to find lately just do an advanced search for all threads with DIGGER27 in the name slot and the words "F70, coil" in the keywords section.
 
Last edited:
Thank you very much Digger!

Also yes I was referring to the F2 thread, I read every single page!! Loved it and can't think you enough for posting it. It was the sole reason I got the F2 and am so glad I did. Even after I move up this will stay with me. No silvers or anything yet but I did grab and 1881 Indian head and I'm getting to where I can call coins now. lol
 
Thank you very much Digger!

Also yes I was referring to the F2 thread, I read every single page!! Loved it and can't think you enough for posting it. It was the sole reason I got the F2 and am so glad I did. Even after I move up this will stay with me. No silvers or anything yet but I did grab and 1881 Indian head and I'm getting to where I can call coins now. lol

You are very welcome.
That thread helped sell a ton of extra F2's over the years, I only started it and kept it going for so long so others could understand the fun and joy I had using it.
If you liked that read the F70 log...you should enjoy that too.
Skip over the technical stuff but if you end up with the Patriot or F75 that info can come in handy.

The F2 was great, I got more out of that thing than I ever thought was possible but once I graduated to the F70 a whole other world opened up for me.
A deeper more target rich world and it still my prime unit to this day.
 
Well I pulled the trigger and got the F70!! Came in last night so I didn't get a chance to do much with it but did swing it in the dark some. I may only have like an hour today to play with it but I hope to at least get to use it.

I have a question though. When pinpointing with the F2 it was always easy to find center since the coil was a circle but since this one is oblong when I get the highest pitch when pinpointing will it be directly in the center of the oval? I tried to check a little in the dark last night with surface coins but it seemed to pinpoint the whole center but then again this was surface and the F2 doesn't really pinpoint right on surface things either.
 
Ok I got to spend about an hour and a half with the F70 and I have to admit it was quite frustrating. It was pretty chattery for me but what was worse was the noise seemed to out volume and cut better than the good tones. I expected the high pings to jump out at you more like the F2. I really hope once I've gone through the manual and gotten some advice from digger I can make it a keeper but I fear I'll have to turn it down so much it will be no deeper than the F2 making it pointless to have.

Really the tones was the biggest problem though. Just my first impression. Worst case I have 7 days to return but have to pay shipping and 20 percent restocking fee.
 
Never used a f70 bit have had a f75,,best balanced machine in the market imo...I had a Deus which is light,but nose heavy with a 11 inch coil..not so with the f75,,11 inch coil is perfectly balanced,,can't see any machine being better balanced
 
Ok I got to spend about an hour and a half with the F70 and I have to admit it was quite frustrating. It was pretty chattery for me but what was worse was the noise seemed to out volume and cut better than the good tones. I expected the high pings to jump out at you more like the F2. I really hope once I've gone through the manual and gotten some advice from digger I can make it a keeper but I fear I'll have to turn it down so much it will be no deeper than the F2 making it pointless to have.

Really the tones was the biggest problem though. Just my first impression. Worst case I have 7 days to return but have to pay shipping and 20 percent restocking fee.

The units built on this platform are some of the deepest detectors out there.
The sensitivity/gain is not what you think it is.
At 40 it is way deeper than the F2, lower than that, even.
Watch this vid, notice he has the thresh up into the positive but the sense is set at....1.
Still hitting 8" coins.



I hunted with my F70 and by mistake had only 3 batteries in it, it worked perfectly and still got way deep.
In a coma this thing will find deeper targets than the F2 and I have way over 1000 hours using both...I have seen it, compared them in both bad soil and good and moved a lot of dirt finding this out.
I always read these are way overpowered out if the factory and you don't need to turn them up high to get deep but hard to wrap your head around these things at first.
I couldn't...until this happened to me...
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?37,2038678,2038678#msg-2038678


You just don't have a clue about the relationship between the thresh and gain and disc, how to balance them to get rid of chatter or any confidence in how deep this thing can get on lower than even factory settings because you have no experience with that...yet.
It took me a bit to get used to this upgrade after using the F2 for so many hours too, not easy to get a handle on all this extra power instantly but after you swing a bit it all falls into place.

First thing is do a factory reset.
After you change coils, after you set any notches or even if you are at a busy, noisy, chatter site do a factory reset at that site...you will find most times this quiets it down and brings it back into line.

As far as pinpointing there is a faint circle on top of the coil right past where the rod connects...this is technically the middle of the coil.
I only use that spot and the pinpoint button on the deepest targets, for most normal and common depths up to 6-7" or so I use the wiggle and pull back method.
Get your target under the center of the coil and using very short but quick side to side movements keep in the middle but slowly pull back the coil.
When the target drops out completely the target should be under the front edge of the coil in the place where the tone stopped...or just behind or in front.
In any case if you dig a small hole just a few inches wide and deep enough you will find your target.
Extremely quick and accurate with a bit of practice.
Maybe use the pinpoint at first to get a depth reading while you are learning but switch to the wiggle to find the spot to dig.

As long as we are talking about this wiggle thing I can tell you that this same technique can tell you when you are swinging over those hated crown caps with about 95-99% efficiency...something all DD coils are usually not very good at doing.

Using that same wiggle and pull back move watch the screen on these caps that usually come in from the dime to quarter numbers.
IF you aren't using a whole lot of disc right before that signal drops out at the rim of the coil you will hear, (using multi tones or DP), and see a drop in the numbers that is very noticeable.
Sometimes it will drop from those higher numbers down to the teens to 30's, most times they will drop into the single digit iron numbers.
If you don't want to hunt with disc that low you have two programs you can switch between at the push of a button.
Keep program 2 in all metal or disc set low and hunt in program 1 which is how I do it.
Program 1 always has some kind of disc settings I use, program 2 always is set in all metal.
I hunt using one and use the other as a check on all iffier targets.
It's like having two completely different detectors in one so take advantage of this feature if you like.

This bottle cap thing is one of the most important and useful techniques I have ever learned in my career considering I hunt in mostly very trashy park sites.
Without it I would rarely use any DD coil at most places I hunt.

If you only used concentric coils on that F2 these two techniques are going to be extremely important to you in the future.

Do the reset, set the sense and thresh low till it's quiet, play with the frequency button too because that can also help a lot in some sites.
I assume you are using multi tones now from 3-4H, that's what I did at first going to this one from the F2.
I used 4H for the first few months almost exclusively and found a ton of coins, silver and gold jewelry and a shocking amount of nickels too.
That is fine but there are advantages to using the other tone choices too...you have plenty of time to learn why, though.

I have a ton of settings I have played with, about a dozen that I use a lot depending on the sites I hunt and I can pass them on to you...later.
Right now think of it as a very powerful F2 on super steroids you need to swing for a bit to get used to.
It's easier that way at first for us F2 guys.
Soon you will learn to take advantage if all those settings and power but have patience...it will come.

Skim through this in the meantime...it will help.
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=173474

You took it out one time and then started talking about 7 days to send it back.
That's kinda shocking to me, I hope you have a bit more patience than that.
If you can muster up that patience the rewards will be many and often.
I can point you to many Patriot owners that will tell you the same if you would like and like us a lot if them started with the F2 and were thrilled they made that move.
 
Last edited:
Thank you for all the great info I will surely put it to good use this weekend! Lol

I'm gonna do my best to figure it out. Hopefully with some lower adjustments those good tones will cut through more like the F2. My favorite thing about the F2 was the amount of ground I could cover and when I heard the crisp beep I could then slow down.

The 7 day policy thing is just for frame of reference. I really want it to work for me so hopefully that's not gonna be needed.
 
Yes Digger27 helped me out a lot When I first got the f70. I sent mine in to fisher in the summer and it had some connections loose. They tuned it up and now it’s really deep!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Heard the new Fisher F75+ is coming out in about a week , but haven't heard any thing about it yet.

The plus is the $599 85th Anniversary edition but it has been upgraded to elite status with all the whistles and bells added back in...both cache and boost specifically.
Plus a new hand digger and the new F Pulse PI pinpointer is in the introductory package currently and they are also including a certificate for a free refurbish/check up plus a new extended two year warranty on top of the existing 5 years all for a MAP price of $649.
If you use that refurb certificate that automatically adds a transferable 2 year warranty to the unit...great for those that want to sell them.

It wasn't long ago that same unit with the standard 5 year warranty and without those accessories sold for over $1000.
I believe that makes 3 or 4 different flavors of the F75 platform being offered right now that you can get at a real world price from $499 up to about $799...or less.
The plus will knock the current flagship LTD model right out of the market so I assume they will be discontinuing them soon unless they decide to throw some extra coils in some Christmas packages like they did last year to reduce their stock.

Pretty cool but not for me because I don't like triggers, the F70 just feels better in my hands and I like the way it can be set up and works with the ability to adjust the thresh in disc.
Just got used to it and I can't go back now, I guess.
 
Thanks for the information on this unit

The plus is the $599 85th Anniversary edition but it has been upgraded to elite status with all the whistles and bells added back in...both cache and boost specifically.
Plus a new hand digger and the new F Pulse PI pinpointer is in the introductory package currently and they are also including a certificate for a free refurbish/check up plus a new extended two year warranty on top of the existing 5 years all for a MAP price of $649.
If you use that refurb certificate that automatically adds a transferable 2 year warranty to the unit...great for those that want to sell them.

It wasn't long ago that same unit with the standard 5 year warranty and without those accessories sold for over $1000.
I believe that makes 3 or 4 different flavors of the F75 platform being offered right now that you can get at a real world price from $499 up to about $799...or less.
The plus will knock the current flagship LTD model right out of the market so I assume they will be discontinuing them soon unless they decide to throw some extra coils in some Christmas packages like they did last year to reduce their stock.

Pretty cool but not for me because I don't like triggers, the F70 just feels better in my hands and I like the way it can be set up and works with the ability to adjust the thresh in disc.
Just got used to it and I can't go back now, I guess.

Thanks for the information on this new detector , i am currently using a Fisher F4 , finally got comfortable with it, and just added a 4" coil to it so i could get in close on play ground equipment and fences. Since i just retire a few weeks ago i am looking ahead to see what i want to add next. No hury to get the next one, looks like winter will hit here in a few more days.
 
What you posted was exactly my experience with the F70 7 years ago, when I was basically a detecting newb -- and it's why I got rid of it. But, that said, DIGGER27 wasn't around back then to help me out!

It will be interesting to see if you can get it "tamed down," following DIGGER's advice. I am SURE I was running mine too hot -- and for the same reasons as you -- I was coming from a Bounty Hunter and bought the F70 SPECIFICALLY to gain depth. SO, that said, I didn't want to lower sensitivity much as I was afraid I'd lose that extra depth that I bought it for -- and be right back at "Bounty Hunter" depth! Just like you said in your post! So, I'm sure a lot of the noise/chatter was my fault, trying to run it "too hot." Like I said, I was an inexperienced newb then!

That said, it is a DEEEP machine...and I do believe now -- looking back -- that it has a lot to offer and a lot of potential. So with some patience, and some help from DIGGER, I think you will come to really enjoy it.

Happy hunting!

Steve

Ok I got to spend about an hour and a half with the F70 and I have to admit it was quite frustrating. It was pretty chattery for me but what was worse was the noise seemed to out volume and cut better than the good tones. I expected the high pings to jump out at you more like the F2. I really hope once I've gone through the manual and gotten some advice from digger I can make it a keeper but I fear I'll have to turn it down so much it will be no deeper than the F2 making it pointless to have.

Really the tones was the biggest problem though. Just my first impression. Worst case I have 7 days to return but have to pay shipping and 20 percent restocking fee.
 
Back
Top Bottom