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Fisher F70? Any good?

AZWIP

Elite Member
Joined
Feb 2, 2010
Messages
976
Location
Phoenix AZ
Howdy folks... any comments or opinions on the Fisher F70?

Perhaps when comparing to Tesoro machines that may have TID (DeLeon or Cortes I guess).

The machine would be used for General Purpose as well as perhaps nugget and/or meteorites etc...

Any other machine perhaps better in that price range?

All advice and comments appreciated.

Thanks!

Ron
 
Boy you really know how to open a can of worms :lol:

I owned the F-70 & F-75. I no longer own them. Does that tell you anything? In 42 years in the hobby I rate them the worst machines I've ever owned in both performance and build quality (even worse than the Deep Scan PI of 1983).

You'll now get lots of posts telling you how great they are. So, get one and find out for yourself. In the end our own personal experiences are what really matter anyway, eh?

But here's a little suggestion if you're open to one. Look for a good deal on a used machine. That way if it's not for you, you won't loose so many pesos. ;)

Best of luck.

Badger
 
Boy you really know how to open a can of worms :lol:

I owned the F-70 & F-75. I no longer own them. Does that tell you anything? In 42 years in the hobby I rate them the worst machines I've ever owned in both performance and build quality (even worse than the Deep Scan PI of 1983).

You'll now get lots of posts telling you how great they are. So, get one and find out for yourself. In the end our own personal experiences are what really matter anyway, eh?

But here's a little suggestion if you're open to one. Look for a good deal on a used machine. That way if it's not for you, you won't loose so many pesos. ;)

Best of luck.

Badger

Agreed. I had the F75 LTD and couldn't even run the thing in my backyard because of some power lines that aren't even over my property. Erratic as hell, build quality is poor, and the sheer audacity to attach a $1200 price tag? You can get an Explorer SE for that!

I'm not trusting First Texas anymore. I really hope FT doesn't swallow up any more detector brands. It's sad to see legendary brands like Fisher turning into Bounty Hunter clones.
 
What gets me is I had the chance to hunt an old historic farm down south and I made the mistake of taking only my new F-75. I had only a few hours to hunt by those 150+ year old trees and even older buildings. My decent finds equaled zero!

On part of the property I picked up "motor boating" erratic signals due to electrical interference from something so I couldn't even hunt that area. At other locations to get any depth I had to run higher sensitivity and the ground minerals caused me to dig better than 30 holes with nothing in them.

All the time I was there I kept wishing I had my Tesoro Silver uMax! While there I would have paid $1000 for an old beat-up Explorer XS!

Man, and I'll never get another chance to hunt that site. As far back as anyone remembers I was the first to ever hunt that site and all I got was shallow clad and trash iron.

While I was down there I did hunt the open field some and the machine did better there due to very little trash in the ground. But a Tejon or any Explorer or Sovereign GT would have been vastly superior.

I've got to get off this subject--too many bad memories.
 
I have the f75 and use the 3x6 coil . Found this 1858-0 half in heavy trashy ground and went over it with a SE 3 times before. I have a etrac know and the f75 can and goes find more coins the etrac. The f75 is some much faster and the ID work where the etrac is slow. But not everyone will like the f75.
 

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U will be happy with the F70 or the DeLeon.In some places EMI's will affect the F70 .This has happened to me , but I have always been able to make adjustments to get around them. The F70 is a nice powerful machine ,but u have to learn the machine ,which is true about all machines.U will have to spend time to learn the turn on and go machines even .Just because u spend 2 weeks with a machine and have already found $20 in clad and a diamond ring u do not know the machine .Good luck with your choice .
 
A friend of mine owns the F70 and loves it..Took him a while to adjust. He was a former White Spectrum user. The F70 is Very deep with the 11" dd coil. The F-series detectors are VERY fast and VERY sensitive. Some people just cant grasp that and bash them..:roll:
Good Luck to you on what ever detector you decide purchase!?:cool:
 
I would take a good look at the build quality on one before I shucked out my hard earned money. I had one delivered to the house last week and never put batteries in it. I opened it on the living room floor and could not get over the quality. Packed it right back up and shipped back the next day. It's almost embarrassing compared to the build on a lot of other machines. I'm not bashing now just telling my experience. Take a good hard look and at several machines before making a decision.
 
I would take a good look at the build quality on one before I shucked out my hard earned money. I had one delivered to the house last week and never put batteries in it. I opened it on the living room floor and could not get over the quality. Packed it right back up and shipped back the next day. It's almost embarrassing compared to the build on a lot of other machines. I'm not bashing now just telling my experience. Take a good hard look and at several machines before making a decision.

Imagine my disappointment when I dropped $1200 on the LTD and saw the same kind of low quality build.

I appreciate that Fisher wants to make a lighter detector, but for $1200 they could have AT LEAST put a solid face plate on the control box.
 
That was the exact reason I sent it back. Like a heavy duty clear ziplock bag over the faceplate. I could see sticking a stick or a limb through it if one got in the way.
Imagine my disappointment when I dropped $1200 on the LTD and saw the same kind of low quality build.

I appreciate that Fisher wants to make a lighter detector, but for $1200 they could have AT LEAST put a solid face plate on the control box.
 
Hello there

Hello there I have the Fisher F70. I have a minelab and a garrett and they are also both good machines. I been using the Fisher now and it's a good machine I do not care what people say if they have 100 years exsperience it's a good machine periode!! I am still a little new with this machne but as far as built quality it's just as good quality as the minelab it's sturdy dosn't coil dosn't wobble,my opionion it's solid! Now I'm not going to hype this machine up cause for 1 I'm new with it yet and 2 I'm not going to cut down on other manufactures cause in my opionion most of your top $$ machines are pretty good. Anyways yes it dose chatter if you are around electrical interference or in high trash areas but it's alright with a few adjustments you can easily make it run very quiet and stable and still get great depth. For an example I first started hunting at my house right under power lines I have the 11"DD coil when I turned it on it whent nuts! I made some quick adjustments and it was quiet I played with it and after it was all said and done I could get 8 inches on a penny right under power lines. Now in an area were there's not electrical interference you can get even if you don't run it maxxed out say at sen 80 thresh -3 SL mode,disc0-5,notch 1 you can get 12 inches on a quarter maybe even 13 inches now if you run it at sen 90-95 thresh 0, disc 0,notch 1 SL mode you can get 14 or more inches on a quarter and 13 on a penny. So all in all I whent to previosly hunted site and pulled coins out of the ground at 4-8 inches so far with this detector. All in All it's so far a good detector just don't go crazy on your settings cause it don't take muh to get some depth with this detector.
 
Steve, have you actually pulled a penny from 13 inches with the F70, or are you just speaking theoretically? You said you've pulled coins from 4-8 inches, which is believable. 13 inches on a penny with the F70 is not believable. Unless you have zero ground mineralization, I doubt the F70 can do this.

There is a ton of hype like this surrounding the "F" series detectors, and I fell for it once. I won't again.
 
Hello there

I have burried pennies at 13 inches and yea when I maxx out the Sl mode it pickes them up and I do believe it will do it anywere else to. Now I do have the 11"DD coil on my F70.This machine is a very powerful machine. Why do people don't like it??? Chattery,specialy around power lines, and chattery when hunting cause it picks up small Iron flakes that are in the ground. The reason it chatters and some people can't use them cause it's simple people are use to running there machines almost maxxed all the time well this machine is so powerful that you can run it in low settings and still pull coins out at over 8 inches. I believe the F75 and F70 are the 2 most powerful machines on the market periode! Yes I like the minelabs and Garretts, But the Fisher's have something here.And I'm not comparing detector to detector or manufactor to manufactor I'm not starting a metal detector war, I'm just saying these detector are super sensitive! I talked my freind that has the Safari and E-trac and he say's he's already pulled indian heads at 13 inch range. So that being said minelabs are realy cool machines too.
 
I have burried pennies at 13 inches and yea when I maxx out the Sl mode it pickes them up and I do believe it will do it anywere else to. Now I do have the 11"DD coil on my F70.This machine is a very powerful machine. Why do people don't like it??? Chattery,specialy around power lines, and chattery when hunting cause it picks up small Iron flakes that are in the ground. The reason it chatters and some people can't use them cause it's simple people are use to running there machines almost maxxed all the time well this machine is so powerful that you can run it in low settings and still pull coins out at over 8 inches. I believe the F75 and F70 are the 2 most powerful machines on the market periode! Yes I like the minelabs and Garretts, But the Fisher's have something here.And I'm not comparing detector to detector or manufactor to manufactor I'm not starting a metal detector war, I'm just saying these detector are super sensitive! I talked my freind that has the Safari and E-trac and he say's he's already pulled indian heads at 13 inch range. So that being said minelabs are realy cool machines too.

:bowdown: About time someone told the truth.Don't let out the secrets Steve.
 
I just got on a fisher kick and have had most of the top detectors out.
I have the F70 with a 11'' coil and it is very, very deep and i even like it better than the etrac i had, and better then the Tejon that i still have...the build quality is not bad at all on it and it will have problems with emi if you try to run it to hot, but most detectors will. It is light, fast, and just very easy to use. I have a Coin$trike and CZ3D with the F70 and can tell you that the fishers are the quickest and pinpoint the best of all the brand i have had.

I must admit that i was drawn into all the negative hype on the f-series at first but i am glad that i got the F70 so much that i am saving for the new F75ltd when it comes out.
 
99% of the users of the F-70 or F-75 who complain about it (other than build quality, which if you take care of your detector you shouldn't have a problem with) simply did not take the time the learn the machine. If you expect to "master" a machine within a month of owning it, then get a turn-on-and-go machine. If you want to take the time to learn a machine and spend the time necessary to produce results, then invest in a Fisher F-XX and spend the months with it necessary to understand how to use it properly. Do NOT come on here and try to sway another potential buyer because you're lazy or impatient and won't take the time to learn a machine. Do you slam your machine against rocks and stumps all day? If not, then build quality won't be a problem for you. If you spend $1200.00 on a detector, are you going to go out and smack it against everything in sight or are you going to be a bit more careful with it? Exactly. The F-70 and F-75 will stand TOE TO TOE with most any detector in the price range, in terms of depth and discrimination. If you get it and can't produce finds worthy of the price tag, I guarantee it's operator error and not related to the machine.

As for EMI, that's one of the weaker points of the Fisher F-line. The solution? Turn your sensitivity down. Was that so difficult? Not really. I've had an F-5 for a few weeks and couldn't be happier. I've hunted ground that MANY a White's and probably a few Minelabs have been over and have popped coins at 6-8" consistently. The target separation is NEXT TO NONE, period. I can't even remember the number of times in the past week alone I've dug a dime/nickel/quarter in the same hole as a rusty nail or bottlecap. I hadn't done that a single time with my old detector, and here I am having done it multiple times the past week!

The bottom line is, don't diss a detector because you refused to take the time to learn it. Someone mentioned boxing the F-75 up before even putting the batteries in...really? I'd hate to be ANY detector brand trying to please you. If I spent $1200.00 on a detector, I'd want 95% of the grunt work of the engineers to go into the electronics and the circuitry, not the build quality. If you determine whether or not you're going to keep a detector based on the build quality alone, then you've got more problems than picking which brand is for you. For the record, by the way, the F-75 has excellent build quality. I've used a number of higher-end detectors, and the F-75 felt right up there. They're all made of metal and plastic, deal with it.
 
Yes, good machine

I enjoy my F70 a great deal.

BUT...

It's not for the detectorist who:
- wants a turn-on-and-go machine (altho it can do that...)
- has no time/patience to set the machine up for the area he is hunting
- has no time/patience to learn nuances of the machine
- gets upset because it can't be run 'wide open' 100% of the time
- demands a detector to be encased in a steel box.

I have approx 60 hours in on my F70, which I purchased this spring. I am just now feeling capable with it, and my finds are improving weekly.

As far as performance, I think it is one of the best bang for the buck detectors out there - period. I purchased mine used for a song - maybe it was traded in by someone who thought it was cheap, to hard to use, etc... which is fine by me...more money saved.

As far as performance, I have hunted alongside exterras, Etracs, MXTs, you name it... and I can find everything they can find - operator skill is the key here. Don't let the F-series EMI issues scare you away. Even at modest sens and thresh levels (70, -3, dP) I can pull wheats from my ground at 7" (gb65) - this is running 21 disc. These are hyper sensitive to EMI because they are very sensitive machines.

I've been detecting since 1978, and have used many different machines. This is a capable, flexible machine which I will have for a long time. Let the F-series bashers go ahead and bash all they want. While they are out looking for that "perfect machine", I'll be out in the parks swingin'....
 
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