Introduction

Fishtanked363

Full Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2017
Messages
159
Location
Marysville MI
Hey all
I'm Jim from Michigan. East side, by Port Huron. My son got a MD for Christmas and has been finding all kinds of treasures in the woods behind our house. A pocket knife, rusty nails, chunks of who knows what, and the like.
I would also like to get one and was looking at the Garrett ace 250 or the fisher F2. What are your thought on each as I've never had one before.
Thanks for any info. Looking to get one before the ground thaws.
 
Welcome Aboard

I have an F-2 and it has been a good detector. It is easy to use. It would be a good starter.
 
F2 or f22?

What's the difference? Fisher web site says f2 is no longer available. Is the f22 that much of an update, or stick with the f2? Any insight is greatly appreciated.
 
What's the difference? Fisher web site says f2 is no longer available. Is the f22 that much of an update, or stick with the f2? Any insight is greatly appreciated.

Differences and features of the new models here...
http://md-hunter.com/fisher-f11-f22-and-f44-what-is-the-difference-table/

The F2 is discontinued, has been for many months but we knew that was coming after they released the new generation entry units the F11, F22 and F44.
You still get the full 5 year warranty on it if you pick one up but they quit manufacturing them several months ago so there are way less in the pipelines.

Even so there are still some dealers that still have an F2 available out there, probably with the 8" concentric coil and a couple of new members just bought a few.
These were cheap enough that many dealers stocked them so call around...start with the many fine sponsors we have here on this site.
http://metaldetectingforum.com/forum_sponsors.php

The best deal going was a two coil package that most used to sell with a 4" sniper coil and a cheap but temporarily useable pinpointer in the box along with the standard 8" coil but I doubt if you can find that package out there now.
For an extra $15 to get a sniper coil and that handheld pinpointer was great, many of us ended up using that sniper coil more than we ever used the bigger ones and had great success but to buy that coil now aftermarket it is still pretty cheap...about $35 from most dealer's.

The F22 is new technology with a few extra features and also very capable.
Water resistant which is great if you hunt near water or get caught in the rain and is nice to know for your piece of mind.
Technically not waterproof and they won't warranty these new ones if something goes wrong, they go to great pains on all their ads and feature lists to make sure you understand this, but they actually did test them by dunking them underwater in a shallow pool and they came through fine so I would have much more confidence hunting near the edge of and a little deeper into the water on beaches or in shallow rivers and streams than I ever would have with the F2.
It has adjustable iron audio which is great to help you hunt in sites with a lot of that, on the F2 I knocked out iron when hunting about 100% of the time, with this feature I probably would not have needed to do that.
The new ones use 2 AA batteries instead of 2 9 volts and they say last just as long so a little money saving feature there.
The coil is a strange shape but still a concentric and Fisher says it is designed to get decently deep.

A bit different ID range between them, not really a big deal but there is one thing I am not thrilled with.
Digging a ton of everything at first while we are learning is recommended but eventually lots of us get a lot more picky after we get some experience.
On the F2 there is usually a difference between a nickel number, 31-32, and a sta-tab number which is usually about a 35.
On the new ones it seems a nickel and a sta-tab both come in at about a 35 now so hard to tell the difference.
Not a deal breaker for many but since I am so used to seeing that small spread of numbers after using an F2 for about 1000 hours and became pretty confident in my ability to tell them apart, (after hours and hours of digging a train load of tabs), AND over time I have become the kind of hunter that avoids digging as much trash as possible I would not be happy with this...but that is me.
There actually might be a way or some kind of indicators or behavior patterns to help tell the difference between these two similar conductive targets but I have never swung an F22 so I wouldn't know about that.

The one thing I don't like is you can get a sniper coil for this F22 too but it is going to cost you about half of the price of the detector...but not everybody is into coils like that and if you do want one down the road the F22 should find you enough money buried in the ground to pay for it...eventually.
If you spend a lot of time hunting in trash infested sites or those with a lot of masking iron like I do a sniper coil makes doing that a lot more efficient and easier so I have them and use them on all my detectors...a lot.

All Fishers seem to have a few great things going for them including both these new and older technology models.
They are fast machines with great rapid recovery abilities and all of them have fantastic target separation...both abilities I look for on any brand or model detector I pick up and use.

Nothing wrong with the older F2 model, it still works as good as it ever did, if you are into the newest and latest technology the F22 and its bigger brother the F44 is the future for Fisher in the entry level class.

Tons of us started with the F2 here and got good at using them so there is lots of help here is you get one, less have the new Fishers because they haven't been on the market for a super long time but some have them and there are several vids out there that can be helpful.
 
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Welcome from SW Wisconsin.

I had the 250 and from what I've seen of the F2, would push you that direction.
 
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