fisher 1266x

wildcat said:

Hello everyone, I'm new to metal detecting and to this forum.
I've bought my first detector about a month ago and i've gone out hunting only 3 times. I bought a compadre which I still have to break in, however I came across a 1266x on craigslist which I bought, paid 175 for it. Is there anyone who can guide me on what are the best settings for this detector? I'm mainly searching for jewelry, coins, silver coins. I live in central san Joaquin valley in Ca. I've read very good reviews on this detector and cant wait to get out there and hunt. Thanks

Frank

Click to expand...

Not familiar with the best settings but I do know they go super deep. I always wanted one for relic hunting. I'd suggest finding a 10.5 coil for it also, it's my favorite Fisher coil.

Had a 1266x years ago, sorry forgot the settings.
They went very deep, excellent pin point mode.
They do tend to get chattery near power lines, overall they were great detectors good score.

hh

I kinda recall one knob left was to get the full target range and then there was another right knob that you would set lower disc, it went into disc mode by a toggle switch, once you practice a few minuts will become very easy, if saw one on Craigs today
would likely buy. It's kinda of a icon metal detector.

http://stevespages.com/pdf/fisher_1266x.pdf

I feel that I need a lot to learn in this hobby. It could get frustrating but I have the patients to learn. Been out 3 times and I haven't found anything but junk. Maybe 1 dollar in clad.

wildcat said:

I feel that I need a lot to learn in this hobby. It could get frustrating but I have the patients to learn. Been out 3 times and I haven't found anything but junk. Maybe 1 dollar in clad.

Click to expand...

Location is a key factor for this hobby, locate pioneer land and likely will
have good finds, but not always since most locations have been hunted
over the years, just makes it harder.

hh

basically you want the disc as low as possible and the sensitivity as high as possible and a good location, that's the best way to find the best and deepest finds

reply

I would digress from Dick & coil-to-soil's suggestion of running the sens. as high as possible (below chatter point, etc...). Because the 1266 was so durned sensitive, it was actually the machine's down-side, in a lot of people's opinion. ie.: TOO squirelly sensitive for most any soil whatsover (barring virgin clean white sand perhaps). Thus even on the lowest sens. settings, you still had ample power. Well, at least you should *start* your learning of the machine by going very low sens, JUST so you can learn it first.

Aside from being poor in mineralized ground (hence not usable on wet salt beaches), it also suffered from lack of accurate disc. beyond about 5". In other words, everything beyond 5" started to sound the same (lack of ability to tell highs vs lows, etc...), and an affinity for being fooled by deep nails. Hence it would not be a good turf hunter, unless you were hunting the turf with a relic ("dig all") mindset that is.

I know some CW hunters like it, since they are going to dig all, and perhaps their soils are mild. But in my part of CA (centeral coast) they were very unpopular machines. About the only place I ever saw it excell here, was on the dry sand at white sand beaches. In a place like that (which is like detecting through thin air), they could indeed pull coins at up to 1.5 ft. deep

Welcome from over in Santa Cruz!

You will get lots of help on this forum, just swinging and asking what you need to!

Wow I'm overwhelmed of the posts so far! Thanks guys I'm going out tomorrow and Thursday to try it out. I will post my results soon.

Frank

results 1266x

So I had the time to go out for a couple days and I found clad only. Mostly pennies. I encountered a problem with my 1266x, the battery has a bad connection. So every time I would slightly bump it, it would die on me. Well I'm happy now cause I got a new mxt pro for Christmas! Anybody in my area that would be willing to teach me how to use it?

wildcat said:

So I had the time to go out for a couple days and I found clad only. Mostly pennies. I encountered a problem with my 1266x, the battery has a bad connection. So every time I would slightly bump it, it would die on me. Well I'm happy now cause I got a new mxt pro for Christmas! Anybody in my area that would be willing to teach me how to use it?

Click to expand...

I'd have the battery connection repaired and use it as a relic detector. It would be worth it IMO, the 1266x is one of the deepest relic detectors ever made and I can't imagine a battery connection repair being too much $$. Good luck with the MXT Pro, they are very nice detectors.

Wildcat how did you get on with the 1266x? After reading all the reviews of different detectors. I have also bought Fisher 1266x as my first detector.