Anybody know anything about old Vintage Fisher LF-930D

[fair2u]

I just bought a Fisher LF-930D Discriminator VLF Metal Detector off E-Bay. I think I got a good deal at 55 dollars.
I am a novice...just starting. I live in the heart of Central Virginia. Many places to relic hunt. Is this detector any good. Or will I be wasting time,
I have not got it yet but very excited about it arriving. Thanks for any info you may have.

 

[bertman]

I found many nice coins, tokens, and jewlery with that machine... I wore out the reset button once and about one year after the button was replaced, my car was stolen with this machine still in the trunk... Got the car back in 2 weeks, but the 930D was gone :angry: ... I now have 4 Fisher detectors... 3 are multi tone and 1 single tone 1235-X... Don't remember much about setting up the 930D though... You'll enjoy the machine...

HH Robert

 

[fair2u]

Thanks for the feedback. I have always been interested in this hobby but never followed through with purchasing a detector. I just got permission to relic hunt on a large farm with rich civil war history all around.
My concern is that I won't know how to set the controls properly. I have read that it can be a real art with some of the older detectors. My friend has an expensive Mine-lab and will probably think I am wasting my time for getting a used detector for under 100 bucks . But I wanted to see if I love treasure hunting as much as I think I will, and don't have the cash he does, Times are tight!

 

[UK Brian]

Its an old machine 1984'ish and will need a little more thought in setting up than current mid range motion machines.

I hope your getting the instructions. In the past you could get a copy from Fisher but since Fisher became First Texas I don't think you will. Have a feeling that someone got instructions or at least help from Keith Wills at broken detectors.com

Its a VLF/TR design. This means you can't ground balance (to get the best depth) and discriminate at the same time. Normal land method (fairly clean ground) would be to use "all metal" which searches deepest and either flick a switch or click the retune button (can't remember which method they used on your model). This would switch you into the TR discriminating mode so you can decide to dig or not.
If on a very busy site (park/school) looking for more modern sites you can stay in the discrimination mode all the time and just set the discrimination level to knock out the rubbish. As depth is already reduced as its not cancelling out the ground mineralisation and the higher the discrimination is set the more you reduce in ground depth the minimum level of discrimination you can stand is the best setting. Discrim. out ringpulls and gold rings are lost. So in a park just start to knock out silver foil. Preferably not completely. Set so it just starts to give a broken sound.

On a wet beach you will need to ground balance out the wet salt effect. This is the opposite of "land" ground effect so don't use the VLF mode. Stick with TR and increase the discrimination until the noise from the wet sand is balanced out which should be around the point that larger foil is discriminated out.

Correct ground balance is vital. In VLF its set by bobbing the coil up and down about twelve inches and turning the G.B. knob at the same time until you get to the point where you can raise the coil from your normal detecting coil height without the machine sounding off. You also need to keep the sweep height level at all times ie not lift at the end of each sweep.

If you can't get hold of the correct instructions then look up a machine that is similar such as the Garrett Groundhog which is still listed on the instruction book sites.

Hopefully all is working well though many machines of this age have started to suffer from drift due to the pots used starting to go downhill. Don't worry if you get drift just after you switch on. Many of the early detectors had to be used for say twenty minutes to allow them to stabilise to the outside temperature and would then settle down.

Best of luck Brian

 

[fair2u]

Thank you ! Very informative and helpful advice.