Observations of a F70....

[Dan-Pa.]

Unless your on even ground prone to fall over, not the fault of the rear on this one as the shape of the coil is the culprit up front. Perhaps something like the Explorer XS addendum to the front coil is in order..Threshold is just another animal to those used to convential threshold units and can greatly affect your depth so be careful in the setting as the difference from 0 to -9 can cut your depth in half..Another unit similiar was of course the Coinstrike. Gosh its light and no arm problems with this unit.
Pinpoint is certainly one of the best I have ever used and can be swung rather briskly to cover a lot of ground versus perhaps the CZ which has to be swung slow for extreme depth..Certainly prone to outside interferences such as high tension lines and your freq. setting can do wonders in stability. Also prone to ground mineralization problems even properly ground balanced(easy) so don't be afraid to turn down your sens. as even low gets depth. Interface is well laid out and facets are surely easy to change at will and I understand the batteries last a long time which is certainly a improvement over some units which eat batteries..All in all I like the unit and will add my thoughts with more time in the field..I feel Fisher has a winner in this unit and perhaps users can add their feelings so we can all learn this new kid on the block. Looking forward to your thoughts and certainly nothing is written in stone so read with a grain of salt...

 

[jackintexas]

I have owned about fifty detectors in my thirty years of messing with detectors.I now own twelve. For many years I mostly hunted with a Whites XLT. I have owned about all of the CZs. Some of them several times. But hunting with the XLT I always adjusted the threshold for a slight hum. But with my F70 the threshold seems to be for a different purpose. Right across the street where I live is a large electrical transformer. Any time I turn any of my detectors on outside they all become very eratic. Especially if you increase the sensitivity.But the F 70 seems diifferent. Changing the frequency does not seem to help.But by lowering the threshold I can all but eliminate the interferrence. But with a sensitivity setting of 40 I can get the mercury dime I have buried at a measured 9 inches.I would like to know if anyone else has had a simular experience....Jack

 

[Steve from Ohio]

Last Thursday I was with two friends out in the field detecting. I had my old trusty White's Spectrum with the Bigfoot coil. I was cleaning up the clads for my two buddies.

We were at an old school that was built in 1915. Lots of iron backfill and aluminum tabs. The school was in use until two years ago.

My one friend John, has the F70 and my other friend Robert, has the new E-Trac from Minelab. I've been thinking about getting the E-Trac since it came out.

John, with the F70, hit a good deep target and asked for both of us to come on over to see if we could get a reading. I could not even read it with the Bigfoot. The Bigfoot coil is nearsighted and cannot get much deeper than 6-7 inches.

We all were very interested in seeing how the new E-Trac would do. Robert came over and swung the E-Trac....and...........nothing. Not a peep. No matter how slow or fast he swung, silence, nothing. Robert then went into the menu and started playing with the programming on the E-Trac and came back to try again. Nothing !

Now Robert is a Minelab veteran who has been using the Explorer series for quite a while and he knows his machines. He was perplexed as to why his machine was not reading this obvious target.

John dug down a little over a foot and out came a very nice 1919 standing liberty quarter that was in very good condition with the date and all the detail still visible.
The quarter was standing on end next to a small rock. Not exactly sure why the Minelab had a problem with this coin on its side but the F70 sure did show that it is a very powerful detector.

The other thing I noticed was that the John was able to cover more ground with the F-70 over the E-Trac and had more finds.

Don't get me wrong. The E-Trac is one great machine. And I am sure that there will be times that the E-Trac may outperform the F70. But I think that Fisher really has a great machine with the F-70.

I was so impressed that this $650 single frequency detector could beat a $1500 multi frequency detector in this instance that I decided to order a new F-70 and not get the E- Trac. It is nice to know that I will be saving the almost $900 and I can get the Sunray probe and some other coils and still have money left over.

It will be in this coming Wednesday.

 

[tony (Orlando FL)]

n/t