Racer 1 observations...first hunt.

[REVIER]

Got a borrowed original Racer from Tom D. to try out in my very difficult soil.
Short couple hour hunt yesterday, a few observations and impressions.

than the F70 I had. I hope you find the same.

So do I but we will see.
My soil isn't just bad it is extra bad with all that mineralization plus iron.

Took it out a little yesterday, I will start writing up my experiences in even more detail soon enough but here are a few quick initial observations from my first hunt...

Balance seemed pretty good with the small coil, could use a little more weight down at the bottom but I got used to it easily...I assume the bigger coil might feel a bit better.
One guy said the S angle of the top rod was a bit off for him and I noticed a slight difference between that and my Fisher but again no big deal...I can get used to most anything over time.
I could reach the buttons and trigger and manipulate them without problems so comfort is not an issue.

Ground balance was done several times as I moved around a close park searching areas I have hit a bazillion times in the past... numbers were usually between 71 and 81 with that magnetic circle thingy showed 3/4's full most of the time at the least.
Did not attempt manual balance, that might work pretty good in some spots around here.
Did not try auto tracking at all either, not sure it could handle my dirt and all the changes very well but we will try that out later and see.

This thing is fun...tones are pretty good, I split my time between all metal and two tone using the small sniper coil.
I blasted the settings up there to max most of the time on all metal, not necessary at all but that is how I learned to hunt successfully in this devil dirt so what the heck.
Stayed fairly quiet most of the time too, some jumping, popping and noise but easily dealt with.
Tom thinks that on a gain setting from 98-99 there might be a little boost involved and it can get extra noisy.
98 or 99 seemed the same to me and a few times I turned it down a little from there also.
Thresh...99 but bumped it down to mid 90's for awhile on my travels.
Again this was just my first foray into this so many different adjustments will be experimented with in time.

This thing overloaded a lot on shallow targets especially, even small things like beaver tails.
This could be an affect from my pumped up settings so I will experiment with that and I learned to raise the coil higher over many of these and get a pretty accurate ID without that video game overload signal.
When locking on to many targets I got a short ding similar when it is done ground balancing but louder.
That is pretty neat, I will see how accurate this feature is and see if it can be trusted and used to my advantage somehow.

On two tone the gain was moved up between 71 at a noisy spot but mostly up into the 90's most places...still seemed pretty quiet to me.
ID filter was at 0 for a bit, 1 a lot, 10 to start out for the first hour and even up to 50 once looking for higher tone objects in a sea of trash and iron.
It all worked, behavior seemed similar to the F70 with jumping around over iron and trash but I was able to lock in on several targets and dig them just as I can with the F70.
Mostly trash, can slaw, biggest pieces of cans in the 80's, tabs.
I dig stop over a bit bouncy target using all metal, switched back to two tone and it was the same, it was a target in the mid 50's and I was trying to avoid most of the trash at that point but something about this signal made me dig it...more solid ends on the signal or something.
It was a bit different to my ear in someway so I went after it and came up with a 1974 nickel that was about 2-3" deep so it was there for awhile and I smiled.
The language might not be so hard to learn, my Fisher instincts might transfer over nicely.

Nothing I dug was super deep, not sure if I am penetrating all that much deeper using this one than my Fisher so far but still many settings to mess with and miles to go before I sleep.

One signal was in the low 80's and bent over and dug my first flat rusty bottle cap of the day.
I checked the area again and got the same signal but very solid about 6" north and decided to dig that one too.
Not a bottle cap this time but a great older Yale padlock at about 3-4"...that was cool!
Hard to believe I missed this one in the past but pretty sure I did.

Dug a couple of hot rocks, coal clunkers I believe, came in at the mid 90's just as the manual says they are supposed to do.

Came across on pretty large diameter piece of bent up copper.
Looks to big to be a normal ground wire but it was used for something.
This showed a depth of 10" but it was only about 4" so not sure what's up with that...I only hit the end of it, most was buried further in the sidewall of my hole down deeper.
Could have been something else down deeper but I forgot to check, I was just happy to find a nice chunk of copper to add to my salvage pile.

A few targets were fairly small and that is great, maybe this thing can pick up the more difficult items I might come across like chains...hope so.

I couldn't get it to pinpoint at anything less than 5" which was a drag, this went on most of the hunt but when I pinpointed a deep piece of iron and numbers from 25-27 showed up on the screen I finally realized I was in European centimeters instead of US inches...Duhhhhh!
I always insist I am good looking...never admitted to being the sharpest crayon in the box.

I was told it worked similarly to the F70 in behavior I which it seemed to do all through the hunt.
Really jumpy from the 80's down into lower regions over decent sized iron, repeating numbers from one direction sometimes but changed completely from another which was also indicated iron.
Pretty jumpy over most trash types like small can slaw and beaver tail tabs, locked on pretty good and solid on some of the shallowest ones with correct numbers...all behavior I know well.
On the way back home I walked over the front lawn of a few permission homes I have scoured in the past and in one I haven't done much at all yet I scored a couple of zinc cents, (82 here), a copper cent or two and a quarter all not really deep at about 3".
All were surprisingly solid and locked on with numbers that might have only jumped one number or so...if that.
That quarter was at 87-88...I believe it was supposed to be higher into the low 90's usually but I rarely believe anything around here, the way targets sound and behave are my indicators I go by not the actual numbers.

I dug one tail off a beaver tail tab that was pretty deep in an area I could actually dig down a bit further...it was maybe at the 5-6" level and it was in the lower to mid 80's.
I was told this thing also up averages everything around iron and this is the exact same behavior I see on the Fisher on targets at 5"+ so that is a great thing.
This is how I find hidden and masked good targets at deeper levels, I use this up averaging behavior to my advantage.

As far as the ID system this thing is way more compressed at the top end than my F70.
Not sure I am thrilled with that, not easy to change over from the different and more spread out Fisher range but I will get used to it.
All those pop tops, zinc cents and other things coming in at the low to mid 80's that are shallow but not quarters...that is just a little strange to me so far.
Copper cents, dimes and quarters are so close to each other on this one, I have read that others didn't like so many signals coming in at the high 80's or low 90's so much using this and I can see what they mean.
That's ok...Again I will deal with it.

All in all a good first start.
A fun short initial hunt, lots to learn still but I felt pretty comfortable using it and understanding it from the get go.
Much more coming.

 

[SeabeeRon]

Great info, thanks Digger!

 

[REVIER]

I had a short second hunt, picked up some more clad, a 100 Lira coin, and then near the end I turned up the disc to just cherry pick one or two final high tone targets and discovered the disc on this thing goes up all the way.
This was my third hunt in a couple if places using really high disc and boy did I have fun!


Today's hunt was pretty fantastic.
I decided to cherry pick the high tones and hunted sites I have been over many times with numerous machines and coils.
I turned the disc up to 84 to avoid most of that other junk that comes in at 82-83 and left it in two tone most of the time.
I was actually amazed!
I was digging the solid non jumping signals mostly, the ones that jumped no more than two numbers anyway, but most of the good stuff came in on a solid single number only.
This is different than my Fisher...everything jumps around here a little, even the shallow stuff.
This thing zeroed in and locked on to most of the coins like a laser.
Most were between 1-3", a couple might have been at 4" but man, this was fun and different for me.
A couple of eaten up zincolns were the exception when I did lower the disc down a bit in areas where I have found Indian heads but everything from copper cents to dimes to a mind blowing amount of quarters I missed in the past were more dead on solid and stable.
Some pieces of copper tubing and other scrap copper too...this thing seems to love to find copper.
Dimes were usually an 85, copper cents were usually an 85 also, quarters ranged from 85-88 but all sounded crisp.
Hunting this way I could cover up the screen and just dig the tones as long as that disc was turned up like I had it.
I also got a 94-95 that was not a hot rock or large piece of junk but a 100 year old or so token so that was cool.

I found most if the clad in a couple of areas I hunted before, some of it, that token and the copper salvage in an area of woods at the edge if the park that has several frisbee golf goals spaced out around it.
I have hunted there before but it is pretty large.
Everywhere I went I just wandered aimlessly around, no gridding, no close overlapping just moving the coil wherever looking for those solid high tone signals.
I didn't mention I still have the sniper coil on this thing which makes it all that more amazing.
Using the big DD coil in hard hunted areas and picking up hidden coins is one thing, to do it with the small coil and pick up so many coins I missed before is a little shocking.
Don't know if this thing is reading through the soil better to lock onto some masked ones or what...I don't believe these coins were on edge because someone said this one is good at that but maybe a couple but I can't believe all of them were.

I have a friend that hunts a site where whole neighborhoods have been knocked down and carted away.
The streets and sidewalks are still there and so is a ton of trash like you would expect from an area like that.
Using this thing this way at that site would be perfect.
If I can't find copper cents, high tone clad and silver while avoiding most of the trash in an easier way with another tool just tell me how...I was that impressed with it's cherry picking abilities.

I had a bunch of trash in most areas today too.
Pull tabs galore when I turned down the disc a couple of times or switched to all metal plus pop tops like...everywhere.
This park is extra loaded with them, on top of the ground, shallow and deeper.
I got that overload signal a lot all day, over those pop tops,screw on tops, iron can slaw and shallow beaver tail tabs.
I dug several of these at first after getting the overload in two tone then switching to all metal to see what they were and see how deep they were, also.
This thing overloads on really tiny stuff if it is shallow I noticed but again I didn't remember to lower the sense to see if I can cut some of that out...next time.
I don't recall getting many overloads at all on the coins, even a couple that were on top of the ground hidden in the grass...just that pleasant ding tone when it really locks in.
The cool thing was when it overloaded there were no numbers on the screen at all because I had all that disced out.
I kept checking them at first with all metal but soon I learned to just ignore them and they didn't bother me.
This is not like the F70, I get some bleed through and a few false tones from time to time over iron with that one but mostly when I disc something out it stays out and rarely do I get overloads on anything or at the rate this one does.
Still, not an issue...especially when it can pick out the good stuff ina sea of trash like it did today.
I wonder if it will be just as easy using the big coil, harder, would I find even more?
All will be answered as time goes on.

So here is the loot, I haven't picked up this many coins in any site for a long time and I did it in sites I cleared out pretty well..or so I thought.

 

[Monte]

I am sure you'll continue to be pleased with what the Racer series detectors can do. They are impressive, to say the least, and that also includes being "just fun to use!"

Monte

 

[REVIER]

Thanks Monte...fun was the word for sure on this hunt.
That ability to turn the disc up to avoid the large amount of common trash I get in the low 80's is just...fantastic.
I don't like the compression on most everything in those lower 80 numbers, evidently many didn't so they knocked the iron level down and expanded the top range more on the Racer2 which is really cool that the company listens and reacts so quickly.
Still, even with that compression the ability to lock on and pick out targets above my disc point in this rough soil with such accuracy is worth the hassle...a wash in my opinion.
Still need to look for the lower end stuff, deep nickels, hopefully a little gold or whatever and see how stable and solid it locks on and what kind of ID's I get and figure out how to get deep as possible.
I believe it will all be as interesting, eye opening productive and as fun doing that as this hunt turned out to be.