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Bakstory: Sold my 1266X about 15 years ago, around when I got out of high school and lost interest in MD'ing.
Got back into MD'ing a few years back and have been using mainly Tesoro's and a Minelab but as much as I love them, I still really missed that 1266 for relics. Recently lucked into a tremendous deal on one that couldn't be passed up. Now, back in the 1266 club.
Downloaded the manual, a lot of it is like riding a bike. Came right back to me.
Can anyone give any suggestions on preferred settings for various situations, how you employ the trigger, etc?
Hey M,
I still hunt with the 1266. Mostly for relics. For what its worth I'll tell you how I hunt with it.
I hunt with the all metal mode ( the left hand knob) set at # 1, and sensitivity at 10. This detects everything, really deep, but still gives small rusty items such as small nails a broken response, and you can depend on that. When I get a repeatable non broken signal I push the trigger forward and check the target again. This puts the unit in discrimination mode ( which is controlled by the right hand knob) that knob is set at #4. If the response is still solid and repeatable I dig it. Most good targets give a smooth round, repeatable sound with this unit in the all metal mode and the disc. mode. But with the trigger pushed forward after finding a target it will break up or go silent on a bad target. If where you're hunting has a lot of trash and cause too much chatter, back off on the sensitivity until it quiets down a bit, this doesn't affect the depth much as far as I can tell. Recently I hunted a small hill top that had been hunted the previous weekend by fellows with mxt's, gpx's, etc., there were digging signs every couple of feet. I was still able to pull 3 bullets and 2 flat buttons in between all those holes. The new machines are awesome, but so is the 1266.
The Fisher 1266x is a great detector still after all these years. I started out with a 1220x in 1982 and used the 1260x, 1265x, and the 1266x for many hundreds of hours coin hunting and found a ton of old silver and copper coins. They were noisy machines in the trash but once learned , they told you alot about the target by the sounds it produced. I'm using a CZ5 now, but wouldn't feel under gunned at all with a 1266x. First Texas really needs to upgrade the electronics of these old classics and bring them back into production.....they would sell a ton of them just from the guys that used them back 15 or 20 years ago and know just how good those machine are. The quality of the build is what I miss the most from those old detectors and the reason I still hunt with a CZ5.....it is built like a tank. Can you imagine having a 1266x with 3 tones and target ID ? Sure sounds like a winner to me..............
Had her out today for a workout.
Was running the 1266X with a 10 1/2" spider coil and Disc One set at 0 and Disc Two set at 4. Koss UR 30 Headphones.
Thought I'd try a big powerline right of way that is across from a church- people are always out there playing sports, goofing around, etc. These were *huge* powerline towers (many many many stories tall) that feed power into Downtown Chicago- no go. Way too much interference. There's so much EMF out there you can damn near feel your teeth buzzing.
Headed out to a local park and did well. I'd worked it before with my Vaquero but was finding targets in places my Vaquero had already said was empty.
Love that trigger disc switch.
Did dig some garbage, but I'm definitely in the camp who believes it's better to dig more than disc more and I'm still re-learning the machine and tuning my ear for it.
Hopefully, I'll luck into another spare 1266. This one will never, ever be sold and should it break, it will be repaired.
