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Fisher F Series Vs The Minelab Xterra 705


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Been using both the White TDI Sl and ML Xterra 705 with 5x9 coils here in the California Mother Lode and along the Klamath and Trinity Rivers. Between the two detectors been able to handle the ground conditions. Lots of magnetite. Use the TDI Sl over the serpentine. Heavy thick brush, steep terrain, occasional old cabin and tent sites from 1850 through the Depression Era into 1950's. The smaller coils are a must, just can't sweep the larger coils on the steep brushy slopes. Been looking at the Fisher F19 and F75 which both seem comparable to the Xterra 705.  Like the option of searching for coins & relics while detecting for gold when an old camp site is discovered. 

After reading several of Steve's articles on the Fisher Series and Xterra, here is what I think I have learned:

The F19 at 19 kHz and Xterra 705 are very close except the Xterra multi-frequency coils selection ( 3, 7.5 & 18.75 kHz); the only waterproof Xterra coils is the 6"; all Fisher coils are waterproof. Not sure if the F19 displays discrim target id in true all metal mode; the Xterra 705 does not. The F19 is a little pricey compared to the Xterra 705. 

The F75 at 15 KHz 13 kHz in true all metal mode will indicate discrim target id. The Xterra 705 does not display target Id in the prospecting true all metal mode; requires you to toggle over to Coin/Relic Discrim mode for target id resulting in a loss of detecting depth. The F75 Discrim notching is limited compared to the Xterra 705. The F75 apparently has a history of EMI problems; the Xterra does not. The Xterra with a 18.75 KHZ coil runs a little hot for coins and relics but works. The F75 apparent ability to separate out good targets in trashy areas may be a big plus over the Xterra. The F75 stock coil ( 8x11?) may work in the brush. The current base F75 and Xterra 705 price are the same; the F75 Limited Editions $ 250 plus higher.

Often switch from Prospecting mode and use the Discrim notching feature on the Xterra 705 then toggle between the notch and all metal to weed out the iron using target id when in trashy old mining camps. ( Use the Garrett AT Pro in pro mode when strictly coin/relic hunting; great target separation; iron audio; but no true all metal mode for prospecting.) Do not know enough about the F75 Limited Edition Boost/ Cache features to decide if they will be useful. Use the TDI Sl detecting for nuggets under a gram so the Fisher F75 15kHz is not an issue. Really like the F75 feature of displaying discrim target id in the true all metal mode; current pricing on the base F75 with two coils at $599 is hard to pass up.

Have drop the F19 from the list.  Any opinions and experience with the Fisher F75 compared to the Minelab Xterra 705 are welcomed.  Keep in mind on the west coast during the gold rush US coins were in short supply; some military buckles from the war with Mexico were exchanged for trade goods.  Let me know what you think and keep Santa out of this; on the wrong list.

Good prospecting & detecting

To all you devil dogs out there, have a Merry Christmas where ever you may be. Semper Fi

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  • The title was changed to Fisher F Series Vs The Minelab Xterra 705

F75 is 13 kHz, not 15 kHz. I made an edit to your post reflecting that.

Both are good units. I find it difficult to say that getting an F75 would result in any better finds than what you could get with the XT705 and AT Pro you currently own. Faced with the same choice I went F75 due to ability to display target id in all metal mode plus it is a better balanced machine. Don't forget the X-Terra however does have an effective iron mask setting while in Prospect mode that can replace any need to mode switch.

I think it is more about whether you just want something new to play with. Personally although I do like buying and trying new detectors I find that more hours hunting and/or better locations make the difference, not getting another machine.

I like the F19 based on specs but I think it is overpriced for what is actually there.

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Got a f75 and despite this year very busy at work it has pulled me 3 nice gold items on the Thames......the last one was thursday a 18ct ring with nice stones et the heaviest was a 11gr 18ct part of watch bracelet ......in the iron infested River Thames i got a 705 somewhere in France but never used it i bought if for the prospecting.And got a Goldbug too:)

 

 

RR

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Steve,

Thanks for the honest response. Going sleep on this a couple more nights. With all inventory offers can't but think Fisher is going to be hitting the market with something new.

The AT Pro has impressed me from the start as a coin getter. Picked a trade token laying under piece of sheet metal then a flatten can. No complaints on either the TDI Sl or Xterra 705 both good machines for this area.

Maybe a trip to Goldfield NV would be money better expended.

Thanks again

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Even though you may have made up your mind (at least on some things, such as ruling out the F19) I think it's worth adding some of my experiences (opinions?)  The above link has excellent pricing on a new Teknetics G2, which is AFAIK the same electronics & performance as the Gold Bug Pro.  Steve has, in multiple places, indicated the minor differences between the F19 and the GBPro.  (BTW, Teknetics version of F19 is G2+ -- yes, almost same name but with a plus-sign.)

I have a Fisher Gold Bug pro with 5 coils (three factory, a 15 inch Nel Attack, and a 6 inch Coiltek prototype that never made it to production), a Whites TDI/SPP (almost same as TDI/SL) with 5 working coils plus a Garrett Infinium coil I'm trying to mod, and finally the Minelab X-terra with the stock coil (7.5 kHz) 8 inch round concentric plus Coiltek 'Digger' (2.5 kHz) round DD.

My experience with these detectors, mostly coin hunting but some nugget hunting is far below what it needs to be in order to give strong advice.  I will say that I like all of them.  The TDI/SPP is super easy to set up and run, and does well in hot rock infested Arizona desert and Colorado mountains.  The GBPro is (in my limited experience) very good at finding small metal bits (no native gold yet :sad:) and does very nicely coin hunting.  It only has three tones (actually two true tones plus silent) in discrimination mode so it's not as diverse in that (and many other ways) as the X-terra 705.  But it's super lightweight and I don't miss the notching (which it doesn't have, but the F19, G2+, and X-terra have) because I'm digging everything above iron, anyway, and I mean that for old coin hunting as well as nugget hunting.  I've put in about the same amount of time with the X-terra 705 as the GBPro (rough estimate 75 hours each), but mostly with the small Coiltek Digger since the sites I hunt are loaded with iron (mostly nails).  I'm still getting to learn the wraparound from iron to silver....  OTOH, the GBPro TID doesn't always give the truest reading (some larger iron reads conductive -- i.e. in the coin region) and maybe every detector made today has some kind of TID issue.

In my opinion, if saving money is important, check out used detectors on eBay where 50% of retail is typical and sometimes you can do better than that.  (Of course there are exceptions for the newest and/or most popular models, where 60-75% of retail is more likely.)  And the Teknetics T2 is very similar to the Fisher F75, except it apparently only works with DD coils (which, IMO, isn't a big loss, at least in my limited experience).  Some people say being able to run concentrics IS a big deal and they probably know better than I do....  I've had very good luck (if you want to call it that) buying used detectors and coils.  Sometimes there is warranty left on used detectors, too.

Getting new detectors is fun and I've come close to buying used F75/T2 and also a used Whites VX3, but I took Steve's advice and decided to learn to better use the ones I have, for now.  Besides, by the time I'm ready to get another there may be some new, revolutionary detector available and I'll want to put my money on that.  Even if I go with tried-and-true, the used prices are very likely going to be lower than they are now.  On top of that, winter is setting in and I'm not as fortunate as some of you to live where detecting is a year round opportunity.  But I retire in 20 months.  :wink:

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Had the F75, had the F19,... but kept the 705.

I'm not going to say I disliked the Fishers,... they do an awesome job at finding stuff.

Both the F units will annoy you at the small targets you end up digging. Even running the F75 on 1/3 sensitivity it will find the goods.

I'm just going to say I like my 705 better :-)

ID in all metal when the target is in ID distance is nice on the fishers. But it just turns me into a screen watcher. And I don't like to watch screens when metal detecting. Prefer to watch the coil, watch my sweep and hear it talk to me.

The Disc mode on the 705 is just they way I like it. If it blurts out a tone, it is sure about what it says.

But that is just me and my 705. We understand each other!

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GB,

Thanks for the reply, I am still gathering information. The reason I use the notch feature is the generations of discarded iron trash plus on the weekends target shooters spray the area with jacked lead and fail to police their brass.  Notching out the lower range of iron leave only the brass jacketed lead to deal with. When using the notch feature on either the AT Pro or Xterra, iron targets still create enough chatter when notched out to indicate their presence. With a thumb click to either the AT iron audio or the XT disc AM allows for further investigation. When in less trashing hot ground the TDI is my favorite dig everything MD. Used it last week to chase a quartz stringer over an mountain recently cleared by a wildfire...no problem. Like I said before The AT Pro has cleaned up more than a few coin spills plus some old silver.

After Reading Steve's response got me to thinking about what I was really looking for in a new detector. Steve is correct, you can use a pin pointer if you put over a target at the correct height on good ground.  In short I am looking for a MD that will fill out what I already have and not to duplicate.  Prior to the ban on motorized mining in CA, I felt it was more productive to sluice for gold flakesand pickers than detecting for them with a dictated high frequency MD. Then last night I ran across Ray Mills and Steve's reviews of the Makro Gold Racer. Oh, Oh! Was I wrong, may have drawn the fourth ace. 

If you get a change can you expand on the iron silver wrap around you mentioned. Thanks again for the input

 

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I agree Scoop, me and my 705. The ear is apparently easier to train than eye. Thanks

Forgot to expand on short timer GB's nearing retirement. Congrats GB. I best get back to work before the boss discovers he left his laptop in my company truck and I accidentally turned off his spell check. Just remember " a good hammer worth a thousand nails".     What did Mr Fix It put is this thermos...

Good luck and even better detecting.

 

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On 12/5/2016 at 11:48 AM, HardPack said:

If you get a change can you expand on the iron silver wrap around you mentioned. Thanks again for the input

Randy Horton does a better job than I can:

Understanding Your X-Terra

See p. 78, but it's mentioned elsewhere.  You can search for 'wrap'.

On 12/5/2016 at 12:14 PM, HardPack said:

Forgot to expand on short timer GB's nearing retirement. Congrats GB.

Well, thanks, but I'm not there yet.  Kinda like when I was 19 wanting to be 21.  Takes forever to make it through those last couple of years!

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I'm going to jump in here regarding the Iron-silver wrap around of the X-terra vs the Fisher F75/F19.

On the X-terra a large iron signal will indeed give you more false hi-tones. This indicates either your ground balance is off or indeed a very large piece of iron.

The Fishers don't exhibit this wrap around as much because they've chopped off a little of that very high conductive ID for you. So rather than iron starting to high-tone false when your ground balance is off, it grunts more and more. Leaving you with the question. Is my GB Off or am I coming into more iron?

Want to hunt with the X-terra like the Fisher, just notch out that highest number.

I prefer not to myself, but sometimes on rough mineralised ground I will notch out that number, making it huntable.

Why I don't like to do it,... fixed ground balance that is spot on has given me some deep and accuratly ID-ed targets. And the X-terra running in all notches open gives me the most chance of it happening. 

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