Mike Hillis

Minelab has to do something special to stand out in a marketplace already dominated by others. Looks like it still needs some work though as that particular design doesn't look useable. High handgrip, low armrest, all the weight at the wrist with a nose heavy coil. Wait and see. HH Mike

I had to switch hit with a sledge hammer Sunday morning. Concrete filled blocks are hard! Talk about being tuckered out. I'll sometimes switch out for about 5 minutes but I loose all coil control when I do. So I only switch long enough to give the arm a chance to relax and stretch a bit. Even just a few minutes helps. Sometimes it helps just to shorten the lower rod a notch. HH Mike

Doc, They make three sizes; Smart=5x8 DD, Ranger=10x14 DD, and Turbo=14.5 DD There are reviews on YouTube, but they are in Russian. RIF Ranger 14x10: RIF Smart 5x8: RIF Turbo 14.5: HH Mike

Steve, Thanks for adding the coil picture! Mike

Pretty fast shipping. The shipped it on the 12th and I picked it up at the post office on the 26th. 15 days from Russia to New Mexico, USA. Good looking coil. Not too heavy but it does add a little front end weight on the F75. I get a lot EMI in the house but the limited bench testing was good on the F75 LTD. I tried it on the F19 and F5, too. Works great on the F5. Works on the F19 too, but not as well as the F5 and F75. I'll post a review in a couple of weeks after I get some time on the ground with it. But from the quick bench testing I did last night I can already tell it will do what I bought it to do. HH Mike RIF Ranger 14" x 10" DD Coil

This thing will probably storm the country. Value Value Value HH Mike

Hard to find anything that balances as well as the Fisher F5. It has a 1019 point ground balance resolution scale that many never need or even know it's there. In some of my ground every little click of the dial makes a difference. But I have always found a null with the F5. I can't say that about any other digital metal detector and not many analog units. HH Mike

Thanks for posting the links to the manual. It appears to have a nice feature set. I like the ground mineral graphic. It is easier to relate to than the FE0304 bars on the Fisher units. Key thing is being able to turn ground tracking off. I think I read that tracking can be turned off. I think there will be folks that will like it. HH Mike

It looks like they are maybe breaking up the monochrome look by having LCD print in black, and the LCD display in blue, with the addtion of the color conductive bar. At least that is what the picture shows. Who knows what the final will look like. Whenever I'm studying a metal detector I save the meter picture as the background on my computer so that it stays in my mind. I currently am involved in studying algorythms differences between some AKA units and the F75 with a little V3i thrown in but I put the Makro Racer picture up for a time while I wait on the manual to be published. Its colorful. HH Mike

4" x 18" DD or a 5" x 20" DD, or anything close to those measurments would float my boat Regards the large Fors coil, the length is good but the 13" width is too wide for my tasks. I don't need a lot of depth, just lots of ground coverage on a fast recovering detector. My biggest hope is that the RIF Ranger coil I ordered for my F75 will also work on my F19. If that indeed turns out to be the case then I can afford to wait until the day someone builds a 4" x 18" DD or a 5" x 20" DD or some such coil. It that is not the case then I'll still be tethered to Tesoro and their Cleansweep coil. I would like to move away from Tesoro all together but right now their Cleansweep coil keeps me tethered to them. HH Mike

Do they have any larger coils? Something like a 8x14" DD or something along those lines? For one of my tasks I prefer a 5x10 DD and something like a 8x14 inch DD. I guess I need to go online and look at coils. I'll probably buy one new or used just to check it out, but I don't need it unless I can get the longer coil. HH Mike

You almost have to try one at that price. That puts it right smack in the middle of the mid range units. If it performs well that will be a good seller. I also agree that is a good coil combination for the Pro Pack. A 5x10 coil is just a 5" coil in a 10" shoe. The 5" coils are too specialized. A 5x10 has more flexibility. Even though I don't need it, it still looks good enough to check the clad jar. HH Mike

WOW!

Those are good videos. If I remember right, the first one was about equipment and had a nice interview with his Dad. Talked about him going full time into prospecting. I think I still have them both. Will have to look and see. HH Mike

That is a very nice nugget. Congrats!!!! I like your approach. Get down and get to it! HH Mike

I dunno. There has been some talk but I don't know where its going. Cannot get onto Findmall from my normal computer anymore. Seems J&J and Findmall are no longer compatiable. HH Mike

I just ordered a RANGER 10" x 14" DD coil for my F75 out of Russia. $110 plus $25 shipping didn't seem a bad price. Hopefully it will be a good coil. That is also the longest, thinest coil I can locate at this time. Perhaps I'll get lucky and it will work halfway decent on my F5, too. HH Mike

Steve, Where do you see the Russian AKA line in your story board? HH Mike

I agree with you 100%, plidn1. HH Mike

Thank you Chris, for all the info you have shared. I know many people bring home concentrates to pan out at their leisure. I wondered if anyone brought stuff home to leach. I guess the answer is not many. That 1/2 ounce of gold plate recovery is impressive. I can't even imagine how much electronic equipment had to be processed to get that much. HH Mike

What about removing gold plate?

I was reading on another forum about a gold miner being found dead among "toxic chemicals that could cause an explosion", which made me want to ask the question, "What are your favorite gold leach solution?". I created a poll question. Whats your favorite solution? HH Mike

Totally agree...

Steve, I disagree with you about the air tests. Not bench testing, but the air test, which to me are different. For me, an 'air test' is a quick judge of potential, while 'bench testing' is about understanding the feature set. A air test will quickly tell me if the detector/coil combo is suited for what I want to use if for. For instance, if I was looking for a coinshooter, I would want to know the distance it gets on a dime. I don't want to get the air test from just one source either. I'd want to see results from multiple sources. If the dime test is poor, or, less than I deem acceptable, then I just saved some money from a buy and try for a coinshooter. I can pretty much tell how a detector should air test a dime just by the operating frequency and coil size, but if the air test is different than I am expecting that also tells me stuff about ground balance systems and design intent. Coinshooters care about dime tests. In fact, a US coinshooting should air test a quarter farther than it does a nickel. You might think, well duh! but not many modern units will detect a quarter farther than a nickel anymore. Thats a dime. Do prospectors air test? Sure they do. You just told us about the bic pin test. Again, its just potential. We all know the ground minerals are going to decrease depth, but at least the air test gave us a potential to work down from, both from a size perspective, as well as a distance perspective. So, yes, I think air tests are a valid quick and dirty way to judge between units when looking for certain performance characteristics. HH Mike

Steve, You wrote a book already! Just a few corrections regards the F75..... F75 VDI range is 1 to 99. F75 tone break for the 2 tone mode is at 15/16. 15 and under being ferrous low tone, 16 and up being the VCO tone. The F75 manual regarding VDI ranges is a bit off on the high conductors. Dimes and copper pennies are generally running 74, Quarters are running 84ish. Half dollars are running 89. One thing I'm starting to notice is the Fors CoRe /Racer ferrous range mimics the T2. On the T2, 1-10 is also ground range. Have you ever used a T2? Ray mentioned the Soveriegn, which is a great detector. Great Id because you could charge it up. You wiggle over the target until the tones or VDI stopped moving. But like he said, it is really slow. Great detector for people with lots of detecting time, but for me it was a retired mans machine. Lot of people got unhappy when Minelab discontinued it. You said, "In my opinion, these days we have to cast a wider net and be willing to dig more trash to make those exceptional finds. What that means is huge numbers of VDI numbers and tones although flashy and fun often is no better than just using a simple two or three tone method and going for it.". That is very true and another reason I am looking for a good visual representation of the signal. I want to see the target response profile. The exact reason I want the V3 for some of my turf sites. Isn't it funny how we agonize, research, buy and try, looking for that one or two detectors. I think I'm crazy myself. I find a instrument I really really like and the first thing I start doing is trying to figure out what could do it better. Pure nutso crazy. Better to use the ones you really like than to spend time and money hunting for something better all the time. But I do it all the time and watch others do it too. HH Mike