GB_Amateur

This isn't at all a detailed comparison, but this sub-forum seems to be right place to put it. I'm pretty sure these devices are no longer made for any detector models, but it might help someone thinking of buying a used one. I bought a used FX-1 (for Fisher F75) recently. I did look for reviews and found a few, but unless I read too fast those didn't tell the key features (particularly minuses). This is not meant to be an overall review like you'd find in a magazine. The other reviews you can find on the WWW do that. The main thing to know about this device is that it is effectively a (passive) replacement/substitute coil for your detector. It has a switch for changing between your main coil and the pinpointer probe -- only one operates at a time. PLUS: since it's using the detector electronics as would any coil, you get all the audible and visible readouts that you normally get, thus discrimination. That sets it apart from every handheld standalone pinpointer I'm aware of. MINUSES: two big ones, IMO. 1) For the same reason that you get discrimination (using the detectors capabilities), if your detector is set in motion mode (which is the default and in many cases the only option on modern detectors), you have to be moving the probe to get it to sound off. 2) Ditto the reasoning above, the sensitivity depends upon what gain you've set your detector for your main coil. In my case I had the F75 gain set to 50 (half scale) and the probe only went off when I got within about 1.5 in (~4 cm) from a piece of metal. Compare that to the White's Bullseye TRX at 3 in. and the Garrett Carrot at 2.5 in. The documentation I received (hard/impossible to find online, BTW) claims 3 inch depth. I can believe that if I crank the F75 gain up to 99. Sure, I could go to non-motion all-metal and I could crank up the gain. But that's a lot of changing detector settings every time I want to dig. I assume the detector's pinpoint mode would also work (it's basically non-motion all-metal) but on the F75 that requires holding down a spring-loaded switch. That's not at all convenient when you're on the ground trying to probe for a target in a hole. Further, one of the big reasons detectors went to motion mode in the first place is to be able to cancel/adjust-out electronics drift. So even if you lock into non-motion all-metal I assume that could have a negative effect since often one can spend non-negligible time finding the target in the hole (uh, especially if you need to get to 1.5 inches to hear anything!). As a novelty and possibly for special situations I can see using this device. Unfortunately, unless I'm missing something, mine is going on the shelf and/or auction block.

I'm sure many of you detect in colder weather than I've been in the last couple days (38F = 3C). I can keep everything warm but my fingers. Even with gloves (one on my detecting hand and two on my digging hand) I can't keep my fingers warm. My detecting hand has a fairly thin (mechanic's) glove so I can handle the controls. Both hands have been dry so that isn't the problem. Any advice appreciated.

Don't know if you guys have seen or remember this thread from 6 months ago. A guy in Australia (karelian65 is his online name) did an extensive test of coils for the TDI. That was done on a Pro ("OZ Series") but pretty sure it has value for other models. I don't find the particlar coil you are discussing but it's still a great read. NOTE: there are two posts on that site's thread -- one for the small coils and another for large coils.

Maybe more of a question for White's: why NiCad instead of NiMH (which came with my TDI/SPP)?

Mine was ketchup, and given its depth it may be 40 years old. The spot I found it has produced oodles of ring-and-beavertail pulltabs which are that old. So I wouldn't take mine as the norm. And if the nail directly underneath was vertical, even though shielded some, that could increase the TID. Yeh, I know those drink bottle seals you and MontAmmie are talking about, but I don't get many (thankfully). They're big enough and have a thick enough layer of aluminum to really sound good, especially for a dig-it-all (non-ferrous) detectorist.

I got one of those last Sunday, 6 inches deep (don't know how it got down there...), strong signal and high TID -- between dime and quarter. Had a nail right under it. I don't remember if I went at it from multiple directions. I know if it's hitting that high of a TID I'm digging, so don't always investigate so much.

Build a test garden in 10 minutes? I'm envious! I wish besides the 12 in ('Aussie') mono on the White's TDI Pro he had also run with a smaller coil. Since all these detectors (not surprisingly) had different size and shape coils it would have given a better indication as to the detector electronics contribution. That's a pretty sophisticated protective cover he had on the TDI. Looks likel something I'd make.

Not arguing the advantage of changing the default gain with +/- buttons on the Pro-Find 35, but with both the Garrett Carrot and the White's TRX, you can temporarily de-sensitize by bringing the tip close (until you get a decent signal, but not right up as far as you can) to the buried target and then pressing and releasing the power button. You can do this a handful of times (typically three or more, depending upon how close to the target you step). To return to your default gain just take the pinpointer out of the hole and do a similar press and release of the power button. All of this can be done without turning off the pinpointer.

What does the cirumference tell you about a coil's expected performance?

This thread has quickly turned into a keeper. Excellent posts with great advice, everyone. I'm going to reread these multiple times and even make some written notes to review before my next hunt (which won't be this weekend, unfortunately ). On the subject of gain settings, I think I (and maybe many others) got off on the wrong foot from day 1 and never recovered. It seems obvious that higher gain is better. This is 'confirmed' by air tests where you notice turning up the gain allows you to pick up the object farther (deeper) from the coil. Seems simple.... In the real world, not in air, you have 'noise' from ground and neighboring targets. Now maybe some of you in pristine parks have just coins with occasional aluminum (foil and can slaw) which is so spread out that you seldom have two targets in the same coil 'footprint'. And your ground is mild enough and consistent enough that you can crank up the gain until internal circuit noise (and/or external electromagnetic interference = EMI) starts to become an issue and swing away, happy as a lark. Those aren't my conditions by a long shot. Further, if those really are the conditions then I likely don't even want to hunt there because it's either a new park built on 'clean' land (no previous dwellings/habitation) or it's a park that's been hunted to death over its productive lifeltime. Here's a thought -- instead of starting with the factory settings (which are set so you get a feel for the detector's operation, and even that is more of a gut feel by the engineers) and then cranking up, go lower, and lower, and lower... and see how your finds change. How deep are you getting in real ground? Are you picking up items you haven't seen, maybe because of target confusion with gain set too high pulling in neighboring targets? Test the entire scale from min to max. Try this on undug targets and then dig to see how deep your cutoff really is. (I've just started to appreciate this recently because of things others here have said in their posts.) It is more fun finding treasure than testing, but you can't do the former well without paying your dues with the latter. In another side interest of mine, one of the wise veterans recommended 1 hour of study for every 3 hours of 'play'. And I don't think he was one of those "do what I say, not what I do" types. I'm pretty sure that was his regimen. What the right ratio is for detecting I don't know, but I doubt it's 0 study, that is if you want to get better. Studying can be fun, too, and can be done in the fields/parks/schools while you're hunting. But if your goal always "pull as much good out of the ground for the limited time given" then, IMO, you may be missing something (and probably not even fulfilling your goal, anyway).

Since the first derivative (all-metal) mode is more sensitive than the discriminator mode, and since the target ID is a discriminator mode function, for the weakest signals in all-metal there is no target ID. Then you can use the ground phase reading to give an indication/hint of the conductivity. It's more complicated than a simple ground phase A = target-ID B relationship, but it can provide useful info when calibrated (in your brain, that is). For the dig-it-all (nonferous) types (like me) this isn't necessarily a dig vs. no dig clear cutoff indicator, but it certainly is a piece of data than can help. The earlier developed Fisher F75 (as has been stated many times here) actually has a large TID redout in first derivative/all-meta mode -- showing Fisher obviously knows how to do that. I wonder if the engineers' excitement with the development of the 'speedometer' readout on the (new) Gold Bug led them to (over-?) emphasize its value by making it the target ID readout in all-metal as opposed to a digital readout for that purpose. Or is it simply that the ground phase and its associated drift (due to changing ground conditions) can be a more important quantity when hunting native gold (the primary and intially only reason the new Gold Bug was developed) than target ID?

The Fisher F19 (and Teknetics G2+) sale has them priced at $449 presently, although I think that is one of those "limited time only" price drops. The F19 comes with 5in X 10in DD coil similar to the X-Terra Gold Pack. (I think the G2+ standard coil is the 7in X 11in DD.) The F19 and G2+ have the same featueres as the Gold Bug Pro and G2, plus a few more. Having said that, they still don't have as many features as the X-Terra 705; in particular they don't have Ground Tracking. And presumably the new price on the X-Terra is permanent as opposed to a temporary sale price on the two First Texas detectors (above). I have both (X-Terra 705 and Gold Bug Pro) and like both. So either way I'm happy with and supportive of your preference.

Just got back from 5 hours the Gold Prospectors Association of America (GPAA) show in Indianapolis. Many of you know that GPAA puts on about seven of these each year -- five out West in the early part of the year and typically a couple in the East in the Autumn. The last of 2017 is next week in Concord, NC. This is my second (first was last Sept. in Denver) and I came better prepared. For me, by far the best part was attending the lectures (my term, maybe not theirs). There were four one hour presentations and I made three of them. 1) Kevin Hoagland (GPAA executive and Gold Trails TV show host) talked about metal detecting for gold; 2) Mike Pung (Gold Cube) discussed recovering fine gold; 3) (sorry, missed this one and the presenter's name, but title was something like "Prospecting and Mining") I needed some lunch and wanted to visit with Tvanwho (you might recognize his posting name here). 4) Nelson Shaffer, retired from the Indiana Geological Survey, had a slide presentation on gold in Indiana. Kevin's hour was somewhat of a rehash of the one he did earlier this year(?) with Bill Southern which is on YouTube and has been linked on a thread on DetectorProspector site. But I always learn a lot the second time through, and the opportunity to ask questions in person (which I took advantage of) adds quite a bit. Some of what Mike said is available on his 12 part Youtube series on gold recovery, but although I've watched that twice he still said some things I didn't remember from that well done video anthology. Shaffer's geologist view complements Chuck Lasiter's Midwest Gold book. Three (actually four) highly skilled speakers and I gobbled up all of their wares ravenously! In case you haven't attended any of these, the rest of the show are booths by vendors and GPAA local and national clubs, a centralized panning trough for learning, practicing, etc., and a daily raffle (one free ticket per attendee plus opportunity to buy more). Of note was a Minelab booth 'manned' by two ladies from the Naperville, IL national office. They had (I think) the entire current Minelab line of products (including a photo of Steve H. for a mere $40, but they throw in some gold pans and supplies to soften the price ) PLUS a couple prototypes -- the soon to be released pinpointer and one of only 13 prototypes of the much anticipated Equinox. Although it was operational, it wasn't anything like the English unveiling last month where you could actually swing it over real, digable ground, unless someone had a jackhammer handy. Oh, and I couldn't get away without buying something, another gold pan (Gold Cube banjo pan) to add to my collection -- still in single digits, at least that is what I told my wife.... Didn't help. )

I can't speak for you folks out west, but where I live (Midwest / Great Lakes) you need to be VERY selective when you choose a local dealer if you're expecting to get any kind of training. Around here you can hang up a shingle a become a 'dealer' pretty easily without knowing much at all. One more suggestion: go with a multi-line dealer. That's another issue I have with some dealers I've met -- they steer you towards one brand, and unfortunately this can and does happen even with multi-line dealers. Of course you're asking here for advice so hopefully you get quite a varied response, especially recommendations of knowledgeable dealers you can trust.

Don't know if it matters, but here's the link through Ebay(US), just in case you're in North America and don't want to wait a couple months while your package travels half way around the world and then back. https://www.ebay.com/itm/2MP-20x-200x-Zoom-8-LED-Digital-Microscope-Endoscope-Camera-Magnifier-USB-2-0-/121968217513?hash=item1c65df4da9:g:6VMAAOSwiYFXH2OP

I stand corrected. By 1738 they obviously were using better presses, dies, equipment in general. So your slug has a chance of being the real deal ('real' as in 'authentic' not Re-al, the spanish denomination. Then it's only half-real? ) You seem to have gotten into a good relationship with that Infinium since you purchased it earlier this year. Well done. Goes to show one doesn't need a $5k PI to find good stuff. Hope you have a true 18th Century or earlier Spanish coin there, even if it's deteriorated to the point of no detail. Always fun to pull things from the ground that were lost over a century ago. Certainly thrills me on the rare occasions I do that, and Spanish shipwreck treasures are way more 'romantic' than what I've found.

Intriguing, for sure. It seems quite circular. Aren't the early Spanish American-Colonial coins way out-of-round? Does it ID close to the dime? (Looks a bit smaller than the dime, but if silver it should still hit pretty high.)

Got out for 6 hours today (which is about my limit, currently) running the Fisher F75. I started with the 5 inch DD at gain of 50 in a schoolyard which has produced Wheats and one Merc. It's typically not that noisy (in terms of iron) and I decided to switch to the 5x10 concentric after about 1.5 hours. That didn't help. I ended up finding several modern coins (clads, Zincolns, and copper Memorials) but nothing with age after a total of 3.5 hours. The last 1/3 of the day I switched to a 43 year old park established on a piece of property oringinally composed of two 19th century homesteads. I went back to the 5 inch DD and after about 30 minutes with a gain of 50 I decided to drop to 40. (Note: max gain on the F75 is 99). I was searching in my most hunted (by me) section which has produced a Merc and and a couple Indian Head pennies, where I've been at least half a dozen times with all my IB/VLF's. I ran mostly in FA(st) process but occasionally I switch to other processes and even into all-metal to get a better reading on ID, location, etc. What I noticed (and it's not a figment of my imagination) was that with the lower gain I was getting more clear non-ferrous signals. That doesn't guarantee a non-ferrous target since (for example) vertical nails will masquerade as solid non-ferrous in my experience. But I was digging non-ferrous (unfortunately nothing either old or valuable) that I have passed over previously. BTW, my F75 ground balance is in the ballpark of 60 (between 56 and 64 depending upon location) at all my sites. I consider that mild to moderate but you be the judge. (Different values but similar quality ground balance figures with my other VLF's as well.) Another thing I notice with the gain lowered: the FA(st) process of the F75 has fantastic recovery time. I'm sure experienced F75 users know this, but when you see (for example) the video from England last month of the Equinox ripping through a series of closely spaced nails, I gotta say the 8 year old F75 can do that, too, without a hickup. In extremely noisy (again I mean loaded with iron) soil it sounds like an automatic weapon going off. Unfortunately I don't have any prize trophies to show (so far) with my new settings. So in some sense this is a hollow post. They will come. Again I thank all those here on this site who have enlightened me on the complications, challenges, and solutions of hunting in heavily iron enfested locations. I just wish&hope I can pay you back.

Seems like you're off a couple decimal places. 1 ft/s = 0.6818 mi/hr. So 850 ft/s = 580 mi/hr. Or am I misinterpreting how/what you are measuring? Are the units ft/minute?

Thanks for the detailed reply. Here by "10x5 elliptical" do you mean the open concentric or the closed DD?

Hey, could be worse. You could be driving by seeing an excavator loading them into a dumptruck while a bulldozer levels the land and covers it with fill! "...So, there's a chance..."

No posts yet from our European members here. I would think they are in better position to tell you what your button is, given its decoration. To me it appears to be an ancient (possibly Roman) coin. The key word is 'appears'. Let's go from there into a little more detail. 1) Buttons typically are decorated on the outer face and either blank or with manufacturer ID on the inner face. This is decorated on both. That makes me think it wasn't initally meant to be button but was later converted to one. 2) For coins in modern circulation, made by governments, there is a law discouraging copying (counterfeiting). If the government overseeing the coin's mintage either goes away or decides the coin is obsolete (and thus carries no value outside of intrinsic metal or collector value), you typically can get away with copying it. That seems to happen with ancient (for example Greek and Roman Empire) coinage, as well as Far Eastern coins of antiquity. So putting 1) and 2) together, my best guess is that your button was made from a replica of an ancient coin. However, it might be the real deal. If so, does that make it valuable? Possibly, but it would have to be a quite rare and collectible coin to begin with. Its value will have been severely reduced because of its modification and anything short of very rare and collectible would have rendered it worthless (except metal content, of course, as well as among button collectors, but I wouldn't hold my breath on the latter). I'm pretty sure there are certain coins from the Roman Empire which are worth only a (US) buck or so, and maybe not even that. (Again, some of our European members here who specialize in these kinds of finds can correct me and give more detail.) The reason is they are quite common and there isn't high demand for them among the collectors. So even if your button is an authentic ancient coin it probably isn't valuable. But then there's the "...on the other hand..." clause which keeps many of us going out week after week with detector in hand and optimism in brain.

Yes, in the heavy iron infestations. If the iron isn't so bad I use the 5x10 concentric. I use the 7x11 the least, but it's a good coil and the deepest. Given its size and my style of hunting, I need to be in pretty quiet ground (meaning few nails) to be able to take advantage of the depth. Thus it stays in the cabinet most of the time. Now I say that probably having run all these coils at too high of a gain for the sites I'm hunting. But from what I've read and experienced, the more iron, the smaller the coil that works best. I'm getting a lot of good responses. I think I'll sit tight with what I've got for a while. I have a couple other detecting purchases on my list so I'll move those up and a tiny F75 coil down for now. Thanks to everyone for your info and advice, but don't let me silence anyone. I'm still listening....

I have the Fisher F75 black which comes with both the standard 7in X 11in DD and the 5 inch round DD. They also make a 3 in X 6 in DD (among others). I like coils but don't like wasting $. My question is simply: "Is it likely I'll be able to see much difference (in the positive direction, that is!) if I buy the 3x6?" I have read a couple posts on another forum reviewing the F75 3x6 coil positively, but I don't know if those people actually had the 5 inch for comparison. BTW, I'd be happy to hear responses from those who have used 3x6 coils, whether or not they've used the Fisher. For example, the White's MXT has both a 3x6 and a 5.3 (the latter a concentric, though).

Did it happen to get posted on October 1? That's the Anti-April-Fools Day.