First Outing with My "Enhanced" F75- I was impressed

[VOL1266-X]

I'm not one of these hunters who jumps on the "best new thing" in detectors because I know over 50% of finding relics or coins is where you hunt. The next 25% is how well you know your detector. I bought my first F75 in 2009. My only criticism of the unit was that it was noisy in areas with electrical interference like electric fences and high voltage power lines.The target separation in moderate iron was better than the old unit but I always felt I was missing relics. In November, they offered an upgrade that included a faster process mode. The tech I talked to wouldn't promise any more depth but indicated that I might expect better target separation in iron with less noise. I took a chance and sent one of my F75s in for the upgrade.
This morning, I had a little over an hour to check it out. I rarely use the Discrimination mode but I played with it this morning in a moderate iron field with the disc. set at 30. The unit was very quiet and seemed super sensitive even though I already had the sensitivity set at 90. Although the targets I dug weren't CW, the shape of them should have made them read 30 or higher as they did. I switched back to the all metal mode in a heavy iron field that I had hunted many times with little success. This area has been hunted hard by the Trio with our F75s. I was in the middle of iron readings when a strong "62" signal seemed to "overpower" the iron readings. The target had a soft audio pinpoint and was 8 in. deep. It was the .69 cal. Big Boy 3 ringer in the pic. So far, so good based on the way the enhanced unit worked today. Will keep you updated. HH, Q.

 

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[VOL1266-X]

Glad to hear it buddy my T2 is going in soon..

~Blaze~

JB, I could see it being especially beneficial in your trashy cellar hole sites based upon my experience yesterday. The T2 and F75s are close cousins anyway. HH my friend, Q.

 

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[CMDiamonddawg]

Your Ol Fish 1266 X is being neglected and after all those years of givin' Quindy all that she could give ,, isn't it a pity , a cryin' shame uh huh

Do you feel guilty ?

 

[VOL1266-X]

Your Ol Fish 1266 X is being neglected and after all those years of givin' Quindy all that she could give ,, isn't it a pity , a cryin' shame uh huh

Do you feel guilty ?

Not really Dawg-LOL. Still love the old 1266-x as BB does but the newer tech machines let us hunt sites where we have gone before and dig relics. HH Bud, Q.

 

[F75PAHUNTER]

That's good to hear, a smooth running machine, Thinking of sending mine back to, Its that time of year, I Can't dig here in Pa. the ground is frozen

 

[diggervet]

used to have an F75 but I couldn't ever feel comfortable with it so I traded over to a Deus xp. Glad to hear you're having success with yours!

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Quindy - I got a brand new F75 Ltd SE when they first came out last fall. Overall I really like the machine as its definitely quieter than my old standard F75. And I love the depth the boost mode gets. But I do have a few concerns. The recovery speed in boost mode is very slow. If you don't swing it really slow you're gonna miss stuff. And the FA mode (fast recovery speed) does well in the heavy iron, but gets very poor depth regardless of the coil and sensitivity setting. I've also noticed that for some strange reason my detector will switch to a different process by itself. I can be hunting in JE, then all of a sudden its in FA or something else. This happens just about every time I hunt, and frequently multiple times. I need to occasionally check to make sure I haven't been hunting in an unwanted mode. This might be just a problem with my machine, but would like to hear if others have noticed this.

 

[VOL1266-X]

Quindy - I got a brand new F75 Ltd SE when they first came out last fall. Overall I really like the machine as its definitely quieter than my old standard F75. And I love the depth the boost mode gets. But I do have a few concerns. The recovery speed in boost mode is very slow. If you don't swing it really slow you're gonna miss stuff. And the FA mode (fast recovery speed) does well in the heavy iron, but gets very poor depth regardless of the coil and sensitivity setting. I've also noticed that for some strange reason my detector will switch to a different process by itself. I can be hunting in JE, then all of a sudden its in FA or something else. This happens just about every time I hunt, and frequently multiple times. I need to occasionally check to make sure I haven't been hunting in an unwanted mode. This might be just a problem with my machine, but would like to hear if others have noticed this.

I hear you loud and clear Bill. The mode shifting is new to me though. Doug has the LTD and we honestly can't see any difference between the regular and LTD. The boost mode is really noisy to the point it's unusable and he's been detecting for 40 years with all manner of machines.. I have already heard that you sacrifice some depth to get discrimination. I haven't had much time to play with the enhanced unit but plan to soon. My hope was that the enhanced machine would have the F75 depth with the Gold Bug pro discrimination. We will see. To pull that .69 in that heavy iron field that many have hunted before at 8 in. was very encouraging. Thanks Bill, Q.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

My 'ol 2007 F-75 is on it's way back after the whole enchalada $309 upgrade. Tough choice but I like everything about it so I figured I'd bring her to LTD features.

I see that the opportunity to upgrade ends on 3/01/2015. Hop in before then if you're considering it.

 

[Mike N Tn.]

Glad to see the post on the F75 upgrade. I just got mine back and I am
excited to try it out this weekend.

 

[VOL1266-X]

UPDATE-Thanks for the interest and replies. I wanted to see what the unit would do for 3 hours today at a hard hunted site. I hunted in areas with and without iron. I dug the relics in the pic at 8-10 true depth. I can't say that the unit has lost any depth in AM mode. All targets were easily heard and had a decent value on the display. One thing I noticed was that small iron like fence and square nails read 1-6 on the display where they read 6-11 before the enhancement. The ink stamp measured .250x.275 in. and is the second from that camp. The one I dug last year was bigger. Stay tuned and HH, Q.

 

[Goldiver]

Thanks for the input on the upgrade, I've been thinking of sending in my F75. I have done great with this machine and love it. If I can make it even better why not go for it.

Steve

 

[treasurehound]

Congrats on the .69 and I am like you in that I don't discriminate when relic hunting. I want to hear every target. Not all iron is trash. There are gun tools, bayonets and many other relics that will sound like iron. I like to go low and slow and listen for those really deep targets. Many people today swing way too fast to hear the deep signals. I have been waiting to hear about the F75 upgrade. Keep me posted.

 

[Valley Ranger]

Quindy - I just got my upgraded T2 SE back yesterday and took it out today for about an hour for the first time and my initial reaction is the same. I had always found the T2 very noisy and difficult for me to separate the good tones. It also seemed to "struggle" to hold a tone on a good target. What a difference the upgrade made! VERY quiet now and the BP mode works like I've always been told it should. I had an iffy signal that was bouncy and a bit scratchy, but I switched to the boost mode and it rang in clear at 78. A little over 8" down was a small brass flat button. Can't wait to use it some more soon!

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

I did a little air testing yesterday as I was curious to see the difference in depth between some of the modes on the F75 Ltd SE. With the stock coil, I was getting about 6" on a dime in FA mode which was surprising. My previous experience was showing extremely limited depth with the small sniper coil, so the larger one made quite a difference. With DE I got a little more depth, and more still with JE. But boost was quite a bit more than JE, but I was already aware of that. I also placed several pieces of small iron very close (<1") from the dime, and was a little disappointed that the target separation was pretty much the same between JE and FA. As I moved the iron even closer I stopped getting a response on the dime with both modes, so overall there wasn't any perceptible difference. The only benefit I was seeing with FA is that it quickly responded when passing directly over a single target as I swept over it at my normal swing speed. With JE there was a slight lag in response, which was greater still in DE. With boost there was a tremendous lag as I didn't get a response until the coil had moved a foot or so past the target while swinging at normal speed. I've been quite aware of this in the field, and it forces you to swing much slower. I know these were all air tests, but I would expect somewhat similar results in the ground. So overall, I'm not as impressed with the F75 SE as I was originally. Still a nice machine, but I feel the only advantage over my old F75 is the added depth of the boost mode. And it does seem a little quieter overall as well even without the EMI reduction invoked. I'm also still having an occasional problem where the detector is jumping to another process by itself. It doesn't happen on every hunt, but it has occured more than a dozen times. Not sure if this is a common problem, or if I have some issue with my particular machine.

 

[BuckleBoy]

I did a little air testing yesterday as I was curious to see the difference in depth between some of the modes on the F75 Ltd SE. With the stock coil, I was getting about 6" on a dime in FA mode which was surprising. My previous experience was showing extremely limited depth with the small sniper coil, so the larger one made quite a difference. With DE I got a little more depth, and more still with JE. But boost was quite a bit more than JE, but I was already aware of that. I also placed several pieces of small iron very close (<1") from the dime, and was a little disappointed that the target separation was pretty much the same between JE and FA. As I moved the iron even closer I stopped getting a response on the dime with both modes, so overall there wasn't any perceptible difference. The only benefit I was seeing with FA is that it quickly responded when passing directly over a single target as I swept over it at my normal swing speed. With JE there was a slight lag in response, which was greater still in DE. With boost there was a tremendous lag as I didn't get a response until the coil had moved a foot or so past the target while swinging at normal speed. I've been quite aware of this in the field, and it forces you to swing much slower. I know these were all air tests, but I would expect somewhat similar results in the ground. So overall, I'm not as impressed with the F75 SE as I was originally. Still a nice machine, but I feel the only advantage over my old F75 is the added depth of the boost mode. And it does seem a little quieter overall as well even without the EMI reduction invoked. I'm also still having an occasional problem where the detector is jumping to another process by itself. It doesn't happen on every hunt, but it has occured more than a dozen times. Not sure if this is a common problem, or if I have some issue with my particular machine.

Bill,

How much more depth are you getting with the boost mode versus the DE mode? Would you recommend the upgrade? Are you able to hunt in Boost around iron infested house sites, or just in the areas where the outlying finds are?

Best Wishes,

Buck

 

[park pirate]

Nice..

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Bill,

How much more depth are you getting with the boost mode versus the DE mode? Would you recommend the upgrade? Are you able to hunt in Boost around iron infested house sites, or just in the areas where the outlying finds are?

Best Wishes,

Buck

Buck - I can't compare anything with the DE mode as I never use that, always JE. But in comparing JE with boost, I can generally see a 2-4" difference. Sometimes when I get a weak signal in JE I switch to boost, and it always comes in much stronger. My first keeper find when hunting in boost was a LC at 8", and I first thought I it was a huge near-surface target. So I'm definitely impressed with the depth and strength of signal. But like I mentioned earlier, the processor is very slow in boost as there's a significant delay between when you pass your coil over a target, and when you hear it in your headphones. That occurs at my normal swing speed so I have to slow it way down. Based on that slow response, it's obvious boost would not be good in trashy or high iron areas. although it does seem to do OK when there's just a little iron here and there. Its best application, in my opinion, is for hunting in relatively clean ground outside of the iron patch when you're looking for those deep, random targets. And I've noticed that when running in boost the machine is quite stable and quiet even with the EMI reduction turned off. (This also helps to slightly improve depth.) From what I've heard, that's a dramatic improvement over the original F75 Ltd machines which were extremely noisy in boost. And by the way, I bought the brand new F75 Ltd SE, and did not upgrade my old F75. But most folks that have upgraded seem to like the result. Good luck if you decide to go that route ..... Bill

 

[BuckleBoy]

Buck - I can't compare anything with the DE mode as I never use that, always JE. But in comparing JE with boost, I can generally see a 2-4" difference. Sometimes when I get a weak signal in JE I switch to boost, and it always comes in much stronger. My first keeper find when hunting in boost was a LC at 8", and I first thought I it was a huge near-surface target. So I'm definitely impressed with the depth and strength of signal. But like I mentioned earlier, the processor is very slow in boost as there's a significant delay between when you pass your coil over a target, and when you hear it in your headphones. That occurs at my normal swing speed so I have to slow it way down. Based on that slow response, it's obvious boost would not be good in trashy or high iron areas. although it does seem to do OK when there's just a little iron here and there. Its best application, in my opinion, is for hunting in relatively clean ground outside of the iron patch when you're looking for those deep, random targets. And I've noticed that when running in boost the machine is quite stable and quiet even with the EMI reduction turned off. (This also helps to slightly improve depth.) From what I've heard, that's a dramatic improvement over the original F75 Ltd machines which were extremely noisy in boost. And by the way, I bought the brand new F75 Ltd SE, and did not upgrade my old F75. But most folks that have upgraded seem to like the result. Good luck if you decide to go that route ..... Bill

Thank you for this excellent information, Bill. I would imagine that you have relatively mild soil up there like I have down here. I think I'm going to do the full upgrade. Gotta get the battery contacts fixed anyhow. There's a short, and sometimes my machine turns off.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Thank you for this excellent information, Bill. I would imagine that you have relatively mild soil up there like I have down here. I think I'm going to do the full upgrade. Gotta get the battery contacts fixed anyhow. There's a short, and sometimes my machine turns off.

Buck, I understand that when you send your machine in for the upgrade they also do any needed repairs, replace defective components, etc. That's in addition to doing the upgrade. So you really can't go wrong.

 

[Tnmountains]

Quindy you were running discriminate at 90? Glad you like your up grade. I wish they would have done mine when it was in for service not long ago. If it makes it faster on the swing I am in. Oh yeah good snag on the missed relics.