Garrett AT Pro or Fisher F70?

[rainyday101]

Fella is right, look in the forum sponsors section and start calling and ask their opinions. If they try to upgrade you to an Etrac right off the bat, hang up and call another one. Tell them what your budget is up front and ask what is the best detector for the kind of hunting you will be doing. See, if they come up with a common denominator. I have found that Miller MDZ is really good and he seems to be the least biased with his detector opinions. Not saying the others are not good, just Tom has always been a straight shooter with me.

I gave up trying to find a brick and mortar detector store near me. What I mostly found is guys operating out of their houses with nothing in stock and nothing they wanted to demo. The one brick and mortar store I did find was staffed by a hired lady that knew nothing about metal detecting, because the owner had to work another job to make ends meet.

 

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[WhatTheBeep]

Sounds like you've made your mind up already, but thought I'd throw in a few cents.

I own the F70, so this probably makes my input somewhat biased. But I wasn't biased when I did months of research on it which led me to buying it less than a month ago. And a lot of that research was from Thomas Dankowski who is a NASA scientist and metal detector guru. He did extensive testing on the F75LTD (and has with other detectors), and though his information is on the F75LTD, nearly all of the same information applies to the F70 even though it has less features. It is incredibly deep, especially in all metal mode and with SL speed. It is better than most detectors at unmasking targets in heavy iron environments that other detectors will miss. It has lightning fast target recovery, meaning it'll hit individually on several objects close together in one swing. It can be swung for extended periods of time due to its light weight and ergonomics. I'll say for myself it's like having a few detectors rolled into one due to all the settings you can change for different environments, and it just rocks. It's really an incredible machine for the money. Just to be honest, it is very "chatty" around some sources of EMI when you try to run it hot, but as mentioned before, you don't have to run it too hot to still get good depth, so you only have to put up with chattiness if you want to because you can make it run quiet also.

In my opinion, the ATP is a great machine too, though I've only read about them and have friends who have told me about them. The only advantage it has over the F70/T2/F75 in my opinion is that it's waterproof, which is important to some. I'd rather have an F75LTD than an F70, but I also have a wife to contend with.

Good luck with whatever you choose!

 

[falconman515]

Sounds like you've made your mind up already, but thought I'd throw in a few cents.

Oddly enough I have decided on neither of these ... I think I'm gong to Minelab for my first purchase now.

Thanks though for your thoughts on these.

 

[marjam]

Oddly enough I have decided on neither of these ... I think I'm gong to Minelab for my first purchase now.

Thanks though for your thoughts on these.

I have an etrac. They are great for silver and go very deep. Its my favorite detector so far.

 

[pinpointer999]

George, 50 detectors, wow. I own an F70 and it is my #4 and while I have never owned an AT Pro, all of the positive things you recognized in the AT I could also apply to the F70. It seems that when you set the F70 to run quiet, which it will, you loss virtually no depth. There may be conditions when you want to run this machine hot and you can do just that. The various setting on the F70 and sound modulation bring this machine to the top of all the list, even when comparing machine costing twice the money. Not saying it is better than the AT because I have never used an AT Pro but if it is better than the F70 then double Wow. My F70 had turned heavily hunted, local parks alive again. My only complaint is the Bottle Caps but as my hunting experience increases I am finding, or, rather, digging fewer caps. Still looking for a solution to that one.

DD coils always bring up bottle cap readings in the coin range on the f70. 2 ways to eliminate that issue...1) use concentric elliptical coil to get broken 40s vdi signals on bcaps.2) raise the DD coil as waving over the questionable target.If the vdi drops as the coil is raised...it is probably a bottle cap. The ATPro has its own vdi reading issues past the 8-10 inch mark. Best dig them.

 

[supertraq]

Spiral ask this ? In Jan,2011 in his late 30's he's now on his mid 40's.
That's over 5 yrs,bet he's made up his mind by now,also 5 days is like 5 yrs when pulling the trigger on a metal detector. 5 minute wait when the brown truck is late will have me out hunting the truck,flat tire or stuck in the mud?

 

[RobRieman]

Lol. He's asking Deus or 3030 now.