digger27
Bronze Member
- May 18, 2011
- 1,506
- 3,225
Long one, too hot and dry to hunt and I am bored so I am going to write because right now, as we speak, I am experiencing the one thing we all hate that drives us crazy known as, "The Wait".
Rather than pace back and forth wearing a hole in my carpet I am gonna do this instead.
If you guys got some time to kill, want to get some insight on how my brain works and my thinking processes, and why wouldn't you, grab a drink, sit down and proceed and maybe enjoy yourself for a brief time.
If not, I fully understand so it won't hurt me at all if you skip this novel because after all...you have lives, too.
If so please move on, nothing to see here.
I will catch you on the next one when I hopefully will have more entertaining content and maybe some nice pics to share.
So like I really needed another detector.
Couldn't resist the deal, $299 for the unit, a 10" elliptical concentric coil, a 4" hockey puck concentric coil, free shipping and the usual " value deal" garbage like a composite digger, padded carry bag, gloves, some Chinese headphones where the specs actually aren't that bad, one month free Eastern and Western Treasure digital download and a free invitation to join Ringfinders...like I would ever pay monthly to join a service like that.
Also got a control cover and a Nel F5 Sharpshooter coil because I love that coil on my F70 and that bumped me over the $300 mark and so I was entitled to get a free pinpointer...the cheap craptastic Fisher/Bounty Hunter one they have been throwing into FTP packages for years.
Already got one with my F2 2 coil package that I tested, hated, and then threw in a box 10 years ago and haven't looked for or have seen since.
I screwed up and forgot to add the pinpointer to my order and even though I don't want or need it free is free so I called them back about an hour later and asked if they could just toss it in the box for me.
They said they couldn't, they already packed up, labeled and processed my order so that was quick and, darn.
However they must gave felt sorry for me because gave me a $25 coupon for any future order instead so I shopped a little and I already got my eye on a free environmental elbow unit cover to protect my battery compartment in case I get caught in the rain with that F70.
Can you say luck and serendipity?
So you ask why did I order this thing seeing as I already have an F2, Compadre, Mojave, F70 and a Nox 800?
I have a few, I think, logical reasons so hear me out.
A previously $500 Fisher with one coil that I got for $300 and two coils both of which I love and have hundreds of hours experience using on my two other Fishers.
A new unit to play with that is a brand I love and understand so well.
Been two years since I got the Nox and combatting boredom to stay interested is important to me.
A very similar set of control features that I have tons of experience using thanks to so many hours using and experimenting with my F70.
Like separate thresh and gain control, a high tone nickel option, a single and dual tone option and 5 years and hours upon hours messing around with combinations of all of these things trying to unlock the mysteries of my very challenging, mineralized, red clay, massive iron and trash infested southern devil dirt.
Knobs...don't ever discount the tactile feeling and pure joy of turning knobs.
Its reputation for finding jewelry thanks to Yoda and guru Mike Hillis and others...supposedly has close to Compadre like ability for this task and in my scoured and totally hunted out parks I still manage to find some gold and silver jewelry here and there but nowhere near what I think I deserve, selfish and deluded as I am.
Also coins, I hear it's not so bad about finding coins, either.
The biggest reason is...It's the frequency, Kenneth.
I will expound...
7.8 on the F5 vs the 13.5 on the F70, the 12 on the two Tesoros and even the single frequencies and Multi on the Nox.
The Nox is great, single frequencies are useless in my dirt but the multi works well regarding depth and especially combating masking iron...and I have so much iron.
Still, I have the feeling I might be missing a couple of things here and there since no detector can find it all so adding just one more jewelry arrow to my quiver makes sense to me.
And despite what the Nox is able to do and find for me that compressed target region it has just drives me crazy and I will never enjoy hunting with it near as much as my other full range detectors.
You get used to what you get used to and enjoy what you enjoy so there is that.
The finding treasure part of the hobby is great and I have done more than just well but the part about just enjoying my time on hunts and messing around and experimenting with all kinds of settings I think I enjoy even more.
The two Tesoros work great here, especially the Mojave, (I gave up my Vaquero a few years ago to trade for it because that thing liked all this iron I have to deal with a little too much), but again neither one can find everything here.
My F70 works better than I ever thought possible here, depth is surprising, it's unmasking abilities usually shock me but it took many, many months and tons of hours experimenting with settings and different coils to achieve success with it to this level.
The language and behavior I learned to do all of this, despite being very odd, still has "tells", but it is usually so jumpy on most but especially the difficult very masked targets that friends I have hunted with looked at my screen and listened to the tones while I moved the coil over targets and have no earthly idea how I can do this and make any sense of what they saw on the screen and heard in the tones.
When they ask how I can find anything around here shallow or deep after seeing how I use this thing I just tell them the old Carnegie Hall chestnut....practice, practice, practice.
Then there is my beloved very simple F2...5.9kHz.
Packed it away when I got the F70 on Thanksgiving day in 2013 and haven't used it since but I remember what it could do both out west in great dirt and even here in my problem crazy dirt.
That thing could find a huge amount of coins in any site, silver like a boss and gold like it was a religion.
Please don't tell me how low frequencies find silver better and high frequencies find gold easier because to me that was never true.
I have found so much silver with all my detectors, so much with my higher freak units and a ton with the F2 but when it comes to gold that F2 could really shine.
I have found more three dozen pieces of gold jewelry in the dirt in the last 10 years mostly in parks considered totally hunted out and spread among all my detectors except the Mojave because I don't pull that thing out so much but add them up and in only 3 years using my low freak F2 it found more than half of them...more than my Nox, Vaq, Compadre and F70 combined.
More than that in my challenging dirt I have here the F2 could never get super deep but I still was able to pull out a shocking volume of coins and other targets in sites I have since revisited with all my other higher freak detectors and didn't seem to do as well.
I still did ok, the Nox and F70 especially have found a few targets so masked the F2 could not see them on its best day around here but as far as the shear volume of targets it could notice and lock onto so well in my dirt the F2 just seemed amazing.
More importantly it did it all with a stability level and tiny VDI range over targets my F70, and even the Nox can't match.
It did this well in Kansas and Missouri soil but surprisingly it could do it here in the mineralized south, too.
I quit digging tons of trash and junk long ago, it really got to me after awhile, so I switched to using what I call my high performance method where I usually only dig the most solid of solid targets using all my detectors.
Found tons of coins, so much silver and most of my gold after changing to this method so don't worry about me missing a lot because I have found way more than my share of treasure despite being so picky, but mostly this is due to the fact that I make a huge effort to learn each tool so much better and deeper than just well.
Not saying or suggesting anyone else should do it this way but for me it works.
Over time I got to the point that using the F2 if I got the VDI to only a 2-3 number jump or less, like 28-30 in the nickel section, that was a good target and within my digging rules so it got dug, if it jumped more than that, 4 numbers or more, I assumed it was junk, I just wasn't interested and usually moved on.
Now this wasn't in a haphazard style, I use the coil, more often than not a sniper, to examine each target thoroughly with short quick passes over targets and usually from more than one direction to make sure I couldn't get a stable 1-3 number signal to the best of my ability and I dug car loads of trash and junk digging 4 numbers or more or especially jumpy targets before I evolved into this way of hunting.
As I progressed I noticed that 4 number or more jumps always seemed to be junk so as my confidence grew in this method and my abilities I dug less and less trash and still found more coins, jewelry and other great treasure than ever before.
I still dig trash, can't avoid all of it because some still hits as a solid signal, but in time I eventually cut out about 80-85% of the the junk and trashy targets I acquired and I got pretty darn fast and efficient doing it this way.
Spend more time over possible good, solid targets and way less over suspected junk so that's why I call this my high performance method.
Once I totally converted to this method and went all in my coin volume rose to great heights, both clad and and silver and other older coins, my silver jewelry amounts piled up and most of the gold I found showed up after committing to my method...the bulk of it, anyway.
I do the same thing using all my detectors now, have for years.
So you say that's crazy, I will definitely miss stuff and you are totally correct thinking that way, I am sure I do, but if you have seen what I have found I am sure you will agree it is still a shockingly satisfying haul that just about any hunter would be thrilled with.
Also I hunt most sites over and over and over, I just figure what I don't find in one hunt I will have another shot at it on another, and the amount of great things I have found after several repeated visits at scoured sites will probably shock you...they always do to me.
Plus, I quit letting the "What Ifs" bother me a long time ago.
What I don't find I never know about and refuse to let it bother me...anymore.
So to recap...
I find stuff using all my detectors, back out west it was way easier and here not as much but here I am still considered successful by most measures.
All my detectors were stable in Kansas and here not so much but I still figured it out to a pretty good extent to be successful.
I got a Nox to help me here, out west I wouldn't have even considered it, didn't need it, but here it does make things a bit easier.
The Nox hits on most nickels solid like crazy, pretty decent stability over many other targets but still jumps around more than I would like but I deal with it, using it I again dig a little more trash than I would like but still it finds stuff so that's ok.
I like finding stuff with the Nox but that compression isn't super enjoyable to me.
The F2 was stable in great soil but it was also surprisingly stable here in my red hell iron infested mess although never very deep.
The F5 has more power than the F2, a set of features I understand and could possibly use to my advantage as I have learned to do with the F70, I have a decent compliment of coils that could help in all that, AND THAT LOWER FREQUENCY which at this point I am just guessing but I suspect might have had something to do with why it was so stable out west but also more stable here than my other detectors seem to be.
I sure hope it works out that way, anyway.
A super powered F2 with more stability than my F70 and yet still having more than enough depth and more importantly a very helpful set of control features that I understand and just might be able to use to my advantage to succeed to even higher levels...or at least the next level in my evolution.
Basically coins are great but this thing is going to be aimed specifically at, and for, jewelry.
I got a nice selection of coils to do it too, the two concentrics will be used, the Sharpshooter should excel if my experience with the F70 and that coil in my dirt is any indication, and I even have a large Cors Cannon coil designed to work on the F70 but I think it will fit in the F5 and who knows what it will do and how deep it will go if it does...mismatched frequency notwithstanding.
Sure will be fun trying it out, anyway.
Hopefully this thing will make my sites come alive again, even if just a little bit I will be happy and no matter what I sure will enjoy swinging and learning a new heater.
THAT'S why I decided to get this thing, what is life if you can't enjoy yourself while living it and as always...
FORTUNE FAVORS THE BOLD!
It should be here on thursday...then the fun begins.
For now, however, I wait.
If you made it this far thanks for your indulgence, much appreciated.
HH
Rather than pace back and forth wearing a hole in my carpet I am gonna do this instead.
If you guys got some time to kill, want to get some insight on how my brain works and my thinking processes, and why wouldn't you, grab a drink, sit down and proceed and maybe enjoy yourself for a brief time.
If not, I fully understand so it won't hurt me at all if you skip this novel because after all...you have lives, too.
If so please move on, nothing to see here.
I will catch you on the next one when I hopefully will have more entertaining content and maybe some nice pics to share.
So like I really needed another detector.
Couldn't resist the deal, $299 for the unit, a 10" elliptical concentric coil, a 4" hockey puck concentric coil, free shipping and the usual " value deal" garbage like a composite digger, padded carry bag, gloves, some Chinese headphones where the specs actually aren't that bad, one month free Eastern and Western Treasure digital download and a free invitation to join Ringfinders...like I would ever pay monthly to join a service like that.
Also got a control cover and a Nel F5 Sharpshooter coil because I love that coil on my F70 and that bumped me over the $300 mark and so I was entitled to get a free pinpointer...the cheap craptastic Fisher/Bounty Hunter one they have been throwing into FTP packages for years.
Already got one with my F2 2 coil package that I tested, hated, and then threw in a box 10 years ago and haven't looked for or have seen since.
I screwed up and forgot to add the pinpointer to my order and even though I don't want or need it free is free so I called them back about an hour later and asked if they could just toss it in the box for me.
They said they couldn't, they already packed up, labeled and processed my order so that was quick and, darn.
However they must gave felt sorry for me because gave me a $25 coupon for any future order instead so I shopped a little and I already got my eye on a free environmental elbow unit cover to protect my battery compartment in case I get caught in the rain with that F70.
Can you say luck and serendipity?
So you ask why did I order this thing seeing as I already have an F2, Compadre, Mojave, F70 and a Nox 800?
I have a few, I think, logical reasons so hear me out.
A previously $500 Fisher with one coil that I got for $300 and two coils both of which I love and have hundreds of hours experience using on my two other Fishers.
A new unit to play with that is a brand I love and understand so well.
Been two years since I got the Nox and combatting boredom to stay interested is important to me.
A very similar set of control features that I have tons of experience using thanks to so many hours using and experimenting with my F70.
Like separate thresh and gain control, a high tone nickel option, a single and dual tone option and 5 years and hours upon hours messing around with combinations of all of these things trying to unlock the mysteries of my very challenging, mineralized, red clay, massive iron and trash infested southern devil dirt.
Knobs...don't ever discount the tactile feeling and pure joy of turning knobs.
Its reputation for finding jewelry thanks to Yoda and guru Mike Hillis and others...supposedly has close to Compadre like ability for this task and in my scoured and totally hunted out parks I still manage to find some gold and silver jewelry here and there but nowhere near what I think I deserve, selfish and deluded as I am.
Also coins, I hear it's not so bad about finding coins, either.
The biggest reason is...It's the frequency, Kenneth.
I will expound...
7.8 on the F5 vs the 13.5 on the F70, the 12 on the two Tesoros and even the single frequencies and Multi on the Nox.
The Nox is great, single frequencies are useless in my dirt but the multi works well regarding depth and especially combating masking iron...and I have so much iron.
Still, I have the feeling I might be missing a couple of things here and there since no detector can find it all so adding just one more jewelry arrow to my quiver makes sense to me.
And despite what the Nox is able to do and find for me that compressed target region it has just drives me crazy and I will never enjoy hunting with it near as much as my other full range detectors.
You get used to what you get used to and enjoy what you enjoy so there is that.
The finding treasure part of the hobby is great and I have done more than just well but the part about just enjoying my time on hunts and messing around and experimenting with all kinds of settings I think I enjoy even more.
The two Tesoros work great here, especially the Mojave, (I gave up my Vaquero a few years ago to trade for it because that thing liked all this iron I have to deal with a little too much), but again neither one can find everything here.
My F70 works better than I ever thought possible here, depth is surprising, it's unmasking abilities usually shock me but it took many, many months and tons of hours experimenting with settings and different coils to achieve success with it to this level.
The language and behavior I learned to do all of this, despite being very odd, still has "tells", but it is usually so jumpy on most but especially the difficult very masked targets that friends I have hunted with looked at my screen and listened to the tones while I moved the coil over targets and have no earthly idea how I can do this and make any sense of what they saw on the screen and heard in the tones.
When they ask how I can find anything around here shallow or deep after seeing how I use this thing I just tell them the old Carnegie Hall chestnut....practice, practice, practice.
Then there is my beloved very simple F2...5.9kHz.
Packed it away when I got the F70 on Thanksgiving day in 2013 and haven't used it since but I remember what it could do both out west in great dirt and even here in my problem crazy dirt.
That thing could find a huge amount of coins in any site, silver like a boss and gold like it was a religion.
Please don't tell me how low frequencies find silver better and high frequencies find gold easier because to me that was never true.
I have found so much silver with all my detectors, so much with my higher freak units and a ton with the F2 but when it comes to gold that F2 could really shine.
I have found more three dozen pieces of gold jewelry in the dirt in the last 10 years mostly in parks considered totally hunted out and spread among all my detectors except the Mojave because I don't pull that thing out so much but add them up and in only 3 years using my low freak F2 it found more than half of them...more than my Nox, Vaq, Compadre and F70 combined.
More than that in my challenging dirt I have here the F2 could never get super deep but I still was able to pull out a shocking volume of coins and other targets in sites I have since revisited with all my other higher freak detectors and didn't seem to do as well.
I still did ok, the Nox and F70 especially have found a few targets so masked the F2 could not see them on its best day around here but as far as the shear volume of targets it could notice and lock onto so well in my dirt the F2 just seemed amazing.
More importantly it did it all with a stability level and tiny VDI range over targets my F70, and even the Nox can't match.
It did this well in Kansas and Missouri soil but surprisingly it could do it here in the mineralized south, too.
I quit digging tons of trash and junk long ago, it really got to me after awhile, so I switched to using what I call my high performance method where I usually only dig the most solid of solid targets using all my detectors.
Found tons of coins, so much silver and most of my gold after changing to this method so don't worry about me missing a lot because I have found way more than my share of treasure despite being so picky, but mostly this is due to the fact that I make a huge effort to learn each tool so much better and deeper than just well.
Not saying or suggesting anyone else should do it this way but for me it works.
Over time I got to the point that using the F2 if I got the VDI to only a 2-3 number jump or less, like 28-30 in the nickel section, that was a good target and within my digging rules so it got dug, if it jumped more than that, 4 numbers or more, I assumed it was junk, I just wasn't interested and usually moved on.
Now this wasn't in a haphazard style, I use the coil, more often than not a sniper, to examine each target thoroughly with short quick passes over targets and usually from more than one direction to make sure I couldn't get a stable 1-3 number signal to the best of my ability and I dug car loads of trash and junk digging 4 numbers or more or especially jumpy targets before I evolved into this way of hunting.
As I progressed I noticed that 4 number or more jumps always seemed to be junk so as my confidence grew in this method and my abilities I dug less and less trash and still found more coins, jewelry and other great treasure than ever before.
I still dig trash, can't avoid all of it because some still hits as a solid signal, but in time I eventually cut out about 80-85% of the the junk and trashy targets I acquired and I got pretty darn fast and efficient doing it this way.
Spend more time over possible good, solid targets and way less over suspected junk so that's why I call this my high performance method.
Once I totally converted to this method and went all in my coin volume rose to great heights, both clad and and silver and other older coins, my silver jewelry amounts piled up and most of the gold I found showed up after committing to my method...the bulk of it, anyway.
I do the same thing using all my detectors now, have for years.
So you say that's crazy, I will definitely miss stuff and you are totally correct thinking that way, I am sure I do, but if you have seen what I have found I am sure you will agree it is still a shockingly satisfying haul that just about any hunter would be thrilled with.
Also I hunt most sites over and over and over, I just figure what I don't find in one hunt I will have another shot at it on another, and the amount of great things I have found after several repeated visits at scoured sites will probably shock you...they always do to me.
Plus, I quit letting the "What Ifs" bother me a long time ago.
What I don't find I never know about and refuse to let it bother me...anymore.
So to recap...
I find stuff using all my detectors, back out west it was way easier and here not as much but here I am still considered successful by most measures.
All my detectors were stable in Kansas and here not so much but I still figured it out to a pretty good extent to be successful.
I got a Nox to help me here, out west I wouldn't have even considered it, didn't need it, but here it does make things a bit easier.
The Nox hits on most nickels solid like crazy, pretty decent stability over many other targets but still jumps around more than I would like but I deal with it, using it I again dig a little more trash than I would like but still it finds stuff so that's ok.
I like finding stuff with the Nox but that compression isn't super enjoyable to me.
The F2 was stable in great soil but it was also surprisingly stable here in my red hell iron infested mess although never very deep.
The F5 has more power than the F2, a set of features I understand and could possibly use to my advantage as I have learned to do with the F70, I have a decent compliment of coils that could help in all that, AND THAT LOWER FREQUENCY which at this point I am just guessing but I suspect might have had something to do with why it was so stable out west but also more stable here than my other detectors seem to be.
I sure hope it works out that way, anyway.
A super powered F2 with more stability than my F70 and yet still having more than enough depth and more importantly a very helpful set of control features that I understand and just might be able to use to my advantage to succeed to even higher levels...or at least the next level in my evolution.
Basically coins are great but this thing is going to be aimed specifically at, and for, jewelry.
I got a nice selection of coils to do it too, the two concentrics will be used, the Sharpshooter should excel if my experience with the F70 and that coil in my dirt is any indication, and I even have a large Cors Cannon coil designed to work on the F70 but I think it will fit in the F5 and who knows what it will do and how deep it will go if it does...mismatched frequency notwithstanding.
Sure will be fun trying it out, anyway.
Hopefully this thing will make my sites come alive again, even if just a little bit I will be happy and no matter what I sure will enjoy swinging and learning a new heater.
THAT'S why I decided to get this thing, what is life if you can't enjoy yourself while living it and as always...
FORTUNE FAVORS THE BOLD!
It should be here on thursday...then the fun begins.
For now, however, I wait.
If you made it this far thanks for your indulgence, much appreciated.
HH
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