Fisher 1266/65?

I must admit after all the years I used a CZ I never tried a 1200 detector? Always heard the 1266/65 were depth demons in low trash areas,Disc. suffered after 6"? Heard the 65 has better Modulated audio,But the 66 was hotter. Some say CZ type depth? Any out there have any experience with these I would like to hear your thoughts. Thanks.

1266 is one of the best ergonomically weighted units around and is easy on batteries and certainly a deepseeker and the favorite of many relic hunters...
However the snap-crackle-pop makes it a noisy unit but those able to distinguish the good from the bad noises do well with it. Had a buddy that did well with it on deep coins
equal to CZ depth but I could never catch onto its language and well it just wasn't my cup of tea and just gave me a headache...All in all solid well built tanklike unit.

When I was around 10 yrs old my dad bought a 1265-X from a guy he worked with. It was my first "real" detector. Being 10 poses a huge problem...no transportation to get to any place to go hunt. During the summer when school was out, I had to go help out at a pawn shop my mother owned. The store itself had apartment buildings behind it and a small park with a couple concrete benches in it was beside the apartments. I later found out that the pawn shop building was the main lobby for a 1940s hotel/lodge and the apartments behind it were the hotel rooms. The park was an easy walk to get to, to hunt. I later found out it was a dang good spot. I dug probably 100 or more wheat cents, some indian head cents, silver dimes, quarters, buffalo nickels, etc out of there. Several years later I had been begging for a CZ6 for Christmas. I opened the package at Christmas and saw the big brown box with FISHER in red writing and went ballistic with excitement. It wasn't a CZ but the 1266 instead but I didn't care. Between the 1265 and 1266 I dug a lot of coins out of that park and hunted it nearly every day of the summers and when I was out of school on breaks. So much so that by the time I did finally buy a CZ machine and then later the Minelabs (including the CTX)...that I have never found a coin older than a recent drop clad coin there. The 1265 and 1266 cleaned it out a little too good.

That was a great story Daniel! You have some cool parents to get you a great gift like that as the 66 was rite behind a CZ. Could you tell any difference in depth or audio as some say the 65 had more modulated audio and 66 more depth? Thanks.

My 1265 was not a typical one. A local relic hunting legend named Amos Taylor worked on mine and modded it on the inside. It went bonkers one day and I could hear something rattling on the inside of the control box. We took it to a relic/detector store in Chattanooga and met Amos there who said he knew what it probably was. Of all things...Fisher was using a paper clip on the inside control box that was holding a wire away from the other wires and the paper clip had came loose. He put it back in place and fixed it but before he shut it back up, he done something with the pots on the inside and tweaked it. He never said what he did...just grinned and said I would like it. I bought an extra lower rod and Spider coil for the 1265 and put those on there. It originally came with those 8" white solid coils that had a metal bolt to hold the coil on. With the new lower rod, I was able to use the nylon bolts and the new Spider coils. That in itself helped it get a little more depth. My 1265 was deeper than the 1266. Whatever Amos done to it really helped it...and he took that secret to the grave with him. I have had many dozens of detectors come and go over the years but I still have that 1265-X.

"I never bought into the Fisher 1265/6 machines. But had ALL the originals, the 1210-X, 1220-X & 1260-X
With these I achieved fantastic results.
What happened was around the same time I became a Tesoro seller and I spent most of the time with the emerging ground-breaking models like the 'Gold Sabre' etc.
Years later while living in Fla, I bought into a CZ6a and found it great everywhere.
It really suited that place be it inland or beach...incl. wet sand.

S'funny thing but a few "Jobs" I was asked to locate a few things for people and the person who asked had already used his 'Fisher 1266' without success.
My first success under those circumstances came with the 'Racer' and the second success was with the Racer 2' - the 1266 didn't stand a chance or even come close, just wild blipping everywhere with no depth"

Hello Harold,
I have had several 1266's over the past 20 years. All were great deep well built units. I spoke with Felix at FT several months ago and he said he takes calls every week from people wanting to know where they can buy a 1266. Something you may want to consider is a Fisher 1270. It is very much like the 1266 except it has a separate control to eliminate iron. I purchased one and it is super hot on all my test bed targets. Hope this helps !

Mark

Just a note at a planted hunt I had the pleasure to look at and try a 1270....unfortunately they changed the shape and ergonomics of the 1266 and would be an arm breaker in my estimation....certainly went backward on that design..

They must still be highly sought after as a closet queen on the bay of pigs is up to 381.00 and still going!

Unfortunately good sellers market...poor buyers market.....on auction site... looking for one inquire on classifieds...

Most the ones you see on classifieds are rode hard and put away wet. The one the bay looks like it was hardly used!

Used a 1266 as a teenager. Prior to the Explorers THE machines around here were 1266s, blue and grays, and dmc's. Mine was really deep in the decent central VA dirt. Lord help you around an electric fence though lol. I preffered the smoothness of my DMC, the 1266 was really busy audio wise but heck it may have been me. I ended up trading it for a blue and Grey pro.

Well someone must like them as the one on the bay just sold for 536.50 plus shipping!

They were/are a great machine. As Dan said, the 1270 arm configuration is different than a 1265/66. However, the depth results are equal to or better than a 1266. Call Felix at FT and he will give you the scoop.

The one I have is pretty chattery, it will go deep though. Sent it back to First Texas 2 years ago and had it calibrated, over the years I think many fingers had been in the box...lol

I have an original Fisher probe on mine, works like a Sunray probe.

65 was smoother 66 was deeper..

Both were DEEEP..well past a CZ..

But the disc wasn't reliable past say 6 inches..

worked well for the Relic hunting Mindset back then...which was dog deep...iron and all..

they were tough to use in alot of iron...but out in the fields the tight faint ROUND coin sized hits were always worth investigating ...you could pull some deep bullets with the 66 when coupled to a 10.5 coil..I mean DEEEEEP..

Keith

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”
-Nikola Tesla