Moved to F75DST after 2 years with G2

I bought an F75LTD2 from NASA-Tom a little ways back this winter. Since this is likely my "endgame" detector for quite a while, I am doing my best to try to educate as best I can on it. This post might get long, but please bear with it, because I am looking for good feedback whether there is agreement or not on some of my points and observations. My G2 is also a Tom certified one.

With only 2 exceptions getting out with Ozzie to two other spots, and one other standby, I have concentrated my detecting to two sites. The first site (A) is one I have been on a whole lot with my G2 over the past year. It is an 1840s schoolhouse and the two neighboring lots. The second site ( is a mid 1700s farmhouse currently undergoing renovations and expansion. The lot itself is about 5 acres, and is one nasty junk pit due to a multitude of chicken coops, turkey farm coops, three barns, some other storage outbuildings, all of which no longer exist, some being torn down, and some having burned down.

Site A- I have used both the 5 and 11" coils on the G2, and now both size coils with the F75. I found quite a few coins, old and new with the G2, but I don't recall any of them being over 6" deep. I have found a bunch more wheats, 3 more IH for coins, a '34 and '47 quarter. I have found portions of three pewter spoons deeper than 10" with the F75. I know NASA-Tom has said the G2 cannot hunt behind the F75, and my experiential interpretation of this is I am much more likely to dig a target deeper than 6 or 7 inches because the ID and tone quality or consistency is better. The small area I found the spoons in was one I had focused on pretty heavily with both detectors because it had yeilded both IHs and 1800s German coins. I know I had the G2 swung over that area multiple times, but whatever the tones or IDs were, they obviously did not tell me to dig the spoons like the F75 did.

Site B- This one fell into my lap about a month ago. A guy I didnt know gave me permission to hunt through a friend, and had mentioned he has lost 2 rings over the years somewhere near his garden. He said he didnt expect me to hunt for them because his friend who is a "serious Civil War detectorist" had throroughly searched the entire garden area for him with no joy. I found his signet ring the first hour I was there, so he gave me permission to hunt anywhere on the lot. Havent found his wedding ring yet, but I shall. Anyway, I have used only the F75 there, with 5 and 11" coils. Although this DST version F75 handles most emi pretty well, the front yard of this site can only be done with the small coil. Ozzie is going to loan me his 6.5" coil so I can see if that one works well also. I have gotten a couple tombac buttons, and the biggest flat button I have ever seen I got at about 13" (I have a ruler with me when at the 1700s site) as well as 3 1700s british half pennies. All of them were past 10" of depth, but I would never have passed any of them up with the obviously clean tones I got on them. No chance the G2 would have found them as i couldnt have used the ultimate coil in that area, so it was pretty nice to see results of the switch already. Copper coins here are almost all toasted and there were no exception. The one that made me sad was an 1802 large cent that has very little wear, but has so much corrosion and verdigris it is in terrible shape.

One of the things that I fell into the habit of with the G2 since it has VCO for audio, was not looking at the screen, but instead listening for the quieter sounds, and then considering tone. When I first used Ozzie's original F75 it drove me crazy having all sounds have the same volume. This time around, I am much more acclimated to the lack of volume variation, and indeed I can now understand that hearing all those tones at the same volume lets me focus more on the tonal qualities and variations instead of volume, and I am much less likely to confuse a false with a repeatable signal.

My procedure so far with the F75 has been to run in disc 0 or 1, sens 96, 4tone, bp mode. When I find a target that I decide I am willing to dig, whether it sounds good, or has something interesting with the combination of mid/hi or hi/low or mid/low tones, I pinpoint it to have the F75 tell me what it thinks the depth is. Then I switch to DE mode, and see what difference it shows for ID or depth, then I switch to all metal to see what variation there is to ID and to get a feel for the sound in all metal. I have only run dedicated all metal mode for small periods of time so far in very low trash fields, and usually fall back to the previous method with disc and checking in all metal.

Although I do not have a record keeping book with me, it seems like many times when I have a deep target that is showing a larger range of IDs that reach down into iron area, the all metal mode shows a much lower overall set of ID numbers. I have yet to dig one of those targets that turned out to be a coin, and is usually something like one of the many iron rings about 2 or 2.5 inches in diameter in our area, or something else iron and rusted. When I have something that is showing a lot of variation in ID, but all metal shows a set of numbers that mostly agree with the middle area of the disc numbers or higher than ferrous, it usually turns out to be a non-ferrous deep item. Two of the pewter spoons fell into that category, and the third got dug because the disc numbers were in the same range as the first 2.

One of the other interesting differences I see so far between Ozzie's original F75 and this DST model, is on most sites I regularly cycled through all the channels of the orig F75 looking for the cleanest; the DST one I have yet to use anything except F1 as it has always been the cleanest. I have been only on one site so far with both versions of F75 but hope to hit another one this week sometime.

Both of these sites have been extremely challenging to hunt, because unlike a nail pit, I would call these a maelstrom of tin, aluminum, square nails, sheet metal, modern nails, mason jar lids, copper wire, farm tools, and un-ending large iron and brass junk. Tom, I fooled around with 1n tones a couple times, but found myself watching the screen and being concerned I would miss something, so far too inefficient for me yet in those sites. I have also stayed away from nickel high tone modes, because I have been finding a lot of nickels due to hearing the low tone standing out so nicely.

all in all, I love this F75.

HH

Sounds like the DST model is working well for you.

The only thing I could maybe add,,,it is entirely possible even using the F75 in milder ground--- for fringe depth detectable,,some of these targets could ring up in the iron range on the meter.
If I were in an area where some other good deeper finds were being had,,,I would myself consider digging some of the iron signals if they pinpoint small and depth meter says deep.

Cheers.

Great write-up! Fantastic!

Good thought process..

Remember though the F75 won't unmask like you G2 in thick iron..

Keith

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

Using as low of disc as possible will give you the best results in unmasking in heavy iron. I typically run my disc at 1, BP mode, nothing notched, and 3H tones.

Good read Rodman.
At a old high iron site try Tom D's setting of 99 sens, 6 disc, 1 tone, 5" coil or the 7x11 ( I'd like to get the 5x10dd). Liken the tone first, then look at the numbers.
I have squeaked many non ferrous out of a worn site doing this. Remembering when I first used these, I thought I was on to magical settings...and it seems that way sometimes.
Let me know when you can get by for the 6" concentric.....I'd like your opinion on it.

Wow, great thread.
Just one question, what does detecting behind another detector involve? Example, your reference that the G2 cant hunt behind the F75. I'm just tying to picture the scenario and procedure, or lack thereof.
Thanks.

it means in most cases the G2 will not find targets the F75 couldnt find. In the depth department, the F75 definitely is more accurate in my soil deeper than the G2 with similar coil. So the F75 should be able to hunt "behind" the G2 and see additional targets.

Keith Southern Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Good thought process..
>
> Remember though the F75 won't unmask like you G2
> in thick iron..
>
> Keith
Keith Aintcha forgettin the F75 DST SE has the additional FA mode which is Fast as A roadrunner being chased by a Chicken Hawk.

Thanks for the clarification Rod. Yes very well said, and I get it!

Now onto another term. I suspect "unmasking" is similar in meaning to discrimination. So the 75 doesn't discriminate as well as G2, but it's fast. Hmm, I thought speed was an aspect of discrimination; the faster the wave recovers from surrounding junk, the more time is available to pickup the product within??? Thanks for bringing it up Keith.

Oh its fast but still limited by factory tone breaks in terms of dissecting...the one tone solves this to an extent but I like to hear what I reject as much as what I accept...

the F75 is a GREAT unit and the newest incarnation is feature rich and very quiet and very deep...Just needs some more tweaking..HMMMMM??

Keith

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

Thanks Keith maybe worth suggesting that to Fisher , I think they`d appreciate your input