I would love to see more head to head Racer vs F19

I know the Racer is stealing the show for unmasking in iron but sounds like the F19 can give her a run for the money. So would love to see more. - Dirt Fishing has one up - so how about some more.

Bryanna - Nebraska

Current - New to me but not new MXT Pro and T2 SE2 - Previous Minelab Sovereign GT, Minelab Safari, Whites DFX, Whites Eagle Spectrum
Smile its a good for you!

I second the motion!! Looks like to me the F-19 gets the nod for my style of hunting digging relics and coins with minimal trash recovery. The 82-83 vdi on the racer is a major turn off for me! If I was using it in old housesites and relic areas only the racer would be fine but I coin shoot and jewelry hunt in modern trash infested areas also and the Racer I just don't think would work for me and just get me frustrated.

88junior Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I second the motion!! Looks like to me the F-19
> gets the nod for my style of hunting digging
> relics and coins with minimal trash recovery. The
> 82-83 vdi on the racer is a major turn off for me!
> If I was using it in old housesites and relic
> areas only the racer would be fine but I coin
> shoot and jewelry hunt in modern trash infested
> areas also and the Racer I just don't think would
> work for me and just get me frustrated.

I'm not sure where the 82-83 VDI coin numbers came from but I have seen a few people complain about it.
My Racer puts coins from about 78 to around 90 from pennies to quarters of different types. Nickels 54-56. It's not an issue.
I can tell I have a coin with this detector easier than any other I have ever owned. The numbers lock and don't bounce around more than one point usually in both directions.
Coins sound nice and tight.
If you have to play around with the target trying to see what it is and the numbers bounce around in different directions or up and down its probably junk.
The exception to this would be if there is trash lying directly next to the coin.
Pinpoint the target in all metal to see what's next to it. If the target is by itself there will be no doubt you have a coin when it locks in.
Flat aluminum or tin can fool the Racer.

I plan on picking up a F19 myself next month to test. I had the Gold Bug Pro and miss the feel of of it but it was no comparison to the Racer for coin hunting in depth, ID and unmasking.
I always dug a lot of nails that I thought were coins with my Fisher machines. I don't dig nails with the racer unless they are in a hole with a coin.
I will take both nugget hunting to see how they handle the ground and see if they improved the F19 over the GB Pro for coin shooting.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/2015 07:36AM by Cabin Fever.

I wouldn't be so sure of that thinking there 88.

The Racer may lump aluminum trash and such into those 82-83 numbers. But the F19 does the same thing. In heavy iron or trash, it can pick out non ferrous from ferrous...but that's about it. It may ID a dime in the 80s when not in trash, but in heavy iron, the signal ID numbers get pulled down into the 50s or 60s. You can still tell the target isn't iron but in other words, if you are relying on numbers to tell you whether to dig or not, you will leave a lot of goodies in the ground.

I still say the only way to hunt with these machines and insure you aren't leaving coins and relics in the ground is to just go dig everything that sounds off that isn't iron. As good as they are at isolating targets from iron...you have the Racer that will lump aluminum trash items into the coin ID range and the F19 will lump coins into the aluminum ID range. Same difference.

One thing I do see between them when comparing targets on the surface. The Racer is better at isolating those signals. It just seems faster to me. Even with the stock coil, I can put a dime right between and beside the wood screws on my porch and still get the dime pretty easy from all angles. Its even easier with the 4.7x5 coil. I only have the 5x10 coil for the F19 right now but it is approach dependent on whether it can isolate the dime from the same location with the screws. And the ID is never in the 80s. Its usually in the 60s when near the screws.

Thanks for the input guys, Daniel I see what your saying as far as the iron causing the vdi to be lower I've ran into that using my AT-Gold, I once dug a 60'ish id but it had a mid then high tone mixed audio sound well the first target out of the hole was a nail then came a no date buffalo nickel then a mercury dime was right below the nickel. It was strange cause I seldom get a vdi in the 60's but the tones was the main thing that made me investigate. Really after watching the Racer and F-19 videos I don't think it would be worth getting rid of my AT-Gold to try one or the other cause I don't see me gaining much more versatility or performance to be worth my wild. And besides I have 300 plus hours on the AT-Gold and know it like a book.

Like the saying goes, your mileage may vary. There's a guy at work that bought the same model vehicle as my wife. The only difference between the two vehicles was the color. We were talking gas mileage one day and he thought it was odd we were only getting about 24 mpg average and 27-28 tops. He swears to this day his will get 38 average and 40 something tops. Even though the rating on the vehicle is just 27

Hopefully this week will let me feel up to getting over to my buddies house to test his coils on the F19. I only have the 5x10 coil for it. Unless the other coils change my mind, I see the F19 as more of a specific search type detector. For simply getting non ferrous items out of iron trash, it excels. Or maybe as a small jewelry hunter. I would not like it for coin shooting and I would not like it for relic hunting in cleaner areas where overall depth was important. Not with the 5x10 coil anyway. The other coils may change my opinion.

The Racer seems more cut out as a general purpose machine. It has the depth to warrant it to be good for relics in cleaner ground. The big coil really is a game changer there...stock coil isnt a slouch either. I think it will hold its own against the top machines on the market in that arena. Not sure about coin hunting. I still see the ID being a little too skewed to allow for precise cherry picking in trash. I dunno...I still favor the CTX there in modern trash. In iron...if just going for non ferrous out of the iron...it is a better than average contendor. Everybody wants to compare it to the Deus and says its no better or worse...but you figure a Racer pro pack is $850 and a Deus pack will run you north of $1200....more like $1400 or so for the better packages. So if its no better or worse...well the price point sways it more towards Racer territory for me. I will soon have all 3. So we'll see how that goes.

I'm a coin hunter that'll dig whatever is available while doing so. We have from Revolutionary thru zincons available for claiming most everywhere we hunt. I've never dug the amount of coins in such a short period of time as with the Turk machines. The audio is the key, and we hunt in heavy iron and nails like a home depot shelf. If there is good metal there it will lock onto it TID wise superbly. However audio is king with TID check second before digging.

I still say the only way to hunt with these machines and insure you aren't leaving coins and relics in the ground is to just go dig everything that sounds off that isn't iron.

I totally agree with that statement. With the lumping of the VDI numbers you just don't have a choice. Sure the shallow coins are easy to identify. But you can get that with almost any detector. But on deep older coins the numbers bounce. And the only way to know for sure is to dig every 82 and 83.


The only thing I see that is special is the small coil. It easily picks out conductive targets and has amazing depth for it's size. I had the same thoughts about the Fors Core. And I have to add that I was never treated so well by customer service before.

But if I was to have a go to detector for coin hunting between the Deus and the Racer my choice is easily the Deus. I know the thread is about the F19 but I thought why start another thread for my two cents. I want to find old coins while digging the fewest holes possible. That is always the goal of my coin hunting. The Racer makes one heck of a relic detector, but for coins the Racer is lacking a coin detector conductivity scale.

Even after my comparison the Racer is worth holding on to. No detector does it all so the Racer will be available for that iron.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/2015 11:21AM by goodmore.

For a DIV hunt Racer with the 2 smaller coils plus GPX. Heck of a combo. Half days with each. A good plan. Person should turn up some nice finds (many).

I'm seeing a red flag about ID's..........(and the misconceptions thereof) ....... in particular to the F19's and Racer's.

A large bulk of my older 'dug' coins do NOT ID 'per expectations'. And I'm referring to 'out of the ground' air-tests on these 'dug' coins. God forbid we re-interject dirt, mineralization, tilted, masking, EMI, coil sweep-speed............etc................ into the equation.
Many of these old coins do indeed ID as a '82' on the racer (and even worse). Is it the Racer? And does the Racer (or F19) have a problem? Absolutely not. Taking these old 'dug' coins to other brand detectors........ and the problem is linear (the same) across the board.

Moral-of-the-story: Be careful what you discriminate!

I wouldn't mind seeing g2+ vs racer. I have the racer just convince Bill to get a G2+ he doesn't need and we'll do a video. I'd get one if it had a third tone!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2015 12:56AM by detectingMO.