F19 vs. Makro Racer

For those of you who own (or have owned) both, I'd be interested in your thoughts on how they compare performance-wise.

Ive written a good bit on both if you do a search..

but for a quick reply..

the Racer is hotter across the board conductor wise..

the F19 has a slight edge on military buttons...

The Racer unmask on a World class level with OOR5 installed..

Keith

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

what is OOR5

sonny(IN) Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> what is OOR5


That's the small 5.2-inch by 4.7-inch coil that is slightly "Out Of Round" (OOR).

Keith,

I've penned tests on both the F19 last year and the Racer in the August copy of the UK
Searcher magazine.

There's a lot between them yet they "appear" to be the same.

The F19 is way more refined. Racer is rough and "racaous".
Yet they can unmask extremely well in amongst trash.
Racer has 'the edge' due to it's standard coil being of a larger size subsequently
a deeper seeker compared to the smaller Ellpitcal coil as standard on the F19

Regarding Audio. F19 is far more informative here.

Notch, bells & whistles. Don't really care about those.
Give me 'separation' before anything else.

Good Hunting

Desi D

OK I did a test a real nice person from this forum let me and shipped me his F19. I had a couple of months on the Racer. Racer way better built hands down. Racer you can turn down the sens to 40 and still get great depth on the F19 the same target was gone. The 5x10 on both units are just super great. The racer was a tad deeper but also on the racer targets would scream and on the F19 I almost missed a few because the sound the tone was not as sharp. All and all I don't think you can go wrong with the F19 or the Racer but the racer is just a way better build machine. They have had some problems with the coil ears and I own all three coils but use the 5x10 all of the time. The 5" will be great in some iron areas that I have that are just crazy with iron nails. I really think the racer is right up there with my Deus when it comes to hunting. I did a few tests and it hit on the same targets the racer hit on and did the same with the deus hitting targets then seeing if the racer would hit on them and it did with no problem

LowBoy

TAKE A LITTLE TIME KICKBACK AND WATCH SOME OF MY DETECTING VIDEO'S BELOW ON YouTube

[www.youtube.com]

If you don’t dig it, then how are you going to know what you’re missing!
How can you have your pudding if you don’t eat your meat!

Des D Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Keith,
>
> I've penned tests on both the F19 last year and
> the Racer in the August copy of the UK
> Searcher magazine.
>
> There's a lot between them yet they "appear" to be
> the same.
>
> The F19 is way more refined. Racer is rough and
> "racaous".
> Yet they can unmask extremely well in amongst
> trash.
> Racer has 'the edge' due to it's standard coil
> being of a larger size subsequently
> a deeper seeker compared to the smaller Ellpitcal
> coil as standard on the F19
>
> Regarding Audio. F19 is far more informative
> here.
>
> Notch, bells & whistles. Don't really care about
> those.
> Give me 'separation' before anything else.
>
> Good Hunting
>
> Desi D


I'd be curious as to how many hours you logged on each machine prior to these tests?

I'd also consider the test validity much higher if both machines were using the same sized coil, I.E.' 5" DD, 5x10" DD or 7x11" DD, else they really are oranges to apples. As to the audio, as simple as it may seem initially, it takes some time to decode what the audio on the Racer is telling you. Using the 3-tone blendy audio in a trashy area, once you understand it's nuanced language, will open new doors for you. You'll be able to tell a pure metal from a mixed metal, trash from a good target, a coin from a non-coin (mostly) and when there's a non-ferrous target next to (or on) a ferrous target. One probably will not learn this on the first set of batteries.

HH,
Brian

"tell trash from a good target, a coin from a non-coin"
In defense of Des, we UK hunters don't tend to differentiate coins from other targets, or 'trash' from other targets, largely because many of our good targets read as trash, and some of our coins look like this:

Brian,

You're funny!

Des

If you are purchasing used - definately the Racer as it has a transferable warranty

F19...MERICA! Well, more or less, lol.

I'm not bashing either of them, (Only had the Core Pro pack, and have not owned a F19), but being that the Racer/Core detectors do so well sifting iron, the lack of adjustableiron audio was a big disappointment. And I think those who hunt in iron pits can appreciate what I'm talking about. In machine gun-like iron, audio fatigue becomes apparent fairly quick. The adj. Fe feature alone gives the F19 a trump card in my book, all previous posts on this thread taken into consideration. Personally, the G2+ is looking pretty sweet, more for the ergonomics vs the F19. I'm looking at them pretty hard this season for my go to detector.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/2015 03:28AM by triplehooked.

Hi triplehooked I am not the cleverest of people so can you please explain this to me -
"Racer/Core detectors do so well sifting iron, the lack of iron audio was a big disappointment."

So they do well in iron but lack iron audio which disappoints you - But they do well in iron = is this correct?

Yep, no problem. Sorry if that wasn't typed properly.. I'm referring to the lack of adjustable iron audio, meaning the ability to turn down the volume specifically on the iron targets so they are not blasting your ears constantly, more of a background noise per se. That way the non-ferrous targets come out of the back ground loud and clear. I didn't think it was a big issue until I started detecting more iron laden sites. To me, that feature is is a huge asset in picking out good targets. I was disappointed that a detector that performs as well as the Racer and Core in iron would lack such a feature. Clear as mud? ; )



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/2015 03:35AM by triplehooked.

Whats funny on the F19/G2+ I just run the iron volume wide open anyways...

I like to hear the iron with full GUSTO....Even in beds of nails...

and all good relevant observations on the two machines by both camps..and the middle of the road guys..

And I too Des see the Racer as more of a direct competition to the F19 more so than a direct competition to the F75v2....

my first thoughts of using the F19 was, this will be the machine to go more along the lines of an opponent to the Racer...

Very similar units....

I would like to see the all metla mode on the Racer/CoRe evolve into more PUNCH!!

I like a strong threshold based all metal mode for certain hunts...

Keith

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

triplehooked Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yep, no problem. Sorry if that wasn't typed
> properly.. I'm referring to the lack of adjustable
> iron audio, meaning the ability to turn down the
> volume specifically on the iron targets so they
> are not blasting your ears constantly, more of a
> background noise per se. That way the non-ferrous
> targets come out of the back ground loud and
> clear. I didn't think it was a big issue until I
> started detecting more iron laden sites. To me,
> that feature is is a huge asset in picking out
> good targets. I was disappointed that a detector
> that performs as well as the Racer and Core in
> iron would lack such a feature. Clear as mud? ; )

Clear as mud Triplehooked - after posting what I did it magically came to me what you meant - told you one wasnt too sharp lol

thanks

I just got the NEL Snake coil--3-1/2 x 6-- for the F-19 and it picked up nonferrous in the iron better than the Fors Gold with the 5" OOR coil--went over the area after the F-19 w/5" and the Fors, and found 2x the small old brass & copper mining-smelting debris, including a 1/2" deer button with stars around the circular edge. That was only one time, one place--didn't find me any nuggets in a gulch where I found 2 with the stock coil. This is in northern Nevada, but not Rye Patch. I'm bringing the Fors Gold to California to see how well the tracking works on serpentine.

I used my F19 and Racer for the same two tasks. One being hunting ghost towns with huge amounts of iron nails and tin cans. The other area I used the two detectors is on the dry saltwater beach sand. After using many different models and brands over the past 40 years of detecting, I had settled on the F19 for these two areas. I had a Gold Bug Pro that I was using at these sites and when the F19 was released I thought, Great it's a GBP with added features. Although I didn't use the notch feature, the back light for the screen was a plus when detecting the beach after dark or before sunrise. So off went the GBP and the F19 became my go to detector. I still kept the 5" DD coil and the 11" coil I had from the GBP so I had an assortment to coils for the F19. I also had the Nel Hunter 13" and the Ultimate 13" coils. Then along comes the Racer. Well I've got to try it out and see how it performs against the F19 at the beach and in the ghost towns. For my Racer I have the standard 11" coil, the 5"x10" coil and the 5" OOR coil. Here's my take on it. I think the the F19 is built every bit as well as the Racer. Never had the coil tabs break on any of the Fisher coils. I like the bend of the S Handle of the F19 better. I think the Racer handle is bent at too much of an angle. I grew to like the Camo better than the red color. I think the Racer is deeper and separates better and I prefer the three tones of the Racer over the Variable Tone Break of the F19. I like the Racer's LED headlight, and quick mode change. I think the Racer's audio reports way more info than the F19's. And who can argue the price. The Racer retails for somewhere around $250 less than the F19. Long story short - The F19 went bye - bye and the Racer has a good home here with my other detectors.

So why not keep the F19 and sell off some of your "other detectors" instead? All of your other detectors are superior to the F19 as well? Hard to believe.

Mike,
My other detectosr are used for other types of detecting. White's V3i, I use for clad and jewelry fresh drops using a BigFoot coil. Tesoro Tiger shark is used when I'm water hunting fresh water lakes. Minelab Sovereign GT is for wet saltwater beach sand, M6's with HotFoot coils for competition hunts (one for my wife, son, and myself) etc. Not so hard to believe. F19 can't hold a candle to these for these uses.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/2015 09:35PM by Tom Slick.

"Can't hold candle"? But you just gave it a glowing review! I think you've been spending too much time out in the AZ sun.

oh no - someones not happy about the F19 not being all that -

thanks for sharing Tom Slick - its nice to get an opinion from someone who has owned/used both -

And apparently Mike, you're convinced the F19 is THE do it all detector. So sad.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/15/2015 12:14AM by Tom Slick.