- User's Guide.

The F75 is an outstanding all-purpose metal detector. Its most popular uses are finding coins, rings, and jewelry. It is also well suited to find relics and for gold prospecting as well as beach hunting. Perfect for beginners to very experienced metal detector users.

This top-off the line metal detector has all the important features you would expect from a Fisher detector. Light and well balanced with a large LCD screen that shows you Target Identification, Target Confidence (a new feature) and Target Depth .You can hunt relics and artifacts with the all-metal mode, or discriminate (tune out) the junk targets. Best of all You can use your F75 right out of the box!!!

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Multi-purpose
Relic hunting
Coin-shooting
Gold Prospecting

LCD Screen
Large LCD Screen
Target ID Display
Menu System Always Visible

Transmission Technology
Single

Operation Mode
Multi-mode FASTGRAB™- instant or manual Ground cancellation works in all modes
 

Trigger Switch
Trigger-actuated target pinpointing

Mechanical Design
Ergonomic lightweight, Balanced, Intuitive Interface
 

Coil
Bi-axial 11-inch

Armrest
2-Way adjustable - armrest adjusts for perfect fit
 

In The Field

The F75 arrived the day before our family was leaving for a quick trip to the New Jersey beaches. I already knew that it is a very sensitive VLF induction balance detector. Therefore, I did not expect it to excel on the saltwater beaches—but I was in for a surprise. Now don't misunderstand. I'm not talking about wading out into the surf, but right along the edge on the wet salted sand, the F75 did a remarkable job. Minor adjustments allowed me to avoid false signals and still get great detection depth. Naturally, on the dry sand I could operate it nearly wide open. Granted, most Southern New Jersey beaches are lightly mineralized. However, wet salt is wet salt, and there were areas of black sand as well.

In this sand-blowing, saltwater environment, I was happy that covers for the control housing and battery box are included with the detector. Although I was not able to get in as much beach hunting as I would have liked, it was enough to learn that the F75 could cut the mustard. Right away, I noticed that the large screen was easy to read. There was no squinting to see target ID numbers or control adjustments. However, ground balance and help messages were tiny.

After ground balancing in the Motion All-Metal mode, I left it there for a while, but hunting in All-Metal did not las long due to a great many small pieces of iron in the beach. My next action was to hunt in the JE process of Discriminate Mode with low discrimination to try for small gold. That may be OK for fresh water, but this mode is just too hot for wet salt sand. Although I could have persisted with lowered sensitivity and higher discrimination settings, instead I decided to try the DE process with high sensitivity and just a bit of discrimination for tiny iron.

The Discriminate Mode, to my great surprise, was outstanding. Sensitivity was raised as high as 80 before false signals became a problem. False signals hit at ID numbers 16, 17, and 18. Running the coil over the surf was registering #16. False signals easily discernable by their non-repeatable, wider beeps. Experimenting with many settings, I found that a slightly lower sensitivity did bring smooth operation without false signals. Of course, up on the dryer sand, hunting in high sensitivity was no problem at all.

Most of the time my favorite settings were very low discrimination and Tone at 3H (iron a low buzz, zinc cents and aluminum a medium tone, and better coins (including nickels) a high tone), Sensitivity just below 80, and dE Process. The F75 was working quite well on the wet salt sand as I pulled dimes from 8" and quarters from 9", and around iron as well. Those pesky beer bottle caps revealed themselves with ID numbers that jumped around and did not lock.

Besides great detector performance, I was amazed that I had been hunting for an hour before I thought of changing arms. That means good ergonomic design for fatiguefree hunting. No gold jewelry was found, but that was not the detector's fault. With the varied amount of items I was scooping up at good depth, if the coil had gone over gold it would have found it.

I took the F75 to a variety of inland locations, including modern parks, old parks, schools, and rustic home sites. Parks are always good sites for testing, because most people buy a detector for coin hunting and need to know how it handles coins among modern trash. Additionally, I was able to use the F75 in a competition hunt.

Parks with large expanses of green grass and sports fields in all directions are a delightful sight to detectorists. The first order of business was to compare ground balance readings. FASTGRAB was quick and easy, and compared closely to the manual ground balance reading in Motion All-Metal. Sensitivity was set at 70, Disc 15, #Tones dP (Delta), and Process #dE. When raising Sensitivity to 90 there was some ground chatter, and yet one can tell the difference from repeatable beeps for targets. When ground chatter did become annoying, lowering Sensitivity to 75 had it running quiet and smooth. Hunting in JE was also possible with the lower sensitivity.

I had thought that I would be hunting mostly in the dP Tone with its multiple target tones. I did like the multi-tone very much; however, a lower tone for a number of ID #21 targets had me thinking that I might tend to ignore the lower tones. Although these turned out to be mower-shredded pieces of aluminum, they could just have easily been good targets such as a small gold ring. Therefore, I ended up using 4H in dE process most of the time, which kept repeatable, lower conductivity tones relevant. It also has that fourth tone for many older coins. Everyone will have his favorites; this tone and process just felt best for me.

Pinpointing was amazingly sharp, and I was able to detune to make it even sharper. Raising the coil an inch over the target narrows it further. After pinpointing I could move the coil to the side, put my finger on the ground where the coil center had been, and find the coin exactly there or within a fraction of an inch. This happened so many times that I never stopped marveling at the pinpointing accuracy of this DD coil. For the most part, both coin depth readings and target ID were very good. There were a few coins that were not quite as deep as indicated; however, this can be due to their being on edge, or not getting the center of the coil over the target.

A few of the targets found were a repeatable #42 ID at 4" (folded over square tab), ID #60 and 61 were most often zinc cents, ID #51 @ 4" were two dime-sized slugs at 5", #73 @ 3" was a button from St. Jane School, Riviera Beach, Maryland, #71 @ 5" was correct as a dime, #71 @ 5" another time was not correct as it was a zinc cent (halo effect, no doubt), #70 was always correct for copper cents, and #60 was always correct for zinc cents. Target separation for picking coins from trash and iron was very good.

The F75 is able to process ground matrix info very quickly with a very fast recovery speed to identify individual targets, plus has a good see-through ability around small iron. Any ground noise in bad ground can be eliminated or reduced by setting the ground balance a couple of numbers to the positive. The most accurate target ID came from coil sweeps that were wide and relaxed, instead of short, slow sweeps. A faster sweep seemed to go deeper for grabbing some targets.

One day I was hunting a WWII site with two friends, John Crater and Carl Helm. They both use a non-Fisher brand detector that is a good one. I was using the Fisher F75. We had been detecting for about an hour and found quite a few newer coins but nothing old. John and I stopped to discuss this. While talking, I noticed a rise in the ground on the other side of the field. I had an idea that perhaps the top layer had been bulldozed to one side to level it out, and now it was covered with grass. The little hill ran about 30 yards long, and I started detecting the top. Right away I received a dime signal at 6-7" with a solid beep. It was a Mercury dime from the 1940s.

I called my friends over, and the three of us gave that long hill area a good going over. We found some shallow modern coins. Neither of them got any deep hits, but finally the F75 rang out two more times with the same deeper results, netting me a total of three Mercury dimes. John and Carl are both good hunters, and it wasn't due to luck. Those three dimes were found because the F75 was able to go deep in mineralized ground, give a proper audio and visual target ID at depth, and notify me with a good solid, repeatable beep. There's no doubt in my mind— it was the F75 that made the difference.

A competition hunt came along just as this report was being completed. At the hunt, as at the wet salt beaches, the F75 dispelled my doubts in yet another challenging situation...bit time! I already knew that the 11" double-D could pinpoint like a champ. When the audio was loudest and pitch highest, that coin was right below the center of the coil. I'm not going to tell you that it was as fast as a concentric coil, but nearly so—and that was more than offset by the ground coverage of the 11" coil. I also knew that I could sweep the coil at a good gait, but I was not so sure that the detector would stand up to a real competition hunt where speed means everything.

There were to be two hunts at the Lancaster Research & Recovery Club Hunt in Pennsylvania. I decided to use the F75 in the morning hunt and take my losses for the sake of the field test, then catch up with a concentric coil detector in the second hunt. Was I in for a shock! Both hunts were for silver dimes and quarters, with tokens being painted quarters. If you can find a dime you can certainly find the larger quarter if the coil goes over it. In the first hunt, I was sweeping that coil fast to cover ground rapidly, and without missing targets. The F75 made hit after hit with no doubt about the target. Another shock was the speed at which I could pinpoint under competition conditions. The proof of in the pudding was at the end of the first hunt. My number of silver dimes was just as good as most other people's with competition machines.

When the coins had been cleaned out and folks were just milling around without finding much, I went over to an area that many people had been avoiding. It is loaded with pieces of iron that drive detectors crazy. Pennants are used to mark the area, but there is still deep iron around the perimeter to mask coins. I picked up an extra half dozen silver dimes with the F75... coins that iron had hidden from other detectors. In fact, the F75 did so well that I used it in the second hunt with similar results.

During these events I made several experimental changes with the detector. Control adjustments were accomplished quickly without delaying my hunting. Since the targets were silver coins, discrimination was set at a full 65. Sensitivity was lowered from an initial 70 since seeded targets were shallow. I was picking up deeper targets, too, but didn't have time to dig them. Process dE was used for the entire hunt, and Tones set to hear high tones.

As an afterthought, the realization came that I had changed hands only once during the hunt— another testament to fatigue free hunting. During the lunch break, I was discussing the machine with two friends from the Philadelphia area, Jerry O'Donnell and Dennis Dougherty, and I let them have a go with the F75. They were also surprised at the lightweight feel for a machine that offered so many features.

Summary

Targets find it difficult to escape beneath the broad, fast, and deepseeking sweep of the coil. The innovative 11" double-D searchcoil handles mineralization, separates targets, and pinpoints like a concentric. The more one uses the F75, the more it earns the detectorist's respect. It will do well in coin, relic, prospecting, cache, and even many beach hunting situations. The All-Metal modes, with good control over ground balance and sensitivity, should make it popular with gold prospectors.

The detector has an external speaker, and there is a 1/4" stereo headphone jack at the rear of the armrest. The armrest is fully, and I mean fully, adjustable. The sides can be bent out or in to match arm width, and the rest can be moved back and forth for arm length. The configuration is a three-piece Srod, ergonomic design and lightweight at only 3.5 lbs. with batteries. The spring clips, locking collars, and durably padded handgrip provide a comfortable, no-wobble swing.

It has an abundance of feature adjustability to meet many situations. Three operating modes, straightforward control adjustments with no sub-programming, fingertip controls, deepseeking target ID, and a five-year warranty are a few of the things that allow me to readily recommend the F75 for your consideration.

Reprinted with permission from Western & Eastern Treasures (Copyright January 2008)