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Fisher F4

Price: $500
Avg. Score: 4 stars 3.95
Based on 20 reviews

Avg. Durability: 4 stars4.00
Avg. Ease of use: 4 stars4.33
Maximum detection depth
Submit your review for Fisher F4

Excellent Metal Detector in a Reasonable Price Range

May 31, 2011
I am new to the hobby. It is very confusing to find the best manufacture and which is the best detector for the buck in ones price range. It can be hard to get a straight answer. Since I am not sure if metal detecting is something I want to do a lot, I did not want to put a lot of money into it. I read the reviews for a lot of detectors on the web. I thought out of all the reviews of detectors costing between $300 and $600 the Fisher F4 seemed to be a good choice. Even the F5 and F70 had some negative comments in the reviews.

I was still not too sure, so I called Kellyco to seek some advice. When I mentioned the F4, the salesman said it was a good one in that price range. I was not sure if it was the best or he said so because it mentioned it. I was willing to pay more if there was a better one within my price range.
I ordered it and so far I think the salesman was right on. It is far from being a White V3i with all the nice graphics and the ability to analyze what is under the ground before you dig, but it does the job very well.

What I like most about the F4 is the nice “pinpointing” feature showing the depth of the target. I have just figured out the sweet spot in the middle of the coil. Being new to the sport, I was dismayed with all the false reading I was getting. I guess with anything, it takes practice. It would be nice if Fisher would have included a DVD showing a newbie how to actually use it and problem solve false readings. It can't cost that much to add to the package. My only other complaint is the head phone jack is on the bottom of the box which shortens the cord and it is easy to get tangled up.

Over-all, the F4 is a great detector even compared it some which cost more. I was able to find things in my yard the first time I used it.
I am well satisfied with the F4.

Overall Rating 5 stars!

188

Fisher F4 is AWESOME

September 03, 2010
I've always wanted a MD since I was a little boy treasure hunter with my grandpa, using a cheap radio shack unit; but, never got around to it. However about a week ago, my 3 year old daughter flushed a $10,000 diamond on a gold necklace down the toilet and into our septic system...YIKES!!!!
So, off I went on the search for a decent metal detector. I first tried a BH Fortune Hunter (got a great deal, $140 on sale, 40% off). But it would only find lots of trash and didn't detect anything in the septic tank (yes, it was covered in plastic). So, I took it back and bought the Fisher F4. OMG, what a machine!!!! I took it out to practice with and learn and all of a sudden I was finding lots of cool stuff the BH missed. I found lots of 1960s to 1990s dimes, pennys and quarters all around my house and down by the lake we live next to. I found a 1966 dime at 10 inches deep without a hitch. Target ID is very easy to learn and use and is very accurate. Target depth is pretty accurate and the pinpoint mode is great. Ground balancing is super easy too. This machine is very intuitive and easy to learn for a begginer. After reading the manual, I was finding coins after 5 minutes of practice. It is a high quality item that finds cool stuff with ease.
The next day, I covered it in plastic bags and went over to our septic tank to look for the diamond necklace. It detected it immediately OVER THE WATER WHICH IS 4 FEET DEEP!!!! Target ID was exactly as described for gold items in the instruction manual. After a few minutes of fishing/scooping with an old rake, I recovered the diamond and gold necklace; HAPPY DAYS!!!! So, the way I see it, this unit has already payed for itself many times over.
Buy this unit; you will be extremely happy. It is easy, easy, easy to use and is great quality. This unit is head and shoulder above any BH rig, even if they are made by the same company. I look forward to many years of treasure hunting with this unit.

Overall Rating 5 stars!

4213

MY REVIEW OF THE FISHER F4

June 12, 2010
A cracking detector!! I got this machine 2 weeks ago and took it to a field that I've used explorers on plus my e-trac and more recently my teknetics t2. All I can say is this machine wipes the floor with the lot of the!!

Firstly the f4 is far better balanced and much better on hot rocks than the t2 and also its very easy to take the sensitivity right to the top without it giving off false signals.
Recovery speed is astonishing and its fantastic though trashy areas and makes it simple to pull out good targets in junk.
First time out in my regular field I came back with 6 assorted coins one being French but also found silver too and this machine loves silver. Also found many small non ferrous targets and an antique ladies silver ring.it now makes me think that perhaps some detectors are trying to do way too much with way too many functions which makes them unstable.

This machine is easy to balance and easy to simply switch on and go. The best mode I found was all-metal discrim rather than just descrim as it finds many more targets and picks up everything and you choose what to dig.
I may add the silver items I found were not all where i expected and the ring hit right where pull tabs are and so did the French coin so my advice is run this mode and forget all that notching out and trust me you will love this machine.

HERE is my only criticism and thats the headphone socket is a pain where it is and I found my headphone coil getting wrapped around the box every 2 mins. Apart from that I would leave your t2 and f75 ego at home for one day and simply go try it with an open mind and you will be amazed and for the price having tried it I would've paid t2 money for it as it finds much more. Seems to me the lower frequency is much much better and a lot of my targets were found at depth too.TRY ONE !!!
Also I've gotta say a thanks to dinger51 off youtube and his reviews and tests of this machine as thats what made me buy it!!

Overall Rating 4 stars

479

Fisher F4

March 27, 2009
Hi Guys
I'll try and keep this brief, I currently own 8 detectors. From a Tesoro Compadre to a minelab Explorer. The one that lives in my truck is the F4.
Dead easy to ground balance,deadly pinpoint, accurate depth and I.D., simple to set up, quick responce and above average depth.
Don't know, why but as much of a dime magnet as my CZ is on nickels.
Not much to complain about, doesn't save your settings when you power down.
Noticed our self proclaimed expert never got back with Andy and explained how the F4 is just a cheap discovery knockoff---do yourself a favor and getchaone!!!!

Overall Rating 5 stars!

427

F4 repacked bounty hunter 3300

September 11, 2008
A salesman does not know how the two metal detectors are put together as far as electronics inside unless they had some degree in that field. I will take both detectors apart and give the break down of the electronics in my next post. Both f4 and 3300 are good machines. I prefer the 3300 over the F4 due to being the same at about $300.00 cheaper and nicer looking. My next post will give people like Andy a new out look on electronic break downs and as to how they work. I will add that any F2-F4 coils will fit the 3300 bounty hunter like the 11inch DD coil for an example. HH Bobby

Overall Rating 5 stars!

1634

Fisher F4

July 13, 2007
I have owned several brands & models over the 15+ years I have been detecting. I recently bought a F4 and I really like it. I do not favor any brand and I will not bash any brand. I will say that the F4 is a nice light well built detector that is very accurate id'ing targets (especially with the DD coil) and gets decent depth. The discrimination works very well, it is not an iron lover like some of the Fishers. In the first 3 or 4 days of use I have found over $20.00 in clad and 6 rings. When comparing to the Garrett Ace 250 (which I have had) the Fisher is a deeper seeker/better id'ing/and isn't as jittery. And the F4 has a 5 year warranty. You can get a 4" coil for under $40.00 which makes a great coin killer in trashy area's. I am more than pleased with the F4 it is a keeper. To sum up the F4 I would say it is like having a Tesoro Cibola with a target identification display, anyone that has used a Cibola knows how good that is. The reason I didn't give it a 5 star rating is because a 5 star rating to me would be a perfect detector & there is no such thing as a perfect detector. Thanks! Steve.

Overall Rating 4 stars

856

The F4....A very pleasant surprise!

July 07, 2007
Normally we think of prejudice in terms of race or gender.... I have discovered it can apply to metal detectors as well. Whether the avid hobby detectorists want to admit it or not, we (myself included) can fall victim to bias and peer pressure. Peer pressure? Isn't that for teenagers and drinking, smoking, etc.? Yes....and it's also us and our feelings toward metal detector manufacturers.

If you closely follow the forums, or go to club hunts, you've no doubt heard people "slamming" Bounty Hunter. Why do they do it? Well...they tend to be less expensive, and sold in bulk at the mega-stores under various labels. Their quality and performance have been known to be decent, but occasionally (for certain models), unremarkable.

We, the "elitists" look down our noses and very quickly want to justify the large amount of money we paid for our brand X detectors... (costing 5 times as much). So, here we are...our snobbery, prejudice, bias and yes...peer influence in tow, we quickly want to dismiss any detector made by Bounty Hunter as "beneath us".... And boy, oh boy, is that a mistake!!

To clear some things up with this introduction, we need to understand that Fisher was purchased by a new parent company. That company is First Texas. First Texas also owns the Bounty Hunter and Teknetics brand, hence my long-winded soapbox rant above. The F4 shares certain physical similarities to the Discovery 3300 and the Titan 3000. Due to these similarities, instant bias begins. I've seen a lot of undeserved negativity from various folks about "Fisher bought by Bounty Hunter"...and that's not the case. They are both owned by the same parent company. This is a good thing! Fisher, Teknetics and Bounty Hunter are now backed by serious innovation, motivation and funding! The moral of the story...First Texas is dead serious about taking their labels into the realm of superb performance!

I've owned an F-75 since their release, and am still amazed and surprised by its performance. I started reading about the F4 a while back, and became curious about it, in part due to my great experience with the 75. The F4 is aimed at the "mid-level" market...a more cost conscious segment than those buying Explorers, DFX's, T-2's and F-75's.

I got my F4 about a week ago as of this review, and have used it approximately 16 hours so far. It has exceeded my expectations in every way. (see...I'm guilty of preconceived bias too!)

The F4 comes packed in a nice new style Fisher white box with "F4" stamped on the front. The first pleasant surprise I got when unpacking it was the high quality Fisher gold anodized rods and heavy duty plastic arm cup. It's the same one you see on the CZ-3D, Coinstrike and other Fishers. The next nice thing I saw wasn't a surprise, but cool none the less, was 2 included search coils. One 11" elliptical DD and also a 8" round concentric.

Pole junctions were very precise and tight, and the lower rod and coil fit is perfect. The detector housing looks great, and although I'm no fan membrane type buttons, these work great.

My first trip out to my test garden really, really surprised me. The F4 cleanly identified every target in my coin bed (with one exception), and very accurately reported the depth! The one exception noted was the nearly impossible (in my soil) 10 to 12 inch silver dime. (I say 10 to 12 inch because of sinkage...it started at 10) Although I could get the occasional audible signal out of the dime, it was nothing I would stop to dig in real life. In the F4's defense, the only other detectors that give a diggable signal on it are the F-75 and the Explorer 2... (and I've used a BUNCH).

Real life use of the F4 has proven it to be stable, reliable and rugged. It is also very lightweight! Hours of hunting without fatigue are easy with this machine. First Texas brands seem to be clobbering the market when it comes to light weight and ergonomics. The F4 is easy to use with its clearly marked buttons, and the discrimination and notching systems are superb. The DD coil allows you to hunt clad at break-neck speed, with the wide swath cut by the 11" coil. Tone ID is clear and easy to hear. The visual ID is dead on, and depth is very respectable... excellent for this price range. I've only ran into one site that gave me any RFI problems, and that was easily fixed by turning the sensitivity down.

Gold jewelry also detects very well, and the F4 hits great on rings.

In summary, the F4 is a great choice for anyone shopping for a good all around machine. It has a large number of useful options (notching, tone ID, visual ID, etc.) and won't break the bank. Will it replace my F-75? Well, no. However, it is an excellent compliment to it. It is also a testimony to the efforts the engineers over at First Texas are putting into their new machines. I would be willing to bet if you borrowed one from a friend, and actually used it for a while, you will be impressed. You shouldn't compare it to detectors costing 4 times as much.. (although it is competitive with some of them). I just want to see this great little detector get treated with the respect it deserves! I think we are beginning to see the "death" of stigma, bias and pre-conceived prejudice!

Overall Rating 4 stars

9912

Fisher F4 is way better than Bounty Hunter.......

July 04, 2007
When i saw the F4 on the internet i thought it is just a repacked Discovery 3300 or Titan 3000. I was wrong. I got one of the first F4 and read on a forum that the factory has a recall going on for it. I drove to the factory ( a 1 hour 15 minute drive) and they updated the F4 for me.

The F4 comes with the 11" DD coil and a 8" round concentric coil in the box for $ 425. Some Bounty Hunter coils can be used too. The 4" gold nugget coil and the 10" magnum coil.

I'm a fan of small coils so i compared the F4 with the 4" gold nugget coil with the Ace 250 with 4.5 sniper coil. The F4 airtests about one inch deeper with the 4" coil. I picked up a US quarter at 7.5 inches in air with the 4" coil. That is very great, because you get outstanding target separation with outstanding depth (for a 4" coil). I use the F4 with the 4" coil at a local highschool to see how it does. I was impressed how quiet the F4 was at max. sensitivity and how many coins i found at a place that has been hunted by many local detectorists. Coins at 6" in ground...no problem. The motion All Metal Mode proved how close some trash items were next to the good coin signals.

If you put the 8" round coil on it you can pick up a US quarter at about 9.5 inches. Pretty good for an 8" coil. Next i tried the 11" DD coil and it picked up the quarter at about 12 inches.

US nickels will be picked up about an inch less than the quarter. US nickel are IDed great with the VDI numbers (100 !!!). Better than an Ace 250 from Garrett.

I don't really know to what detector the F4 compares.

It is better than the Garrett Ace 250. (Deeper, better ID, true all metal mode, ground balance for the all metal mode and a DD coil for bad ground).

How about the Whites Prizm line ? The Prizms are slower than the F4, the Prizms don't have adjustable GB and you can't buy a small coil for them. No DD coil either.

The F4 are not as hot as the F75 but they are in it's class by its own. They make great "do it all" detectors. I still have more testing to do but the first impression is pretty good.

Let me start with the hardware:

The F4 is a 3 pole design and the 3300 just a two pole.

The F4 has the better grip and armrest. The Fisher hardware seems to be the better quality and feel.

The F4 come with the 8" round concentric AND the new 11" DD coil.

Yes, the Fisher DD coil works on the 3300 two.

Now, is the F4 just a nicer looking 3300 ? No, it's NOT

I haven't had much time with the F4, but the differences are easy to see not only in the hardware, but also the performance.

First thing i noticed is that the F4 has target ID numbers from 0 to 99 and the 3300 has numbers from 0 to 199. Is that a good thing ? I don't know. Never had problems with the numbers on the 3300, but 100 numbers on the F4 is good enough.

Next thing i had to do is ground balancing the F4. That is a lot better and easier to do compared to the 3300. Just set the F4 to auto tune all metal mode, pump the coil up and down a few inches above the ground and turn the GB control with the thumb, until no change is heard while pumping up and down. New is also that turning the GB control clockwise sets the GB more positive. With the 3300 COUNTERCLOCKWISE is more positive (that was alway strange to me).
Since the 3300 has NOT a autotune all metal mode, you have to GB in pinpoint mode and lift the coil to waist level, change the GB setting, press pinpoint, pump the coil down to the ground and repeat that procedure until you found the right GB setting. Sounds hard to do, but is not too bad once you have done it. But not as easy as with the F4.
Next test was my 5" deep dime buried in my backyard. No problem for both detector even with the coil 3" over the ground. I noticed here that the 3300 gave the same target volume on the target, no matter how deep it is. The F4 sounds of on shalow targets loud and is quieter the deeper the target is. That gives some additional info how deep the target is you just found. Guys with bad hearing may like the 3300 better since deep targets sound the same as shalow targets.

Depth on both detectors is about the same. Using the 8" round coil on both detectors a Quarter on the ground could be detected at about 9.5 inches. Nickels about 9" on both.

But here come the biggest difference: The recovery speed and target response on the F4 is MUCH faster. Again, both detector tested with the same 8" coil. Here is where the F4 really outperforms the 3300.

On a Nickel, i found that the deeper the Nickel was the higher it read on the F4. Very deep Nickels read in the coin range (penny). The 3300 puts deep nickels (deeper than 5") in the iron range.

Due to the ground balance and target ID numbers the F4 performed better than the Garrett Ace 250. I'm talking about inground performance, NOT air tests.

The F4 is a very good detector in its class, i just wish First Texas would use a 4 AA batterie setup on the F4 and not two nine volt batteries.

I still have some testing to do how the F4 and 3300 work with the 11"DD coil and the 4" nugget coil (Yes, already available for both detectors).

Price: The Discovery 3300 is 299 $ at Radio shack with a 3 month warranty and just one coil. The F4 is 425 $ with two coils and 5 years warranty.

Whoever says the F4 is just a repacked Discovery 3300 is plain wrong.

Andy,NM

Overall Rating 4 stars

7510

A Discovery 3300 at 4 times the price.

June 27, 2007
After reading a review of the F-4, my hunting partner decided to buy one. It looks like my Discovery 3300 that came from Radio Shack that I paid less than $100 for. It operates just like it too. The 3300 at $100 is a great deal. The F-4 for over $400 is a steal also--Fisher stole his $400. It's a decent detector, just not worth the price. It would be a bargain if it was priced in the Ace 150 range, but there are many $400 detectors better-probably all of them.

Overall Rating 1 star

3161

Can you say Bounty Hunter?

June 26, 2007
I get this detector and it is immediately recalled and dealers pull them from the shelf. That never happened before Fisher was bought by First Texas (a.k.a. Bounty Hunter.)

This one went to Ebay immediately. Fisher was once a great name.

Overall Rating 1 star

2266

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