Fisher Coin Strike
Price: $1000
Avg. Score: 
4.2
Based on 30 reviews
4.2Based on 30 reviews
Sorry unit
July 01, 2007
After having owened several CZ's this C$ is a real disappointment. I'm
fairly adept with most detectors but this outfit is lousy!!! It never
misses a bottle cap or piece of rusty steel and it doesn't seem to have
much depth. I have used it about 20 hrs and ready to sell. It is easy to
set up but I think that is it's only asset. A real" don't buy" machine.
Overall Rating
Ron B. from
Indiana
1111
Good Relic Detector but a little pricey
August 08, 2006
Currently I have 4 metal detectors ? the Whites DFX , The Minelab Quattro,
The Minelab Explorer II and a Whites Classic III SL. The Explorer I have
only had for about a month. My review of the Coinstrike is based on my
experience with it in Cleveland, Ohio and is in comparison to the above
mentioned metal detectors that I have. I had the Coinstrike for about six
months. I made some good finds with it and think it is a good detector.
The Pros:
- Simple and fun to use.
- Good target separation.
- Good for iron infested sites.
- Good solid lock on coin sized targets up to about 6? deep
- Easy to cover a lot of ground .
- Great for relic hunting.
The Cons:
- Interference. Could not use it near my back side of my house ? power lines made it too unstable.
- Depth not the greatest. In my soil conditions deepest I can get on a penny is 6-7 inches tops. It will get a silver dime up to a max of 6 inches(even with the 10? coil).
- Deep rusted iron will give off a high tone. You can sweep in alternate directions and still get a good signal. A lot of times you will see a negative number and you can eliminate it as being iron but it does like rusty iron.
- Pinpointing number system is a bit tedious. You have to focus on number readout rather than a bargraph or strictly tone.
- Tend to dig more trash(than with the Quattro, DFX and Exp II).
Overall it is a good detector especially if you are planning on digging everything. Learning curve was very quick being accustomed to White?s Metal Detectors(I understand it is more difficult if you are use to a previous Fisher detector. I sold it because I was just digging too much trash with it and could not get the depth I needed to get the deep coins we consistently find in Ohio.
Overall Rating
Mirage from
Cleveland, Ohio
202
Glad I Got The CoinStrike!! And What A Coin Finder!!!
December 14, 2005
I have had my CoinStrick a little over a month now, and hunt on the
weekend's, on the east coast of FL. beach and inland.The first time I hunted on the beach it was more of test and try, and found a good amount of coins, went back the next day, and set the coinstrike to one of the memory programs I saved and WOW, after two & half hours of diging coins 8" to 10" deep my foot was worn out.
Last weekend I took the coinstrike to a RV camp ground, that has under ground power line for each site, I thought that would be a good test for RF interferrence, NO PROBLEM but had a lot of bottle caps and pull tabs and foil,after a few hours I knew what they sounded like,and knew what the coins sounded like and easy going after that.
I can,t understand why some say it can't pick up a penny on top of the ground, that sounds like a user problem, not a machine problem,come on get real!!
Like I said I am glad I got the CoinStrike, I am still learning what it's telling me and now rewarding me. Merry Christmas, and HH,
Overall Rating
Bernie from
East Coast of FL.
143
I Luv mine!!
October 10, 2005
I was shocked to hear the Coin$trike was getting a bad rap here. I see
basically 2 particular bad reviews in a row. I read them over several times
and wish to respond. It's clear 1 guy is a garrett nut and uses the opportunity to say buy a garrett insted. But I had garrett once and any Fisher is twice as deep and lifetime covered. The next fella from TX. goes on and on. He had a 1225 for 25 years. Theres the problem right there. He likes a more simple beep, dig 'tector with knobs and 1 tone. No open mind or patience for 4 different tones and #s. The CS. is no turn on and go detector and I actually like the pads. The knobs on my old beepers moved a lot. I have not had the CS. long but the more I use it the more I luv it. I fancy trying new gagets and thought the learning process was fun. If you don't want to take the time, get the 1236x instead. I hunt old parks with Cs. and get amazed. I dug a 1919 wheat back under a hunk of iron last week.
I own a DFX, EXP-2, Cortez, and 3D collecting dust. I keep grabbing the CS. and luv it!
BEEP BEEP!
Alan-CA
Overall Rating
Alan-CA from
CA.
318
Disregard bad reviews. Fishers best!
October 06, 2005
first off the poor reviews i see reading back are jest laughable. *wont
find coin on top of ground* ? Gimme a break, an then turn your darn notches
off! this is one serious unit.new technology, new engineering an not your
old fisher. read the manual! it's not hard but different and it takes 30+
hours in the field to really learn! notice the bad reviews is from diggers
who say, *try for a few hours, did air-test* and such. forget airtests!
this fisher likes a ground matrix & it goes DEEP. i knows civil war guys
who use the all metel mode to find deep bullets in beat sites. but the coin
strike really shines for bad soils and in trash. its the best kept secret
for bad ground. i love the numbers. iron is always (-) i never dig no more
iron. it hits hard on coins +20 to +35. loaded with features like
tracking.this is one cool fisher that can out hunt the heavy explorer. any
one who gave it a bad review or sold it made a mistake. Its no sooped up
CZ. U need to learn what settings work best pre-set is no good.ill put mine
up against any detector out there especially in trash. theres a forum and
home page online about coins strike that can relly help too. i seen used
ones sellin for $450-500. street price of $1000 is way off. $450 is a damn
STEAL! i might buy 2
Overall Rating
Hondo from
Baltimore
224
Fisher Coinstrike
October 06, 2005
Have over 2 yr of Coinstrike, much easier to learn than a Minelab, I like
it fine, have hunted Fl. beaches, rocky mts, Tn. relics, coins in In. it
just works GOOD, it is my favorite detector,with no problems or
complaints,does most all things well, no machine is perfect. have had 27
thru the 30 yr, if i don't like one=>down the road, well iv'e had
Coinstrike over 2 yr, figure that out
Overall Rating
Bugar from
In.
143
A costly experience
August 12, 2005
My comments on Fisher's CoinStrike.I have been an owner of Fisher metal detectors since 1980. My first was a Fisher 555D, from then I owned a 1225X and now my newest and latest, a CoinStrike. That's over 24 years of ownership of what I thought was the best of the best. I still own the 1225X.
I recently had the bad experience of owning a CoinStrike for about 30 days. It was tested in my test beds and in both extremely trashy and clean sites. Each "outing" with the CoinStrike was followed up with a complete search with the 1225X to verify the CoinStrike's ability to find and detect coins and artifacts.
After extensive testing, I have concluded that the CoinStrike is a very cumbersome and difficult detector to use. Programming is very simple but use of the unit is so difficult that each hunt requires at least four times the effort that earlier Fisher detectors required in actually detecting, pinpointing and finding targets.
The complaints I have with the CoinStrike are:
The idea of the tactile menu pad is absolutely horrible. In many cases it takes repeated presses of the buttons to make them work. When they do, the delay from the activated "press" to something happening on the screen is so long that is unacceptable. In many cases, the delay is so slow that you have pressed the button again thinking that the last push did not work also, only to advance through the menu item you wanted to adjust.
The replacement of knobs in lieu of menu items does not work very well. To make any adjustment, whether a sensitivity or discrimination adjustment, takes about 100 times longer because you have stop searching to advance though the menu each time any adjustment is to be made. Due to the complaint in item #1 above, the simple act of making an adjustment while detecting is impossible. You have to stop what you are doing and fiddle with the menu pad where with a simple knob the adjustment would be made "on the fly" without the need to stop everything you were doing and go though the "gut wrenching" act of running through the menu while pressing tactile switches that may-or may not work on the first, second or third push.
Ground balance is a big?. There is no way to actually check to see it your ground balance is set correctly. You have to assume that the machine did it correctly when you performed the ground balance procedure. The procedure of "bobbing" the coil up and down to check ground balance does not work because you can only assume the correct balance is obtained if the coil does not cause a response as it nears the ground.
When detecting, the sound is so delayed from the time the center of the coil passes over the target until you hear it, that zeroing in on a target takes at least 10 times as long as with the old 1225X. While the 1225X has an instant tone as it passes over a target, the CoinStrike does not. It has enough delay to drive you crazy. Consequently, the act of actually zeroing in on any target, whether it be good or trash, takes a very long time in comparison with your other models. That means a lot longer time to cover the same amount of area with the other Fisher detectors.
It is impossible to tell if the Averaging mode is even working. No matter how many various tests of the averaging system are made, no difference is to be seen between A1 and A0. Even worse, the factory instructions cite that the system will be in A or A1. Not, A0!
Strange things happen at the most inopportune times. For example, the other day I was using the pinpoint feature to zero in on a target and the whole thing locked up. The readout read 51 and none of the menu functions would work at all. I had to turn the unit off and then back on to clear the malfunction. This is the second time that this malfunction has happened since I received the unit 30 days ago. This is not acceptable.
Another malfunction that happened on two occasions was that the sound did not work. The first time it happened I turned the unit off and then back on and the sound worked. The second time I had to switch over to my auxiliary unit because I could not get the sound to operate. After I got home I tried it again and the sound worked once again.
False hits are the most serious defect of the unit. No matter where the settings for sensitivity or threshold are set, you receive many, many false signals. The problem is so serious that your "trust" in the unit was seriously compromised and you spend a much greater time in confirming the target than you normally would. Consequently, a great deal of good hunting time was expended in trying to determine if you had a "diggable" target or a piece of trash. The CS had a really bad habit of triggering off metal (other than aluminum) bottle caps. While other machines including the 3D and my trusty old 1225X had no problem with them, the find them every time regardless of notch settings. Aluminum "twist caps" triggered just about all metal detectors of any brand.
The notching feature is a total waste of time. Nickel and zinc could be notched out but foil and tabs did not seem to eliminate anything. The machine was totally useless against a whole range of pull-tabs and to perform a search without digging everything up you had to notch out all the notch categories.
The all-metal mode is almost useless. As of this date, it has been impossible to ground balance the unit so that you could even use it. You always have a sound and only when the sound gets louder do you know that you are over some type of ferrous material. To make matters even worse, there is no sharp sound alerting you to the end of the materials or the beginning, only a very broad and extremely "mushy" tonal increase or decrease to signal actual passage in a very few cases. Other than that, you always have the signal that makes you believe that your auto ground balance is not working at all. For all practical purposes, it is useless in searching for targets. Another problem with the all metal mode is when you do seek a spot to auto ground balance, since it produces some type of tone almost constantly as the coil is placed upon the ground, how do you know you are on "clean" soil even if the readout is 00? Answer, you don't!
A major problem is in identifying coins lying on top of the ground or just beneath. If the coil is held at least 8 inches above the ground, when slowly sweeping over a coin, no problems exist. Lower the coil to the ground or less than 8 inches and slowly move in an "X" over the coin and it may, or may not, sound with each pass of the coil over the target. Not good! This has been replicated over and over again in actual hunts and on the test bed. Yes, I have tried it after ground balancing numerous times.
Coils. Fisher did not think far enough ahead to design a 5" coil for the CoinStrike. None is available. Consequently, hunting in severe trash will range from impossible to a horrible experience in trying to determine just what you are looking at.
In summary, I am highly disgusted with this unit. From being very slow in response to target identity to erratic and unstable operation. The absolute worst thing about the unit is the extremely cumbersome methods you have to take to change any settings! You have to step through the menu each time!
After a month of ownership I traded my CoinStrike in for a CZ-3D and am absolutely delighted with the 3D. Now, once again, I have immediate and complete control over the machine and accuracy and efficiency of the hunt is beyond my wildest belief.
A message to Fisher: Get away from touch pads and go back to KNOBS!
Overall Rating
David Herbert from
Alice, Texas
5630
Coinstrike not for me.
May 17, 2005
I had heard good things about them and needed a backup machine so traded my
1500 for a like new Coinstrike. I spent about 3 months with it ( an hour
here and there)and although probably due to operator inexperience I had a
hard time with it.Its definately a machine that will take a long time to learn, the airtests were very poor, (not where it counts ) but still nice to see. I got the machine for trashy ghost town like sites and liked the + and - ferrous numbers, unfortunately dug lots of iron that stayed positive from all around it. Our soil is very mineralized and I'm sure this was one of the problems. Definately a love /hate detector. Traded for a Tejon and glad I did. For those wanting a digital readout, pinpointing, imaging etc. would suggest a Garrett 1500 or 2500 or an Explorer 11. HH
Overall Rating
Rod from
Canada
1112
Fisher C$
March 20, 2005
Well i have owned the C$ for about 3 months now, I have put in at least 80
hours using it durring that time. I hunt with it almost every day. Pros, Works great on DRY land Has decent depth in non mineralized areas and you definutly know when you have a solid target. Pinpointing is a snap once you learn it
Cons
If you have highly mineralized soil arround dont even bother buying this. You are forced to use the lowest settings in these conditions, 1-2 sense threshold -40 to -60. At most you are getting 3-4 in depth when you are forced to use these settings.
Try hunting a beach with moderate black sand and it will drive you nuts. It just doesn't like medium/moderat black sand beach.
My opinion is this. If your hunting mainly dry land and you do not have much mineralization go ahead and buy it. If not avoid it like the plague. Because unless you have a really clean (not mineralized) beach. You are pretty much wasting your time on them.
Mainly because 99% of the goodstuf is deeper then 3-4 inch and the C$ just can not reach the deph needed to get these targets.
Hope this has helped you out in making your choice. In short if i knew back before i purchesed the C$ what i know now i would not have baught it.
Overall Rating
Dogman from
California
157
Cherry Picking king
January 29, 2005
The Coin Strike is a detector that you have to read and understand the
manual, plus spend some time on the forums to use it to its full potential.
The SENS and THRESH on the coin strike work different than on other
detectors. Once you learn how to use it, you will be amazed at the coins
and jewerly that you will find under nails and trash. I have used all major brands of detectors and none of them can beat the coin strike in areas with alot of debris. You can lay nails on top of coins and rings, and the coin strike will act like the nails are not even there. The fact of the matter is, if you want to find keepers you have to look in areas where people once gathered, and people leave alot more trash than coins and jewerly. The coin strike is the hands down king of the cherry pickers.
Overall Rating
T Allen from
Phoenix AZ
142