Fisher 1280x
Street Price $700 - Beach, water
Number of Reviews: 8
on 2 pages.
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5 stars for using it for what it was designed for
Steve in Cleveland, OH -
I have owned a Fisher 1280X for about 14 years. In those 14 years I have used this machine to find many gold, silver and diamond rings. I have also found many silver coins (Pre 1965) and tons of old pennies plus tons of clad coins.
I have also used it as a rain detector for days when it is raining...which by the way is the best day to hunt due to ground conductivity being better when wet.
I have found that this detector is best used for
freshwater swimming holes and lakes, and
land searching where there is not a lot of trash.
It does discriminate but with noise. It will make a chit chit chit noise and not a smooth tone when finding good targets.
As far as saltwater and beach hunting goes, It is a great dry sand beach hunter with a fairly good discrimination to let you know if it is a good target or not. I have found a few gold rings down to about 13 inches with the 1280X on beaches. Just stay away from the water line at saltwater beaches. The black sand and the movement of the water under the coil will cause the machine to bark and it is very annoying making the 1280x almost useless. But get this machine's coil totally into the water away from the shoreline and this machine almost acts like a PI machine with discrimination.
I really like the idea of being able to submerse the whole machine including the headphones. The 1280X is at home best underwater. You never know when you might trip in the water and get dunked all the way. I have seen guys cover their land machines not designed for water hunting with plastic bags and watched them ruin their machines as they fell in the water. The 1280X was designed for water and for that it is fantastic.
That is why I have kept this machine for so long. It is a great fresh water hunter anywhere and a great salt water hunter if you stay away from the shore line.
This machine is very easy to use. Just 3 control knobs. Volume, Sensitivity and Discrimination. Very easy to use and understand. That is probably why so many professionals use this machine. Very simple and very effective.
The battery life is about 50 hours, 8 AA penlight batteries. I have never had any mechanical problems with the Fisher 1280x.
Once you learn how to use the 1280X and what makes what noises, you will find this machine a joy to use.
Just remember, use it for what is was designed for and it will reward you with lots of finds.
Mar 15, 2008
3 people found this review helpful.
Answer for Angry In New Jersy
Adrian in Australia -The discrimination control on the 1280x can be set to eliminate the effects of saltwater beaches and still retain good sensativity to all metal targets.Also, because 1280x runs at 2.4khz it will not be as sensatie to small gold chains and rings as a detector that operates at 10khz and higher. The discrimination range of this detector is different to most VLF detectors.
Most VLF discriminators are set with a high range metal eliminating capability but the 1280x has an extended low end range from nails through to salt and have a shortened metal eliminating range, a bit like the Whites 6000 DI PRO SL.
So it is likely that you had a quiet beach
Hope this helps,
Regards, Adrian
PS. Interested to know if you are still having problems with this detector?
Jan 31, 2008
2 people found this review helpful.
Fine detector
Adrian in Australia -I have done a lot of detecting in my day 45 years of it to be exact and have used several Fisher detectors, they are all great when used for the purpose they were designed for.
The 1280x is a waterproof VLF detector and as such is mainly designed to be used on or in fresh water lakes and streams; it will work in salt water areas, but because it is a VLF machine it will be a bit noisy. All VLF dertectors, no matter what frequency they operate on are noisy on salt water beaches.
Jan 25, 2008
2 people found this review helpful.
1280x
angry in new jersey -
iv'e used this detector in the north carolina outer banks and wasted my time, on dry anything it works great, wet sand its ok but as soon as salt water touches it it goes crazy, any movement in any direction makes it go off, even salt water moving under it makes it sound. I called the tech line and the guy told me to turn the sensitivity to 3 and the descrimination to 8, that worked perfectly if you didnt want it to go off on anything, with those settings I walked up the beach and in the surf 400 yards and didnt get a single hit, could the beach be that clean?
I called up the tech again and told him that the detector worked on land and fresh water fine, he said "then there's probly nothing wrong with it, but you can send it to us to look at".
I dont know, I was told people use them in the surf all the time, I just cant see how.
Sep 03, 2006
6 people found this review helpful.
1280X - fantastic machine
Leo Bruni in Thunder Bay Ontario, Canada -I've had a 1280X for 5 years now, and so have my 2 friends. This machine has to be one of the best. I use it in the water (fresh) all the time, upto my waist, all day. I find objects from copper artifacts, nails, metal - you name it. I know the different sounds of copper from other metals because copper is what I'm after and have over 800 copper artifacts that I found on land and water. I keep my sensitivity at 10 (it makes a noise steady and does not bother me because it picks up items you would usually miss if it wasn't that high. My discrimination is at 2 and my volume is at about 4 to 5.
The secret is to know your machine sounds, any little tick of copper and I know the sound even with the noise from the sensitivity, I've had friends change from other machines to this one, it's great, no screw ups with screens, ground balancing and all the other bells and whistles, I can't say enough about this machine, it's all with experimenting and knowing how to use it! I've dug items as big as a coin over two feet down in water up to my waist and also great depth on land. It's the best water and land machine around.
Feb 14, 2005
37 people found this review helpful.
Fisher 1280X
Jim G in USA -I've had a 1280X for 3 years now and am very pleased with this machine, it's simple to learn the controls and built to take a beating. I use it mostly on salt water beaches but it works well on dry land as well.
Sep 29, 2004
10 people found this review helpful.
Fisher 1280X
rld in US beaches -
I have had a 1280x for about 8 years. At beaches it works very good in dry sand. It has good depth and pinpoints very well. In the water and wet sand is different story. In the water it goes off with every movement of the water or the detector. I think this is because of the movement of the sand. I set the volume at 10, the descrimination at 7, and the sensitivity at 2 or 3. The sensitivity has to be set low otherwise it beeps with every movement of water or detector as I previously mentioned. In wet sand it will sound off with every step I take if the sensitivity is not set low. Setting the sensitivity so low makes me think I am missing most targets. Why? Well I have not found very much with this machine. I have used it quite a lot on the beach and expected better results for what I paid for it.
If fresh water there is no problem with it always beeping from movement. Under water I think it would do well in fresh or salt water because there would be no surf or walking. I'm just not a diver. I am thinking of selling this machine and buying a Fisher CZ-20. I have heard some good things about it. The 1280X has been a frustrating detector to use around the beaches that I have visited.
May 06, 2004
26 people found this review helpful.
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