Hmm so avoid the F75 and keep and eye out for the F70?
Not long ago the F75 sold for rose to $1000 or over and the F70 was in the $700-$800 range.
Now the Patriot is $400 and you can pick up a fully loaded F75 for very close to the $500 range.
Things have never been better for hunters that enjoy using First Texas products.
Many hated using either of these top end units because they were so chatty especially if you believed you needed to turn them up to very hot settings to work optimally.
This has never been true but when they added DST to the newer F75's and T2's that changed things.
Now many have gotten these and enjoy them immensely because of their abilities and several have bought them again after getting rid of them in the past and now love them because of that DST.
The F70/Patriot has never changed, no DST has been added and probably won't ever be until FTP comes out with their next generation of higher end products which most believe will eventually come and is the reason for them rearranging their product lines and dropping prices so deeply.
Still, the F70 platform has so many settings and abilities for its price that it has long been considered the very definition of a "sleeper" unit in our hobby.
Even more so that the Patriot is $400.
You can hunt with that one quiet if you want to, many do and are shocked at how deep they can get and what they can find in some extremely difficult and challenging conditions.
Or, you can blow them up like I sometimes do and explore how they work in a very chattery and noisy environment because I can, I learned how to do that over time and understand it and that is the kind if thing that is fun for me.
Not really recommended to do that, quiet is usually much easier for most, but as I keep saying most every kind of setting works.
The F75 has a few more settings and built in programs while the Patriot is more raw but still has massive abilities if you spend the time to learn it.
I love the S handle, the F75 feels funny to me when I hold it but that is mostly because I have gotten comfortable using it for so many hours.
I like the settings I can use on the F70 while others love the presets and extra settings on the former flagship models.
There are so many flavors to pick from nowadays at such historically low prices there really is no wrong choice if you want to stay with FTP.
Like with everything try to figure out what is most important to you and what will make your experiences the most fun and productive.
If you demand quiet on all settings a no brainer...DST was designed for you.
If you like messing with settings and don't have a need for preset programs you can use any of these but the Patriot will cost you less.
Make a list of what you would like to be able to do and go from there.
Honestly I have a Nox and it has advantages in the water and in my dirt but my F70 has it over the Nox in some situations in the way it behaves over targets, the Nox has a very narrow range where my F70 is more expanded which gives me a bit more information to work with sometimes.
I wish there was a detector that had all the abilities of both combined but there isn't one as yet so I am sure I will continue to use both for several years.