Everything has been Negative on the Goldbug SE, but I found a positive with it!:hot:

[Dwayne2010]

I wanted to report on a positive aspect of this unit. I am realtively new to metal detecting, having dabbled off and on over the last ten years. I am not a total newbie, but have a tonne to learn. So, I odn;t know if this is normal with every metal detector or not, but last night, out at the ball park, I decided to detect in a gravel area that has several picknick tables set up. Pull tabs gallore. I set the Disc up to around 70, and on the occassion that the Goldbug went off on one of these, its was a grunt at best, or nothing at all. At the same time, a high tone over a target was a guaranteed money hit! I ddin;t have to did the grunts. All told, I found 62 cents. With 17 pennies, one nickle, 4 dimes.
How many quarters, toonies, and loonies did I miss? Who knows. I was just happy to be able to disc out all those pesky pull tabs, nails, and foil. Can all detectors do this? I know Minelabs Xterra 70 had disc mode in which you could take out a certain range, but then it wouldn't pick up coins either if you disc out pull tabs etc.

 

[RRandy]

Thats some good huntin' Dwayne...you got to dig alot of good targets, you may not have missed that many quarters, first time I took my GB out to the beach I found 2 right off the bat, I got an intermittant, but sharp tone in Discriminate, and just put it in All Metal to zero in on it. I like the way that the Discriminate mode has the 3 divisions on the ID screen display. I use about 50 on the discriminate at the beach or less, our beaches have 99.9% junk...nail, screws, bottlecaps, and aluminum & tin "placers" (melted cans), I like to dig something every once in a while.

 

[Dwayne2010]

I hear ya, I found what I believe to be a 3 diamond ring and white gold last night. I ordered a diamond tester and a gold tester today. I will post pictures tonight!

 

[Dwayne2010]

I bit the bullet and ordered the 11 inch Omega 8000 search Coil for my GoldBug. I hope that it wasn't a waste of money)

 

[RRandy]

You'll have to let us know how that new coil works...the small one seems to be working pretty dang good.

 

[Dwayne2010]

I wanted the coil to cover more ground looking for coins etc.

 

[chuck ky]

you should be able to hunt that way with any detector. i use the t-2 and fisher 1270 that way. the only coins you will lose will be zinc pennies and nickles. i hunt a series of ball fields that have large gravel in all the area between the fields and its bad enough digger the quarters and dimes without digger the pulltabs.

 

[Dwayne2010]

I took the Omega 11 inch coil out last night on the Gold Bug SE. Does it work? You bet, its like having the 5 inch stock coil on, but now I can cover more ground. The downfall at this point, in my opinion, is, the Target ID'S are not adding up with targets. So, a 30 on the screen in All metal mode could be a coin, foil or a pull tab. With a very small spread between a nail and a good target. In DISC mode, I hate to disc out on the meter as this may be discrimanting out good targets. At this point, I need to spend more time with the coil to give a better review here.

 

[azsh07]

Are you talking about the large numeric readout? In all metal that large digital readout no longer displays target ID....only those 3 little hash marks that run around the top of the meter. In Disc the large numeric display is target ID...in all metal it is ground phase...and will never match the target. Just being sure which ID you are looking at in all metal

 

[Dwayne2010]

Hmm, I feel like a real nob right now. I was fluctuating between All Metal and Disc mode last night.....I'll have to take it out again and report back. YOu got me scratching my head Azsh, which isn't a hard thing to do.

 

[Dwayne2010]

I just checked. A loonie, toonie, quarter and penny range from 20 to low 30s on the LCD screen in Disc mode. A nail will be around a 12 or so. In All Metal, the top TID is the same.

 

[azsh07]

n/t

 

[Dwayne2010]

IN DISC using the stock coil, a penny is 83, while a toonie and loonie will be anywher from 50ish to the low 70s

 

[azsh07]

Well like I said in a PM I would send it along with the 11" coil back to Fisher for a checkup. Things sound odd....although maybe it is in understanding what you see or how I am reading it.
Now if you are bummed about not having any detector while it is serviced you could use it until the weather gets cold as it has a 5 year original owner warranty.
However, I would just rather send it in and have it over and done with and then you will know FOR SURE that it is running correct.
I am not sure but I thought this was a first detector for you...or atleast in a long while....am I correct. If so you would be at a loss somewhat to know what to expect from it as compared to other machines that would be in it's class. So if that is true you are sorta behind the 8-ball with it when it comes to knowing what and how it should act.
Now mine has been repaired and is on it's way back to me so they are sending back repaired units.
While I don't have much information on what was wrong I do think they had to spend time and figure out what was going wrong. My guess is that while some were calibrated wrong there may have been another related irregularity that they discovered.
Seems like they have it figured out finally. So I thikn it was reasonable to sit on yours until some of us got them returned.
Now I would send it in. Usually you would be without it for a few weeks. What happened with myself and others is very rare....that it takes that long for repair.
Please just send it in......!!

 

[Dwayne2010]

HI azsh. I have had two other metal detectors over the years. Both I ended up selling, the last was an Xterra 70 that I sold due to finaces. Still I am a newbie for all intents and purposes. I will likely have it sent back next week. I have a prospecting trip planned in September, so I want it back by then, hopefully, with any issues rectfied.

 

[azsh07]

...yah definately send it in if you have a trip planned. I think you will get it back and be very happy with it...........