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Jumped on the Gold Bug wagon
- Thread starter Daniel Tn
- Start date
yep thats right rockpup and i think people forget that its for finding gold 
little bits close to the surface that the super detectors miss thats why i brought it to look for gold now i am getting closer to being set up we will see how it goes but it just so happens it does ok on coins, with 19 kHz, its made to find gold bits
for a true coin hunter at a better price try the Teknetics omega 7.8 kHz and if you have a bug can swap coils the omega is next on my list.
little bits close to the surface that the super detectors miss thats why i brought it to look for gold now i am getting closer to being set up we will see how it goes but it just so happens it does ok on coins, with 19 kHz, its made to find gold bits for a true coin hunter at a better price try the Teknetics omega 7.8 kHz and if you have a bug can swap coils the omega is next on my list.
JimGilmore
Active member
Well right now I am just park hunting...once I go home though..it will be nugget time...
Ken in Georgia
New member
I forgot to add this there is a forum for the Etrac out there for information on there setting we need to keep the forum for the use and finds of the G2/ Gold bug. For more information on the Etrac, please go there.
reltolbert
New member
Ken in Georgia,
I was just responding to one of your forum members.
I was just responding to one of your forum members.
Glad to see other guys are hunting some nuggets also with there gold bug's.Its so sensative in all-metal mode I need to get used to the ground sounds,hot rocks ect....much differant than my Pulse Induction.Im hoping some guys will do some prospecting and let me know some settings ect.
Nugget hunting and relics are my favorite.Just been park hunting to pass the time.Now most of the older change has been cleared from my parks I think I am retiring park hunting and sticking to the older farms and such.Been getting in bad habits also-making my nugget hunting worse.
Nugget hunting and relics are my favorite.Just been park hunting to pass the time.Now most of the older change has been cleared from my parks I think I am retiring park hunting and sticking to the older farms and such.Been getting in bad habits also-making my nugget hunting worse.
Ken in Georgia
New member
reltolbert said:
Nothing major (i like the gold talk) just dont want the big guy at finds coming down on us.
Ken in Georgia
New member
Knowledge is power in the metal detecting field
I hate to beat ya'lls dead horse here but I'm gonna take a whack at it anyway. Hahah.
The eTrac is a fine detector I'm sure. I had its predecessor, the Explorer II. I've only had the eTrac in my hands and played with it but I have talked to several folks that know it well, and basically they've told me that it's an Explorer II with a new coil and a tad bit faster processor to speed up recovery rate, but it's still not great when you put it in iron trash. If you use discrimination on them, it slows down the recovery rate and thus it will null on about everything you have it set to knock out, and therefore masks a lot of targets when in a trashy area.
Thus enter the ultra fast processors of the F-Series detectors and the carrying on into the G2 and Gold Bug platform. These machines by default, are going to enable you to work around iron trash better because they aren't nulling out on the iron, and lightning fast recovery rates help them see targets in close proximity to trash targets.
Each detector is a tool. You wont find just one tool in a mechanics tool box. He might use one more than the others, but each tool has its own application. Detectors are the same way. For extreme raw depth, there is nothing on the planet that can compare to the Minelab GPX series. But you'd be asking for trouble if you took one of those into a trashy park or old homesite. That was my problem...I already have the detector for maximum depth capabilities. I was looking into one for fast recovery for trashy sites, light weight, and overall fun to use. Of the models I looked at and took a demo spin, the Gold Bug was my favorite and thus why I ordered one. It filled the gap in my tool box.
For kicks and giggles though, when I had the Explorer II I also had just purchased a Ace 250. I was hunting an old football field near the concession stand area, where I had dug some wheat cents and silver dimes in the past. I had gone over the area many times with the Explorer and other machines, and had came back with the Explorer and the 8" SunRay coil because it is quite trashy there. I hunted for a little bit and picked up a couple wheaties and decided to give the 250 a spin. In less than an hour I had dug 2 silver dimes and a few more wheat cents with that little Ace 250. I was checking the targets with the Explorer because I wasn't that sure of the Ace 250 yet, and on both those silver dimes, I could only get a signal one way, and the 250 was singing out strong and locking on ID. So if I were to just post on the internet and say my results from that one hunt...the $200 250 outdid the $1000 Explorer II...well in that instance it did BECAUSE OF THE TRASH and the faster recovery of the 250 but in others, the Explorer II would beat it. The 250 was just better in trashy sites and that particular location was just that.
As pointed out too....Gold Bug = gold prospecting machine. People are just utilizing it for coins/relics/jewelry as well. The same is happening with the Whites TDI and Minelab GPX = gold prospecting machines that folks are using to coin/relic hunt with and being very successful at it. Raw depth, they can't be beat! But in trash....ouch.
The eTrac is a fine detector I'm sure. I had its predecessor, the Explorer II. I've only had the eTrac in my hands and played with it but I have talked to several folks that know it well, and basically they've told me that it's an Explorer II with a new coil and a tad bit faster processor to speed up recovery rate, but it's still not great when you put it in iron trash. If you use discrimination on them, it slows down the recovery rate and thus it will null on about everything you have it set to knock out, and therefore masks a lot of targets when in a trashy area.
Thus enter the ultra fast processors of the F-Series detectors and the carrying on into the G2 and Gold Bug platform. These machines by default, are going to enable you to work around iron trash better because they aren't nulling out on the iron, and lightning fast recovery rates help them see targets in close proximity to trash targets.
Each detector is a tool. You wont find just one tool in a mechanics tool box. He might use one more than the others, but each tool has its own application. Detectors are the same way. For extreme raw depth, there is nothing on the planet that can compare to the Minelab GPX series. But you'd be asking for trouble if you took one of those into a trashy park or old homesite. That was my problem...I already have the detector for maximum depth capabilities. I was looking into one for fast recovery for trashy sites, light weight, and overall fun to use. Of the models I looked at and took a demo spin, the Gold Bug was my favorite and thus why I ordered one. It filled the gap in my tool box.
For kicks and giggles though, when I had the Explorer II I also had just purchased a Ace 250. I was hunting an old football field near the concession stand area, where I had dug some wheat cents and silver dimes in the past. I had gone over the area many times with the Explorer and other machines, and had came back with the Explorer and the 8" SunRay coil because it is quite trashy there. I hunted for a little bit and picked up a couple wheaties and decided to give the 250 a spin. In less than an hour I had dug 2 silver dimes and a few more wheat cents with that little Ace 250. I was checking the targets with the Explorer because I wasn't that sure of the Ace 250 yet, and on both those silver dimes, I could only get a signal one way, and the 250 was singing out strong and locking on ID. So if I were to just post on the internet and say my results from that one hunt...the $200 250 outdid the $1000 Explorer II...well in that instance it did BECAUSE OF THE TRASH and the faster recovery of the 250 but in others, the Explorer II would beat it. The 250 was just better in trashy sites and that particular location was just that.
As pointed out too....Gold Bug = gold prospecting machine. People are just utilizing it for coins/relics/jewelry as well. The same is happening with the Whites TDI and Minelab GPX = gold prospecting machines that folks are using to coin/relic hunt with and being very successful at it. Raw depth, they can't be beat! But in trash....ouch.
JimGilmore
Active member
Not one to beat a dead horse but all this info on the etrac belongs in their forum ..not here.....
If you could read my screen you would see i have "3468 new unread messages!" in the erac forum..and there is a reason for that...
If you could read my screen you would see i have "3468 new unread messages!" in the erac forum..and there is a reason for that...
2 Much Trash
Well-known member
n/t
ryanchappell
New member
I hope everyone realizes that Daniel is in TN, and that the Southern US has terrible mineralization. I am about 100-200 miles south of him, and it is bad here too. Even with the ETrac deeper targets, 5+ in "turning into iron" on my VDI or not showing up at all. I am still learning it but I am pretty sure this is what is happening. Probably everyone runs into mineralization and the E-Trac is "Great" with it, but we are talking about red clay, and mineralized rocks. You guys in the Northeast and Midwest probably have no idea what we are dealing with here. I think...
My Auto sens is averaging about 15-19 (out of 30) on +3. Let that be the metric for it.
My Auto sens is averaging about 15-19 (out of 30) on +3. Let that be the metric for it.
sgoss66
Well-known member
Hey ryanchappel and Daniel Tn, I hear you on the soil. I am in Oklahoma, and have very red clay here, too. I have similar issues that you do, though not QUITE as extreme. I have an Explorer SE Pro, and like you mentioned about the E-Trac, Ryan, it too starts IDing deeper coins as "iron" (my FE numbers start creeping up on a coin deeper than about 6", and I'm limited in overall detection depth, too, with the SE Pro). On my Gold Bug Pro, it does a bit better job with ID -- much better than my F-70 did in this soil. But I can see where, if the iron soil issues were even greater in my neck of the woods, that my Gold Bug might suffer a bit with ID at depth, as well (trying to call stuff "iron" that is not).
Daniel -- I guess my question would be, have you found a detector for your soil yet that will ID at depth BETTER than the Gold Bug Pro? If you have, I'd be interested in hearing so...as our soil is similar (but not quite as extreme -- I range from the upper 40s to upper 50s most times on ground phase, and maybe 2-4 bards on the FE meter). For me, the Gold Bug Pro has been the best I've used on a 7-9" coin...
Steve
Daniel -- I guess my question would be, have you found a detector for your soil yet that will ID at depth BETTER than the Gold Bug Pro? If you have, I'd be interested in hearing so...as our soil is similar (but not quite as extreme -- I range from the upper 40s to upper 50s most times on ground phase, and maybe 2-4 bards on the FE meter). For me, the Gold Bug Pro has been the best I've used on a 7-9" coin...
Steve
JimGilmore
Active member
I do not know about the south. But where I hunt for nuggets in ca. we have lots of red clay,basalt, hot rocks and cold rocks and tons of black sand.
Tony from Tidewater
Member
Hey Daniel: Did you ever use a Tejon? I tune my DB Pro just like I tuned my Tejons. After I go through the Ground Grab procedure, I will slighty turn up the gdn bal until it's a little hot (positive) on the threshold. I mean a little. It's a killer machine in the "I RON" .
In dealing with the VLFs I've had over the years, one sticks out in my mind as being the best of all of them, although with a slight modification to the factory presets. It is a costly bugger though: the Whites V3i. What I noticed about it was that evidently it has some sort of "averaging" that it does on signals with each pass over them. The Gold Bug, and F-Series machines give you what they dub as "real time" data. Which means each pass it gives you on the screen what it sees on that exact pass. Thus is why the numbers tend to be jumpy and never really lock down, and on the deeper coins and relics in or iron dirt, it is reading them as iron most of the time and occasionally jumping/bouncing over into the mid-upper VDI ranges.
What I noted on the V3 was that it too would initially read the deeper things as iron, but then the averaging thing would take over within a couple of sweeps over the target and it would at least 75% of the time, really be right or near what it should be IDing as. I thought it was pretty doggone cool. For whatever reason though, I've noticed that single frequency machines tend to do better in our dirt. The V3's preset modes come as all 3 frequencies running at the same time. I noted a big change in it, when putting it on just the 7khz frequency; as in a big boost in performance and depth. If I had the money to plop down on a machine right now, that would be the one I'd get.
I also had the F75 and F70, and now the Gold Bug. I too noticed the Gold Bug does ID a LITTLE better than the F75 did. I never was a fan of the F70 though. I didn't hold onto that one very long so I can't comment much on it. But the Gold Bug reminds me of a calmer F75; not as noisy and jumpy, but not as powerful either.
What I noted on the V3 was that it too would initially read the deeper things as iron, but then the averaging thing would take over within a couple of sweeps over the target and it would at least 75% of the time, really be right or near what it should be IDing as. I thought it was pretty doggone cool. For whatever reason though, I've noticed that single frequency machines tend to do better in our dirt. The V3's preset modes come as all 3 frequencies running at the same time. I noted a big change in it, when putting it on just the 7khz frequency; as in a big boost in performance and depth. If I had the money to plop down on a machine right now, that would be the one I'd get.
I also had the F75 and F70, and now the Gold Bug. I too noticed the Gold Bug does ID a LITTLE better than the F75 did. I never was a fan of the F70 though. I didn't hold onto that one very long so I can't comment much on it. But the Gold Bug reminds me of a calmer F75; not as noisy and jumpy, but not as powerful either.
I tried that the other day with it to see if I noted an improvement in it. My ground seems too noisy for doing that. The Gold Bug reminds me A LOT of the Tejon. I've been telling everybody that asks me about it that it reminds me of a Tejon or Vaquero with an ID meter. BUT the Tejon and Vaquero didn't do well around here in depth either; seems to be the same story with the Gold Bug. I just got back from coin hunting a little soccer field and playground near the house just for fun. I DID run it in discriminate mode with it on about 41 and sensitivity on 90. It ran VERY smooth; I could have got by with it on 100. BUT the depth just wasn't there for me. I dug a few clad coins (which was what I was after) that gave good IDs in the 80s BUT they were really faint signals (not giving the high pitched BEEP like a shallow coin air testing) and averaged about 3 inches deep. I didn't really find a whole lot but these school yards and parks get hit quite a bit; but still, I was expecting a bit more. The dirt there wasn't that bad either; ground balanced in and around 46 with only 2 segments on the FE Meter. Now when I'd flip to all metal, it would hit them a lot better.