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One more question about the gold bug Se..

J

Jessgo33

Member
Iv been noticing that when I pass my hand in front of the coil at about an inch, i get a beep for some reason. Is that normal or what? And what is the little bar above the discrimination numbers? I Have noticed that on some targets it moves, and some it don't? I have to send my detector into fisher, so I will join the corner and wait to see what happens.... Anyone hear of a fix or anything? If these detectors a fault, I wonder if fisher would exchange them for the fisher GB2 if I was to pay the extra 200 or so dollars? What is the numbers supposes to read if its gold? Mine move all over and it makes it so tough to understand? :surrender:
 
Any good small nugget machine should be sensitive enough to pick up the salts in your hand.
When hunting for small nuggets, go by the sound and not the screen numbers.Small nugget won't register on the screen.
Nugget hunting is a lot different than coin hunting, it is much harder to do successfully.
Download the Gold Prospecting Guide from Fisher, it's a very good read: http://www.fisherlab.com/hobby/product-resources.htm

PennyFinder
 
Hi Jessgo33

Another very good resource for nugget hunting with metal detectors is www.arizonaoutback.com...lots of good, free articles from background info to attitude to VLF to PI....its a book worth of info.
 
My understanding of the target ID Numbers at the Topic of the LCD screen is this, the higher the number the lower the concentration of ferous. So, why would a 24kt gold bar read at 40 to 43? Yet a 14kt ring read anywhere in the 70s to the 80s? Just curious.
 
There's no such thing as "correct ID numbers" for jewelry and gold. They're variables.

In the case of natural gold, most of it's so small that it falls in the foil range (which is a range, not a specific number) in an air test. However because it's small the signal is relatively weak . On or in the ground, iron mineral signals usually bounce the ID around so much that it's of little usefulness. Therefore gold prospecting is done in all metals mode where you hear everything and dig almost everything.

--Dave J.
 
Dave, would you get faluse readings prospetcting for gold? Im just new to detecting, and prospecting is very tough.. However it is fun with the detector...
 
Dave J. said:
There's no such thing as "correct ID numbers" for jewelry and gold. They're variables.

In the case of natural gold, most of it's so small that it falls in the foil range (which is a range, not a specific number) in an air test. However because it's small the signal is relatively weak . On or in the ground, iron mineral signals usually bounce the ID around so much that it's of little usefulness. Therefore gold prospecting is done in all metals mode where you hear everything and dig almost everything.

--Dave J.
Click to expand...
I understad about the numbers..
I was just posting what i was told by a Fisher/FT rep.
 
Gold prospecting is done in all metals mode. The Gold Bug does not give numeric target ID in that mode but does still light up the target ID bargraph up top. In gold prospecting the target ID bargraph isn't much use other than if it's a loud target (strong signal) you can use it to determine if the target is iron. Even that takes some experience and judgment since the iron minerals present in many gold prospecting locations can throw off target ID pretty badly.

In gold prospecting you have to pay close attention to ground balance. You'll hear variations in the ground and have to decide whether or not to rebalance. Also you will hear positive and/or negative hot rocks which you'll have to learn to deal with on a location by location basis. I discuss this in considerable detail in the VLF gold prospecting book on the Fisher and Teknetics websites.

Gold prospecting is very tough, as you say. It's quite different from relic hunting and coinshooting. Even a kid with a $60 BH Junior can find coins. When it comes to gold prospecting, there's a long learning curve to acquire the set of skills needed to do it well, and in the meantime you will be digging lots of metal trash and rarely any gold. Learning goes a lot quicker if you study good books on the subject (I recommend several in the VLF gold prospecting book), and it really helps if you work with someone who is experienced who can teach you the tricks that are difficult to explain in print but are much more easily understood by hands-on in the field.

I suppose the most important thing is that you have to enjoy doing it-- being outdoors in the fresh air away from the city, getting dirty, watching out for snakes, playing with rocks, playing amateur archeologist-historian as you think about all the metal trash you're digging, trying to figure out the geology in order to improve your odds of beeping the gold.

Gold prospecting requires enormous patience: even an experienced prospector on a good location will often go an entire day without finding any gold. Until you swing the searchcoil over a nugget, you get no gold. If in the meantime you get no fun either, you'll soon give up and your prospecting days will be over. So remember to have fun doing it.

--Dave J.
 
Question for Dave J, or Mr. Bill

I notice, while in all metal, the ground phase jumps around considerably and significantly especially when over a real or false target, or when the distance changes a little between the coil and ground...after rereading the manual section on ground balancing (Ive actually found alot of answers to my questions, by rereading the manual), it says that your best ground phase reading is while pumping the coil...is this jumping around normal, and is the smaller size coil part of the reason for this? I pump my coil quite often, so its not a big deal.

Also, at work we have a F70 with a 11" DD coil...I have compared the ground balance between the F70 and my new GBse, and there are typically somewhat significant differences in the ground balance...is this also due to a larger, deeper soil sample with the 11" coil vs. the 5" coil?

Thanks
Randy
 
...If you found gold 1 out of 5 days prospexcting with a detector that would be very succesful. There are very few dedictaed prospectors that get gold 30-50% of their trips and those that do usually are hitting areas that they found to produce. once they have pounded them they may go many trips with little to show.
Now sluicing or panning...even drywashing almost always shows results.
I detected with some of the best prospectors in Az who had many producing claims and i am telling you there weeks of finding nothing.
If I could find decent gold ( just one 1 grain nugget) ...but say a nug around a gram our two once every ten trips i would be happy. Many guys go a whole season with nothing...seen many guys go 2 years without their first. Hence why most people quit.
When you do finally hit a decent spot and pound it then you will leave with multiple nugs...maybe.
Then again many prospectors use multiple tools...drywashing...sluicing..and detecting.
You need to know which suits best the area you are in....many times we just broke out the drywasher as the area was good for small course gold that was too small for a detector but pletiful enough for other methods.
 
It's normal for the ground phase readout to jump around when sweeping horizontally, and it will definitely jump around if there's a target under the searchcoil.

Different machines and different searchcoils have different ground balance points. Larger searchcoils and higher operating frequencies tend to balance at lower numbers but this is only a generality and there are many exceptions.

One of the biggest uncontrolled variables is the dirt itself. Many years ago while field testing a White's GMT prototype, I ran into an area of dirt the phase of which was "backwards" when "pumping" -- in other words there was no ground balance point with the searchcoil moving up and down. (And yes, the machine was calibrated properly, verified with a piece of ferrite.) But when sweeping horizontally the balance point did exist and the system tracked into it. There were witnesses to this, I ain't making it up.

--Dave J.
 
tku azsh, I see what you are saying. I went slucing yesterday, and found some small stuff for about 3 hrs work.... I just didnt figure I had to gb every 5 feet to say the least... And some times even reduce the sens. down to almost nothing. I will be heading out soon when my detector gets back from fisher.. I feel like a turd for sending it in expeciley if nothing is wrong with it... :rolleyes: I can say, i have defently took out about 10 lbs of non gold metal in about 4 trips...lol... The area is very tough to even pan, due to the long hike to the river... So the gold is defently their its just geting it. I do thank you for your heads up on prospecting, and detecting for gold. Jess
 
Thanks for the info Dave...

When I did the side by side comparison, it got me to thinking...here close to the Oregon coast, we have pretty consistant soil horizons...a black organic dune sand then a compacted "perched" black sand, followed by a grey to orange iron looking sand, but the layers vary in depth and thickness, and it just seemed that mabe each machine was sampling different areas in the horizon.
However when I checked them in a bin where we store sand, I got exactly the same ground balance. One bin had an imported washed yellow sand (for sand traps) which ground balanced at about 23 on both machines (phase on my GBse)...the other bin had a washed grey riverbottom sand which registered around seventy for both machines.
 
I was out at my claim, using the All Metal Mode, so I don;t think that I missed any nuggets, however, Disc Mode, won't pick up a twoonie and if it does, its every couple of passes of the coil I will get a small bleap. I'll never know for sure how much I missed at the beach. A twoonie is larger then a bottle cap, which this thing loves.

I read also, that someone on here couldn't pick up a 3.5 oz gold nugget. Is there a metal that I can use to test to see if my detector will pick up a large nugget? I don;t want to be out in the field wasting precious time on a machine that needs tweaking at the lab. Should I just send mine in for repairs?
 
Hi Pennyfinder. Where did you have yoru Gain set at? (12 O'clock, less or more?) What about threshold? I tried my girlfriends 24Kt earing out, 3 inch max from coil. Not sure of its weight though, but likely close to a gram.
 
Run the sensitivity as high as you can for your area, to maintain stability. My area is high and I can max it out at times. Threshold was low but audible.
This detector rocks in all metal, run it in this mode first if it is not to trashy, then switch to disc to check your target. I'm going to get a 11" coil for it soon.

PennyFinder
 
Have you found any gold yet with this?
I was told to buy the 11 inch Omega 8000 coil. Does Fisher make the 11 inch specific to the Gold Bug SE
 
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