Making My Gold Bug pro a better coin shooter....

G-bone

Sr. Member
Dec 9, 2014
495
942
Ventura Ca
Detector(s) used
Gold Bug Pro w/ NEL coil.
Minelab Xterra 705,
Bazooka Snipers (24" and 30").
Royal Folding Sluice with Gold hog mats.
Thompson 12V Puffer Drywasher.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I want to up my coin counts on my Gold bug Pro.
I'm looking at the Detech 13" Ultimate or the 12x13 NEL Tornado.

I'm looking for a bigger search pattern.
I want something that will allow me to move fast and cover some ground with big sweeps.
The stock coils (using the elliptical one) is so small and has such a small foot print I feel they are very focused into a tight pattern. And my swings require a tighter pattern and thus slows me down.

My hunting buddy started with a Tesoro Cibola and now an AT pro with the larger Double D coil and he consistently triples his coin counts over me.

My GB pro will hit a coin without hesitation.
I keep it in all metal mode with gain up to 80 to 90 % Threshold at 0 or a little lower.
When I hit a coin, it blows my head phones off any coin is easy to see at 6+ inches.
My swings are concise and accurate and remain parallel to the ground.
SO it's not the Machine....

But if your coil does not go over a coin, she won't see it. right.
So I can only attribute my low counts to coil type and pattern projected.

Am I wrong? Should I stick with what I have and keep at it in hopes of upping my counts?

Feedback is appreciated. thank you!

G
 

atomicscott

Bronze Member
Aug 18, 2011
1,564
1,055
Riverside CA
Detector(s) used
Current: Nokta Makro Simplex+, Teknetics Patriot, Fisher Gold Bug (original), GP Pinpointer (Garrett Clone) Lesche. Owned: Omega 8000, Minelab X-Terra 505, Fisher F2, Tesoro Vaquero, & Compadre, Whit
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I would see look into a NEL Hunter or Sharpshooter coil. I really like the Teknetics Omega with the Sharpshooter, depth is great & separation is very good as well. The Hunter is a larger coil so you may prefer it for the increased depth, but in the trash I will take the increase in separation of the Sharpshooter over the small loss in depth.
 

eyemustdigtreasure

Silver Member
Mar 2, 2013
3,602
5,581
California
Detector(s) used
Fisher Gold Bug Pro
Tesoro Cibola
Nokta Pointer; Phillips SHS5200 phones
Nokta Macro SIMPLEX +
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I have a 11" DD elliptical, open coil, on my Gold Bug Pro-DP that gets down deep enough, for what coin hunting I do in parks,
It is just heavy enough and long enough, to cover a lot of country and/or use it all day long :laughing7:
Anyway, a bigger coil will get you more depth, which is useful searching for caches or out in some plowed field,
but can be a pain to use in the woods, and/or the brush....!
Tripling your coin count depends on if you are over ground that has any finds or not - don't worry, your day will come!
GL and HH!
 

Sandman

Gold Member
Aug 6, 2005
13,398
3,992
In Michigan now.
Detector(s) used
Excal 1000, Excal II, Sovereign GT, CZ-20, Tiger Shark, Tejon, GTI 1500, Surfmaster Pulse, CZ6a, DFX, AT PRO, Fisher 1235, Surf PI Pro, 1280-X, many more because I enjoy learning them. New Garrett Ca
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
All coil sizes are a trade off. If the coil is large, it's deep but it is slower to use because of getting 2 or more targets under the coil and getting target masking an trying to separating them. It just depends on your fun level. Myself I prefer the smaller coils to speed up recovery time.
 

Terry Soloman

Gold Member
May 28, 2010
19,421
30,104
White Plains, New York
🥇 Banner finds
1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Nokta Makro Legend// Pulsedive// Minelab GPZ 7000// Vanquish 540// Minelab Pro Find 35// Dune Kraken Sandscoop// Grave Digger Tools Tombstone shovel & Sidekick digger// Bunk's Hermit Pick
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
You are running your gain too high. Drop it back to 70%, and turn your threshold up so you can hear it when it changes. This will get you deeper. Instead of buying a larger coil, which may or may not give you more depth, will require you to swing at the same speed as the coil you have now, and wear out your arm that much faster, why not just buy a coinshooter operating at a lower frequency - which will also give you more depth on coins?
 

Loco-Digger

Gold Member
Jun 16, 2014
11,827
17,744
Northern O-H-I-O
🥇 Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
F75 LTD, 1280X Aquanaut, & a Patriot (back-up/loaner)
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
You are correct in your thoughts. I hunt with my brother-in-law a few times a year. I use the stock DD coil coil vs his 9.5" concentric. I get max depth with less overlapping than him, which allows me to cover more turf, thus I find more targets. I usually pull 3 to 4 coins to his one. Coils are like fishing lures to a bass pro. You do not use the same lure in every situation, thus with this in mind, I select my coil for each area and have changed them while hunting a site. The small 5" DD is great for trashy areas. The stock DD is great for most home sites. I have a 12" x 15" that I purchased for field hunting. I often hunt permissions with it and I do miss many targets due to it's size. This is not an issue though, I hunt all permissions (time permitting) gridded in 2 directions. I am often amazed at the keepers I swung over during the 1st pass and missed. These targets are always within 6" of the 1st target dug on the 1st grid pattern. If I am only allotted limited time from the property owner I us the stock DD.

Go ahead and get that coil, one can't have too many lures if you catch my drift...
 

tabman

Bronze Member
Jul 5, 2011
2,306
7,241
Germantown, Tennessee
🥇 Banner finds
2
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
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Detector(s) used
Presently: CTX 3030, Tesoro Modded Cibola, F75LTD-2, XP Deus, Tesoro Mojave, MXT Pro, Tesoro Eldorado, Whites MXT All Pro, Minelab Equinox, Fisher CZ5 & CZ3D
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
The G2 and Gold Bug Pro using the 11 inch DD coil have plenty of depth on silver coins even with the discrimination tone break set on '50'. A better setting would be '35'. At that setting old rusty nails give a grunt audio tone and anything higher gives a high audio tone. I keep hearing people say that the G2 and GBP don't get good depth on silver coins. I haven't had that problem with mine. Google: 'Teknetics G2 Digging Those Whisper Signals'

Oh yeah, they also excel at finding fine necklaces, gold rings and nickels.

tabman
 

OP
OP
G-bone

G-bone

Sr. Member
Dec 9, 2014
495
942
Ventura Ca
Detector(s) used
Gold Bug Pro w/ NEL coil.
Minelab Xterra 705,
Bazooka Snipers (24" and 30").
Royal Folding Sluice with Gold hog mats.
Thompson 12V Puffer Drywasher.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
thanks all for the great advice.

Still using the Nel sharp shooter - haven't pulled the trigger yet on a new big coil.
But my counts have gone up for sure!

I go into discrim mode and gain at 75% and that works well.
I don't even block any thing. Just click it into discrim and adjust gain.
Seems to be working good for me.

Also - I slowed down a little and took my time on the swings.
Especially to discern multiple targets in one area. And the GB pro is great at that.
Before I would get frustrated with all the chatter from a few targets at once and walk away.
Now two or three targets just a few or so inches away from each other and the pro sees the difference just fine.
This morning I picked out a quarter between and pull tab and a small nail.
I just wish you had the BIG ID numbers in "all metal" as you do in Discrim mode.

Anyway - still learning but loving it more and more.

Cheers

G
 

DannyB1954

Full Member
Nov 29, 2015
161
154
Pahrump, Nv.
Detector(s) used
Whites GMT, DFX, V3i. TDI SL
Fischer F-75, F-19, CZ7a Pro.
Garrett Infinium, ATX
Nokta AU Gold, Racer, Simplex, legend
Minelab Explorer SE
Tesoro Lobo ST, Tejon, Compadre
Teknetics Omega 8500
XP ORX
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I use small coils for the spectator / picnic areas in my local park, and a large coil,( the 13" ultimate), in the playing field areas. My town only started to become populated during the late 80's, So I don't know what you would get for deep, but the big coil does cover a lot of ground.
They didn't have the Fischer F-19 listed for the 13" ultimate, which uses the same coils as the gold bug series. The one I ordered was for a Teknetics Greek series.I believe the Fischer f-5 coils will work as well, but check before you buy.

Fischers coil compatibility chart, (at bottom of page), scroll across to see it all. http://www.fisherlab.com/hobby/detector-searchcoils.htm
 

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