newbi with fishers new gold bug

[toddles1]

what is the relation between khz and size of gold it will detect or does it matter that much

 

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[Lanny in AB]

I believe it's the higher the KHZ the smaller the gold it will see, lower KHZ for more depth and bigger gold. I could be wrong, but that's what I recall at the moment.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[toddles1]

will a 19 khz detector work on small gold I'm so lost or should have I bought a better detector

toddles1

 

[TerryC]

I bought a GB2 about a year ago. I have just recently found my first nuggett with it. I have tested it well almost a year ago, with the Whites GMT. Both good machines. Don't question the ability of your machine so soon. Fischer makes a good product. Don't worry yet about the Frequency either, just go out and get the gold! You will have to put in some time.... ok, lots of time, but you will find it! Good luck! TTC

 

[63bkpkr]

Toddles1,
The most important thing to remember about 'any metal detector' is to put it over a piece of gold in the ground. If there is no gold in the ground where you are detecting then you will not like any detector but, it ain't the detectors fault you just need to go to a better place either in the mountains or along a river/stream/creek. Start out in historical known gold country after having checked out the location you are going to with the BLM to see if there are any claims on it. Learn to 'read' rivers for the best locations to find gold along them and conversely to read mountains for where to best find gold on a hillside. There are several sites on the internet that explain reading a river, try entering "reading a river for prospecting" in your search bar as well as other types of inputs similar to this. There is a Wealth of info on the net as well as on Tnet and in old posts, just takes some searching. Keep trying, keep posting your questions and you will eventually get all the answers you need. At some point you will jump another step up and need more answers, its the same for all of us including me.

The best of luck to you, keep on smiling and eating pepper hot food.........63bkpkr

 

[toddles1]

Hey 63
thanks for the info I'M going for the whites gmt cuz I want the best oppertunity to find gold I can get with my budget you helped me a bunch I think your right its going to be a long learning curve for but I can't think of a better place to learn than beautiful northern California
thanks for the help toddles1

 

[strickman]

first off , most or almost any detector will hit large gold . reasonably speaking - small gold is harder to hit , what is the size of most gold ? small ,so overall your chances are better off to find a small piece than a large piece .there is a lot more of them . find some exposed bedrock and snipe with it ,then see if you can hit some.detecting gold is harder than most people realize .DIG ALL TARGETS !!!!!! most people never find gold even with some of the best equipment ,what ever you have ----learn it ,learn it ,learn it . I have a friend that uses a bounty hunter , that's right bounty hunter nothing special ,and finds more than a lot of people using very expensive mine labs ......... but guess what , he knows it well........every little chirp,change in the ground balance ,some are not more than a variation in the hummmm.A very expensive detector will not put gold in your pouch !! Nor will a cheap one ! Even free ! --------Only YOU can ! use what ever you have WISELY ! But no matter what you have LEARN IT ! inside and out ,get a very good set of headphones ,make a test bed , then put it on known targets -listen for the subtle changes , make some with hot ground [very mineralized] large targets ,small targets , lead ,hot rocks ,old square nails ,pieces of barbed wire , etc...... and a few different sizes of gold . large flake ,pickers ,and nugget . hope you learn it well.

 

[63bkpkr]

Like Strickman said!! learn, learn, learn, learn, learn...etc. make a clean test bed say 6' x 6' and clean down to 18" and plant targets. make another clean test bed same size and depth only add some iron filings, filings not pieces or small pieces but filings as that will imitate mineralized ground. then go back and learn, learn, learn, etc. TerryC has had many detectors does own the GMT and Gold Bug 2, uses the GB2 and after one full year of trying he finally found his first piece of gold. I purchased my GMT in 2007 and in 2010 I found those really nice flat nuggets with the detector. What changed for me and most likely for Terry, we got better with our machines, we got out more, we put the machine over gold "it could detect", meaning closer to the surface. Of course 8" down under solid rock is nothing to sneeze at but in heavily mineralized ground it does get tough and like Strickman said, "Get some GOOD earphones". Hey Strickman, what earphones would you suggest?

Deeper targets take better machines like your brother in laws TDI but more learning, more getting out there and just about double the money of the GMT. But hey, if it pays off its all worth it! If for nothing else you and Mama get out on more picknicks and that would be a good life. Above all, let the detecting take your mind off of other things and just enjoy being out there. Do not get frustrated just learn to read the ground as well as the streams.

Have a wonderful Sunday..........63bkpkr

 

[strickman]

can't remember exactly what model I have , I found a fellow that had a prospecting shop that went out of business.Mine were made by whites ,but I got them for $20 .Couldn't pass them up.Sometimes I use Them , but I also have some that I used for running my sound on my p.a. they are high end headphones that have a inline volume booster .I get a decent volume then crank it up a little ,get a moderate hum.Then listen for any subtle change in the threshold.Most of the time on good targets you won't get a true beep,it will be more like a wave in the threshold.If you find one that barely waves ,dig a little then it get's more noticeable, dig a little more and get a decent sound .You might get lucky. My buddy has the nugget busters and Likes them .There are many others as well. But I do favor the ones with inline volume booster.

 

[63bkpkr]

I have the Killer Bee Hornets that run about $130. The are "HOT" in the summer time that is, when wearing them your ears really sweat a lot. But then they have an inline signal boost, dual volume controls, are comfortable to wear (other than being hot) and handle abuse well as I've had them ripped from my head a couple of times out in the trees and bushes.

The last I knew Whites has a set that are made by Koss so they should be good and clean to listen to. I believe metal detectors have an ohm resistance requirement for the headphones and that value should be met to have optimum results from the earphones or ear buds. Anyone recall that this is correct?.....63bkpkr

Also, what is a good site for information on reading a river??

 

[Lanny in AB]

One thing that's critical, and it's been briefly mentioned, but it's absolutely critical to finding gold in the type of ground that gold is usually found in, when using a dedicated gold machine, is to always ensure that the machine is properly ground balanced. I'll repeat that again--always ensure that the machine is properly ground balanced.

I know a guy that's a big-time pro that started chasing the gold in the 70's. He's found pounds and pounds of gold nuggets, and lots of the nuggets he finds are small ones too (he's got some beautiful big gold as well). However, he said the first while that he spent looking for nuggets (and he was hunting in excellent gold country on large sheets of exposed bedrock, hand-mined by the Oldtimers--he was definitely in the right location to find gold), all he dug were bits of lead, can-slaw, tiny pieces of wire, birdshot,nails and hotrocks. He couldn't figure out what was wrong with his detector. He hunted with other guys using the same detector and they were getting great gold and all he got was trash. He almost gave up, almost. . . .

Then one day, a guy was detecting in the same area and he had a nice poke of nuggets from the same sheets of bedrock that my friend had got skunked on! Well, my buddy asked the fellow that was cleaning up on the nuggets, that was using the exact same machine my buddy was using, what his secret was. This other guy was kind enough to ask my friend to show him how he hunted. So, my buddy did. The other guy stopped him after a few minutes and knew exactly what was wrong.

He asked how my friend ground balanced his machine, and when he ground balanced it. Well, to make the story short, he showed my friend the absolute necessity of ground balancing that machine properly and often--properly and often--my friend wasn't doing it often enough, nor had he put in the time to learn when and where to do it often enough.

Why was he was uninformed of those facts? Well, in gold country the mineralization can change extremely rapidly, and vary dramatically often within several feet of exposed bedrock, sometimes in half a foot! So, the long and short of the story is that my friend got super serious about learning how to have his machine always properly ground balanced. He slowed way down (many, many people make the mistake of going way too fast), took the time to learn how to do it meticulously, and guess what? He started hitting the nuggets and he hasn't looked back since.

Whenever anyone asks him the secret to his success, he always tells that story. Some people listen, and a lot of others just rush out there, and they try to cover as much ground as possible in the shortest amount of time, and they go home empty-handed. The ones that listen, and take the time to know their machines, learn. The ones that don't get beat by the mineralization and give up.

A bunch of great guys have given you excellent advice so far on a lot of important aspects of nugget shooting, and with their tips you can go a long, long way as long as you've got that machine properly ground balanced. And, as long as you've got a dedicated gold machine with the circuitry to do the job. If not, you'll just keep digging trash--the machine has to be balanced against the mineralization in the ground to see the gold--the trash just has a way of always screaming louder, while the gold stays happily hidden exactly in the same ground.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[toddles1]

Hey thanks to you all for the help. Its going to help me alot. The more I look at different detectors the more confussed I get. practice practice and more practice, seems to be the cure,I'll certianly take into account all the great advise I've recieved and go out and put in the time. will A detector with auto ground balance be better for a newbi and will ear buds instead of phones be sensitive enough to hear those whispers are they that quiet I do have selective hearing problems according to my dear wife LOL .
thanks all Toddles1
PS being turned on to this site has proven very educational thanks again

 

[strickman]

auto ground balance (ground grab) will help you a lot .It is easier.hold the GG button and pump your coil several times ,when in hot soil you will notice it will start to chatter ,just hold Gg and pump your coil several times to fix this.Don't use discrimination.All metal only .Till you learn it.Get some Time in you will like it .

 

[TerryC]

Toddles, I have a LIBRARY of gold and minerals books yet The REAL learning I get is from the guys and gals here. The only thing worth more than the info brought forth by Lanny, 63, and others is get out there and APPLY what you have picked up here on Tnet. Tnx. TTC

 

[toddles1]

Hey Terry, thats a big 10-4, the advise shared here by all of you is going to save me a ton of trial and error time.
PRICELESS. it gives me sooo much to work on and in the right direction, I'll keep you posted can't wait to get out there. Thanks again Toddles

 

[Lanny in AB]

If you're getting the Whites GMT--get a copy of an online manual and start to read that manual over and over and over again until you know it like the back of your hand (sorry for the cliche). It really is important that you understand every aspect of your detector's ability to function, every electronic capability, and every function that you need to perform as the human operator to make it all come together. Once again--learn every thing there is about your detector from that manual--it really is invaluable. If there's any training videos, Youtube videos, etc.--watch and learn--gain every advantage you can, and then, as everyone keeps telling you, get out in gold country and be persistent. I dug buckets of trash before I got my machine over my first nugget, and I'll never forget that sassy, screamin' beauty--ever.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[toddles1]

Lanny, It's comming down to either the Whites GMT or the Minelab Eureka Gold, I'm leaning toward the Minelab. I've taken your advise and reading and watching all I can get my hands on and boy have I learned alot about both machines. Alot of good feedback about the GMT from people on this forum, but I like the auto ground balance and multi frequency of the Eureka Gold. Thanks for the help Brother .Toddles

 

[Lanny in AB]

Is the area where you're hunting composed of extreme ground? Or is it mostly mild to moderately severe? Is there big gold, or is it mostly small gold?

A little VLF machine like the Gold Bug II is a dedicated gold machine that excels at finding small gold with Fisher's little sniper coil, and of course it will find large gold as well. The problem you'll run into is if you've got a machine that isn't equipped with a sniper coil for very small gold (others can chime in on how sensitive the stock coil on the Eureka or the stock coil on the GMT are), you'll miss what's in your area (if it's predominately small gold).

Almost any dedicated gold machine will find big gold, but you've got to have the right configuration for specializing in small gold (regardless of whether the machine has manual or automated ground tracking). The Bug II is very light, and with the tiny coil, you can swing it all day; the Eureka is heavier (about five pounds--can be rod, hip, or chest mounted--that saves the control box weight; and the Bug II is just under three pounds, and it can also be rod, chest, or hip mounted to save even that small amount of weight). I'm not sure how many coil options there are for the Eureka--I know you can get a tiny sniper coil for the Bug II, as I've seen my two friends that are pros use those little coils to detect mere specks of gold. (They've both worn out their Bug II machines and replaced them with new Bug II's, and they both have spare Bug II's in queue for back-ups! That says a lot all by itself.)

I've gone looking for small gold with my 2100 and my 5000, and I can find small gold with the right coil combinations, but man those are heavy outfits to swing all day if all I'm looking for is small gold (However, I can't find the tiny stuff the Bug 2 will find).

So, consider what the predominant size of the gold is in the area you'll be hunting, and then configure your outfit (whichever one you choose) to suit the conditions accordingly. Know all about predominant size before your go--that will save you a lot of grief and possible disappointment.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[delnorter]

Thanks for the info Lanny, alway helpful.

Can you, or anyone else in the know, recommend a small sniper coil maker for the Gold Bug II ? I have this machine and feel the smaller coil would be very useful hear on the northcoast of California.

Thanks to all who keep this forum alive.
Mike O.

 

[Lanny in AB]

If I recall correctly, their (Fisher's) little 6.5 inch coil will find sub-grain gold. The high KHZ (71), and the little coil are deadly--I've seen them in action and used very successfully to find small gold.

All the best,

Lanny