Need Your Advice

[whitesguy]

First off thank you in advance for reading this post and your reply..

I currently own a Whites V3i - the machine is a monster at coin $ jewelry and relics. If you know anything about this machine, is that the learing curve is great but that so are the rewards. I live in Northern California (Yuba County). With so many gold producing rivers such as the Feather River, Sacramento and Yuba River at my door step, I wanted to get into nugget shooting. I've attempted to use the V3i in prospecting mode using a 6 x 9 coil and the machine is nearly impossible to quite down. Unfortunately with such a popular metal detector, there are virtually no videos or information on prospecting with the V3i.

I understand this...

If you're hunting for Gold, get a Gold machine. So I've decided to get either a Whites GMT or God Bug 2. I understand the differences when it comes to manually ground balancing as opposed to Auto GB. I am not a newbie at metal detecting and manual GB is not a problem. Even with the GMT, it seems that manual GB is a must so Auto GB on the GMT is not a selling point. What is a selling point are the depth and size capabilities.

I understand after reading a lot of posts that the Gold Bug 2 will find smaller Gold but how much smaller than the GMT?

I also understand that the GMT will (under the same circumstances) search deeper, but how much deeper using equal coils?

Both machines will obviously find a 5 oz nugget at 4 inches. Both are good at discriminating hot rocks and cold rocks. I plan to mostly hunt near rivers and in the hills and forrest. We have very highly mineralized ground in this part of the state.

The struggle I'm having is how small of a difference are we talking about when it comes to Gold? I know that the there is still plenty of Gold to be found but that most of the Gold in my area is small. I'd love to find out, from those who hunt in my area, how deep most of the Gold you find is. If 90% of the Gold in the area is only found within 2 inches and VERY small, then the GB2 seems like the good choice.

I did speak to a GB2 user who said that he uses his MD mostly to find Gold near the surface then whips out the sluice box, his primary method of prospecting. I'm not planning on sluicing or panning.

Keep in mind that I'm aware of the Whites TDI. That this PI machine treats highly mineralized ground as if it's not there and that it will search deeper, but the trade off is it won't find small Gold. Not to mention the price is 2 times that of a Gold Bug 2.

I understand that the 71 khz of the Gold Bug 2 is unique and allows to find smaller Gold but that due to this high frequency, the trade off is depth. But again, how much depth? Interesting that the GMT uses 50 khz - that's a big difference in my opinion. Although I confess, I don't really understand it because other top rated "Gold Machines" use 18 khz.

My understanding as it was explained to me was this...

All Metal Detectors will find metal (Gold), what separates them is simple the ability to discriminate in areas where Gold is mostly found. That's what you're paying for.

So with all that said, here you go....

You live minutes from one of the most Gold producing parts of the Country. You have two options a GMT or Gold Bug 2 and you could only use one - which would you walk out the door with and why?

Thanks again for your reply.

 

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[Terry Soloman]

You can't go wrong with either machine. I use the Tesoro Lobo Super Traq. All three machines are basically same-same. I use the Tesoro because it is made in my home state of Arizona, and has a lifetime warranty. I have owned both the original GB II and the GMT. Again, all hype aside they have about the same abilities, and are tops in VLF nugget finders.

 

[63bkpkr]

Hello whitesguy,
First off you've done an excellent job with your description of your abilities, the machine you have and what you want to do with a gold machine. I've been told by a reliable source that the GMT and most any other VLF machine is useless in an extremely high iron mineralization area. I suspect Yuba county is not but that it does have high mineralization just like exists around Auburn CA. The GB2 and its brother and sister are known for detecting Teeny Tiny Itty Bitty pieces of gold, high technological jargon there for something smaller than McCormick's table grind pepper. My GMT finds IB sized pieces that could be under say 6 inches of bedrock and it finds larger pieces as well as long as "I" put it over gold. So you understabd right off that in order to find anything you need to put your coil over it and then understand what your machine is telling you. When gold gets down to the TTIB or IB size the easiest way to remove it is with a gold pan or a sluice box, double cup sorting it or cutting the soil down by shaking out part of the contents of a single cup is going to take a long time.

Ok, to return to your question list: Which one would I walk out the door with? I purchased a brand new original GB and never found anything with it. I purchased a GMT, and used it about as much as I used the GB, and found gold with the GMT and have repeatedly found gold with MY GMT.

Here is an FYI for you: White's electronics has a policy about customer finds, "if you send them a story about your finds along with pictures and they want to use your 'customer story' they will offer you a thank you certificate with a value of $100 towards ACCESSORIES for whatever machine you want to buy 'stuff' for, a white's machine of course". They have been kind enough to give me two of these coupons, and if you ask really nice they might even allow you to use the coupon to have service done on your white's machine up to the limit of the coupon.

Nugget/Gold detecting is not as easy as coin shooting especially as there are no tot lots, fairgrounds, Elks Lodges or parks where gold can generally be found, gold is a Ma Nature related thing not human related. You find it in washes, the down river side of boulders and the like IF you are lucky. The TI units should go deeper than any VLF machine while ignoring mineralized ground. Maybe one of the Terry's will chime in if I've said anything off base.

Good luck with your choice, they both work, and enjoy your time out in gold country and be sure to fill in your holes........

63bkpkr

 

[Goodyguy]

I haven't owned a GB or any other gold dedicated machine since purchasing my GMT over 5 years ago...... never had a reason to change.
Used it in all types of soil and found all sizes of gold.

Up here in Indiana where it's mostly fine and flour gold sometimes I use the "follow the black sand" feature when prospecting creeks to see where possible pay streaks run and then dig and pan the material along the inside edge of the black sand streak for best results.

In other states where there are hot rocks or mineralization I just leave it in the "Fast Track" automatic ground balance mode and use the pump method and as necessary make use of the ground grab button (which works in either manual or auto mode).

As far as the manual ground balance goes on the GMT that's fine if you like to tinker and fiddle with knobs and buttons but I've found you get the same results just leaving it in automatic mode.

Also on the GMT when ground mineralization is too high for the current GAIN control setting, the display flashes "BAD GROUND-REDUCE GAIN" along with an audible "squawk" to alert you to reduce the gain for maximum performance.

I'm happy the GMT doesn't pick up fly speck gold because I really don't want to spend a lot of my detecting time digging only to find a pepper sized piece of gold that you would need hundreds of to add up to a dollar.

Plus I am partial to the features found only on the GMT along with the familiar zip zip sound instead of a beep when locating a target.

Headphones are an important part of detecting for gold no matter which detector you use. The deeper the nugget is the fainter the signal will be and a good set of headphones will allow you to hear the faintest signal not even audible with the speaker, plus your detectors batteries will last longer as well.

Go for the gold
GG~

 

[signal_line]

Don't forget to check out the Garrett AT Gold to see what you are missing with the older machines.

 

[TerryC]

Whitesguy. The difference between the GB2 and the GMT are too small for most people to notice. The GMT weighs one pound more than the GB2 but because the GMT is well-balanced, you probably will not notice that difference either. BOTH machines are dynamite gold-getters! As I have said before, I have never owned the Lobo ST, so check with Terry Soloman on that machine. Any one of the three would be a good choice. I prefer the GB2. But that is simply because I like manual balance. And like 63 says... you gotta park the coil over a nugget to find it. THAT is the hard part! EDIT: My opinion that the GMT and GB2 are dynamite gold-getters is based on my personal tests of both machines "side-by-side" on heavily mineralized CA soils. Others may have other opinions. Good luck. TTC

 

[TerryC]

Hello whitesguy,
First off you've done an excellent job with your description of your abilities, the machine you have and what you want to do with a gold machine. I've been told by a reliable source that the GMT and most any other VLF machine is useless in an extremely high iron mineralization area. I suspect Yuba county is not but that it does have high mineralization just like exists around Auburn CA. The GB2 and its brother and sister are known for detecting Teeny Tiny Itty Bitty pieces of gold, high technological jargon there for something smaller than McCormick's table grind pepper. My GMT finds IB sized pieces that could be under say 6 inches of bedrock and it finds larger pieces as well as long as "I" put it over gold. So you understabd right off that in order to find anything you need to put your coil over it and then understand what your machine is telling you. When gold gets down to the TTIB or IB size the easiest way to remove it is with a gold pan or a sluice box, double cup sorting it or cutting the soil down by shaking out part of the contents of a single cup is going to take a long time.

Ok, to return to your question list: Which one would I walk out the door with? I purchased a brand new original GB and never found anything with it. I purchased a GMT, and used it about as much as I used the GB, and found gold with the GMT and have repeatedly found gold with MY GMT.

Here is an FYI for you: White's electronics has a policy about customer finds, "if you send them a story about your finds along with pictures and they want to use your 'customer story' they will offer you a thank you certificate with a value of $100 towards ACCESSORIES for whatever machine you want to buy 'stuff' for, a white's machine of course". They have been kind enough to give me two of these coupons, and if you ask really nice they might even allow you to use the coupon to have service done on your white's machine up to the limit of the coupon.

Nugget/Gold detecting is not as easy as coin shooting especially as there are no tot lots, fairgrounds, Elks Lodges or parks where gold can generally be found, gold is a Ma Nature related thing not human related. You find it in washes, the down river side of boulders and the like IF you are lucky. The TI units should go deeper than any VLF machine while ignoring mineralized ground. Maybe one of the Terry's will chime in if I've said anything off base.

Good luck with your choice, they both work, and enjoy your time out in gold country and be sure to fill in your holes........

63bkpkr

Tnx for the "pat on the back" Herb! TTC

 

[Lanny in AB]

You've got rock-solid advice from some great people. Now go and get that coil (for whatever machine you choose) over some gold and you won't be able to pry the smile off your face for days!

All the best,

Lanny