Whites GMZ or New Gold Bug?

[atomicscott]

Ok everyone I need some advice! I recently purchased a Whites GMZ for nugget shooting although I have found no gold with it yet. I also like coinshooting in parks and relic hunting, so I use my Fisher F2 for that. I am very interested in the new Fisher Gold Bug (se?) from reviews I've read it seems like a great multi-purpose detector. However I know the GMZ is very sensitive (50khz) as it will ring on a tiny piece of lead shot that wont even register 1 grain on my digital scale. I have the GMZ and F2 up for sale with the idea of purchasing the new Gold Bug as a single do-it-all detector. My question is: Is the gold bug that much better than the GMZ? Will i be losing alot of sensitivity on small gold, due to the lower (19khz) frequency? Or do the features of the gold bug (ferrous id, discrimination, etc.) make up for the possible lower sensitivity on tiny nuggets. Here in socal I'm not expecting to find very large nuggets. I think if the gold bug will find 2-3 grainers and up, it will be great for what I need but I havent found many reports on how small of gold it will find. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Scott

 

[Cleetus]

Well, I've had mine about 5 days,......LOL! You won't to worry about finding little stuff.!!! 19khz and a good pc board are all the little-stuff-finding you want. If I had one complaint it is: that sometimes I have to dig too much, "little stuff" These units are VERY sensitive, they have a dual processor in them and recover lightning fast on Disc. Top notch ground balancing that goes all the way to salt. Really quiet in iron and hunting around it. They only weigh 2.5 lbs so it's like holding air. The 5" coil is fantastic and should work well on nuggets. I know I have dug lots of 1/8" copper wire pieces, bird shot, pieces of tin and aluminum the size of a grain of rice...Best part is-- First rate VLF gold machine but still great as a coin shooter...Haven't found any gold grains with it (yet) but I did get a Gold Ring out of a park tonight, it was 1/4 troy ounce so it doesn't count as "The little Stuff" ........Go to Bart's Big Boy Toys and watch some of the video's and read the article links there you will like what you see (don't forget, Teknetics G2 same machine as GB Pro).......If I was you--I would just get one! You won't be sorry! I love mine ALREADY and it's staying with me........I would get both coils, but that's just me. If you get just one coil: I could live with just the 5" for awhile and get the other later, you can swing the 5" fast with this machine and cover ground pretty good in target rich zones. If you don't need the package items, you could likely swap them in towards a second coil deal with Bart, we worked out a good customized package deal to suit my needs.......PM me if you have any more questions

 

[Brookie]

Hey, I live in Garden Grove I think the next detector I'm going to get will be the GMZ. Do you have yours and if so are you ever inland up my way at all? I don't have extra money at the moment but will pretty soon. If you already sold it, how much for?

 

[Terry Soloman]

While I think the Goldbug is a great machine, if you aren't finding gold with the GMZ, the Goldbug ain't going to help you. I tried coinshooting with my Lobo Super Traq for about a year and did OK, but Gold Nugget machines (17.9kHz) just LOVE big, deep, iron I went to the Vaquero for coin and jewelry hunting and have not looked back - Much better discrimination and depth (when discriminating). One machine - in my opinion - is not going to make you a happy camper.

I personally know a dozen guys that have gone well over a year without finding their first picker or nugget with Minelab SD, GP, and GPX machines. The Lobo Super Traq goes into a factory pre-set ground balance when switched to Discriminate mode, and I am pretty sure the Goldbug is the same. That means you lose depth. Check it out for yourself, and more importantly give yourself more time to find a nugget. If you are detecting easy and known areas, well, the easy gold is long gone. Nuggetshooting is hard work, and if you could find pickers easily there wouldn't be any fat beach hunters!