Rattlesnake Jim Posted October 31, 2006 Report Share Posted October 31, 2006 Has anyone used the Gold Bug2 and the 2100? Which is better and why? Thanks, Ruff&Tuff.Gold Bug2 is for fly s--t gold that is shallow. SD2100 is for real gold that's deep!And that's the truth!!!!!!!!!!RSJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruff&Tuff Posted November 1, 2006 Report Share Posted November 1, 2006 Mr. Rattlesnake Jim or anyone out there, what is your take on the SD2100 vs. the GP-3000? Thanks, Ruff&Tuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin nuggethunting Posted November 1, 2006 Admin Report Share Posted November 1, 2006 Hello Ruff & Tuff, Until Rattlesnake Jim can jump in, I will let you know my opinions. Over the years using the GP series I found much smaller gold, much smaller gold at depth and even some larger pieces I missed with the SD2100. When the GP Extreme first was released Minelab claimed the GP Extreme would get 55% more depth on smaller gold and 18% more depth on larger gold nuggets. With any of the GP series you will find smaller gold, which is really the "Beans and Bacon" of electronic prospecting. The GP's also have more features such as Auto Tracking, More Settings & Better Tuning for EM Interference. P.S. I can't find them as small as the GoldBug2 with the GP3500, but I have found them under a grain at the surface with the Coiltek Joey Mono. However, I'm really not interested in the sub-grainers with a Minelab PI. I will concentrate on the 1/2 Dwter and up at depth. Hope this helps a bit,Rob Allison Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rattlesnake Jim Posted November 1, 2006 Report Share Posted November 1, 2006 Rob nailed it. The GP's do have an edge over the SD's on small gold, etc. The percentage of depth increase may not be as much as Minelab says, but there is a difference.RSJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Ed Posted November 1, 2006 Report Share Posted November 1, 2006 Hi Guy's,I found these nug's with GP 3500,I'm a newbie with a PI, only had it 9 months... But you can't go wrong with any PI, Just got to do it & get it from Rob I haven't been doing much latly do to ticker problems & high blood presure 190 over 120 Take care,Ed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemons Posted November 2, 2006 Report Share Posted November 2, 2006 This is an interesting thread for a couple of reasons; firstly the depth of detail is easy to understand and a new-chum would find the information useful, but ya got to read it with understanding. I suggest new comers to detecting cut N paste all posts with detailed information into their Word Pad for ready off-line reading and as a useful resource. This is what I do because it may take some time for all of the information to click together and make sense.In regard to small gold and the SD 2000 / 2100 series; I work mostly in West Australia now. I haven't seen ounce nuggets in my dig holes since the 1980's when the Garrett Groundhog, Deepseeker days. These times, I get sub gram bits which all add up of course.I worked an old bulldozed area a couple of years ago in the Kalgoorlie region and it had had about 15 or more years to rehab itself; it was mostly old dry-wash piles and very rich from what I could see.Everywhere had recent dig holes especially around and under trees that had been left by the plant operators. I was using an SD2000 with an 11" DD search coil. I found nothing but trash.I switched over to the ML 8" round mono, retuned and kept the coil a bit higher off the ground than before to avoid all the roots and leaf trash and started finding small nuggets straight away. Some of these little bits were sunbakers and surrounded by dig holes.I think experience was the difference. All those years of battling ground noise with VLF machines around Wedderburn and similar difficult places in the Golden Triangle and the west still pays off.When the ground became too hot I still managed to detect bycrancking-up the sensitivity and the threshold and keeping the coil-head way off the ground. Using this technique, the SD and the 8" ML mono becomes a search coil par excellance.The new ML machines can't teach you a darn lot if you always go into auto-modes or preselects. The older SD machines will demand you learn how these things work. . . tweaking the Ground Balance(GB) and switching modes. Read the ML blurbs on the SD series. . . "like two detectors in one". They sure are.After cleaning-up my little patch of sub-grammers with a couple of coil swaps, I passed a Gold Bug 1 with both big and small coils over that area and didn't win any more. The SD had got the lot.Sorry about the long post.lemons Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bunk Posted November 4, 2006 Report Share Posted November 4, 2006 I ended up getting a used 3500 for a very good price. I have read the manual twice and watched the DVD's.Today I am going out to the field with a couple of test nuggets and see how well I understand all of this!Bunk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin nuggethunting Posted November 6, 2006 Admin Report Share Posted November 6, 2006 Hello Bunk, Hope you scored today with your new GP3500. Did you happen to get instructions with that purchase? The DVD videos you mentioned are very good. Just keep in mind, if you're looking for small nuggets, or small nuggets at depth the "Sensitive" mode works best. If you're looking for larger nuggets at depth, and don't care about the small ones, use the "Normal/Deep" setting. Had great success with these combinations in the "Fixed" Ground Balance setting. Take care,Rob Allison Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bunk Posted November 7, 2006 Report Share Posted November 7, 2006 Hey Rob, No score yet and I get some hands on instructions this week end. About the DVD's, It kinda goes aginst all I have learned in years past, the part about not using headphones and using the speaker set up JP had cliped to his collar. Care to comment on that? I have hearing loss from the years of being a driller in the mines and don't think I could get by with out the headphones.Bunk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin nuggethunting Posted November 8, 2006 Admin Report Share Posted November 8, 2006 Hello Bunk, You will have fun down around the Yuma area. I've personally found some nice nugget patches. Yes, the DVD videos promote the External Speakers. If you have hearing loss I would strongly recommend you stick with a good pair of headphones. In my opinion, headphones are much better than an external speaker if you're hunting for faint signals. You can hear those "boomer" signals with or without headphones. Wishing you luck this weekend. The GP3500 is an awesome detector. Rob Allison Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruff&Tuff Posted November 8, 2006 Report Share Posted November 8, 2006 Mr. Rob or anyone else, which Joey coil shoud I use on my GP-3000 for tailing piles and for small gold in highly mineralized areas? Mono or DD Pro? Any other coil recommended? Thanks, Ruff&Tuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemons Posted November 8, 2006 Report Share Posted November 8, 2006 I haven't tried this, but a mate of mine sent me a letter last week and mentioned this same subject.He said he was using a ML round 10" mono with good results.Yep, he is using a GP3000.lemons Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rattlesnake Jim Posted November 8, 2006 Report Share Posted November 8, 2006 Mr. Rob or anyone else, which Joey coil shoud I use on my GP-3000 for tailing piles and for small gold in highly mineralized areas? Mono or DD Pro? Any other coil recommended? Thanks, Ruff&Tuff.The 8" minelab mono coils are hard to beat, also the 10" coiltek elliptical joey mono or DD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lamar Posted November 8, 2006 Report Share Posted November 8, 2006 Dear Rattlesnake Jim;I used to be a BIG fan of the ML 8" mono coil until I got my hands on the Joey mono and did some side-by-side testing of the two coils and I discovered there is no difference in performance! Absolutely none at all. They both have exactly the same sensivity on the same sized nugs at depths of up to 6" for tiny bits and up to 8" for larger pieces. This is in all types of soil too. I prefer the joey mono over the ML 8" mono because it's a bit lighter and also narrower which means I can work it into smaller areas. Other than that, they are the same coil, performance wise.Your friend;LAMAR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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