Gold Bug Pro with 10-inch Searchcoil Suggestions

[nuggethunting]

Hello All (Steve H. & Ray Mills),

A friend found a wash that runs for about a mile. The entire upper section was loaded with nuggets, as we cherry picked what we could. The wash is loaded with trash, from one end to the other. Very frustrating to work, so curious on what settings one would suggestion on the GB Pro with 10-inch coil working in all this trash. I like the GB Pro, but never worked with in in really trashy areas.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[sgh]

Gain at g or below. In all metal mode keep ground balance and ground phase within 2 whole numbers. Watch ground phase, iron bars, and target id scale at the same time you swing over suspect target. Dig if I'd scale is over forty. If less than forty if iron bars drop over target. If you get no id number but the ground phase is below the number of the the hot rock range in the ground you are detecting in. Hot rock will have a fairly consistent ground phase number. Five inch coil is more accurate at target id, but 5 x 10 is easier to poke into tight spots. Discriminate is more accurate but you lose a lot of depth. Matt

[sgh]

Also, nugget busters are real sharp and zippy on the gbpro

[sgh]

Sometimes the id scale number will adjust as you get closer to the target.

[IDdesertman]

All-metal mode, ground balance and lock in "ground grab", which shows the GG# compared to ground readings as your detecting, which you should keep as close as possible. Of course you can hear when it need rebalancing so the ID numbers on the detector don't really matter much in that regard. Even in mellow ground I don't think I've ever had the gain above the 12 o'clock position, and often run it down as low as 9 or 10 o'clock position if needed. It will still find crumbs and targets at depth even with the gain down quite low. The big # reading in the center as well as the graph across the top are slick and quite accurate when you hit a target.

I love my GBPro in the trash, I think that is where it really shines compared to a lot of others detectors I have used(not that I have used them all). The one feature that I never seem to look at is the iron indicator. Soft signals register low and loud ones register high, but I've never noticed it had anything to do with the type of target under the coil. (maybe I'm just missing something ), but between the big center #, top graph, and the sound of the target, it is really a slick detector for trash patches when you have to pick and choose your targets.

[Steve Herschbach]

If you have tons of trash and little time do not be afraid to use discriminate mode. Yes, you lose depth. But if you do not have time to spend analyzing lots of targets disc can find those shallow nuggets mixed in with heavy shallow trash. Best bet is just bury a test nugget and crank in the amount of disc that gets you the desired result. I usually set it up to allow for iffy targets to signal because small nuggets will read ferrous. But again depends on the amount of time and patience you have.

You can set for low tone of ferrous and higher tone on non-ferrous or just go all the way and tune out ferrous readings completely. I have to note I usually run in all metal and check all targets. There are targets that will give an audio indication in all metal and no discrimination reading at all so that is how you get the deep stuff. But again, it just all depends. I really like the Gold Bug Pro simply because it does offer all these various discrimination options you can use depending on the situation instead of being locked into a single method.

Good luck Rob - find another big one!

[trinityau]

Hello Rob, the previous posts have all given good information on the GB Pro. If you feel you have lots of gold that may be at the one gram range pretty shallow then I would follow Steve's suggestion and use the discrimination. If the trash is iron and not really big pieces then you should be alright. You will be running silent at this point until you go over a good target, gold, lead, or brass at which time you will get a signal. The only other thing I would suggest for this type of work is to stay with the five inch coil but that will depend on how close the trash is scattered. If you get a solid signal on discrimination then switch over to all metal and see if the ferrous bars go down, the target ID is 40 plus and you have nice small number like a 3, 5, or an 8 on the lower center part of the screen. The bigger the nugget the more the target ID will bounce from 40 to 100. After a bit you will be doing it with your eyes closed. I would have to agree with one of the guys in that this is where this unit really shines.

I had a area in Siskiyou County that had a spot of ground that was maybe one hundred by one hundred feet square. The iron works were all done at this location for almost seventy five years so there was no lack of iron trash. The site was on flat bedrock which was rough and capable of holding some nice gold. I played with that ground using the GB Pro and I still remember several of the targets in which I had to remove several thumb size bits of iron to reveal multi-gram nuggets lying exposed in the warm California sun. No body else could touch the area. I was happy, Thanks, TRINITYAU/RAYMILLS

[trinityau]

Hey Rob, have you gotten back out to that wash yet... TRINITYAU/RAYMILLS

[sgh]

IDdesertman..sounds like you may be referring to the signal strength bars when running in discriminate mode...in all metal they are ferrous bars. For detecting in drainages I noticed the bars will often stay higher since the catch points for gold also catch black sand heavies, but detecting patches it was pointed out to me and my observations since have confirmed that when you swing over a nonferrous target the bars drop relative to the surrounding ground even when the target is too weak to read on the I'd scale. Steel that is not too rusty will raise the bars. All is relative to size of target and amount of rust though. I hope that clarifies my previous post a bit. Watch for it and see what you think. Good luck all!

[trinityau]

Hello all, do not depend on those ferrous bars 100 percent. If you are detecting over moderate bedrock and get what appears to be an iron signal, all the bars go up, and the graph shows below forty, you may still want to investigate the signal. I was going to walk away from just that scenario the other day but my ears told me that I better check it out. I did and the very small crevice had about three spoonful's magnetic black sand. After using the magnet to get the sand out I went over the target again and the bars had dropped down a few but the graph was still wavering between 30 and 40. I scraped the small amount of white clay away with the pocketknife and out popped six sub-grainers glistening in the sun. Ears are still where it's at... TRINITYAU/RAYMILLS

[sgh]

Agreed, even large nuggets can show high iron bars in crevices in drainages. Got a multigrammer that was showing all bars due to the iron rich soils caught in the crevice with it. In patches it seems to be more valuable information where there is not a concentration of the blacks sands in with the nugget. Matt