GPX4000 feedback compared to GP3500 and GB2

[esa]

Hello all,thanks for all the knowledge you have expressed,i know it has been a help to me,i am a prospector form NC and had a few questions,i have a Gold Bug2 and have found Gold to pay for it time over in a few spots over the years,but now there isnt a nugget to be found due to it has been detected so hard by Goldbug2,i dont know alot about the Minelab but i am intersted in it if it will go deeper beyond what my goldbug depth,depending on soil i would say i could find a nugget half the size of a pea around 2 to mayb 4 inchs depending on coil that i have,i know this might be hard to answer and i would say alot of people ask,but roughly how would it compare depth with the Goldbug2 in the above statement,and mayb on a larger size nugget?,i would like to buy one and i see that they came out with the GPX4000,how does it compare with the GP3500? where i hunt at there is not alot of big Gold by some smallers pices,also does the battery and a few other things come with the GPX4000 or does that need to be bought extra.thanks so much for your time in reading this... eric form NC God Bless

[nuggethunting]

Hello ESA,

Welcome to my Nuggethunting.com Gold Forums! I will try to address your questions the best I can. There is no doubt the Fisher Goldbug2 is the most sensitivity metal detector on the market. With the detector operating at 71kHz it will find gold so small you have to have eyeglasses to see them. However, in highly mineralized ground conditions this can be a major disadvantage of the GB2 unless you turn the sensitivity/gain way down or hunt with the coil off the ground a big (cuffing the searchcoil).

There are two major advantages of a Minelab Pulse Induction (PI) gold detector over the conventional VLF's, like the Fisher Goldbug2. The first major advantage is the fact the Minelab PI's are much more immune to mineralization. This would include iron and salt conditions, which seem to be present in most gold bearing areas around the world. The second major advantage is the fact the Minelab PI's get 2-3 times the depth of a conventional metal detector. In low to moderate ground conditions it might only be 0.5-1.0 times deeper, but in highly mineralized ground conditions the depth could increase up to 3x the depth of a VLF. There is no doubt there is a major difference between the VLF and PI detectors.

Another major advantage of the GP series (GP Extreme, GP3000, GP3500 and the new GPX-4000) is the fact the timing is different and you can find much smaller gold that the Minelab SD series detectors. I've personally used all the Minelab PI's for several years and know for a fact the GP series will find smaller gold, smaller gold at depth and I believe even a slight edge on deeper nuggets.

There is no doubt if you decided to purchase a Minelab GP3500 or GPX-4000 you would see major differences in performance over the Fisher Goldbug2. However, I wouldn't see the Fisher, I would use it as a backup detector and even use it for places that have very ... very small gold nuggets, stuff under a few grains in size.

Hope this helps a bit,

Rob Allison

[Guest goldstudmuffin]

Hi Rob,

Read what some of the Aussies that know have to say about the 4000 and the GP's

http://groups.msn.com/GoldDetecting/genera...596517926038417

[nuggethunting]

Hello Goldstudmuffin,

Like I have stated in the past, the Aussie field tests are irrelevant to what we have here in the US. Our ground is much more moderate. I took the GPX-4000 out again today and found several deep targets that I flat out missed with the GP3500 with the same sized coil. Several of the targets were large pieces of iron (nails, pick tips & tin) found at depth. There is no doubt the GPX-4000 is much smoother and quieter than previous models. You can even make it "PURR" in the "Smooth" mode!

Found (3) nuggets today, but gave (2) away. What a nice guy I'm…

Take care,

Rob Allison