Gold Bug Pro for newbies

[Alchemist]

Howdy,

I purchased a Gold Bug Pro for checking a few iron infested sites. My wife out of curiosity picked it up and gave it a run, and now I can’t prize it out of her little hands. She’s had a go with my other units and has quickly lost interest, either because of weight or confusion over settings or just plain ergonomics, but this machine is different it has changed everything. It has enhanced our relationship immensely, she has become as passionate about nugget hunting as I am, and can now understand what it is that drives me.

For these reasons and others I believe the GB Pro is a fantastic newbie machine. Low cost, excellent performance on gold, simple interface, very light and ergonomic design etcetera. For those considering getting into nugget hunting, or want to get the kids or wife involved, I would recommend the Gold Bug Pro.

Once my wife is familiar with the ground phase readings in a new spot and she’s dug a few shotgun pellets, she can tell the difference between them and nuggets, cherry picking them from between the pellet spread. I call her over to check my targets at times when a lot of trash is about or I have a large deep signal. It’s surprising how little earth I need to remove before she can hear the signal, but this has shown that what often appears to be ground noise to her is in fact a deep target, and she would not have known a target were there. All this has emphasised the need to be perfectly ground balanced all the time, something so easy on the GB Pro since the current GB setting and the corresponding ground phase reading are plainly obvious on the screen. The strength of this feature is that a very small mismatch is clearly evident on the screen, much earlier than can be audibly discerned.

There are a few bugs in the Pro though, throw some igneous rocks into the alluvium and that makes detecting not such a fun experience, but if the alluvium is composed of homogenous sedimentary cobbles, or the bedrock is sedimentary in origin then this little machine hums along nicely. In fact on a bank of vertical cement the Bug Pro was keeping up with my 4500 and 12x7 mono on nuggets under 2-3 grains. The reason being a VLF can detect a nugget on edge equally as well and sometimes better than a PI.

Many say that the Pro makes a good all rounder, but this is not our experience. Fisher say it has been optimized for gold, and we see this is so, as iron and lead give a reduced signal for their size and depth relative to gold. It does take a few days to get to grips with this machine though, it is simple to operate but it takes familiarity to understand its real strengths.

This is 2dwt she dug over a few days, mostly from a cemented mass flow deposit. The overall average size is 2 grains. The five pieces on the dime weight a total of 1.25 grains, which is an average of 0.25 grains each. The Pro certainly has enough sensitivity on small bits (small enough for us) coupled with good depth on larger pieces, provided the matrix is not to high in iron minerals.

Cheers

Kev.

[FlakMagnet]

A very nice rundown on this unit from a perspective that is easily understandable.

Good writing.

It sounds like you have a worthy detecting partner,

best of luck to both of you.

[dutch john]

Alchemist... Kev... Impressive... The ladies are able to multi-task and have a great deal of patience.

Also, it seems you wife is aware of the the importance of the ground balance and phase readings relationship.

Could I ask a question? What was the usual phase readings and the relative number of "bars" displayed. Again, very impressive and I raise my hat to your wife.... jim

[Alchemist]

Thanks Flak, I'm afraid I'll have some real competition on my hands when a lightweight Minelab PI comes out!

Hi Jim,

I'd have to ask Jane those questions (blush) she's the expert now. I do know that they varied a lot though, from one site to another. She kept mentioning how within an area the readings followed regular bands between clay and schist debris. She would balance to one of these bands and then stay within it, then switch to the other band and then re-ground balance and stick with it.

I'll ask her if she remembers. I did dig one small piece in the cement, if my memory serves me correct the phase reading was about 75 which dropped to about 14 or 15 over the signal, and 2 bars of Fe3O4. After removing an inch or so of cement I then got a solid reading bouncing between 40 and 50 on the disc crown, a sure sign of Au. It appears that only gold will lower the phase reading below 20, and lead rarely below 50, but then if any iron oxides are present as inclusions on the nugget then this would all be invalid. The adage "dig all" is the first rule but, when every man and his dog has fired a carton of No6 shot all over the place then cherry picking nuggets is a sure fire way to quickly fill your poke, even if you do miss the odd one.

Cheers

Kev.

[Alchemist]

Howdy,

There is even more compelling reason for newbies to start with a GB Pro.

This picture shows the equivalent amount of gold required to purchase a 4500 at the time I bought mine, it's 5.3 ozt

At the moment it requires 10.5 dwt to purchase a GB Pro (five times what is shown around the dime above) that's roughly a tenth of what was required for the GPX. Does the GPX find 10x more Au than the GB Pro?

On our recent trip where my wife scored 3.1 grams with the GB Pro, I scored 27.5 grams with my GPX. That is less than ten times the amount so by rights the cost of the GB Pro should be recouped earlier than the GPX.

However the GB Pro was used to clean up areas found by the GPX, who knows if the Pro would've located them alone?

Anyway, who needs to recoup the costs, I'd still be doing this even if gold were still $200 an oz, as all of you are aware it's all about the hunt after all, the beauty of this is we don't need to let any blood, (only our own) and expire a life to get the satisfaction of tracking down the quarry and safely bagging it.

Happy hunting all

Kev.

[frank c]

Great post hope to keep hearing from you 2.

Hapy Huntn out there.

[~LARGO~]

Hello,

I must echo the compliments and comments added by my friends across the miles.

Add to that, this is one of the finest, positive, and well documented posts I

have seen in any gold prospecting related forum, in the many years

I have been following such.

Congratulations to you, Kev, and your wife, Jane, you are a refreshing duo.

Thank you!

Gary

[oldies1955]

Howdy,

There is even more compelling reason for newbies to start with a GB Pro.

This picture shows the equivalent amount of gold required to purchase a 4500 at the time I bought mine, it's 5.3 ozt

At the moment it requires 10.5 dwt to purchase a GB Pro (five times what is shown around the dime above) that's roughly a tenth of what was required for the GPX. Does the GPX find 10x more Au than the GB Pro?

On our recent trip where my wife scored 3.1 grams with the GB Pro, I scored 27.5 grams with my GPX. That is less than ten times the amount so by rights the cost of the GB Pro should be recouped earlier than the GPX.

However the GB Pro was used to clean up areas found by the GPX, who knows if the Pro would've located them alone?

Anyway, who needs to recoup the costs, I'd still be doing this even if gold were still $200 an oz, as all of you are aware it's all about the hunt after all, the beauty of this is we don't need to let any blood, (only our own) and expire a life to get the satisfaction of tracking down the quarry and safely bagging it.

Happy hunting all

Kev.

Kev:

Tks for all the info. My dad has been using the GBpro for quite a while now and is struggling.

Here in Arizona we have a lot of washes with heavy black sand and iron rocks. Were talking pockets and streaks that will set my GPX 5000 off like a good solid target. On the GBpro it sounds like a monster or overloads. But big nugs can also sound like a monster and give high readings on the GBpro also. Can you suggest a way to set it up to get through the black sand at least?

I have found sub grammers and marked them for dad to dig...he cant hear them at first until he scrapes off all the overburden. Then he hears them. Im thinking that this is just an inhearent flaw of VLFs.

Tks for any help.

Tom H.

[Alchemist]

Hi Tom,

If the ground makes a GPX groan then it's likely there's very little hope for the GB Pro, even if it were desensitized to cope with the overload, the depth would be marginal. In recommending the Pro to people I realised that in many areas it would just not cut the mustard, and I appreciate you pointing out the issues you are having with yours, because what I've said above needs to be tempered so as not to mislead people into thinking this machine is the bee's knees.

As is the case here, we have some areas where the ground streams with grains of magnetite, you can usually find spots where it's not so concentrated, and the machine will perform OK. Ledges or benches of bedrock above the main wash where the magnetite has decomposed to iron oxide is one to look for, and it is sometimes only apparent by angular pieces of eroded basement with the odd small rounded alluvial pebbles or hot rock.

I see you've scored a GB2, that should be able to handle the mineralization much better, but as you've stated correctly, VLFs have reduced depth penetration in these conditions as the magnetic field is deflected and absorbed by the iron minerals.

I sincerely hope you can get your Dad onto some good gold, we all need to have some success to keep the spirits up.

Regards

Kev.

[dutch john]

oldies1995... and as alchemist mentions... Magnetite..Fe3O4 is one of the most abundant accessory minerals found in Arizonas metamorphic, sedimentary and detrital rocks.

Thus to "follow the black sand" while seeking concentrations of gems, placer gold, and scheelite, is not as effective in many Arizona locations as it is in other locations.

Unfotunately, only about one percent of magnetitic-iron (magnetite) will overload most VLFs; while the Pi's ignore it..

There are a number of VLF's that have been "specialized" with some sort of a "follow the blacksand/magnetic-iron ability" which can lead to concentrations of placer...

As an example those that drywash seek concentrations of blacksand are in the hope that it also carries placer gold... thus those that "follow the drywashers" while metal detecting for placer gold are sorta indrectory following blacksand...

But as I earlier mentioned this trick is not too effective if the countyrock is loaed with magnetice black sand... A good example could be seeking for a crevices in a stream as the crevice could be loaded with ot only magnetic blacksand bt associated placer gold

[Alchemist]

Hi Jim,

Good tip looking for magnetite packed crevices, especially where magnetite is minimal.

Hi Tom,

I've not been to Arizona, but I wish I could send my sinuses there sometimes, this morning being one of them.

I was in a place recently where the Bug wouldn't operate in the wash, and would overload on every magnetite filled depression, so it was probably similar to your situation. On the hillsides above though, it ran fine, and my wife was able to score some small nuggets from a deposit about 100 feet above the wash. The picture shows a quarter oz that I found, notice the rust on many of the pieces and the general "darkness" of the gold. It would've been surrounded with magnetite when laid down on the bench eons ago, but over time the magnetite has decomposed making the deposit quite detectable.

What was quite interesting about this placer was that it was opposite where a side wash entered the main wash. Usually you will find a deposit on the same side and down stream from where the side wash enters the main one. Because the side wash was at such a perpendicular angle to the main wash and the placer was opposite the mouth, I suspect a fault running down the side wash has entrained the alluvium and protected it from erosion. Because many washes follow faults, this is just one other area to be aware of that may have been missed by the Old Boys, especially if the fault has caused folding to such an extent that very little erosion of the deposit has occurred.

Cheers

Kev.

[oldies1955]

Hi Jim,

Good tip looking for magnetite packed crevices, especially where magnetite is minimal.

Hi Tom,

I've not been to Arizona, but I wish I could send my sinuses there sometimes, this morning being one of them.

I was in a place recently where the Bug wouldn't operate in the wash, and would overload on every magnetite filled depression, so it was probably similar to your situation. On the hillsides above though, it ran fine, and my wife was able to score some small nuggets from a deposit about 100 feet above the wash. The picture shows a quarter oz that I found, notice the rust on many of the pieces and the general "darkness" of the gold. It would've been surrounded with magnetite when laid down on the bench eons ago, but over time the magnetite has decomposed making the deposit quite detectable.

What was quite interesting about this placer was that it was opposite where a side wash entered the main wash. Usually you will find a deposit on the same side and down stream from where the side wash enters the main one. Because the side wash was at such a perpendicular angle to the main wash and the placer was opposite the mouth, I suspect a fault running down the side wash has entrained the alluvium and protected it from erosion. Because many washes follow faults, this is just one other area to be aware of that may have been missed by the Old Boys, especially if the fault has caused folding to such an extent that very little erosion of the deposit has occurred.

Cheers

Kev.

Thats some nice and interesting looking gold. Almost looks like old copper.

You dont want to send your sinus's here anymore...It used to be a good place for respitory problems, but now that its gotten so populated its got a lot of air polution and pollen floating around.

Gold has a mind of its own I think...sometimes. Ive found some nuggets in a chute right after a wide shallow streach with no gold being in the shallow??

Taker easy.

Tom