New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

Had a lot of fun with this gem, but upgrading to the GB 2.

According to the Fisher website;

• Fisher Gold Bug
  
  Threshold and Gain Adjustments
  1/4 and 1/8 Inch Headphone Jacks
  1 - 9V Power Supply
  Lightest Weight / Best Ergonomics in the Industry
  2 Search Modes: All-Metal and Discriminate
  Large LCD Screen with 0-99 Numeric Target Identification Display
  Large Target Alert
  Depth Readout and Running Signal Strength Indicator
  No-Motion Pinpoint
  Computer Assisted Ground Grab and Ground Balance
  Continious Ground Phase and Ground Mineralization Readout
  2 Tone VCO
  Super Sensitive

Only a couple of months old, but I got the bug, so time to upgrade.

All up with the two coils this cost me $1100.

Looking for offers somewhere around 75% of that as it is like new.

Very light weight and comfy to swing all day.

Chucking it up here for the paydirt type before it finds it way to Trademe.

Edited by user Saturday, 9 July 2011 11:02:15 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

cpjfox,

Why do you consider the GB 2 an upgrade?

Not that I would discourage anyone from buying new toys, but a friend ran my Gold Bug and his Gold Bug 2 through the paces and came away thinking the Gold Bug was just as good and maybe even slightly better in some ways than the Gold Bug 2. Having said that; if you really want a Gold Bug 2 I will happily sell you one for $1135.

Get a Minelab & find some real gold, not just fly specks & that is if you are lucky.





















I dont recall seeing any photo's put up of any gold found with a Gold Bug. As Simon has said, he has found every thing but gold. No wonder he sticks to his sluice box. At least he will get some colour doing that.

Happy hunting

JW :)

the gold bug will find gold. someone i know has the same machine and has shown me what he has found. a lot of gold. the great thing is that the gold bug will pick up a lot of the stuff even guys with minelabs don't seem to pick up. while i'm sure this comment will rattle some responses in regards to the minelabs being great (i know they are) but at the end of the day most of the go,d out there is small stuff and the minelab is a way cheaper way to get into it than a $9000 minelab. the same guy has tested his gold bug against a minelab 4500 in a few situations by burying a nugget and swears the gold bug picks up all the smalls the minelabs MAY miss. same guy also has a 4500 minelab but usually uses the gold bug.

it needs emphasized that the gold bug referred to is the original GOLD BUG 2 machine. there is a lot of confusion as there are also new machines. these operate on different frequencies so by no means the same machine.

jw: old habits die hard. i'm sure i can/will find gold with the gold bug. just hard to get away from sluicing places where you know there's nuggets.

i see a gold bug 2 just sold on trade me for a little over $800 2nd hand.

Hi Simon, Yer I know the the Bug 2 is a very good machine for tiny gold close to the surface. That is due to its 71 khz fequency. I did do that post to see what response it would get LOL :) I had this dilema that I was missing very small gold with my minelab & was tossing up weather to get a Bug 2 or a whites GMT. I did a lot of research & asked a on forums. I ended up getting a Whites GM/4B that runs at between 48 khz & 52 khz. You can adjust it between those frequencies. The idea of that was that if you were working along side another GMT you could off set your fequency so you werent interfering with each other. Pretty smart aye.
The GMT is still very good on fine gold but will punch deeper than the bug 2 on bigger gold due to it less frquency than the bug 2. The other dilema I had was, do I really want to spend a heap of time chasing fly speck gold when I could be better off with the minelab targeting bigger deeper gold. The old numbers game thing. Isnt one good size nugget better than a heap of fly specks that wouldnt weigh the same as the one good size piece any way?
Also, I would be better off covering a lot more ground with the minelab on the chance that I may hit on to a patch. And that is often what happens. I take the GMT with me but as yet havnt even bothered to use it. Oh ok....I did.....ONCE. I had gone over this ground with the minelab & had picked up some good gold. I decided to go over the same ground with the GMT. I got a heap of signals. Instead of trying to isolate the target I just scoped up the handful of dirt & if the target was in my hand after waving it over the coil I just chucked the handful of dirt in to a bucket. I did this until the bucket was full & went down to a water hole & panned off the bucket. I didnt have one speck of gold but did have a heap of shotgun pellets. Thanks to the rabbit shooters. My son has found gold with the GMT but that was after I hit the signal with the minelab & then quided him to the spot with out telling him there was a target there.
The smallest I have found with the minelab is .04 of a gram. Thats not .4 but .04. That is pretty small gold in any bodies language. I would have to find 25 of those to make 1 gram. How long would it take to find & dig 25 of those?? Think I would rather wack on a bigger coil & hunt out bigger pieces for the time & effort.
It is a bit like coin detecting. Some people I know just target the $1 & $2 coins. They tune out the smaller coinage. Again, the numbers game thing. Personaly I dont do that when I am coin shooting but I can see where they are coming from. You need 5 20 cent pieces to make $1 or 10 to make $2 etc...
I was watching that bug 2 on trademe.
If you are finding nuggets where you are sluicing then why havnt you waved your bug 2 over the area??
The bug 2 is a lot lighter to use all day than the heavy minelabs, I will admit, but I have a hip stick for the minelab & can swing a big coil all day in open country. If there is vegetation about I will use a smaller elliptical coil. Although the minelab is heavy it is well balanced & with a bungy cord & hip stick it isnt a problem.

Gingerbreadman, Any gold I dig up gets my juices flowing, but yes those big ones get me REALLY wet. LOL :)

Happy hunting

JW :)

Hey no worries, I would say 1864Hatter has probably done the most gold detecting with a Gold Bug on the forum:

http://forums.paydirt.co...y-detectors-trumpet.aspx

although I have not seen any pictures.

jw,

yeah, not so easy running the detector around in a stiff current. i have just been shovelling the whole lot as its got small recoverable gold as well. as you said with the detecting, its either the big or the small stuff. with the sluicing and shovelling of all the material i can recover the bigger stuff and the small stuff. the majority is smaller so why leave it behind.

if i had my way i'd buy a minelab 4500 or 500 and make it a day job. unfortunately i need to work. i find a couple of hours of sluicing can be squeezed in on most days buts its a lot harder to do the same with detecting. really need to put in the hours. and the walking.

Wow..nice gold JW and cheers for all the info guys.

I understand your point about having the right tool for the job...but the Gold Bug appears to be a good entry level detector at a great price. However the grounds I will mostly be fossicking have more lead on/in them than anywhere in the country! so some food for thought...

cheers