Fisher Gold Bug Pro - Feedback.

Hi Everyone..!

Happy New Year...!

1. Could I please get some advice on the Fisher Gold Bug Pro for a beginner? Is this the best pick of the bunch for this price range? (I ideally want something that is pretty user friendly and not too expensive, just something I can learn with and maybe even find some Gold with.)

2. Also I have been doing some research and it seems that there may be some fake models on the market, where would be the best place to get one of these in Australia?

3. And a further question, has anyone tried detecting/prospecting around Barrington Tops or Gloucester way, with any stories of success?

Thanks for your time, it is appreciated.

Amber...! :-)

Hi Amber,

To use the Gold Bug Pro you got to be Toight Like a toiger. It seems to be a nice flexible little machine.

I only just received mine today

I bought from Colonial in the U.S Link here: Gold Bug Pro DP These guys were fantastic!

Please note: you will be warned about higher freight to receive the "Teknetics Pick" but will get an offer to upgrade the earphones to "Nugget Busters" instead (to save on shipping). You can however insist on having the pick if you wish, you just pay more freight though.

I will be testing it out at Hill End plus nearby areas soon and provide feedback on that. There was a mexican stand-off between the Bug and Minelab X-terra 705 (for me the bug won but for you it may be the 705, who knows!). I find the Bug VERY light, my forearms are a little big for the holder (lots of weetbix) but not a major issue for me (for you It may be a non-issue).

Adjustable rod length via metal tab clip. Audio response from hits are good and will wake you up if you sleeping on the job

Thanks heaps Big Nugget, appreciate your response...!

Will check out the link you sent through.

Good luck at Hill End, would be great to hear how you go out there...!

just hoping they work good here in TAS have got onto one 12 months old for $400 not bad but hoping it works good , as new condition no faults and still has 4 years transferable warranty yeah hi cheers Mick

Sounds like a good deal mickstarr, hope you have some success with it...!

Hi Amber. I'm a Fisher dealer here in Australia. I have a Gold Bug Pro Dp that I use as well. Very nice little machine that can be swung all day & it has. I'd be happy to have a chat with you about it if you want? Give me a call on 0400291116 after 12:30 if you're still interested.

Aussiedetecting wrote:Hi Amber. I'm a Fisher dealer here in Australia. I have a Gold Bug Pro Dp that I use as well. Very nice little machine that can be swung all day & it has. I'd be happy to have a chat with you about it if you want? Give me a call on 0400291116 after 12:30 if you're still interested.

Bingo

Howdy,

just how deep should it detect a 1g flattish or 2.3g round nugget in goldfields mineralised soil.
Not getting much useful depth so far.
large coil seemed worse.

Cheers.
Lee.

If the detector is ground balanced well you should get similar to an Air Test distance. but if the gb is off a bit or the ground is too noisy for the machine then depth could be anywhere from zip to a few inches, probably closer to zip! Also roundish nugs donot detect well compared to irregular or flattish shapes.

I have not as yet used a GB Pro but the above info is pretty much standard for most VLF metal detectors.
I have just purchased a Gold Bug, Not the pro, it is the model that will GB down to salt (I hope). Be interesting to see how she goes when it arrives.

Gold bug arrived today.
   Very nice detector I am stoked.  
The Ground grab is magic and comes very close to being able to GB my  dud iron meteorites; well enough in fact to be able to detect my rings and all Aussie coins straight through the rock in All Metal mode. A little bit of ground noise comes through but hell, aside from my Infinium, and my GS15000 everthing else I have here blanks out or overloads on these hefty iron rocks at approx a foot above the rock. The GB overloads at approx 3 inches from the roughly 3 kg slab of iron/ hematite / maghematite.
Gold would need to be about as heavy as a five scent piece to be able to signal well through these type of ironstone. This thing kills my GM V-Sat in mineralised ground, and I thought it was good    
The Disc mode going to require a little bit of getting used to although I have only had the detector for about 1/2 an hour. But from what I can tell so far the disc mode will not like high iron minerals.
     I am impressed with the All metal GB range and stability.
When I get a chance I will take it to the beach and see how it performs there.

Well there ya go! The Gold Bug Ground Grab works but the unit will not manual ground balance.
Do any of the digital Gold Bugs not have manual ground Balance??


A few minutes later.....

OK so it appears that the GB I purchased does not have Manual ground Balance..... A bit of a bummer because I like to set the GB slightly positive. The ground Grab works very well so the lack of Manual GB will not be any problem......I hope  

My wife says I talk to myself a lot.

Gold Bug 2009/10 version do not have manual ground balancing.

A better FTP Fisher dealer will know.

Adrian SS wrote:My wife says I talk to myself a lot.

Multiple personality ................some assign different names to each one .............a good excuse for self confusion, playing hide and seek by oneself and a one person party.

Thanks Ivanll.

I Gave the GB a tryout today in moderate ground. It performed well with the itty bitty 5 inch coil. I would not want to be searching for coins and jewllery with this coil for very long, it is purpose built for locating small gold in tight spaces.

    The auto ground track/grab is very fast and efficient......better than my LST auto ground tracking.

A hell of a lot of different target types notched up very similar TID numbers. This was a pain.

Depth in disc mode is a tad weak but then it is only a 5 inch coil fitted. The disc setting is good and seperated the high and low tones quite well. At a setting of 42 my lightest gold chain still gave a high tone and everything below 42 gave a low tone.

      While the small coil is excellent for small gold and silver chains, a larger coil is needed if I was to use this detector for coins and relics.

I found it interesting that the so called "ground Phase" reading gives readings for metalic iron in the same range as for metalic gold. Therfore this reading is of no value in helping to ID gold from iron. but it does give an indication of how mineralised the ground is and will seperate metalic gold from mineral iron.

    The Ground Phase reading may be able to help ID iron meteorites, although I have not tested that aspect yet.

Fixed magnetic fields have no apparent effect on this detector as evidenced by the fact that my super magnets donot trigger an greater signal than if they were not magnetised.

I will be suprised if the ground balance range of this detector will balance wet salt beach sand.

I bought the Bug to help find gold chains. Took it out for a short detect this arvo at 4 pm and came home with 3.3g of 18kt gold chain. A good solid hit. at approx 3 to 4 inches in river sand  

TID readings were 41 on the target TID scale and 4 on the ground Phase indications and a high tone ( I had the disc set at 40) 39 would have been a low tone.
This combination of readings was a good indication of a gold possibility. If the TID had been down around 30 I would likely have left it in the ground
      .
The Infinium with 10 x 14 mono and the Sand Shark gave no response to this chain. The LST and old GM V-Sat also respond well to this chain.
The Infinium gave a weak HI/Lo at two cm with the 5 x 3 DD fitted but sweep speed has to be around 1 foot per 3 seconds and even then it only responded to the clasp which weighs 0.3g
This is a bit odd because the same coil will respond to a 0.15 g gold nug at 5cm and it is way smaller than the clasp.

Tried the Gold Bug (Standard digital model) at the beaches near batemans bay and it worked very well in the sand and into the water.
I was suprised because I realy did not think that it would GB the salt but it was not a problem in the All Metal mode and produced good detection depth from the dry into the water with the Ground Grab snapping down into the correct G Balance very quickly, even at max Gain. The G balance needs to be reset as you move towards the wet sand and this is easily and very simply achieved with the ground Grab feature.
The Bug was a pleasure to use and found some good targets.
The disc Mode is a bit iffy at the beach. It operated quietly enough but depth was very average on coins.
The All metal mode provides taget ID, Ground mineral read out and ground balance indication.along with threshold background tone.
I did not use the disc mode at all other than to check how well it performed.

Been quiet here for a while.
My GB was nicked and I now have a GB DP Pro.
Nice detector with Ground grab and manual ground balance. Works well in All Metal mode at the beach into the wet sand and water line and the GB can be tweaked positive or negative. Very useful when going from dry sand into the salt water..

The Disc mode is not so flash over wet salt sand where detection depth is poor. If you are using the disc mode at the beach over the wet sand then toss a coin on the sand and check that it is being detected....You might be suprised.
Don't use the disc mode in high iron mineralised gold fields. Even at zero disc, detection depth is limited from the surface to just a few inches on nuggs up to several grams if the nuggs are under and in contact with iron stone rocks.
If the nuggs are under iron rocks that are lying on moderately mineralised dirt then the detection depth in Disc will be a bit better but nuggs will have to be larger than 5g to have a chance of being detected.
The All Metal mode achieves good depth in iron mineralisation but the Ground bal needs to be correct and good control of the coil hight above the ground is required for best results. The detector is capable of finding sub gram nuggs in the all metal mode in tough ground.
I am currently using an S.E.F 5 x 10 DD.....Nice coil and very sensitive to small gold and gold chains.

Just my opinions...Not Gospel.