FORS Gold Scores Spectacular Gold Specimen!

We received the following message from Steve Herschbach of USA and we are sharing it with you:

''I was prospecting in Northern California not too long ago. I was running the Nokta FORS Gold and concentrating on some areas littered with square nails, cable bits, rusted cans, and other ferrous junk. There were places the Nokta running in dual tone DI2 mode sounded like a machine gun from ferrous low tones. I would go along with the detector going "putt - putt - putt - putt - putt - beep - putt" and on hearing that beep, stop to dig a bullet or some other non-ferrous item.

There was a bit of a mound around the base of a tree and I swept around it getting ferrous tones, when all of the sudden I get a strong non-ferrous beep. I looked down at the target id displayed on the end of the FORS Gold handle and it was showing 82. I thought "That's odd, a coin." I was still not tuned in one what the numbers meant exactly on the Nokta but on a typical 1-100 scale an 82 would be something like a penny or a dime. I have yet to find a really decent old coin since moving south, so I thought I was maybe going to dig some nice silver.

I gave a couple digs and was surprised to see nothing pop up. Hmmm... must be bigger, deeper. So I open the hole up and dig deeper, and this dirty gray lump pops out of the ground.

My exact thought "you have got to be kidding me!" It was a filthy lump but I knew instantly it was gold. I got out my water bottle and washed it off a bit and saw gold and large chunks of white quartz - I had found something really special. After cleaning it ended up as 1.83 ounces of stunning gold and quartz that would do a museum proud. Just a really spectacular specimen, the best I have ever found. Thanks Nokta!''

Nice going Steve!

Can we see some pics!?

Wish Steve would come back around, but here is the post on FM...it's STUNNING!
[www.findmall.com]

Hi Guys,

I wandered by and saw that even when I am not posting I end up getting posted by others. Oh well. I guess I should thank Nokta for that as it made me dwell a bit on my shortcomings. I do tend to take things personally and it is something I need to work on for sure. Laying hands on a proto is a catch 22 of sorts. I don't need to talk about them. But people are curious and ask, and I am happy to chime in with answers if I have them and am allowed. Then to hear that that some do not value the answers because it is inside information - well, it tends to make me clam up. The reality is though there really are lots of you who are super nice people and who maybe want to hear those tidbits early on. I guess I just need to grow that thicker skin. The problem getting older is I am less inclined to do that - one of the benefits of age is being able to be grumpy if I want. However, in recognition of the season and good cheer, peace on earth, and good will towards all, I am going to try and suck it up and act like an adult.

The OP here is a cut down version I passed on the Nokta for their use. The longer version is at [www.detectorprospector.com] and here are a couple of the photo shots from that page. It was a really sweet find, one of my best ever. Anyway, I will try to do better and not be a stranger. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you!

awesome Steve! Come on back y'all

Getting old is, well, fun lol. Especially when you can do what all of us do. Great gold young man!

Steve, that is a beautiful specimen, what a terrific find!

Steve, I follow your post at the other forums. Glad to see you still come by. I am looking for new things to come out of Nokta in the near future. They seem to be on the right track.....


Tom in SC

Very nice Steve , I have seen few larger or of nicer conformation when on quartz than that one ----- KUDOS
The next questions is,,,,, was it the Nokta or would another detector have snared it also?
That things a monster and had to sound like a church bell ringing

Well, you know how it is - the Nokta was just the detector I happened to be swinging at the time. That is the funny thing about the most common question in detecting "what detector were you using". In most cases, it makes absolutely no difference. There are only a few detectors that have found me targets that I felt like no other detector would have done the job. The real trick is getting over good targets!

If I dug it with a shovel nobody would be asking what brand of shovel I used and then run out and buy one. I guess it is that desire to find the machine that will make the magic happen, when the detector is at best third in my list of what it takes to make a find.

Having said all that I will also say the Nokta is one of the best VLF machines available for my purposes on my ground. Your milage may vary. I can pretty much say also that there is no reason yet that I know of why you would want a FORS Gold instead of a FORS CoRe. The Gold is just a version of the CoRe stripped of the beach mode to make it more marketable overseas as a gold prospecting detector. The CoRe will give you more capability for the same price. In theory the white Gold coils are more resistant to possible issues in extreme desert sunlight than the black CoRe coils but that is really a stretch. My recommendation if at all interested in these detectors is look at the CoRe.

More details developing at [www.detectorprospector.com] on F75 vs Nokta vs CTX vs V3i as time allows.

Happy to see you back Steve! What a jaw dropping specimen! I could look at that all day!

AWESOME piece of gold Steve!!

Do you find the FORS Gold to hit extremely well on the raw gold...I know thee shapes of raw gold alone make them difficult to hear while in Disc,,...

I find the Core to be the most sensitive machine Ive seen for 15Khz to small items at nice depth..

Keith

That piece is a natural work of art....I think...if it were mine, I would slap a long gold chain through it and wear it around my neck,,,and I don't ever wear any jewelry, at all, not even a wedding band.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/2014 01:01AM by ozzie.

Keith Southern Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> AWESOME piece of gold Steve!!
>
> Do you find the FORS Gold to hit extremely well on
> the raw gold...I know thee shapes of raw gold
> alone make them difficult to hear while in
> Disc,,...
>
> I find the Core to be the most sensitive machine
> Ive seen for 15Khz to small items at nice depth..
>
> Keith

The FORS Gold and I assume the CoRe are very hot on low conductive items, natural gold included. I have some work to do to sort that out still. My main concern is that with metal detectors everything comes at a price. Lighting up extreme low conductive items usually means lighting up highly mineralized ground and hot rocks. The Nokta may be more prone to overloading on extreme ground. I have seen at least some indications of this. Not the kind of thing that would cause most people any concern, though I am curious if Daniel has any thoughts on the subject. His ground conditions come closest to the worst I encounter so we often reach similar conclusions on what makes for useful detecting. I usually just grab my PI in the really bad ground. A lot of gold also occurs in medium to mild ground though and the Nokta units look like they have real potential to shine in those locations.

There really are no magic bullet detectors, but for a company that none of us heard about until recently Nokta certainly is a contender. Anybody after low conductors wants to at least consider the FORS models. If anything, they may be too hot on small low conductors for some people.

Beautiful piece of gold/quartz Steve and great assessment of the nokta machines.

I agree with your view that it really doesn't matter much which machine one uses to find a given target - if there's nothing to find at wherever you're hunting - it doesn't matter which machine you're using because you'll not find anything anyway and at the same time - it's whatever machine that was in you hand at the time when any given find is made which could've been a number of different machines!

Congrats and hh

O.K. Steve sounds good...Thanks

One thing on the CoRe is the overload its gets on targets thats really not that big....Seems like its hotter on small targets and the larger targets iron or otherwise causes overloads alot in trashy areas..the small coil takes care of alot but the stock coil stays overloading quite a bit...



Keith

Stunning work of art...... to say the least. Congrat's!

Hi Steve...Excellent beautiful find....Any plans to sell it? ....JJ

A find of a life time, congrats. Were any smaller gold bits found in the hole after extracting the Grand Prize?
By the way, I like your Bic ballpoint pen test.

JJ, people will probably think this is nuts, but yes, I will be putting it up for sale. I sell most everything I find eventually. I can truly say it is all about the hunt for me. I have no emotional attachment for stuff and in fact prefer to own as little stuff as possible. It all sits in a safe deposit box anyway so it is not like I get to look at it or show it off, unless in photos. All my prospecting and metal detecting activities self finance so I have a free hand not only in getting the gear, but a wife who generally tells me not to come home until I find some gold! Still, I am in no rush to ever sell gold and mine never goes cheap. This specimen will not go for less than $5000.00

There were no smaller bits in the hole but several smaller nuggets were found in the immediate area. I will be back. Not sure if I will find any gold but if there are any Bic pens I'm going to nail them!

Seriously, VLF units as I apply them to prospecting are only recon units. Once a place produces even a single nugget, it becomes a candidate for complete sanitation with PI detectors. That location will be hit until no detectable metal can be found.

Steve Herschbach Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well, you know how it is - the Nokta was just the
> detector I happened to be swinging at the time.
> That is the funny thing about the most common
> question in detecting "what detector were you
> using". In most cases, it makes absolutely no
> difference. There are only a few detectors that
> have found me targets that I felt like no other
> detector would have done the job. The real trick
> is getting over good targets!
>
> If I dug it with a shovel nobody would be asking
> what brand of shovel I used and then run out and
> buy one. I guess it is that desire to find the
> machine that will make the magic happen, when the
> detector is at best third in my list of what it
> takes to make a find.
>
> Having said all that I will also say the Nokta is
> one of the best VLF machines available for my
> purposes on my ground. Your milage may vary. I can
> pretty much say also that there is no reason yet
> that I know of why you would want a FORS Gold
> instead of a FORS CoRe. The Gold is just a version
> of the CoRe stripped of the beach mode to make it
> more marketable overseas as a gold prospecting
> detector. The CoRe will give you more capability
> for the same price. In theory the white Gold coils
> are more resistant to possible issues in extreme
> desert sunlight than the black CoRe coils but that
> is really a stretch. My recommendation if at all
> interested in these detectors is look at the
> CoRe.
>
> More details developing at
> [www.detectorprospector.com]-
> fisher-f75se-vs-minelab-ctx-3030-vs-nokta-fors-gol
> d-vs-whites-v3i/ on F75 vs Nokta vs CTX vs V3i as
> time allows.

Curiosity got the better of me.
So I started a fierce hunt for a BIC Ballpoint, I do hope they don't make them any differently in the US, than they do in Europe.
Or vice versa.

Anyway the F19 ID's the Bic Ballpoint as 44. Nicely done,... as per your test.
My F75 Ltd with big 11" coil ID's at 16-17 ????
Sens 60
My F75 Ltd with 5" coil ID's at 17-18 ????
Sens 97

So either they messed up the Bic Ballpoints or I've got a "great" F75????

Weird.

Both units were powered up after a reset.




HH
Johnb



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/2014 09:04PM by scoopjohnb.

My personal opinion? Standardized testing of F75s would reveal lots of disparities in performance between individual machines, much of it related to coil variations. The latest forum buzz shows just how many units can get out the door with extreme variations in performance. What about more subtle differences, like response on a small non-ferrous target? Stuff most people would never notice.

When I was in the UK hunting with my F75 a guy was impressed with my results and got hold of one himself. A couple days later he told me that he ran it over a gold coin a friend had found, and the coin read ferrous, no matter what. He wanted me to explain that, and I had no explanation to offer. Except that his unit was calling low conductors ferrous when it should not.

I am fascinated by the promise of the F75 and at the same time starting to lose faith in First Texas ability to deliver consistent, quality product.