Gold Bug SE / Salt water 101

Now that some of you have the new GB. some Nasa Tom salt water/ wet sand testing on small gold
would be great.Mr Bill took one for a quick spin when he first got them , Said it ran stable but not much test time on it.
Its made for hot ground so you would think it could handle the beach. Hitting hard on small gold. HH Mike

Mike,

Hot ground vs. wet salt are completely different!

I will be taking my new Gold Bug to the NJ beach ( Long Beach Island ) on my 10 day vacation starting tonight. Will be testing and using it in real world conditions and will report back over the course of the trip. May try to make a video if I can....never did so it will be my first attempt. Going to bring a few test items such as a small gold earring, gold pendant and a gold tooth !

Will use the 11 inch DD first in both dry sand, wet sand and in the suds and take notes on how stable it is, what the ground phase, ground balance and Fe readings are so everyone can get an idea what the beaches I am hunting are made up of. There isn't much if any black sand on these beaches, but on many, there is a lot of small iron due to the old, dune fences being busted up over the years. Will also report on the discrimination settings used in discriminate mode as well as results in all metal. If I have to override the automatic gb settings and adjust manually, will report that as well.

As usual, I will be taking the CZ6a down along with my HH PI because I know for sure they work very well in the salt water.

I don't think the Gold Bug will have any problem with the dry sand....it's the wet and suds that I am very interested to see how it works. I will also try the smaller coil too just to compare differences.

JC

Will be very interested in your N.J. results. Is the small gold earring a open-hoop or closed-hoop? It'll be interesting to see WHAT it ID's in the dry sand....vs.... what it ID's in the wet sand........assuming it's detectable in the wet salt. If Sens has to be substantially reduced in the wet sand.....do not let this deter or discourage you! A nickel is (somewhat) of a good test target..........as most everybody has one......and........because of their consistancy...........it provides a common/base-reference standardized tool that most everyone can compare their unit.......from State-to-State.

therover, what were your test results?

Seeker,

I am not sure if you ever saw the video I posted on Youtube showing the Gold Bug in the wet sand. Bottom line is, it works very, very well...the best single frequency detector I have ever used in the wet, salt sand in NJ. It can ground balance dead on, I can run it at max gain and there very little, if any chatter. I did find that when using the ground grab function on the beaches I hunt, it tends to ground a little negative so I just hit the + button a few times while pumping the coil and it gets it right where I want it.

All metal or discriminate mode, it runs pretty much the same in terms of stability. I run it in discriminate mode set at 19-21. I want to hear the low tone iron sounds or the bigger iron like nails, so I know I am in a spot where there may be other targets and then I can take my time. The 19-21 setting gets rid of the small bits of wire and fencing we have here on a lot of NJ beaches. One of the main things I learned from using my CZ6a as well as Tom D's mantra....listen to ALL targets.

I had it on the beach last weekend and it worked flawlessly, picking up nickels and quarters deep while discriminating out the nails. Can go from wet to dry sand and the only thing you need to do is re-ground balance it.

My only beef is...IT"S NOT WATERPROOF ! That and new bottle caps ID the same or very close to quarters. But for finding gold jewelry on the beach, wet or dry, I think it's a winner.

Its a really cool unit, very simple to use, super light and has a lot of information one can use to determine target specificity. Visual ID, 2 tone ID where you can set the break point, Fe meter, ground phase and balance numbers, auto and manual ground balance...cool stuff.

rover...did you indeed find some micro gold then? I wish I could get on "youtube" to see the video...but I can't. Just interested in what you found....Thanks.

TNdirtdigger

TNdirtdigger,

The video was basically showing that the Gold Bug Se, with the 11 inch DD, can ground balance in the wet, salt sand and run smooth. I had a small 18k ring on some fishing line and buried it about 7-8 inches down in the wet sand and with the water going over it, showed how it can discriminate out a small, rusty nail and still hit the ring.

I then went into the dry sand and in a 'real' hunt, showed how the Gold Bug ID's foil in the 45-47 range by digging a nice wad of it, as well as showing how zinc pennies ID in the low 70's by digging one up.

I have not found any micro gold or any gold for that matter with it yet, but lots of nickels, a silver ring and junk jewelry. I am sure if I hunted more with it, I would find some, but I have been in the wet sand and suds with my Infinium since it's water proof, and finding some good things.

I got a little tired last weekend so I broke out the GB SE for a bit and got some change amongst the iron, but it was tough hunting with the rough surf. I don't want to get the GB wet from the salt water a fry it.

John