Need nugget shooting advice for b.c.

[undersc0re]

Looking for a good detector in the bad mineralized ground and bedrock, even the dark slate bedrock sets off the pinpointer lol.
Does anyone have experience around the okanagon thompson and fraser river areas with the minelab gpx5000 or gpz7000?
I realize  the gold in these areas found is mostly placer, I have found a few decent pickers, just wondering how deep these detectors go for these pickers in local mineralized conditions.
I would hate to spend thousands on something to find deeper trash if they are not much better at finding gold than my previous vlf detectors.

[AirCanada]

I have been metal detecting for over 15 years and have a room dedicated to wands.  The best unit for out here in Kamloops is the GoldBug Pro.  I can do circles around any nugget hound with a tone of cash and a new GP5000.  That 19kHz machine is the best for high mineralization and hot rocks.  The only one that beats it is its sister GoldBug II.  71kHz is great for finding the smallest of gold... Only problem is it will chatter like crazy around here.  GP rules Australia and Kiwi, but not out here in BC.  Garret is second... But a distant second.  Whites... It has its own category... Great company, (I have 4 sticks from those guys in Oregon) I just would not take them prospecting.

[undersc0re]

I have been metal detecting for over 15 years and have a room dedicated to wands.  The best unit for out here in Kamloops is the GoldBug Pro.  I can do circles around any nugget hound with a tone of cash and a new GP5000.  That 19kHz machine is the best for high mineralization and hot rocks.  The only one that beats it is its sister GoldBug II.  71kHz is great for finding the smallest of gold... Only problem is it will chatter like crazy around here.  GP rules Australia and Kiwi, but not out here in BC.  Garret is second... But a distant second.  Whites... It has its own category... Great company, (I have 4 sticks from those guys in Oregon) I just would not take them prospecting.

I did not have luck with the gold bug 2 going deep at all, maybe 3 inches. It went hairy with so much mineralized crap around here, could maybe differentiate if the hot stuff was sort of the same but so many small and big hotrocks and the dirt is hot too. The at gold did good at discriminating but only found gold maybe 4 inches deep at most there....depending on settings of course.

[AirCanada]

Guys, the GMT is a good wand.  I have used it, along with several others.  When a digger has a complaint about a stick, my first question is; how long have you been swinging it?  What have you learned?   I know that I can give anyone here not familure with a Whites V3i and I the Tesoro Compadre ... I could easily school this person on any beach.  Any detector is like a violin.  Without pitting in the minimum 100 hrs into it, you will sound terrible.  That being said I look at the science and frequency of a detector.  Out here in Kamloops, we get flour and flake.... Very small the Gold Bug pro rocks.  GMT cannot pick up flour and flake in heavy hit rocks without tuning them out.

[AirCanada]

Here is what a GoldBug pro can pick up

[AirCanada]

Here is one that a GMT and GoldBug can Pick up, but not a Garret AT Gold

[AirCanada]

What do you think are the main pluses and minus's of the Gold Bug vs the Gold Bug II?

GoldBug 1 vs Gold Bug 2? ot Pro vs II?

[AirCanada]

The GB II is a 71kHz wand, its envelope floods an area and looks for interference from very small flecks of gold.  The ground reject on it is only for light to light moderate ground minerals.  Its elliptical c0-planar ( we could talk about planar vs co-planar, but that is another discussion).  the GB2 uses this type of coil because of a condition called induction balance.  Mainly because gold is such a poor conductor.  It floods the detection envelope with 71kHz so as to not miss a thing... along comes hot rocks..... AAAhhhhhhh..  The category killer of the GBII... Like an ex-wife shouting in your ear... You will get frustrated very soon.

The GB pro is a 19kHz wand that uses a concentric and a DD coil ( dont bother using the DD for prospecting, unless you are looking for veins of gold say up at Brucejack Mines).  This very light little devil is perfect for knocking out the hot rocks, but still finding the little flakes of gold.  Great for BC diggers surrounded by "Hot Rocks" both positive and negative ones.  You are not going to get the depth of the GBII or get the fine little gold bits, but you can find some pretty small stuff.  The concentric seems to work for this stick.  I would have liked to see a 4X6, but thats my preference. 

Dos this get close to what you wanted to know?

[undersc0re]

   So how deep can you pick up the gold with the gb pro in hot ground in an area say tranquille with the hot rocks and hot ground at your level of experience with it? Testing it with that little picker on the dime....

[AirCanada]

Ahhh lab results with Fe3O4....
The game of inches.  I can air test for you to give you, or more truthfully satisfy your curiosity.  Air tests do one thing, settle arguments and sell detectors.  Ask anyone with an Infinium and you will know.

To reproduce the effects in the field are very hard to do. The Halo effect is a very difficult thing to reproduce, and I would be typing for days trying to explain the science... I have a basic understanding and it serves me well. 

Here are the variables to consider, ground effects, the type of mineralization, ground balance, EMI, salts, type of detector, frequency, sweep speed, experience, filter, coil nul value, blah blah blah blah.  Yes the list goes on

Here are the meat and potatoes.  I go out to Tranquille, pass the first concrete seat, and head out past the first marked culvert before the water shed.  I see several couples, one with boots the other clarifying or panning, the other looking puzzled and holding a shovel.  I wade past them swinging my GBpro and ask them how their day is going.  I usually get a blank look.  I think because they are shocked someone is talking to them.  Dont know why prospecting is such a solitary activity.. but there you go.  I then get a faint 40 signal and I stop... change my direction, ( as you know that VDI is based on phase shift so to get an accurate reading you must change direction, and also it works only on a face value in the horizontal plane).  I stop, pull out a small shovel, take a scoop and put it in the green plastic pan.  I do my gold dance with the pan, and Ta..Da.  Hey guys look, some gold... cool!  Once I dont get anymore signals, I move on.

Before any of this happens and I usually only get a few feet or so, I check mineralization and tune out any new "hot rocks".  without this activity, you would get tones of chatter...Tonnes!

Fisher labs have an interesting filter in their hardware that is specific to them.  Usually filters and discrimination programs are designed to amplify signal interference, ( to understand this, first look at BFO, beat frequency occillator.) then take an average peak reading and assign a VDI number ( invented by Whites electronics and based on 6kHz i think... correct me if i'm wrong).  Fisher takes a mean, not an average and they dont discount outlying signals.  This allows it to pick up several small signals and group them together.  This makes for a very sensitive detector.