202

[rennie]

I have a question about the 202? Will it find gold nuggets with the standard coil? Or will a 4" coil do? I need to find something beside beer cans, pull tabs and junk?

I just sent my 202 back to the factory to have it checked out. I can find stuff with it but it was doin what I called ghost signals. It would beep, and when I went back over it would not show anything. I get a quarter, sometimes a dollar, pull tab or other signals? I hope they can fix it? My wife say I will be able to get a new detector when this one pays off, and according to her it will be the next century?

 

[bendorfold]

[quote rennie]I have a question about the 202? Will it find gold nuggets with the standard coil? Or will a 4" coil do?[/quote]The larger the coil, the deeper they go but have more false signals in trashy areas. Smaller coils are less frustration in trashy areas, but don't go as deep. Get both the 10" & 4" coils.

You didn't give much info on where you are, but if there are no nuggets in your area it's hard to find them. If you're talking about finding gold jewelry in trashy areas, the 4" coil may give fewer false signals.

[quote rennie]I can find stuff with it but it was doin what I called ghost signals. It would beep, and when I went back over it would not show anything. I get a quarter, sometimes a dollar, pull tab or other signals?[/quote]That sounds normal. If you get a repeating signal (4" swing: left/right forward/back, left/right forward/back, left/right forward/back for a total of 12 strong tones) and dug 10" down and found nothing, you may have a problem.


Most of these owners liked their 202's. Reviews

 

[rennie]

I just get ghost siginals, I get a beep come backe and nothing, I cross and cris cross and get nothing, then move a foot or two and the same thing happens. I talked to the guys in El Paso and they told me to send it back and they are going to recalibrate it.

 

[tabdog]

Hay Rennie,

Bounty Hunters, even with a 4" coil will not respond to small nuggets.

Best bet is a deticated prospecting machine. Gold nuggets are hard to find.

The low operating kHz of the BH is not conducive to finding a low conductor like gold.

If you notice, gold machines usually have a higher kHz. Whites with added filters

is one exception. But still not good enough for nuggets.

If you don't believe me, just pass a small gold ear ring, or small piece of gold

in front of the coil and see for your self. I just found a very small gold chain today.

This chain air tested 3" on my Compadre. You are not going to get any better

than that unless you have a very expensive unit. Most metal detectors will not even

respond to a chain like this.

Sorry if I burst your bubble, but I went through the same thing. I think you deserve have

the truth, not smoke and mirrors.

HH,

 

[bendorfold]

Found an interesting read on nugget detecting, especially the chart near the bottom of the page. Smaller nuggets, smaller coils.

 

[BH-LandStar]

Tabdog is correct. if you look at the dedicated gold units, they all have frequencies of 14kHz or higher...gold is hard to detect...Probably the reason I have not found any gold jewelry as of yet...I tend to sweep faster than I should, and am a little reluctant to switch to the 4" coil when I should...if I learn to slow down and use the smaller coil when I am in areas where jewelry might be lost, I just might turn up something...Most of my hunting has been done at night when it is cooler, and I do not like staying out for long, so I tend to rush myself...if Gold is what your truely after, I would tell you the same thing as tab....get a dedicated machine. Get something with a high frequency...

HH,

BH-LandStar

 

[tabdog]

Thanks for the link bendorfold,

That inspired me to test my metal detectors.
I was very surprised by the results.

Here

 

[tabdog]

I was shocked by my air test.

The Fisher Gold Bug 2 is a deticated gold machine that sells for over
$700. Total cost of my three Tesoro's is $570. They are just regular
metal detectors.

Does that guy that wrote the article know what he is talking about?

Can my three Tesoro's really out perform the Fisher?

You read the article. I did not cheat. I did the test honestly.

They did not give many details in the article.

Can someone tell me what gives?

HH,

 

[possum]

Hi Rennie, Nothing is more frustrating than the type false signals you're getting - you spend a lot of time chasing the falses. Hopefully BH will get it repaired. Someone didn't seem to think that a Bounty Hunter would pick up gold and I have to disagree with that. Last Oct. I was detecting in an area that didn't have much trash so I was digging every signal. The fifth or sixth signal was a thin gold chain about 2" deep, maybe slightly deeper, but at least 2". The detector was a Pioneer 505 and I was running it in Disc. with 0 discrimation and sens about 3/4. The chain where I pinpointed and dug it appeared to be straightened out, not balled up. There was nothing else in the hole and nothing else close to the chain. When my buddy saw it he was impressed. He had never been able to tune his Minelab to pick up small gold - he did take the chain home with him and cleaned it and tried to tune his Minelab to signal on it but got the same results he had before. My Landstar and Discovery 3300 will also pickup a chunky 10k gold ring at 3" deep and, like the 505, indicate iron. Best of luck when you get your 202 back.

 

[jackintexas]

There are two detectors that I can think of right now that are both coin-jewelry-relic machines and also have a prospecting mode that are very good at finding gold nuggets. The Whites MXT operates at 14KH and the Minelab Exterra 70 Operates at 18.75KH using the higth frequency coil. On the Exterra 70 You can change frequencies by changing the coils.....Jack

 

[leesumm]

I had to go and do that air test thing on my Lone Star BH. Wife had a 14K gold band size 9. My LS would show at about 4 inches of air . Pennies, nickles,dimes,quarters all showed up at about 3 inches. I didnt have any scrap in the house but had a pair of 6 " needle nose and they showed up at about 4 inches all using the all metal mode both knobs turned down all the way.
I think I am the expert on pull tabs now, I get about a 100 to one penny when I go out. I dont know about in Texas but here in Arkansas pull tabs are a common commodity. Especially where there is usually a crowd such as the sports grounds, (soccer fields, ball parks, football field etc. ) I have pretty good luck at the (what they call a community grounds) used to many many years ago it was the area where the 4th of July celebration was at night with a dance and picnic for the community in the evening before fireworks. Since then they have converted it to a soccer softball field. I get good results around the concession stand area but its very large rock and shale type covering and like digging a boulder with a toothpick. Try under the bleachers at the fair grounds , rodeo arenas. Places like that , I know in Texas every town has an arena there
I havent found rings or jewelery yet but countless pull tabs and small change. IF it dont snow tonight like they say , the nieghbor said I am welcome to clean out her 50 acre pasture. Her girl friend lost a ring in there last year on the 4 wheeler they called a local in with a MD and he searched it and didnt find any thing . Including the ring .

 

[politcalmatrix]

well i am very new to this , as matter of fact my machines will not even arive till wednsday, but when i bought them , i also bought the gold nugget detector for them, i have the Quick draw II and i am told they are about the same. i would like to tell you that as soon as they get here i would be out hunting but i still have 3 ft, of snow here and 10 degree weather. but if you happen to get out hunting before i do and you have or buy the gold nugget coil for your 202, please share with me what you find out.

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

tabdog.
That article was by Stev Heshback (Surname miss pelt). You will not find a more experienced gold hunter. I didn't note what your air tests were on, so I can't comment.
What you read, would be an honest account of what he has experienced as he has no brand loyalty. He also often hunts with high end Minelab gold machines and was instrumental in promoting the Whites MXT as a gold hunting machine.
Mick Evans.

 

[nugget]

I've used the 4" for prospecting and honestly would not recommend the BH as an even half serious nugget machine. The 4" will find gold down to half a gram,(done it), however it was more luck than good management. They were very shallow and flat which is why I found them at all. You would be better off with a dedicated gold machine. There are lots around and some of the older machines still perform brilliantly on small gold, you can pick them up in great condition for around $200 to $300 AUD. The ML XT 17000 or XT 18000 still find lots of gold. I own the XT 1700 as a back up, for the back up unit, which is ML SD2100. I use the Infinium LS for most of my prospecting except where the gold is always small, I then use the SD with the 8" mono (killer combination). BH are great detectors, so don't get me wrong, I own x2 T4's, similar to the 202's, and love them to bits, they have found heaps of gold, platinum and silver jewelery for me. I will even step up to the Time Ranger sooner or later. It's horses for courses, and they are not meant to be serious gold nugget machines. HH regards Nugget.

 

[JoanInCreek]

Tabdog, since reading these posts a while back, I have begun to notice I rarely find any gold or silver. That snowflake was unusual and I almost missed it.
I am always finding clad though which is fine, but I started thinking about the Hz. The 202 is around 6 I believe. I assume this means it runs at 6hz and if gold is at 14hz, my chances of finding gold with the BH 202 are slim? What is your thoughts on this?

Like BH-Landstar sometimes I swing too fast so I stick with the 8" coil mostly. Using the 4" coil you must go very slow so I use the 4" only when it is a very trashed up area. All the posts for found gold and silver, platinum seems to come from machines that are better than the 202 e.i. run at a higher Hz. Again your thoughts would be appreciated. Starting to think my 202 is just missing it. I run it all metal, sens at 3pm usually, descrim usually 12 or 2 depends on how much the machine chatters.

 

[tabdog]

Ha Joan,

I thought you may be interested in this post.

I posted it on the Tesoro forum. Here is the link.

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?17,676446,676446#msg-676446

HH,

 

[steve herschbach]

Hi tabdog,

Where to start. The chart was produced by Fisher Research to illustrate the fact that a small coil can get more depth on small items than a larger coil. It is showing relative depth on the same items using the same detector with different coils.

You are using man-made gold items to compare to a test done with natural gold nuggets of unknown size and shape. For your test to be valid you have to use the exact identical items. You either need to use the nuggets Fisher used (not likely), or you need to get a Gold Bug 2 and use your test items to get comparative figures.

I suspect you are mixing up grains and grams. That ring has got to weigh about 5 grams, not 5 grains. There are 31.1 grams per Troy ounce. There are 480 grains per Troy ounce, or 15.4 grains per gram. It would be impossible to make a 5 grain ring as what you would have is a very thin wire. It looks to me like your test pieces are approximately 14 times larger than those used in the Fisher test. You need a powder scale to weigh in grains.

Last but not least, air tests mean little. How a detector reacts to ground matrix is paramount since what sets a nugget detector is the ability to handle minerlaized ground conditions.

 

[Coinseeker 78]

My Titan 3000XD just tested my 14K gold ring which is a quarter inch wide and about one sixteenth inch thick and measured 91/2 inches on my 8 inch coil. My wife's wedding ring is only a sixteenth inch wide and measured out to 8 inches on the 8 inch coil. I know that the Titan is not good for gold detecting except on large nuggets but I am impressed with its sensitivity.

Titan Man