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They are both excellent nugget detectors, however the Gold Monster has the edge in mineralized ground, is very user friendly with it’s fully automatic operation, comes with two coils and costs less.

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Where do you live?  If you buy local you may have to pay the sales tax but you get training.  If you can travel you can buy from a dealer and then drive to their state for training if $ savings makes a difference to you.

Training is MORE IMPORTANT than sales tax free.

Mitchel

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15 minutes ago, mn90403 said:

Where do you live?  If you buy local you may have to pay the sales tax but you get training.

I can't speak for you folks out west, but where I live (Midwest / Great Lakes) you need to be VERY selective when you choose a local dealer if you're expecting to get any kind of training.  Around here you can hang up a shingle a become a 'dealer' pretty easily without knowing much at all.

One more suggestion:  go with a multi-line dealer.  That's another issue I have with some dealers I've met -- they steer you towards one brand, and unfortunately this can and does happen even with multi-line dealers.  Of course you're asking here for advice so hopefully you get quite a varied response, especially recommendations of knowledgeable dealers you can trust.

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The Gold Bug which costs more than the GM1000 is the Gold Bug 2.

There is also the Fisher Gold Bug pro which is a completely different detector.  The Teknetics version log the same detector is the G2.

Right now Teknetics direct is having a sale on the G2+ (the + is the Tek version of the Fisher F19 - a sort of upgraded Gold Bug Pro).  The F19 is reviewed on Steve’s Equipment Review page http://www.detectorprospector.com/gold-prospecting-equipment/fisher-f19-metal-detector.htm

The good news is that these are available on the Tek direct website at low prices: https://www.tekneticsdirect.com/.  The G2+ is the only one on the site - call Teknetics to order the others.

                               MAP                        Sale Price

G2+                     $699                       $449                  

G2+LTD               $699                      $449      

F19+LTD-P          $699                      $449  

You need a discount code you can get from any Tek dealer of PM me for mine.

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The 71 kHz Gold Bug 2 and the various 19 kHz Gold Bugs are totally different beasts. The modern 19 kHz Gold Bugs are general purpose detectors with full discrimination and target id options. If you want versatility then look at the 19 kHz Gold Bug versions described here

I am going to assume you really meant Gold Bug 2. The 71 kHz Gold Bug 2 and 45 kHz Gold Monster are more along the lines of “dedicated nugget detectors”. The Fisher Gold Bug 2 has been on the market for over twenty years and is as well proven as a detector can be. It is very much a manual tuning detector requiring some operator expertise. The Minelab Gold Monster 1000 has been on the market for less than a year. It is the opposite of the Gold Bug 2 by trying as much as possible to automate things for ease of operation.

I own both of these detectors and I have to admit your question is a tough one. I believe that I can find gold about as well with one as the other though I give the Gold Bug 2 the nod for the tiniest gold due to the 71 kHz frequency and manual ground balance plus the magic of the little 4” x 6” concentric elliptical coil. The Gold Bug 2 control box can be chest or hip mounted which means featherweight on the arm and good for working in and around water.

Yet if I was going to take one right now to go prospecting I would probably choose the Gold Monster. In general I just like the grab and go design and ease of operation. The control box unlike the Gold Bug 2 is sealed against water and dirt and the rubberized controls are easy to clean. The knobs and switches on the Gold Bug 2 really like to gather and hold dirt and so I find the Gold Monster to be a relatively robust design that I can toss around and roll in the mud and even use in the rain with no worries. Operationally I like the automatic ground tracking and I definitely prefer the metered visual discrimination system versus the constant “switch to iron disc mode” required on the Gold Bug 2.

Both the Gold Bug 2 and Gold Monster are more powerful in all metal mode. Going into the iron disc mode on either cuts depth quite a bit, like 10% or more.

With the Gold Monster if you get a target in all metal, the meter will slam hard left of ferrous targets. Anything much less than that hard left slam you should probably dig. Now, if the nugget is deeper than the discrimination can reach, the meter will do nothing. That again is your clue to dig.

The Gold Bug 2 iron disc mode identifies ferrous by simply not beeping on it. You get the target in all metal, then switch to iron disc, and if it still beeps, you dig it. No beep, it’s ferrous, so no reason to dig, right?

True, but the catch is a nugget that is deeper than the disc mode will reach will also not beep when you flip to iron disc mode. So was the target ferrous, or just too deep?

Savvy Gold Bug 2 operators know that on very weak targets switching to iron disc mode basically does not work. You need decently strong signals in all metal in order to be sure the machine is even seeing the target when you switch to iron disc mode. Otherwise you can be passing on gold because the signal is too weak to trigger the iron disc circuit.

This can’t happen using the Gold Monster in all metal and relying on the meter, because the meter can only register if there is enough signal to play with. No meter action means “too deep, don’t know, dig it”. I therefore prefer the GM1000 when it comes to efficiently working with ferrous trash.

As Lunk notes, the Gold Monster also costs less and comes with two coils and a rechargeable battery system.

So why am I hanging on to the Gold Bug 2?

There are two situations where I still might break out the Gold Bug 2. I prefer the Gold Monster for covering ground due to the automatic ground tracking. The Gold Bug 2 requires you really be on top of the ground balance in difficult ground. But if I were trying to sanitize a 10 ft x 10 ft area by finding every tiny bit of gold possible, I still prefer the Gold Bug 2 with 6” epoxy filled coil due to its efficiency at “scrape and detect” operations. At full gain the Gold Bug 2 small coil resists knocks and bumps better than the Gold Monster small coil, and this means I can operate more efficiently not having to baby the coil to avoid false signals.

The other situation is when in small nasty hot rocks. In all metal these are both very hot units, and you will find ground where the hot rocks just won’t shut up. The solution with either is to go to the iron disc mode. This treats most hot rocks as ferrous targets and they simply go away. So far at least it seems to me the Gold Bug 2 runs cleaner in iron disc mode. The Gold Monster offers up these little spurious “ghost signals” that have me hesitating although they are obviously a false signal of sorts. I admit however to having not used the GM1000 nearly as much in disc mode as all metal mode so part of the problem is probably my not being as used to the Gold Monster in iron disc mode as I am the same mode on the Gold Bug 2.

These last two situations are oddball situations and so the truth is I have not spent enough time yet with both the Gold Monster and Gold Bug 2 comparatively under those two exact situations to really sort it out. I believe the Gold Bug 2 has the “scrape and detect” edge but in a year, just how much more gold will that edge put in my bottle? We are talking the tiniest of tiny gold here. Like 1/10th grain flakes. There are 15.4 grains in a gram. So if the Gold Bug 2 can find 154 of these that the Gold Monster misses I will be a gram ahead. One does have to consider diminishing returns and at what point does a gold pan or drywasher make more sense.

And then the dealing with hot rocks and trash, running in iron disc mode versus iron disc mode? Very much a question due to a location I visited recently. Nasty ground, hot rocks, ferrous trash galore. I started in with the Gold Monster but decided I really needed to come back with both the Gold Bug 2 and Gold Monster to run them both on the location as a learning experience.

Long story short you will not find many who will praise the Gold Bug 2 more than I, and I am still convinced it holds an edge in some situations. Yet right this moment if forced to keep just one it would be the Gold Monster. It just seems better suited overall for what I am up to these days. I am hanging onto the Gold Bug 2 as much for nostalgia as anything. I swore when I got my latest shiny new model I would keep it forever “just because” but the reality is I am not one for keeping things around if they are not serving a real need.

Your question as you can see is one I am personally invested in and I really just can’t come right out and say one of these detectors is markedly superior to the other. For me it is almost sure to be a style thing and how well anyone person meshes with a particular detector. These detectors are at the same time very similar but also complete opposites. Old timers comfortable with the Gold Bug 2 will no doubt continue to be comfortable with it. But for a person totally new to both detectors? That is an extremely interesting question. Part of the problem here is I am so very familiar with the Gold Bug 2. What I consider an easy machine to run most novices would find to be just the opposite with the totally manual operation. When I was a dealer you would be amazed at how many people struggle just to learn how to ground balance a detector. I can see how a person totally new to both machines might take to the Gold Monster far more rapidly. That was one of the main design goals - get novices up and running quickly.

Anyway, that was a tough question. Right now my answer for myself is “have both” but in 2018 it is very likely my Gold Monster will get a lot of use while my Gold Bug 2 may get little or none. It may even find a new home. The question in my mind keeps coming back to whether or not I should sell the Gold Bug 2, while there is no such question in my mind regarding the GM1000. It stays for sure. And that’s as close an answer as I can offer right now. Rest assured, if mastered, they both can deliver the goods.

fisher-gold-bug-2-metal-detector-with-control-panel.jpgminelab-gold-monster-1000-metal-detector-studio.jpg

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3 hours ago, mn90403 said:

Where do you live?  If you buy local you may have to pay the sales tax but you get training.  If you can travel you can buy from a dealer and then drive to their state for training if $ savings makes a difference to you.

Training is MORE IMPORTANT than sales tax free.

Mitchel

I'm in Oregon. I've never heard of any classes around here?

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Thanks Steve, for one, I rarely get to go to a real gold field. More just poking around tailings of some various abandoned mines in the mountains here in Oregon. But occasionally also picking around in bedrock areas on rivers. So most of the time I'm coin or relic hunting but I did want to have a decent machine I can use when the occasion arises. The fact that I don't get to spend hours every week nugget detecting I like the fact that the GM seems to be simple to setup and go and not have to spend hours tweaking settings and such. That said, from your post, I think I'm also gonna lean toward the waterproofness of the GM 1000 as the deciding factor. I like that I don't have to worry about it when Im around the water.

I was very confused researching the Gold Bug models as there seems to be so many different model years and versions. Think I'll order a Gold Monster today.

Thanks guys

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