Nokta/Makro FORS Relic Brochure BRFR040316EN

Nokta FORS CoRe metal detector
The Nokta representative has said that the Nokta FORS Gold and Nokta FORS CoRe are basically the same detector. The FORS Gold was intended as a machine marketed for the prospecting market, with much of that being in third world countries. They wanted to make it clear the machine was intended for and capable of prospecting for gold and the best way to make that clear is in the name.

The FORS CoRe is literally aimed at the coin and relic market, and the name is derived from that - Coin & Relic.

The two detector are obviously different colors with different decals. But how about operationally? They currently are the same price so why chose one over the other?

The decision was made to simplify the FORS Gold by removing one operation mode - the Conductive Ground or COG mode. The COG mode expands the ground balance range to include not only mineralized ground but also the conductive salt range. We would best recognize this as a salt or beach mode. It is intended primarily for beach use however it may also very well have applications for alkali salt flat detecting and would be a good prospecting option to have. The FORS Gold can compensate for conductive salt ground by the more drastic measure of increasing the ID Mask setting until the signal from salt ground is eliminated. This works but employing ground balance as in the COnductive Ground mode is the preferred solution. For this one simple reason I recommend people buy the FORS CoRe instead of the FORS Gold since they are the same price at this time. Do note that by adjusting out the effects of conductive salt you also eliminate small gold signals since the two overlap. This is just the trade off you make to be able to operate a detector on conductive ground.

There is one other operational difference between the FORS CoRe and FORS Gold that I am aware of. From the manuals:

FORS CoRe TONE:

It allows you to change the audio frequency of the threshold and target warning tones according to your preference. There are 5 different audio frequencies ranging from treble to bass. Tone change does not affect the iron tone. It is active in the General Search, DI2 and COG modes. It is inactive in the Discrimination 3 (DI3) mode. It changes the audio frequency of the threshold sound in the General Search mode and the gold/non-ferrous metal sound in the DI2 and COG modes.

FORS Gold TONE:

It allows you to change the audio frequency of the threshold and target warning tones according to your preference. There are 5 different audio frequencies ranging from treble to bass. Tone change does not affect the iron tone. It is active in the General Search and Boost (BST) modes only. It is inactive in the Discrimination 3 mode. It changes the audio frequency of the threshold sound in the General Search mode and the gold/non-ferrous metal sound in the BST mode (TONE 02 -TONE 03 - TONE 04 - TONE 05).

NOTE: YOUR DEVICE WILL START IN BOOST MODE TONE 4. WHEN USING THE BOOST MODE, IF YOU CHANGE THE TONE SETTING OF THE DEVICE TO 1 (TONE 01) THE DEVICE WILL PRODUCE A SINGLE TONE FOR ALL METALS (GOLD, NON-FERROUS, FERROUS) ENABLING YOU TO HEAR SMALLER GOLD NUGGET SIGNALS MORE CLEARLY.

Note that DI2 (Discriminate, 2 Tones) on the FORS CoRe and BST (Boost) appear to be the same mode. It is possible BST has been tweaked for extra performance while prospecting but frankly I doubt it. The big difference is that it appears BST can be switched from a two tone discriminate mode to a single tone discriminate mode. This in effect changes the FORS Gold into a simple beep dig unit reminiscent of something like a single knob Tesoro. Just set the ID Mask to wherever you want and dig everything that beeps. By going extra low the division between ferrous and non-ferrous can be set better than on many other detectors - could be something here a person can apply to good advantage.

A lot of detectors if you set the discrimination control to zero there is still some built in ferrous rejection. They are not true "zero disc" units. Some are calibrated to give you a true zero disc setting, but the Nokta units go beyond this. The control incorporates not only the ferrous range but drops all the way down into the ground range itself, allowing for a very nice ability to fine tune the discrimination ferrous range from 0 - 40.

Nokta FORS VDI Chart

0 - 5 Hot Rocks
5 -25 Mineralized Ground
25 - 35 Salty and Alkali Soils
10 - 40 Ferrous Targets (Iron, nails)
40 - 50 Foil, Small Gold
56 - 58 US Nickel
82 - 83 Zinc Penny
84 - 86 US Dime
88 - 92 US Quarter
95 - 99 Hot Rocks

To sum up, at the same price I still think the FORS CoRe is the way to go. I have suggested to Nokta that they need to make the FORS Gold slightly less expensive than the CoRe in recognition of the Gold lacking a mode the CoRe includes for no extra charge.
More information on the Nokta FORS Gold

Nokta/Makro FORS Relic User Manual, 3.43 MB pdf file, 32 pages
Nokta/Makro FORS Relic Data & Reviews
Nokta/Makro Metal Detector Forum

Nokta/Makro FORS Gold+ User Manual, 3.1 MB pdf file, 33 pages
Nokta/Makro FORS Gold+ Data & Reviews
Nokta/Makro Metal Detector Forum

Nokta/Makro FORS Gold+ Brochure, 3.3 MB pdf file, 4 pages
Nokta/Makro FORS Gold+ Data & Reviews
Nokta/Makro Metal Detector Forum

Nokta/Makro FORS Gold User Manual, 3.48 MB pdf file, 33 pages
Nokta/Makro FORS Gold Data & Reviews
Nokta/Makro Metal Detector Forum