Best Settings In Hot Ground For Gold Bug 2?

[Gaustad18]

Hey guys,

I have been using my Gold Bug 2 out in Franconia, Arizona, mainly for hunting meteorites. I have found a few small pieces there and am really enjoying this machine, as it is extremely sensitive and screams when it goes over a chondrite. With that being said, I am still a beginner with this machine and would like to ask for advice when dealing with hot ground and hot rocks. There are tons of hot basalt rocks, ironstones, and other hot rocks at Franconia, which makes for very noisy hunts. It gets frustrating as I start out because my machine seems to pick up everything and it's tough to differentiate what the sounds are sometimes. Do you guys have any tips or suggestions for the best settings to use for this machine, and what coil size is best? I am currently using the 10" coil, I feel like this gives me some more coverage than the 6.5." 

The settings I use when at Franconia are as follows:

-Sensitivity and volume: 10

-I ground balance the machine every hour or so as I am hunting, pretty easy to do on this machine.

-I don't use the iron disc mode or the audio boost. The meteorites I am looking for contain a lot of nickel and iron so I'm not sure if these settings would help me or hurt me. 

-I keep the default setting for mineralization. 

I have gotten better with detecting and have heard great reviews of this machine. It is noisy on hot ground, but when I do swing over a meteorite, or even trash, foil, bullets, wire, it screams. Would like to hear what y'all would suggest and some settings that could be modified for using in hot ground.

 

-A.J.

[Aureous]

Use the Chondrites you have found to do a iron disc check. The Ni-Fe rich Chondrites could allow this setting to be used. Aside from that, try the mineralization filter at 'High' to see if your Chondrites still ping good enuff. Alter your gain to 5-6 as the 10 setting is waaaay too high. I never found anywhere that could provide calm audio at 10. The 10" coil is ideal for open country as you need the coverage.

[Gaustad18]

Thank you for the tips, Aureous. I will try this out on my hunt next weekend. The chondrites really zip on this machine, so I'm still trying to figure out how to really tune in to their unique sound. I think reducing the sensitivity a bit will help a lot as well.

[tslick]

Volume all the way, 5-6 as mentioned maybe lower and ground balance way more often so you are tuned takes a second. Ground can change every foot or two. You can run slight threshold or none. When you hit something it will still bang with no threshold. Just note you'll have to up the threshold every time you ground balance. Bring a space rock with you to test and see which way works better for you.