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Hi Steve,

I recently acquired a Fisher Goldstrike metal detector at a really good price. I know it's a older machine, what's your thoughts on the machine-good,bad or ugly. Is it a decent machine for gold,coins,relics or all the above. Also lastly please give me the strong points and the weak points of the machine, any information would be very helpful.

Thank You Very Much,

Keith

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I've used one before and not nearly as sensitive as the GB2. Probably has to do with the auto ground balance. It will find the pickers and above.

I got rid of it quick as it did not serve my purpose.

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Hello Keith,

Welcome to the forum!

The Fisher Gold Strike is a much maligned detector and there are very few of them in actual use. It was designed solely as a prospecting detector, and there is almost no information at all about how it may fare as a coin, relic, or jewelry detector. But I can help you with that.

For gold prospecting the Gold Strike is a reasonably powerful deep detecting 30 kHz VLF detector. You have the choice of pure all metal "dig-it-all" mode or a ferrous/non-ferrous discrimination mode.

The Gold Strike can be used to find gold as well as most VLF detectors, but it has a couple quirks, the main being the dual tone operation. From the Owners Manual:

“The two-tone audio system provides you with more information per sweep, acting as either a non-metal/metal I.D. system in the “all-metal” mode, or a ferrous/nonferrous I.D. system in the “discrimination” mode. While sweeping the Gold Strike search coil over a target, you may hear either one or two tones. The first tone, or “low” tone is to alert you to the presence of a target. The second tone, or “high” tone, if present, alerts you to the type of target.

ALL METAL MODE:

If you are hunting in what we call the “true” all-metal mode, a low tone signifies the presence of a target — this target could be metal or a hot rock — something that is strong enough to cause a received signal. So, how do you know if there is a good metal target under your coil? There will only be metal under your coil if the secondary “high” tone sounds off. Therefore, when hunting in the “true” all-metal mode, you are aware of hot rocks and severe changes in the ground conditions with a low-tone only signal. If the low tone is followed by the high tone, you know you have passed over a metal target.

DISCRIMINATION (DISC) MODE:

If you are hunting in the discrimination mode, the DISC control setting you have entered will determine the occurrence of the secondary high tone. As before, the primary low tone will sound off at the presence of any target, but the secondary high tone will only sound off for targets not blocked by the discriminator control setting. For example, if the DISC control is set for 99, only nonferrous target should activate the high tone. We encourage you to adjust the DISC control to an optimum setting for your surroundings and hunting preferences — take some time to learn how the Gold Strike responds to the targets you want to recover.”

That is the weirdest system for a VLF. Basically, all metals and all hot rocks make a low tone. In all metal of it is a low tone only it is a hot rock. If the low tone is followed by a high tone it is metal. In discriminate mode you can set to have the secondary high tone stay silent if the item is ferrous, but the initial low tone remains whether the item is a hot rock or ferrous. A low tone and a high tone with the disc set to reject ferrous indicates a non-ferrous item.

Simple, right? What this made for was a remarkably noisy detector, and if you get into hotrocks one that can be maddening. Basically is signals on everything no matter what, and then additionally makes a second signal to alert you to diggable targets.

Once you get your head around that though what you have is a simple ferrous/non-ferrous detector that can be used for most any purpose where you want to dig all non-ferrous targets. It can be made to work in its own quirky way. The model was short lived so there was only one accessory coil available for it, a small coil. A larger coil was never produced.

I have to admit that like many people I never gave the Gold Strike a fair go but I do know it works. It remains a machine I am curious about just because it is so different. If I ever ran across one for under a couple hundred bucks I would be tempted to get one just to learn more about its capabilities. Best of luck with yours.

fisher-gold-strike.jpg

Fisher Gold Strike Data & Reviews

Fisher Gold Strike Owners Manual

Review of the Fisher Gold Strike by Chris Gholson

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Impressive report Steve, I remember back when they came out I was really thinking about buying the Gold Strike, It still looks like an impressive machine but from what you say it makes me wonder if I would of had the Patients to Learn it, That double tone feature would drive me nuts, Still A Good looking machine, I hope you do find one so we can hear how it goes, 30khz That's A Nice balance in between Frequency??

John

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The 30 kHz is interesting. The main problem for Fisher was the success of the Gold Bug 2. Everyone including myself was expecting a Gold Bug 3. To this day I have wanted a detector just like the Gold Bug 2 but which could also be switched from 71 kHz to 15 kHz. The designer of the Gold Bug 2 (Dave Johnson) was no longer with Fisher however and it was under new managment. A new engineer who was also new to metal detectors came up with the Gold Strike. It weighed more, cost more, and did not detect small gold as well as a Gold Bug 2, although it went deeper on large gold.

The threshold control works backwards (lower is higher?) and reading the description of how it operates in the owners manual is surreal. There is a large number displayed which appears to be a target id number but which is actually a target strength indicator. Basically, the louder the signal, the bigger the number. I have never seen another detector do that and it serves no real function, being just a numeric representation of what you are hearing.

The machine was too different and totally bombed when it was released. I did one if my very first reviews on it that I should dig up and post as there is some interesting history there. The machine really was unique.

I see some advertised for sale as new in box still which is weird as it has been something like over ten years since the Gold Strike was discontinued.

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  • 3 months later...

Why am I surprised ! Yall are Fisher Followers (pro Fisher) I on the other hand am pro White's. That said, I bought this Fisher gold strike as a companion to my Whites GMT !!!! These two machines are so similar in performance it's not funny. The ability to spot gold under hot rocks is what these two machines do well. High mineralized ground is no challenge for either of these machines !! Whites build quality is better in comparison with these two MD's. That said, I'd buy a used Gold Strike used for under 300 before I'd buy a new GMT. Their both top notch and I will never need an upgrade!!!

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Thanx Steve ! I guess the proper and more correct way to have described myself would have been to say I'm pro made in USA !!!

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