Robert Taylor

I've attached the tiny Black Hills gold ring my wife found. It's a child's ring, but proof the GS ACTUALLY finds small gold. 🙂

Hi, guys. I'm new to the site and metal detecting, although I've owned my Fisher Gold Strike for nearly a decade. It sat in the closet until very recently. I've taken it out a few times. My wife even found a Black Hills Gold ring within the first five minutes of use in a park! 🙂 I was wondering if some of my experiences (mostly frustration) with the Gold Strike might be worth helping(???) those with Gold Strikes since I see nearly nothing online for settings and the instruction manual is all kinds of confusing in comparison to most other standard detectors. I'm absolutely open to moderators/more experienced Gold Strike owners to edit my information below: Here's how I've gleaned use of the Gold Strike thus far (hope it helps): The GS has a two-tone target audio system: a "low-low" beeping sound (ferrous metals) and a "low-high" beeping sound (non-ferrous metals). This gets overwhelming in "All Metal" mode in most settings but in highly mineralized soil it'll drive you nuts. HINT 1: turn your volume down to 1 and just listen for the "low-high" tones. HINT 2: use headphones - they'll save a ton of batteries. Button 1 -- "MENU" This is pretty much the all-powerful settings button. When you press "Menu", your screen will cycle from left to right through all of your settings. Once you settle on one dial, use the "UP"/"DOWN" arrows to move your choice that direction. Once you are done making your preferences, push the "PP/MEM" button to return to detecting. Button 2 -- "ALL METAL / DISC" "ALL METAL" setting = ALL metal, ferrous and non-ferrous "DISC" setting = actual discrimination setting to weed out specific metals. In DISC mode, highest numbers are non-ferrous only to lowest numbers are for all metal sounds. Button 3 -- "AUTO GROUND" To auto-ground your GS, place the coil on the ground and hold the "Auto Ground" button for 2 seconds. While holding the button, raise your coil approx. 6" off the ground, hold for 1 additional second and release the button. Your GS should be auto-grounded and ready to roll. Manual grounding is more advanced and I haven't gotten that far yet. (Moderators feel free to insert those settings here) Button 4 -- "TRACK" The GS has the ability to "auto-track"-away hot rocks/highly mineralized soil. By selecting the "TRACK" button, you will still get the low-low beeps, but only positive (non-ferrous) targets should get the low-high beeps. HINT: If you see "TRACK" on your screen, tracking is on. If you do not see "TRACK" on your screen, it is off. Button 5 -- "THRESH" The GS Threshold ranges from +4 through -99. If you are in non-mineralized soil (parks, plowed fields, etc.), you would want to be closer to +4 (starting at zero works too). The more mineralized/noisier the ground, push it closer to -99 for heavy mineralization. It is recommended for most soils to be around -5 or -10 to start and see what is working. Button 6 -- "SENS" The Sensitivity button gives you better depth ranging from 0-10. >5 setting is for normal soil. <5 is for more mineralized soil. The higher the number, the better the depth your GS will search. Button 7 -- "LIGHT" is a faint backlight for if you are detecting in fading daylight. Button 8 -- "PP/MEM" You can set up to three specific Memory settings (your GS will keep whatever the last settings were when your machine was shut off the next time you power on). I haven't set any Memories yet so you're gonna have to read your manual on that. The PP setting is your all-powerful button to turn off the MENU button so you can get back to detecting. I believe this is also a "Pinpointer" button but I use a separate pinpointer so I haven't used that setting yet. ==== The numbering system when you find a target on the GS is not a "target" number (i.e. the # does not tell you if its gold/nickel/silver/iron/etc.). The number that shows when you are over a target is for DEPTH = MEANING: The higher the number, the closer to the surface. Use your low-low or low-high sound to tell you if it's worth checking. Also, if you see a "negative" number (i.e. -25), that usually means ferrous metal. If you see a "positive" number (i.e. +33), that usually means non-ferrous. HINT: The GS does not distinguish between "long metals" (i.e. nails, spikes, etc.). If you are getting a low-high signal, do a "90-degree sweep" to verify that it stays low-high. If you run it 90-degrees and it goes from low-high to low-low, you may be getting ferrous. == Here are some basic settings for the four main "search fields". These MAY be off slightly. Moderators: feel free to adjust them if I've got them wrong. 🙂 PARK - Auto-ground (if you're experienced, feel free to manual ground), THRESH +0 to +4, SENS >5, DISC higher setting, TRACK OFF -- if you choose TRACK ON, THRESH should be -5 to -10 FIELD - Auto-ground, THRESH +0 TO -10, SENS >5...10, DISC (up for ALL METALS, down for non-ferrous), TRACK OFF -- if you choose TRACK ON, THRESH should be -5 to -10 BEACH - Auto-ground, THRESH -99 (your ears will thank me), SENS <5, ALL METAL ON, TRACK ON GOLD FIELD - Auto-ground, THRESH -99, SENS <5, DISC closer to -99 or ALL METAL, TRACK ON == Like I said, I'm a NEWB so all of the above may be total rubbish - the moderators can correct/remove anything that is incorrect. Thus far, at least they seem to be closer to working since the GS is NOT a turn-and-burn machine like the original Gold Bugs. I hope this post can help someone and give the Gold Strike a chance against all the new, fabulous machines out there. I DO know the Gold Strike WILL find gold - my wife's discovery in five minutes is a perfect example. But this machine WILL test your patience until you work out the kinks. Hope this helps. THANK YOU to the folks in this forum. You're more helpful than you can imagine. 🙂 Cheers from Oregon.