Fisher Gold Bug DP
Price: $750
Avg. Score: 
4.5
Based on 2 reviews
4.5Based on 2 reviews
Avg. Durability:
5.00
Avg. Ease of use:
5.00
Gold bug dp loves nickels.
July 28, 2013
I live and Indiana and purchase my Gold Bug DP 8 month ago. I bought the
machine specifically to coin hunt and hunt for micro jewelry. After many
hours using this machine I would like to share my view point with you.
I own many different detectors and over 20 years experience to base my opinion on. The 1st trip out: I was eager to try the machine and saved a few good places to use it on when the weather cleared. I also had in mind a few detectors I owned and wanted to try it against. After 1 hour using the machine, I hated the machine, I liked the weight, but I thought the machine was a mistake because of all the problems I was having finding good targets.
I switched machines, went back over what I had already hunted and found a few good coins. The next several hunts also ended with me hating the machine and I contemplated sending the unit back. The Turning point: About the 5th hunt I started finding a few coins, but I was still having some confusion on the tones and the erratic readings I was experiencing on the display. The light was fading fast and I was forced to finish out the hunt in the dark. 3 hours after light had passed I finally figured out my problems and I began to dig the good finds with little junk!
What happened? I was forced to hunt by tone and not reading the numerical display. The tone qualities on this machine are amazing. I am now able to pretty accurately guess what I am going to dig. The machine is sensitive to EMI buried lines etc. Keep your sensitivity low for your 1st set of batteries are used up, then your learning curve will be shorter then mine.
Last week I went to my back yard and hunted a 13'x26' area, I have hunted this with my Minelab, Tesoro, Fisher CZ models and a Garret. Now the results were a little concerning, I found way to much stuff! 8 old pennies and a nickel. Most these were dug at 4" to 6" depth. What happened? Not sure at this point but I had a hunch.
Proving Grounds: I went to a elementary school that is located about a 100 yards from my house. Last few weeks I searched an area that was 40'x120' with a Fisher CZ-3D and I found a few coins. This Trip I ground balance the machine made 3 steps and Ding! Good target 4" down, reading 57 and 58. Yup a nickel! After 1/2 a day in this area I dug out 2 quarters, 10 Dimes, 12 nickels and 19 pennies only three were at the surface. Now I am upset...Why did my other detectors not find these coins??? Truthfully...Who cares!
This detector is my newest it should out perform my others.
My Summary: This Detector has Several Key points I liked.
1-This Detector is Hot on Nickels! Smokes all my detectors.
2-Finds the coins in trash better then all my other detectors.
3-Love the weight! Easy to swing.
4-Great Battery Life!
5-Good Dollar value based on performance.
6-Great Owners Manual. Read it 3 times!!!!
The Bad points.
1-No volume control. Use Premium Head Phones...A must!!!
2-Electrical interference issues.
3-Steel Bottle caps.
4-Finds small items that you do not want while coin hunting! You will figure it out!
The detector was used with the stock coil, I liked using it on the large open ball parks and soccer fields. It did good in school grounds and homesteads. I have yet to hit any woods, but I am pleased with the performance now that I understand all the tones and noises it makes.
One time I dug out a dime with a pull tab above it and a nail next to it. Swing speed is what ever you want, fast or slow. I had the best luck coin shooting with the discrimination set on 40 and most items I dug were good. Study the chart in owners manual it tells you with good accuracy what the numerical readout is on coins.
Dig everything your 1st week and learn what the chirps, bleeps, beeps and screamers are. By the end of the week you will know the tones.
After you master the tones then you can work on reading the numbers. If I had this detector stolen today, I would order another one immediately. I am ordering the 5" coil for it this week and going to try my luck in a real trashy areas. Small jewelry tested well, but so far I have only found 1 ring with it. Now I am faced with the decision of what to do with my detectors that do not live up to this level of performance! Hello e-bay!
Overall Rating
Durability
Ease of Use
Would you recommend this to a new user?
Yes, absolutely!
Tim from
Indiana
212
Goldbug DP
April 11, 2013
Despite all the good feedback I have read, It didn't match my expectations.
It did however match the utube tests that I had watched and thought they
must have done something wrong, nope, it just doesn't go deep at all.
Not impressed.
Nicely built, well built, light weight. Nice LCD, easy to use, really well programmed. Nice information that it gives out on the display. But for depth, just disappointing.
Tested for gold, a 2 inches on 1g nugget and 4 inches on 2.3g nuggets. Around 8 to 10 for coins and rings. This was an airtest, in the ground its less and in discrimination mode its less, mineralized ground less.
In all metal mode, until you are at a shallow depth, you don't know whether you have a target or just iron and threshold ground mineralization movements. Either I had targets everywhere or this is the case it was. I did try and dig up some of these as an interest only to find nothing but just mineral soil causing it. It didn't sound like a target, just the rise and fall of the threshold. Which sounds just like when you pass target in an air test at near maximum range. Until its closer to the coil you don't get any indication what it is, which is just like your threshold going up and down as you sweep.
But this was easily matched and in some cases bettered by my pioneer 505. For the money, thinking something else. Still testing it mind you but for gold, doesn't seem a good idea. Whats the DP stand for anyways?
Definitely need to test this more, and next will just dig everything that gives a rise and fall of the threshold. I switch to discrimination mode sometimes to check large rise and falls but nothing. But will dig everything anyways.
But if thats the case then there was a zillions of things in the soil. Which I doubt else everyone would be out digging.
Overall Rating
Durability
Ease of Use
Would you recommend this to a new user?
Yes, absolutely!
Lee Mazengarb from
Wollongong
910