The Fisher Gold Bug-2 is labeled as a "legendary" metal detector on their website for hunting gold nuggets. They also say the Gold Bug-2 offers "extraordinary sensitivity, ultra high frequency, iron discrimination, dust and moisture resistance, audio boost and the ability to operate in extremely mineralized soil." The factory coil this detector comes with is either a 10 inch elliptical coil or 6.5 inch coil.

Lost Treasure magazine has a nice review and field test of the Gold Bug 2, a bit dated (1995), but still worth a read if you're interested in this metal detector. They like the Gold Bug 2 is easy to assemble and offer some tips on various settings for the detector. In conclusion they say about the Gold Bug 2 "I suspect this new detector will have the same success as the original Gold Bug. I heartily recommend this detector to anyone wanting a extremely sensitive detector capable of finding the tiniest of nuggets as well as the larger and deeper ones."

We're going off the beaten path a bit here, but rather enjoyed the article Nugget Shooting in Hydraulic Mines, and yes they use the Gold Bug 2 as one of their metal detectors is why we've posted it here. They offer some great tips for settings and adjusting your Metal Detector for nugget shooting, how to best use your detector for nugget shooting, and some of the basic tools you may need. Too bad the article is left off as "To be continued".

Here's the Link to the (warning: PDF file ahead) field test from Gold and Treasure Hunter Magazine archived now at Fisher's site. The review isn't the greatest out there, however they do have a nice chart from an air test that shows the responses they get from the Gold Bug 2 based on the coil size and nugget size. In case you don't have a PDF viewer, here's a quick snippet: "To maximize the performance of the Gold Bug-2, Fisher has designed 6-1/2 inch and 14 inch elliptical search coils. The 6-1/2 inch coil will locate smaller nuggets at greater depths, and the 14 inch coil will locate larger nuggets at greater depth, enhancing the range of the detector."