FORS Gold Review by Steve Herschbach - USA

[AngerManagement]

they come in as a newbie member , use images with another sites tag in them, know nothing about Australian conditions and are trying to flog their product, then have the nerve to ask us to assist them in marketing their product after posting in the wrong section of the forum to start with , but then they probably didn't take up a site sponsorship to post in the right section.

I will help out anyone that puts in some effort but if they want me to do all the bloody work they can f'ing well pay me for it or go dig their own gold.

Yes this post by me is OFF topic.

But even as a small concern; first thing I did was take up the sponsorship and read the rules... It's not like it will break the bank.

Admin, feel free to remove this post...

 

[Nokta Detectors]

Hello all... I respect all the feedbacks and the comments. However, first of all we are not asking for anybody to do the marketing for us. And Nokta did 2.5 years of research and development for this product before launching it. Nokta did get the product tested in AU but any report published by a manufacturer will not be convincing for end-users. When users were discussing FORS in the USA on forums, many users were asking whether Steve Herschbach or Ray Mills and a few others tested the product or not because they all seemed to value these individuals' opinions a lot so we sent each one a test unit because we stand behind our product. So ours was just an offer for potential customers in AU. In other words, all we said was if there are certain individuals /groups /organizations that forum members would like to read the reviews of, we can gladly send a test unit. This is all. We do have customers who are currently using the product in AU who are very happy with the performance and for those who are interested, we do have a reseller that you can contact to get more info on the product. And regarding the post being in the wrong section - you are right and sorry for that. You can remove the post if you want and we will place it in the correct section under metal detectors. Thank you all.

 

[slipped disc]

Thank you for the clarification in regard to having tested your product in Australia. On that basis, can we assume that therefore, the product will operate successfully in highly mineralised soils, and hot rock conditions ? This of course, is the - mean- test for a detector on the goldfields. I am sure the nominated re-seller has the ability to market your product in Australia. I only suggested that organising an open- field day, for a club group or organisation, would be helpful to all. Market competition is vital for product development, and benefits the end user, the Customer. Regards.

 

[Nokta Detectors]

Thank you for the clarification in regard to having tested your product in Australia. On that basis, can we assume that therefore, the product will operate successfully in highly mineralised soils, and hot rock conditions ? This of course, is the - mean- test for a detector on the goldfields. I am sure the nominated re-seller has the ability to market your product in Australia. I only suggested that organising an open- field day, for a club group or organisation, would be helpful to all. Market competition is vital for product development, and benefits the end user, the Customer. Regards.

Thank you so much for your nice response. Yes, the product will handle mineralization and hot rocks pretty well. We will discuss the open field day with our reseller and see what we can come up with.

 

[slipped disc]

Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the concerns about Nokta detectors on our soil conditions, and the offer to extend test units to confirm this. It is certainly an honest and open gesture which demonstrates your faith in the product. I hope that interested Groups will be able to explore this offer. This is also a useful P.R. situation to have direct contact with your company and the ability to have any queries addressed by your Sales Manager. This bring the term -Service- to a new level. Cheers.

 

[Goldtarget]

Steve is a member here and has posted in the past, additionally he has knowledge of Australian conditions and could likely give you a view about its suitability. In addition I'm sure he would have someone he could suggest. I don't follow JP much because I'm not across alot of places he publishes but a likely candidate. Personally I'm not after the hard sell just wanted to have a honest appraisal from some localized testing, there are many different places across this broad expanse each having their own issues. Most of the coin shooting I do is in highly mineralised conditions that the average detectorist from the other side of the world never see, let alone hunting for gold.

The simple fact still remains its a vlf that is trying to break in where pis and other vlf machines have been for many years. It's a tough sell when you consider whites had two offerings around this price (SPP and gmt) the little know but inexpensive F1A4, second hand early pis (2000 up to 2200) and more cross over vlfs (at gold xterra gbs) all of which have probably been shown to get gold. The fact remains it is unproven in a saturated market. That's not even including everything let alone the flagship high end offerings by the competition when talking about gold hunting.

I will repeat I'm open to hear feedback about this offering. The trouble I have also with these sorts of reviews is the transparency again with all due respect. Apart from real world users and a half decent video showing me how a machine is likely to behave I'm not going to source the dealership. That goes for cars bikes fishing whatever. If any of this is seem as bashing then I think I'm being misinterpreted.There's a bloke on this forum that has done some excellent reviews, ongoing reviews that explain many features and technique, if I saw him review it I would take a considered opinion of it based on that.

Now I do have an actual question, where was the testing done and what were the results? Do you have some depth testing etc?

 

[taylors3030]

Wishing you all the best Nokta detectors great service response

 

[ronniecruisin]

Hi. All. WOW! This is certainly an interesting debate. Old Hand has asked me to fill you in with my thoughts re. the Fors Gold. First of all I must stress , I have not detected any gold in the field as yet simply because I have been too busy with work commitments. But I have done quite a bit of testing with this machine around the Fosterville area near Bendigo. Generally the ground reading comes in around 82-86 which as you will know is quite high. The good things about this machine? (1). Very comfortable to operate due to good ergonomics.( The quick auto ground balance button on the handle is just like the GPX to use) , this includes the clever design of the handle with the pin point trigger and light switch setup. (2). The general build quality is good, although I agree with Steve that the switches would have been better as the waterproof design with the soft plastic covering! (3). As some of you have pointed out including Steve the LCD panel on the inside face could be perceived as poor, but I have found it not to be an issue as the small LCD in the handle does have the main info depending on what you are doing, ie Scanning ....Pinpointing or GBing, so for me, apart from menu setting, I generally don't even look at it. The small LCD is very handy and easy to read. (4). The Auto Tracking feature really does appear to work very well indeed! (5). The three Modes are well thought out and keep the machine easy to operate even for a novice! Anyone with very little detecting experience would be able to operate this unit in a very short time. (6) Value for money! At around a grand for the basic unit, it's a reasonable price IMHO. Now to the bit I'm sure you've all been waiting for.........Performance!!! My first impressions were a bit better than they are now! After using it for a number of testings, as with all VLF machines it has revealed a few issues. It does generally have good depth capability. EG. Had no trouble picking up a 10mm copper return earth cable with the standard coil which I had detected with an SPP PI and dug to see what it was. This cable is about 600mm deep. Ground reading was about 82. It is interesting to note at this point too that in two of the three modes the machine has no threshold sound so is basically silent. Only in full metal mode does it have a threshold sound. As Nokta say you can cancel out hot rocks but I suspect not as easy as they can in Europe. It does have a adjustable masking feature for this and discrimination. It is quite sensitive to small gold in air tests, but if buried you can miss them, depending on the ground. Now having said that ,as you all know, only gold that has been in the ground for eons will have that magic halo effect that makes em sound bigger than they are, so not having found any virgin gold yet I can't give you an honest comment on it's actual ability to find tiny gold. Has no problem finding reburied coins and rings etc though. But it does make a lot of iffy broken signals which quite often turn out to be falsees. BUT when you hit a solid good target it does respond pretty much like any other VLF. With a positive sound. The other thing I have found which takes a bit of getting used to is the sweep speed. This machine seems to like faster sweep speeds. If you find a target and sweep too slowly across it it may not always sound with each pass. If you sweep faster it seems to work much more positively. I think like all machines this is no different! You need to learn as much as you can to get the best out of it.! Hope this helps...If you have any questions I'm happy to help in any way I can......Regards to all.............Ronnie.

 

[slipped disc]

Well done RC. you do not come across as biased in any way, obviously, as you have bought the unit. As you say, early days.
I hope others will do the same with the other various models in the Nokta range. If so, hopefully any concerns about their performance here, may be addressed by the company, and perhaps, tweaked to suit. That would be a terrific manufacturer, customer feedback result.

 

[Goldpick]

Thanks for that Ronnie, sounds similar to the goldbug pro/G2 with the swing speeds, something that is a bit hard to get used to after using a non-motion all-metal vlf for a while.

The more detectors out there on the market, the merrier I reckon.

 

[taylors3030]

Thanks Ronnie much appreciated for posting

 

[the duck]

I have sent an email if he wants an australian to test it in the goldfields i will and give an honest opinion as although i mainly have used tesoro im not tied to any brand

 

[stalker]

Avon valley detectors in Perth are a nokta dealer ..

Question for nokta detectors ...where in Australia did you test the detectors . .

 

[stalker]

I would like to see one tested in western Australia on the hot ground .. but I really think it's going to find a place at the beach where It's more suited and tot lots. .

 

[Steve Herschbach]

Hello,

Just to clarify, my review was done for people in the US who are interested in the product. I have far too much respect for Australian conditions than to suggest it is anything more than that. However, I do believe that the Nokta units will complete strongly with the best VLF detectors on the market, whether it is in Australia or elsewhere. I am first and foremost a user of Minelab PI detectors for gold prospecting. However, for those situations where I find a VLF to be beneficial, usually in places littered with ferrous trash, it does look like the Nokta FORS Gold is going to be the unit I grab going forward.

The company is publicly telling the forum members here to just pick a reasonably well known Australian whose opinions you trust and they will send them a detector to try, no strings attached. There were absolutely no conditions placed on my use of the detector or what I might say or report about it. In fact, I warned them I might savage it in a review if I did not like it. They had enough faith in the product to send me one anyway. How many companies have offered to do that for the forum members as a whole?

JP is a good friend, but his connections with Minelab would probably preclude him being a viable candidate.

Frankly, I have found the posts by Nokta representatives on the forums to be forthright and refreshing. No extreme claims, no sales bluster, just quiet faith in the product. Some US manufacturers would do well to emulate that model.

I am having a field day prospecting lately with many exceptional finds in my poke. I was in northern Nevada the day before yesterday enjoying vistas and gold that reminded me of the Australian Outback. Good times for sure - best wishes to my friends in the land down under!

 

[Nokta Detectors]

Hello everybody... we did get a few requests for test units. Thank you all for the interest. We will evaluate the inquiries and decide on the individuals.
There will be independent tests carried out throughout Australia over the coming weeks. Thanks for the patience meanwhile.

 

[Aussie Detecting]

Just to elaborate on Dileks post. The Fors Gild was tested in the Victorian fields prior to its launch. So far our customers have had great results with gold being found. As Dilek mentioned there will be further reviews done in coming weeks. Ron, great review and much appreciated.

 

[Aussie Detecting]

This gold was found near Bendigo in highly mineralised soil by one of my customers. Let's say he's very happy

 

[Jonathan Porter]

Hello,

Just to clarify, my review was done for people in the US who are interested in the product. I have far too much respect for Australian conditions than to suggest it is anything more than that. However, I do believe that the Nokta units will complete strongly with the best VLF detectors on the market, whether it is in Australia or elsewhere. I am first and foremost a user of Minelab PI detectors for gold prospecting. However, for those situations where I find a VLF to be beneficial, usually in places littered with ferrous trash, it does look like the Nokta FORS Gold is going to be the unit I grab going forward.

The company is publicly telling the forum members here to just pick a reasonably well known Australian whose opinions you trust and they will send them a detector to try, no strings attached. There were absolutely no conditions placed on my use of the detector or what I might say or report about it. In fact, I warned them I might savage it in a review if I did not like it. They had enough faith in the product to send me one anyway. How many companies have offered to do that for the forum members as a whole?

JP is a good friend, but his connections with Minelab would probably preclude him being a viable candidate.

Frankly, I have found the posts by Nokta representatives on the forums to be forthright and refreshing. No extreme claims, no sales bluster, just quiet faith in the product. Some US manufacturers would do well to emulate that model.

I am having a field day prospecting lately with many exceptional finds in my poke. I was in northern Nevada the day before yesterday enjoying vistas and gold that reminded me of the Australian Outback. Good times for sure - best wishes to my friends in the land down under!

Hi Steve, just for the record I'm my own person when it comes to using other brands of detectors, but as you know our gold field conditions tend to preclude our options a lot when chasing nuggets due to the sometimes extreme mineralization. I enjoyed your review on the FORS Gold and found your comments to be even and unbiased.

There are plenty of places in Australia where a good VLF can be used for hunting gold nuggets, you just have to be selective and not expect them to perform everywhere, choose the right locations and the rewards can be fun.

Out of curiosity how did the FORS Gold compare to the Similar frequency versions of the Gold Bug (Gold Bug PRO I think it is)?

First post here so hello to everyone who knows me here, looks like a pretty diverse place, I see the world famous Aussie warts and all passionate debates are still going on.

Regards
JP

 

[the duck]

We are a passionate bunch thats for sure, having used VLF detectors on the victorian goldfields i know the short comings they have with hot rocks and not so much the falsing but lack of penetration is always the problem
When using a VLF on shallow bedrock areas that are trashy they do have their use, but as true goldies know minelab is the only way to go and a lot of people get angry when a VLF is compared to a late model PI machine
That is why i don't believe a VLF should ever be compared to a late model PI machine they should be compared to the next best VLF of which there are a few

But im watching this post closely as it is borderline advertising and self promotion as we now have the manufacturer and one of the australian distributors in this post and we are having question asked from members who are sponsors and have to pay to advertise