California Gold with Minelab SDC 2300

[Steve Herschbach]

Chris Ralph and I spent the last couple days at a location he knew of, each of us with our SDC 2300 detectors. We found 79 nuggets totaling nearly a half ounce in total. Chris got the most gold, as is fitting since it is his location - thanks Chris! I got 27 nuggets at 5.3 grams total. The smallest piece in lower right hand corner is only 0.7 grains on my freshly calibrated digital powder scale. That's 0.045 grams. Great little machine for pulling small gold out of hot ground. Yeah, other detectors would have found some of this gold. I am not trying to convince anyone otherwise. The point is the SDC does it and does it easily, with no fuss or muss, no magic settings or coils, and virtually no ground or hot rock response.

 

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[Hard Prospector]

Very nice haul Steve, and great pic. I'm curious if the SDC2300 would be any more effective hitting gold/quartz specimens than other PI's out there.

 

[Army of 1]

Very nice haul Steve, and great pic. I'm curious if the SDC2300 would be any more effective hitting gold/quartz specimens than other PI's out there.

Hi H.P , the short answer is yes , at least compared to the Minelab GPX series , there are many here in Australia that use GPX's and have added the SDC to their arsenal to detect areas thought to have been cleaned out and have great success finding specimens and small Gold that seems to be outside the GPX's detecting " window " ..cheers Mick

 

[NeoTokyo]

Very nice finds there!

Its good to see that the SDC 2300 is performing so well.

 

[goldenmojo]

WOW! Like to see more of that.

 

[2cmorau]

Minelabs achilles'heel has been solved, very nice sweet photos of finds out of my price range, so i will have to stck to my TDI, GMT

 

[Hard Prospector]

Minelabs achilles'heel has been solved, very nice sweet photos of finds out of my price range, so i will have to stck to my TDI, GMT

If I didn't already have two TDI's and 7 accessory coils, I would throw down the dough for the SDC2300.

 

[Ron (CA)]

Nice Gold Steve!!

 

[GarretDiggingAz]

Steve
Way to go with the SDC. Seems like it performs well enough. I've heard the ATX has been very successful with small gold as well. What were some of the depths you were finding them in?
How do we compare PI units to each other?
Did minelab come out with this in response to the ATX as well? Seems almost identical as far as concept (which I love) and weight. Plus being waterproof up to 10'. About time they let us detect in wet conditions. So now I've got to explore yet another PI possibility.
Thanks for posting the pic Steve. Maybe we could bump into ya in AZ this year. More flooding as of yesterday and possibly more today. So that means more nuggets to be found. Thank god summers about over, so I'll have more time.

 

[Steve Herschbach]

Steve
Way to go with the SDC. Seems like it performs well enough. I've heard the ATX has been very successful with small gold as well. What were some of the depths you were finding them in?
How do we compare PI units to each other?
Did minelab come out with this in response to the ATX as well? Seems almost identical as far as concept (which I love) and weight. Plus being waterproof up to 10'. About time they let us detect in wet conditions. So now I've got to explore yet another PI possibility.
Thanks for posting the pic Steve. Maybe we could bump into ya in AZ this year. More flooding as of yesterday and possibly more today. So that means more nuggets to be found. Thank god summers about over, so I'll have more time.

Depth to a few inches. What was impressive was not the depth but the soil being about 50% magnetite from what I saw from my magnet. A VLF would be nearly useless in this stuff.

I honestly think both Garrett and Minelab sunk a lot of money into developing a housing for a military mine detector specification. Having done so, both needed to leverage that investment by cramming something in that housing they could sell to the public. Parallel development tracks. It does appear however with the huge lead time in the Minelab announcement of the SDC that they were attempting to get people to hold off on the ATX until the SDC came out.

I have to be one of the only people on the planet who owns a Garrett ATX, Minelab GPX and SDC, and White's TDI. I love PI detectors for what I do.

The short story on the ATX versus the SDC is they are both very capable detectors. There are many reasons why a person might want to purchase one over the other, the main difference obviously being the price.

However, I have both and can use either whenever I want. Bottom line is if I am headed out to look for a nugget I am more likely to grab the SDC. If I am going to put the detector in the water, I am more likely to grab the ATX.

It all boils down to this. The SDC is lighter than the ATX and the coil is more resistant to false signals if knocked against rocks. That means it is easier for me to use all day for days on end.

I do believe the SDC has the edge for tiny gold but that is splitting hairs stuff. The manufacturers rarely seem to understand how important ergonomics is when prospecting. Man, I'm working out there! I am climbing hills, gullies, crawling through brush, and constantly working the detector around rocks and brush. I hold the detector at odd ball angles and even over my head at time reaching high up a bank.

So if the ATX and SDC had 100% identical performance I would go SDC for ergonomic reasons. The SDC having a slight edge on tiny stuff is just icing on the cake.

That said, Garrett could easily trump the SDC just by putting it in a lighter weight well balanced box with standard coils. I would love to see an ATX styled more like a White's TDI SL and stock with a tuned 5" x 10" DD. Something like that at around four pounds (TDI SL is only 3.5 lbs) and the SDC would stay home.

Then Minelab could trump that by stuffing the SDC into a Eureka Gold box. Or Fisher could trump them both by finally getting a properly designed prospecting PI to market. The VLF world bores me these days because there is so much more yet to be done with PI technology.

 

[meMiner]

Since you are targeting nuggets that are a few inches down, are you mostly hunting exposed and fractured bedrock or simply everywhere? I am asking because I suspect when I am detecting that I am maybe not looking in the highest potential spots and should instead focus on shallow bedrock. By the way, nice haul of nuggets. I wish you continued success.

 

[Steve Herschbach]

Gold tends to find bedrock, so I try to do so also. In tailing piles/mined areas a nugget can lurk anywhere. In desert country aeolian (or eolian) placers form near surface gold. Still, finding areas with bedrock at less than a foot is always job one. Or if big gold and a Minelab PI, two feet.

 

[delnorter]

Steve, it sure is great to read your very understandable evaluations, comparisons and opinions of various detectors. I truly appreciate your and others sharing your experience with the machines as well as the knowledge you all share about the incredibly diverse nature of gold.

Thank you all,
Mike

 

[AzViper]

Here is something of interest. Now I cannot back this up but Steve can as he owns both of these fantastic machines. Below is from Rusty Curry of Garrett of which I just received an email from. Rusty says,

"I would like to share some info with you if I may regarding the ATX. If we put our smallest 8” ( 20 cm ) mono coil on the ATX like on the SDC2300, then there is only a 7 oz. difference between the Garrett and the Minelab. Not very significant. With our larger and deeper penetrating and very sensitive 10 x 12 DD coil its only 1 lb. difference with the advantage of finding deeper targets"

 

[Steve Herschbach]

Rusty probably used the published weight of the SDC 2300. It a actually is lighter than published at 5.7 lbs. with four NiMH "C" cells as weighed on my digital postal scales. The ATX with stock 10" x 12" coil is 6.9 lbs so 1.2 lbs heavier.

My Minelab SDC 2300 with four NiMH C cells, 8" mono coil and scuff cover weighs 5 lbs 11.5 oz. This is the stock configuration of the SDC.

My Garrett ATX with eight NiMH AA cells, 8" mono coil and scuff cover weighs 6 lbs 8.5 oz. Note this is not the stock coil on the ATX but the optional 8" mono coil and scuff cover available at extra cost.

So 8" coil to 8" coil that makes the ATX 13 ounces heavier.

Again, I do not fault Rusty at all for the difference in weights as he is no doubt going by published weights and I am actually weighing both detectors on postal scales. As far as significance or the lack thereof, in my opinion both the ATX and SDC are too heavy and I would love to see either taken out of their heavy waterproof housings and crammed into compact lightweight packages. Maybe I am just getting spoiled or my expectations are getting pretty high but I think anything over 4 lbs is too heavy. I give waterproof detectors a pass in that regard but what if you do not need waterproof? And seriously, how many desert hunters need waterproof?

The ATX and SDC are both capable detectors and with hard working proficient operators will deliver the goods. I feel fortunate to have both.