Backpacking the new Minelab SDC 2300 into a Nugget Patch

[nuggethunting]

Hello All,

This weekend I got an invite from a friend that has an old nugget patch that has been pounded with the GPX and prior metal detectors. He took many ounces out of the area, but thought it might be a great place to really test the ability of the new Minelab SDC 2300 metal detector on gold that might be missed with other Minelab Pulse Induction metal detectors. He pretty much told me the area has been hit hard, so don't expect to walk out with a handful in this spot.

What was great is my current "Camelbak" hydration backpack was large enough to carry my SDC 2300. The location was a good hike away from any road, so backpacking was the ticket. Once we arrived at the location, my friend gave me the run down on the area, where most of the gold was found in the past and where he thought it might be coming from. He pretty much gave me open range to start where I wanted. I figured I would start where the largest concentration of nuggets was in the past and work out from there.

Within about 15 minutes, I had my first sweet little target. Thought for sure it was going to be a small nugget, but ended up being a lead bird shot, which I have never found with the GPX 5000. I knew right then, this could be good or bad, meaning a detector this sensitive in an area with bird shot could drive you nuts. I continued working the area with the largest concentration of gold nuggets and found a second target. This target also was another piece of bird shot. Finally, the third target in this patch sounded just a bit different and it ended up being the small nugget I found that day (probably about a grain or less at around 2 inches deep).

I ended up spending 3-4 hours working this patch pretty methodically. At the end of the hunt, I ended up with 4 gold nuggets, 5 pieces of lead bird shot and 3 bullets. No iron rubbish was found in this patch as it was so remote.

I was using the new Minelab SDC 2300 metal detector with the stock Koss UR 30 headphones and running a "Sensitivity adjustment of 3," 5 being the highest mode.

What I concluded from this hunt is the SDC 2300 can find targets much smaller than the GPX 5000, which I was unsure from the first couple of hunts. I have ever found this small of bird shot with the GPX 5000 with even a small monoloop coil. The SDC 2300 also was able to hunt over Magnetite (magnetic ironstones) without any problem, but the GPX 5000 in this area struggled with them. This was pretty amazing, knowing the SDC 2300 handled the mineralization better than the "Flagship" GPX 5000.

Take a gander at the pictures uploaded below -

For more information about the new Minelab SDC 2300, give us a call at 623.362.1459 or email us at - rob@robsdetectors.com

Rob Allison

[HumblePie]

Nice report Rob and thanks. How was the threshold... any wavering at all?

Jim.

[oldies1955]

Nice!
That thing sure has an advantage with being able to fold up like it does. Its on my lottery winnings bucket list :0

Donno how that old bullet was missed though, other ones look like recent drop ins.

WTG! You got some yellow stuff
Tom H.

[nuggethunting]

Hey Jim,

Good question on the threshold. For the most part, the SDC 2300 is very stable, but this weekend I was at a location where planes kept flying over, so it was effected by EMI. This will give you the wobbling noise, not so much the threshold, but I found myself tuning more than normal. This was a location where planes constantly fly over.

Tom, pretty slick how it fits into a medium sized hydration backpack. Great for this Winter prospecting when I really want to pack it in several miles to explore some new country. Ya, I think two of the bullets were new, but the older one was under a old cactus and was able to probe the small coil under it. Probably just missed due to the location of the target.