2 more days with the SDC 2300: 52 nuggets and 8.8 grams


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I took Steve Herschbach out to the place where I'd been having some success with my SDC 2300, but the patch I had been working on was petering out. The first morning, I got three tiny nuggets. However there are loads of workings there and Steve headed up the hill and found some spots up there were he was getting some gold. After lunch we went up there and Steve took one small ridge and I took the other. Although we were only about 15 yards apart and we were both using the SDC 2300, there was no cross talk between the detectors. Turns out my ridge was the more productive of the two, but we didn't know that then, and Steve got some good gold too. Once I got started, it was just one little nugget after the other. I would only be searching a few minutes between finds, and there was very little trash. I think I got a couple square nails and a few bird shot - and 29 nuggets. One of them was a cool kind of arborecent shape that is unlike any nugget I have ever dug, but I have seen some photos of pieces like that. Today we went at it again, and I mostly just kept pounding that same ridge I was working on from one end to the other. Steve found another little slope that yielded some chunky nuggets. The weather was fantastic, just enough clouds to keep the temperature just right, great company, beautiful California scenery. Today I got another 23 nuggets and again just a small hand full of trash items.

The total weight for two days with the SDC was 8.8 grams, well over a quarter ounce, almost 6 pennyweight.

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Thanks for a great time Chris - I had a blast! I don't care what anyone says, finding little nuggets is fun. And they do add up.

My larger nugget is really interesting. Obviously formed in a tiny cavity between little quartz crystals. The crystals left distinct cavities and faces on the nugget. Will have to get a close up and post tomorrow.

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Hey Chris & Steve,

Congrats on the SDC 2300 finds. I managed to hunt yesterday all day searching some worked out spots and found 3 nuggets with the GPX at depth, 4 small ones (smallest being 0.9 grains) with the SDC 2300. The little nuggets do add up, especially when you're getting the numbers like you guys are getting up there. Just a short time you will have those units paid for in small gold.

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I would make it cost less so more people can afford it. It is worth what is being charged, but unfortunately it is more than many people can afford, even used.

While I appreciate the cool waterproof fold up design a lighter weight less expensive package with interchangeable coils would be welcome. Stuff the SDC in the Eureka box and allow me to chest or hip mount. 5.7 lbs is not killing me but I do feel it by the end of the day.

While many people would wish for a larger coil if I want to hunt bigger deeper gold I will use my GPX 5000. I wish I could stick a smaller coil on, something like the 3" x 6" coil on the Gold Bug 2. The 8" mono cannot get down into pockets and narrow crevices where small gold nuggets lurk and a smaller coil would allow that and leverage what the detector is designed to do - get small gold. The same reasoning is why I always have a small coil on my Gold Bug 2 and almost never use even the 10" coil, let alone the larger 14" coil.

Those are wishes and I am not holding my breath. If I could have one thing right now I think could be easily added without changing the physical machine itself it would be a volume control. The SDC works at a preset volume that is indirectly affected by the sensitivity setting in that higher sensitivity settings enhance signals and make them louder, but also by increasing the loudness of the internal noise generated by the electronics. The software should be changed to use a combination of buttons to increase or decrease the overall volume.

My fix will be to use the headphone adapter now available to use my own headphones with volume controls. If need be I can also use an amp to boost the volume and maybe even go to a shoulder mounted speaker like I use on my GPX 5000.

That all said the SDC actually is a great detector and best used by accepting it for what it is and getting out and using it. Changing the physical design makes it another detector entirely, and the waterproof folding design certainly has an appeal all it's own. It is radically cool to unfold and use, relatively indestructible, and perfect for hardcore backpack detecting.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Mid September Update:

As I have posted on this thread previously, I have been working an area in California with my Minelab SDC 2300 and found a couple patches with lots of smaller nuggets - an area perfect for the SDC 2300. I have posted some of this gold previously, but I am continuing to find more and wanted to give an update. I was also thinking about how much smaller sized gold was also here in these patches that even the SDC could not see. So I took my dry washer out to the spots where I was getting the majority of the gold pictured in this thread, and in a few days time dry washing, I got 16 more grams (a little more than 10 pennyweight), plus a few more with the metal detector, and the SDC proved to be the perfect machine to use in combination with the dry washer. I used it to outline the spots were the gold was concentrated, and keep myself in the richer gravels once I had dug a good hole.

So now my running total for this area in the last few weeks as I have had time to get out there is 113 detected nuggets for 20 grams (13 dwt), together with the 16 grams from dry washing giving a combined total of 1.15 ounces. I spent 90% of my time this last trip on dry washing.

Some of nuggets included with the DW stuff could easily have been heard with the SDC, but I am digging up places with depths from 6 inches up to about 18 inches max, and some of it was just deeper than could be heard without removing the gravel material first, and after digging, it was just easier to put it all in the dry washer. The DW stuff is on the left, the detected nuggets on the right.I did check my tailings and my dig hole with the SDC.

The gold is still out there to be found - all of this was found within a couple hundred yards of where I am parking my car. You just have to be looking in the right spot.

SDC_n_drywash.jpg

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Very well done there. Love it when they come in quick succession like that, its a great buzz huh! Guys like you and the reports you give are twisting my arm slowly but im still gonna wait.

Me too Roo...it is killing me tho....lol

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