"Aussie Hunt", Dells Hole, Western Creek & the SDC2300

[rc62burke]

Hi All

Digginerup (a mate from an Aussie forum) & I have just returned from our trip to Forsayth, a small town in North Queensland, I was armed with my new SDC2300.

This was to be a run to test out the capability of the new SDC by working old "Patches".

We headed of on Monday the 1st of December, our first stop was to be "Dells Hole Station" out of Forsayth, we were fully expecting it to be HOT, we arrived without incident by way of my ever trusty "Old Hi-Lux" getting used to the dry heat on the way as there is no "Air-con" in this old girl, we booked in with the owner of "Dells Hole " kevin Young & paid our $$$$$ then we headed to the camp ground & camp was set up in quick fashion as it was to be a no frills trip, just a tarp & swag's & mozzie nets, the important stuff was taken care of with 2 fridges!!!!!!!!!

As soon as we were set up I pulled out the SDC for a quick trial, in my haste I had forgotten about the "Shut down" issue, but I was reminded in quick fashion as I walked & swung for about 25m it did it's "Funky shut down" thing about 6 times, OH this is what they are talking about on the forums!! better put some tape around those batteries, this solved the problem.

The first night we had some rain, the "Tarp" we had was complete with built in evaporative cooling ( read Wayne needs a new Tarp) so we dodged the drips.

Day 1.

Was to be spent at a patch that I found in January 2014 this is a spot where there is a large outcrop of Quartz & Ironstone, there is a lot of rubble at this spot & it was hard to get the 14" on the ground when I originally found it, so I started working with the SDC in the area where I had picked up the nuggets previously, in a little over 20 mins I had my first little "SDC nugget", I went on clearing the rubble from small area's at a time to get the coil on the ground & came away with 3 little nuggets for the day at this spot ( I know there will be more as it is a large area) on the way back to camp I showed Wayne a spot where "Quadangle" had picked up 25oz's in one hole in January, I gave the SDC a quick swing over the dig hole & just on the surface was a little nugget, we left the spot for Quadangle , Steve) to check when he gets an SDC.

There is more to follow, I am re- writing this as I can't cut & paste, so stay tuned.

cheers

Lee

[Roo]

Ahh, fellow Aussie. That little bit on the left looks interesting mate!

[rc62burke]

Day 2.
It was decided that we would have a look at a patch that “Will & Andrea” mentioned to us that they had picked up over 50 nuggets on last year.
About 15mins after arriving I picked up the first of 19 nuggets from this spot, some screamed & some were very faint, a scoop is a must when using the SDC as it gets a bit hard to find them even with one as some of them are sooo small.
I am impressed with the capability of this unit.
Now when it comes to EMI it too is prone to the constant warble, but I was running it at a setting of 4 & was still able to pick up the faint targets, I am used to a bit of noise as My main detector is an SD2200. In saying that it is the start of Summer & the wet season so you have to expect a bit of noise I guess.
In the afternoon we headed to the new bore on the property to collect some clean wash water once that was done we checked a small spot close by that we knew off, here I picked up my 20th nugget for the day.

Day 3.
Today was to be spent on another area that had produced nuggets in the past. It wasn’t too long before I picked up my first little nugget for the day, so once again started to grid the area, which gave up 4 bits, a bit of a look around & a short walk to another area & after a while picked up a specimen which looked freshly broken oops, checked the pile ahh there it is the other ½
This was our last day at Dells Hole.

Day 4
A quick pack up of the camp ready to move up to Western Creek, on the way we stopped at Forsayth to see Steve (Quadangle) for a coffee or 2 & the obligatory chat about all that is Golden, as usual that took care of a few hours, so of we went to “Western Creek” there was no one home on our arrival, so we set up came as pre-arranged, toilets, showers running water, this was to prove a very comfortable camp for our stay at “Western Creek” which is run by Shirley Young. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting organised around camp & ready for the next morning.
Just before dark we made our way to the homestead to see Shirley & Geoff, we had a few cold ones & a bit of a catch up on things since the last time we were there in August.

Day 5.
Today we planned to hit a spot where Wayne picked up 18 nuggets for 42g back in May.
I had a quick scan around the area & picked up my first bit for the SDC on “Western Creek” I did a bit of raking to clear the leaf litter & started to pick up some “Lead Shot” but I eventually picked up another 5 off this area before I headed to another spot close by after lunch, I picked up 6 bits within an area 10m x 4m including a couple of 1g nuggets that I thought would have been picked up by other operators, as this is an area that has seen A LOT of traffic in a few months.
I then went for a walk a short way to another area that had produces 2 "Specimans" for me back in July, it wasn't long before I got a "Feint" signal, the top scraped off & it got a bit better so as you do I dug it deeper checked & it was still there, as it was late afternoon (4.30) I got on the Radio, huffing & puffing & called Wayne to come up the hill, the target was still in the hole when he got there & I checked the pile which to my surprise gave up a speci then another & another, then back to the digging & finally we had it out 12" to 14" was the depth of the hole, we slowly checked the spoil & found a few more bits, 10 total for this one hole, we covered it with an anthill & decided to come back the next day to dig a bit more out to see if we could make it pay more, the pic shows the speci's above the coin.

Day 6.
Yet another spot to be checked, I found 2 small ironstone coated nuggets at this spot which is away from the main area that saw most of the attention this year, I could not turn anything else out so we decided to check another spot close by where Wayne had picked up a nice speci this year, after a while I got a screamer so out with the pick have a bit of a scrape & check hole, it’s moved, works out it was right on the surface & it is the large rock in the photo, it shows just a little colour on one side but by going on the signal it should hold a few grams, a bit of a search around failed to turn up anything else.
We returned to the hole from the previous day, as I walked to the hole from a different direction I got a good signal from 1m from the hole which turned out to be a 1g nugget, then I checked the spoil pile & picked up a couple more bits, we dug the hole out a bit more but could not get any more signals, so we started to move the leaf litter in the area & picked up 2 more nuggets.

Day 7.
Saw us doing a bit of detecting on 2 of Brownie’s spots (Geoff Brown, the owner) he was with us & showed us where he had picked up a few nuggets but could not get anymore, I started gridding the area & soon after I started picking up those “Lead Shot” again man I thought that was a VIC thing!! Then when I was 2/3 done on this 1 spot I got a .8 g nugget, just nearby there was a lot of trash but the area looked good so I had a bit of a look & straight away I picked up a flat bit then shortly afterwards I got another small bit.
After lunch we went to another spot of Brownies where another SDC operator got 1 oz out of 1 hole in tiny bits, Hardyakka you did not leave me any mate!!! Just nearby I got a lone little one.
Nearing the end of the day Wayne wanted to show me a spot that had been raked by someone, looks like they wanted to plant a garden!!!
I managed to pull 5 bits off here in short time.

Day 8.

Was to be our final day as Wayne had a job interview to get back for.
Yet another spot to check out, I managed to pick up 2 bits of flat gold on an old patch but was also getting quite a few tiny grader chips, Wayne called me to check a spot that payed off for him but I could not get any more, we returned to our original patch which also proved fruitless so as a last ditch effort we had a look at another small patch & straight up I picked up a small one then another, I gridded the small area with no more so I moved up the hill to an area where I got 3 on a previous trip, I got 2 more for the final day, which are in the pic on the bottom right. this final photo shows my collection for the trip which totals 81 bits, I have not done a final tally on weights due to some bits requiring the "Smash It" treatment!!!

Once again I had a great time in the bush with a good mate, thanks Wayne

My run down on the SDC2300, man Minelab need to do better with the shut down issue, you should not need to wrap the supplied batteries to prevent the issue.
The speaker is of poor volume & personally would not trust it to find some of the feint targets that I got, I used the patch lead from Nenad, using a set of "Super clear" in ear headphones, I did not try the supplied headphones as I did not want cook my brain.
It suffered a bit with EMI but I was running it hot on 4 or 5 mostly.
It is super sensitive & the batteries last well 1 1/2 days.
On this trip we started mostly around 7.30 & finished between 4.30 or 5pm with 1/2 to 1 hr for lunch.

I would fully recommend the SDC to anyone for a "Patch" clean up unit, it could be very useful for the wife too, to my way of thinking it is not a patch hunting tool like Minelab mention in their advertising

cheers
Lee

[rc62burke]

Hey Roo

Yeah mate I got a couple of interesting bits.

cheers

Lee

[Roo]

That's a good effort in anyone's book Lee, well done. Me im waiting for the next you beaut. Sounds like the battery probs with the SDC are similar to those in the early Terra 70's. They had a shutdown problem too. Good luck out there.