nuggethunting

Hey Chris, Thanks for posting and sharing your experiences with the new SDC 2300 here. I'm real impressed with my SDC, but have only managed to find small nuggets, largest being about 3 Dwt's at 7-8 inches. Most of the nuggets are under 1/4 of gram in size. I'm really excited to use the SDC as my primary prospecting detector in remote country. How did Steve and the others do up there?

Hey Brett, Great pictures and congrats to your son for the nice score. Always great when you can get your family involved in a hobby you love to do. Wishing you both much more luck in the near future. Thanks for sharing. Rob Allison

Hey Deathray, I would agree with Sasquatch, a couple hundred for a used 18-inch would be fair. New Minelab Commander 18-inch Mono's or DD's are $441.00 US.

Hello All, I have a very good conditioned Minelab GPX 5000 that came from Minelab Americas that has one year warranty still left on it. I'm selling it for $3500 firm. It comes with all stock accessories and the unit works great. I don't expect to have the detector long, so if you're interested in it, contact me through the following contact information below - Rob's Detector Sales 623.362.1459 office line 602-909-9008 cell rob@robsdetectors.com I will not be able to hold this unit, first person that calls to make the purchase owns it!

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.

Hey Guys, Thanks for the comments. I think a lot of it is going back to the basics and not trying to get too deep into it. Going back to old patches can get old at times, especially at some point the nuggets will get tougher to find. That being said, hitting some gold spots hoping to break the skunk then prospecting for a few hours seems to work well for me. I'm always working new ground, but hitting some old places along the way. Keep in mind, there are times where I spent all day prospecting, it just depends on the mood I'm in.

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

Hey Guys, Congrats on the gold nuggets. Hard to believe you missed those with the GPX. My guess is the area is very trashy and you're able to work the area much more effectively with the CTX 3030 with it's great discrimination ability.

Hey Guys, Blake - Ya, I know. I know most of his IP's, so it's not that easy. If he does get through the cracks and get validated, it won't be long (1-2 posts) and we will know it's him. Its probably driving him nuts knowing we are talking about him and he can't reply or say something about Minelab .... LOL Interesting news about the GPAA. Not sure who Tom's Stepson is, but maybe he will do a better job and benefit all of us that love this hobby of prospecting and metal detecting for gold.

Hey Ray, Great report on the Fisher F-19. Is the unit now available for sale? To be honest, I'm not real familiar with the unit, so all your reports have been very helpful. Sounds like it's a great multi-purpose metal detectors and does very well on gold nuggets as you have shown.

Hey Kim, I can't speak in behalf of Minelab Electronics, but I think they had good reasons. When it comes to waterproof metal detectors, many end-users don't take the care to clear and make sure the connections are right and sealed well. At some point, this can lead to warranty issues. I think (in my opinion) this could be one reason they hardwired the coil. The small coil is great for small gold, working underwater for sniping and in tight locations. The hardwired kind of guarantees the connections are tight and can't be messed with. I've only been out about 4 times now with the SDC 2300. I haven't been skunked yet with the detector, but far from paying for it in gold. I think I have recovered around 1/2 - 3/4's of an ounce of nuggets so far, so I'm about 1/3rd of the way from paying for it prospecting new locations and crumb crunching old spots. I'm pretty positive the detector will pay for itself many times over this coming Winter season. Hope all is well on your end Kim.

Hey Ahorton10, I understand, was there many years ago. You have to start somewhere, so it's just a matter of time until you find a spot that has some nuggets. Wishing you much success out there with a metal detector.

Hello All, Over the years I have dubbed my style of prospecting/metal detecting – 50/50. What I mean by this is I spent 50% of my time working new areas and 50% of my time working old, known nugget patches. The benefit I have found from this is you’re always exploring new ground for potentially new, unworked patches. You also benefit by working old patches and hopefully able to score a nugget or two to bring home to eliminate that skunk! Normally, on a single day hunt, I might spent 2-3 hours working some old patches where I know I’m fresh and focused to hear the faintest signal. Hopefully I’m able to score a nugget in that time. The second portion of the day I will looking for areas outside the known gold areas and prospect them. These spots can range from 1-25 miles from the known, documented goldfields. Some of these overlooked, unexplored regions on the fringes of the known areas can be “Sleepers.” It don’t take much for Mother Nature & Geology to have a few pounds of gold nuggets lying on a hillside, on the bottom of a wash or even in some quartz float scattered along the desert pavement. 50/50 Prospecting/Metal Detecting can be rewarding over a period of time. Here are some of my finds from using the 50/50 method I developed years ago. The nuggets on the upper left, upper right and lower right are from prospecting new regions. The nuggets on the lower left are from working old patches. You can see the benefit of exploring new spots, while also hunting old nugget patches. Wishing you much success!! Rob Allison

Hello Azaware, The units are different. The GPX 5000 is the "Flagship" Pulse Induction detector with the best depth, mineral immunity and fine tune adjustments. The new SDC 2300 is a high end, mid-line Pulse Induction metal detector. This new SDC 2300 is waterproof to 10 foot, can break down to a very small package, is only equipped with a 8-inch Monoloop (so no discrimination abilities) and is one of the simplest detectors I have ever used (turn on and go!). I can find nuggets just as small using the GPX 5000 if I'm using a small coil, decent gain and a timing that is better for smaller gold (Sensitive/Extra or Fine Gold). When it comes to larger nuggets at depth, the GPX 5000 will excel. The detectors were not made to run against each other. One is a mid-line PI, while the other is a high end PI. I'm finding that the SDC 2300 is working great for me, as I like to hunt the outside of the known gold areas, which requires hiking and more exploring. That being said, the SDC can be broken down very small and packed in a medium sized backpack and then assembled when you get to the spot. The small coil allows max sensitivity to small gold, still picking up all other sized gold at normal depths. I have found trash targets with the SDC at over 2 foot now, hoping one will be a larger nugget at some point. Since it runs on four "C" batteries, there is less chance of a equipment failure from a sealed battery, power cord or some type of connection point. The SDC 2300 is $3750.00 and we just receive another shipment in, so we are stock up for anyone still looking for one. The GPX 5000 is $5795.00 and we also always stock them along with all the bundle accessories/coils we include for free. Hope this helps a bit,

Hey A Sasquatch, Great finds and thanks for sharing. Just goes to show big gold is still there to be found. Hope to see more of your finds in the near future.

Hey Guys, First, I nuked Kyle Edwards, so that post is gone along with the person. I can only allow so much of that type of crap. He was warned too many times. Secondly, the GPAA is a great organization as a whole for the hobby. That being said, I seen it going downhill for many years. I'm glad to see that maybe someone can take it over and turn it around.

** Minelab SDC 2300 Field Reports from Customers Coming In ** Today I received a few field reports from some customers that purchased their new Minelab SDC 2300 metal detectors from us. Rob, Took it out to some hot thrashed ground, popped two sub gram nugs in twenty minutes. My buddy had just gone over the area with a 5000 in FG and Nuggetfinder Sadie coil. It is an awesome little detector. Thanks, Rick ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob - See picture enclosed, I found these in a area I beat up. 2300 finds this weekend. Paul from CA.

Hello All, I used to have the wiring diagrams for all detectors, but can't seem to find them. I would recommend contacting Minelab Americas at 1-877-767-6522 and let them know you need to talk with someone in repairs to get the wiring diagram. I know this might not help in time, but hopefully you will be out there long enough to get the unit up and running.

Hello All, We have added some more used and disc. items to the online store page, which can be seen here - http://www.robsdetectors.com/used-products?pagesize=12

Hey Guys, I think the one on the coil is called a "Black Tail Rattlesnake." If you notice the black section on the tail.

Hey Guys, I do have them on my site, they are listed under "Instructional DVD's and Help Guides" - http://www.robsdetectors.com/advanced-prospecting-detecting-book

Hello All, Newest - Advanced Prospecting & Detecting for Hardrock Gold Book by Jim Straight - Updated July 2013 This is the newest addition of this book. This new version has an expanded Appendix on Meteorites, over 30 pages. The book covers the relationship of Regional Geology to the types of Placer Deposits. It also has emphasis on Epithermal Deposits forming Eluvial Placers and how to detect them. Jim Straight has been writing books for over 40 years and this book is considered "the Bible" when it comes to understanding what to look for while metal detecting. A must own book, Highly Recommended! You can view it here on my online store - http://www.robsdetectors.com/advanced-prospecting-detecting-book Limited Supply of these book.

Hey Tom, The GPX 5000 is an amazing metal detector, no questions it's light years ahead of anything else out there. I've went back to the stock 11-inch Minelab Commander cause where I'm hunting I like the solid bottom. I have a new, older style Coiltek 14-inch Round Solid Mono ready to be equipped for the bigger gold at depth.

Hey Chris, Congrats on the new nugget finds with the Minelab SDC 2300. I pretty much sold my first batch of them, have one left right now, but I'm sure it will be gone within the next day or so. I have another order on the way. I have asked all the customers to post their thoughts, stories and finds when they can. I'm hoping to get more reports on the forum from end users that are not field testers, dealers and such. I have a few customers on edge right now until they see more solid, non-bias end user reports, which I completely understand.