Depth between GPX5000 det 11"mono coil and sd 2000 det 18"mono coil

Hi everyone ,
I have a gpx 5000 mainly using 11"mono coil ,and recently bought a second hand unmodified sd2000 from a friend of mine which has an 11"dd and an old 18"mono coil .
Would using the sd det with the 18"coil detect deeper than the gpx5000 as I was considering
detecting in deeper ground
Any advice would be appreciated

Hi hapalogh,
The 18" mono that you have is interchangeable between the 2000 and the 5000, so you could use it on that detector too. The 2000 coupled with the 18"mono will certainly go deep, but I can see that you are in Melbourne so presume that you will detect the GT, where you might find that running the 2000 with a mono a little noisy, but with a bit of practice, you may be able to teach yourself the different sounds. Myself, I would put the 18"mono on the 5000 and play with your timings/settings, to get the best you can whilst still maintaining a workable threshold. As far as which one will go deeper, the 2000 were deep seekers, but I reckon the 5000 in the right hands, should do the job pretty much the same.

Hi CostasDee,
Thankyou for your advice I shall try this and tweek the settings,   

Graeme

Deeper on the larger multi-ounce slugs of gold "Yes"  Deeper on the gram & sub-gram gold over that of the 11 inch Commander mono coupled to a 5000 "No"  If the size of gold to be detected is below the 5 gram mark and found at say over 10 inches deep,within reasonably high mineralized ground,stick with the 5000 and 11 inch mono.
As Costas states,although the old green kevlar coil goes deep on large gold,it will false over sections or pockets of highly mineralized ground.For this reason it should only be used with the SD2000 over ground that is reasonably low in mineralization,or you will find yourself chasing & digging up phantom signals.

    Cheers Kon. 

Spot on Kon, we tested this some months ago on the 5k and did the garbage bin lid scream at a 3 oz sinker at depth, I can still hear it.   

Hi Kon61 and Redfin
Thanks guys for the really good info . I bought this detector cheap off my nabor friend and gave him a cash offer deal we both couldn't refuse.   I thought, after I bought it, instead of changing coils for deep ground, I could use the sd with the 18", and also someone told me if I get the sd2000 modded it will be quieter and go deeper than the Gpx 5000.
I was wondering if this is true ,before I spend too much money.
any help kindly appreciated Thanks.

Hapalogh, you have one of the best detectors in the world in you hand (the 5k in case you're scratching your head). It will do most everything that any of the previous detectors did, plus more - you pretty much don't need another detector. The SD2000 that you got, is probably a good machine and it will help you when it's time to clean a deepish patch, but 99% of the time, the 5k will do it all for you plus more. Personally, I wouldn't be spending any money on the SD since you've got a 5k, save the money for a bigger variety of coils. The mods for the SD were the frequency mod, which helps you find the smaller gold (your 5k will do this better) and another mod to make it quieter over noisy ground I think (once again your 5k will do this better). I don't think you can much increase the depth of an SD over what it's already got, and that is the only possible mod that would be of any benefit when you use it that 1% of the time to clean up the deepish patch I mentioned above.
Have a play with the SD, learn how to use it but since you've got the 5k in your arsenal, stick with that. Why use a single-shot older 303 when you can use a new fully-auto 357 magnum (or better as it's been some time since I played with calibers)??? Kapish??

Yet the 5000 is that good but know one will use it to find those big slugs in the gold leads that are about in Vic.

small coils fine gold and away they go that's all we hear about.

there is still lots of ground that is about that is not high in mineralization that the 2000 and the dust bin lid would do good if someone wants to put the time in   

Agreed Detrackozi, but that's what most people are happy in doing, getting a 5k and putting a 8" mono on it. For those who want to, they can still put a dustbin coil on the 5k and still search for the deeper ones, it's just that most prospectors for their own reasons, choose not to - and that's fine as it's up to each individual to do with their detector whatever gives them most enjoyment.

Just to clarify, I am not saying anything is bad with the SD, I happily used one for many years, but I am saying that if you already have an SD and a 5k, I'd give preferance to using the 5k most of the time.

 Hapalogh,The SD 2000 was a great detector in its time,but you'll find a well tuned 5000 even greater.Use a current 18 inch mono coil,from any of the 4 major coil manufacturers today (I say 4,because I have to include the current and new range of coils from Detech) and you'll see through any form of testing,that the 5000 will not only match the old SD2000 (ground for ground,coil for coil) but exceed it in many a way. As Costas stated,even the best hand held metal detector,designed specifically for gold detecting,can only be as good as the operator behind it.Master the ins and outs of your 5000,understand its strengths and weaknesses,then put it over ground where golds been found before and I can assure you,that you will find gold and the more competent you become with it,the greater your gold finds will be.
Also agree with Detrackozi on this one.It is a shame that many a GPX user today,opts for a much lighter coil/detector set-up (as an all rounder) so as to be comfortable all day out on the field,instead of concentrating at what type of ground/depth/or nuggets exist or we seek to find within a certain area.
Yes the odd bit of big gold will be found with small coils,as will small gold be found with big coils (like wise with target size and depths) but as a general rule of thumb,large coils are associated with large gold at depth and small coils for the finding of smaller gold within shallow gold bearing ground.Now unless you're happy chasing and finding specs of colour for the sake of finding any gold,I can only suggest,you do not stick with one coil all the time,but chop and change coil sizes to suit the accompanying ground.
     
Cheers Kon. 

Hi Kon61, CostasDee and Detrackozi
Thanks very much for this excellent info, I just wanted to get a second opinon coz I emailed an electronic engineer who does these mods ,and says a modded sd 2000 will blow a gpx 5000 away in depth using an 18"coil .
Any insight on this or it seems like he just wants to do the mod to make some extra cash? 

hapalogh wrote:Hi Kon61, CostasDee and Detrackozi
Thanks very much for this excellent info, I just wanted to get a second opinon coz I emailed an electronic engineer who does these mods ,and says a modded sd 2000 will blow a gpx 5000 away in depth using an 18"coil .
Any insight on this or it seems like he just wants to do the mod to make some extra cash? 

Increase depth to blow the 5k away but still leave a workable machine (?), one that you can still walk around with day to day and wont drive you crazy (?), not impossible but pretty hard to achieve I think. I have heard of others that went down the line of what you're talking about, some have said "wow" but a lot have also said they regret doing it. As I said prior, different if you're short of cash and need to improve the only machine you have and different if you already own a 5k - I very much doubt that any advantage that you can get by spending the $$ on mods on the 2k will give you any serious advantage over what the 5k already has inbuilt. I'm not saying mods can not improve the machine because they can, but you're saying the engineer told you that with his mods you'll be able to blow the 5k away, now this I'd really love to see cause I could be wrong but that sounds like really big porky pies to me!!   

....but if the $$$s are burning a hole in your pocket and you're adamant that you want to do these mods, then maybe you should name the engineer and ask members of their past experience in dealing with him/her.

Do agree with kon61 & Costas they were the days with the SD's the time when there was slugs just laying about on the slopes and a SD 2200 With the biggest DD you could swing would turn up the big nuggets .

Hap, how much is it going to cost you ? does he have a bemo one for you to take out and try ? are you new to the game of prospecting , I ask because once you have made your mind up which detector you are going to be happy to swing all day all you spare time will be taken up but trying to make up your mind were to go to find gold to put your new weapon to good use.

I bet there is as much GPX closet detectors as SD's you hear so many new comers to the game that have the best detector and just find it to hard to get one bit and it not the detector but a lack of knowledge were to search.

Hap stick with your 5000 and research the hell out on the area's you want to go and keep that coil on the ground and enjoy just being out there .

Hi guys,
 Thanks  for the the response,Detrackozi  the cost of the sd mod is under $2000 , CostaDee but do not want to defame mod repairmen, by naming. I would rather do a survey to find out how many unhappy sd mod owners their are around .
I 'am  fairly new to prospecting with the GPX 5000 and learning deep and shallow ground, as I need not know this in the 80's and 90's as Detrackozi stated that the gold was everywhere.
80's found .7 gram nug on dirt track using 6000d det, then 90's same track using sd20000 found 36 gram nug.
Also I have found after about 10 trips to the GT  that gold is not everywhere their.
My petrol bill to gold count shows this   But recently found one in deep ground and four more in same area thanks to a new found friend who led the way.Petrol bill to gold count not much difference  But realised it is a good hobby only ,not a get rich scheme  
My main detector is GPX 5000 with 11" mono and I would only use the sd det with the dustbin lid when necessary.  Also I carry I tiny bird shot pellet in sticky tape to test gpx5000 if no targets, keeps me interested in detecting  
.Also is the 18" Kevlar coil mono or dd as it is not marked any help would be most welcome,to find which type of coil it is? 

The rubbish bin lid look-a-like kevlar coil,is Neanderthal "mono" in design,but hey,coil design for Minelab PIs had to start somewhere.  Plus the fact they found a s**t load of gold when first introduced & during their time.

Cheers Kon.  

At that price, I'm guessing I know who it is   and there are rumoured stories about his work laying in both sides of the fence. Judging on the amount of rumours for and against, consistency of work performed seems to be an issue... As I mentioned earlier hapalogh, I think that the 5k in good hands that know how to correctly fiddle with the menu settings and timings, can equal the depth of the SD if not slightly surpass it. I use the word surpass cautiously as the SD has, I believe, a fixed gain of 8 (as per 4500 scale) and the 5k can be turned up to higher than this, although the overall frequency of the 5k machine is also higher as compared to the SD (better for smaller/shallower), but that's for someone else to explain as it's a bit beyond my skill level.

The 18 dustbin was a mono coil...

Hi CostasDee and Kon61
Thanks very much guys for the info on the large !8" coil also.
This detector mod fellow says he also adds gain, control for your amp tuning situation, I don't know what he means by situation though. Lower frequency?( Super quiet filtering not using capacitors) so I'm confused, I think the reason I was thinking of getting it modded was I wanted to leave the gpx with the 11'coil setup as is and the sd 2000 left with the 18" coil setup.
I think I might be too lazy. What do you think guys?

Gee that's not a bad earn for 4hrs work at $500 an hour and mor then twice the price of the 2000.

Hi Detrackozi
The mod on this sd is a lot under $2000 my reason being I don't want others to defame this guy coz he might be the wrong person others were thinking of.

I bought this sd2000 detector for $400 but had no battery and no charger.
So I bought a new battery and connectors and rigged up one of the power pack chargers I found in the shed.
$400 +$50 for the battery and charger connectors to make compatable with the battery lead.
If I do decide to get it modded it will end up about the same price as buying a second hand sd detector.

Hi all,
I truly like to thank everyone for helping me out with these excellent answers.
I will keep on using the Gpx5000 and settings and do more research and check out some more maps.  
Again thank you very much guys and an excellent forum