SDC 2300 On Large deep Gold??

Has anybody found gold over an one oz single nugg at significant depth with the 2300.
Can get a 2300 for 2k but wondering if it is worth the outlay?
Is it any use over the salt lakes?

Ive gotteh half ounce bits at 6-8" , the detector screams at em.

Bloody useless on the salt, coil too small , and way too noisy. AI coil is the only thing that works on the lakes.

28.5g speci at 14"

The primary use of a 2300 is to clean out shallow small to very small gold. Its a great option for mullock heaps and small gold. But if you want to look for deeper larger nuggets its not the tool for the job, lacking good depth and ground coverage. The 2300 is finding thousands of small nuggets but its not my cup of tea. The 7000 covers both bases. If a 7000 is out of reach now I would stick to a 4500/5000 with a sadie coil for small gold and the bigger coils for deep bigger gold (biggest factor for the few and far between larger nuggets is ground coverage with a big coil at slow swing speeds.

Having said that, a 2300 will bring you home nuggets every day and if that makes you happy go for it. The resale value in a couple years would mean it would not cost you much to try it out and see if you like the style of detecting the 2300 will lead you into. I am assuming you can get out on the fields and use it on a regular basis to make the purchase worthwhile.

Best of luck, Tributer

adrian ss wrote:Has anybody found gold over an one oz single nugg at significant depth with the 2300.
Can get a 2300 for 2k but wondering if it is worth the outlay?
Is it any use over the salt lakes?

Hi Adrian ss
If you can get it at that price why not its a great detector.We really enjoyed ours but going over our spots with the new coils we did miss a lot of deeper gold.There are some areas though where the SDC excels and I do miss having one at times.

adrian ss wrote:Has anybody found gold over an one oz single nugg at significant depth with the 2300.
Can get a 2300 for 2k but wondering if it is worth the outlay?
Is it any use over the salt lakes?

Adrian....
If you can get it for that price and its a good sdc2300
Go for it!!!
You will have fun
digging all around the place finding junk, coins, gold, all sorts of treasures!!!!

Then if its a good sdc2300 you can re-sell it for extra $$$$$
What have you got to lose.. You only live once!!! Go for it !!!!!!

A good Mate of mine found a 5oz and 15.6oz'r 1-1/2 years back on private land

Marty

Our 2300 found target which we thought was ground noise as it seemed to be about a foot wide. We thought it was ground noise but was a definate signal. The deeper we dug the better, the better the signal got. The first target we got out that hole was 15"deep and when we swung the coil in the hole we kept getting signals. We ended up getting 15 nugs and specemins out that hole and took about 2 1/2 hrs. Hole ended up being about 900mm wide and approx 800mm deep.
we have not smashed the specemins yet to see how much gold we got from that hole but a few of us have estimated over the oz mark.  Just showed all us out there how good the machine is. Do have pictures but will need help to upload as have not been able to get pictures on here with our new tablet. TG

Thanks for the great replies fellas. Very helpful info.
Aside from the, It won't work over salt bit, the 2300 sounds OK.

The detector has a Salt setting?? Is that for beach detecting rather than salt lake work?

adrian ss wrote:Thanks for the great replies fellas. Very helpful info.
Aside from the, It won't work over salt bit, the 2300 sounds OK.

The detector has a Salt setting?? Is that for beach detecting rather than salt lake work?

Yes it has got a salt setting, never used it yet in that setting, I would guess if it works in the salt setting on the beach in the wet sand then it should also work on a salt lake, yes/no?

cheers dave

Maybe no.
Dry Salt lakes contain a much higher concentration of salt than wet beach sand, plus a lot of iron mineralisation. So maybe if you set the timing to the salt setting  the detector may respond to the iron and if you set it to ignore the iron then it will respond to the salt. I guess there would be a setting that was usable over the salt lakes but still somewhat noisy.
Like a good beach PI is silky smooth at the beach but noisy over high iron mineralisation......Maybe, sort of, possibly??

Ok I cracked under the pressure.
I now own an SDC 2300.
I hope that when it plays a chirpy tune it means that the batteries are flat. 

adrian ss wrote:Ok I cracked under the pressure.
I now own an SDC 2300.
I hope that when it plays a chirpy tune it means that the batteries are flat. 

Congrats on getting a sdc2300,
Ok... Chirpy tune.. It sounds like a jet plane getting ready to take off when you first turn it on..
When the batteries go flat, what i can remember is.... it make a sound then thats it! Have to go change/charge up the batteries

I cant wait to see all the goodies you will find.. Hope most of them will be yellow

Well done, you won't regret buying a 2300. And you will be surprised how deep it will find gold over a gram. As for small stuff we have found gold so small it took 4 bits to turn the scales over to .1 of a gram. And last year we found 1108 buts at Tibooburra over 4 weeks casual detecting. Its a great machine.

Good luck, Jim

Well so far I am happy with the 2300 and the noisy pulsing start up was just flat batteries. As far as I can tell, it is working according to specs. 
      It doesn't like being in my back yard, can not hack the EMI although even through the interference it still sounds on  a couple of qtz specis, with approx 0.2g gold in them. 
      There seems to be a hot spot on the coil just in from the toe.
Hell of a nice detector. I spent a lot of cash on this beast which is a rare thing for me to do but I am feeling good about it.

Congrats on your purchase Adrian, now take it out to your favourite Ironstone hill that you test everything else on and tell us what you think!

Used in the goldfields you should do well with it, and your right it won't run that well in your back yard in amongst all the interference but like you noticed the target sound still comes through.

cheers dave

adrian ss wrote:  There seems to be a hot spot on the coil just in from the toe.

Yep - I found that its where the "ridge" is, and is equally as sensitive the whole way around the coil.

Yes, it's quite a bit of money...but rest assured that for the price you got it for, you can't lose - if you decide to sell it and advertise it at market price, you will come out well on top!

adrian ss wrote:Has anybody found gold over an one oz single nugg at significant depth with the 2300.

There's a photo of a multi ounce nugget whih was found with an SDC on the notice board at te Coiltek Gold Centre in Vic. Can't recall how deep it was, though

I am not sure about the ironstone hill Dave, it seems to have got higher the last couple of years.   If I get keen I might give it a try up there later on.

Gave the 2300 a test run this morning and am super impressed. Very stable, very sensitive and it does get pretty good depth through just about anything.
Tones are handy for picking out high and low conductive targets although I need to get a bit of practice in order to figure out exactly what they are telling me.
      The Salt mode is very sensitive and it will be interesting to see what the 2300 can do at the beach although I am aiming this tecta at the gold fields.
I don't like the arm rest all that much but I guess it has been designed like that for portability and compactness, so I will get used to it.
       A control box stand would be handy for when the detector is placed  down on the ground.
Weight is not a problem and after an hour my arm was still working like normal. 
       Pinpointing is way easier than I thought it was going to be and was bang on even over very small items

I thank you blokes for giving me some good advice about this detector which helped me big time in deciding to go for the 2300....Probably the last tecta I will buy.

Congrats on the new detector Adrian.  I think the SDC2300 is handy in that it's quiet and compact and it folds down to just over 15 inches long.  We took one out on the first day of release (not sure if I posted these pics before) and handed it to my wife whilst I walked back to our vehicle.  When I returned,  she had it up and running and had recovered her first non-gold targets with it.  She found an arrowhead (tip) that had been fired into the ground and then several bullets embedded in a fallen tree.  We weren't there to test the machine but to explore the area but I was surprised at how intuitive the machine was to use.  Earlier that day I had the detector in an Angus & Robertson Bookshop bag and wandered around town with it and nobody realized there was a metal detector in there. We took ours to Oberon for the first outing. Some of the first gold found by friends was as thin as a sheet of paper and as small as two flattened pinheads - they weighed about 0.03 grams to 0.04 grams... which is really small.



The only thing that limits depth is the fitted 8" coil.  And I'd suggest that maximum depth would probably be two and a half times the diameter of the coil (which would be around - or just under - 20 inches). No doubt other members can speak with experience on this. I can't imagine it reaching deeper unless the target was quite large but I saw two nuggets from this detector that were 27 grams and 36.4 grams respectively.  If the nugget is tiny, you'll find it with this machine, even if it's pinhead-sized rough reef gold at several inches. If it's larger, nuggetty material, you'll get it deeper.  But I probably wouldn't expect to go more than 2.5 times the width of the coil typically.  That's still a lot deeper than most VLF machines can come close to (except the GPZ).


Three nuggets from one of the forum member's first trips out with the SDC2300.

You seemed to get a good price on your machine when you bought it.  I think a few people have found their first gold with this detector and something I liked about it is that it's pretty quiet to operate and doesn't seem to false as much as other machines tend to on mineralized ground.  In my opinion, if the gold is there and it's within that 0 to 16 inch range, it's going to trigger the detector... So working on dry creekbeds or areas where nuggets might be trapped is always going to pay off because you virtually can't miss anything there.  I've seen a few nuggets between 2.4g and 8g found with it so it's logical that you'll get larger targets with it.  Admittedly, I'd prefer to pan some of those tiny bits rather than dig for them with a detector.  


The only limitation on depth (and not on size of the target) is the diameter of the 8" coil.

Would love to see your finds when you've had a chance to spend time with the machine.  I think there's a lot of people sitting on the fence in relation to this detector - who would be interested in your experiences with the SDC2300. I suspect some might even be trying to compete with one another to find the smallest piece of gold with it.

Great post as usual nero
I have not used the 2300 enough yet to be able to make an informed comment as to how good or bad  it is, but first impressions are favourable.
     I will not make any comparison with the Infinium, sand Shark or TDI  where beach detecting is concerned other than to say that the 2300 has good sensitivity to small gold items of jewellery but not as good as the old Vsat in dry quiet ground.. The Vsat dies in tough ground where the 2300 appears to be exceptionally fantastic and even better  when max sensitivity can be used. I also noticed that the Salt Setting is very sensitive,   
     The ease of use of this detector is so simple that an operators instruction book is almost unnecessary

     Most of the items I found yesterday during a quickie run at a local river beach were very small bits of rusty wire, sinkers, melted aluminium foil, 3 coins, a biro, and one target I gave up on after going down 1.5 foot. The majority were from the surface to about a foot down and most  gave easily heard signals although  I think this detector will re educate me to take notice of the very quiet wavers in the threshold where gold is concerned.  
     So far the Mrs has not threatened to divorce me.  although she did shake her head a bit when I told her I had purchased the SDC.

Its good in finding small gold chains on the beach as well Adrian. Alot more sensitive then an infinium with a 8 inch mono coil.

Yes I agree with that but I luv my Finny. I understand the language it speaks.

adrian ss wrote:Yes I agree with that but I luv my Finny. I understand the language it speaks.

Give it time... The sdc2300   will be in your arms more then your other detectors

Hope it's not going to be in your arms more than your wife....
Assuming you are blessed to have one..

Happy Jack wrote:Its good in finding small gold chains on the beach as well Adrian.  Alot more sensitive then an infinium with a 8 inch mono coil.

G/Day HJ.

I gather then that you have used a 2300 for the beaches?
How good is the salt Mode in the waves?

I fiddled with the salt mode at a non salt beach the other day and that mode was achieving very good depth on very small items of melted aluminium with one small round 1.4g bead at approx 8 inches in river sand.
If i can muster up some drug induced energy today I will try the 23 over some extreme iron mineralisation, although everything I have read about this detector from operators in the WA fields seem to indicate that the detector does very well in some very tough ground.

The tecta is missing the battery charger. Is there any advantage in obtaining the minelab charger? I have several C cell chargers but does the ML chager work from a car cig lighter outlet?

adrian ss wrote:

The tecta is missing the battery charger. Is there any advantage in obtaining the minelab charger? I have several C cell chargers but does the ML chager work from a car cig lighter outlet?

The Minelab supplied charger does have a 12v car adapter, but I wouldn't bother buying the Minelab for that feature - it's a notoriously nasty unit. If you want 12v capability, I'd look for something else (and cheaper, price wise).

I use mine at the beach all the time adrian.  You do have to use the salt mode and put up with the odd falsing dependent on the water depth and speed of the current.  I find it is good to use just in the water after the tourists from the capital with their VLF machines have gone thru and dug out all the rubbish for me leaving the deep goodies.  When you start digging deep sinkers and bobby pins you know you are on the money and gold jewellery is not far away.  However I mainly use mine to rat around old mullock heaps and quartz reefs here on the south coast.  I find as I said its alot more sensitive then my infinium with an 8 inch mono and hears the super small pieces the infinium doesnt.

Just out of interest I dont use the minelab charger... but a 'maha', more professional unit and conditions the batteries. Dont know if you can get a 12 volt charger for it but I have an inverter in the truck anyway.

Jack

davsgold wrote:Congrats on your purchase Adrian, now take it out to your favourite Ironstone hill that you test everything else on and tell us what you think!

Used in the goldfields you should do well with it, and your right it won't run that well in your back yard in amongst all the interference but like you noticed the target sound still comes through.    

cheers dave

Hi Dave .
I gave the 2300 a try-out on my iron hill this arvo.

A quick summery:
1. My knees said. "Ya moron what are ya tryin ta do to us? Push ya luck any further and you will be crawling back to the car.

2. Yes the 2300 finds small stuff in very tough ground. No probs on 22 bullets and casings that were beneath some nasty iron rocks. Also found one shotgun pellet at about 2 inches.

3. No it did not ground balance perfectly but was good enough with target signals sounding clearly above the ground noise. The ground noise tended to be a bit wide and wish washy while the metal targets peaked sharply within the ground noise......This ground is extreme iron mineralisation and very magnetic.
     I used the mode selector in the Green sector, in other settings the ground noise was a bit annoying although the detector was still usable and clearly penetrating the ironstone to good depth as shown by one smashed 22 at approx 8 inches.

4.A very slow sweep speed gave best results on all targets while also evening out the ground noise.

5. The 2300 is quite remarkable in being able to find such small items so easily in this ground plus the coil could  be placed on the ground and still the tecta worked fine.
The only other detector that I have been able to do that with in this area is my Infinium,.

6. I am very happy having purchased this detector.......Next stop is to try it at one of my old gold hunting grounds near Canberra and at the beach searching for small gold jewellery.

There is no doubt that the 2300 has been designed to find sub gram and multi oz gold in neutral to very high iron mineralisation from shallow to medium depths  and that is what it should be used for and if it works at the beach then that will be a bonus for me.

 That's good news Adrian, I'm glad your liking the new machine, I reckon you won't be able to put it down and the other detectors will be relegated to the cupboard.    

cheers dave