SDC2300 And Coiltek 14 x 9 Finds Thread (First Day First Gold)

Raked an area in the Adelaide Hills last week and went over it methodically with my SDC and standard coil in preparation for today planning to re-do the area with the 14x9 Gold Extreme hoping to turn up a slightly bigger deeper nugget or two.
Last week turned out two small bits .09 and .13 grams which is typical for the area that is not GPX friendly due to usually high EMI from major overhead power lines not far away but the SDC handles very well. Unfortunately no bigger , deeper nugs but any questions about the new coil not pulling the small stuff were laid to rest with a paper thin .07 g from 3 inches . Must have missed it last week as it is the type of gold at depth the SDC standard coil would normally ping easily. Overall very happy with the coil and look forward to doing a couple of depth tests on a 1 g nugget with both coils next week when I have more time in the field.

My thoughts on coil.

For. :Y:

Excellent ground coverage , centre mount which most people like but I am not fussed , very easy to pin point , balanced very well especially on bungy , DD cover still fits no problem , when laid flat on ground when testing scoops does not topple over due to bigger coil as standard one does so no need for stand , shaft can still be extended and contracted no worries , few extra inches reach on shaft is handy , was able to run on my normal gain setting for area with standard warble to listen through.

Against :N:

Sh##ty orange colour , camo would have been nice . Tape on skid plate not clip on like standard , slightly more EMI which was expected when waving a larger antenna around but settles nicely with regular auto tunes which I do anyway , can't be folded up for the back pack anymore .

Any other prospector finds with Gold Extreme coil / SDC combo feel free to post here for reference.

Jury still out : larger deeper nuggets , test next week.

Great start Bacchus.. I'd be keen to see what you snag from our barren SA grounds, be a real test of the new coil.
Not sure about the camo option, mate. One of the club members went out in full camo, including his detector shaft and coil, and we couldn't see him...at all.

xusr2000 said:

Great start Bacchus.. I'd be keen to see what you snag from our barren SA grounds, be a real test of the new coil.
Not sure about the camo option, mate. One of the club members went out in full camo, including his detector shaft and coil, and we couldn't see him...at all.

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Another colour rather than orange would be great. Minelab might have the patent on blue.

As to your club member mate in camo, he should just stay in the city. :N:

Cheers

Doug

xusr2000 said:

Great start Bacchus.. I'd be keen to see what you snag from our barren SA grounds, be a real test of the new coil.
Not sure about the camo option, mate. One of the club members went out in full camo, including his detector shaft and coil, and we couldn't see him...at all.

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I dont see why people dress up in camo,who are you hiding from, there is one detectorist video I have seen,old mate is dressed in nearly all TRG gear minus the gun,hunting coins :lol: ,maybe too much lead paint at home layful:

I gave my 11" a brief run today, unfortunately it didn't fix the issues I was having with the SDC, but at least I have eliminated the coil as being the problem. When it was working I dug a few targets, a thick short bit of rusty wire down close to a foot, a 10c coin just under the surface, and some other junk but no gold. Think it's gonna be good but I need to get my SDC fixed.

Hope you get your machine sorted 22 and Im sure you will be on the gold in no time.

Forgot to add another couple of observations from my first day.
Because I hunt in badly overgrown areas I like the old knuckle set up to push in and under bushes , but would often get a soft false signal when pushing hard up against overburden with the original 8 inch coil . Absolutely no falsing with the new coil which was good.
The other thing was that the new coil does produce a warble on charcoal which the old coil ignores very well.

Cheers and good luck

Got out for a few hours late yesterday, did not rake as I usually do hoping the new coil would give an extra inch or two and detecting on top of the overburden. Was skunked for gold but did pull regular bird shot at about same depth as standard coil . Can not say there is anything to indicate any extra depth at this stage over standard coil . Before I left I buried a target right on the depth limit of the new coil ,have changed back to old coil ( took about 5 mins )and plan to go back next week to see if it can pick it up .

Cheers

Bacchus ,your more than welcome to play in my test garden at Kuitpo with my sdc as well, to save swapping coils . i hav a 1 gram at 7" for the limit of the sdc and you can park next to it , and i hav all the hole digging gear lying there and many other test pieces in the ground

cheers Dave

10fp said:

Bacchus ,your more than welcome to play in my test garden at Kuitpo with my sdc as well, to save swapping coils . i hav a 1 gram at 7" for the limit of the sdc and you can park next to it , and i hav all the hole digging gear lying there and many other test pieces in the ground

cheers Dave

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Absolutely Dave will send you a PM

Cheers

Got out to Dave's place for a testing day with the 14 x9 , conditions not ideal being a little breezy and close to 30 deg there was a bit of emi but a great test bed set up thanks Dave.

.......................Standard coil..............Gold Extreme 14x9

.06 @ 2 inches. Clear response.............No response

.20 @ 4 inches. Clear response. ............No response

.90 @ 7 inches. Fair response. ..............Clear response

3g @ 10 inches. Only Just repeatable......Clear response

5g @ 13 inches. Clear response. ...........Clear response.

The ground was fairly well mineralised with some charcoal and the 14 x 9 was a little more chattery over all .
IMHO a little better on the larger deeper targets as expected but nothing to write home about . Does give up a little
on the tiny stuff but having pinged a .07 thin flat piece @ 3 inches it would depend on the make up of the target.
Very interested in other testing results if you would like to post.

Cheers

Not sure why they wear camo.. Maybe there trying to sneak up on the gold.. :lol: :lol: :N: :N:

Peko said:

xusr2000 said:

Great start Bacchus.. I'd be keen to see what you snag from our barren SA grounds, be a real test of the new coil.
Not sure about the camo option, mate. One of the club members went out in full camo, including his detector shaft and coil, and we couldn't see him...at all.

Click to expand...

I dont see why people dress up in camo,who are you hiding from, there is one detectorist video I have seen,old mate is dressed in nearly all TRG gear minus the gun,hunting coins :lol: ,maybe too much lead paint at home layful:

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I wear high vis, just in case there is a trigger happy hunter out there!

Thanks for the test Bacchus..Ive looked at the results a couple of times now..And I dont think its a failure..Have to get Dave to put some lead shot in..Same depth but varied sizes..Then another one, deeper all the same depth and the same varied sizes..Keep going deeper till we cant hear anything..With lead shot we have a pretty good standard shape..I still am a believer in the new coil..Hoping..

Cheers for the testing info Bacchus. Much appreciated! :Y:

Are you just running the SDC's speaker or headphones?

Really interested to see how these handle in hotter ground with the slightly broader ground sampling size. Sometimes you get a nice surprise on a real world target with depth or size that general testing wouldn't show.

Surprised there's little in the way of YouTube comparison videos already? Only a matter of time though I guess.

Cheers,
Shauno.

Syndyne said:

Cheers for the testing info Bacchus. Much appreciated! :Y:

Are you just running the SDC's speaker or headphones?

Really interested to see how these handle in hotter ground with the slightly broader ground sampling size. Sometimes you get a nice surprise on a real world target with depth or size that general testing wouldn't show.

Surprised there's little in the way of YouTube comparison videos already? Only a matter of time though I guess.

Cheers,
Shauno.

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G'day Shauno

Probably should have added both machines running boosters and externals we tested both the machines against each other in standard form 8 inch before changing one to 14 x 9 and they seemed pretty identical beforehand . Reckon you would gain a bit on both setups with good headphones but figured for the test of coil v coil didn't matter going external for both to hear . Perhaps can get back some time and do a headphone depth test with 5 g as Dave has a ripper little auger for testing :Y:

Cheers

Ive heard there has been a bad batch of coils from a dealer but the problem has been fixed so will be very interested in any more results to sway me cheers Muk.

finally took the sdc2300 out to the gold fields with the standard coil and the new coiltex 14x9 and did some real tests with real gold buried in the ground there was 5 different sizes from very tiny up to 5 gm sorry i cant get my scales to work to weigh them but will try later, some interesting findings the smallest piece at 2 and a half inches with the standard coil could be found but with the coiltex it could just find it on setting 5. but the best test was the 5 gm piece at 7 inches the standard coil did not see it on any settings but with the new coil it found it on setting. so my conclusion is bigger gold deeper

tuner said:

finally took the sdc2300 out to the gold fields with the standard coil and the new coiltex 14x9 and did some real tests with real gold buried in the ground there was 5 different sizes from very tiny up to 5 gm sorry i cant get my scales to work to weigh them but will try later, some interesting findings the smallest piece at 2 and a half inches with the standard coil could be found but with the coiltex it could just find it on setting 5. but the best test was the 5 gm piece at 7 inches the standard coil did not see it on any settings but with the new coil it found it on setting. so my conclusion is bigger gold deeper

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Something definitely not quite adding up there Tuner , as we had 2 x standard machines pinging .9g at 7 inches ( which as Dave said earlier is right on it's limit ) and a 5 grammer easily at 13 inches on both machines with standard 8 inch . And have personally pulled a 1.3 g specimen from 8 inches in standard configuration. If your standard machine is not screaming on a 5 grammer at 7 inches something is wrong. We were both running boosters and machines hot on 4 and 5 and both machines returned identical results.



Also got this yesterday , another .07 at one to two inches with 14 x 9

Bacchus that 5 gm was actually 6.2 grams and flattened to the size of your thumbnail , very large surface area

well done again on your little Adelaide hills spot erfect:

Cheers Dave for clarification on target makeup
And would have a lot to do with it . Have noticed same with tiny bits if flat and thin . As Baldy suggests would like to do a test increasing depth until it cant be heard on say a 5 gm solid target sometime.

Edit : or perhaps he can bring his 2 oz slug for a real depth test

Cheers