The Worth Of The 2300

While the 7000 is my main detector, I cannot underestimate the power of the mighty little 2300.

I have an area where the 7000 has given me just under 2oz of small reefy gold and some specimens. This area is about 30' x 15' and for the life of me I cannot coax another signal out with the 7000.

Yesterday I went back with the 2300 and was amazed by the number of targets.

This is 4.9 grams of smalls from surface down to a few inches.



Once out, every one of them registers on the 7000 though some of the tiniest ones have to be touching the coil.

Below are 4 specimens which were all surface targets and clearly audible on the 2300 yet all bar one failed to elicit a response on the 7000 in situ.



Once removed and rotated, the 7000 recognized all of them.

The smallest piece pictured below, is the only piece with visible gold and the only one the 7000 recognized in situ, and that was probably only because I knew it was there.



I called in to some friends who are dectecting with 5000's and 4500's using a variety of coils from 17" x 11" to Commander 8". Not one of the specimens would register.

Unfortunately I left a few signals as my 2300 batteries went flat. So I'll be back in a day or so to see what else is there. If you have an area you are pulling gold from it pays to hit it with every machine you've got plus a variety of coils.

Maybe some sort of Faraday cage effect with the iron content of the soil?

Thanks MT that reminds me , there are a few areas I need to go back over. I agree its a great little machine.
Cheers Booney. :Y:

Great post madtuna, as a newb I find it amazing how among so many different good quality detectors/coils etc one can pick up something and yet another seemingly can't even see it. I guess the take home message is -There's still heaps out there, even where there apparently "isn't" anymore.

I've taken onboard a quote from someone on here that I read recently, something along the lines of "no area is flogged until you've flogged it yourself".

Your post is good proof of that :goldnugget:

madtuna said:

While the 7000 is my main detector, I cannot underestimate the power of the mighty little 2300.
I have an area where the 7000 has given me just under 2oz of small reefy gold and some specimens. This area is about 30' x 15' and for the life of me I cannot coax another signal out with the 7000.
Yesterday I went back with the 2300 and was amazed by the number of targets.
Once out, every one of them registers on the 7000 though some of the tiniest ones have to be touching the coil.

Click to expand...

wow, I've been keenly evaluating & weighing up all the info/talk/finds etc on the 2300, 4500, 5000 & 7000 with a view to which one will be my next buy. I had come to believe the 7000 was the ducknuts & could find most of what the SDC could, especially that shallow!
Madtuna, Are you sure you were holding your tongue to the left while swinging the Zed (as one must when fishing)?
That 4.9gm in your photo, I cant understand how the Zed missed it. Are there other factors involved?

Thanks folks.

Ded.... there are many factors involved. Depth, mineralization, type of gold, shape, choice of undies on the day and on and on and on.

I have found gold with the 5000 that the 7000 and 2300 doesn't see, with the 7000 that the 2300 and 5000 doesn't see and with the 2300 that the 5000 and the 7000 doesn't see.
While I don't have a GM, no doubt it will find stuff my 3 wont see.

Saying that, if I could only have one detector for where I am and the gold I target it would be a 7000. For the type of gold I target my second choice would be a 2300.
As an all round detector, again my choice would be a 7000. For a step it out raw prospecting detector my choice would be a 5000.
Unfortunately there is no one detector that does it all.

I'm convinced the SDC is better on specimen type gold than the 5000, something to do with the MPF I believe. The 5000 definitely punches deeper on the more solid bits. Often hear that the SDC is only good on the small shallow bits, and it does very well at that, but I've also found gold with it down to a foot and a half depth. Would have thought though that the 7000 would have got some of the ones in your hand. Assume you tried various settings?

I have no doubt the 7000 would have got a large preportion of the ones in my hand and at the depths they were found.
However with the size of the quartz pieces strewn over and embeded in the ground it's just not posible to get the 7000's coil close enough to put them within range.

10x9 X coil on the radar MT?

Ah OK. Need a small coil option for the 7000 to get in those tight spots, something like an 8" round or small eliptical?

Not sure yet mate. There's a group of blokes on the station at the moment one with a brand new coiltek 10 x 9 (? terracotta) fitted. I took him to a moneybox spot where the SDC shines.

Of the 3 targets I located for him with my SDC, his only barely heard one of them.

edit: Sorry Matt, I now see you said X coil...as in for the 7000. No not contemplating one at this stage, but am getting a larger X coil

Madtuna, you will love the xcoil on 7000. We have the 18" and have been giving it a bit of a run when well enough and a friend has borrowed and used it as well. Finding gold and targets where spots have been hammered with all and sundry. We took this coil to a spot in adelaide hills a few days ago where a number of oz's have been found by various guys using most detectors and coil combinations. Even nenad had hammered that small patch but the 18" was pulling gold and junk at unbelievable depths, and very definite signals that were plain as day. We also have the 10x9" but have not really given it much of a go as have been gobsmacked by the 18" we never had a camera with otherwise would have posted some pictures. We did however have another mate with and his 7000 could not get a signal until a few inches of soil removed. More gold there but it is deep.

Thanks TG...that gives me confidence :Y:

Hi Guys..

Just my two bobs bit. I have old patches that I hit every time I upgrade to a new detector, from the time I first found them with the XT1700 up to the 5k.

Whilst some new models resulted in more pieces being had and some not, I think the biggest jump for me was from the XT1700 into the SD2100 and then onto the GP/GPX's. However the SDC2300 is such a great way to ensure you have cleaned an area and amazes me of what it will hit on.

I was very confident that I had cleaned one patch out out until I got my 2300 and I was very much mistaken. This patch was in an area about 25m x 15m somewhere and another six pieces were dug on my first trip out there with the little machine. Last month I returned from a trip and scored some seven small pieces and a nice honeycombed 2 grammer @ 5 inches down that I had missed over the years from that patch. This in an area that is totally flogged ground and should not have been there.

That did it for me ...the SDC will always have a spot in my truck and I love it just the way it is...no mods.

Jack

Thinking my next investment is going to be a SDC 2300....

Goody

Thanks Madtuna.

I think your post hammers home the old saying of each detector and coil combo has a certain hot spot for targets at a particular depth range, or more simply a "target window".

When I put up my video on YouTube comparing the SDC and GPX5000 I chose two targets that I knew each machine would excel on.
In the first demonstration the SDC was better, the second demonstration the 5000 was better. No bias, no motives, just showing each machines strengths.

But you can imagine some of the comments I got back!

- You don't know what you are doing
- You should have Noise Cancelled the SDC first (even though it was humming beautifully)
- What a waste of time
- If you used my settings on the 5000 you would have picked that nugget up

I wish a post like yours existed back then, as I would've just directed any naysayers here haha
And Happy Jack, you summed it up perfectly as well.

PhaseTech said:

Thanks Madtuna.

I think your post hammers home the old saying of each detector and coil combo has a certain hot spot for targets at a particular depth range, or more simply a "target window".

When I put up my video on YouTube comparing the SDC and GPX5000 I chose two targets that I knew each machine would excel on.
In the first demonstration the SDC was better, the second demonstration the 5000 was better. No bias, no motives, just showing each machines strengths.

But you can imagine some of the comments I got back!

- You don't know what you are doing
- You should have Noise Cancelled the SDC first (even though it was humming beautifully)
- What a waste of time
- If you used my settings on the 5000 you would have picked that nugget up

I wish a post like yours existed back then, as I would've just directed any naysayers here haha
And Happy Jack, you summed it up perfectly as well.

Click to expand...

Some of the comments on youtube have me shaking my head at times, especially the prospecting videos. It is a hobby that attracts some from the fringe buy you wonder how some of them survive at times.