SDC Experience

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Goldtarget

(AKA OldGT)
Joined
Jan 12, 2014
Messages
4,350
Reaction score
6,818
Location
, VIC
As TathraDJ had requested a bit of a write up I thought I should probably do one. My days of being on the end of a shovel had been numbered a while back and so I had to reconsider prospecting as a hobby altogether which didnt sit well with me.

During the virus lockdown I was feeling a bit like a caged cat, but it did give me a chance to do a fair few core strength routines, and have a little think about what I wanted to do once restrictions were lifted. The news from the last PT appointment was fairly optimistic and I talked over with him about swinging a detector. After giving me the amber light I started thinking that the SDC might be the best option.

After looking around I contacted Doug and his machine was still for sale. After a bit of trouble , all the fault of AusPost, it arrived at its new home.

Restrictions got lifted and I headed out. Basically this machine is as easy as it gets. Insert batteries, unfold, switch on, noise cancel, ground balance, detect.

First spot I went to was a small exposed gully with heavy ironstone and chunky mineralized quartz. To my surprise it purred along beautifully, snagging what seemed like endless pellet shot. It got to the point I was simply making the ground adjacent as I worked upslope. It then occurred to me as I reached the high flat top looking back toward the car I had forgotten a finds jar.

I went ahead any way and collected up the targets. It was coming on dark and to my surprise among all the lead popped out a little sub-grammer about 0.4. First day First Gold Baby! Pretty little piece shing from the red clay. I let a few choice words go in excitment and carefully placed it in my jacket pocket. Alas no further gold before I got in the car covered in mozzies, dirt and clay in the dark, and carefully navigated the goat track back to the sealed roads.

Upon returning home, i went and got 2 finds jars. I scooped up all the lead and then went fishing for the gold. Probably went on for about half an hour before I gave up, even retried the next night, before giving up completely. Jacket in the wash all I could do was ponder. Any way lesson learnt.

The rains came in that week and so there was no chance to return as the track became impassable. I went out to a couple of spots, plenty of lead shot, only to eventually decide go to one of my fav spots that has tiny gold on shallow ground. The hard part about detecting there is its very steep, and pretty rocky. But everytime it rains heavy it seems to show up just a little more luck of a new piece.

I swung gridding up a small washout zone that I and others have done over and over. The first time I ever saw an SDC out in the feild was in that spot aside from Grecky demo at Notleys at a PMAV meetup with one.

That day the bloke picked up 8 or so pieces and I remember being shocked thinking it was like electronic panning. Back and forth, boot scrapping, ground balancing, it was a bit of an eye opener.

Any way 5 odd years later, with hours left in the day it was my turn. Pinged three tiny pieces of shot all really faint signals. I must say coil to the soil is a definite must on the Sdc. Just a few mm too high and its the difference between "something" and not hearing it at all.

Next target up was just a tiny repeatable wobble in the threshold running the coil N/S, E/W. A little scrape to even the ground level out the noise started to break the threshold. :eek: Next scrape a clear signal :D . This time the ground was rocky and undisturbed. This made me confident. Slow scrapping until I got it in the scoop. Unlike the shot, the noise was just a bit wobbly. Once I was down to half a teaspoon I could see its nose poking through. :cool: Now call me silly if you like but I think it was very happy to have waited all that time for me to come along and take it to a new home.
2 trips, 2 pieces. :Y:

Kept going for the day but no more luck. Came up pretty with a wash, and although all gold is beautiful I really love the colour from nearby. Tried Sunday with another PA member but no joy. Scrambled a couple of trips in after work but daylight has beaten me every time.

All fired up I went out yesterday. Scored 2 more from a mullock I had luck with the 4500 and GM. The bigger piece was porous and is exactly the type I have found in the gully nearby highbanking. Its almost spongy, sort of like steel wool but slivers instead of strands.

The SDC had no trouble saying dig me, in fact at first I thought it might be a flat piece of rusty tin. Good depth too, Had it cranked up to 4 after deciding 2 and 3 passes may be missing depth. On a sens 3 pass I got a small waver but only one way. Using 4 an hour later it was unmistakable. Maybe the 45 would never had heard it, hard to say, but I would have expected the Monster to. Because the ground is so quiet, white pipeclay and quartz, Ive done these Mullocks to death, so that to me is a huge tick to the SDC. Can confirm it will see gold clearly that the other machines havent, at least in my hands.

Went over the back and whizzed around the downslope of another heap further uphill. Again a clear signal both ways. Up popped a little speci. Was time to head off to get the new coils (10x5 and 14x9) and mounting kit as it was last chance for 20% off.

Went to gully in Bendigo Id washed in before, no luck, rhen back to a place Id never been detecting before and still no luck.

Back out this morning on some junky mullocks where I saw some detecting going on before lockdown. Popped out 2 tiny pieces deep running on sens 5 and raking just the one mound.

So in summary. Happy with the SDC doing what its meant to do. Coil choice has improved and look forward to hunting old spots with new tech. Have about 1/2 ounce of lead shot and that doesnt look like slowing down, but like fishing, you need bites to catch a fish. Definitely keeps my interest. Detecting is a confidence game and Im riding high. This would pair nicely with a gpx, no question.

Im inclined to run it hot to squeeze every mm out of it. The last target today was not present on 3 but came to life on 5. A small waver turned to two way sound with a decent scrape. Similar for yesterday. For clearing targets Im now convinced passing again in a higher setting is a must, but Im not sure I could hunt in it for hours on end. Next deep one Ill put the SP01 up and see if it can run in 5 constantly. Perhaps the larger coil might be another option.

The speaker is ok but headphones are better. Clear shallow targets are fine coming out speaker but I think you need to hear everything to be sure.

The Ugly.

The cover with stand insert is a godsend. This thing would flop around like a wet fish without it. Also got a knuckle protector, very much a must when using stock coil, christ youd wear through it in a matter of weeks otherwise.

Its a pain to swing, the balance is all off compared to every detector Ive owned, but as its not super heavy. The armrest annoys the hell out of me but easily modded. And lastly it baffles me how one minute its just quiet as a mouse then chatty as heck. Its like Jekyll and Hyde at times, but thankfully thoses target responses always seem to raise about the noise, something my 4500 could struggle with and ended the day early more than a few times.

So thats that. Just thinking about getting out with it makes me happy. Many more adventures to be had.

Cheers.
 
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Here they are Running clockwise in the order they came out. Hope you can see them smiling at you from here Doug. :Y:
 
Absolutely wrapt that you have found gold with my SDC.
I know now it has gone to a good loving home. O:) O:)

Yes, I sent the machine with signature required as it was too
high a value to simply drop it in the post. :skull:
There was no tracking and we started to panic a bit. ]:D ]:D
Especially me. :8

Knowing how Aus Post works as I am an IT vendor, I started to make
a few hasty phone calls to track it down and when I raised an inquiry,
It turned up the next day. {)
( A little note, It was in Bendigo)

I was so happy that you found gold with it on the same day you received it.

Sorry Cobber, You are now going to be in a lot of trouble as you won't be home
a lot turning up cold, Happy, Hungry with gold in your pocket. :awful: :awful: O:) :perfect: :perfect:

May you have many fun moments and pieces of gold to show your effort. As I told
you, I go through your town when on the way to Lanecoorie so I will let you know
when the next bash is on.

Doug
 
Great write up GT!

I did a detecting course with Mark and Rhonda from Australian Gold Prospecting late last year down in VIC using the SDC. They explained to me (as i was unaware) that the machine is very susceptible to EMF and aircraft instruments as i was seeming to have the same issue with the erroneous chatter. Anything from planes overhead to clouds could send it wobbly at times but they were only short bursts and it would return back to the normal humm. Sure enough after being told that i could pick when it was an outside factor messing with the machine, you could tell a plane was coming 30 seconds before it went overhead.

Great machine for the small stuff!
 
Oldgreg said:
Great write up GT!

I did a detecting course with Mark and Rhonda from Australian Gold Prospecting late last year down in VIC using the SDC. They explained to me (as i was unaware) that the machine is very susceptible to EMF and aircraft instruments as i was seeming to have the same issue with the erroneous chatter. Anything from planes overhead to clouds could send it wobbly at times but they were only short bursts and it would return back to the normal humm. Sure enough after being told that i could pick when it was an outside factor messing with the machine, you could tell a plane was coming 30 seconds before it went overhead.

Great machine for the small stuff!

Ok so I think I figured out how to get this thing humming along as it should. After reading so many differing views and demos I was a bit confused so today I went to a place that has almost always been a pain to settle any machine down including the SDC.. Ive tried vlf, DD on on 3500, DD and stock mono on the 4500 and its has always been a pain even using the best advice from experienced blokes.

I resolved to see if I couldn't at least get it somewhat stable, and the Sdc is really placed to be the best option, its small shallow reefy gold, and the odd speci with constant emi.

I tried numerous (more than 10) noise cancels at hip height from the worst areas to the best to no avail. I laid the machine down and tried a few more times up and down the slope. This second method seemed better.

Finally I tried up and down the slope, holding the detector exactly as I would (coil to ground extended out just above ground level) and found if I picked the most chatter ridden spot there (high upslope facing toward SE) the machine finally selected a channel that almost completely erased the entire interference, and was very usable.

I tried this same method in 3 other places today and had more or less the same result, very calm stable machine, that had knocked out almost all the false peaks leaving the agb and threshold noise just purring away.

Got a nice piece out, and rounded the day out with 10 pieces from 4 different places with the stock coil, in 5 hours. Going to make it hard to go back to work this week.
 
OldGT said:
Oldgreg said:
Great write up GT!

I did a detecting course with Mark and Rhonda from Australian Gold Prospecting late last year down in VIC using the SDC. They explained to me (as i was unaware) that the machine is very susceptible to EMF and aircraft instruments as i was seeming to have the same issue with the erroneous chatter. Anything from planes overhead to clouds could send it wobbly at times but they were only short bursts and it would return back to the normal humm. Sure enough after being told that i could pick when it was an outside factor messing with the machine, you could tell a plane was coming 30 seconds before it went overhead.

Great machine for the small stuff!

Ok so I think I figured out how to get this thing humming along as it should. After reading so many differing views and demos I was a bit confused so today I went to a place that has almost always been a pain to settle any machine down including the SDC.. Ive tried vlf, DD on on 3500, DD and stock mono on the 4500 and its has always been a pain even using the best advice from experienced blokes.

I resolved to see if I couldn't at least get it somewhat stable, and the Sdc is really placed to be the best option, its small shallow reefy gold, and the odd speci with constant emi.

I tried numerous (more than 10) noise cancels at hip height from the worst areas to the best to no avail. I laid the machine down and tried a few more times up and down the slope. This second method seemed better.

Finally I tried up and down the slope, holding the detector exactly as I would (coil to ground extended out just above ground level) and found if I picked the most chatter ridden spot there (high upslope facing toward SE) the machine finally selected a channel that almost completely erased the entire interference, and was very usable.

I tried this same method in 3 other places today and had more or less the same result, very calm stable machine, that had knocked out almost all the false peaks leaving the agb and threshold noise just purring away.

Got a nice piece out, and rounded the day out with 10 pieces from 4 different places with the stock coil, in 5 hours. Going to make it hard to go back to work this week.
I think these days finding anything with any machine is a job well done. Sounds like you have got a good handle on it. :Y:
 
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Some great finds GT!! I know what you mean it can take quite a few noise cancels to find the perfect range to get the detector humming along quietly. I try and run mine at a sensitivity of 5 as much as i can to avoid missing anything which i really think helps. But i have quite often had to reduce the sensitivity and noise cancel again in some areas which usually does the trick.

Few more of my finds above from another week out and about :perfect:
 
People who use the highest sensitivity setting all the time, report that once you get used to the constant chattering, targets jump out unmissably.
I could never get used to it on 5.
Found it was much better running at 3 & 4 in the majority of areas with the threshold/volume on about the same.
Don't think I was missing to much with the SDC as a lot of areas haven't turned up much, if anything, using other machines. That being said it was only shallow type ground I was using it so depth of target wasn't a big issue.
IMO those running it at 5 &/or flat out at high threshold/volume are more likely to be losing the faint signals in the noise.
 
Some of the deepest SDC targets I found when running Sensitivity 1. With a smooth threshold my brain attention perks up, and is alerted by the tiniest of variations. SDC gives more volume on higher Sensitivity settings, so maybe that is the appeal? But if you are running good headphones and/or an enhancer, then the reduced volume of lower sensitivity settings is of no concern - it is actually a blessing as it gives you more adjustable range - same as on the 6000 when you run hardwired.
 
Like nenad I run on sensitivity 1. lowest threshold 3 which is good when working a patch of crumbs, 4 threshold general searching just so its a faint hum then using a generic booster (nothing flashy) increase or decrease that stable hum to preference depending on ground. Its like an extra overall volume control to the SDC. I have found and paid for my SDC 38 times over which might not seem like much to 7 days prospectors. I still used standard headphones so I don't think the headphones really make much of a difference to overall target performance. The only time I increase SDC to 5 sensitivity is to do EMI cancel check as it helps enhance the EMI source then do the cancel and afterwards switch back to 1. I also keep my coil semi-floppy not too tight as its easier to glide perfectly with ground contours resulting in a more thorough ground coverage.

Well I guess everyone is different just about 90% of the people I run into in the bush run on 5 SDC sensitivity its to get better depth they say haha lol. But maybe there is also a different reason behind it so I thought I better ask the question in here.
 
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