Syndyne
Shaun Galman
G'day all,
Well the old man and I have just returned from the trip out into the wilds of Central West NSW once again and are happy to report that the SDC2300 has done well, despite a couple minor hiccups. I think I'm at a total of 215hrs now on the SDC as we detected for a full thirty five days out of thirty eight (three days of for horrid cold, wet weather). We had gold every day, bar one where I was just wandering around aimlessly hoping to stumble on a new bit of ground.
It was great to meet up and swing the new SDC's with a couple of good friends and fellow forum members Heatho, mbasko and Steveo1. We all found gold which was the best part and great to see! mbasko won us over with his nice bit though
The very first morning out with the SDC it was freezing cold and showery so, without any real plans Dad and I just wandered about near some of the old patches and the very first target we had was a tiny piece of gold. We were both a bit stunned as we'd gone a few weeks on the 5000 for 1.24gm (first bit coming after ten full days swinging). I only operated with the speaker for the first week as I wanted Dad to hear what I was hearing. This wasn't ideal as it was pretty windy and I knew I would be missing those super subtle targets where the threshold would only just waver. I soon switched over to the headphones and cleaned up the bits I missed previous. This is when I realised the headphone cable was too short and it actually pulled right out of the connector in week two as I leaned forward and ran the scoop over the coil to retrieve a target. After a quick email, Minelab rang me and sent me out a new set immediately. From that point I simply unplugged them to retrieve every target using the speaker. That made it more comfortable to dig also. Needless to say, I'm very much liking the idea of Nenad's new adapter cable
The amount of bird shot (2mm-ish lead shot) we found was mind blowing. We averaged between 30 and 50 every day. Best day was 22 and the worst was 96 small lead shot. Lucky they are only shallow and quick to dig. I'll post a pic of those tomorrow when they dry as they got covered in dirt over the weeks so I gave them a quick rinse. I would estimate we had dug somewhere in the vicinity of 1200 lead shot. Many we didn't even keep in the finish, but were disposed of thoughtfully.
Dad managed to pick up five little nugs? bits? flakes? specks? pickers? (what do you call gold that small? Hahaha!) in total which really put a smile on my face! Even at 77yrs he can easily operate the SDC and manage to find gold. He was more than happy to just pick it up and go for a wander when I was on break... AKA pick, water pack and scoop carrying detail.
We found the tiny pieces hard to locate in the beginning, particularly those that are only specks of dust basically. You soon work out how to locate them more thoroughly using the coil in time. We never lost one as the machine would always hear it okay once it was anywhere near the coil. We used the round bottom scoop made by Fiskars (from Bunnings) and I said that next trip we need a flat bottom scoop to keep the targets closer to the coil and make retrieval a bit easier.
Best target depth for the trip was an old half corroded shotgun primer at 15inches depth. It was a nice mellow tone at the surface and I was certain that an ounce of the yellow was about to show itself! Not to be that time, but a great indicator of performance in rough conditions, extreme EMI, hot ground etc.
Enough of the stories, on with the best part- the pics!
Our total bits from the first patch with mbasko, Steveo1 and Heatho.
The weight of those below:
Dad and I then went out with Steveo1 onto a new area and picked up these bits over two weeks. Some nice little Ironstone speci's amongst them! Largest bit we picked up here came in at 0.75gm. It was at 7 inches depth.
The weight of those below:
Total numbers are 184 bits for 25.36gm over 35 days.
We couldn't have ever expected to see so many bits of gold show up in our wildest dreams! Sharing the time and gold with my Dad, Heatho, mbasko and Steveo1 is something I'll never forget. We're already looking forward to the next trip out.
*We definitely need to drag you out along with us next trip Lbg!
Will post a little more over the coming days.
Kindest regards,
Shauno.
Edit: for spelling.
Well the old man and I have just returned from the trip out into the wilds of Central West NSW once again and are happy to report that the SDC2300 has done well, despite a couple minor hiccups. I think I'm at a total of 215hrs now on the SDC as we detected for a full thirty five days out of thirty eight (three days of for horrid cold, wet weather). We had gold every day, bar one where I was just wandering around aimlessly hoping to stumble on a new bit of ground.
It was great to meet up and swing the new SDC's with a couple of good friends and fellow forum members Heatho, mbasko and Steveo1. We all found gold which was the best part and great to see! mbasko won us over with his nice bit though
The very first morning out with the SDC it was freezing cold and showery so, without any real plans Dad and I just wandered about near some of the old patches and the very first target we had was a tiny piece of gold. We were both a bit stunned as we'd gone a few weeks on the 5000 for 1.24gm (first bit coming after ten full days swinging). I only operated with the speaker for the first week as I wanted Dad to hear what I was hearing. This wasn't ideal as it was pretty windy and I knew I would be missing those super subtle targets where the threshold would only just waver. I soon switched over to the headphones and cleaned up the bits I missed previous. This is when I realised the headphone cable was too short and it actually pulled right out of the connector in week two as I leaned forward and ran the scoop over the coil to retrieve a target. After a quick email, Minelab rang me and sent me out a new set immediately. From that point I simply unplugged them to retrieve every target using the speaker. That made it more comfortable to dig also. Needless to say, I'm very much liking the idea of Nenad's new adapter cable
The amount of bird shot (2mm-ish lead shot) we found was mind blowing. We averaged between 30 and 50 every day. Best day was 22 and the worst was 96 small lead shot. Lucky they are only shallow and quick to dig. I'll post a pic of those tomorrow when they dry as they got covered in dirt over the weeks so I gave them a quick rinse. I would estimate we had dug somewhere in the vicinity of 1200 lead shot. Many we didn't even keep in the finish, but were disposed of thoughtfully.
Dad managed to pick up five little nugs? bits? flakes? specks? pickers? (what do you call gold that small? Hahaha!) in total which really put a smile on my face! Even at 77yrs he can easily operate the SDC and manage to find gold. He was more than happy to just pick it up and go for a wander when I was on break... AKA pick, water pack and scoop carrying detail.
We found the tiny pieces hard to locate in the beginning, particularly those that are only specks of dust basically. You soon work out how to locate them more thoroughly using the coil in time. We never lost one as the machine would always hear it okay once it was anywhere near the coil. We used the round bottom scoop made by Fiskars (from Bunnings) and I said that next trip we need a flat bottom scoop to keep the targets closer to the coil and make retrieval a bit easier.
Best target depth for the trip was an old half corroded shotgun primer at 15inches depth. It was a nice mellow tone at the surface and I was certain that an ounce of the yellow was about to show itself! Not to be that time, but a great indicator of performance in rough conditions, extreme EMI, hot ground etc.
Enough of the stories, on with the best part- the pics!
Our total bits from the first patch with mbasko, Steveo1 and Heatho.
The weight of those below:
Dad and I then went out with Steveo1 onto a new area and picked up these bits over two weeks. Some nice little Ironstone speci's amongst them! Largest bit we picked up here came in at 0.75gm. It was at 7 inches depth.
The weight of those below:
Total numbers are 184 bits for 25.36gm over 35 days.
We couldn't have ever expected to see so many bits of gold show up in our wildest dreams! Sharing the time and gold with my Dad, Heatho, mbasko and Steveo1 is something I'll never forget. We're already looking forward to the next trip out.
*We definitely need to drag you out along with us next trip Lbg!
Will post a little more over the coming days.
Kindest regards,
Shauno.
Edit: for spelling.
