Great informative post Steve! You are spot on when you say " I think it is 80% operator and 20% detector and that is probably giving the detector too much credit." You are also hit home about Ray finding more gold with a gold bug. I live in Rays country and I have a GB Pro, Gpx5000 and an SDC . Hundreds of hours I must have spent out last year mostly with GPX netted me 8.5 dwt, and half of that came in about 5 minutes on a small pocket. To say the least I have failed far more than I have succeeded and it had nothing to do with what detector I was using. This new year I find myself grabbing the SDC for its pack-ability and sensitivity to hit small gold. I am striving to be a Successful full time electronic prospector and I really am considering a 7000. Mainly for the "first pass, best chance" performance that I hear it has. Being totally into detecting I would also like to be able to evaluate the newcomer along with the other first adopters. But in the end do I think it will get me more gold? I know it wont! That's something I as a prospector need to figure out. All is not lost though as in late January I did hit my biggest specimen nugget to date. A 12.2 gram piece shaped like a broken heart in a rut of an old road near a creek crossing. It was really just luck that I put the SDC coil down to check that rut as I was walking along. This year I plan on getting out as much or more than I did last year. Will I get a 7000? I don't know yet but I will be watching this forum and Steve's unbiased opinions to help me make that decision.
Jeff