Minelab SDC 2300 vs GPZ 7000

[Jeff Pierce 2]

Hi Steve,

To start off, you have a great informational site here. I have always liked your posts from around the different forums and now you have it all right here and you are sending out info double time. Very nice.

Since this thread has an SDC component to it I would like to ask the question I been wondering about.

I have read JP's analysis that he can run GPZ head to head with the SDC except for very small surface gold. I have both a 5000 and SDC and quite honestly I love the stealthy little detector and use it 90% of the time. It just work in the steep manzanita choked hills that I frequent much of the time here in Shasta Co. I would like to get your take on the small/med gold performance difference between these two here in our local soil conditions of Northern Cal and Nevada?

Thanks

Jeff

[Steve Herschbach 33,478]

Hi Jeff, welcome to the forum!

I know people distrust sales brochures but the chart below from the GPZ brochure really says it all. There is a catch however. If you are on relatively shallow ground, and there is a lot of that around, the SDC 2300 can do every bit as well as the GPZ 7000 or better. The extra GPZ depth matters but little in shallow ground. That 8" SDC coil can get around the base of rocks, down in depressions, and between roots where the 14" GPZ coil will not fit.

If it was a case of one or the other, cost is no object, I am going with the GPZ 7000. But I can see a person also just using the SDC 2300 exclusively as a hot sniper unit and doing very well with it, especially in rough high Sierra type terrain. Terrain gets discussed rarely but in really rough brushy ground slow and methodical with a smaller coil really has advantages.

I will keep my SDC for sure until a smaller coil is available for the GPZ but even then I suspect I will keep it anyway. It is just too handy for grab and go detecting or serious light weight hike in kind of stuff. Once a small coil for the GPZ comes out it will sort itself out. I have to admit at the end of the day I tend to go for power, and if the SDC just goes unused long enough it may get sold off. But it is going to probably take a year for me to sort that out!

[Rick Kempf 1,861]

Lots of first-hand report starting to pop up on one of the Aussie forms – including some comparisons with the SDC2300.

http://golddetecting.4umer.net/f91-gpz7000

[Steve Herschbach 33,478]

The thing I am always trying to convey is no one detector is best for all people under all circumstances. Life does not work that way. If it did there would be one model of car and we all would drive it. Just because the GPZ 7000 came out all other gold detectors did not become obsolete. I think it is 80% operator and 20% detector and that is probably giving the detector too much credit.

As things stand right now the GPZ 7000 has some areas that would make a person consider other detectors:

1. The price
2. The weight
3. The lack of small coil option
4. The lack of large coil option
5. Lack of discrimination

Until we get the GPZ 10000 at 3 lbs for $1000 with full discrimination and full range of inexpensive coil options there will be plenty of room for alternatives.

[Rick Kempf 1,861]

And a pony! I demand a pony!

Right on Steve, using Michaelanglo's brushes or Ansel Adams' camera will not make you an artist. Only dedication, application of your intelligence and judgement and a lot of sweat, blisters and thorns will find you gold. And if you work that hard, you can find it with a shovel and a frying pan.

Which, come to think of it, is probably why I haven't found any, except at the beach - I find bikini-clad maidens an inspiration - go figure.

[vanursepaul 2,757]

Steve,

I would like to see you superimpose the ATX on this bar graph to see where it fits.

 

Paul

 

The whole graph isnt there, but you know what i mean, eh?

[rumblefish 67]

If it's with the standard ATX coil, then probably pretty close to the GPX 5000 bars I would imagine. But since the ATX is waterproof it would have an advantage in that respect.