WesD

I sure hope only half that rumor is true.

sometimes you gotta use a little powder 😁

A grade stunner piece! Thanks for sharing Lunk

Gotta agree with Flak. After spending $7 -10 grand on a detector, we really should not have to fork out another $3800 to have a small coil option.

Probably more like California, Alaskan, Russian, or Oz gold

Minelab would rather sell us the SDC2300, than offer a small coil for the 7000. Likely they figure that small coil option for the 7 would hurt their SDC sales. Plus they probably have a 7000 replacement in the works and this whole story will be forgotten history when that comes out.

another vote for small elliptical . 8x12" should work good for creek gulch, gully hunting

Id go with that theory Flak. This beast of a 7000 was fun for awhile, but I sure look forward to a lightweight edition. Our backs cant take this much longer!

Hope they make a small coil, or an elliptical in the 8x12 range would be great for bedrock/creek hunting. I personally wouldn't buy a 12" just because it' is too close in size to the original Minelab coil.

I saw some of the guys in Australia make a Trumpet to deflect the sound upward from the speaker on the sdc. Great idea, but shipping was a bit much, so I cut a 90 pcv fitting in half and used velcroe to attach. Cheap little project and does add a noticeable increase in sound coming up from the speaker.

Scott the never skunk sdc is the best creek hunting bedrock detector out there. I used to use the 8x6 NF coil and 5000 combo, but the sdc cleans up on flat small, low conductive gold we find in creeks. The 5000 just didnt hear a lot of these targets for whatever reason. The factory sdc coil is hard to beat and very waterproof. Ive had mine in the creeks the last 3 years snipe- detecting and no ill effects.

In the Normal ground setting I dont go too high on sensitivity setting as it brings in a lot of ground and emi sound. On the other hand, in Difficult ground setting I might max out sensitivity and the detector still runs pretty smooth even in high mineral ground.

Likely the golden bean counters at Minelab didnt want 2300 sales to drop with introduction of a 7000 small coil, and put a stop to that ever being released.

Sounds good, Thanks Jason

Jason, When you get a chance, it would be great to hear how the 10X signals compare with the SCD2300

You could say the sdc shines proudly in the aspect of having that small coil we greatly needed for working tight bedrock and pinging that "low conductive" gold. On the right deposits the sdc will find plenty of dinks behind a Z. I'm just wondering now, does the 10X have any depth gains on the sdc?

I agree that small coil would have hurt SDC sales and probably have very similar performance.

If you have an sdc2300, it would be great if you could compare target signal strengths with the X10 coil. I'm just curious if there is an advantage over the SDC on small gold. Thanks for the review!

I don't doubt the Z with a 10" coil will do really well, but if you are looking for a cheaper alternative, the 2300 is the next best thing on small gold at depths greater than a vlf will punch. Run the sensitivity up 4 or 5 and listen for the faint signals. We were cleaning up a lot of patches that were worked with the 5000 and 8x6 coil. I believe the 2300 has a faster receive timing than the gpx, so its not like you can just strap on a small coil and expect the same results on the 5k. Spend some time running an sdc and you will like it after you learn its language.

The sdc is like the gpz on small gold but better in my experience. If that were the case about the 2300 having no advantage in mild soil, you also wouldn't have any advantage using the Z. The vlf would be all you need, but obviously the Z punches deeper weather it be hot or mild ground. Its the same story with the 2300. The less mineralized the ground, the deeper you will shoot down. If your crumb chasin that is the detector to own!

Simon, get yourself an SDC! They are affordable and you will get that deeper tiny gold too. I have had a 7k since day one and still love using the sdc because it finds small gold. Max the sensitivity on 5 and you will be pinging little bits and party on.

Id agree maybe the original intent was to provide a lineup of additional factory coils, but for some reason unbeknown to us they seem to have aborted that idea ☹️

My guess is a whole new machine is eventually coming out and they don't want to waste money developing coils for something old that they will be phasing out. Lets hope the next top gun detector from Minelab is half the weight and has a small coil option.

Ive been using the open topography site for some areas in California. Unfortunately it only has limited imagery of the Motherload area. Otherwise , very cool as it strips the vegetation away and every prospect can be seen

Nice finds! If you sell your nugget, hype it up good: Rare New Zealand Hopper crystal showing octahedral structure and striations! Ya something like that ?