bado1

Way to go! You deserve that one!!

Welcome to the forum. You will learn a lot here about your 2300. I have a 2300 as well and love it. I have been finding gold with it just about every outing.It's just a matter of getting your coil over gold. If you are having success at dry washing then you will soon be successful with your 2300. Hunt the shallow bed rock gulches that look good for dry washing. GPAA has a claim up in Dewey-Humbolt area called "Soldier Boy". Check that out. Slightly cooler than the lower desert. Good luck! Dean

Great job!

Very nice. Fun learning a new machine.

Sweet! I'll be your first customer. I'll send my coils to you for the "Mule Ear" surgery. Will this mod increase depth and reduce EMI too?

Nice Paul. Gettin the hang of the 705. Hey, I put a WTT add in the classifieds re: 705 coils. You have a 6" coil (with intact ears )you want to get rid of? Which coil did you use to make this haul?

Very nice!

your link wouldn't open for me.

O.K., I finally found the answer. http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/topic/884-sd-gp-gpx-coils-interchangability/ Just had to search using the right question! The answer BTW is yes they are. Thanks.

I did a search on this site but couldn't find the answer. I see from Minelab's "coil chart" that the Commander coils are interchangeable between the different series of P.I. detectors SD/GP/GPX (if I am understanding the chart correctly). Does this only apply to the Commander coils? Will a nugget finder coil that is in use now on a GP3500 be compatible with a GPX 5000 as well? Thanks. Dean

Good work. Time to get back in the field with that one.

That is amazing, Rick. My bet is that you are going back to look for more red "hot rocks"! Thanks for the tip. Do you think that this is the strata they were mining? Dean

Thanks Guys. Fred- This place was littered with old timer junk.... nails, tiny pieces of rusted iron,etc. Those darn small rusted nails and small pieces of rusted iron give a good high tone especially if they are a bit deeper. I'm learning but still got fooled quite a bit just going for the high tones. Definitely going back. Small amount of previous detectors at the site. I could tell because they didn't fill their holes:(. Dean

Wow! Awesome job!!

Here are some recent finds from the last couple of Saturday outings. SDC nuggets. My buddy's nuggets using his 3500. These are this afternoon's X-Terra finds from a mining town that was established in the late 1800s. I believe that these are parts from a clock. All found within a small area. There is more of it I'm sure but I ran out of day light. Was really hoping for an old coin (aren't we all)but it didn't happen today. TONS of junk! I'm slowly learning what the X-Terra is telling me. I see why a small 6" coil would come in handy. Every swing hit multiple targets. I found two sides of an ornate wood stove that are awesome but couldn't carry them back to the truck in the dark. So I stashed them for next time. The clock gears appear to be brass(?). Starting to have some fun with the X-terra. Good luck. Dean

Congratulations!

What a trip! Sorry to hear about your coil. Did you use the tones function? I like the 3 tone function myself in the park. Perhaps this spot is where a DD would work better? Sounds like a great spot. Good luck with the coil repair. Dean

Just got back from my park adventure with the X-terra. I used the concentric coil to see if it had issues or not. Seemed to work well enough. I did some some air tests before I went. It picks up a flat to the coil clad coin at 6" and gets them weakly at 7". In-ground at the park seemed to be the same if not better in terms of signal strength. MUCH easier pin pointing with the concentric coil AND a bigger better digging tool than a screw driver. If I were in to the park/grass thing I would get a small pin pointer though. Digging clad coins and trash just doesn't do it for me though. I find the relic/old coin/trashy mining site hunting more appealing. I'm going to have to do some research. Luckily, I live in a very historic area. Learning a new machine and a different aspect of our hobby has been fun. It has given me a better understanding of detectors and made me a better detector prospector. Thanks to everyone who helped thus far. Much appreciated. Paul, I apologize if I jacked your thread. I hope your hunting went well today. Looking forward to pics. Dean

You as well, thank you. Dean

Thanks scoopjohnb, that makes sense. The whole VID, discrimination stuff is new to me. I appreciate the education. Went out yesterday afternoon to a nearby area and met my detecting partner who had been swinging for a couple of hours already. He had scored two nuggets already so I had some catching up to do. So I went with the SDC and never let go of it. My buddy has been on a hot streak the last few weekends and yesterday was no exception. He scored four for the day to my one. Needless to say I did not swing the X-Terra out in the gold fields. I am going to do so today in the more urban setting of a park. I am looking forward to trying argyle's tips. Paul- How'd it go yesterday? A few gold coins perhaps? Dean

Things are going well, Argyle. Thank you. Hope all is well on your end. Thank you for your great response! I believe that you are on to something with the faulty coil. As I stated, I was quite surprised at how much better the DD performed which, intuitively, doesn't make sense. Iv'e been stewing about it ever since. This machine is new to me and has VERY low hours on it. The concentric coil had never been used (new) until I put it on a couple of days ago. I have two of the same the DD ellip coils at 18.75khz. One of them is new. So, unfortunately, I don't have another concentric coil at this time. I am headed out in a couple of hours to the gold fields and ,as Paul suggested, will bring the X-terra with me. I will put your tips and tricks in to play. Thanks again. Dean

scoopjohnb- Thanks for your reply. What does it matter what type of mineralisation it is? Does the type affect the two coils differently or more so than the amount? Paul- Good luck tomorrow! I'm heading out with the SDC tomorrow to the spot that has produced nuggets every trip lately. Small but numerous. Sunday I'm heading out with the X-terra and both coils to compare them in real world conditions ( a park). With the experienced guys extolling the advantages of the concentric coils me thinks my testing must be flawed. Or I'm just such a newbie to the coin shooting and need lots more practice. I think the problem is that my targets are freshly planted and, like air tests, don't give "true" in ground results. If this is the case, then DD coils must perform better in planted target/air tests(?). That is my conclusion thus far. In MY yard anyway. Which probably doesn't mean a darn thing... So, off to the parks I go. What fun! Dean

Iv'e been practicing with the XT70 this week and reading all of the posts on DD and concentric coils and soaking it up. Here are my observations thus far.... Stock ellip 18.75 DD coil- GB# 20-21 in my yard. Can run the sens to 27 and be stable. Great depth. Hits on targets hard. Numbers tend to be "bouncy". PITA pin pointing. I think that this is due to it being a solid coil and I have trouble knowing where the target is under the coil but, with practice, I'm getting much better at it. I put the stock 8.5" 7.5khz concentric coil on yesterday and found that the GB# is 16-18 in my yard and can run the sens to 24 and be stable. Depth is severely decreased compared to the DD and it does not hit on targets nearly as hard. Target separation is better than the DD and pin pointing is MUCH easier as it pin points within the small inner coil and I can mark where the target is because I can see the ground. What surprised me the most was the loss of depth. Very weak signal on a 4" nickel and penny which the DD just bangs out on. All testing has been done in AM mode and both manual and auto GB and I tried tracking as well. 3 tones. My questions- Is this due to the high mineralization? From what I understand the higher the GB# the milder the soil. Or is this due to the targets being planted and not "true" in the ground targets? Or both? I am surprised after all that was said about concentric coils. The DD clearly performs better here (in my yard tests anyway). Thanks. Dean

Great! Thanks Lee.

To answer your original question, I feel that the ATX is a good beginner's machine. I found it very easy to learn. Does this package come with the small mono coil? If so, it would be much easier to move in to tighter places without banging it around as much as a bigger coil. The small coil is pretty pricey too- $450.00. Good luck! Dean