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Thanks, AjR! Welcome back! Hope you had a good time with the family. You've got to be having withdraw symptoms by now. Three weeks! Time to hit the hills and get your fix. Can't wait to see some pics of the new scoot when you pic her up. I will be in Denver this weekend for a seminar so it will be incumbent upon you to find gold and keep the dream alive (no pressure:)). I know that the gold gods will treat you well. Good Luck! Dean

AZavsfan, Man, that's too bad. Chris will make it right he's a great guy to deal with. Hopefully, it will be a quick fix. Best of luck! Dean

AZavsfan, I was looking for cooler country and found this area before I got there. Lots of lead as well. I left one hillside because of all the bird shot. At least I know the area hasn't been detected to death. Keep at it! You WILL beat the skunk!! Tortuga, Can I just pop the skid plate cover off and clean it? I found that I can sometimes run at #4 if I am willing to put up with a little noise. Threshold usually at #1 or #2. The ground I hunted yesterday was fairly mild so #4 Sens was o.k. but I like a stable threshold sound so I backed it down to #3. Thanks and good luck! Dean

A whopping .13 grams... but it busted the skunk! Took the SDC for a swing in the rain today and scored first gold as well as some junk with the new machine. Learning the SDC language. The dime (2010) was the first target of the day. The knife is an El Cheapo brand and will be relegated to utility status. I also did the head phone lead mod and it works like a charm. The stock Koss phones will now be back ups. No looking back now. Thanks to everyone for all the tips and tricks for the SDC. Much appreciated. Dean

Congrats on your purchase of the Zed! Thanks for the great report thus far. Good luck!!

Best of luck tomorrow! Yep, next week is gonna get warm. I've been scouting some areas up here in the pines for some summer detecting. I've got my eye on some promising looking ground and, hopefully, I can get out this weekend and swing the SDC over some of it . The biggest challenge is that so much of it is claimed up its hard to find open ground. My daughter is married to a Navy Corpsman who is assigned to a Marine unit. He is on deployment currently and will be back in June. She told me yesterday that after they are done in Hawaii they will be reassigned to either San Diego or Yuma. She is praying for San Diego. Either is good for me as she will be much closer. Kill that skunk tomorrow! Good luck. Dean

AjR, We've only been to this place twice now so we didn't clean it up. Someone did though it would seem. Strange though, as no one can get all of the gold and all of the trash as well. There was no evidence of prior detecting in there. Maybe ninjas with detectors? Are you getting out this weekend? Rick, Thanks for the tip. I'll let you know how it goes. Good luck! Dean

Great job. You and the Zed are a great team!

The skunk got a hold of me too today. So did my office which cut my detecting time short. I had to leave about 11:00. My buddy and I hunted archery Javelina in this spot in January and liked the looks of it for detecting. We have a couple of worn out patches near by so figured it would be promising. He went back there a month or so ago and scored a single multi-gram nugget. He must have found the only gold and got all the trash too because I didn't hit a single target. Not even a bullet. Very strange. I did encounter my first hot rocks that the SDC struggled with though and wore off some boot leather kicking them out of the way. Other than the rocks the machine was very stable in this ground. No rain or even much in the way of clouds. Next time I take a day off my phone stays home! I hope you beat the skunk on your next outing. Hang tough! Dean P.S.- Are you stationed down there? Marines?

Thanks Guys! I'm headin out the door ! The adjustable bungee works great, Paul. When hiking with the machine I collapse the shaft and attach the bungee and it rides up under my arm near my left elbow (I'm a lefty) so then I can really cruise without getting hung up in the brush. etc. The cover is a must to protect the machine for sure. I saw where one guy did the cuff mod and used a piece of velcro to hold it in place while in use but could pop it out so he could fold it up. Looks like a good way to go. Alright, I'm out. The gold is calling me..... Dean

AjR, Thanks for the positive words! I hope to find some SDC gold tomorrow! Supposed to be 70 and clear...perfect Az weather. I'm gonna get the tennis wrap. I've already decided to get the cover that you mentioned. I've got to call Chris at Az Outback and see if he stocks them. His shop is about a block from my office. Congrats on the new bike! I know it will help you fill your poke!! Have fun with the family. Thanks again. Dean

Hi Tortuga, I'm up in Prescott. Was swinging down in Black Canyon yesterday. Thanks for the tips and mods. I've seen the arm cuff mod and will definitely be doing that one soon. The stock arm rest folding up every time you take your arm out is a nuisance to be sure. The handle wrap is a great idea. I'm using a bungee rigged through my Camel Pack hooked to a piece of para-cord tied around the handle and it works awesome. Don't really even need the bungee for the SDC as its very light and pretty well balanced but I had it already so... why not.Thanks again! Dean

I made it out this morning for a few hours with the SDC. No gold but I learned a ton about the machine. Impressions thus far: ( I apologize in advance for boring all of you seasoned SDC users. You all ready know this stuff! ) Super stable machine in VERY hot ground even on sensitivity #3. Encountered only three pockets of ground noise that gave repeatable "dig"signals then as per usual with a bit of scraping/digging the signal disappears. The ground here was dark red with a bunch of iron stone. I am very impressed because with other detectors used in this area I dig lots of hot ground pocket signals. Not bothered by hot rocks. Rumblefish is right on. Foil and flat rusty pieces of iron get her screaming. Old pieces of lead shot (covered in white stuff) give a short, distinct warble at the end of the low tone echo. Brief but audible. I was able to predict very accurately that the target was going to be "old" lead. New lead (not covered) did not give the little warble. Anyone else experience this? Recovered a .22 short case at approx. 8 inches...impressive depth. The stock head phones suck. Time to get the head phone lead and use different ones. Beautiful morning in the Arizona desert. I can't wait to get the SDC out for another swing. Very impressed so far. Dean

AjR, Thanks for your reply. I am going to shoot for a morning hunt tomorrow (gonna play hookie on a teleconference ) and see if I can score that first piece. I will post it up as soon as I find it! I hope you are able to get out soon. Looking forward to seeing more of your finds. Dean

Way to hang in there. Hard work is always rewarded. Great job!

Awesome! Stomp that monkey!!

Thanks for all of your responses! It's fun learning a new machine. I will get out on Thurs. (day off) to known patches and see how she does. The wife and I are working on "The Wall" (No, not Pink Floyd. Great album, though:))... our retaining wall. It has become known affectionately (NOT) as "The Wall" in our house because it is one of those projects that was supposed to take a couple of weekends and has gone on for a couple of months and will, most likely, take another month to complete. Therefore, it deserved a name. It's totally messing with my detecting time so I need to get it done and out of my life. Anyway, there was no escaping "The Wall" today but I did have time before dark to play with a .3 gram test nugget in the back yard. The EMI was strong but the SDC was able to pick it up at about 3"- 4" with no problems. Very impressive. Will be better, I'm sure, out away from the EMI. Thanks again! Dean

Hi All, Well, I received my 2300 Friday afternoon and, of course, charged the batteries right off. Then fired her up. All good! After putting in my time on the "honey do" list on Saturday I was able to escape for about two hours to a near by gulch that has been prospected since the late 1800s. A buddy of mine does well there using the usual "wet" methods of recovery. My main concern was the proximity of some large power lines (100-150 yards). I knew that the GPX line would have fits there and wanted to see how the SDC would handle the emi. I fired up the SDC, did a noise cancel and ground balance with the sensitivity set to 4, and was pleasantly surprised with a mild warble in the signal...still very hunt-able even at 4! The #2 setting was even more stable. Loving it so far! Hit some small trash items right off the bat...small pieces of wire that gave nice "dig me" signals. as I worked my way up the gulch I started hitting signals that "over loaded" the machine. The recovered targets that caused the over load were the ever annoying bits of flat, decaying, rusted iron the size of a finger nail or smaller. The stuff was every where . So, I started to ignore the over load signals. My question is... was I ignoring gold as well? Will the machine give "over load" on the usual small gold? I can imagine that if it were swung over a large shallow piece of gold it may over load (?). I was in such a rush to get out and give the new SDC a swing that I forgot my .3 gram test nugget to test this for myself. I was getting these over load signals even on the #2 sensitivity setting. My conclusion was that there is a ton of trash in this spot and would be better suited to a VLF with discrimination capabilities if it could handle the ground (doubtful). Overall, I was thoroughly impressed with the SDC! Handles the ground and emi incredibly well. Hopefully, I can get out this afternoon and give it a go. Thanks! Dean

Yes, Steve. Thank you very much!!

Thanks AjR! Iv'e been enjoying the finds and stories that you have been posting...helped me make my decision to purchase the SDC. I will give that cover a look. Thanks! Dean

Well, I am now an official member the the SDC owners club . Should be arriving in a few days . Can't wait to give it a swing. I have my eye on some higher (read COOLER) areas for some summer swinging. Already getting warm...was 80 yesterday here in central AZ. -5000ft elevation. Hopefully, we will get some rain soon or we are going to burn up this summer. Dean

Very cool. My wife would love that as well. She would paint something on it and make me hang it somewhere. Did you find the fair ground site?

Now you need to go back and find the matching ear rings so you have the whole set for the holidays:)

Nice one! I love the looks of those rough nuggets.

Thanks Steve Kiesel, I live down the road from Chris. I am going to try and go by there today and check the machine out. My septic line backed up this morning and I just got done fixing it. So much for the first half of my day off (and I thought that my pooo didn't stink . Man, was I wrong!!). Dean