Dutchman4

I have that particular Apex pick with the 3 magnet option and it is quite heavy for such a small pick. They also offer that same pick with a single magnet option and I now wish that I had bought that one instead for less weight and cleaner look. The Apex badger is one tough pick and seems indestructible but a bit heavy to me.

My 6K was purchased new in Nov-2021 and I have had no problems with it other than the same problem others have had with the two shaft mounting screws, behind the speaker panel, coming loose. At first I was concerned if the 6000 was going to be rugged enough considering how light it is but mine has held up well. I actually prefer the light yet strong design concept for everything mechanical as long as it is engineered well. I spent 38 years in semi-conductor manufacturing as a maintenance tech/eng for high throughput automated test equipment. The older equipment tended to be more reliable because it was put together well. Also the older circuit board technology using "through hole" vs todays "surface mount" resulted in very reliable solder connections. It is the type of technology that took us to the moon and back many times. The newer assembly/manufacturing technologies are much more automated and can also be high quality and robust but relies heavily on QC inspections and testing to ensure there are no "Quality Leaks" if there is a quality issue on the production line. Ensuring quality takes time/resource/money but customers like Aerospace, Defense and Automotive demand it from their suppliers. It appears that the 6K is utilizing modern manufacturing methods but is lacking in the outgoing QC at the factory. With this perceived level of 6K failures it would behoove Minelab to perform a QC audit at the factory where the 6K is produced. QC is well worth the investment when it comes to protecting Minelab's reputation for putting out quality products and retaining customer loyalty.

What Jason describes is common in some of our desert gold fields that have relatively flat and rocky areas with strong winds. It is one of the placer types and is called an "Eolian Placer".

Thanks guys.🙂

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I heard the same thing when I was there but the story kept changing. The first guy that mentioned it said it was a 1 oz nugget. The next guy said it was 2 oz. I asked if any of them had seen it and both said no. So now it is 4 oz. Gota love those expanding nuggets.

Thanks for all the replies guys. I downloaded a Geology and Gold mineralization USGS report for Gold Basin and lost basin. I used that to pick two spots to hunt, one north of Gold Hill Mine and one south of Golden Rule Peak. Both areas had exposed quartz veins and pieces of iron stained quartz spread about. The ground phase readings on my Gold Bug Pro were in the range of 82 to 84, typical of other gold fields. I found very few trash targets once away from roads so that was a nice change. It either means there was very little trash (bullets and fragments) to begin with or it has all been cleaned out by metal detectorists. The area south of Golden Rule Peak has lots of dig holes so it looks like it has been pounded hard for many years. Not too many hot rocks in this area so I used my GB-Pro with the DP coil. The few hot rocks I did find had the typical boing sound and after digging a few, to see what they looked like, I stopped digging those. I did not find any nuggets but still recovered about a dozen bullets or associated copper/lead fragments, some very small, so it tells me that the GB-Pro was doing its usual job. On the last day I hunted another spot closer to Senator Peak (old volcano?) and many more hot rocks there so I used the SDC 2300 there. Also no nuggets but again recovered bullets and fragments. I am 5'10" - 150 lbs and the SDC is pretty heavy compared to the GB-Pro. I might look into buying or making a Hip Stick, like I did for the ATX when I had that years ago. Before I did any hunting I did some testing with the SDC-2300 by burying some targets in the ground at gold basin. I have BB size and #8 lead shot test targets. The SDC-2300 and the GB-Pro+DP coil saw the BB lead shot at about the same depth of 4 inches. The SDC-2300 did not detect the #8 bird shot at any depth while the GP-Pro+DP coil sees it at about 1.5 inches. I also have a small gold nugget for testing purposes. The SDC-2300 did not detect the gold nugget at any depth while the GP-Pro+DP coil sees it at about 1 inch. I dont have a scale so I dont know the weight of the test nugget. I have attached a picture of the test nugget on a dime. I read that the SDC-2300 is known for finding small gold so I it is not clear to me what the term "small gold" means. I just want to be able to determine if my SDC-2300 is just as sensitive as all the others or if it has a defect. So the restart of my detecting adventures are still the same as previous years, with no gold found, but I want to learn more about how to find areas that have gold. I like to think that I have the right tools and methods so I need to find ground that can yield. My goal has always been to get to a level where I am able to at least find a few nuggets on each outing. I like getting out in nature and desert camping but if you swing all day and for years on end without finding any nuggets then that become a big skunk to kill. I have discussed my dilemma with other detectorists in the field and they have all told me that as long as I'm finding small bird shot then my equipment and techniques are good and it is just a matter of getting the coil over gold.

After a 6 year break I decided to start metal detecting for nuggets again. Background: I used to live in Temecula, CA and used to go to the Dale Mining District as well as the El Paso mountains. Back then, I started by taking a metal detecting prospecting field trip taught by Michael Greyshock. I used a Gold Bug Pro with the DP coil at that time and it was pretty tough with the iron stone in the Dale Mining District. I later purchased a Garret ATX but only used it a few times and sold it for a variety of reasons. It had great electronics but in a terrible package. Also the falsing when bumping against anything would drive me nuts. Anyway after 4 years of prospecting I got tired of digging trash and spending lonely nights in the dessert, so I gave it up. I retired last year when I turned 60 and my wife and I moved from Scal to Mesquite, NV. I recently purchased a SDC 2300 and thought I would give it a try again. I still have the Gold Bug Pro with all 3 coils also. Gold Basin is about a 3 hour drive and I plan to go there tuesday and return on thursday. I use "Backcountry Navigator" on my tablet for maps and gps navigation. I looked up the currently active claims on "thediggings.com" website and see they are pretty much clustered in the middle of the basin area. It would be handy to have a gpx or kmz overlay map file of the active claims that I could load on my tablet but I don't know if something like that exists. I prefer to detect on BLM land instead of claims and I don't mind getting remote and hiking. This will be my first trip to GB and any pointers or advice would be appreciated. I drive a brown 2010 Toyota Tundra double cab 4x4 long bed, with a color matched camper shell and NV plates, in case any of you are in GB on the same days and would like to say Hi. Regards, Ceril

Thanks a lot guys for the quick response.

I searched the forums and was not able to find an answer to this question: So when I find a used Minelab SDC 2300 how do I go about verifying that it is authentic when I go to inspect it with the seller? I looked on the minelab website and it appears there are several methods that dont require you to take it to a dealer but it is not clear to me how it is done. Is there a hologram viewer supplied with a new unit and then you enter the sn# plus the hidden code into minelab online verification app?

Steve, thanks for input. I worked as an Electronics Equipment Maintenance Technician for 38 years in the Semi-Conductor manufacturing industry. Having used hundreds of schematics over the years for troubleshooting and repair of equipment it was quite common to see a long "Revision History" in each schematic for minor changes to component types and values and even changes to the circuitry itself. I have also repaired old stereo equipment that only required replacement of any swollen or leaking "Electrolytic Capacitor" for it to work properly again. Usually stuff older than 12-15 years could have this type of degradation problem so it does take a long time of continuous use and so it would be hard to put this many hours on a detector, even a really old one. I agree that if any firmware or circuitry revisions exist then they are only known by company internal engineering change notifications (ECN) and the public would never know. Then you have to also ask if any of these revisions improve the operation or long term reliability of the detector? So if I have a choice of a 5-8 year old used SDC2300 that is $800 cheaper than a 1-2 year old SDC2300 what would you recommend?

I am new to this forum and did some searching around and found one post about SDC 2300 upgrades: https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/12729-new-minelab-sdc-2300-update/?do=findComment&comment=126352 I dont know if there were any other upgrades since the 2014 introduction?

I am in the market for a used SDC 2300 and wanted to know if there have been any software/firmware or hardware updates since the first introduction in 2014? Are there any pros/cons of buying an older machine lets say 5 years old vs a 1 year old machine? Are the supplied oem headphones satisfactory or is it better to invest in better headphones? Is the Lithium Battery upgrade a good investment and does it come with a charger? Thanks in advance