Gpx4500 Or Sdc2300

[Mada]

Hi there,

Looking at getting another detector for the Golden Triangle in Australia. Have a vlf but looking at either a new sdc2300 or a 2nd hand gpx4500 for marginally cheaper. Which one would better to learn PI with, and which one performs better?

Cheers

[Jeff McClendon]

The SDC 2300 is best on smaller and shallower gold. it has a wobbly threshold that annoys some people. It is very portable and is very easy to setup and use. It is fairly heavy so if you are a normal human, you will probably need a harness.

The GP 4500 is a very versatile, "do it all" capable PI. It has plenty of settings to learn, adjust and optimize for your soil conditions, target depths and target size. There are dozens of coils available for the GP 4500. Its threshold can be adjusted so that it is more stable than the SDC2300. It is heavy and will need a harness to operate for longer hunts.

Personally, depending on which and how many coils come with it and its overall condition......I would pick the GP 4500 if you are comfortable swinging it and if the possibility of larger, deeper gold still exists in your area.

[wltdwiz]

4500

[phrunt]

4500 has far more features and more versatile, is still quite good on small gold and I've found below 0.1 of a gram with it down to about 0.05 of a gram from memory as you can put very small coils on it, it's also good on bigger deeper gold.  Just because it has a lot of settings doesn't mean it's difficult to use, it's only complicated if you want it to be.  The SDC is more switch on and go, the GPX does require some setting selection to set it up for your location.

Look at the size of the SDC coil, and look at the area you want to detect.... The GPX can run coils from 6" to 20+ inch and there are literally hundreds of coils to choose from where as coils are very limited on the SDC.

[Mada]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Will the 4500 be that much noisier because of the hotrocks and mineralization here vs the sdc? Local shop was recommending the sdc over the gpx for that reason

Thanks

[Jeff McClendon]

Seems to me it would be the opposite of what your local shop said but I don’t know your area. From my experience here in the USA, a GPX 4500 using roughly the same sized and type of coil as the stock 8” SDC2300 is capable of running as quiet or more quiet than the SDC2300 which has minimal settings for adjusting for ground and EMI conditions. 

[Mada]

3 minutes ago, Jeff McClendon said:

Seems to me it would be the opposite of what your local shop said but I don’t know your area. From my experience here in the USA, a GPX 4500 using roughly the same sized and type of coil as the stock 8” SDC2300 is capable of running as quiet or more quiet than the SDC2300 which has minimal settings for adjusting for ground and EMI conditions. 

Hi Jeff, just been reading up on other forums, seems the gpx has more of a learning curve but coil choices make it so much more flexible. Go over ground, change coil and go over it again. Happy to learn the machine.....think I know which way I'm leaning

[Mada]

1 minute ago, Mada said:

Hi Jeff, just been reading up on other forums, seems the gpx has more of a learning curve but coil choices make it so much more flexible. Go over ground, change coil and go over it again. Happy to learn the machine.....think I know which way I'm leaning

I should have added,  we have a GB2 for small stuff, if that was going to affect peoples advice

[phrunt]

On the GPX you can put on a DD coil which dramatically reduces the troubles with hot rocks.  It also has timings like enhance that allow you to work with hot rocks with mono coils.  I also found larger mono coils handle them better than smaller coils. 

Some light reading....

https://www.minelab.com/community/treasure-talk/hot-rocks-part-2

I found the GPX handled hot rocks very well overall.

I should add the SDC is very popular in Australia for a reason, it finds plenty of gold, and is sensitive to the smaller stuff although a GPX with a small coil is pretty competitive on the small stuff I think.   If you want to try find bigger deeper nuggets then the GPX is the better choice.  If you want to consistently find gold having the smaller gold sensitivity of the SDC may mean you go home more often with gold in your bottle as seeing you have the option you'll probably end up running bigger coils more often on the GPX, something like a 14x9"/15x10" was my favourite size for regular use for quite a while and only used the smaller sizes when hunting bedrock.   Often having the extra ground coverage helped me find more gold than having the extra small gold sensitivity of a smaller coil.

Your GB2 if it handles your ground will be good for finding your tiny bedrock gold.