SDC 2300 And Algoforce Over Some Very Small Nuggets

[phrunt]

I'm only new to the SDC having just got one, although it doesn't take a rocket scientist to use it 🙂  I find it quite a nice detector to use, I don't find its ergonomics bad at all, a little awkward with the coil the way it is but nothing that I wouldn't get used to, it feels quite light, obviously not near as light as an Algoforce but nothing I'd be worried about weight wise.  I love how it folds up and will be taking advantage of that to put in a backpack to take places I wouldn't normally bother taking a detector due to the effort involved.

Some may wonder why I don't bury the little jars, firstly, it's a waste of my time, these types of nuggets are found so close to the surface with both detectors and normally only found in shallow bedrock areas it's just not worth my time, and in my mild soils what I see in the air is what I see in the ground, there is very little difference if any on the inground and above ground results, with my soils being so mild.  All I care about is outright performance, and the one that does best, as my inground results always mirror that.

So far initial impressions are the Algoforce is slightly more sensitive to small gold even with both running a bundle wound coil, I'm yet to compare using a spiral on the Algoforce.  It also benefits from having more settings such as for me the mild soil mode which gives it a bit of a boost over the SDC that's fixed in its timings.

I hadn't used the SDC prior to this morning as we haven't had idea weather, now a big high has come over and it is becoming fine, our big high is pushing that cyclone over Brisbane which isn't good.

Anyway, I made a mad dash down to the river behind my house this morning to compare the SDC to the Algo on some small nuggets, all in the 0.2 and under size, maybe the biggest one might be .4 and the smallest 0.03 ,  really can't remember most of their sizes as they're just recent finds I put into little tubs.  

To be fair on the SDC I used a bundle wound 10x6" coil on the Algoforce as it was the closest coil I had to the 8" round bundle coil on the SDC, I can't help but think if I left my 10" Spiral on the Algoforce the gap between the two detectors would grow quite a bit and the SDC would be left behind, that's something for another day.  I was happy with the performance of the SDC, I found it very similar to the Algoforce with estimated depths on the nuggets with a slight edge to the Algoforce across the board I think, and that increased a bit when I switched to the mild soil mode on the Algoforce which lucky for me I can hunt in around here so for me at least, I'd prefer to take the Algoforce on a hunt than the SDC, in saying that I'm sure in different environments the SDC would be the most beneficial with its tracking and potentially better soil handling, I'm no expert on mineralized soils by any means so really don't know performance differences in that scenario, hot rocks are my issue and both the SDC and Algo so far appear to handle them similarly although the SDC doesn't see some at all that the Algo needed to balance over.

Anyway, I did this little bit of a run over these nuggets for my own benefit so I could see how the difference was between them, you're seeing it as I saw it, I had not done the test before I started filming and had no idea what the results would be.

I quite like the SDC so far, a pleasant surprise.

[phrunt]

Don't make too much of this video, I did it for myself as I've only just got an SDC and was comparing it in my environment vs the Algoforce to see which I would pick to use in certain situations, basically I'm learning the SDC and its strong points. It's raw video, no editing and you see it as I see it, I don't like editing videos and removing bits and pieces to make the video suit some sort of agenda, what you see is what you get with me. It means I fluff around a bit and stumble with my words as I was overdue for my morning coffee 🙂 I haven't even watched it back.

I put some tiny gold nuggets into the ground at the depth the Algo was just hitting them and run the SDC over it, prior to turning on the camera I hadn't even run the SDC over them and didn't know how it would go, I'd just buried them at the maximum depth I would find them with the Algo in mineralized mode.

I'm in mild soils so can get away with running the Algo in mild mode which gives it a bit of a boost too on depth on all targets. The river area I'm using it in has a lot of hot rocks and both handled them well, it has fine gold you can find with a pan / sluice but a lot of work for very little gold,  I've never found a nugget there, however the next river over 20 miles down the road has more gold potential and can find a bit more gold quicker with a sluice but it is from a different source in the mountains, the other side of the mountain range seems to be where the nuggets hang out 🙂

 

[Aureous]

My 2c worth, with the moderate number of coils avail for the SDC and the huge number avail for the E1500, Ive found that given the right coil, it can outperform the SDC by at least 25% in both depth and sensitivity. To my mind the ONLY benefit for the SDC over the E1500 is the ground tracking ability in variable soils. 

[phrunt]

12 minutes ago, Aureous said:

My 2c worth, with the moderate number of coils avail for the SDC and the huge number avail for the E1500, Ive found that given the right coil, it can outperform the SDC by at least 25% in both depth and sensitivity. To my mind the ONLY benefit for the SDC over the E1500 is the ground tracking ability in variable soils. 

I think I agree, I've been trying to find where the SDC can outperform it and so far I've not been able to do that, the tracking is it's only real benefit over the Algoforce, not that the tracking really benefits me and I'd likely rather not have it but to some its important.  The Algo can hit smaller gold, it has more depth and has a far better range of coils and a lighter nicer to swing design, not to mention half the price.

The SDC can walk over hot rocks that the Algo needs to balance out though, that's one advantage.

The Aglo has handled the toughest black sands I've thrown at it too so I think it does pretty good in that regard, ground the 6000 can't handle.