I've been an SDC user for a few years now and had reasonable success. I bought the GPZ after quite a bit of indecision regarding cost, frequency of use and ability to get to viable goldfields. Basically I headed to my favourite goldfields 3 weeks ago and within 2 hours of turning it on and learning the basics snared a 0.9 gm nugget! Not deep at all, however the signal was loud and clear. The gound where I found the nugget had been gone over many times. Enough said. What a weapon the GPZ 7000 is and I'm only just beginning to really know how to use it. The GPZ is an awesome detector!