Minelab Eureka Gold Owners Thread

[au79]

I would like to have a place for people to exchange info about the Eureka Gold. If you own a Eureka Gold and have any good info you would like to share please post to this thread. I am a new owner of this machine and have found it is not a very popular all around machine. If I got the right info this machine was built for use in Oz. If so, I feel it must do really well in Highly mineralized soils. This is one reason I purchased this machine. Another reason I got it is for the 3 frequencies to choose from. I am mostly interested in the very low 6Khz and the very high 60 Khz and mostly, I want the 60 Khz to locate the very small and shallow. I have machines and coils that do the in between stuff so the EG is a machine that caught my interest and curiosity with the low and the high. Also, I am wondering if there are coils that work on the EG that are not mainstream. Minelab offers 2 coils for this machine when I look at the ads from different dealers for the EG. I am betting there are more that newbies don't know about (like myself).
I have read a lot of different "reviews" in different forums and find that there's those who love it and there are those that hate it. I think it may come down to learning how to use the machine and understand the settings. Those who hate it seem discouraged that when they received their new EG they did not find GOLD the first time they swung it. Also, there are the people who say the ground balance does not work, or, "all this machine finds is iron"! That's the one I like :0) and then, as usual, I read about the people who, " just can't stop the thing from making all kinds of crazy noise" and then ending by saying Minelab ripped them off!
So, aside from all the difficult learning curves that this machine has and aside from the limited number of coils and aside from the fact that some of the coils have problems with the wiring and aside from all the complaints I would like to hear from devoted Eureka owners who are currently using this machine with confidence and having a certain amount of success.
I know it is not waterproof and some say, "a jack of all trades is master of none" (like because there are three freq none of them work) Ha! and to further bash it some would say, " let's send it back to Oz. But! - some people like this machine and have great luck with it. Those who understand how to set it up seem to like it and I would like to try to get some help for people looking for help and also would like to learn more myself. So please join in if you have anything to offer. I would especially like to hear from someone from Down Under that understands the ins and outs of the Eureka Gold. Thanks in advance -

 

[mikzz]

I don't own one per say but my detecting partner does and they are a great machine, I owned a xt18000 until it died recently, and i see very little difference, and apart from the shape and the box there is little between the old ml golden hawk as well (my opinion only) all have 3 frequencies 6.4 -20 and 60kHz the only other detector that has a higher freq is the GB 2 at 71kHz. so for finding the shall stuff they are excellent, yes you have to learn the machine and that takes time, I was lucky when I got my 18000 that I had an expert close by it took nearly a year before got quite proficient with it coiltec have a 15"all terrain coil that will suit they call it the wot coil stands for weird orange thing. one thing to remember they are a VLF detector so they are a bit harder to use in materialised ground but once you learn how to set it up they are good

 

[au79]

Thanks Mikzz -

When I was having so much trouble with my Infinium I started looking for something to fall back on that would find the small and the deep. The Eureka caught my attention. I managed to find a used EG and bought it. I had never seen a Minelab machine before but had the "assumption" they were rugged built and of durable quality. So, imagine my surprise when I opened the box and found a totally plastic machine! The ML EG looks and feels WalMart(ish). Looked more like something made in China. I am sooooooo happy I got the issues worked out with my Infinium - a truly rugged built and durable machine. I have sold the EG but don't know how to delete this post.

 

[steve herschbach]

I used my XT17000 far more than the later models like the XT18000 or Eureka Gold but they are all capable VLF nugget detectors. Honestly, the series is showing its age though, in that they are a rather large, heavy detector by todays standards. Anyway, ignore other people complaining if you have one it is certainly a capable unit if you apply yourself to learning and using it.

Steve Herschbach