43 of 168 people found this review helpful:

Review by: Charlie Cole

User Experience: 7+ years

Submitted on: Mar 18, 2008

User Rating:

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5 stars for the Minelab Eureka Gold because is works for me!

I like gold hunting in deserts and any places I can go . living in cal. is just great to do that sort of thing , and arz. is a good plase to hunt too . i like the river area . my wife used to go with me every each and every time we had many times in randsburg and san bernardino deserts i have a ford f150 4 whell drive and we had the best of times ever , i will never forget those days she passed on from smoking 13 mos. ago and it will never be the same again 43 is real young but 16 yrs. with her was always my high life we did alot of desert trips i would metal detect or just look for you no what??? now i have a 5 yr. old girl she is 100% somoan and i broke out my whites coin master to look in my front yard sinse i only lived here 13mos. guess what the batterys died in 50 seconds and the fun was over. i hope to have fun with my daughter as kids love these things too . now a single parent i will try to have fun in parks by the beach and everywhere i go. i just got back in the mood to go hunting again and like it better then fishing or 2 whelling . YES i like metal detecting alot my best find was a small gold ring with a diamiond on it the second best was a silver dime . my bother in law would go to whitter college and come home with 8 to 12 silver dimes evbery untill they kicked him out of there .his best find is a ring they only mine in russia he found it between two trees of g. paul guetty house in the 1920s it is a great find my sistr rarley takes it off the find was in santa fe springs he showed me a old picture of the house before they built a school on the site and the two big trees are still there today now thats a great story im thing of moving to hawaii in a yr. but gold hunting is my thing , i never found any raw gold maybe no luck or just not the right tools but iv ben in gold country alot and had fun anyway . i can say my bother in law got me hooked a long time ago and of course every can say when they where kids they would watch people hunt schools ,,i lived across the street from one half my early life and i will remember those days too i think every one wants a high end metal detector but there not cheap or people give up to soon so keep looking and may all your finds be fun even if you dont hit gold good luck metal detecting for coins or what ever turns you on beep beep good by

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180 of 192 people found this review helpful:

Review by: Raymond M. Ussery

User Experience: 6 months to 2 years

Submitted on: Mar 17, 2008

User Rating:

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The Minelab Eureka Gold is a great detector for someone who is not ready or willing to spend the money on a 3500 or 4000 series Minelab. It is light, balanced, easy to use and accurate in most ground conditions. The multi-frequency function is a great feature...as well as the ability to discriminate iron objects for prospecting pursuits other than gold.

The only down-side in my opinion, is the limited coil choices. It would greatly improve the full function of this unit if Minelab were to add OTHER coils for other uses or if another company would consider adding additional coils to their line-up. The only quality control item that should be addressed is the "Leaking" around the coil cover.

Minelab recommends that the user "Seal" the coil cover with a run of silicone in the grove around the coil to seal out un-wanted dirt and debris as well as WATER that might void the warranty on the coil. Minelab has the responsibility to it's customers to address this issue at the factory NOT in the field with the customer who my or may not know that a problem exists until it's too late. Dirt IS a problem as black sand partials that enter the coil cover will disrupt the operation and accuracy of the coil.

It is absolutely imperative that the customer seal this coil to avoid serious issues in the "Real" world. The additional suggestion would be for Minelab to fully "Water-proof the coil and the "Head" to protect BOTH from the environment. Good Luck!

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191 of 227 people found this review helpful:

Review by: James Templeton

User Experience: 6 months to 2 years

Submitted on: Mar 17, 2008

User Rating:

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i have heard that the white's metal detectors are easy to use and very good detectors. Some members of the prospecting club I belong to, won't use mnothing else. I have a minelab eureka gold and have yet to find a picker or a nugget ... found plenty of nails, bottle caps etc. .. i balence it out and walk along , hear a beep and start digging hoping for a nugget , sometimes a nail or a hot rock... sometimes i just scratch my head and wonder , why its beeping and nothing there..i find it frustating, to try and get the detector just right, for detecting gold. I would like to someday try out a whites metal detector for gold detecting and relic hunting on the beach, my mindlab does not work on the beach..it just beeps a lot, too much black sand , i guess.. Would someday like to find a spanish coin or piece of jewelry. That would make my day. I like the idea of a display that tells you whats in the ground, how deep and what kind of metal it is, instead of just a beep, beep. I also like the waterproof coil, mindlabs coil is not waterproof. I would like to go in the field in arizona to virginia and test the eureka gold and the whites metal detector side by side to see for myself which is the king of metal detectors. A prospector walking around , here and there with empty pockets, no nuggets.

james T

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122 of 145 people found this review helpful:

Review by: James Steff

User Experience: 7+ years

Submitted on: Apr 8, 2008

User Rating:

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After having an arsenal of detectors over the years, and finding little to write home about, I upgraded to Minelab Eureka Gold in the spring of 2000. My finds skyrocketed with my Explorer and Excalibur machines. I joined a local detecting club and the members, even the old timers, were amazed (and a little jealous) of the goodies I was bringing to the monthly meetings.

I've spent a long many hours going on "marathon" hunts all over the Gulf Coast (to the dismay of my slightly older detecting buddy.) The result was a bagful of jewelry, a sore lower back, and a lot of "wows" at the local meetings. I've always been interested in electronic prospecting, but the SD series was out of my price range, especially since I was thousand of miles from the Gold Fields. After meeting with the Kellyco Team at a local RV Rally, and testing small gold with the Eureka Gold and the X-Terra 70, I was pretty skeptical about the Eureka. The response was better with the X-Terra with just a whisper from the Eureka Gold (although the battery was fully discharged).

The Minelab team was also on hand and after a long conversation about the aspects of a multipurpose detector versus a gold specific machine I was sold. My skepticism washed away when I took the Eureka Gold to a claim site in Northern Georgia. Although I didn't get any native nuggets, the Eureka Gold automatic ground balance performed superbly in the mineralized ground of the old mine. I dug several small pieces of foil, a sure indicator that if I went over a nugget, I'd get it. I have experience hunting small gold through micro-gold detecting in Florida and Hawaii, and those variations in threshold and a good ground balance are critical when after the small stuff. Minelab even included an audio boost which seriously amplifies your signals, although it drains batteries much faster. There are three frequencies available, 60 KHz, 20 KHz and 6.4 KHz, selectable with a flick of a toggle switch, each aimed at a different size and depth of nuggets. It's like having three detectors in one. When I got back home I tested the Eureka Gold with some small flakes from some pay dirt. The response was loud and clear.

I've detected for over 20 yrs and I know a good machine when I use it. The Minelab Eureka Gold will surely bag me some nuggets this season!! Thanks Kellyco and the Minelab Team for another winner.

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52 of 55 people found this review helpful:

Review by: William Kilgore

User Experience: 4-6 years

Submitted on: May 20, 2009

User Rating:

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By: William Kilgore


First of all let me say that a mistake has been made in the type of detectors I own and use. I have a MineLab Eureka Gold and a Fisher Gold Bug II. Both detectors work extremely well for gold Prospecting and Nugget Shooting. I have also found Gold Jewelry with them. In review, the MineLab is perhaps more user friendly for the beginner since it offers automatic ground balancing but I feel the Gold Bug II searches a little deeper.
I primarily use my detectors to search for mineralization in streams with always the hope of picking up a nugget or two but the areas I work primarily contain fine gold with some specimen pieces. I always use a detector to search my dredge tailing and have found several specimen pieces that have blown through the sluice box. These are both excellent detectors. The reason I have two comparable detectors is that I purchased the Gold Bug II and later won the MineLab at the GPAA Gold Show in Lynchburg, VA in 2006. I kept both detectors rather then selling one to allow a partner to search with me.

I give both detectors 5 stars.

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