Minelab Eureka gold tips, settings, questions

[AU Fever]

Hey all,

I took my brand spanking Eureka Gold out for a practise swing today. Me and the kids first went to the local river, where I know gold has not been found but the idea was to get me and my ears used to what sort of sounds different targets will give off.

Here's what we can home with:

The site was basically full of trash, but I did learn the difference in sound the Eureka Gold puts out between a fish hook and a $2 coin I was pretty happy that it detected some pretty small stuff like the small fish hook.

It was fun playing with the 3 different frequencies and the ground balance settings. The kids had a lot more fun playing in the mud than watching dad having a swing. I did have a go at panning in the river, but even though there was plenty of small quartz, nada for the yellow stuff

After we had lunch we decided to try the local kid's playground for more practise. Well, I can say that my girls will never have to buy another bobby pin or hair clip Clearly the park has also been used by some of the local youths to sink a few bevvies from the amount of bottle tops I found as well. But on the positive side I did find a couple of $2 coins, what looks like the end of a brass pendant and also a small sterling silver charm.

By the end of it I could distinguish between a bobby pin, pice of tin foil and a solid object without having to dig them out, so it was a good practice day.

I reckon I'm ready to practice on the goldfields now, so I think we're heading to O'Briens Crossing on Anzac Day. Then hopefully the GT next weekend. Can't wait to get me some colour

John

 

[cookie]

theres a bit of gold in there just not the right tipe lol

 

[Palmer Digger]

There you go mate! .. Your first 'patch' on your first day .. Can't wait to hear about your finds from the first field trip .. Good luck & remember .. 'low and slow' .. The Eureka Gold is a fine machine.

 

[AU Fever]

Thanks guys. So far I think the EG is great machine for newbs. To be honest I think even if I had the cash for a GPX 5000, I would've been confused with all the settings even though obviously it finds stuff that the EG wouldn't.

A couple of lessons learnt - I found it more comfortable to mount the control box on the end of the shaft, like the GPX, rather than using the mount below the handle. Access to the switches and dials is not as handy, but not really an issue.
I don't like wearing on-ear headphones so I used my iPhone in-ear earbuds with an adaptor. The sound was amazing and comfortable when swinging, but when I had to stop and dig a hole they were too short so I had to unplug them which was a pain in the butt. I'm going to modify an old headphone curly cord with a belt clip to make this easier.

And yes, I got caught with the old "forgot to take off wedding ring" trick. :8 Does everyone do this at least once??

All fun & games

John

 

[AU Fever]

I've started this thread as general discussion on the Minelab Eureka Gold.

Would like to hear from others who have one and would like to share their experiences. I'm hoping this thread will be a valuable resource for existing users or people researching to buy.

What do you think is good, what's bad?

Any tips or tricks?

Best find?

Here's my feedback so far, after a couple of outings.

What's good?
Good beginner's machine at a fairly decent price. Reasonably easy to operate and setup. Auto ground balance works well.
3 different VLF frequencies is good for different ground types and depending on the targets you are looking for.
Dual control box mounting positions.
User manual is easy to understand and up to dat.
Haven't tried discrimination mode yet so can't comment.

What's bad?
Lacks the depth capabilities of the more expensive PI detectors, but that's to be expected for a less expensive machine.
In built speaker is not loud enough - must use headphones.

Tips or tricks?
When a target has been located, flip the GB to "Fixed" to pin point the target. Also prevents the auto GB from masking what may be a small target - particularly if you accidentally placed your pick too close to the coil.
Don't forget to flip the auto GB from "Fixed" to "Slow Track" or "Fast Track" and re-GB after digging up your target and re-filling your hole.
Mount the control box on the bracket under the arm rest to reduce "swing fatigue".
Adjust the Tone control to the point where the Threshold tone "sounds" the loudest.
Reduce the Sensitivity a little if the tone changes when passing target free dirt over or under the coil. This will actually improve the overall sensitivity for targets in the ground.
If you're a beginner, practice with known targets in your back yard - or even better, in the area you will be detecting. Bury items such as lead sinkers, bobby pins, coins etc. at different depths and notice the different tones the detector makes. Experiment with the different frequencies on each target at various depths and see what difference it makes. The more you can practice the easier it will be to distinguish and find targets in the field.

Best find?
I haven't hit the gold fields yet, but probably my best find was 2 $2 coins under the monkey bars in the local kids playground.

John

 

[Nugget]

Thanks for the wrap up on the Eureka Gold AU, I'm sure someone will find this very helpful.

 

[AU Fever]

Went for a swing on Saturday to an old mine near Smythesdale, just south of Ballarat a bit. According to Doug Stone's maps this mine was sitting on top of a huge deep lead that had produced lots of gold in the day by the old timers.
Focussed mainly on the small mullock heap that had plenty of quartz and nearby what appeared to be an old puddler. There were a few detector holes that hadn't been filled but I don't think anyone had been there for a few years as I pulled out about a dozen bullets. (Assuming everyone would dig out the lead thinking it was a nugget)
Found a lot of old rusty nails and bolts from the original mine, but alas no gold. Either the old timers were VERY thorough, that shaft didn't find any gold, or the EG just wasn't picking up any fine gold.
As I was leaving I noticed on the private property over the road had a couple of giant mullock heaps. Should've asked permission to have a swing around them, maybe next time

We're busy for the next few weekends, but I'm thinking of digging a few holes in the Creswick area second weekend in June. If anyone's interested in meeting up let me know.

John

 

[bob]

I also have a Minelab Eureka Gold (purchased Nov 2012). Like you I have found the controls and functions easy to use; even the external speaker. I have no trouble picking up signals especially with the volume at maximum. I have been practising in the backyard with different targets at various depths and each metal seems to give off a different signal. The sensitivity is quite amazing. I have a small piece of gold 4mm round and quite flat that I found panning. In a plastic pocket the detector can find it at about 2cm. The signal is about the same as a squashed shot gun pellet. Gold and lead sound the same to me. As this is the only detector I have used I'm not really in a position to say anything bad about it.
I've been to the goldfields many times, Whroo, Graytown, Heathcote and the Whipstick near Bendigo (about 30 outings).I have even used the detector in a dry lakebed in the Wimmera. My unusual finds include a pick at Whroo and a nordic walking stick at Heathcote (neither found with the detector). In the dry lake bed I found a 1958 sixpence, 3 pennies a 1950, 1955 and 1934. The last penny was a significant find as it could have been lost by my father-in-law. He said he used to dive for them as a ten year old boy. I also found a gold coloured ring that cleaned up beautifully but I do not think it is very valuable. In the goldfields I have found countless nails, tacks, bullet heads, casings, horseshoes, an old spoon and shotgun and slug gun pellets. One day I found over 10 oz. of lead from Rifle Range Road in the Whipstick. Some people would say that I was crazy to spend a day there but I thought it was good practise locating, pin-pointing and digging targets. My best find to date is an 1835 shilling found at Heathcote. The coin is very worn and of little value but a great find considering its age.
Maybe there is something bad about the Eureka, it hasn't found any gold. I certainly haven't given up yet. Hot rocks and ground noise can be a problem but I think I'm coming to terms with this. Buried charcoal gives a good signal at times but as the manual says," dig all targets until you find a reason for the noise." Hope this contributes to your thread.

Good Luck and Cheers Bob.

 

[AU Fever]

Hey bob, welcome to the forum and thanks for posting your experience with the Eureka Gold. Sounds like we've had similar results with it so far

Can you remember what settings you used when you were practising with your 4mm nugget?

I'm planning on returning to a place I went to last weekend and using the 60Hz setting with audio on boost to see if I can grab a few nuggets.

AU

 

[bob]

60Hz and audio on boost gave the best signal, 20Hz and boost was okay but fainter. Boost does not work well for searching in the areas I have tried as the ground is very reactive and 60Hz plus boost is too noisy. 60Hz and normal gave a clearly audible signal at 2cm. Searching in 60Hz and normal is more stable. I can pick up small signals with 60Hz, audio normal and fast track. To verify a target if the signal is faint I then switch to fixed track and audio boost to verify the signal. This is how I have found most of the really small targets like the shotgun and slug gun pellets.
Hope this helps and best of luck Bob.

 

[AU Fever]

Thanks bob. Have you tried 60kHz with audio on fine? Fine is supposed to amplify the target but not the background ground noise.

Agree 60kHz and audio on boost is too noisy. The manual doesn't recommend it either. I'm the same as you when I get a target have to switch to fixed tracking or the ground balance goes all over the place. I normally detect with fast track as well.

I had a play with the discriminator yesterday in the trashy nature strip across the road, just to see what it was like. Not that I'd use it searching for gold though. It definitely did blank out the ferrous targets, but in ground with both ferrous and non-ferrous targets it was going off like a pinball machine.

Thanks again for the feedback. I think if you're detecting shotgun pellets you have it setup right, just gotta swing it over the yellow stuff

AU

 

[bob]

I tried to post this yesterday but for some reason it did not work. These are the pieces of gold I got while panning last year. I put them in plastic pockets and covered them with dirt. The dirt contains a bit of ironstone much like the goldfields soil. 60kHz and boost produces the best signal, then fine audio and then normal audio. We already know that boost is wild as a search function. 20kHz had a faint response but I doubt you would pick it up in the field. No response with 6.4kHz.
I took the idea a step further and went over my practise patch where I have lead nuggets of various sizes buried at different depths. 20kHz and 60kHz gave good response to all targets using normal audio. Using fine audio worked well on small shallow targets but not so well on deeper bigger targets. 6.4kHz missed the small targets completely. My conclusion was that the settings in the handbook offer good advice in that the best goldfields set ups are 20kHz and 60kHz on normal audio and that 60kHz is an option for small shallow targets in quiet or evenly mineralised ground (mullock heaps perhaps). The fine audio may sharpen up the signals from hot rocks.
I intend to go to Heathcote this week and I'll spend a bit of time comparing signals in normal and fine audio. I'll even try searching in that set up (60kHz and fine) to compare it with 60kHz and normal. You've got me really starting to think about varying the settings a bit. I think that I maybe need to vary the sensitivity and thresh hold more carefully too as some days the detector seems quieter and more responsive to targets than on other days. Just thought I'd add this to your thread. It would be good to find someone experienced with this detector to add to your thread.

Good luck in your quest Bob.

 

[AU Fever]

Hey bob, thanks for your feedback. I can't get out this weekend but I'm planning on getting at least one day in over the Queen's Birthday weekend to somewhere near Ballarat.

I think in the flogged areas 60kHz to pick up the small stuff is the best bet. The PI machines have probably cleaned out the bigger stuff. I'd like to prove that a VLF can pick up the small stuff that the PIs miss, if any.

Either that or try an area that hasn't been flogged as much on 20kHz and then once you find some colour, grid the area and go over it with both 60kHz and 6.4kHz to make sure you've got everything.

Good luck out there and let us know how you go - good, bad or otherwise. I would've thought there were more Eureka Gold swingers on the forum, maybe they're just shy

AU

 

[bob]

John just thought that I would up date you on the fact that I have been to Heathcote and tried the idea of 60kHz and Fine audio. It went pretty much as I expected. The response to some hot rocks or mineralisation sounded sharper much like a target but often only in one direction. I think that I prefer searching in Normal audio as I have become used to the "meow" sound the detector often makes in these situations. I found a greyish clay mullock heap and switched to Fine audio and picked up a clear signal. Switched back to Normal and the signal was still clearly audible. It turned out to be a small piece of foil wrapper. I also experimented the other way; picking up signals in Normal audio and switching to Fine audio. Some signals did sound louder or perhaps clearer using Fine audio; it does cut down the background noise.
I did not find any gold but I did find several small pieces of lead, not 22 bullets heads but much smaller pieces. They were flat, rough in shape and coated in yellow clay. They looked like little nuggets momentarily but a scratch soon revealed them as impostors.
I have also been using the convenient 3 frequencies because it's like having three coils. I have been searching in 20kHz, and then re-searching using 60kHz and sometimes 6.4kHz. All my searching and reading of clues is leading me to detector holes everywhere but I am encouraged because I am still finding the lead targets in amongst the detector holes. 20kHz and 60kHz are turning up the vast majority of targets. I think that to be successful with this machine will take lots of practise and persistence.
I don't think that I will be doing much detecting for the next two months or so as I am heading up the centre to Darwin and then down the West coast. I am not sure that it is worth taking the detector. I hope that while I'm away it rains a bit so that I can get the pans out. I'm more confident with them and detecting has uncovered some spots that I would like to try. It looks like you will have a good long weekend weather wise, so good luck and I hope find what you're looking for.

Cheers For now Bob.

 

[AU Fever]

Hey Bob, thanks again for another great report.

I went out yesterday to a place near Ballarat and did a 10 hour slog. This was gold bearing country, lots of old mine shafts and plenty of detector holes in the flogged areas. The ground was a little noisy, plenty of quartz mixed in with the gravel wash.
I initially tried one spot that had recently been burnt off on 60kHz and Fine audio. I don't reckon its a very good setting in hot ground as the detector "pings" frequently. Almost like you have a target but when you swing back in reverse it doesn't make a sound. This happened more in Fast Track, in Fixed it wasn't as bad but then you had to re-GB every now and then. After having the shits with this after a while I hunted in 60kHz and Normal audio. The detector was a lot quieter and it was easy picking out lead bullets.

A few times I got a faint signal and after digging out the target, found out it was ironstone at about 2-3 inches.

I also found a lot of bullets in old detector holes. What's probably more annoying than seeing un-filled holes is people not taking their trash home with them. I reckon I pulled 5 bullets out of detector holes and I reckon the people who dug the holes threw the bullets they pulled out back in the hole and walked away

Unfortunately no gold was rescued by me yesterday. I'm getting pretty confident with the detector and just need to wave it over some colour. I think us poor VLF folks need to visit less flogged gold bearing areas - which means walking a bit further into the bush than most folks are prepared to do.

I probably can't get out for a few weeks, CEO tells me we are busy for the next few weekends

AU

 

[AU Fever]

Thought I would post a pic of my "finds" on Sunday. No gold, but some interesting stuff...

The old tap which weighs in at 88g seems to be made of copper and brass and has "HUDDERSFIELD" on one side and "HOLLIDAY" on the other. According to my friend Dr Google, the Holliday Dyes and Chemical Works were based in Huddersfield in the UK. http://www.colorantshistory.org/HollidayDye.html

The other items are bullets, the big one is 7.2g and the smaller ones 1.88g and 2.42g. There is also a large lead shot at 3.09g, maybe a musket shot? These will be used for "target practice" in the back yard.

Lastly, a couple of buttons. One relatively new and the other could have been an old button from a trooper's coat or the like. On the bottom right I think is the remains of a press stud, not sure.

No gold yet, but it's a comin'

AU

 

[argyle]

Here are a few notes that may help some get the best out their Eureka Gold.

They are a much maligned unit, as were the previous XT models, due to the introduction of the PI detectors. There was a lot of rather bad instructional hints and recommendations given out by dealers and detecting 'experts' who were more often than not mis-using the detectors and giving bad advise on the use of them on the goldfields.
It is no wonder that most people think these units only hit surface to a few inches deep, or cannot be run on hot ground.
Here are a few of those terrible pieces of theoretical nonsense:

* Having the threshold set low at a slight mosquito type buzz.

* Coil off the ground.

* Sensitivity lowered when not needed to be.

* Fast movement of coil when in motion of swing.

* The very idea that these VLF's are somehow not deepseeking detectors on mineralized ground.

Here's a few facts that a lot of those 'experts' never picked up on.

1. The threshold must be set at a high stable level on the ground being detected. The level of mineralization must not be able to waver the threshold! It must remain stable and un-wavering. No mosquito buzzing.

2. You must run these units with an Amplifier! ( they really should have been in-built at the design level by Minelab)
The internals of the machine must be heard. The tracking balance's change, as you swing, must be full in your hearing. If you cannot hear that internal balance change, running with the correct height of threshold in the ground you're on, how are you going to hear that ever important drop-out of threshold that a deep faint signal gives, or the very soft rise of threshold that a small shallower targets let's out that isn't quite strong enough to break through and give a clear easy signal.

3. The tracking balance on these units is the best produced by any manufacturer.
The only way to ground balance to get the tracking to kick in, is to slowly drop the coil to touch the ground, slowly raise it, back down again and let the tracking balance soak it up. As soon as it does it bites in hard and becomes one with the ground.
And that's where the coil has to stay, ever so slightly touching, riding over dirt and sand and rock with the touch of a spider web.
Speed of the coil swing should be used in direct correlation both on the ground you're in, and with the tracking speed used. You will hear how fast or slow to swing because you will hear how the internal tracking balance is processing and tracking through the ground.
Every time that coil comes off the ground to a few inches in height the tracking breaks and balance tries to re-set.


4. The sensitivity should always remain at it's fullest setting. The only time it should be turned down a touch is when over extremly bad ground. Ground that gets our PI's warbling and groaning.
And by running the threshold at the correct height, believe me, there isn't much ground you have to touch the sensitivity down in.
You drop that sensitivity level and you drop your depth in half!
Wether it's an inch or a two feet, depth is everything. Touch that sensitivity and you touch every signal in a bad way.

5. Coil to match frequency is important on these units.
Stock 10"x5" elliptical for 60khz only.
11" round for 20khz
15" Coiltek for 6.4khz
It is no coincidence that these coil sizes are made for the Eureka.

60khz is not a deep seeking frequency. It simply will not give depth. It tickles nicely into the ground for an inch or so. You can hear how deep it goes if you have those internals right up in your hearing. Use this frequency on the 11" round or 15" round and it dissapates badly.

20khz is the most responsive pound for pound. But beware ....that frequency is not a deepseeker either.

6.4khz. Ahhhh .... All controls set at their premium for the ground your on, and working with the 11" or 15" coil, this frequency is crystal clear and deadly!

Don't fool yourself with airtests, this frequency is just as dull in an airtest as the airtest itself is.
Or set targets placed into disturbed ground. Both these scenarios are only enjoyed by Vlf's of other brands that don't like to play in heavy ground.

This 6.4khz frequency loves giving you notice to metallic targets in undisturbed heavy ground. It's a gold getting sleeper.

6. Tone control on any threshold based unit is so important.
Change it to suit your hearing. Change it in certain ground. And change it to understand the differences in 'broadening' a response on a tight signal, and 'sharpening' up a response on a deep target.

 

[argyle]

Both the Fine and Boost settings should never be used on the Eureka. They are not needed and do not 'enhance' a signal in the ground to any benefit, in any frequency, when working ground. I was very surprised the settings were placed on again.

Neither Slow nor Fast Tracking speeds, regardless of what the manual states, will NOT track-out a target before or after repeated sweeps. That was just a left over precautionary statement once they realised the PI's auto tracking could behave that way on feint targets, more so with a mono coil on.

 

[mdv]

Good stuff argyle - thanks.

I see Coiltek are soon to release a 6inch coil for Eureka. What, if any, advantage would this coil have over the stock 10inch x 5inch coil, and would it in your opinion be sufficient to justify adding it?

 

[AU Fever]

Hi argyle, great posts! Thank you. It's great to have someone who has some tips for the Eureka Gold.

I'm hoping to go for a swing on Sunday, so will take your advice and see how I go.

I have a few questions I hope you can answer for me:

1. When working an area, what frequency would you suggest to start with? (I have only the stock 10" x 5", so will just work with 60kHz until I get some more coils)
2. Once gold is found at the starting frequency in the area you are working, what settings (frequency/coil) would you use to make sure you have cleaned out that area?
3. Is this the 11" Round you are recommending for 20kHz? http://www.minelab.com/aus/accessories/coils/coil-goldsearch-11-double-d
4. Is this the Coiltek 15" you are recommending for 6.4kHz? http://coiltekmanufacturing.com.au/15inch-all-terrain-coil.html
5. Can you please give me an idea of some of your finds with the different frequencies/coils, what depth you found them and what the ground was like?

Au