Minelab Monster 1000 Or an Xtra - Advice

[fingers]

Hi guys
Long time reader, first time poster so please be gentle.
I am looking at the Minelab Monster 1000 and the Xtra lines and wanted hear any good or bad comments re these two.
I will be prospecting in the Bathurst areas mainly.
I know these are two completely different models but wanted to mainly target gold.
The 1000 is from what I have seen at youtube completely automatic in calibrating ie. have it horizontal to ground. It also goes nuts and needs recalibrating if left in one spot for too long and you reset by lifting and pushing towards the ground for around 5 - 10 seconds to recalibrate.
I am looking for a beginners to intermediate type of detector and was wondering whether for the grounds that I wish to cover which may be the better unit.
I have seen that quite a few of you have the 700 series Xtra models, can you enlighten me to any faults or difficulties I might have if I use one of these models.
Many thanks and sorry for such a newbie question.
Fingers

 

[227dick]

got a705 waste of time on the gold fields you will wear out a pick on false targets and hot rocks I have tried different coils and really wasted my time every swing it goes off went thru all the settings and not a lot of change. have been out with a monster 1000 they are not to bad if you can afford it sdc2300 cant go wrong easy to use and finds gold I would have to say don't waste your money on the cheaper end and buy a sdc2300 you wont regret it and you will have more results than the lower end units

 

[fingers]

Hi Dick
Thanks for your info mate.
I will have a look at the suggested model.
Thanks again
Fingers

 

[goldbug]

Hey Fingers

Have owned a 705 and found it was a good machine for relics and coins, but I wouldn't recommend it for gold hunting in Australia. Currently own a Gold Monster and think it's a great machine for chasing the very small gold that most other detectors miss. It handles hot ground quite well and is super simple to operate and seems quite durable, battery life is great! I have never seen the battery life indicator drop over the course of a days detecting.

The Gold Monster was designed to find VERY small gold in shallow ground and it does that very well. The SDC2300 fits the same mould but it's the next step up by a large margin, but is more expensive. You will find gold with both, but probably much more with the SDC2300. Neither are one size fits all detectors.

Issues with Gold Monster:

1. Its very sensitive, be prepared to dig up a lot of shot gun pellets!
2. Can be noisy in hot ground, but I think it handles hot ground better than most VLF's I have tried, including the Goldbug 2
3. Knock sensitivity. Where the cable enters the coil it is very sensitive, knocking the coil/cable against rocks will cause the unit to false, this is to be expected given the units high sensitivity, its 40KHz TR frequency and the fact the first 40cm of the cable is located within the coil field. Therefore the first 40cm of the cable needs to be well secured to the shaft with tape or velcro etc.

If you want a one size fits (almost) all gold detector then its best to look at a PI detector like a GPX4500 or Garret ATX.. just to name a few.

Jimmy

 

[Ballina1]

Think about a second-hand Minelab Eureka Gold.
Gold Monster:
Too small a coil to search anything but a small area. OK when on a patch but you have to find the patch first.
A single frequency that is designed for small gold, about 47khz from memory.
Probably better technology
No clumsy control box

Eureka Gold:
3 selectable frequencies 6, 20 and 60 kHz for shallow to deeper targets. 60 KHz for small shallow gold.
A larger elliptical coil allowing for higher ground coverage
Fine, normal and boost settings to modify signal

I recently sold my EG for $475 so if you can pick up one in good condition for a similar price you might be surprised how good it is for gold / targets in the top 6" or so. My second-hand SDC2300 purchase was unplanned and I would not have otherwise sold EG.

 

[Ridge Runner]

Both are truly great machines but here are a couple of facts to consider,

The Xterra is a great multi purpose machine and it will find Gold and when the ground minerals are high being a VLF it can deal with them a bit better than an LF machine (higher) frequency machine but it won't see the real tiny Gold, even more so if you have to lower the Gain if the mineralization it very high.

The GM-1000 on the other hand being a high frequency machine will find very tiny Gold indeed, The GM has a fairly good tracking system in it so to date they seem to be doing quite well in hot ground conditions but because it is a high frequency machine if you have to lower the Gain because of the ground conditions it will still see most of the small/tiny nuggets.

I have never used the GM but I have seen the results of what they achieve and I have owned many High Frequency machines so I know how having a higher frequency can work in your favour even at a reduced Gain, where as lowering the gain on a VLF machine can hinder the machines ability to see them tiny nuggets,

If Gold is your sport of choice and your budget is a bit on the lean side then I would go for the GM-1000 and even if you find enough Gold to buy an SDC 2300 still keep your GM-1000 because in junk filled sites a good VLF/LF is worth it's weight in Gold.

hope that helps,

John.

 

[227dick]

i have both a xterra 705 plus a eureka gold and have only found very small amounts of gold in different areas and to be honest I love both machines they both have their place in my collection but after buying a sdc2300 I have gone over the same ground and found good finds that the other machines have missed and yes the sdc is not cheap but sprnding the extra money is worth it and the 4500 is only a few hundred dollars more

 

[Cando]

Think about a second-hand Minelab Eureka Gold.
Gold Monster:
Too small a coil to search anything but a small area. OK when on a patch but you have to find the patch first.
A single frequency that is designed for small gold, about 47khz from memory.
Probably better technology
No clumsy control box

Eureka Gold:
3 selectable frequencies 6, 20 and 60 kHz for shallow to deeper targets. 60 KHz for small shallow gold.
A larger elliptical coil allowing for higher ground coverage
Fine, normal and boost settings to modify signal

I recently sold my EG for $475 so if you can pick up one in good condition for a similar price you might be surprised how good it is for gold / targets in the top 6" or so. My second-hand SDC2300 purchase was unplanned and I would not have otherwise sold EG.

Just a note that the gold monster comes with two coils, a 10x 6 and a 5 inch round.. :Y:

 

[Smoky bandit]

Chalk and cheese Really :Y:

 

[fingers]

Hi guys,
Thank you for all your info.
Being new to the game I appreciate all your insights.
Money being the main limitation I will sit on my money for a while and see if I can pick up a second hand sdc or if in a couple of months I have no luck, I will buy a monster.
Thank you again
Fingers

 

[fingers]

Thanks for your info Jimmy.

Hey Fingers

Have owned a 705 and found it was a good machine for relics and coins, but I wouldn't recommend it for gold hunting in Australia. Currently own a Gold Monster and think it's a great machine for chasing the very small gold that most other detectors miss. It handles hot ground quite well and is super simple to operate and seems quite durable, battery life is great! I have never seen the battery life indicator drop over the course of a days detecting.

The Gold Monster was designed to find VERY small gold in shallow ground and it does that very well. The SDC2300 fits the same mould but it's the next step up by a large margin, but is more expensive. You will find gold with both, but probably much more with the SDC2300. Neither are one size fits all detectors.

Issues with Gold Monster:

1. Its very sensitive, be prepared to dig up a lot of shot gun pellets!
2. Can be noisy in hot ground, but I think it handles hot ground better than most VLF's I have tried, including the Goldbug 2
3. Knock sensitivity. Where the cable enters the coil it is very sensitive, knocking the coil/cable against rocks will cause the unit to false, this is to be expected given the units high sensitivity, its 40KHz TR frequency and the fact the first 40cm of the cable is located within the coil field. Therefore the first 40cm of the cable needs to be well secured to the shaft with tape or velcro etc.

If you want a one size fits (almost) all gold detector then its best to look at a PI detector like a GPX4500 or Garret ATX.. just to name a few.

Jimmy

 

[fingers]

Thank you for your help Ballina 1, much appreciated

Think about a second-hand Minelab Eureka Gold.
Gold Monster:
Too small a coil to search anything but a small area. OK when on a patch but you have to find the patch first.
A single frequency that is designed for small gold, about 47khz from memory.
Probably better technology
No clumsy control box

Eureka Gold:
3 selectable frequencies 6, 20 and 60 kHz for shallow to deeper targets. 60 KHz for small shallow gold.
A larger elliptical coil allowing for higher ground coverage
Fine, normal and boost settings to modify signal

I recently sold my EG for $475 so if you can pick up one in good condition for a similar price you might be surprised how good it is for gold / targets in the top 6" or so. My second-hand SDC2300 purchase was unplanned and I would not have otherwise sold EG.

 

[Joshlv]

I was in your exact same boat 8 months ago and ended up buying a 2nd hand monster. I am very happy with the machine but as expected its sensitivity has to be dumbed right down in highly mineralized ground (nundle area).
I mainly sluice and crevice for gold but if i were to start detecting more i would invest in a PI, probably the sdc.
Ive done well with the monster in highly mineralized areas scanning over tiny cracks in the bedrock with the sensitivity on 90%

Whatever detector you decide i believe it going to take a fair bit of time and a lot of frustration to get to know it really well.

 

[grubstake]

Hi guys,
Thank you for all your info.
Being new to the game I appreciate all your insights.
Money being the main limitation I will sit on my money for a while and see if I can pick up a second hand sdc or if in a couple of months I have no luck, I will buy a monster.

Demand is such that secondhand SDC's hold their value remarkably well and a clean example for less than $3,000 won't take long to sell, so you'll need to be prepared to make an immediate 'buy' decision if one comes up. Several dealers have recently advertised that the RRP for new SDCs will rise in August, so I'd expect to see used ones also increase in value accordingly.