Eureka Gold or AT Gold

Hi, Im trying to decide between the two detectors. The eureka has 3 different frequencies and as far as I can work out the lower the frequency the further down it detects is that right and the higher frequency of 60 will detect very small amounts of gold. And it has a lot of manual knobs and switches compared to the AT Gold is this something that will be hard to learn to use and set up being a beginner. Im going to be using the machine in northern nsw if that makes a difference or not. Which one would you choose all the info you can provide will be helpful.

Hey Matt,

Save ya coins a bit more and grab a GPX 5000, otherwise you will be doing a lot of walking ( or cleaning the bush for me)
Not trying to put you off, but you will get pissed.
If its mainly coins you want, grab the XTERRA705 gold pack @ $950.00.

Just my thoughts, but its your coins.

Chow

I agree, I found out the hard way. I spent $2,000 kitting up a Eureka, found nothing but crap. I've just traded it in on a 5000.

Like anything you do get what you pay for, but judging by the two machines you are currently tossing up between, a GPX 5000 is going to be way over budget so we might as well forget about that for the time being.

Both the AT Gold and Eureka Gold are great machines within their respective price category. In terms of ease of use the AT Gold would most likely stand out as it provides an intuitive LCD panel which displays various target information, depth etc. If you're looking at doing any kind of coin and relic detecting on the side it would also be a better choice IMO.

I haven't used an Eureka Gold but have been avid user of the AT Gold for over 12 months, so although I can't unbiasedly recommend one over the other I can say I'm very happy with the AT Gold in terms of build quality and sensitivity to small targets. Heavily mineralised ground is going to play havoc with any VLF detector but regardless the AT Gold seems to handle it quite well with the right coil and configuration.

If you have a search around the forum, I've made quite a few posts about the AT Gold. If you have any specific questions about this machine I would be more than happy to answer them for you, and hopefully some Eureka Gold users would be able to provide their 2 cents as well.

You may also want to consider the Minelab X-TERRA 705, and there's a very good write about about the key differences and advantages between that and the Eureka Gold on the Minelab site http://www.minelab.com/treasure-talk/x-terra-705-gold-vs-eureka-gold

Best of luck on making your decision.

Ok, I keep wondering if people who give up on a VLF such as a Eureka after a few months (while they're essentially still training up), to trade it in for, say a GPX5000, found any less gold than people who had a 5000 from the start, during the same newbie period. I just seem to hear story after story of: "I traded it in for a 5000, still to find any gold".
I think advising someone to spend 6-7K on a machine that they may use only occasionally seems odd.

I wasn't advising a 5000, only stated what I did. Also as I live 600kms from the Goldfields it will be May next year before I get to use the 5000 in earnest, but like Nugget said, "you get what you pay for".

The time I spent using the Eureka was not wasted as it gave me some good learning experiences.

A VLF can take a long time to master, and not always the way they recommend in the manual. Depending on what model you use, they can take months if not years to master, netherlone a month. Argyle had some really good pointers on using Minelab VLF's like the Eureka, xt18000 & xt17000, and most of it flies in the face of what manufacturers recommend regarding tones, dropouts, settings and coils used. Simple fact is VLF's aren't suited to some areas, and PI machines will be the only choice to cut through the mineralisation, doesn't mean you necessarily have to fork out for the top of the range GPX machine though, as most know, some of the SD range are still very capable machines in the right hands.

If I was to choose between the 2 machine stated my choice would be the Xterra 705 gold pack. But even though I own the Xterra 70 which is basically the same machine as the 705 but without backlight it would not be my choice in that price range.
My choice would be The Garrett AT gold these are about the same price, are waterproof to 3m and in my opinion have much better depth than the Xterra.
A friend has the Garrett and he ask me to run my machine over a hole that he had already dug at least 8 inches or 20 cm, my machine was only just getting signal. side by side same ground the Garrett had much better signal.
I will also add to the comments above & say you still got to walk over gold to find it no matter what machine you use.
If money is not the issue then a GPX 5000.

Well might as well throw my two Bob in !
I'd suggest a s/h sd2100 or 2200 as these
are very good machines if you still like to
detect , and find gold go to later model.
These machines hold there value and do
find gold!
The machines are easy to use and handle mg.

mfdes said:

Ok, I keep wondering if people who give up on a VLF such as a Eureka after a few months (while they're essentially still training up), to trade it in for, say a GPX5000, found any less gold than people who had a 5000 from the start, during the same newbie period. I just seem to hear story after story of: "I traded it in for a 5000, still to find any gold".
I think advising someone to spend 6-7K on a machine that they may use only occasionally seems odd.

Click to expand...

I found gold with my 5000 on my second local trip and it was the first time I had been in this particular creek (4th total outing) this was after more than a year persevering with VLF machines.

Personally, I would go the Garrett over the Eureka, but I do like a good coin hunt. And over the Garrett I would go a GMT or a Gold Bug 2 or a Gold Bug Pro or a Whites MXT or V3i or Fisher F75 LTD - Just my opinion though...

5000's find gold, its been proven time and time again and for the area that Matty is in he needs every advantage he can get - there is already 5000's and 4500's being waved around near where he lives and they are finding the gold that many years of VLF machines have missed.

Matty, I'd go a Fisher F75 LTD - reason being that it is a very competent All Metal Mode gold hunter, has supreme discrimination and handles super hot ground well. They are excellent coin hunters and TBH there is more easy to find silver in the ground nowadays than there is gold. Stick the 5" coil on it and go your hardest, work slowly and methodically in all the cracks and crevices of the creeks and you will eventually ping a nugget.

Oh yeah, Nuggets AT Gold is for sale on here for a very tasty price!

If your buying a VLF machine buy one with high frequency. Forget about buying a detector that runs under 20 KHZ.

Why? Most Gold PI's these days are able to find the small targets a 20KHZ detector is able to.

Do you need to spend $5000 plus on a detector to find Gold? No you don't.

To make claims one machine finds gold is ridiculous.

Take a look at the GP3500. You can buy these at or below $2000.