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Report From Bo In Oz On Axiom


Gone Bush

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Nice report. To his comment about the short two foot USB charging cord supplied, I heartily agree. The first thing I did was buy a buy a couple 6 foot ones. There are even 10 footers if a person needs something that long. If you own a recent iPad or other device you may already have spare cords since these are standard USB-C cables.

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10 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Nice report. To his comment about the short two foot USB charging cord supplied, I heartily agree. The first thing I did was buy a buy a couple 6 foot ones. There are even 10 footers if a person needs something that long. If you own a recent iPad or other device you may already have spare cords since these are standard USB-C cables.

 

I also got slightly longer cables but when building my truck/camper we purposely made a compartment in the rear to hold detector bags.
Right next to the inverter so only needed a little more length on both the USB-C for the detector and Micro USB for the headphones.
Its still just sitting on pieces of foam at the moment while I wait for the custom padded bag I have ordered.
For those of you who don't know the State of Western Australia (WA) actually means "Wait Awhile".
Also, being quite tall at 6 feet 5 inches, (we stack shit high in Australia), I need the shaft at pretty much full extension but when you pull it out far enough to let the pin locks click in, it feels a little flexible at the joints so I have drilled additional holes in the shafts about 20 mm back from the standard ones.
That means when I pull the shaft out, the pin locks click into my holes at the perfect length for me and feels much more solid. 
As you can see in the pictures below, the compartment is long enough to leave the smaller shaft fully extended and I have used all the Velcro straps that came with the replacement 6000 coils to mount the cable on the top of the lower shaft.
Don't really know if this helps in any way but did read somewhere that its beneficial to keep the cable away from the coil as much as possible.
Anyway, going out to a new spot tomorrow so if anything good happens I will make a video.
Good luck everyone
 

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Good report GB, I'm liking the Axiom more and more, I have seen what the 6000 can do, so one week I'm getting the 6000 and the next week I'm back on the Axiom. All the reading I have done both machines seem to be on a par with each other, I like the extra function on the Axiom.

I don't get out a lot, hopefully more this year. I don't think anyone can go wrong with either machine going by what I have read.

Thank you once again for the excellent reporting. You had better get out now and find some of the yellow stuff.

Cheers. 

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2 hours ago, peterinaust said:

Good report GB, I'm liking the Axiom more and more, I have seen what the 6000 can do, so one week I'm getting the 6000 and the next week I'm back on the Axiom. All the reading I have done both machines seem to be on a par with each other, I like the extra function on the Axiom.

I don't get out a lot, hopefully more this year. I don't think anyone can go wrong with either machine going by what I have read.

Thank you once again for the excellent reporting. You had better get out now and find some of the yellow stuff.

Cheers. 

That’s about the state of it.

Like Steve H said, and I completely agree, if you have a 6000, stick with it and get the NF coils. Awesome package.
Otherwise, I would say get Axiom.
Once coils for Axiom are readily available, I think it will then be absolutely the detector to have.
Must admit to being very surprised that Bo is going Axiom.
Spoke to him tonight about that. Think I know why now.
Could be wrong but I get the feeling that having not used any detector apart from his 4500 then having both the 6 and Axiom to try may have unintentionally corrupted his choice.
I didn’t consider that someone who has had a 4500 for years and the subsequent control that machine allows the user would likely gravitate to a machine like Axiom with more available control rather than less available control like 6000.
When I first got the 6000, (May 2021), and went out the first time I do remember thinking that if they can make a detector this simple and this good, why would you ever want to mess about with settings like you do on the older GPX or the 7000.
Didn’t help when after 2 weeks I had recovered the cost of 6000 and then some.
Sold the 7000 I was dragging around and never looked back.
However, one thing I didn’t consider in all this was location.
Around home base, roughly 1000 klms north west of Kalgoorlie, there are only two locations I know, out of maybe 2-300 we go to, that I can’t run 6000 maxed out and clean up.
That is changing, and rapidly.
This year, 2023, I have already noticed that available ground to prospect on has drastically reduced around home.
A huge number of tenements that where pending and available are now live and out of bounds.
Permissions are drying up as more and more prospectors also fall victim and tenement holders, especially larger mining companies, are saying no to prospectors on their tenements.
This will mean having to step outside my comfort zone.
Normally, I would research, using Trilobite, geological conditions and pick a tenement with ground that I like.
Not like just because of likely gold deposits, but also like because it would be easy to detect.
This year may be a steep learning curve and being picky is already looking like being unviable.
May no longer be able to afford being a prima dona about where I go. 
So, whether I like it or not, I will have to go onto areas that I would not normally consider.
Here, around Kalgoorlie, not only is there maybe 80% less ground available to prospect on than there is at home,  it’s more variable, more mineralised and generally more difficult.
To make matters worse (better?), this being the first time in two years that I have spent any solid time in this area, I hardly used the 6 here these last few weeks before getting Axiom and going out with it to play.
For that, I am eternally grateful.
It has taught me that I should not be as lazy as the 6000 has made me because any future success will likely be in areas and on ground that I would normally shy away from knowing it is hard work with the 6, particularly how I use it.
All the time I have spent messing about and assessing Axiom and all the things that are the same, better or worse than a 6 and I think that what will prove to be it’s most important feature, at least for my application, is it’s ability to better handle mineralisation and variations in the ground.
Since having the replacement unit, not once have I had to ‘work around a hot spot’ or ‘dial it back’ to enable it to run comfortably on any location I have chosen. It has just worked, and worked well, usually on 6 sensitivity or higher and on fine.
Perhaps that is the new benchmark, not just being able to detect small gold but doing it in difficult areas that would normally fight you to give up its gold.
I don’t know, just rambling out loud really.
Whatever the future holds, it will be without my 6000.
Tonight, just before starting this post, I accepted an offer and sold it.
Surprisingly difficult to let go of but the love affair was over.
We still have the ‘community’ (for want of a better word) almost new 6000 back at home base but I am now sure my future will be with Axiom.
July wedding, on the beach with reception at lifeguards club rooms. All gifts minimum of 5 grams please. I’m such a dickhead 🤪


 

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5 hours ago, Gone Bush said:

I didn’t consider that someone who has had a 4500 for years and the subsequent control that machine allows the user would likely gravitate to a machine like Axiom with more available control rather than less available control like 6000.

People have looked at this from what I think is not really the right perspective, mostly questioning whether the Axiom is a GPX 6000 replacement. I think the reality here is what you have just touched on. There are plenty of SD2000/2100/2200 GP Extreme GP3000/3500 and GPX 4000/4500/4800/5000 owners out there still. The Axiom is a very natural path for anyone with one of those detectors who would like a more compact all in one solution that acts more like what they are used to. I think the old GPX series has an edge with very large coils, which the harness and bungee system actually handle very well. But for mid to smaller coils, there is no way I'd go back to a GPX after using the Axiom. The progression I think looks more like GPX 5000 > Axiom / GPX 6000 > GPZ 7000

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Ive watched alot of Vids about the 6 and so far Im not impressed enough to go out and dump 6 k on it-I know my 5 could find everything Ive seen so far depth and size and i like having complete control over my settings-hell there is so many ways to run the 5 for many different conditions-sure I hate being tethered to a cable and battery but to me thats the only down fall-Im buiilding a battery pack for it now that will stick on the side of it and get rid of the battery brick and cable and do blue tooth for the audio now that its low latency-Maybe alot of the X Gpx users that switched over and finding more gold didnt know how to set the Gpx series up correctly-I have a question why didnt Minelab just put the 5 in a smaller package and keep all all the adjustability and make it so you could use all your old coils ? I have been eyeing the Axium it looks like a better fit for me with more settings than the 6 has but Im going keep using the 5 and see what Fisher and Nokita come out with-:biggrin:

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I've got my 5000 setup with the smaller battery on the side of it and Bluetooth low latency audio, it's a great rig like that, doesn't feel much heavier than the 6000 either HOWEVER and it's a big however, the 5000 even with my most sensitive of coils such as a 10" fully spiral X-coil and the NF Sadie is no match for the 6000 on small gold and I'm in a place where I can crank the 5000 right up running it in sensitive extra with boosted audio etc on maximum gain the 6000 is much more sensitive and also deeper on smaller gold. 

The 6000 also picks up bits of gold the 5000 misses completely in any timing, reasonable size bits too that it just can't detect.  If you don't mind missing VLF type small gold then the 5000 is perfectly fine, covering ground with a good VLF and a 5000 gets you closer to the 6000 performance, I say closer as the VLF still lacks depth that the 6000 can provide on some smaller bits.   I'd say the 5000 can be better in many ways than the 6000 as you have such a big coil selection with a coil to suit every occasion and much better hot rock handling, I just can't see the 6000 matching the bigger target depth of a 5000 with appropriate big coil on it.

This is where I can see the Axiom excelling in the future, it has the more adjustable controls, seems to be not too far off the 6000 for small gold sensitivity and that's even using it's stock coils, handles tough ground well and doesn't so far seem to miss the more porous bits of gold the 5000 struggles on.  Once the aftermarket start to tinker and make a range of coils for it like Detech have already said they'll be doing I can see good things happening with the Axiom.   If they can make improved coils for the Axiom like various brands have done for the 5000, possibly 6000 and especially 7000 then the Axiom is worth keeping an eye on.

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On 1/27/2023 at 7:44 PM, phrunt said:

I've got my 5000 setup with the smaller battery on the side of it and Bluetooth low latency audio, it's a great rig like that, doesn't feel much heavier than the 6000 either HOWEVER and it's a big however, the 5000 even with my most sensitive of coils such as a 10" fully spiral X-coil and the NF Sadie is no match for the 6000 on small gold and I'm in a place where I can crank the 5000 right up running it in sensitive extra with boosted audio etc on maximum gain the 6000 is much more sensitive and also deeper on smaller gold. 

The 6000 also picks up bits of gold the 5000 misses completely in any timing, reasonable size bits too that it just can't detect.  If you don't mind missing VLF type small gold then the 5000 is perfectly fine, covering ground with a good VLF and a 5000 gets you closer to the 6000 performance, I say closer as the VLF still lacks depth that the 6000 can provide on some smaller bits.   I'd say the 5000 can be better in many ways than the 6000 as you have such a big coil selection with a coil to suit every occasion and much better hot rock handling, I just can't see the 6000 matching the bigger target depth of a 5000 with appropriate big coil on it.

This is where I can see the Axiom excelling in the future, it has the more adjustable controls, seems to be not too far off the 6000 for small gold sensitivity and that's even using it's stock coils, handles tough ground well and doesn't so far seem to miss the more porous bits of gold the 5000 struggles on.  Once the aftermarket start to tinker and make a range of coils for it like Detech have already said they'll be doing I can see good things happening with the Axiom.   If they can make improved coils for the Axiom like various brands have done for the 5000, possibly 6000 and especially 7000 then the Axiom is worth keeping an eye on.

Have you tried Fine Gold-I have found gold under a Grain in hot ground with my 5 and thats small enough for me-I havent used a 6 or a Ax yet or even my 5 in  2 to 3 years do to my health but hopefully plan to do so again-so for now all I can do is watch the forums and vids until then-whats the smallest you found with the 6 ? PS-I tried the cordless blue tooth set up years ago and didnt like the lag but since they came out with the low latency I thought Id give it a try again .

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