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I'm currently doing comparison testing between the production model Axiom and the GPX 6000; it's not scientific by any means, just observations for my own information, but I will report my methods and observations on the Metal Detector Advice and Comparisons forum when I'm finished. And there will be gold pics. 🙂

Totally agree with you there, Steve, and I understand where you’re coming from; I’m sure some may think I'm just trying to hype new detectors to help Gerry's sales, but in reality I really enjoy taking a new machine to its limits to see what it's capable of, especially so in this instance where it is expected to be a serious contender to the top-dog PI manufacturer, MInelab. The more quality and performance centered competition there is, the more it helps bring prices down, as well as advancing detector innovation.

I just came across this short film that should be shared. Painfully ridiculous, but worth a chuckle.

Production of parts for the first batch of Deus shafts is nearing completion. Some parts shipments have now arrived, and the rest are shipping over the course of the next week. I expect all parts to arrive by roughly Dec. 10, and then will be initiating the first production run of 32 shafts immediately thereafter. At this point, all 32 shafts have been reserved by customers. As soon as the parts arrive, and have been inspected, I'll be ordering the next batch of parts, for the next production run. Expect the second batch of shafts to be ready to ship by roughly late January. Thank you all for your patience. This has been a long/complex project, but I think the wait will be worth it, as I am very pleased with how everything has come together. This should prove to be a top-notch shaft that will improve upon the stock shaft immensely. I will be contacting each customer as soon as parts arrive, for final confirmation of interest, and invoicing. Thanks to all of you who have offered suggestions/advice along the way, to my excellent field testers, and to all of my customers. The end to the long wait is now in sight... 🙂 Thanks! Steve

PSPR -- this is NOT going to happen. Sorry to be a bearer of bad news. Bottom line, any gold, that gives the same VDI as a pull tab or ring tab, CANNOT be "detected" while the aluminum is discriminated out. If you notch out a VDI number, you will notch out ANYTHING that registers that VDI number, whether it is gold, or aluminum. Steve

With me it was always the adventure not the value of the treasure. This treasure chest my X wife had made for me when I first got into detecting. It has been full more than one time. I know I sold silver out of it on two different occasions . What you see here is just some of the coins I’ve found.

I know these nuggets are not huge or even close to it, but I enjoy seeing some of my customers success and their recoveries. These 2 pics just came in from a customer in AZ who took the Axiom out for it's 1st voyage. He used the 11" MONO coil and recovered them 3 to 4" deep. Hopefully more customers will be sharing their success. I'm certain the upstate guys like me are pretty much frozen in for the season so south we need to go.

Not so fast my friend. They are shipping to the countries main headquarters, not the dealers. You guys started my phone to blow up and I could not understand why. No worries, at least some of my customers will get them pre-Christmas. Hopefully dealers get good allotments and not trickle in like the Equinox did.

People wondered why anyone would use the Equinox for gold instead of the GM1000 too, but in the end I think the Equinox is a better prospecting machine, and a lot of other serious prospectors agree. I have a hard time personally seeing any value anymore in a gold-only VLF with none of the fancy extras all these other VLFs come with today. I'd rather have the options available to me than a dumbed down machine with almost nothing. If I'm using a VLF for prospecting, it's only because I want one of two things (or both): ultra sensitivity for ore/specimen gold for hardrock work or general prospecting in lode areas, or very good discrimination for trashy areas I can't stand to work with the 6000/7000, so I want the best discrim possible. I personally don't have a desire to use it to hunt for tiny nuggets, but that's just me. On top of that, I flip houses for a living (when I'm not mining or prospecting anyways) and work on a lot of investment properties for spare cash, I want something to detect the yards with, most are silver coin-era houses. I have a Deus which I like but I don't want all these VLF's sitting around, I want one machine, and the Deus is ok but I have a few dislikes with it and want something newer and deeper. I also find a ton of old historic spots, abandoned ranches/homesteads, and all sorts of stuff like that which I want to start detecting for fun. And since I keep my prospecting machines in my truck with me at all time, I want it to be the best at those sorts of sites too. It's rare for me to find anything older than a wheat penny any shallower than 5-6" in some of these places due to soils so I also want something powerful.

I'm currently doing comparison testing between the production model Axiom and the GPX 6000; it's not scientific by any means, just observations for my own information, but I will report my methods and observations on the Metal Detector Advice and Comparisons forum when I'm finished. And there will be gold pics. 🙂

Hey Guys, Due to my limited time, I haven't had much time on the new Garrett Axiom metal detector. However, my first impression on the unit were pretty good. First, the new Garrett sells for MAP of $3995 or 15% discount for USA Active/Retired Vets. I believe Garrett marketed this unit to fit perfectly into the budget of most gold prospectors and treasure hunters. They also give you the option of two packages, one with wireless headphones and a 11" Mono and 13" DD, or wired headphones and a 11 DD and 13" Mono. Many of my customers have been split on the packages, the ones that want more depth out of the box seem to take the larger Mono packages, while the ones that are looking for max sensitivity to small targets and nuggets go with the 11" Mono. Secondly, overall the unit is very light, lighter than any other gold hunting Pulse Induction metal detector including Minelab's GPX 6000. I also believe Garrett built a bit better design, haven't seen issues with a shaft turning or wobbling as of yet, seems like a stronger design from other similar manufactures. Finally, on the Goldfields, the unit was very stable overall. I used the 11" Mono the entire time the first trip out as I wanted to just get used to the performance of the unit before dabbling too much with the DD and Iron ID. That being said, Garrett does offer the Iron ID on this unit, where most other PI's have done away with any type of iron discrimination (GPX 5000 and prior). Many believe there is still a need or use for Iron ID in trashy locations, which I do tend to agree. The unit was simple to understand without even reading the Quick Start Manual. I charged the Axiom the night prior, let it charge overnight and removed in the morning prior to the hunt. I powered on the Axiom, adjusted the sensitivity, placed in Normal mode, Tone around 55, adjusted my threshold, used in Medium Tracking then did the EMI tune and started hunting. The unit ran really smooth and stable, the only time it was a bit unstable, which happens with most detectors is when a airplane flew over. This would last a minute or two, then calm down. Believe it or not, my first target in a very trashy area was a nice nugget (pictures will come). I couldn't believe it, had to yell over to a friend and say, "Dude do you believe this?" That being said, I spent the next hour or so digging through a bunch of trash and didn't find another piece until later. I only had a few small hotrocks respond, which could easily be ID's when seen. I ended the trip with 4 nuggets, two pretty nice ones and two smaller ones. I also had a nice pouch full of iron rubbish, as I was not using the DD or Iron ID on the Axiom at the time. This will be something else I need to experiment with, as I heard the Axiom does very well with the Iron ID mode. I was hoping for a bit more sensitivity to small targets, as I was running the "sensitivity" almost all the way, but realized later I wasn't in "Fine" mode, which I believe will increase the overall sensitivity to small gold even more than the "Normal' mode. Quick Conclusion - Garrett did a great job on this unit, it's priced right, performs well, very lightweight and will have other searchcoil options available. The unit is super easy to use, almost a turn on and Go detector. I know there are a ton of people going to ask, is it better than the GPX 6000, I'm not going to say that, but I think with the price, performance and a USA made detector, Garrett hit a "Home Run" here. P.S. I don't claim to be an expert on this detector, I have had very limited time on it, but do have over 30 years detecting experience now, so I felt I could give a fair, quick field test on this new Garrett Axiom. May all your targets be Golden! Rob

Been searching for info on my new machine, Nokta legend and a pulse dive pointer. Came across this forum and I liked what I was reading and how the members interacted.I also read Steve's post about the forum and why it was started.Looks to be my kind of place. The wife and I are getting more into detecting and she has been wanting to go as much as we can on the weekends. We joined a local club, Yankee Territory Coinshooters. We've been able to do a couple club hunts which has been fun. She uses an AT pro and I have my new Legend(bought without her knowing and asked for forgiveness after the box arrived and I was questioned about it). We are enjoying the exercise and the fun of the hunt. I know I will learn from the site and hopefully get good enough to add to the site Thanks Mike

I am really looking forward to your comparison review Keith (Lunk). I don't want to get involved in any of that. I was a prototype tester for the GPX 6000, and then for the Axiom. Any bias aside, and I have them, I'm simply too close to the projects to want to do any serious this versus that stuff. People on either side would just say I'm biased from being connected to the other! In general I've just made it clear that I think the pricing structure in the U.S. is appropriate for all the various models involved, and will leave it at that. And wait for others to make the only decisions that actually really matter. It does not matter what I say or what some other person with connections says. All that matters is what the regular purchasing public thinks. They will decide how good the Axiom is, not some batch of "influencers", and it will take about a year for the dust to settle on all that.

Of course it does. It adds to the Equinox feature base, not takes things away. It ain’t rocket science kids. If you liked Equinox, you’ll love Manticore.

The Equinox is a killer gold prospecting machine for gold other machines even if you spend $10,000 can't find. Some of us look for gold for the challenge, for the fun of it so any size piece of gold is an exciting find, in fact my smallest piece of gold I've found with a metal detector I consider to be my best find and it was with the Equinox, bigger gold which is often much easier. It all comes down to why you do it, for the monetary value which I do not, or for the fun and challenge which is why I do it. I even find the 11" coil on the Equinox good in my conditions, it can find really tiny gold. If the Manticore can somehow better the Equinox, perhaps by it's extra coil power then I'm all over it, I'll love it. At the moment my two favourites in the VLF's are the Equinox with 6" coil and the Garrett 24k with the 6" Whites concentric coil, each for different reasons as they both have different strong points. I really hope the Manticore can match the Nox on small gold, it's really nice having a do it all detector you have a lot of confidence in to use for anything and everything and don't feel like you're missing out by using it. I own a Gold Bug 2 which technically on small gold is the best of the bunch, and I know it's the most sensitive and it has an awesome little coil that has no bump sensitivity but I haven't taken to it like the others, I also find it lacks the depth of the others. VLF's destroy the GPZ even with my coil selection and the GPX 6000 on VERY small gold, especially in my mild soil, so they very much still have a place and make outstanding pinpointers for when using the big heavy duty machines as no manufacturer yet has made a good prospecting handheld pinpointer. The milder your gold area soil gets the more viable VLF's become, I am in rather mild soil, and then there is bedrock and creek detecting especially creeks that are nothing more than bedrock, VLF's are great, waterproof and all.,

I guess it doesn't really matter who was there first when the guy swings like an Aussie Gold Hunter, he's not going to find many targets doing that. The winner clearly had a Manticore with 50% more power to his coil. Funny little video.

Yeah, people got them two days ago, and it’s winter in half the country. And obviously every new owner is on this forum! Why haven’t we seen dozens of reports yet? Sarcasm aside (forgive me), I am pleased to see so many early reports myself, given the above. Really looking forward to your comparison report Keith. 👍🏼

Mike, You are the winner of the Minelab Vest, Hat and Care Package. Please PM me the ship to address. Also, what size Vest you want?

Video posted Nov 26, 2022 Prospector Pete gets the honor of working with Minelab Debby and they put the Manticore to use - "This metal detector is not yet available to the public until early 2023, but we take a sneak peek into the features of this machine, it truly lives up to its name! 2-D graph allows you to visualize what is beneath the ground. This unit allows you to size the target and get an idea of what material it is made of. The armrest is new and is designed for ergonomics and comfort. I am very impressed by this unit! I can not say enough about this very impressive metal detector."

My season in Canada is over now and here’s a look at the good stuff. I finished with 13 gold rings, all with the Deus 2. I hunt fresh water usually waist to neck deep and thus rely almost solely on the audio of the D2. Until this year I’ve only ever hunted with Excaliburs. I have to say, all the programs, modes and settings on this thing were a little overwhelming to me at first and I wasn’t having fun the first few times out. All the discussion on this forum has helped a lot. Being in fresh water I tried several of the inland programs and settled quickly on the General (1) program due to stability and quiet operation. I see General is the only inland program that uses Conductive Soil Subtraction like the Beach/Dive programs. I prefer Pitch Mode for its indication of target depth by pitch, especially on the beaches that classify well. The quiet operation of General (1) combined with pitch mode and a higher Audio Response (5) really lets me hear those deeper targets. Surprisingly when I get a lower pitch audio response indicating a deep target; it actually turns out to be a legitimate size deep target and not a smaller scrap sitting near the surface. The low notch I’m using may be helping in that regard. I run a notch from the point of discrimination (7) to 28. I tried running with and without it and found that using the notch greatly helps me avoid wasting time digging micro crap, especially given most of the time I can’t see the remote. I could possibly be missing fine chains or very small gold but it certainly looks like I’m doing ok in the small ring department. I don’t know the vdi’s for all the rings but the one to the left of the penny was 34. In a quest for depth I started using very low Reactivity but found that combined with my lower underwater sweep speed, I was getting weaker target responses. After some testing I found bumping the Reactivity up to 2.0 greatly improved the target response. There’s definitely seems to be some great descriptive audio. I don’t have a good understanding of it yet so I’ll be digging lots for a while. I asked a friend with a Deus 1 what audio quality he looks for in a good target and his answer was “Smooth”. I think that’s a good word to describe it. I’m using the GGA phones and love them. They have tons of volume, but they do use the Bone Phone output you’re limited to square. At this point I do still feel like I can size and shape a target better with an Excal in All Metal. I don’t expect to learn the Deus 2 audio overnight. Looking at the results of this first season, what really stands to me is the high ratio of small rings I found. 7 out of 13 (54%) were smaller, penny size rings. Typically for me only 10-15% would be small rings like that. It could certainly be just blind luck however my gut feeling is the Deus 2 had a strong hand in it. I’m sold; this thing is a serious water machine! Did I mention its bloody deep? Very happy with the D2 and can’t wait for spring to come. Any feedback from Deus veterans greatly appreciated. Good luck all.

I’ll post more but got to look in my safe . I’ve got some coins in books. Thanks for looking! Chuck

If all goes well, I will be sharing pictures of Manticore finds from in the salt water. Hurry up Santa, Gerry's Detectors has places to go. He also has customers patiently waiting. It looks as if the wait time could be pre Christmas for a few. Let's just hope us dealers get a good allotment of units the 1st few rounds.

I had to edit my previous post. What I meant to say is that I'm finding PWM audio can give more clues to target shape than Square audio. This isn't always the case, but I find it helps me with sorting rounded objects from non-rounded objects much of the time. However, aluminum is a curse on all metal detectorists! 😉

That was my error which I have edited. I meant to say that PWM audio will give more clues to the target's shape than Square (not Pitch) audio sometimes. What I mean by that is the more subtle ampitude response of PWM audio ramps up and down slower and can give softer "fuzzy" sounding responses that can vary quite a bit coming off the edges of non-round objects, but gives a cleaner, more focused sound on rounded objects. Square audio has a gated fast ramping up and down sound which can make even the most mangled can slaw sound like a round target such as rings and coins.

I too am interested in its gold mode ability. Will find out next week. Debbie is supposed to be at a local show with it, I will bring some small pieces, play with it. I hope the smaller coil is out at same time. My Deus is on its last legs, I'm ready for a new machine. Prefer a gold capable relic machine. I got a monster...but most the time, I'm hiking around in middle of nowhere, relic hunting gold rush camps...running across a nugget patch is a nice bonus, happens every now n then.

The winning guy looks a bit like Steve (no offense Steve...) 😁

I do like the video. It appeared to have 3 targets on the screen at same time?? If so then that's great.

June 20 1937 This morning we weighed up another four ounces of gold. I also informed the crew that we now had just over 100 ounces for the season. Very good considering we have been part time miners up to now. That should help to put some wind behind our sails as we press on. The heat has come in with a vengeance. The early mornings are quite cool but by noon we see 90 degrees and over 100 degrees by mid afternoon. The work is not too hard as we are not digging deep but laterally. If the crew can keep with it we will get back into good working shape quickly. The main staple out here is beans, hash, and bacon. Will and I worked the digsite today. We seem to be in an old river channel that contains gold. As we are cutting across it we are seeing good results. The question is how wide the channel goes. I have not gone very far out with test holes but we are just working it until we run out of the pay streak. I am hoping it lasts all season. If we find the outside perimeter we will then need to drift into the mountain which will be much slower and harder work. I have learned that no channel is endless and there will be a day where we run out of the good gravels. Until then we just keep working it. Will and I stopped just before dark and dug 170 buckets. We were both dog tired. TO BE CONTINUED ..................

Looks like Minelab has started to ship these. Minelab made a post on Facebook about 15 minutes ago.

Well, Axiom is shipping, but it still sells for too much to make my under 4 lb, under $2K ground balancing PI a reality. With word from Carl that Fisher is still in the game with a possible Impulse Gold, it's now up to Fisher, or more likely, Nokta/Makro, to finally get it done. Been over 5 years since I made the challenge, and if anything with the TDI gone, it seems we are going backwards. I'll fudge the 4 lbs as being "close enough" with the Axiom at 4.2 lbs, but the price is still twice as much as I'd like to see. You have a 4 lb robust proven mechanical design just waiting to have a GBPI circuit stuffed in it. Why reinvent the wheel? Just saying. So come on Nokta/Makro, it's your game to win!

Garrett put a little animated GIF on Facebook of a bit of an axiom teardown and it looks to me like the main PCB is housed inside a thin alloy housing, rather than just the EMI paint that Minelab used for the GPX 6000, I guess it would add a tiny amount of weight but you would assume it works better than the paint at protecting the electronics from outside EMI.

June 21 1937 Another great morning at the weigh. Those buckets were all rich and we saw nine ounces in the pan. The pay streak is very steady in the location being worked. I know this can change at any time but for now we will just dig until something changes. A few more weeks of this will set us up nicely. Before Hudson and I went up to the dig site, deputy Dan made an appearance at camp. He said the sheriff was satisfied with the report he had filed concerning the death of Sarge and it would go down as an attempted robbery at our camp. The investigation would continue but seeing as the entire story was fabricated there would be no conclusion. The sheriff knew nothing of Dan’s trip to Mexico and knew nothing of what had transpired. Dan figured the investigation would probably fizzle out after a month or so. Dan told us that the news of Sarge’s death had spread like wildfire through town. Some of the town folk were calling for an end to our mining operation as it was bringing lots of drifters and rif raff with bad intentions into the area. He told us that we might have to put the sheriff in our back pocket to tamp down any further investigations as to activities out here. He told us that the sheriff was corrupt and could be easily bought. Dan said that with the sheriff on the payroll we would essentially have complete control of the town and the entire county as well. I told him I needed to think about all this and said I may ask to have a meeting set up with the sheriff on this matter. With that Dan left our camp but not before I placed a gold coin in his greedy hand. The weather for the day was like an oven and Hudson and I worked our tails off hauling buckets out of the dig site. By day’s end we had dug out 180 of them and were ready for some cold beer down at camp. After supper we all sat around the fire as the night air cooled and replaced the heat of the day. It felt good and we all pulled cold Lucky’s out of the creek until nearly midnight while talking about what Dan had told us. I thought to myself that we just might be running the entire county soon. TO BE CONTINUED ..............

Haa Steve I love you, I love you at least as much as Santa's Kangaroos. I called my dealer today, he told me to receive 2 manticores without delay to make videos and I think by planes so it would be possible before Christmas that they are in my little slippers. Thank you for the info.

Yup, in many ways, we were sold a bill of goods. You kind of wonder what they were thinking when it came to the cable/connection design, the pitiful battery life, and the type of connectors used. They claim that the coil and pod can handle more water depth, but, the M8 connectors won't. Well duh....why not use better connectors and get a much better depth rating? Even though it seems like it took forever for them to design this thing, It looks more like they threw it together at the last minute with whatever spare parts they had on the shelf.

It has them. Doesn't anybody read the specs? Relying upon videos (by less than experts...) to give all the details just doesn't seem realistic. And Lawrie said more than once in the September European Tour videos it will have full tones (may not be the name they're using now). BTW, Steve H. just put to bed (maybe in another thread) the idea that a performance feature/capability of the Equinox will be taken away on the Manticore. Enhanced? In some cases, yes.

Here’s a odd ball . I don’t think I dug this because I have another similar to it. I’m talking about the backside of the coin .

Hot off the press- shipping now

Most gold bearing ground in Tassie is hard going for a detector . We grow scrub , lot's of it ! I am always watching for a bushfire to open up ground for relics and gold . A good hot fire will give about 12 months access before bracken regrowth makes for hard swinging again . Even ground that looks fairly open like some in the vid can have 6 _ 10 inches of leaf litter which knocks your detection depth way back .

It all comes down to the 50% more power to the coil, I guess small gold detection would really put that to the test. I'm expecting it to be no better than the Equinox on small gold, It'll be nice having the small elliptical though, I just hope Coiltek come out with a 5" or 6" round for it too. I'll know as soon as I can get my paws on one 🙂 I hope this announcement on the first of December is saying they've started shipping to dealers, if they drag it on much longer it will be painful.

Chose to post this to illustrate what we all know, the masking effect is real. Went to a park that is pretty well picked through. It has been hit hard by every detector club and enthusiast in our area. Last year I was able to pull a $5 gold coin that was masked by iron out in the brush, and yesterday I was able to pull 4 coins, one being a nice semi-key barber quarter in areas that I've detected no less than 20 times with my host of detectors, and I'm sure has seen thousands of swings over it. It was only 4-5 inches down, but was surrounded by nails. After getting a new to me 10"DD replacement coil for my V3i, which seems a little hotter than my previous coil, I headed out to see if I would be able to find something I've missed. There are no 'dig me' signals to be found, just a rare bouncy or very iffy directional signal to dig. Working in an old nail bed with small river rock down about 4-5 inches where trails were once graveled, I was near big old iron and a lot of nail signals. First signal was messy, something I've never considered digging before, but it had a few inconsistent high beeps mixed in with plenty of iron in my Mixed audio program (iron in one ear, good tones in the other). Opened the plug and had several responses from the pin pointer. Picked one, loosened the soil a bit deeper expecting a nail, and removed a small scoop. Out pops a VF 1899 S Barber Quarter on edge. A bit surprised, but thrilled. Then I recovered 3 nails in the hole making a nice little circle around it, none further than 3 inches away. In the next few minutes I'd repeat the same dig on a signal I'd generally pass on, and out popped a 1907 IHC and a 1912S wheat all at about 5 inches in the rock/dirt matrix. and with iron nearby. Could have covered these with a garbage can lid. I'd dug 3 or 4 wheats before in the near vicinity, so I knew something might be here, but how on earth have they remained hidden this long with so many detectors passing over them, me included. Thank you iron! The hobby has gotten tough, but there are still good targets in those 'hunted out parks'. While i like my Deus quite well in many applications, the V3i with it's sophisticated programmability (such as selecting how many signal responses in a particular range result in an audible and visible VDI response, and it's mixed mode audio ) allows me to eke out a few well masked targets and keep the hobby fun!

Hey Steve, Good points, especially on the 11" DD for gold hunting. I'm sure the Iron ID works well and could give you better target separation Swegin - A few of my customers have been out, the reports are all about the same. Everyone I talked to so far light the weight, Discrimination works well, pretty sensitive detector and works well on most ground conditions. All my customers that own a new Garrett Axiom have scored at least one nugget with it on the first trip out. Since the detector is so new, most are probably out playing with it, or hoping to get out soon with their new Axiom. Rob .

They say the proof is in the pudding. I’m pudding you not that’s a great find for the first time out. Chuck

I'm not much of a dig a hole guy unless my detector indicates to dig there. I do have bottle hunter buddies that can dig a hole extremely fast. Here's a pic of a hole one of my Field Staff dug on our last day of the trip. We were in Alaska up at a place called Moore Creek (supposed to be good gold up there) and the last day, most of us had our gear already packed and just hanging around waiting for a plane to drop in. Spencer is still gung ho and happy to be swinging not caring a bit about being ready for the plane. Guess he decided he'd be on the last plane out. He is swinging right in front of the tents so everyones watching. Eventually I look up and see him digging with his pick and think nothing of it. Some folks start giving advice like the group of supervisors usually do at a construction site. Finally 5 minutes later I look up and see Spencer has a shovel and is getting serious. Now we all know when detecting dredge tailing piles, the big holes usually mean a tobacco tin or rusty can from some old prospector 100 yrs earlier. At this time a couple of us start to wander up as we need to give better more detailed advice of how to remove the trash. Well a few minutes and another almost foot later, Spencer gets the target out of the hole. He starts scanning all the rocks and gravels removed from the pit and his detector is just screaming so loud and brood it's hard to isolate where the target actually is. A pin pointer would have come in handy at this time, but most of us already had our gear packed. Eventually he recovered it and that's when crazy started happening. You should have seen how many guys started digging through they bags trying to find their detectors for a quickie. No bad so sad...as I was one of them who done packed away. I've learned a lesson though. When in big gold country, never stop swinging until after the fat lady sings. Just shy of 1 pound troy of AK specimen/gold . Spencers' trip home was quite romantic as he was the sexy guy with the gold. You just never know until you dig it.

I have high frequency hearing loss, and so am running at 30 and liking it. Very nice feature.

Yup, this, plus don't ignore the 11" DD as a small gold option. Also - Last minute change to Axiom Sensitivity control

I can echo Rob's impressions having used my Axiom out 2 days hunting in northern California last week. It was easy to just grab and tuck into my backpack. I appreciated the light weight and nice build quality and once at my site it didn't take long at all to get started swinging. While its not ML SDC 2300 easy to set up in seconds, it isn't difficult at all, and I do appreciate the availability of multiple controls to change plenty of settings to ones I prefer. I found 4 small, and 1 larger nuggets in the two days out on previously searched ground. My machine ran perfectly stable related to EMI. Even passing planes or swinging my coil on slopes didn't affect it. Very nice. I primarily used the 11x7 mono, but found one .13gram shallow nugget with the 13x11DD too. My really hot ground did elicit ground noises, but it does for all of my PI machines. You have to use the sensitivity control to get this smoothed out. The jury is still out for me on maximum depth and sensitivity possible with the Axiom since I reworked old spots where larger coils and other machines have been, but first impression is both are quite good and I definitely think in new areas, you won't miss much.

Well, I just got my Nokta Legend with extra 6in. coil 3 days ago. Today I hit a small park and started around an outdoor basketball court with the aim to find some jewelry. Day 3 detecting with the new machine turned out to be the charm! So far I have about 15 hours coin-shooting and looking for jewelry in parks and sports fields with the Legend, and I have to say it handles my highly-mineralized soil quite well with its SMF capabilities. Thankfully with my experience running 2 other SMF detectors the past few years, watching videos and reading the manual last week, I think I've gotten a solid handle of how to set up this machine. It might take a newcomer much longer to get to where I am, but the Legend is easy to use and even in the default modes and settings would work great for a less-experienced detectorist. Ring #1 was about 6ft. in the grass behind one of the basketball hoops. I thought a VDI# of 51 would mean it was a quarter, but imagine my surprise when this heavy, initialed with a "K" pinky ring turned up. I kid you not, it weighs exactly 1/2 oz. of sterling silver at 15.55 grams on the scale! Five minutes later, I knew I had another silver ring when I saw 6ft. over a VDI# of 55. I'd never seen an ID# that high in my previous outings, but being so close to a honker ring, it had to be another...and it was. A nicely styled, large man's ring. Its not a whopper like the other, but a respectable 7.23 grams. I attribute these two finds to 3 things, location, location, and the 6in. coil on the Legend that gave me the courage to dive into this zone heavy with trash, lol. In my short time out with the Legend, I'm really enjoying it a lot. Its a ton of fun to swing with the "dinky" coil, has great sensitivity to low conductors and works great in a variety of situations like in parks, fields, tot lots. Other detectors I've owned have struggled in my hot dirt, but the Legend handles it decently for the time being. Someday I still hope for technology that tames my dirt, but this newer crop of detectors with SMF are opening things up some. You still have to swing over the treasure though, and I'm glad I was able to get over these two beauties.

Ridge Runner (Chuck) thanks for sharing a nugget of pic. I realize the old days and pics were nothing like we have today. My most memorable times are on 8MM reel when I was a sprout running around on weekends with family and detector in hand. I have no issues with you pic as it brings back memories and that's exactly what this holiday is about, being thankful for so many things, including the early prospects and hard work for the color earned. You name is in the hat my friend. Purplehays69 Now that nugget pic has so many twists and or stories to tell. Oh my I would love to hear just half of the history it could speak. I'll have to look up the mention. Yes there's way more history across that Black Rock desert than many who travel through each day have no clue. Did they happen to fit?🤣.Your name is in the hat my friend. LuckyLundy, (Rick) I have to agree 100% and that's why I used the term "nugget" as there's so many ways to use it. Friends and stories made on gold collecting journeys is most valuable to the soul. The beautiful yellow stuff is just the icing on the cake. Your name is in the hat my friend. HotSauce I can see you have put some time on your coils and the adventures have a golden shine at the end of the road. You've done well my friend. I used to think I would remember all my nicer finds and I probably did for 15 to 25 yrs, but I think the sharp tack mind is starting to wear on me a little. Now I have to use notes and cheat on occasion. The hunt for the next big o gold is always on our minds. Thanks for sharing and your name is in the hat my friend. mn90403 (Mitchel), Gold finds like that can leave an everlasting highs/lows in the soul. There's usually great joy and pride but for some reason a few sour grapes seem to surface as well. I'll check out your story later on. Hopefully those great times and memories with the ones around at the time will last forever. Thanks for sharing and your name is in the hat my friend. geof_junk Silly me.... I have never seen a guys hand so small.🤫 Or could it be your stones are so big? Well either way those memories will last forever my friend. Thanks for sharing and your name is in the hat my friend. Glenn in CO My gosh Glenn, that golden dove is just amazing. You are so lucky to have a nugget beside you on every trip and willing to take part. I wish you 2 many more golden years to come. Thanks for sharing and your name is in the hat my friend. Arky (Mike) Good to see you and your best find still out there swinging and learning. Each site is different and something to learn all the time. That’s a fine chunky nugget there and most would think around the heavily pounded Quartzsite area, it should have been picked up already. Maybe it was me who boot scraped it and walked, as I have done so many times before. I especially do that in known trashy areas. If site was new to me or if a lot of surface trash, then yes I probably walked and left one for those more determined. Good to see you again last month and hopefully seeing you more down the road. Thanks for sharing and your name is in the hat my friend. oneguy (Scott) that pic is certainly a golden pan full. Many hours and memories to be thankful there. A few really chunky ones as well. Be sure to ask Santa for a new pair of gloves for X-Mas., as I’m sure you need them. Thanks for sharing and your name is in the hat my friend. Norvic Finding that virgin site is something most of us dream of and especially when you are finding golden slugs and fist size sunbakers. You certainly have many hunts and memories to be thankful. I imagine there are a few of those such sites left, but they are certainly getting harder each year. Thanks for sharing and your name is in the hat my friend. deathray I love the shoe plate and to get a complete one if even more rare. The display of Au and the plate is stunning. To hand it over to the landowner is most advantageous in so many ways. I do it quite a bit myself and it usually brings back the “come back any time” comment. Well done and thanks for sharing. Your name is in the hat my friend.

June 18 1937 This morning we had a brief crew meeting. We feel we can once again get back to work but must remain on high alert at all times. There are the four of us here alone once again but we now have two deputies in town on our payroll. They should be of great help to us when needed. Will and I went up to the digsite after breakfast with Hudson on guard duty and John working the tom. We got into a good rhythm of digging and the sound of the pick and shovel work rang out in the cool morning mountain air. I felt the sweat rolling off my brow once again and the handle of the shovel in my hands as well. We broke for a quick lunch and resumed the digging and worked clear into the dusk. Even then we didn’t want to stop but finally did and drove the last of the buckets down to the tom. Every pan I had tested today looked rich. I have gold fever like never before and so does the rest of the crew. Even with our wealth obtained from our treasure find we still crave gold. I think we will always want it no matter what. Tonight after supper we drank to Sarge. John made a really beautiful speech about his friend. We all knew it could have been any of us going home in a box. I have told the others that if I am killed out here I want to be buried up on the mountain overlooking Jed’s first strike at the glory hole kettle. I want my casket buried in a secret location and filled with gold and Irish whisky. I have vowed to haunt any claim jumpers or high graders that enter the mining property. Every one of us also swore an oath to defend each other and all our goods to the death. We vowed never to be run off our claims and to defend them with honor. Jed would have expected no less and never was there a braver man than he. To that we drank well into the night. TO BE CONTINUED ...................

I've been experimenting with Pitch in PWM lately and there seems to be some extra information coming through that is filtered out in square tones. This is particularly useful when trying to sort aluminum trash from coins and rings as the PWM audio will give more clues to the target's shape than Square audio will sometimes.