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I have to give Garrett 10 stars on a scale of 1 thru 5 because 5 stars is simply not enough. I sent my Axiom in to have them give it a look because I have had some issues with the audio cutting out mostly. The last time I had it out was in a location plagued with really bad EMI not to far from a military base, it wasn’t a problem in the morning but by afternoon it got a little noisy and hard to use. I’d sent Garrett a detailed explanation of what I was experiencing and they went to work. Testing it over and over my Axiom seemed to function as it should have but they didn’t simply stop there, to be sure they replaced the circuit board and most of the internal electronics and added the latest firmware update and continued testing until they were certain it was as good as it could be, this is to me the best solution as I much prefer one carefully examined over a new replacement, I have complete confidence it’s perfect after all the tests and work they did, a new detector is probably just as good but we all know no matter who the manufacturer an occasional subpar unit shows up from time to time, even then we’ve all at some point wondered if our unit was working at peak performance… how can you know. Well great customer service is the best answer to that question and without doubt Garrett is the answer they have the customer in mind and stand behind their product. If anyone is local enough to me and was considering the Axiom let me know and we can meet up and you can try mine out, I have in addition to the 11” mono and 13” DD coil an 11” DD coil too so you can get a pretty good idea of what will work best for your detecting style… you can also try my 6000 and the 5x10 gold hawk if you like, I don’t have the new nugget finder coil yet but I’ll have one when inventory catches up with demand.

Minelab called me this evening and I'm sending my Manticore in to have them look at it. The person I spoke to said the machine should act similar to the old software with the stabilizer off. So there maybe something else going on. I'll let everyone know what happens once I get a replacement machine. However, Dave is experiencing similar issues so hard to say what's reallt going on.

I finally made it to Southern California. We came down for a family wedding, but I brought two Gold Detectors with me: the Nokta Gold Finder 2000 and the Garrett Goldmaster 24K. My brother-in-law lives in the Mojave Desert not far from the many Dry Placer areas. I called up an old Prospecting friend, and he was excited to get out and swing his Gold Bug 2. Our first stop was a Club Claim just outside Randsburg, where I had found my first nugget with a Fisher Gold Bug Pro. The weather was perfect, not too hot, and not much wind. The first machine to be tested was the Gold Finder 2000. I had set it up with the 5” D/D coil but after a few minutes realized that ground coverage wasn’t going to be great. I went back to the truck and swapped it out for the larger Concentric Coil. Rather than use the External Speaker with Headphones, I paired it with the Green 2.4 gHz Wireless. Unfortunately, it did not turn off the External Speaker, and I heard it out of both. Other times, it would switch between the two. I finally decided to just run without them as I was in Snake Country. The Mojave Green Rattlesnake is the most tenacious of the SoCal Vipers. They have been known to chase vehicles. I had to set the Sensitivity two notches from the top to avoid Ground Noise. Even with the Ferro Check, this is pretty much a “dig-everything” proposition, which is the nature of Gold Prospecting with a Metal Detector. The indicators were all there, Quartz, Epidote (Greenstone), and Magnetite (Hot Rocks), which to my amazement, it did not see. While I didn’t find any gold, it did the job on Airgun pellets which read on both sides of the Ferro Check, plus bullet, and copper jacket shards. I found a few iron items such as boot tacks but because they were rusty, they didn’t always peg to the left. All in all, I would recommend this detector to anyone looking for a simple-to-operate Gold machine. It’s 16 kHz higher than a Gold Monster 1000 and only 10 kHz lower than the GB2. According to Dilek at Nokta, the speaker on the detector does not turn off when paired with external sources like the Wireless Module and Green Headphones. Our second stop was the Coolgardie area north of Barstow. The goal was to hunt Dry Washer Tailing Piles. I was immediately reminded that where people work, there’s more TRASH! I started with the GF2000 but changed over to the 24K with the 6” Concentric coil. The ground coverage was good, but I was after depth on “Tailings”, so the Mono was a good choice. My buddy brought a rake. I should have borrowed one from my Brother-in-law. I like the simplicity of the GF2K, but I’ve been swinging and selling detectors for over 20 years. It’s a little “too easy” for my taste. I love the features and adjustments on the 24K! I set it up with the Garrett Z-Lynk Wireless Headphone System. We had gotten a little disoriented so didn’t have as much time as we had at the other location. However, my first target was a small piece of Birdshot. I had it set up with Sensitivity at 2 and Volume at Boost 2. This most likely will be my “go-to” VLF machine. Here's the link to my Facebook album from the trip: (2) Facebook Because we were pressed for time in Coolgardie, I didn’t take any photos of those Tailings. The first blue pan is my finds from the Randsburg area with the GF2K. The Terra Cotta pan is from Coolgardie with the GM24K. The second blue pan is my trash which mostly came from north of Barstow.

I looked at Tom's post and agree to some extent. As far as stabilization goes, I was only showing what effect it has on depth and I'm aware you would only want to use it in nail beds. But as far as mode used, it really makes very little depth difference in my soil type which one is used. Except prospecting mode, which is far deeper than the others. I can and did switch between all the modes before I ever posted the video just to make sure I was really seeing issues with the Manticore. There is maybe a 1/4 to 1/2 inch difference between ATHC & ATLC and in this particular field I felt like ATLC was giving me the best results. Beach modes have a difficult time ground balancing for whatever reason. It usually takes 20 pumps to get it right. Some of the modes if I recall correctly it was ATHC and General are constantly giving a low tone grunt while going over the ground, so it's almost necessary to notch out some of the negative numbers or run with the iron mask on (Horseshoe I guess) to have a quiet hunt. The D2 on the other hand is the same way in High Conductor but very tame in General. There are so many combinations of settings that can be used on these new machines, one can speculate all they want. I always get comments like you should have used a higher recovery speed, lower recovery speed, different mode, etc. So did I have the best combination of settings that would optimize the situation? Who knows. But it think it's apparent to me that somethings up when I can compare General mode with the exact same settings between the 2 software versions and get obvious differences in performance. Is it my machine, or is it the update? Hopefully I can answer that question once I get a replacement. If the old version is better in my ground I'm fine with it.

WOWOWOWOWOW they've made the 6" Concentric coil. I'm so glad they're including coil covers, the covers are just impossible to get in NZ otherwise, and importing a coil cover from the USA costs what you guys pay for the coil 🙂 I guess they felt the other sizes were not going to be good sellers, but in reality that Concentric is the must have coil for 24k owners. This is great news, thanks Garrett.

Thanks Chase, thanks ghostlight. I’ll check it out. I’m not a big watcher of MD videos but I’ve been watching The Scottish Detectorist (who By the way uses a Deus 2) and I’m ready to pack up my belongings and move to the land of my grandparents, great aunts and uncles. Well, maybe 🤔 I’ll just go for a week or two. I will hit full retirement age this October- and even though I’m not retiring for another 10 years ( assuming my good health continues) I intend to actually use my bloody vacation time for actual vacations, lol

Wow, this sure went sideways fast. I will say I loved reading GhostMiners story. Did I believe evey tale? No I did not. But most stories, be it fact or fiction need alittle embeleshing to make them more exciting. I know Juan, and that man loves helping people,Freddy as well. Allthe work they do cannot be crammed into a 1 hr show, and if they did, it would be a boring show just watching them work for 5 days. I have met Steve, and talked to him many times at our local prospecting club meetings. Steve is a stand up guy also. Myself, I fully understood that Steve did not detect that entire tailings pile in the alloted time. But he did his best with his time on what he could. I feel most people know this, and myself, I watch it anyways fully understanding there has to be entertainment sprinkled in to keep people interested. I would not slam GhostMiner for his writtings. I wont slam any of the Gold Rush shows. And I will not Slam Freddy and Juan for the great things they do for others. As for Steve, he is a very knowledgable guy, and from what I have seen has always been straight up, honest and fair.

The beach test. I buried a quarter and put both machines on beach 1 and bumped the sens to 22. Nox600 (5 tone): 10" - Solid target with ID 12" - Nothing. Nox700 (5 tone): 10" - Solid target with ID 12" - Solid target with ID 14" - Light beep no id. I wouldn't hit this. Nox700 (dP): 10" - Solid target with ID 12" - Solid target with ID 14" - Solid target with ID 15" - Solid target with ID I didn't go further but as you can see for a buried recent drop, dP is deepest. The craziest part was seeing the nox 600 just not hit the 12" target at all but the 700 smacking it no problem. Next up for me is testing the nox700 modes, sens, etc. on the beach as I detect.

Thanks for the topic, posts and video Andy. Those medium depth US dime target IDs from the mid 60s to upper 90s you were showing on the 900 and Manticore were very similar to what I was seeing on my former 900 even in half to full bar Deus 2 mineralization dirt. Then you ran Deus 2 over the 5” and 6” dimes and it locked on with very stable IDs using a similar 106.4 target ID scale. Along with that Manticore/900 target ID instability the post update depth loss was disappointing. It sure seems like both the Manticore and 700/900 really need some tweaking by Minelab in order for them to detect well in more challenging soil conditions.

I did have a little UPS shipping issue they must have thrown it around because Garrett had it double boxed and tucked nicely in its backpack, all I can guess is whatever UPS did was hard enough one of the 11” coils had enough inertia to snap off one side of the arm cuff. I’ll contact Garrett I’m sure they’ll take care of it. In the meantime I used JB clear weld epoxy and some fiberglass cloth to repair the break so I can use it, I’m only part done and it feels plenty strong.

Went for a 2 hour hunt this morning at the beach. I got to a low patch in the wet. Never dug so much lead in such a short time (1 hour), but I knew it had to pay off. Right before I called it quits because I was exhausted from digging deep holes and fighting waves, I popped a ring. 14K, real ruby and diamonds and 13 grams! Deus 2 rules on the beach!

Target ID's on deeper targets got noticeably worse, in my dirt. Silver coins reporting as iron. But, I had gotten used to the jumpy ID's and they don't bother me anymore. For me, my targets and dirt, the big ID spread isn't across the whole range, either. It's mostly limited to the US copper Memorial/clad dime range. I can't reliably call a copper penny from a clad dime. But below that, I can call a zinc. Zincs are bouncy too, but they always have been with their range of corrosion - but they rarely cross into copper penny ID's. Above clad dime, clad quarters are pretty solid and not too jumpy, typically not more than two numbers. Going down to Jefferson nickels, the Manticore is rock solid for me, usually a single number. Though that number isn't the same in all modes in all soil conditions. But I can call nickels vs square tabs very, very well with the Manticore. So, I dig copper penny/clad dime signals always, everywhere, anyway. So have gotten to where I'm not bothered by the jumpy ID's in that range. Silver, I don't find enough of it consistently, to be really claiming I can call it, but I have found about 15 silver coins and closer to 20 .925 items with the Manticore so far and they have been pretty solid ID's, relative to depth. The other complaint I have heard most often is iron falseing. And yes, I have experienced that with the Manticore since day one. But, it's not any worse than I was used to with the Nox and I am not often fooled by it. So, that has never bothered me. I guess, the two big complaints, aren't ones that I have cared much about. And it seems in my soil, the first stab at a cure is worse than the disease? - Dave

Oh, I forgot to mention with the Zlink audio system keeping the transmit and receiver in line and not allowing your body to block the signal is key to optimum performance, that was part or most of my audio difficulty and not a problem once you are aware.

I also did not eventually notice an improvement in EMI handling. With the 700/900, I did notice a small improvement in overall depth using DP tones and normal tones, faster recovery speed, better unmasking, slightly better sounding ML 85 wireless headphones along with the awesome physical and ergonomic upgrades. The extremely expanded target ID range was a wash for me. I am glad Minelab includes the ML85s stock with the 700. I prefer the 600/800 for less iron falsing, target ID stability/consistency and for its tighter target ID scale. I really prefer the Wi Stream Wi Fi WM08 module compatibility along with BT APTX LL headphone/earbud compatibility. My 800 with Detect Ed carbon fiber shaft and original 11' coil weighs 2.88 lbs My 900 with stock shaft and newer 11" coil weighed 2.82 lbs. Thanks for your reports adamBomb!!!

Great repair, but never hurts to have a spare just in case you experience a non-repairable failure in the future plus the repair part is likely inexpensive (and easy to ship) and by documenting the shipping issue removes any question in the future if you need to invoke the warranty again that the problem was caused by whatever broke your armrest. Wasn’t your fault it was damaged in shipment.

Consider the possibility that Recovery Speed default settings are no longer the same actual amount of recovery speed and that they may also have differing effects on depth between the two models. DP tones definitely can eek out a little more depth from my testing on edge of detection targets.

I'm not sure I'd count the other coils out per se, though I have heard no plans for either the very large or very small DD coils. Neither was very popular so rather unlikely. This 6" concentric took longer by far than I was hoping when Garrett reintroduced the 24K, but the pandemic happened and Axiom stole attention away, and so it got delayed. They did totally remake the coil though so it was more than just slapping a Garrett sticker on the old White's coil. Anyway, long in coming, but this 6" coil is the preferred coil by many, including myself, on the 24K. So good on Garrett finally getting it done, and with scuff covers included.

Thanks for the post, I had a friend who tried out the Gold Finder 2000 and was quite disappointed by its fine gold performance vs the GM1000 which he was more used to using, the 24k on the other hand is a beast!

Watched the most recient Mine Rescue show and saw Steve's apperance. That coil looked huge, thought it was the largest coil not the second size. Nice to see you Steve in a setting like Mine Rescue.

My initial thought…,looks like added protection for rocky environments…in the water or not. In my case on our beaches, I wouldn’t need it. Our beaches, like most others where I hunt are rock free. I too wonder about the charging clip fit. Given the design, I just assumed it would have to be removed.

Thank you Steve for allowing me to post my drivel LOL. Writing has to come from somewhere deep inside oneself just like music of which I also do. Today, whatever drove me to write & post the journal vanished. Perhaps it was the argument with Steve & knowing what he really thought of me & my writings. Or perhaps it was something else. All I know is it may take some time for me to get back into it & finish the season of 2002. The journal is very personal to me. Some is fiction & some is true. All of it is based on true events. Some of the characters are real with names changed. Others are fictional as you readers know. I hope I can get back to posting here in time. Until then, God bless and so many thanks to everyone who followed my writings. Cheers, GM.

June 20 2002 The heat was back again today. Jacob cleaned up the concentrates from yesterday’s run of 32 yards and there were 2.4 ounces weighed up. Jim was able to take a full day of watch duty while Vern, Jacob, and I did the shoveling chores. Jacob noticed a slight change in the color of the gravel in the deep pit we had been working. The material seemed to change from a gray/red to more of a bluish tint. Vern pulled up a fresh bucket of this gravel with the excavator and Jacob took samples over to the wash tub to test it. He came back over to the tom after taking numerous pans and showed us the results. The pan was absolutely brimming with coarse gold and pickers. He had done a rough calculation of its value based on what he had panned and told us there were over four grams to the yard. High grade he called it. I radioed Jim to give him the good news. We were in a rich spot. By dusk we had processed 36 yards of pay dirt. Maybe we would see glory days at last. TO BE CONTINUED .................

I've got both machines so going to post comparisons as I get to try them out. At this point I've only done air tests I wont do real testing until tomorrow but here are my initial thoughts... Build - Machines look exactly the same. Shaft is much better on the 700. Definitely much improved. It is a few ounces lighter but nothing I can notice when I hold each machine. Interface - Switching through menus feels nearly the same as well. I was able to easily navigate the menus as I was used to the 600. Cost - I actually paid more for my 600 when I bought it five years ago as no dealers were offering discounts when it first came out ($650 vs $620) Now the interesting part...power, depth, tones... I've only done air tests I will test at the beach tomorrow but there is a difference. I live at the beach so my soil is a sand/dirt mix. Very little EMI unless I am near a powerline or something. I did this test in my backyard where there are no lines or anything else in the ground. Closest house or anything is about 1/2 acre away. Settings for the air test - 20 Sensitivity, 0 Iron bias, 2 Recovery speed (this is 4 on the 800). These are the settings I hunt with. The only thing I ever change is my sensitivity which hovers from 19-23. Comparison: Nox 600 in 5 tones: Quarter: 10" 10k Ring: 12.5" Nox 700 in 5 tones and All tones: Quarter: 11.5" 10k Ring: 13" Nox 700 in dP tone: Quarter: 13" 10k Ring: 15" As you can see from my air test, there is definitely more power in the new gen equinox. In the same tone and settings its slightly deeper. Not sure that will translate to much in real world settings. In the dP tone, its significantly deeper and more sensitive. This is how I used to hunt with my Excal and CZ21. Its very exciting for the beach. I also did test a penny, wheat penny, silver ring, silver nickel, and nickel with similar results in the depth improvement. How will that translate in the ground? Well I haven't tested it yet but I assume its going to translate to significantly more depth when using the dP setting. I think if you are a hunter that prefers the 'beep' tones you aren't going to notice much of an upgrade. If you are like me and looking for depth and prefer the dP type tone, I think this machine might add 1+ inches and really help find whispers when finding deeper targets.

Garrett probably payed to insure the package, and probably would be more than happy to send you a replacement cuff. I would also send them a letter with your images asking if they would mind sending you a spare in case your nicely repaired one wears out.

That definitely has NOT been my experience (Nox 900 as susceptible if not more susceptible to EMI vs. Nox 800) to the point that I am just not using the 900 much. It’s especially chirpy for me in dP which is unfortunate because I was excited about dP for the very reason you cited (eeks out some audible target depth). Glad your 700 appears to be more stable and EMI resilient than my 900. Maybe early production lot issues for me.

yup, that's the puzzle.

Sounds a lot like what I have run into. It would be nice to have a "test" to see if a machine was running correctly. I know there are a lot of variables, but it is hard to use a machine, if you don't know that its running right.

Yuppers Kevin is the real deal ! He sold me my 1st minelab in 2004, Gawd 🙄 that's almost 20 years past 😱 when he was running Black Horse shop. I think that's what it was called. Fun watching detecting videos especially when Summer Heat hits 👍

An analogy would be the Original Equinox software variant of iron bias. Even if you set Iron Bias to Zero, some level of iron bias filtering is still applied. The second gen iron bias on Equinox enabled users to lower the effect further, but still not fully disable it unless you went to single frequency.

Very helpful. Thanks Andrew! What you were describing on your first update, was worse than what I was seeing. But what you show in the video, after your second round, is exactly what I was seeing. I'm back on the old version and liking it better too. In ten hours of turf hunting on the update I didn't dig anything deeper than 4-1/2". In two hours after rolling back I dug several coppers between 5 and 8-1/2". I don't believe that is coincidence. And, I didn't like the change in the audio with the update. Even with stabilizer and filter turned off, the audio was not the same and I didn't like the change. I could have adjusted to that but the feeling I was losing real depth is why I switched back and I'm satisfied in my own mind that it wasn't just my imagination or cognitive bias. - Dave

This is similar to Deus 1 in Gold Field with the Iron Audio Reject Filter (similar but different than discrimination). Works fine in thick iron in mild soil - it breaks up iron target signals. But if you use it in ferrous mineralized soils like heavy magnetite, then both ferrous and non-ferrous targets get chopped up.

More to come I think but we will see. Thank you to all the readers just in case.

For ticks I have stumbled on to a product called YaYa thanks to a friend that spends a lot of time in brush and high grass. It works well. Just spray it were ever you have open seams ... bottom of your trousers, sleeves, button line, neck line and hat. I don't spray directly to my skin intentionally but I have experienced a little over spray without any reaction to my skin. Ticks literally run away from the stuff. A little over spray hit the grass around a fence post. The ticks ran up the post to get away from the grass! Laughed when I saw that. Yup ... stuff works!

I don't know how much a new one cost in USA from a dealer, but here in Aussie they are $349 so for me it saved about $324 😁 cheers dave

I purchased this detector truck toy for my nephew a few years ago for Xmas. He loved it. He would bury coins in the sandbox and find them. Matchbox Treasure Tracker Metal Detector Truck https://a.co/d/bx8wAvO

On ya, start em early, can only comment on my son he used his eyes until he was about 10 (now approaching 45), his biggest was a 43gram solid by eye, he reckoned they glowed at him. Young eyes close to the ground perhaps I don`t know but he kills me with a detector too. I just think it calls him.

I thought this was a pretty cool little invention, and wanted to pass it on. Here’s how to get one. https://en.3d-rk.com/online-store/Adapter-with-speaker-and-headphone-output-for-WS4-WS6-WSA2-XP-p328004031

XP Deus 1 with Remote, WS4 Backphones, 9" standard coil original box and manual, charging and data cables. Everything is like new. $400 shipped inside the US, PayPal or Postal money order

Your'e welcome. cjc

Your covers are A+ Doc! I used them on my Gold Monster, and now on my Equinox 800 and GPX 6000. They fit well and are good at keeping the dirt and (I’d guess) the rain out. Thanks for a great product!

Ha, sanding and paint makes me the fiberglass(er) I ain’t, lol.

I discuss the why everyday, with someone in daily life here...no need to here...nice reprieve. Sorry...responded😁

Skilled repair, I couldn't have done better myself, in fact I'd probably do quite a bit worse 🙂 I'm sure Garrett will replace the cuff for you no problems at all. My experience with Garrett has been nothing but positive. I've never had to use warranty on my Garrett products but they've been plenty helpful in other ways when I've needed it buying bits and pieces and even helping me get a detector I couldn't buy locally by assisting by getting it all the way from the US of A.

Well done sir! Fine bodywork..

I was just pointing out the coil price is more then a new production Xterra. I know it's just a SF detector but honestly if they can make a profit at that price it's hard to see why the manticore isn't priced a little better. I think it will drop late this fall🥱

It won't be here until July 11!

Theres only one right now and I took a picture of it the day I got it...will get the small coil up there when I get on in my hands... I have no idea whats going on inside those coils but I do get satisfaction from the comments and analysis from all the "coil doctors" I'll end up getting the small coil if it ever become available..and I'll bring my own lube if I have to.. no one wants to spend a lot of money on this stuff..so what I've been doing is to sell something that I'm not really using (anything) to help offset the cost of the new toy...makes me feel better about it. If I can help myself I wont be jumping on new Minelab detectors for a while...I just don't like how they are doing business...they should have made the manticore coils available a long time ago...and the 6000 coils I've got three now that I prefer not to use just sitting because I'm using after market coils that work better... strick

When I think of the education I got from working to understand what a detector without target ID was telling me, all I can say is that it is kind of a shame that most people will not get that education. Kind of like not learning to drive a manual transmission or write and read cursive.

I don’t think anything new would interest me other than a small elliptical coil. When can we expect to find out what the big hubbub is all about?

I watch them for the entertainment value.