timbus59

I have a bank of bench gravels on my claim that is some distance from water, with precarious tailings piles in between. I'd like to take samples along the length of the bank, but I don't want to haul a bunch of heavy buckets across dangerous tailings piles to the water. Then I got this idea. If you open up the Axiom's ground balance window (press and hold the GB button until you get a double beep) and sweep it across a sample area of the bank (lets say 6' X 6") it should give you an average for the mineralization for that sample area. Then you repeat the process taking sample readings along the length of the bank. The most mineralized areas (hottest) that have the highest GB window numbers, may be most likely to contain more gold. I'd then haul buckets from just the hottest areas, reducing my chances of breaking a leg. 🙂 Does the idea of using the GB window to pick the best samples from the most mineralized ground seem sound?

This was my experience.

I get the point of this as a travel bag, but who strolls to a site like their walking into an office with a briefcase. While the AT series is waterproof, the Axiom and many other expensive detectors are not. Hunting nuggets, many times we hike in and out of canyons and have to ford streams. What I'd like to see is a waterproof backpack design where I don't have to panic if I fall in a stream carrying an expensive detector.

For a newbie like me, I think the supplied wireless headphones are good, but because of several recommendations on this forum, Ive gone to the Avantree Torus headphone/speakers with bluetooth transmitterfor hot summer detecting. They work pretty good too and are way more comfortable in the heat.

Be sure to try out Steve's Bogenes Settings in his Experimetal Axiom Settings post. You can bump up sensitivity in mineralized ground and the machine will still run quiet. Been very effective for me not getting fatigued and finding sub-gram bits.

@Norvic I've been thinking about the Torus for the summer heat in Northern California. Your pic showed me just what to buy and how to mount it on the Axiom. Thanks for posting this.

This is probably an "oh duh" topic for more experienced detectorists, but I ran into it, so I thought somebody might benefit. It could be an issue for other PI detectors besides the Axiom. When running your frequency scan on the Axiom, turn on your pinpointer first. I recently bought the Garrett "Carrot" Pro-pointer with z-link and I found that right around channels (45-47) there is interference from my Carrot on the Axiom. I'd never thought to do this until one day when the Axiom picked channel 46 and then I turned on the pinpointer which resulted in noisy chatter between Axiom and Carrot. So I've added another step to my startup process. Put on a coil. Turn on the pinpointer Factory reset the Axiom Run frequency scan on the Axiom Set the Axiom up for ground conditions & preferences

Check it out. I finally found this graphic on metaldetector.com for the Garrett ACE series. Looking at it, I kinda remember now the same graphic being on the outside of the AT-Gold box. They claim the design helps improve the width of the scan field along the sides of obstacles like walls, fences, (for the Axiom, maybe rocks & trees if your hunting nuggets). I still think we need a small mono coil with a hot pointed end for bedrock cracks. There's more nuggets in crevices than next to rocks, I think. 🙂

Thanks for your replies. Wow.. I really wasn't expecting that the answer would be ergonomics. I thought for sure there was some sort of engineering reason that improved depth or sensitivity. I think I too would prefer a smaller mono coil that was more pointed and sensitive at the front tip.

I have an Axiom and a good old AT-Gold for hunting in water. I've been trying to find out why Garrett favors blunt ends on it's coils. I've found one brief reference in a forum that the design provides more depth on the front and back end of the coil. I've also seen a reference that stated that the rounded corners may be the hottest part of the edge. They seem to use this design for both DD and Mono coils across all of their products. Can anyone talk about the good and bad aspects of the blunt end design? Why is the round coil design better or worse?

Good list... Axiom AT? I would add waterproof, as long as we're wishing.

Thanks. Easy to find l. I'll check them out 👍

Just about worn out my current set of kneepads. I've had trouble with false signals from the metal button tab fittings on my current pair when kneeling to recover a target...especially with the larger 13" coil on the Axiom where its a bit awkward to sweep the hole and avoid the kneepads. Anybody have a recommendation for kneepads that dont have metal fittings?

The DD worked great for a couple of weeks and then seemed to go bad one day. I would reset then frequency scan then ground balance. And on each pump both numbers would drop down to 00 00. One time when I wiggled the wire near where it connects to the coil it ground balanced just fine so I was thinking a connection problem. My other two coils that came with the standard package work fine. I'm sure Garrett's customer service will take care of it. 🙂

I sent my 11X7" DD in to Garrett last week for the same reason. Won't ground balance. With mine, I suspect a wire connection problem, based on how it would intermittently ground balance. Garrett gave me and RMA number right away. No fuss. My only wish is that customer service would send me email as the coil moves through their process so I know something is going on. i.e. Package Recieved, Item in Test, Defect Found, Replacement Item Shipped (with tracking number) etc. I know I can call them, but communication would make the experince even better... But otherwise, they have been great!