abenson

Checks a lot of boxes for me. Going to keep the 6000 for gold but will probably let the 5000 go and get the Axiom for beach and relics. As a relic hunter I'm usually swinging a detector 10 to 12 hours a day at DIV for 6 days straight. The Axiom would be so much nicer to swing than the 5000 and rainproof to boot.

Decisions, decisions! What to keep, what to buy? Never ending rotation of detectors. I'm guessing there's going to be a bunch of 5000 and 6000 listed in the coming weeks.

I like my 6K, I know some people have had issues with it but I haven't had any. Since I've started using the 6K for relic hunting and learning it for that type of hunting, I would be more inclined to sell the 5K and get an Axiom rather than sell the 6K. The 5K to me is great but just too much of a dinosaur by today's standards when it comes to metal detectors.

Yea no kidding! I'd have a hard time paying much more than $3500 for it. Not like I need one right now having both a 5000 and 6000, they pretty much cover my needs. If I gold nugget hunted more I could maybe see it. But for me it would just be a new toy to learn and play with.

Great info Steve! Answers a lot of questions for me. Really looking forward to seeing the Axiom in action on some videos in the wild. Good to see an American company getting back into the game. Be happy to support Garrett on this one if the price is right.

Garrett ATX new is $2500 so we already know it's going to be more than that.

For me if it's the same price as the 6000, I'll just stick with the 6000. I really don't have that many issues with EMI or hot rocks where I use it. Been using it for relics a lot lately too and I really like it for that purpose as well. Now if the Axiom is priced low enough I wouldn't mind adding it to the lineup as a complimentary PI to the 6000.

About the same weight as the GPX 6000 if I'm not mistaken, iron check, handles EMI and hot rocks better. The Axiom may just give the 6000 a run for the money. If it's priced at 3k or under it's going to be a no brainer for someone looking to get into a multipurpose PI.

Nice looking detector! Hats off to Garrett. Sounds like it will be a decent performer in multiple situations.

Joel (kickindirt) on this forum sells them.

Nice report Steve. Good to hear the D2 has gotten better with the latest update.

That's something I noticed on the Legend I borrowed for a few days. The GB was different every time I did it. But that was version 1.06. I figured they had it fixed but I guess not.

What puzzles me is why Garrett even wants to compete in the PI gold prospecting market. Minelab clearly has the edge and it's doubtful Garrett will bring anything to the table that will trump Minelab. On the other hand the beach and relic hunting market sure could use a good PI that's light, waterproof, has iron disc, decent depth and wireless headphones. At the moment XP and Nokta/Makro have nothing, It's pretty obvious Fisher can't pull their heads out and it seems Minelab is not interested in those markets. So Garrett give me a good relic/beach PI that can also do some prospecting and I'm all ears.

All I can say is after the Apex subpar performance I hope Garrett really has something to talk about with this new detector. I can tell you right now I'm not going to even think about buying one until the initial reviews are out. All the latest ergonomics, looks and features can't replace subpar performance these days. The competition is too stiff to release a lack luster performer.

Yea TDI repackage would be a waste of time. ATX repackage in a lighter configuration, waterproof, iron disc, rechargeable battery, and wireless headphones for around $2000 would be a winner IMO.

Definitely a PI, But I doubt it's going to top the GPX 6000. But it may have some nice features that would make it a good companion to the 6000. Let's just hope it's not too expensive. I'm getting tired of spending all this money on a hobby that's on a steep decline as far as finds go.

Nice write up Jeff. Lots of good info in that report.

In the worst EMI locations I drop the sensitivity down to 70 and the audio response to 2. That usually takes care of it but the trade off is lost depth.

Thanks Chuck. The cutoffs I gave could be different depending on depth and mineralization. But from what I've noticed thus far. The pennies you mentioned are right at that cutoff area as to whether the tone goes high or low. I'm fairly confident they will come in as low tones because the bullets and IHP give similar ID on a VLF. From the video you can see the sharps bullets gave a low tone.

Thanks Gerry for your comments. I really like the ergonomics of the 6000 and yea not being tethered to it is a big plus. I may just have to pick up one of those new coils when they come out and a few people have reviewed them.

I've been using the Minelab GPX 6000 the last few months for gold nugget hunting. Also been doing some experimenting with it for relic hunting. Left early Friday morning and got out to Northern Nevada and meet up with Chuck (GB_Amateur) for all day Friday and half of Saturday until the 30 mph winds drove us off. I had planned to stay until Sunday morning. But decided to just drive back to Utah a day early and get out of the wind. Below is the gold I found. On the way home one of my hunting buddies in Utah called and wanted to know if I wanted to get out Sunday to an old fort site. So I decided why change detectors, I'll just use the 6000 and see how it does on relics. So for about 4 hours I tested my theory about what targets would be found using settings I came up with specifically for relic hunting. My relic hunting settings/coil on the GPX 6000 are: 11" mono, difficult timing, threshold ON, sensitivity 1 (lowest setting), dig only low tones. In theory, digging low tones only you will dig on the low end of the scale small pewter buttons and $1 gold coins. You will avoid, most .22 brass and lead, percussion caps, small foil and small bits of iron. The cutoff on the high end is about silver dimes. So IHP, all gold coins except the $20, 3 cents silver, half dimes, all bullets and round balls, cuff and coat buttons will be a low tone. Silver dimes and up will be a high tone. I would still dig the right sounding high tone based on sound, shape and size if I came across one. So the real test for this hunt is would my buddy Mike dig less iron that I would with him using the GPX 5000 with iron reject or me using the GPX 6000 using my settings. The picture right below is Mike's finds and just below his are my finds. You be the judge. Also did a video if anyone is interested in seeing the GPX 6000 in action relic hunting.

Nice bunch of silver. Congratulations on the half!

Doesn't appear to be gold. Looks more like a meteorite or a rock with high iron content. Did you put it up to a magnet?

I've actually gotten to the point that I only use Park 1 for all my hunting except beaches and gold nuggets. Works for me both park hunting and relic hunting and I don't feel like I'm missing much. Used to use Field 2 relic hunting until I started comparing signals in the field between Field 2 and Park 1. Park 1 almost always gave a better tone and tighter target ID so now that's what I use most of the time.

Is the Deus 2 that much better than the Equinox for $600 more? The Deus 2 is a great machine and for beach hunting I really like it a lot. From what I'm experiencing it's inches deeper than the Equinox and very stable. If I only beach hunted I would probably sell my Equinox. Gold hunting it seems weak especially on small and porous gold. Being stuck with an 11" coil right now doesn't help. I much prefer the Equinox for golf hunting for multiple reasons. Relic hunting I still prefer the Equinox. But the Deus 2 is just as or even more capable of the job. My preference for the Equinox is mainly the audio. Most of the sites I hunt have been worked for decades so Most everything left is 6 plus inches deep. The Equinox audio IMO is very strong and easy to hear on the deeper targets. They really stand out. Yes the Deus 2 can hear the same targets but audio IMO is just weaker even when the machine is tweeked. The other thing I've noticed is with the Deus 2 is that targets at a certain depth just drops out and the audio goes to iron grunt. The Equinox starts up averaging those deep targets. But with as many hours as I have on it I'm pretty good at telling good targets from iron. Both great detectors. If you have both your basis are definitely covered for everything from diving to park hunting.