abenson

Good choice for the money. The Axiom is rain resistant. It's available in 2 different packages. One of them comes with wireless headphones. The international package comes with wired headphones, not even sure it's available in the US but it might be.

As long as it's detectable, it's big enough for me.

I thought the same thing when I saw the video. Looks too big to be .01. But good video anyway.

Steve I'd say your assessment of the above is pretty spot on. I have a few of those machines and have seen most of the others in field right along side the ones I use. Not having seen of used the E1500, I still think your assessment is accurate. Companies price products the way they do for a reason and I wouldn't expect a 2k PI to outperform a 6k or even a 4k PI.

I've been doing a lot of testing between the 4500, 6000 & Axiom over the last month or so. What I'm seeing is the 6000 is better on small gold up to about the .50 gram point. From .50 grams and up they are pretty equal until the targets really start getting deep, then the Axiom is doing better. Both machines are limited by coils at this point. Smaller coil on the Axiom and it may be right on par with the 6000 on small gold. Same goes for big deep gold. If a bigger coil was available for the 6000, it might be right on par with the Axiom. Now mind you this is not backed by actual in field wild targets, but I still think it's a pretty good reflection of actual conditions. I will say for the range of metal detecting I do with a PI, which includes gold prospecting, beach hunting and relic hunting, the Axiom is the best overall.

My favorite coil for relic hunting on the 4500 is the 14" Coiltek DD, stock 11 DD is the my favorite.

I've used the GPX series of detectors for relics for at least 6 years now. Iron reject works to about 6" depending on coil size and yes it will knock out a 16d nail at that depth. I currently used the 6000 and really don't miss iron reject thought. Most of the stuff I'm after is deeper that 6" so iron reject is kind of pointless for me.

Oh man sorry to hear that, best wishes and a speedy recovery.

Used is good condition 13x17 mono coil for Minelab GPX 6000 $200 shipped to lower 48. I take PayPal, Venmo or postal money order. PM or email me with any questions.

Yep sensitive extra should be run anywhere the ground will allow. It's going to find gold better that fine gold in most US locations. I always start in sensitive extra and adjust if necessary.

For the spot you described I'm going with the Dues 2 and 9" coil. That being said I also wouldn't use the gold mode to detect a spot with nails, flat tin and bottle caps. I personally would switch to Sensitive Full Tones and run the offset at about 5 with a disc of about 10. Sensitive Full Tones offers the most accurate target ID of all the programs because it uses older filters. Most of the smaller gold on the Deus 2 will ID in the 30's or 40's. Use of the other programs with the filters they have will pull the target ID down to just above your disc level regardless of target conductivity or size when right next to iron. Which doesn't offer much in the way of help unless you just want to dig everything that comes in above the disc level. I personally would prefer to skip the obvious shotgun and rifle brass and concentrate on the more likely gold targets. Yea I know gold can come in anywhere but it can sure save time you don't have if the option is available. You can always go back once you can confirm gold is amongst the trash. Some other filters you can run are bottle cap at 2 and silencer at 2. I've found with those settings you can pretty much knock out 90% of the bottle caps and flat tin. Obviously any filter you add and by running in Sensitive Full Tones you'll probably miss the real tiny stuff under .20 grams. Bur sounds like you're after the bigger stuff anyway. Now if you want to run Goldfield in the same area I would simply use the notch feature under the expert section of IAR discrimination and run it up to the mid 20's and that will knock out most of the nails but probably not the bottle caps or flat tin. The biggest difference between the 2 is you'll hear the iron with Sensitive Full tones (you can use notch in SFT as well), but not with Goldfield. Goldfield would have a lot choppier audio since anything below 20 is being completely cut out. I really don't like IAR disc but that is also an option, just run it at a level that breaks up most iron. I find Sensitive Full Tones much easier on the ears and brain when hunting really trashy sites. Glad I don't have to decide on just one because I really like the Manticore for gold prospecting. But for what you described, I'd use the Deus 2.

That Axiom Gerry had was a great deal. I think you're going to like it, I know I like mine.

As long as the nugget has the right shape and mass the Axiom can see some pretty small stuff. At .03 grams you are about at it's limit. I've got quite a few nuggets in the .02 to .04 gram size I've tried with the Axiom and about half of them it will see and the other half it won't. The Axiom pretty much blows the 4500/5000 away on the small stuff and is way nicer to swing.

I personally like the D2 with the 9" coil when I'm relic hunting. I just find I can move through the iron faster with the Deus.

Thanks mn90403 I find it useful to test targets buried in the ground and often test multiple detectors on the same targets that way I can find the strength and weakness of each. Then I know what to expect when I'm in the field.

As you know Steve, I've had the M8 coil for at least 6 months now. So I've had a bit of time to compare the Deus 2 9" and Manticore M8 in various situations. Because I do all sorts of detecting from ghost towns, parks, beach and gold nugget hunting. I really couldn't live with just one or the other. In fact I've cut my detector arsenal to just the Manticore and the Deus 2 for my VLF units. If we're just talking about gold, I personally like the Manticore with the M8 coil setup over the Deus 2 9" coil setup. The Manticore is a little harder to tame in bad dirt and/or hot rock situations, but I feel like the trade off is worth the extra depth and sensitivity I get with the Manticore. Here are a few more videos you or others can take a look at with the Manticore M8 coil and/or the Deus 2.

Thanks Steve for the video recommendation. Here's another one I just did this morning. The more I use the Axiom the more I like it. It's a well rounded PI for relic hunting, gold hunting and beach hunting.

I also don't care for the Garrett headphones that much. So I just picked up a Z-Lynk receiver last week but haven't used it yet. I'll give that a try tomorrow when I'm out and maybe even pick up a Z-Lynk pin pointer. Thanks everyone for the input.

Yea I probably should have Garrett take a look. Weird thing is it only happens when the headphones are connected to the Axiom. If I don't use headphones there's no issue. Maybe the headphones are the issue. Or maybe I should just by a z-lynk pinpointer.

I've stayed with the update. In mild ground I don't think there is any issues with the update. But in higher mineral ground I have problems. Minelab claims that when stabilizer is off, it shouldn't affect performance and be just like the old version. I beg to differ. That being said, in talking to one of the engineers at Minelab, he had me try a few adjustments to my settings. I ended up increasing my recovery speed to 5 or 6 and reducing my sensitivity to 19 or 20. That seemed to work and I'm happy running the update. Before the update I could get away with running recovery down to 3 or 4 and sensitivity up to 22 or 23. If I do that with the update I lose serious depth and target ID is all over the place on deeper targets.

Both the GPX 4500 and GPX 6000 have no issues with carrot. My Axion on the other hand does. Relic hunting the other day I did a noise cancel twice with the pinpointer on. Then turn it off until I found the next target. As soon as I turned the pinpointer on the Axiom went nuts again. I finally just started turning the Axiom off while I pinpointed the target in the bottom of the hole. Not a huge deal, but is a little frustrating.

I'll probably get one if for no other reason than to experiment with the ID. A person could potentially cherry pick certain target just by using that alone.

Yea I have trouble with the carrot interfering with the Axiom. I've tried what you posted above and the very next time I turn on the carrot the Axiom goes nuts again. My carrott doesn't have z-lynk, so maybe that's the difference.

I live in Utah but usually just drive to neighboring states to gold nugget hunt. Nevada, Arizona, Colorado and Idaho all have better chances of finding big enough gold to detect. I do have a friend that detects somewhere on the Drum mountains and has found gold up to 1.5 grams on a private claim.

Loved my Docs Gold Screamer power pack. Used it on the 4000, 4500 & 5000. Initial investment is about what a minelab battery costs, but additional batteries are only about $50. I had 4 of them and could go all weekend, I think they lasted about 6-7 hours each from what I can remember. I don't recall there being any performance difference between the stock battery vs Docs system. Sure was nice not having to wear a belt to pack the battery around. I have a GPX 6000 and Axiom now, so it's been about 2 years since I sold the 5000 with the Doc system. I feel like the battery pack was a great investment though and never had any trouble with it. Hope that helps.