Jeff McClendon

I just use the 11" coil for coin and jewelry hunting so, even worse masking according to the "experts". Related to that, any experienced turf clad hunter will quickly see the discoloration of those coins. Those are not surface or near surface finds. Most are from the 4" to 8" range in high iron mineralization with layers of aluminum trash above them......... the easy, clean, fresh drops are already in the bank.

Yep, I finally got around to painting the buttons and now Nokta is releasing that nice cover just in time for northern hemisphere cooler/wetter weather.

For you Legend owners that are kicking and screaming and crying over in the corner because you got snookered into buying a piece of junk like the Legend which won't find anything because it can't unmask anything in modern aluminum and steel trash, maybe this photo will make you feel a little better. This is not bragging or anything like it. I am just a guy that loves to metal detect, I happen to live in a very big urban area with lots of targets and I have the time and desire to go hunt. There are no pennies in that pile of US modern clad, and that is about half of the coffee can which is the second coffee can that I have filled with US modern clad using the Legend. The zinc and copper pennies are in other cans. I keep the finds from different detectors separate including jewelry. That is all gold and silver jewelry, a few choice coins (for my area anyway) and a couple of relics. Absolutely all of these things which the Legend can't unmask were found using Park M1 (stinks according to some testers) in modern trashed parks and open areas in the last four months. Believe it or not. I don't care. I will just cash them in and be happy.

I have been right in the middle of this foil issue since I have a Legend and have made some great finds with it even in extremely aluminum trashed parks. I am not going to go into the details here. All I will say is that if Nokta is able to improve target separation of co-located non-ferrous targets in its M1 and M2 land based modes without throwing the whole detector out of whack......great. If they can't, as far as I am concerned, the Legend is an outstanding detector as it stands right now and is well worth its price tag, no matter what these "hell bent on picking the Legend completely apart by any means possible" people have to say. Thanks for the good natured humor Bill.......I needed it.

In my chain finds history with the Equinox and original Deus......that is a medium sized chain. If it's not too deep both detectors should hit it well enough to say "dig me"

Many earring backs, studs, pendents, small hoop earrings, broken jewelry and especially chains will not be detected by Deus 2 at any depth except near the surface. Some of those can be slightly larger than .5 grams in weight but are only giving a very small surface to be detected due to orientation. For really small gold chains, this is even more important. I would be very careful and double check a potential area with Deus 2 Mono if possible. Do your own testing too for sure.

Deus 2's land based higher weighted multi frequency programs have a steep drop off on sensitivity to targets smaller than your 0.5 gram example. Goldfield in my opinion is the worst offender amazingly enough. Beach Sensitive for saltwater and Sensitive with Pitch Tones for land works the best for me so far and that is what I use when hunting for micro jewelry if I choose to use a multi frequency program for that. If I was gold prospecting with a Deus 2, I would mostly be depending on Deus 2 Mono set at 40 kHz at least, using Pitch tones if I could get it to ground balance well enough. The same goes for micro jewelry hunting if I don't want to miss anything that Sensitive could miss. Hopefully XP can improve this issue with a software update sometime in the future. I might consider Deus 2 as a good choice for micro jewelry including small chains and gold prospecting then. Right now, I don't recommend it for those two types of hunting.

I am a big fan of that combo. Hope to get to use it soon. I may throw the 24K (absolutely love its audio) or the Legend (water hunting) in sometimes too. My Deus 2 is also about to go bye, bye............Just doesn't fit my needs as much as the Equinox and Legend.

I'm sure Dave (midalake) will chime in eventually. I have about 100 hours saltwater beach hunting (not nearly enough to even tie the bootlaces on the pros) with the Equinox at mild to moderately black sand beaches. I usually hunt with the horseshoe button engaged, with 2 tones (ferrous/non-ferrous) and go by the sound both for possible conductivity and depth first and rely on target ID and the actual depth meter only on shallower targets.

I have no doubt that the GPX 6000 is killing it in many areas of Australia. There is plenty of YouTube proof of that from well respected prospectors. It is doing well in some areas of the USA too. I just did not experience that at all. Most of the places I tried to detect with it, the lightweight 11" mono coil was totally unusable and all the great ergonomics and balance of the GPX 6000 were negated by having to use the 14" DD along with loss of sensitivity on the specie and smaller gold that I was after and which the 11" Mono was designed for. Just for information, I actually owned two GPX 6000s and the first one had the exact same type of performance problems using the 11” coil in the same places….. I had seller’s remorse, thinking maybe it was me and not the detector so I bought a second one used…….Nope!

The MX7/MX Sport/24k/GMX form factor and internals was the last "innovative" set of detectors from Whites. I don't count the Treasure Pro/Treasure Master since those acted like and seemed to be Coinmaster's inside the MX7 control box housing........ and they certainly weren't innovative in any way. I really like the MX7. I just don't see any reason for Garrett to rebadge the MX7 or expecially the MX Sport with sales of the AT Series still going strong.

Put White’s in the out of business/retired forum. It doesn’t fit in the Garrett forum in my opinion since the 24K is probably the only Garrett/Whites rebadge that I expect to see from Garrett.

I can never have a negative view of Minelab for long. They released the Equinox and my whole detecting life instantly changed the moment I detected with it. Incredible, highly versatile SMF VLF detector despite the leaking and broken coil ears. I was hoping for the same from the GPX 6000 as far as a lightweight, highly versatile PI with super sensitivity and it could use DD coils for extreme mineralization, EMI, relic hunting and beach hunting. So the GPX 6000 has been out for over a year. New coils have been designed and some have been released. Someone explain for me why the GPX 6000 has eight mono coil choices and one DD and that DD is the dumbest size ever………so half of the detector’s modes are completely waisted on a 14” DD coil that most people will never use unless they absolutely have to and those modes cannot be accessed without a DD coil being connected. Stupid.

Your patriotism statement sounds like some Americans or people living in America would rather have an American made PI even if it is not as good as an Australian/Malaysian PI. I owned the GPX 6000 and the GPX 5000 and the SDC 2300 and the GPX 3500. I even owned a QED for awhile...... I could keep going but the fact is with all of those detectors there were either performance issues, ergonomic issues or both at the same time that made them come up short for me and where I often hunt in high mountain areas with very little flat ground, lots of almost vertical detecting, magnetite the size of golf balls along with plenty of other hot rocks and lots of leftover late 1800s miner's iron and tin trash. To top it off there are large power lines running through these areas. None of the detectors listed above could really meet the needs of these places. Maybe the Axiom can with its lighter weight, better DD coil selections, better USA ground handling and what appears to be more shallow/big iron discrimination using DD coils along with competitive sensitivity on very small gold. I don't really care who makes a detector. I also don't care about finding the next world class nugget. I am happy finding gold bits of any size. An enjoyable and memorable experience in beautiful country is what I care about most. So I do care about features and ergonomics that meet my needs. If a PI like the Axiom can handle these Colorado hydraulic pits and talus slopes at 10,000+ ft elevation, it can definitely handle places with less intense mineralization, less extreme terrain and less miner's trash.

So, there have been problems with Detector Doodads order fulfillment after having a fire in his home office. The orange coil charging adapter with incoming voltage readout I received from him before the fire has once again come apart at a seam. I just glued it back together again. The Deus/Deus2/ORX 3D printed stand I bought from manxkat on Ebay (I believe he is a member here) has also broken after 2 months of use......not abuse. This is not a reflection on this product or its maker. The same holds true for Detector Doodads. It simply shows that 3D printed parts for metal detectors will come apart and break. So anyone that regularly uses their Deus 2 like I do up to 100 hours a month or more is probably not the kind of customer that these parts are meant for. They will not hold up even when they are not abused.

My Deus 2 clock’s time is also incorrect after being set when I initially set it up. My remote did completely discharge once during a hunt however when I wasn’t paying attention to battery levels.

Serious Detecting sells the Gold Racer small round coil and lists it as 5" X 4.5". They also sell the Gold Finder 1000 small round coil and a separate coil cover for it that is listed as 5" X 4.5" The compatibility information on the coil cover's purchase page says it is compatible with the Gold Racer https://www.seriousdetecting.com/?s=gold+racer+coil+cover&post_type=product

The Equinox 600 vs Legend.........I too would choose the Legend at this point. The Legend is definitely a work in progress but the potential of this detector is only limited by how many more software updates Nokta Makro chooses to do either for fixing bugs or for improving performance. The Legend is packed with features that the 600 just doesn't have and never will. Legend vs the 800......for me it's almost a toss-up in just about everything but not in build quality and waterproofing which definitely leans towards the Legend. So far also, the Equinox 800 (and 600) have the upper hand in coil performance and stability. I don't like the inconsistency and target separation of the Legend 11" coil in some scenarios. It is really important to zero in on coin sized shallower targets to get the most accurate target ID. At least with my Legend 11' coil there are several places on the coil that seem to be almost "dead". The 11" Nox coil will give good Ids on the same target almost anywhere on the coil.

These weight comparison and chirping on nails posts are relative to say the least. My Deus 2's actual on the scales weight with 9" coil and no modifications is 35.6 ounces. Last time I checked weights and measures that weight is 2 pounds 3.6 ounces. My Equinox 800 with the 6" coil and Tele-Knox shaft (ditched the stock shaft after about a week) and grip tape and a Doc's armrest cover weighs 38.1 ounces or 2 lbs 6.1 ounces. My same Equinox 800 with the Coiltek 10 X 5" coil weighs 41 ounces or 2 lbs 11 ounces. I can swing any of these detectors all day. I can also swing the same Nox with the 11" coil all day and I am not young. Deus 2 will chirp on nails and iron in general. The Equinox will chirp on nails and iron in general. Settings help. The overall recovery speed and target separation of Deus 2 is better than the Equinox, no doubt. Sensitivity to really small targets of any conductivity is much better on the Equinox, no doubt. Do I hope there will be an updated Equinox like offering from Minelab....that doesn't leak and that has faster recovery speed without losing sensitivity and depth and has more user profiles....sure.

It’s a great, versatile coil. Very stable and quiet. I have not noticed any knock sensitivity so far (only had mine about 6 months due to supply) and balances the Equinox really well. At least here in the Denver area, I still get clean hits on down to 8” coin sized targets. The coin IDs are just a little lower (I think) on US coins and it hits really small gold very well. In 2D and 3D iron nails versus silver dime testing, it outperforms the stock Equinox coils mostly due to its shape and slightly thinner center area on the coil. It does not turn the Equinox into a Deus/Deus 2 but it does very well for being attached to a Minelab SMF. When I don’t need to go super deep, it is my favorite Equinox coil.

I was definitely 🛌 ng

So, is there also a conductivity meter at the top of the display kind of like a ferrous/non ferrous graph. I may be dreaming but seems like I saw an iron probability graph. Which would you trust more using a DD coil, that iron probability meter or the iron check feature using iron audio on say a shallow (less than 6" or so) big square nail or hunk of tin?

$7385 AUD is equivalent to $5109 or so USD. From what I am reading here the dealer/buyer is paying 10% GST on 5109 or $511 up front. So the buyer is actually paying $4598 USD or $599 more than a USA buyer. Am I missing something? I realize that the exchange rate fluctuates but that amount is pretty close. Turn that around......my GPX 6000 cost me (if I had bought new.....I didn't thank God) $5999 US or roughly $8,678 AUD. You guys can buy a new GPX 6000 for less than $8000 AUD, right? So If I bought new, including the 3% US import tax of $260 AUD, I would have paid roughly $419 AUD more for my GPX 6000 than you did...... Now, I certainly wish that the Australian Axiom price was based off a price closer to the US $3999 so you could pay a little less. Someone on both ends (besides the end user and the actual dealer) is taking a cut of $300 to $500 US on both detectors......

Thanks for letting us know Dave. Good luck.

I have no idea how the Axiom with DD coils can handle EMI. Maybe a tester will be able to do something like I am describing here. I was able to run my GPX 5000 inside my house using the stock 11" DD coil with the GPX 5000 on Cancel. I had to turn down the gain below factory default but it was doable for testing of coin/jewelry and relic tone identification. I was also able to run my GPX 6000 using the 14" DD coil in the same spot inside my house using Normal or Difficult especially in Salt. Sensitivity was okay up to Manual 4. Absolutely impossible to run any mono coil on the GPX 5000 inside my house. 11" mono and GPX 6000 inside my house.....OMG! The GPX 6000 14" DD coil worked great for me. I just needed a small DD coil and I am not going to wait for years to see if one ever happens.