Pyriteboy

Thanks Bill.....the settings that worked for you are different from those that worked for me. I tested mine in highly mineralized ground after one of our storms. When the current rain lets up, I'll take the Axiom out for another test with sanded-in conditions to see if it can be run with higher gain. Glad you liked the detector and the DD coil. -Jerry

Hi Bill, very nice write-up for sure. Interesting that you found SALT to work the best for you at the beach. Can you please tell me what other settings you used? -Jerry

A 12" Ultimate Spiral DD or 11" open DD.....

Hi Bill, curious if you tested the same targets at sensitivity 4 and then at 7-8. If so, was the target response louder at the higher sensitivity? I am guessing this detector will do well in that role.... -Jerry

Yes, great news all around. You were missed.......

Outstanding results ......you worked long and hard for what you found. -Jerry

Yes is has...I have seen people walk off the beach talking to themselves...... Yea Steve, I forget that the Garrett DD is more sensitive/hotter than the traditional DD's we see on the Minelab GP/GPX series detectors. Again, a 12 x 10, 11 x 11, or 8 x 12 DD would do the trick here where I am at. To be continued.....

Oh, just coinage VL....

Took the Axiom out for another quick spin before the rains this afternoon. I ran through all the combinations of speed and modes on sensitivity 2 to re-check my findings from the other day. The beach I went to is on the extreme end condition-wise; that is to say the sand is heavily mineralized and there is lots of airplane traffic. The first photo is near the bottom of the slope, and the second photo was taken mid- slope. Again, I ran the machine in a silent search-type mode to eliminate some of the ground noises. As before, Mode= NORMAL & Speed= Medium was slightly more workable than Mode= SALT & Speed= SLOW. SENSITIVITY.................2 MODE............................Normal SPEED...........................Medium THRESHOLD................-8 The bottom of the slope was workable with the 13 x 11 DD but going up the more mineralized slope rendered the Axiom too unstable. Most beaches are not this mineralized, so this is the worst-case scenario. The Axiom, fitted with a smaller DD coil, would be able to handle this ground. I use an Eric Foster designed Goldquest Aquasearch v.2 and have to dumb the machine down at times here. Even then, the threshold is still a bit ratty and you have to work slow. To be fair to the Axiom, I will next go to a beach that is not so extremely mineralized and see how it performs. So far, I am not disappointed with how the Axiom has fared with the 13 x 11 DD coil. -Jerry

Bingo, Steve, I am trying to dial in the beach settings for the Axiom for max speed; that is to say, the maximum speed I would want to swing the coil to cover ground and still hear a reasonable target. I call it breezing; suppose you could call it patch hunting speed. For sure this speed would be a little faster than when in the gold fields- but how much faster seems to be a black art. -Jerry

Found in California, where you have to stay in a drunk state to deal with the madness. The cool part- this was no gimme- it was actually some good, solid detecting to finally score. I did drink more than a little single malt that evening.

Hi Steve, saltwater beach. I tried salt mode but was not successful in quieting the machine down. It is possible that I ran salt mode in sens 3 and not 2, so when I go back for another test run, I will have a cheat sheet with all the possible combinations of timings/settings with sensitivity level 2. The settings I listed did work fairly well but another test run will determine if there are any that are better.

With the bottom of the coil partially facing up at the sky when pinpointing, the EMI wobble sound was substantial, with the root cause being large holes needed to be dug for deep targets. Trying to force the large DD coil in the hole sideways to pinpoint is not the way I will be doing it going forward. It is a habit of mine from nugget hunting. This is in Hermosa Beach, tons of airplanes, cellphones, lifeguards chatting over their radios. Accuracy seemed fine, it was me who had to adjust to the DD's center + estimate depth and then figure where to put the scoop. The 13 x 11 DD is a little big to be ripping through a patch of targets, but with a smaller coil I believe the recovery would be faster. Screaming on a target at depth is plain awesome; I believe this detector is more than capable to hear the subtle response of low-conductor gold at depth.

I took the Axiom to my local beach for a 2.5 hour test spin to see what would happen. Staying in one spot, I just gridded the area to see how the detector behaved to different targets. The ground was moderately mineralized from some weather we are experiencing; no sugar-hip white flow sand here.... These are my observations: The 11 x 7 mono is too hot and will not work at my beaches The 13 x 11 DD can be used but it picks up too much EMI when turned to pinpoint. While using the 13 x 11 DD, most targets scream, even at depth. While using the 13 x 11 DD, you will detect high-conductor targets that are so deep you might pass on digging them (clad coins). The Axiom is a beast run amok at the beach and has to be de-tuned to operate effectively. After-market open coil designs will only help the Axiom's performance at the beach. My wish-list beach coil would be a 12 x 10 DD open design. It's a bitch keeping a beach scoop and the 13 x 11 DD coil apart when digging a target. The Axiom out-performs the White's Big Box TDI on the wet sand. Here are the settings I came up with: SENSITIVITY.................2 MODE............................Normal SPEED...........................Medium THRESHOLD................5 GROUND BALANCE....Manual These settings put the Axiom in a poor man's "silent search mode". There is more work to be done with adjustments, but I think it was effective in eliminating some of the chatter whilst not giving up detection to subtle tones. Will have to bring a slew of high and low conductor targets with me the next time I put the machine to the test. The photo is the result of 2.5 hours of testing. Sorry, no gold, but let's play for keeps the next few days and see what happens.... Questions welcome! -Jerry

.....well no, actually, I killed the monkey that was riding my back for the last 15+ days detecting (3 years) without joy. The Axiom lent the assist that was needed to get back amongst the living. First time out with the Axiom in tough ground, this modest .60 grammer saw the light of day, from 5" down. This is a big step up from the PI I was using previous. I used the 11 x 7 mono and was impressed with the hot top corners. Started out at sens 4 but got a little conservative and fell back to a stable sens 3. I can see that once you get some time on the Axiom, you will be more comfortable in pushing its limits. My confederates who run 2300's were impressed with how hot the 11 x 7 was.

That is a very sweet result for sure. Question: can you tell me what the difference is in the background audio between the 2300 and the Axiom on sensitivity 4? -Jerry

Great way to round out the year- a nice series of hunts for sure.... -Jerry

I may use different words than some of you, but the ideas are the same: 1. Operator.................45% 2. Location.................30% 3. Detector.................15% 4. Luck........................5% 5. Valium.....................5% -Jerry

TDI's now sell for around $1000.00. I know, 'cause I just sold mine and have tracked the sales for the last few months. Just bought an Axiom and took it out for its initial shake-down voyage to the California desert. I do not regret this purchase. -Jerry

I also like the ring......the weight is nice; congrats on the gold score....... -Jerry

Hope to see many of you there..... -Jerry

Nice silver pull for the less-than-ideal conditions....you don't see those every day. -Jerry

Nice surprise after the fact, George. Bummer older stuff was not showing, maybe they were just skimming the first 12"? -Jerry

Thanks, Carolina, for posting this news, sad as it may be. I always remind myself how lucky I am to have found one of Eric's Aquasearch v.2 detectors. -Jerry

Josh Reinke all the way....... -Jerry