microsniper

*****REDUCED to $2999 until 05/03 when Ill be listing it on Ebay.********

**Also, I am open to partial trades, but mostly need the cash

Garrett Axiom in great used condition (minor wear and scratches from the field)       I am the 2nd owner.   I purchased it last year (new condition) from a trusted forum member and the machine was originally purchased from a well known Dealer here on the forum. 

Used approximately 20-25 days in the field.       This has been my go-to machine for the past year and the only reason Im even considering selling it is to help cover some unexpected expenses.    Really enjoyable machine to use and found some good gold which Iv posted a couple times here.

includes:

Axiom!

11"x7" mono and 13" DD coils  (DD coil only used twice.)  Extra new coil cover for 13", newer cover for 11x7

MS3 wireless Headphones in great shape.         i only used them a few times as I usually used the speaker or  my Sun Rays. 

Garrett Backpack/soft case for the Axiom

all the  cords, charger plugs, box etc

Under Garretts 3 year warranty until 12/6/2025

Any questions shoot me a message and ill get back asap.     

cheers!  

Michael K in Tucson AZ

Im  shipping USPS or UPS  within USA only,  Pay pal friends and fam, or zell works best for me. 

Any insider news on the potential Detech coils for the Axiom???

On 6/19/2023 at 11:13 AM, Steve Herschbach said:

•  

Quote

• Minimum Sensitivity - I was working a location that was dense with trash, way too many signals. Sensitivity 1 really worked some magic in making it possible to use the machine in dense trash. Way too early to say much on this yet, other than that I did find it useful for cherry picking coins in a park by digging low tones only, which eliminates low conductors in favor of mid to high conductors. I was able to get more coin than trash targets. I still dig trash with a VLF so this was a good resultant in my limited testing. I am going to see what happens on depth on a 1/4 oz nugget going from high to low sensitivity in a future test.
• Salt Setting - yes it tunes out small gold. But how small? I don’t know yet, but it’s not as bad as people might think. It can also shut up some ground and hot rocks other settings will struggle with. I need more work with both this and Large Mode. My initial sense is that the differences between the modes are more subtle than dramatic.
• Minimum Threshold - this shows the most promise for developing a silent search “Bogenes Settings” methodology for the Axiom. -7 still has some audio break through. -9 is pretty much dead silent but seems too aggressive? I’ve settled on -8 so far as a preference, and was surprised at how well small nuggets jump out still, and with good depth. It also allows for a bit higher sensitivity setting, so I would highly encourage people to try these very low Threshold settings with either a normal or slightly boosted sensitivity setting. For some situations I’m thinking I might be employing this a lot. Super pleasant way to hunt for those that hate a threshold. I just wish there was more nuance as right now the jump between -7 to -8 to -9 is coarser than I’d like. I put it on my wish list for an update.

Steve, Im so glad you posted these "Stupid Tricks".    Iv only had the Axiom out about 10 days (maybe 40-50hrs), so im still getting to know it.   Most  locations have been challenging in one way or another.  Either horrible EMI, wet red clay and fields of hot rocks ( or all three at once).    Yesterday  i got out with the intention to play around with settings a bit more and try out a few tricks.  

With regards to the minimum threshold: 

  I found this to be an especially helpful and interesting part of the Axiom to explore.   I guess i had not really dug into the nuances up to this point.    One thing that stood out was turning down the threshold below 0 mellowed out the EMI significantly.   What a nice surprise!   I was able to comfortably up the gain a notch as well.    

Turning to the extremes of -9 threshold and full sensitivity and then backing off each incrementally i found a sweet spot for the day.  Sensitivity 5 and threshold +8 (normal timing)   This was great, very little EMI coming through, still picked up birdshot, ground mostly steady.     Usually in this location and im running at 3-4, so great experiment.

 Im used to a steady gpx threshold thats tuned for quiet operation and I have had a difficult time achieving this on the Axiom.    I wish i could  better articulate (Steve maybe you could elaborate) how it is different, but ill just say something else is going on in the way  mode/gain/threshold level effects the whole soundscape.   I worry that Im not hearing the "faint" part of the whisper of a small/deep target like i most certainly do using SDC/GPX .  Taking some getting used to for sure.  

Sensitivity 

I have experimented with low sensitivity and yeah, lowering it helps almost the entire spectrum, stability wise, while not loosing too much depth.    Although at a point the tiny ones disappear when switching from fine to normal.   Upping the gain can bring them back but i guess it depends on the ground/EMI of the day.

So far I havent been able to make a faint target stand out that much more by simply turning up the gain.  Yes and no I guess.  Specific setting adjustments for that exact spot /target bring them out a bit more but I cant comfortably keep hunting in those settings.   Seems like I lean towards the lower sensitivity and 3 being most preferable for the average day/conditions so far.

Ground Balance

Gold Neck Prospecting made some great observations that could easily be overlooked if not experimented with.   One being the ground balance.   I had the same thought about it feeling like i was using a VLF at times.    

Sometimes Ground balancing a few times or more in the same area around a target is necessary to get a proper balance.      I mean yeah, of course, but its all too easy to balance out/in hot rocks, minerals, and  faint targets.    (and maybe not know it)    Three different balances in the same spot can have dramatically different effects.   I have been able to use this to good effect on ironstones and hot rocks sitting together in clay using Steves recommendations.   However for me its taking some time to adjust my habits to make it work and feel confident.

Im sure a whole thread could be dedicated to making the transition to using the Axiom coming from the Minelab machines.....

Anyway, thanks again Steve for eliciting some  extra curiosity, it was a fruitful day of experimentation.

      The big one (18.45g) I hit in the last 15 mins of daylight on the longest day of the year.   It was in the middle of a strewn field of large bullets.   I had been over the  exact area twice before.  Two people, me included,  probably waved a coil over it and passed it up...  It was a screamer/overload  and only 2" deep.   sounded just like all the other bullets i was tired of digging near the surface (hi-low btw).   But since it was my last target of the day and only about 10ft from a previous  good find i figured id just go ahead and get that piece of trash out of the way, unbelievable..  

On 6/20/2023 at 10:34 AM, mn90403 said:

Ok, that is small f------ gold. Not the smallest but small.

Why do you need to turn the coil up?  Just lay it down and wave the scoop over the top.  I guess he wants to put all the little nuggets on the smooth bottom?  When he does that you can't hear them unless they are moving.  Detectors work off of the change in signal and not the constant interruption.  If you hold it there it doesn't sound off.  It is a good lesson in pinpointing to make your scoop pile.

What makes a pinpointer work differently?

Quote

 

Yes that was torture watching the recovery!  I thought the same thing..     However, after recovering some "really small" pieces myself  with the Axiom, I can kind of understand why he chose that method.

   The top of the coil doesnt seem quite as sensitive (to me) + the added thickness/shape of the scoop makes hearing the tiny tiny ones difficult to hear.  (not so with SDC).        

Iv experienced this many times now.  When i originally pick up the smallest discernible targets they must be practically touching the coil and then when i go to recover them with the scoop, i cant hear them and end up throwing them back, and starting over.   Might have to customize one of my scoops for dinky dink recovery🔎 ...

Wow Great shots from some special spots!  Heres a few from the last couple years poking around the western states of USA..  

AZ

AZ

Yuba River CA

Harts Pass, WA

Greaterville, AZ

Gold Basin AZ

All I want to do is pack up the truck and keep goin.......

ill give it a go on mine this weekend.   Keep us posted on what happens when you hear back from garrett or get your machine back.   Iv got some weird (to me) audio/threshold quirks that I have yet to understand and like you I dont have another one around to test out against.  

Thanks Simon,I did see someone had a bunch of sdc coils on ebay a couple weeks back....      I did end up talking to someone at MinersDen Australia and they said yeah we got one, but because of the distribution agreement they have with minelab they couldnt send me one🤔  Also since mine is the 1st gen they said it "might not fit".    Im more motivated now than ever to take the darn thing apart and make a new housing for the electronics..... (now that I have an Axiom in the kit...)

Thanks Norvic, im intrigued, i dont think I would have thought to approach  the set up like that.   There is way more variation in how the audio reacts to changing those three setting than I would have expected.   (or compared to GPX 4500)  I dont have any experience with the 6000 yet.   What do you think about the clipped threshold Im experiencing?   If I crank up the threshold to get the faint but smooth buzzing mosquito  its too loud and dampens the sharpness of a target.    The difference happens between 17-20.  16-17 having the clipped audio response to a target breaking into the threshold.      I guess im attempting to replicate the sound profile of my gpx threshold.   Also I havent been able ,thus far, to run up the sensitivity higher than 4 for any length of time to see how that changes the threshold quality....  its really fun to be learning a new machine

Hey Everyone, Just wanted to share some of my  thoughts/experience with the Axiom so far.  Iv got about 14 hrs on it here in AZ.  

I was on the fence between buying the 6000 or the Axiom ever since the minelab sale....  Tough decision as the feedback on the Axiom is still pretty slim but very promising.  

Well I got out last weekend and it was a perfect day for testing in my most familiar ground where i usually swing an SDC or 4500.    It was windy and the EMI was in full force.   There was also some recent rain which had soaked the thick red clay in many areas.   So yeah, perfectly hot and variable ground and EMI up the wazoo...    Usually this combination will make me choose the 4500 in enhance/quiet tuned down a bit and not even bother with the SDC if the EMI is too bad.    

I fired up the Axiom for the first time and went through all the settings.   In order to get it running quiet in this setting (11"mono) I landed on using normal at sensitivity of 3.

In fine mode the wet red clay was too much to balance in any setting higher than 2

In Normal mode both the horrible EMI and ground was mellow enough to run it at 3.   At 2 it was close to  silent which was great but I did not trust it to find small pieces yet.  

Within about 15 mins i popped out a .16 g on a hillside!   yay, ok it works!  

So the rest of the day i had a really fun time going Veerrryyy slow, digging every sound, playing with the settings as I went along.

Im so used to the sound of my minelabs with the sun ray headphones that it took alot of adjusting the audio tone/threshold/volume and some time to get used to the slightly different character of the Axiom.   I did use the WR-1 with my sunrays (thanks for that tip Steve)  but it was still a little strange...

What I noticed right off was if there was an adjustment to the sensitivity, then the quality of the threshold sound changed.  

As well it seemed if the threshold was turned up a bit somewhere around 16-18 and the volume was just right, there was a sweet spot where the target sounds seemed to be most clear to my ears.     I am curious what other people are experiencing with the Axioms audio and threshold, please chime in!     So I kept changing the volume of the machine, the WR-1 module, and the headphones, the sensitivity, and the threshold and there is alot of variation in the quality of sound between settings.  

Another thing about the threshold was a kind of clipped/echo kind of break when a small/faint or deep target was gone over....almost like when using my equinox with some of the numbers blocked or tuning down the the 4500 threshold way down.     I tried adjusting the the threshold higher than 19-20 but it blocked out too much of the target sounds.  I had a difficult time getting the volume/threshold/sensitivity just right.       I did not try the speaker yet.

Ground balance:     I did not use the ground tracking at all yet.    I found I had to ground balance quite a bit more actively in this variable ground.  (compared to 4500)  Hot wet clay-dry hillside- hot rocks etc..   but I really like being able to balance out the hot rocks, very handy feature.. again im so new to this machine i know nothing yet.

So far so good! 

Got out the next day to another location.   Very little wind/emi, dryer (mostly) ground.  lots of ironstone, blacksand, hot rocks, lots of variable hot spots etc.

No wind  so I happily used the speaker which is great.  

So this day i was able to use Fine mode but only at about 3 sensitivity.  Emi and ground were too erratic and i wanted to get more time in and find more targets to understand more of how this detector works before I try cranking it up too much (again, great advice from Steve on this)

I found a couple of faint targets and changed all the settings up and down before digging.   In Fine, the small targets sounded off clear, in Normal not so much.   I tried cranking up the sensitivity in Normal but it only helped a wee bit.  Fine was better for sure even at a setting of 2.   At setting of 1 sensitivity the targets were too faint but it sure was quiet!

dug up the two targets and gold yay!  smallest weighs in at .06 g    Im very happy about this👍   I did scrape down to bedrock in the area and went over it with the NOX and didnt find any other  targets... 

Ended up finding a couple sitting ducks, one next to someones dig hole (so sorry) and one about 6ft away.    biggest was .4g and was a screamer, thought for sure it was a bullet at first'

So, iv only got about 14hrs on the AXIOM but I am diggin it so far!  

 I tried the ground tracking in slow, which seemed to work well on the variable wet/dry ironstone nature of the area.   I cant remember if i was using it when I found the tiniest piece.   but did find a shotgun bb while using it so it did not track it out.  and I dont remember hitting any hot rocks while using it in this area...  

Geeesh, i didnt mean to go on such a ramble but im trying to share as much as i can to help anyone who is considering trying out this machine.   I know I was skeptical but the reports have been really intriguing.     Price point, ergonomics, new variables to play with.    My only concern so far is durability.   It seems well made though only time will tell.    

I am so far very pleased with my purchase (thanks to a member here!)   I do not think it compares to either my SDC or 4500...  its somewhere in the middle I think.   And with only using the 11" mono so far, im excited to try the other coils.   Another observation is the coil is nice and hot on those squared off corners, it really is a bit different than most elipticals.   As well the shape of it helps the whole machine stay upright when you set it down, and thats a nice touch.   

Another nice feature is the layout of the settings buttons.   easy to adjust all settings quickly.   I was pleasantly surprised how much I like it.  I kept treating the detector like my NOX, and kept accidentally trying to turn it off on the side of the screen, which was funny.. and a nod to how light it is..

Anyway, hope theres at lest a helpful nugget in all that somewhere...

Id love to hear what others are experiencing with the audio settings especially the threshold and sensitivity variables.. 

Congrats and good luck Ed!   The day I received my 1st PI ( Gpx 4500)  was the turning point for me being able to find nuggets!   I think partially it was psychological... it boosted my confidence knowing I had a capable machine, made me focus and dedicate more time and energy which in turn equalled more and more finds.    

Keep us posted on the AXIOM!

Hey, I recently overworked my SDC and broke the "coil yoke adapter".      I contacted Minelabs service department  here in the USA and inquired about purchasing the part and getting it sent to me so I could get back up and running.   After talking to the very helpful Tech, they said that unfortunately it would take months to order the part, and basically would not offer any solution except for me to send my unit in for repair.  $375 for a new coil assembly +  1hr labor +shipping....     As well, they would not sell me the coil assembly.  hhhmmm     I was a bit disappointed as I have had good experiences with the service department there before.  

Seems like overkill to send my unit back for the replacement of a simple part.  As well, Im not sure why they wouldn't sell me a coil assembly if nothing else.

 I watched a video from Miners Den Australia of a tech replacing this exact part, so I know its available and not a tech only repair kind of thing.    Sooooo.....      Would anyone here know of where and how I might obtain this very rare and hard to find SDC part called the "coil yoke adapter" and its  associated O ring?   

I tried to epoxy the cracked parts but it does not take, maybe im using the wrong kind of adhesive?  Any advice on a possible fix would be welcomed😃

-----

As a side note:    It was a perfect opportunity  (excuse?) to try out the Coiltek kit and 10x5 coil which I purchased as soon as I got off the phone with Minelab....  I tried it out and its great!  I prefer the coil being centered on the shaft for poking fwd and back and while scrubbing the coil up a steep bank.  Its just as or more sensitive, stable, and capable of a coil.  (found some tiny shallow pieces and one .3 at good depth).     I just would like to be able to put the machine back to stock at some point...

Cheers!

thanks yeah, ill look up the cupeling, i once tried it with portland cement and some weird low grade galena/gold ore....   maybe with some upgraded materials (and safety equipment)   that just might be the ticket..     

Heres a few Jewelry shots for ya, cheers!   Hope to do more gold soon...

1 hour ago, sjmpainter said:

I’m planning to do the same thing for the same reason this year. 

My question is what part of the refining didn’t work for you?

I am assuming you have melting equipment molds for rough cast and a roll mill to produce the finished stock?

Are you smelting with borax to remove impurities? Are you  annealing the gold as it work hardens in the rolling process? 

Any jewelry Smith in your area should be able to make stock for you but it would be nice to figure out making your own.

 

Hey, yeah I have all the necessary tools, rolling mill, etc, crucible, fluxes, borax, etc.   So far each of my batches (ingots/ round stock) have turned out brittle when worked with a hammer, or rolled in the mill.  I have been melting silver and gold and making jewelry for years with few issues.   Only when I use the rough little nuggets from southern arizona does it seem to be a problem due to quartz or iron inclusions (I am assuming)  which are not fully removed by the borax and fluxes.   I have tried, a variety of fuels/temps, fluxes, pouring into water, slow cooling, quenching, annealing,  ran the same gold multiple times though the process....  always brittle.   I have not tried grinding to a powder or aqua regia or electrolysis.... yet... haha..                   

 thanks guys, wish me luck, this is a rabbit hole for sure...    Has anyone else experimented with smelting, refining, and working (jewelry) with placer gold?     

Hey All,  Iv been trying to locate a Refiner here in the USA that can process a small batch of placer gold (2oz) and fabricate some 18/22k jewelry stock.     I am an amateur jeweler and have tried many times to smelt my hard earned gold into some usable material and have not had any luck thus far.     So, I know I can send it off to a refiner and get generic stock back but the point is to use my own gold for some special pieces.      I know someone else out there has gone down this road before, and i would so appreciate a lead on  a reputable refiner/fabricator.    

cheers!    

FIXED!!!   Ok, so I finally got around to doing the coil repair.   Not the most professional soldering  but it got the job done. 

Items needed:

Soldering iron and solder

Plumbers flux

wire snippers/strippers

Liquid Tape and fine -cheap paint brush

dual wall heat shrink tubing (two sizes.  one the same size as coil cable, and one size larger)

Optional:  Jewelers glasses, third hand tweezers.  Made it much easier to see and hold things in place.

Six very fine wires and two shielded wires in the center.   I stripped back and separated the two inner wires first, making sure to leave a  little bit of the plastic shielding on each side so they would not make contact while soldering.  

trimmed all wires to about the same length so they would all line up when soldering. 

Then Fluxed all the wires, tinned them very carefully with a touch of solder.

(I could have done a better prep job and taken more photos but i was motivated to just get it done before dinner)

I soldered the innermost wire first (to establish the length of the other wires and because its strong and held every thing together)

Then soldered the surrounding red wire.

Trimmed and soldered all the others.  

Painted Liquid Tape on all soldered areas, and put extra around and between the two inner wires.

I finished it off with the dual wall heat shrink tubing..... and Viola!  The coil is back in action!!

I dont think I would trust it to be submerged in water ever again, but it seems to be bomber enough to take some rain or a quick splash.

Im sure I could have taken more time and done a cleaner job but it seems to work just fine.   Ill test it out in the field and report back if there are any sonic anomalies, bump sensitivity, etc...      

Thanks again for hooking me up the connector Steve!

 Thanks Fred, funny enough I just bought  a nice padded case for the back of the truck to carry the detector(S) in..to protect them!  I think it was just the bouncing around on the back roads that did it....

UPDATE:    Minelab just replied to my coil repair inquiry.   "Unfortunately there is no repair for your damaged coil. They (the repair techs) are unable to perform a  repair or replacement of the coil plug connector."   

Sooo...    your on your own if you damage the connector, which in my opinion is too easy to do.   I was actually worried about doing just that when i first bought the EQ. 

  Ill update as soon as I get around to performing the fix with the new connector. 

If anyone has more tips/tricks or product recommendations to use for this fix please post them. 

In the mean time here is the last batch of EQ600 nugglets (before the accident) that were found by my competition.....I mean girlfriend,  and I

Hey thanks guys, I really appreciate the support!   Ill report back when I hear from Minelab and Ill snap some shots of the surgery and reconstruction when I get into it.    And yeah, iv done the heat shrink fail myself too thanks for the reminder!    Thanks again Steve!

Thanks so much Steve!  I PM'd ya..

Hey all, I just found my coil connection sheared off at the control housing. (oops, and bad timing as I was just headed out!)  Luckily no damage to the control housing connection but the other end was bent and broken right off... 

I sent some photos to minelab to asses if they will fix it or not but still waiting.    I was wondering if anyone knows if its possible to buy this connector anywhere?    If minelab wont fix it then I will end up splicing one on myself and hope for the best (minus the water tightness of course) .   Any help would be so appreciated!  

On 10/7/2019 at 9:13 AM, mn90403 said:

Micro,

I'm glad you posted it here on a forum where everyone appreciates the Nox's abilities but we sometimes don't stretch it like you did!

Could you tell us a little more about your 'technique?'  I mean did you rake and detect, micro-swing, gully or side hill and was the patch big?

Mitchel

the "patch" as I found it, was on the side of a gently sloping hill.  I had found one bigger piece (gram+) previously which was deeper than say 4-6" with sdc. I returned with a 12"evo  on the 4500 and didnt find anything else.

  When I went back this time, i just scraped a few inches off of where Id found a smaller piece and found another, then another.   So I just used my pick and scraped back a few more inches in every direction.   As it turned out, the tiny pieces (which most id missed with the sdc) were within the top 2 inches, nothing deeper (or nothing deeper than I could detect) and no bedrock in sight.  

 I was hunting a narrow parameter of signals (0,1,2,3) ignoring everything esle (but hearing and seeing 0 through40).   Signals were bouncing all over from iron and hot rocks which I removed if I could isolate them without digging too much.   Moving the coil really slow to pick up a solid tone, or id# and then giving it a little wiggle from different directions to lock on seemed to work.       

I really dont know how big the patch is haha, but what I found was  spread out within about 15'x10'.     If I had known this was the case, I would have brought a rake and pulled off the rocks first, detect, then scrape back an inch or two, repeat, being methodical and going slow.     I'm sure that I missed a few with my sloppy procedure, and not allowing or investigating -3,-2,-1....     and also not playing around with the settings to get it dialed in better..     Sure did enjoy not having to chase false signals and ground noise though!     

13 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

I am not aware of any difference between Park 2 and Field 2 other than the presets. Set identically, performance appears identical. The same with Park 1 and Field 1.

If in an area with little or no ferrous trash dig negative numbers, like down to -3. Gold in mineralized soil will read negative at times as the ground ferrous content skews and overwhelms the nugget non-ferrous reading. This is highly dependent on the nature of the gold and the soil but definitely something to be aware of and experiment with.

Ok, yes, thanks,  that makes complete sense.    Ill have to dig a little deeper into this one.. 🤔   now I cant wait to get out again! 

12 hours ago, Noah (FL) said:

Congrats on the nuggies!!!  And thanks for sharing the success with the 600.  Steve wrote about its effectiveness but definitely cool hearing of others success with it!!!   Definitely post your settings as it’s always informative seeing different folks ways of setting up and running detectors!

Thanks Noah!  Ok, settings for that day and place.  Northern AZ.  lots o hot rocks, ironstone, black sand..  Id been over the spot previously and gotten (most) of the larger pieces in the poke, and the trash out of the way....

Field 2

Sensitivity 17-20

-9 to -1 blocked out with everything else accepted

2 Tones

Tone break at 0

Iron bias 0

ground balance manual

Main concern was the hot rocks and iron ground.  Recovery speed of 3 seemed to help.   I dug nothing but 1,2,3's. not really concerned about missing anything but the smallest microscopic pieces.       Dug  1 shotgun bb, and 1 small sliver of lead.  ( wish that were more common!)    Most of the hot rocks came in 6-15 jumping to high unstable numbers. which I just happily ignored 😁.   The nuggets were 0 to 3 locking on a solid 1or 2. with a  solid high tone. (in the two tone mode).    I really should have slowed down and experimented with some other settings or modes as it would have been a perfect test ground...  although it was too fun to just watch for a 1 or 2 and dig!    It could have easily been BB Hell though I know....

          Question:    Anyone think Park 2 would have been better in any way?   Not sure of the weighting of frequencies (?).. but im plenty satisfied with the tiny pieces I found using field 2.     What else could be different between these modes??   

When I get a chance, Ill take both machines out and get some comparisons on in ground targets, all i need to do now  is find another patch...doh..          

15 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

I appreciate you posting that. I have been trying to convince people the 600 is nearly as good as the 800 for gold nuggets, but since the 600 lacks that magic “Gold Mode” does make people skeptical. You are officially now the “Equinox 600 Nugget Master”! 

My Tips On Nugget Detecting With The Minelab Equinox

Haha!  Thanks Steve, Im going to have to share that lofty title with my GF who found half of them!    In fact, thats why I "HAD" to get an 800... so maybe id have an edge....😜