Calmark

I wish you a speedy recovery.  We look forward to seeing you posting again soon and reading about your detecting exploits.  

This detector looks promising so far as a prospecting unit. The ID is a very intriguing feature. I wonder if an ID scale might have uses later on with proper testing in your Cointopia location. I hope it does!

46 minutes ago, Gerry in Idaho said:

Mark,  Glad you were able to score some Rye Patch gold on the last soaking adventure.  What's even more impressive is your ability to do it with the Axiom.  I've said it so many times before, but some folks think it's sales talk.  Glad you mentioned it as well.  The Axiom with it's Fine Tuning capabilities can do things the more expensive GPX-6000 can not.  

As for depth, I've dug some 12"+ nuggets (specimens) and on bigger gold, the Axiom is so close to the GPX-6000, you are splitting hairs.

My group was there training June 9th - 11th and the ground was not that bad, but it was still the worst June hunt I have ever done.  I think 15 to 20 nuggets were found by all.  There was a storm coming in when we left, so that must have been afterwards, as the pics below were not as such when we pulled out.

Yes I was sent a couple pics of the cross roads to the burn barrel turn off.  Looked like a serious gully washer came down.  

Majuba in the background.

Again, great on you for realizing the situation you were in, the GPX-6000 was not the best tool.  Thats why I always take  a couple on any given trip.

Lundy,  When the ground is ideal, be sure to let us all know so we can head that way.

Gerry, sorry I came late and missed the party during your training session.  I'm glad you guys came away with a few nuggets despite the tough conditions.  

Yep, the Axiom performs very well.  I don't feel I'm under gunned when out detecting with my brother using his ML 6k, or when I loan my dad my 6k.  It finds nuggets plenty small and really shines signaling well on the coarse gold older tech has been more blind to.  I definitely appreciate the ability to switch settings to suit the conditions like I was able to do during my last trip to Rye Patch.  It "paid" off having a second detector along.  I have plans to take the Axiom into some hot rock infested sites later this summer.

I've included a picture of that same wash on Tuesday afternoon as I left.  I just got out before the roadbed was so deeply eroded it would have drowned my truck to cross, haha.  After I got through, I watched several whole sage brush bushes float by on the brisk current!!  Talk about a nice mini-monsoon!

5 hours ago, Desert Dawg said:

We were camped out on the South end Jim Williams memorial site same time as you were there, mon-thur, I was giving a couple greenhorns lessons on vlfs but they were falsing in the saturated ground excessively, was a bad time for that with the saturated ground, my gpx6000 ran quiet in same soils, with the exceed 12x7. My internal speaker went south out there just after the minelab fix, it still works with the bluetooth headphones or earbuds. Annoying for sure. That storm tue afternoon was a humdinger, it had the ravines around us roaring for a few hrs. No gold for us. But a great time out camping and cooking.

It can be tough to get nuggets at Rye Patch any time of year, but when you and I were there, the soggy ground and weather made it even more of a challenge for sure.  I'm sorry your group didn't get any gold.  I detected over 3 days last summer in June and also got skunked using my ML 6000 in dry ground.  I helped two older greenhorn guys with vlf machines who were there set up their machines and scan some signals I found.  One had a gpx 4500 he didn't know how to use, so I had him switch that machine and to his 11in mono and set all the proper settings for him.  I saw both  later in the afternoon, and they had quite a few dug targets, but no gold.  We all had a great time camping out and sharing the fun of prospecting and that's what its all about.  

5 hours ago, dirtman said:

Sounds like you've "taken to" the Axiom well 👍

I'm a Lurker trying to learn as much as possible about this USA entry to Electronic Prospecting.

My main concern yet is to start seeing nuggets being detected at depths, like 6 to 18 inches 😎🤠🎯

Good Luck an Happy Huntn !

I haven't been chasing deep or big nuggets with my Axiom so far.  I've swung the 11x7 mono coil nearly exclusively because its small and light.  Apart from those advantages, its finding tiny gold, even near the surface I've missed with my gpx 5000.  

At some later date, I'll probably buy the Garrett 13x11 mono and rescan some areas with the hopes of picking up some deeper and bigger nuggets.  Generally, I don't dig many nuggets past 6-8 inches, but have gotten some 12in+ in the past.  Right now, with hard-baked dirt, I'll likely wait until fall and rains to soften the ground before I switch to a bigger coil.  For now, I'm happy finding a nugget or two per trip that have been missed in the past, even if they tend to be on the smaller side.

49 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Just a reminder - if you get real bad salt ground go to Salt Mode. It will lose the smallest nuggets, but allow more sensitivity and possibly get better depth on larger nuggets by eliminating the salt signal. Buried test nuggets really help in situations like this. Great report Mark, and congrats on finally getting that Rye Patch gold!

The second nugget I found weighed .10grams, but has some caliche/mud atatched to it still.  It was very very faint in "fine" timing and sensitivity 2.  I tested the signal while still in the ground changing settings.  At sensitivity 3, the target was much clearer and definite.  I did switch to "salt" setting and did not get a response at sensitivity 2 or 3.  After the testing, I set the Axiom to a sensitivity of 3 for most of the rest of the day.  I did use sens. 4 briefly, but preferred the quieter 3 setting.

I believe the ability to manually select different modes or timings on the Axiom are what set it apart from more automatic units like the ML 6k.  Got salt?  Switch to salt mode without need to swapping to a different DD coil.  Too many tiny shards of iron from cans or wires wasting time?  Switch to normal timing to knock out the tiny targets.  And even low sensitivity settings find the gold, and quite tiny and coarse too.  I have more sub .1gr nuggets with the Axiom so far than I ever got with the GPX 5000 and even my SDC!

Great analysis and similar to what has occurred to me the past few days while out using v1.0 for around 8 hours now.  Nice to visualize the various combinations in table form, so thanks for that.

People are definitely going to have to watch their coil battery level more. Just yesterday, I realized I had been in 14khz General program for near an hour. I nearly always avoid DHC P6 since it drains the coil charge pretty fast. I forgot I had changed to 14khz, but luckily I started the day on a full charge and was close to home, ao no harm done. I can see people now forgetting what freq offset they are in for long periods of time and perhaps use the unintended one while swinging or draining a battery faster than expected, so we all have to watch out!

Another parrallel that occured to me, and will make sense to Nokta Legend users,is the new offset frequencies for the Deus 2 are similar to how Legend users can toggle M1, M2, and M3 and select their preferred frequency weightings. Most are additive, but M3 is designed to be ground subtractive. The new Park M3 is like the D2 in DHC with its low weighting, and hard-hitting on high conductors.  Some food for thought for any Legend owners contemplating getting a D2 in the future. 

You found a pretty one, despite the low weight.  

Last spring I got a fairly plain .68 gram lady's/girl's 14k gold ring with my Deus 2 in a park.  Rang up at VDI# 38.  I really only got it because less than 10ft. away I found a small silver ring and scoured the nearby area.  I generally don't dig numbers that low since small foil comes up the same.  

7 hours ago, Gerry in Idaho said:

Mark,  That's most certainly a GOLDEN way to start the new year and break in the capabilities of the new Garrett Axiom.  I think the smaller 11" Ellip coil was a great selection for that site.  Those nuggets are just a beginning of what to expect as you get more time on the detector and feel for how much you can push it's limits.

Garrett did us all Prospectors a huge favor with the option on the Axiom at a price point so many of us can afford.

As for lead shot,  If it's from a shotgun, the standard Dove Load of past used to be #9 shot.  There's smaller snake shot that I have used in pistols though but don't know the actual # size.

Thanks for sharing your success and since you purchased it from me, may I share the pics/story with other potential customers who want Bang for the Buck?

Well earned and Happy New Year, it's starting out Golden.

Gerry, I'm glad I was at the top of your list to get an Axiom right when they came out.  I immediately sold my SDC 2300 after emailing you.  My dad still hasn't hunted with it yet, but I don't feel too bad for him since he's been traveling and golfing...

Please feel free to use my experience with the Axiom to share with others.  I think its a great machine, especially for anybody who doesn't already own a higher-end PI detector, or even for those who do that want some versatility.

As for the shotgun pellet size #, it was the smallest bird shot size.  It didn't stick to my magnet either (and I had to find it again when it dropped, oops!).  It came out with the first scrape of my pick, but finding a pellet that size with a non-vlf was eye-opening for sure.  The Axiom was in fine mode and sensitivity was on 4 of a possible 8.  Ground was "just" highly-mineralized and not "severely" mineralized like where I took the Axiom on my first 2 outings.  

I'm in complete agreement too that I'd like vibrate enabled when the m-i6 is paired.

I searched for a long while online after my first day pairing to try to figure out how to enable vibration, but it doesn't seem possible, sadly.   

I now prefer to use the pinpointer as a stand alone since I'd rather give up the extra sensitivity controls when paired in order to keep the vibration feature.  

Dirtshark, gold is not easy to find at all due to there being soooo much aluminum and other trash out there on land which makes locating gold much like searching for a needle in a haystack.  Its been 6 months since my last gold on land, so it takes a long time for most of us.

ID# 14 is definitely a number where I also find a lot of tiny can slaw and larger, wadded up foil.  I chose Field M2 for this search because unlike Park mode, Field doesn't compress ID# range 11 to 14 into mostly an 11 ID#.  A #14 for this pendant gave me a clue from the number it was something likely more solid at least.   I tend to use Park mode and/or M1 when I feel like ignoring more of the lower numbers (and hopefully only aluminum) targets in a really trashy area.  

I finally managed to find some gold with the Legend today during a brief stop at a play structure in a park.  This particular spot has a base of sand and gravel and a newer top layer of rubber mulch.  The plan was to use the Legend + 6in. coil to dig up all signals including all of them in the foil range in the hopes of getting some gold.  Well, the plan worked and the Legend now has a 14k gold angel pendant to it's credit.  The chain ended up being just plated.  

I was running disc pattern (G)ground and 60 tones.  Sensitivity was at 28, Field 2 mode.  I set my first tone break down from 11 to 8 and had IF at 8 with recovery speed 5.  

The pendant gave a solid ID# 14 reading and as you can see in the picture, was right near the surface.  The chain was actually just below a leaf in the picture.  Depth was maybe 2-3inches.  Interestingly, away from the junk chain, the pendant gave an ID# of 15.  I guess the chain pulled the ID down a little.  I got zero response sweeping the chain once out of the hole, so it was only found by being with the pendant still.

Even though the pendant only weighs .82 grams of 14k, its a start and I hope the Legend keeps on finding more gold.    

Thanks for performing that test on that chunk of magnetite.  Good information for current or future Axiom owners to know.  I can see this ability to cancel out very large hot rocks as perhaps a sign the Axiom will have a niche finding gold in areas where large hot rocks like these sound off and hide weaker gold signals. 

I have just a spot to test this next spring once the snow in the mountains has melted off and things warm up.  

I hoped to hear there would be aftermarket coils for the Axiom.    I suspected if there were to be any soon, Detech would be a likely company.

For me, a smaller mono coil would be nice for use in tight situations such as on bedrock and around bushes, rocks and other obstacles.  

I'm sure the beach hunters and relic hunters would love an open SEF type coil for some good coverage and for use in or near the water.  

I imagine with plenty of experience making really durable great performing coils for other PI machines in the past, Detech can probably get production of some new Axiom coils done quickly.  I look forward to seeing and using some other coil types and shapes soon.

Its great you had a successful first outing. And it certainly seems the Manticore is very user-friendly.

I think you are now going to become totally hooked on this variation on gold detecting with your new detector.  

I sold my Equinox to a friend last summer to search his property for an old house site, but I still have my Coiltek 10x5.  It makes me think that coil on the Equinox 900 would be a pretty sweet combo for nugget hunting... And the best thing is it or the 6in. round can be immediately paired with the 900 once it comes out. 

The Manticore 8x5.5 coil may take a while to appear for sale if past release history is any indicator, but sounds like a great combo too.

Its nice to have choices, but suddenly it seems like there are almost too many with the 2 new top machines soon to be released 

That assortment of finds would get me to go back.  There HAS to be some silver coins and wheat cents still there if the park has the proper age.  I find clad is a good indicator of activity and gives you some small incentives to keep digging while looking for the older coins or jewelry.  Keep at it!

Bravo to all of you predicting the Equinox would be the one announced to get the updates for a 2nd time around!  

I think Minelab can afford to rest on its laurels for now and not release a GPZ successor any time soon. 

The GPX 6000 seems to be selling well and breathing life into new patches.  The old GPZ7000, while heavy, definitely outclasses the GPX 6000 on deeper and bigger gold, gives the people liking the ability to change settings what they want, handles bad ground, and has a decent amount of coil choices now.  And its still finding the gold.  Its like the CTX3030 in form and yet the 3030 is still in the lineup.  I think they'll save a new gen ZVT detector for when its more strategic to do so.

I think maybe with the Axiom in the works and just out, ML may have added a lighter weight battery conversion upgrade so the gpx 5000 can lose the harness and curly cord to the battery brick.  They did similar to the SDC giving it a lithium-ion pack.

That would make it lighter and more portable and compete more with the Axiom. Imagine if they put the 5k on a telescopic CF shaft too and priced at $2995...

15 hours ago, jasong said:

Interesting stuff. Probably don't have an Axiom in my future, but it's little quirks and techniques like that which can really make a detector useful to some people and make some machines really fun to use. If I didn't have a 6000 already I'd definitely be buying an Axiom to experiment around with stuff like this just for fun.

I don't take coin-hunting too seriously with a PI.  At least on more modern field/park settings like where I went.  My spot has little tinfoil, so I felt I could at least have a chance to locate a deep coin my VLF have missed.   I do think there is potential at old battle or relic sites and especially on beaches. 

16 hours ago, strick said:

Im listening  as I may ditch the TDI pro for the Axiom at some point...as I'm interested in trying it for beach hunting at some point but too many detectors right now and need to thin out the herd first...

strick 

I say wait before ditching the TDI.  The conductivity switch on it is pretty dang useful.  I am holding onto my brother's unit for now, even though I have the Axiom.  I think there is real potential to use the Axiom say at beaches.  Not the best on turf like where I did my experiment.

I hear you on the "too many detectors", haha.    I sold my Nox and SDC at the end of last summer.  Now I have a Legend and Axiom and the Manticore is coming....