RONS DETECTORS MINELAB

I also was thinking that the GPX-6000 and GPZ-7000 would always be separated out on performances since Minelab has controlled this market for so long. I hope they do not lose future sales on this past practice as now with the Axiom offering a 14" x 16" mono and DD coils it would seem the competition could change Minelab's previous thinking strategies, especially if it's about making the most profits. Hopefully they are forced into adding more options then what was previously offered to compete with the current competition, kind of like the X-Terra Pro release is attempting to do. 

I was looking at the X-Terra Pro manual and saw it has a manual ground balance, nice feature. I was surprised they let me now I could order one now also. 

On 3/14/2023 at 7:41 AM, Steve Herschbach said:

Even with the SDC, 6000 and 7000 I cherry pick targets based on tone, so I am using discrimination - my ear and brain.

I'm hoping the engineers can someday add a visual target ID for tone changes on PI and ZVT for better refining of what I'm hearing.

On 3/14/2023 at 1:20 PM, phrunt said:

at this stage unless they shock me I don't see how they could have a significant improvement

Yes, I'm hoping they shock me to, but it makes me also wonder what they have been designing since the 2015's ZED release, as this is a long time in the making.

I can only hope it is a more refined 7000 that can actually add more depth performance on all nugget sizes, handle the worst ground effectively, and can have a huge variety of coil size options right from the release date, but If you already have X-coils this might not be it's best selling point.

Any discrimination would still be beneficial for surface rubbish, shallow soils and bedrock areas, but I do not like the previous blanking type of PI discrimination, so maybe a different tone could be used or a visual target ID would be even more outstanding.

I expect it to be a lot lighter with better ergonomics since they have been successful at doing this with other newer models. Any lightweight water resistance packaging would be beneficial for accident plunges while working near water.

Being this is a Flagship detector for the most series prospectors I would hope it would have more user control options than the GPX-6000. 

For now I'm just glad Minelab is still taking the lead on this as I have confidence it will be worth the wait. 

I am also hoping for better small gold discrimination on a PI detector, but as Steve has described in the below article this is a hard thing to accomplish.

Even the GPX-6000, GPZ, SDC have all dropped discrimination from it's features probably due to the smaller disseminated gold capabilities it's after and the fact that these latest Minelab detectors are more of a true gold detector vs. a multipurpose gold and relic/coin detector such as the GPX-5000.

Even though the Axiom has small gold capabilities and offers partial discrimination, it is also very limited at separating out two foot deep 3" nails. Please read the following note from the Garret Axiom owner's manual below:

Note: Iron Check is a conservative function. To help ensure Axiom does not misidentify a good target as iron, the iron tone (buzz) will only activate on strong signals. Therefore, small/weak iron targets may not identify as iron. In addition, due to their large, flat surface area and relatively high conductivity, steel bottle caps will typically not identify as iron. Examples of iron targets that will produce the iron tone (buzz) are: a 3-inch nail to a depth of about 5 inches; and a ¾-inch boot nail to a depth of about 2 inches. In highly mineralized areas, Iron Check accuracy may be affected. 

And in the comparison chart from the GP-3000 located below nothing has really changed in this regard over a 20 plus years timeframe.

Miracles can happen, so maybe in the future we will see some new breakthroughs in PI's discrimination capabilities, but so far just some more dig it all.

Oh No!

I hate it when I do that!

Looks like Fisher was able to do some great iron discrimination with the Impulse AQ pulse induction detector on larger gold targets. Does anyone know if this ZTS technology is moving forward or if there was a problem with it's actual performance on in ground targets. I do like the presentation with the rings and nails together.

GPX 6000 for Goldmonster control type simplicity and Axiom for users wanting to adjust settings further for more challenging grounds. Axiom also for use in more surface iron infested grounds using DD discrimination. One year more warranty on 6000 though.

I really plan on getting the GPZ replacement, not sure how long it will be before it comes out though. I am primarily only hoping that they make coils that are comparable to the performance of the x-coils for it. Any other features than that would be only more reason to get it. Minelab usually incorporates all their newest technologies into multiple new detector releases, so I am optimistic that it will be a winner, especially over the previous 2015 ZED that was put into a bulky CTX housing. 

Hopefully where you detect a VLF can handle the ground mineralization as hearing hot rocks all days is very discouraging to a young detectorist.

If you are getting a VLF though the newer multi-freq. detectors can perform like your MXT and find smaller gold than the MXT.

The March sale on the Equinox 600/800 also has the free 6" coil added to the package. 

Pricing as follows:

Best Buy! Equinox 600 $599 corded headphones 2 coils & 3 year warranty.

Note: Park 2 works on small sub grain gold .03 gram in it's multi-freq. mode. You give up about a quarter to half inch difference compared to the 800 in prospecting mode. 

Equinox 800 $899 wireless headphones 2 coils & 3 year warranty.

Legend $499 no headphones one coil 2 year warranty.

Legend Pro Pack $699 wireless headphones 2 coils including 6" 2 year warranty. 

Should be a good year in the Sierra's for you both, especially if the snows melt off quickly!

1 hour ago, Joel - cacadordereliquia said:

They have an excellent depth range, but they have a problem: they don't have the ability to discriminate different types of metals?

The 6000 in primarily normal timing can have a distinctive sound on medium and larger sized metals such as double tones on long pieces of metal. Boot tacks also have a very common sound that is very repeatable, quite different from low conductor targets such as gold and lead. So although not a true discrimination feature, with time one can tell the difference on a lot of rubbish type target responses.

The best feature of pulse induction is not hearing all the ground mineralization VLF's hear that mask a lot of gold targets. And with PI sensitivity now down to .03 grams your getting the majority of the small stuff along with the big deeper stuff in one coil sweep.

I still use a VLF for disseminated gold in quartz where a PI fails or in low mineralized rubbish covered placer grounds though.

I can relate to this detecting being a dangerous business and not for the faint hearted. I on occasion find myself using ropes to keep me from falling of cliffs on hydraulic head cuts, crossing high-water creeks and rivers , stepping right over rattlesnakes, pulling ticks out frequently in the spring, having close bear encounters, and being 3 hours away from a vehicle while in rough terrain in the back country with no cell or radio communications. 

Wow! 25% off the GPX-6000 for the month of March and its just reaching its second year anniversary. 

It’s always good for the consumer when two competing companies are trying to keep sales up and use pricing to achieve that goal. If these recent sales prices our part of this goal and could remain in a long term competition, then its going to be a very competitive market for these high end detector. Note also, the 15% military discount Is now also offered by both companies.

The prices added in the list below do a fairly reasonable job at separating out the performance verses current pricing options on the higher end PI detectors. The only caveat to this is If pricing and performances are close together I would always choose the three year warranty option though. Below is the price list including the most recent February/March sales prices offered on the most high end Pulse Induction detectors.

ATX $2,379.00 Weight with 11 x 13 inch mono coil 7.0 Lbs. Water submersible. Lots to offer for coil sizes & coil configurations to achieve small and fairly large gold performance. Offers partial iron discrimination with DD coils. 2 year warranty

SDC 2300 $2,550.00 February SALE vs. $3,499. Weight with 8 inch mono coil 5.3 Lbs. Water submersible. The MFP timings with the small 8” coil seems to handle higher mineralization pretty well. Very small gold performance. 3 year warranty

Axiom $3,995.00  Weight w 11 inch mono 4.2 LBS.  Very small and fairly large gold performance. Offers partial iron discrimination with DD coils. 2 year warranty

GPX 5000 $3,999.00 Weight on arm minus battery pack 5.3 Lbs. with 11” coil. To be wireless you need to add Doc’s Gold Screamer battery and booster pack 6.3 Lbs. Largest offerings for coil sizes & coil configurations to achieve small and large* gold performance. Offers partial iron discrimination with DD coils. 3 year warranty

The GPX-5000 could definitely use a price reduction also but is still one of the most versatile PI detector on the market.

 *Note: Coiltek Elite & Nugget Finder Evolution coils add more performance and sensitivity over previous released bundle wound coils.

GPX 6000 $4,500.00 March SALE. Weight 4.6 Lbs. w 11 inch mono. Very small and fairly large gold performance. 3 year warranty

GPZ 7000 $6,375.00 February SALE vs. $8,499,00. Weight 7.3 Lbs. w 14 inch DOD coil ZVT or 6.0 Lbs. with the Nugget Finder Z-search 12 inch coil and compatible CTX-3030 Li-ion battery. Minelab’s flagship detector with very small and exceptional large gold performance. 3 year warranty

Please do not get to excited about the iron discrimination capabilities on the ATX, Axiom, & older GPX series, as it is only has partial discrimination at best. Works good on surface iron, but for any deep iron you will still need to dig quite a bit of dirt until your detector can determine it is iron. The only chart that I could find to show this was a GP-3000 Minelab chart showing its limited discrimination abilities, attached below.

On 2/22/2023 at 2:34 PM, Aureous said:

Hey Darren, I see Pauly has had some fun (and records) on your claims. He seemed to bounce back from Covid pretty well when he found that big nugget lol 

Looks like Pauly's breaking his gold find records there.

18 hours ago, phrunt said:

Axiom Focused Core (FC) DD Coils
This video compares traditional DD and Mono prospecting search coils against the ultra-hot detection of Axiom Focused Core (FC) DD coils.

Engineered with a centralized focused core, each Axiom DD search coil exceeds mono coil performance on small gold nuggets. "

It would be nice to have some more added edge sensitivity like the flattened bundle wound mono's. 

Concentric coils always have the better small target sensitivity over mono's but never handled the ground effects as good as the DD coils. So, I like the idea of having a DD coil that can better handle the more mineralized ground effects while working in non smoothing timings, but also having the sensitivity like that of a inner part of a concentric type coil.

The bullfrog mine in the sierra's had native visible gold in malachite, so it is always possible. Gold is where you find it!

11 hours ago, strick said:

Sorry I was asking Ron with the 9" coil.. 🙂

This detector was received from the repair shop on 9/23/22 and has no issues with the external speaker.

The threshold being off causes a audio noise filter over the EMI allowing me to be able to hear the faint signals.

I decided to work a patch near some power lines today and was reluctant to use the larger DD coil even though it works great here at eliminating most EMI interference. Usually I always run the 6000 with the threshold on for hearing the fainter signals better, but today I decided to keep the 9" mono coil on it and lowering the sensitivity to manual 5 and also turning off the threshold. This resulted in no EMI interference using the mono coil. The sensitivity was still fairly good and I was picking up the little bits pretty good. This also allowed me to turn the threshold back on when moving farther away from the power lines without doing several coil swaps throughout the day.

5 hours ago, Az_Ed said:

I noticed a used GPX-4500 available locally.  Includes 4 coils, 3 extra stems, 3 battery packs, harness and headphones.  It looks like it is used little.  I know the 4500 was discontinued in 2020.  I have never used a Minelab but I've seen them find Au twice during group outings.  Currently I'm running an XP Deus which I've run for hundreds of hours without finding Au.  I've found everything else, right down to many tiny fragments of bullets.  I'm keen on nugget-shooting in remote areas.  Would the 4500 be a good choice at this point in time for a nugget shooting upgrade?  Approximate cost is $2400 for the package, which is a lot of kroner for a hobbyist who has not yet found any Au.  Any suggestions and comments are welcome.  Ed, Tucson, Az.

Sounds like you must have low mineralized ground where you detect as the XP sounds like it's working fine for you since you are finding small bullet fragments. So sounds like you just are needing to get the coil over a nugget for now.

If not a hot ground issue then the Pulse Induction GPX will only give you a depth advantage on the larger deeper nuggets over the XP but with less discrimination capabilities. But If you are dealing with very mineralized ground then you could benefit using a pulse induction detector over your XP, since VLF's drop in performance quickly when used on this kind of ground. 

The 5000 did add more timings including Fine Gold, Coin/Relic, and also a refined Salt timing over the 4500. Even the ground balance and Enhance timing was better refined on the 5000.

I do have a 5000 in the classified adds for a price comparison of what a 4500 should sell for.

The added link below from Steve H. will help in describing the difference in the older GPX series.

Minelab is responding to the competition with some huge price reductions. 25% off the GPZ-7000 & the SDC-2300 for the month of February. Minelab always seems to come through with a new release or a huge price reduction promotion just when the competition heats up. First it was a free Goldmonster 1000 with the GPZ and now this.

Here’s the newest Pulse Induction or Zero Voltage price lineup for the month of February. Not sure where this will all end up, but glad to see some good changes in the lowering of prices on two classic gold detectors.

GPZ 7000 sale $6375 7.2 lbs

GPX 6000 $5999 4.5 lbs

Axiom $3995 4.2 lbs

Minelab GPX 5000 $3999 6 lbs

SDC 2300 sale $2550 5.3 lbs

Garrett ATX $2379 7.0 lbs

Edited just now by Steve Herschbach

On 1/12/2023 at 7:47 PM, Glithium said:

Is there any way to get his email for mod info on the gb2?

Here's some pictures of Gary's Gold Bug 2 mods and part numbers. The one detector next to the mod is the original wiring.

On 1/9/2023 at 9:44 PM, Kevin Patz said:

I use the Gold Bug 2, and I love everything about it's decades old design, Yes the updated version doesn't impress me

The mod I did like on the Gold Bug 2 was Gary Hudson's sensitivity modification, unfortunately though I lost contact with Gary years ago and this modified one needs fixed. I do not have the paper work either or I would try to fix it.

Gerry McMullen had one when we went detecting together about 20 years ago and he did really good with it, so I finally broke down and got one.

Anyone remember what all the switches did?

4 hours ago, phrunt said:

That’s just one example of taking good features from one detector to another to better it, if manufacturers wanted to listen to end users they could get some great advice to easily make a market leading VLF for gold we would all want to own, they are just about all capable of doing it and Fisher should take it on as they need it the most to bring them back into the game

I  agree,

If only all past and present detector features could advance together for a great end product!!!

My favorite features being offered in current prospecting VLF's are Multi-IQ and single frequencies selectable options, hopefully 13, 20, 40, and 71 options will be available on the next generation Goldmonster. I'm also hoping they will add fully programmable control setting's like the Equinox and  a full auto option like the Goldmonster for the beginners to start with, but with a threshold option like the 6000. Maybe even possibly add a VDI and 2D FE-CO for helping to determine the probability of rubbish.

Incorporate waterproof to 15 feet, noise cancel, USB chargers, replaceable li-ion batteries, Bluetooth headphones with the screw in headphone jack (option), and keep the package lightweight (Deus).  

I'd also like to see some of the much older design features brought back also. Some examples of this are the ergonomics of the balanced Fisher's S rod that would separate in three pieces for backpacking, but maybe in a Manticore carbon/camlock fashion. The hip mountable control boxes or even the less desired wireless coils (Deus) [that would even help solve even the Pulse Induction weight issues]. The White's detectors flat control box that would not fall over even when put on an very uneven surface, the Fisher 3 x 6.5 inch elliptical concentric or double DD coils for the greatest sensitivity and also for the greatest mobility in rocky areas, and the Goldmonster 1000 ability to carry spare interchangeable li-ion battery pack for extended hike in camping. We used to have VLF detectors that could run for 40 plus hours on one set of batteries and now the VLF detector I use most frequently only has an internal battery that can only last 12 hours.  

Seems like lately the VLF advancements are slowing down now, especially in performance. The past leg work has already been done, just need to incorporate all these great past features into one package.

How about any other features you would like to see added???

The SDC-2300 would be the best choice if working in creeks and rivers due to it's ability to be submerged.  It also compacts really nice if needing to put it in a backpack for hike in areas (compacts to 15.5 x 8.5 inches) and is very user friendly to use. The SDC does have edge sensitivity for putting the coil sideways in deep bedrock crevices. Minelab does offers a three year warranty verses the Garrett two year warranty. For dry land detecting the Axiom still has a rain proof control box. The Axiom does have an advantage over the SDC on deeper targets due to more timings and a lot more coil options. The Axiom is also about 1 1/2 pounds lighter with the smaller coils. The price difference, warranty, and the places you plan on using it are three factors to consider. 

CTX-3030 has new MAP price of $1,999.00

This is still a great high conductor deep seeking detector.