Search the Community

I had a 4500 as my 1st serious detector. The best upgrade available are after market coils. I had 3 nuggetfinder evolution coils that were great. 14 x9, 12" round and 15" spoked. I I had to choose just one , it would be the 14x9. It was a really good coil to swing, shape wise and weight wise. It was also very sensitive and gave good depth. I found more gold with that coil than any other with the 4500, having said that, I also used that coil more than the others.... Next best upgrade is a really good set of headphones. I'm not sure what is available in the US, but 300 ohms are the go.

The reason I sold my 6000 was I got sick of digging foot deep holes for a pellet. my back is not the best anymore....The gold I found with the 6000 was mostly 1 to 6 inches deep, from 0.01 to 2 grams in the Triangle, Hill End and up North Queensland. i hope this E1500 will also find that gold at little depth. Next week I will be going to flogged areas where I found a lot with my 4500 and when that finished I found the little left over ones with the 6000. Hope the E1500 will do well.

I was watching this video from Woody that he did about 3 months ago, oddly my GPX 4500 had the exact same problem whereby they'd painted the housing causing the alloy front and rear plates not to contact the housing, thereby making the alloy grounding not perform as it was intended so I had to file the paint off and it worked very well. Then with the 6000 it appears they've done the same thing, EMI shielding painted the housing, yet not connected it to the ground of the detector. It's just bizarre how these things take place. I do wonder if this is something that was a problem on early 6000's and they've resolved as they've worked it out, and later ones have the grounding done properly. I've no idea if mines been done or not, and the way he does it is a bit crude although working, I'd not do it that way with the squished washer, the tap washer seems a bit better and something a bit better than one of the fibrous cardboard types might be alright, still I prefer if this is the case and there is a grounding problem on them they fix it as a warranty repair, perhaps as part of the EMI fix with the inductors this was part of their procedures fixing this problem too, as I did notice not only was my detector no longer going crazy randomly it also appeared to be more stable with general EMI.

I recently got a GPX4500 in absolutely mint/pristine condition for a crazy low sum and the 4500 prices are dropping,so i grabbed it and also purchased some new coils as well for it....i did have a fair amount of Mono coils that i use on my TDI Pro. I would agree that places like FB sales could be risky but i must admit i have never had any issues with some expensive camera equipment,but i have met the seller face to face and that way i can check the goods prior to parting with my money. Good luck and i hope you find a real decent bargain.

Would like some help/advice again please folks regarding these 'Doc Screamer Power Packs',as i understand it they are mainly used to reduce the overall weight by doing away with the large factory battery pack,i will be running it on my GPX 4500 but not for nugget hunting but deep pasture and ploughed sites here in the UK....so my question is my learned friends are they worth the pretty steep investment in this battery package or do folks use other 'reliable' options ?? I wont be using a external speaker because i will be using full cup headphones all the time as the temperatures dont get as hot as say in Aussie land during the peak summer months,even during the hottest days here i will then usually use the XP Deus wired backphones which in my opinion produce amazing audio quality at such a cheap bargain price. Many thanks

Thought I would update this post. Anyone else have newer stuff/ideas? Today I took some reloading equipment and gun related stuff to a gun store in Boise I like to thin out some of what I inherited. In a partial trade I picked up two cases. Almost identical, one is a tactical rifle and gear case, the other is a mobile gear crate. The difference being one has a gun tray, the other a deep gear tray. They have small wheels on one end (but no coffee cup holder 😥). The inside dementsions are 39.5"L x 11"W x 9.5"H. Not super padded but I can adjust that accordingly. I can fit two Nox 800's and coils, 6" 11" and 15" plus gear. It does take some spatial aptitude. Or I can fit in a gpx 4500 with coils (15x10 shown. Has holes for locks if desired. Not a pelican case but but a nice option too protect the detector and gear. And it's made USA.

The hip stick seems to be for harness only with its fixed length, but now I see little need for a harness, I used to for the speakers on the 4500 and its butt battery as I liked speakers but now with modern detectors and the Avantree Torus the harness is an optional thing, even my 5000 now I won't be wearing a harness ever again with its new lithium battery on the side of the box and wireless audio to the neck speaker or its JBL speaker on the shaft, these new lightweight detectors don't really need a harness and even the GPZ with the 8" coil which is my common GPZ combo certainly doesn't need a harness. Docs Ultra Swingy Thingy would take care of any fatigue with these lighter coils and detectors, it holds the pants up too as a bonus, while giving you a decent Bungy option and is certainly more than you need for the smaller coils, if I was in Australia swinging a 22" Concentric on my GPZ I'd be far more for the hip mounted method though as long as targets were few and far between as it's a frustrating thing to wear when constantly up and down digging and recovering targets, even the 15" Concentric on the GPZ can be a bit tiring by the end of the day as its similar weight to the stock 14x13" coil, slightly less I think but I'd still rather just connect it to a backpack and to my belt than have to wear a harness, which is why I'm interested in the contraption Doc comes up with, and anyone else. The reason I like the idea of an extendable one is so I can use anything with the little D ring clip on it to hook the hip stick onto, I often have a small backpack on when detecting, it has my food and drink it in, and another coil usually. So, I prefer to just clip onto that and my pants belt, most decent backpacks already have the little D ring on them. We are all different though, as I become a senior citizen, I'm sure my thoughts and opinions on these assistant devices will change. I never liked them at all, the Swingy Thingy helped convert me a bit.

Loved my Docs Gold Screamer power pack. Used it on the 4000, 4500 & 5000. Initial investment is about what a minelab battery costs, but additional batteries are only about $50. I had 4 of them and could go all weekend, I think they lasted about 6-7 hours each from what I can remember. I don't recall there being any performance difference between the stock battery vs Docs system. Sure was nice not having to wear a belt to pack the battery around. I have a GPX 6000 and Axiom now, so it's been about 2 years since I sold the 5000 with the Doc system. I feel like the battery pack was a great investment though and never had any trouble with it. Hope that helps.

The ideal people to buy an Algoforce are those with an earlier model GPX, a 4500 or 5000, or any of the earlier models, it will completement those detectors so very well, they can share coils and the Algo provides a lot of attributes they lack, the lighter design would be a big plus too with the tiny little light batteries. It would give them better small gold sensitivity, and from what I've seen so far hits the difficult bits of gold the GPX models (except 6000) miss or are very weak on. I wish they didn't call the 6000 a GPX, it's frustrating as it's not even remotely a GPX model. Earlier GPX users will greatly benefit from its EMI handling too, they can use mono's when normally they'd need an AI coil, or if lucky a DD may work OK. QED owners, it's a no brainer, perfect upgrade. As I've never used a TDI I can't comment much, but it might be something they would be interested in too with its features, coil compatibility and performance along with the attractive price. SDC owners I have no idea, never used one. The next set of buyers would be those that don't already have a 6000 or 7000, someone looking to buy a PI, but not sure they want to spend Minelab pricing, they'll get a great detector with far less outlay. They could also use it for other purposes, I think it's going to end up a pretty damn good dry and wet sand beach detector, and will be a very good way to use a PI for coin and jewellery hunting anywhere with it's great Target ID's and EMI handling. GPZ owners may like it for a lighter patch hunter, it's yet to be seen how it would perform in this situation, and the Aussies will soon report on that no doubt, it may even outdo the GPZ with stock coils or official aftermarket coils on some small gold, and seeing the 12" round is the officially smallest coil for the GPZ without modifications then the Algo brings those people small coil support for a detector that doesn't cost too much more than some aftermarket 7000 coils and the Sadie to pair with it is a pretty cheap little coil too. It's most certainly its own detector and has features and benefits that no other PI has, such as its incredibly stable Target ID's, which put most VLF's to shame from what I've seen so far. I'll be interested how people doing all sorts of different things with detectors are able to adapt the Algo to their detecting style and the benefits it brings them.

More cool information about the Algoforce, it ground balances very salty soil fine, even in Ultra Fine gold mode using a super sensitive 10" fully spiral wound coil. This took me by surprise as the last time I was at this spot was testing the GPX 4500 with the Nugget Finder 14x9" EVO and had quite a bit of difficulty with ground balance, The Algoforce barely even needed balanced, it wasn't even bad from switch on with only a small portion showing on the mineralization bar, this was resolved with a ground balance. I was in ultra fine gold mode, on the GPX 4500 I had to drop the timings down in sensitivity, I can't remember which worked well. It maintained good pellet sensitivity once balanced, not as good as in mild soils, but still pretty good. You'll notice the sun reflecting in this photo above on the screen, so when I have the same photo with the sun behind me even further like below, you'll see just how good the screen is in direct sun, it loves it, it's brilliant in full sun, so different to the GPZ that's damn near impossible to see, it's good though, as the Algo has so much information on the screen, really good information. I must have found 15 or more 22 shells today, for the first 8 I was checking if they were 22 shells after getting their 22 target ID, then I started playing a game of odds, any big booming that with an ID of 22 was likely a 22 shell so I didn't waste my time. In may not look it in the photos but this soil is so weird, it's almost white and full of salt. I hadn't calibrated my coil in its slot as I was using it for another coil so I calibrate it in the video, you can see this being done for those interested in seeing a coil calibrate. I had a bit of trouble pressing the two buttons at once with one hand to start the calibration while holding my phone to film 🙂 Note my Ground balance numbers, 50 00, default is 50 50. It would be nice from the manufacturer to update the manual to indicate what these numbers mean in some way. 50 00 is a bit of a surprise number combination, must be the salt. Didn't spend long here at all, had too much to do, but it was worth a try to see how the detector worked in salt and it worked brilliantly. I think it's going to be a great beach detector; I wonder how it would go with a mono coil in the salt flats in Australia. Another little bit of information that may be of interest, it is looking like you can use the mineralization bars on the screen as a form of Iron probability meter, when going over an iron junk target, they rise right up like it needs ground balanced, pass over the target they drop back down. I tested this quite a bit today, every bit of iron I knew was iron before recovering it by using this method. I need to experiment with this more and see, and do some iron air tests. I have a lot to learn yet but the Target ID and other features of this detector give it much more of a VLF like feature set, and could really be taken advantage of.

Welcome Grumpy, good to have you here. You can use the little search box in the top right corner of the forum to find out plenty of stuff on the GPX 5000, also search for other models such as the 4500 too, as they're so similar and information between models can be shared. Also, there is the Minelab section of the forum where you're more than welcome to ask any questions you have on it. Plenty of people can help with just about anything. Understanding the timings I found the most important thing.

Yea the new price for the GPX 6000 at $6499 is almost laughable, at least to me. I had a hard time justifying what I paid for it almost 2 years ago. But it does find the gold. Once the Algoforce hits the US market priced at under $1800, it will most likely require some companies to lower their price or lose market share. I'm not a full time gold prospector, in fact I only gold hunt for probably 20 or less days a year. Luckily I'm well enough off I can afford to spend 6k on a metal detector just for the fun factor. But I'd rather spend the money and be able to go out and find some gold every time I go rather than settle for second best and get frustrated. I know a lot of people that hunt gold nuggets way more days a year than I do and would never spend even $2500 on a new GPX 4500 to compliment their VLF. The VLF finds them plenty of small stuff. From the sound of it, the Algoforce won't find as small of gold as a good VLF but will to allow us to find small gold a VLF won't find at greater depths in mineralized ground. So I foresee a good portion of those VLF users jumping up to an Algoforce who wouldn't buy a SDC2300 or Axiom.

Rob, That's where you and I totally differ. I like sharing and mentioning the kinds of gold most folks miss and the older Minelab PI's, including the GPX-4500/5000's miss as well. Heck no, I'm not going to pay $2500 for old technology to find the few rare solid nuggets out there at the locations we all hunt. You like mentioning the fact that specimens, wire gold and hardrock ore laced with gold is not the norm and or is rare. Buddy, I hate to tell you, but the majority of gold I recover anymore is of those styles and it's more weight than when I was getting a few ounces a year with the older PI's. Plus as a bonus, many of them are worth more than the actual gold, sometimes 1.5 to 3X the price, especially if it's wire gold. That's what I have been trying to tell folks for the last few years. The newer technology PI's (Axiom, 6000) are doing better on the specimens, reef, wire, tiny bits. That's exactly why I highlighted Nenads comments on the AlgoForce. I didn't bring it up at 1st, he did. I just so happen to know the importance of such potential detector. And no, its not just in Idaho that I'm finding them. Some of my collection is from CA, AZ, NV, WY, MT, OR, and Idaho. It's out there, but it takes people to change their mindset and go hunt hardrock ore dumps and hand placer workings. Why do I say that, because for 30 yrs most of us have been swinging old school PI's and missing those kinds of gold. When I can go behind one of my experienced customers on a site he gridded both ways...who pulls 11 ounces of gold with his GPZ-7000 and I found 3 more ounces with newer detectors, it really opens his eyes. One of the pieces is golf ball size and has near an ounce of gold. His 7000 would not hear it, even in air. That's what I'm trying to say. The newer technologies are seeing more gold than the old. Problem is the old gold (solid nuggets) has mostly already been found at the sites we hunt. I know you don't care about "what if gold", so when/if you decide to sell the AlgoForce, are you going to sell it based on price only? I love what Nenad said about the different kinds of gold....as I know there is plenty more of it out there to be collected. It's not as rare as you seem to think. I hate to say it..but in fact. I'm sorry you don't get out and explore more gold bearing regions. I also realize selling detectors is not your main income, it's kind of a side hustle. Hopefully (it can't be too far away), you'll have more time to play and venture into the invisible to many PI's gold. It's a lot of fun and very rewarding. I do commend you for your time and comments though. And I still enjoy BSing with you and Dawn on the rare times we get to. No hard feelings either way and who knows, maybe I'll have egg on my face. It wouldn't be the 1st time, only time will tell.

I think the people that can't afford a GPX 6000 or 7000 are going to end up with a pretty good detector for their money with the Algoforce, and they will be able to pick up gold they would miss with the 4500/5000 that's a fact but it likely goes the other way too with the legacy GPX picking up gold the Algo misses, maybe deeper bits might be more the GPX territory, I'm not sure on depths yet on bigger stuff. I doubt they'll do better in any way than someone with a 6000 or 7000 although I've not used my 14x13" on the 7000 since I first got it so I really have no idea about the stock coils small gold performance anymore so maybe a 7000 owner would benefit from having it, they certainly would if they have old GPX coils laying around like a Sadie that gives them a point of difference by being able to get the coil into places the big old 14x13" can't get into and with the detector costing not all that much more than another coil for the GPZ it's not a bad option for a GPZ owner. QED owners are in for a treat, they already have coils, they already have a battery bank and likely a LL transmitter, so all they need is the basic package and they're off, a working ground grab detector with better performance than the QED from what I've seen so far. This morning I've been tinkering as I do, and trying out various coils on the Algo, seeing which ones need calibrated and which don't and doing some basic air testing, the smaller coils all work inside the house fine, even at 22 out of 30 sensitivity, putting the bigger coils on like the 15" cause too much EMI and it needs wound back to about 15 sensitivity but then depth and sensitivity suffers. They Deus 1 is also a good detector for indoor air testing with its 74kHz frequency not being affected by my house EMI so I've used it for some comparisons on a little collection of small gold, I've been able to run my Deus 1 at 95 on the sensitivity with no issues so virtually maxed out, and I must say the Algo is performing well against the VLF on these nuggets in air tests, very similar in fact, with the Algo handling bad ground better one would expect it to outperform the VLF at least on the small test nuggets I've been using, they're the same ones I used the other day swinging the coil over them at the river in the little plastic containers. I wanted to check something with the 6000 so went and got it, turned it on and tried lowering the sensitivity to the lowest possible and noise cancelling and was unable to use it at all, just going nuts so I guess that's a bit of a demonstration of how well the Algo handles EMI compared to the 6000 when both running mono's. Unfortunately coin depth I can't really check as with the bigger coils the EMI's too much of a problem indoors and the larger gold modes allow more EMI in than the fine gold modes. The bottom cardboard box under the XP coil is the one the Algo came in, pretty small box 🙂 The next box up is the Sadies box. I just dusted off the Manticore and in Gold mode with all defaults and 25 sensitivity out of 30 using the M8 coil I get 8cm on a little test nugget (flake), the same nugget the Algo is getting 10cm on also on 25 out of 30 sensitivity with the 10" Spiral X-coil.

Hi Gerry, I think it goes back to what most can afford. Everyone would love to own a GPX 6000 or even a GPZ 7000, but most know there are other priorities for most that come before a super, high end detector. I get calls all the time about how someone would love to own a GPZ, but the wife would leave them. Historically, the GPX 4500 and 5000 were the best sellers, more so after they were both discounted down to $2499 and $3995.00. I still today get inquiries on them, but both long discontinued here in the US. Keep in mind also, the GPX can really probably find about 85% off all the gold that is out there today. There will always be nuggets that are too small, crystalline, too deep ,,,,, and the list goes on and on .... If most would just focus on what they can find, rather than what they might be missing! I could "what if" all the time. The big advantage I see with the AlgoForce 1500 is the price and all the aftermarket coils you can use with it. I think if Minelab continued to carry and support the GPX 4500 @ $2499, we wouldn't probably be having these discussions today. Just my thoughts,

I used to use these clips on my 4500 that my local hardware store sold. (Bunnings - Australia) They were a tight fit but held the cable tight. Cheap also 😀 Bunnings: Products - Garden - Irrigation - Irrigation Supplies - Poly Pipe Fittings - 13mm Poly Fittings

I think, if people were going to buy these high-priced units as that's all that was available but they're not overly serious about prospecting and just want to have fun with a decent detector and find some gold and all they had confidence in was Minelab, then yes, they may reconsider and buy an Algoforce instead especially once word of mouth starts to spread in their local areas if it suits them which I think it will. I hope to hear reports coming out of users in Australia soon, Nenad did a post somewhere in response to someone that was saying it's crap because it doesn't track the ground, and he pointed out how many people used tracking on the 4500 and 5000? Almost everyone I've ever heard of ran in fixed and pumped the coil every once in a while, and that's now primitive as the Algoforce is tracking the ground, and makes you well aware when you need to fix it by the screen display. I've never hunted in highly variable ground to know what it's like, but if they used the legacy GPX with success for many years nothings stopping them using the Algoforce manual ground balance method with it tracking for you on the screen, after all its easier than the early GPX was for all those that used fixed. A thing I don't like about the 6000 is the forced tracking. The other really great benefit is that the screen is awesome, the GPZ screen is very difficult to see in the sun, the 6000 isn't all that much better but you don't need to look it very often being fully auto (something I don't like about it) The Algoforce screen is weird in a very good way, the brighter the sun the easier it is to see. In the shade you may need the backlight, in the sun its brilliant, and you can invert it to make it really nice for night or very low light detecting, it's a cool screen. I think Minelab need to watch their back and sleep with one eye open, there is change coming and I very much look forward to seeing what's next from Algoforce. Garrett now really needs to seriously reconsider their price point or they're a dead duck in the Au/NZ region, soon once the Algoforce lands in the US they may need to think about it there too even though its significantly cheaper than here, to many people the cost of a product is a very important factor in their purchase decision.

I'm in quite mild soils especially at this spot, I could have used it all day without even using the ground balance. although the QED when I used it here required balance or it responded to the ground. The GPX 4500 didn't need balanced. Seeing it's very easy to do I ground balanced occasionally. The good bit is the information is right there on the screen for you to see, it's very easy to know how your balance is tracking so you can do a balance when necessary. When I did a balance the two sets of ground balance numbers only changed slightly, for example from 50 50 to 48 51, when I balanced on a hot rock the numbers were more dramatic going down into the 30's. It'll be interesting to see how those on very bad variable ground go, I've no doubt it will balance out the ground, how often they need to adjust it is more the question. Seeing the detector is tracking the ground all of the time and giving you the information, I wonder if patents stopped them making it track and adjust.

Hi. No rubbishing attempt here. Im serious. Been detecting since blahh blahh blahhh, found bigger than blahh, blahh, blahhh. Im the blahh...ahh forget it. Im none of that. I'm happy anything. Was gonna do this as a reply in another thread. So. I can right now find this stuff easy with a Highly strung VLF. Not every day. But is expected. The new Algo. How does it do on this stuff. Algo said VLF sens in a PI. Hope i got that right. Because I got countless places that the stuff in the following pics is there. Some found with a GPX5000, gone, and the rest with VLF. Doesn't weigh. Too small. Count, im tired trying, 60 All in the tiny opium bottle. May take full 7g!? I really want to hear from users, putting it up against the claim of VLF sens in a PI. On various forums its vs 7000, 6000, 5000, 4500, ........ People are doing that but I have seen zero vs the claim VLF sens in a PI. There are a squilion VLF users out there like me now. Show us and im in, in a blink.

Someone may need to come up with a clip with a rubber on it too to close the gap and prevent them being ripped off 🙂 I haven't used them as I bought them for my GPX 4500 and then never really used it much again and forgot about them but now the need for them arises, If I find they're no good I'll work something out. My drunkenness went away after having a long cold shower and about 2 litres of water, I think I was dehydrated or had sun stroke and somehow the rose thorn blood squirting out triggered me to feel unwell. I don't usually care much about blood, I've split my melon really badly at one point and had to get many stiches in the back of my head, and it was a gusher and looked really bad to people with so much blood coming out and I wasn't all that bothered, certainly didn't feel sick. I think the 6000 and 10x5" is a great combo, and will likely outperform the Algoforce in most situations, so you don't need to worry about getting one unless you wanted to do some beach/coin/jewellery type stuff where I can see the Algoforce being much better than a 6000. The drive home is about an hour, and 15 minutes from that gold spot I guess, 30 minutes of that is driving around a winding road along the side of Lake Wakatipu which was the part I felt sick, I had the air con cranked and I'd stopped at the shops and bought a 1.5 litre drink prior to driving home which helped too, but even with the air con going full I was sweating like mad. It's all very weird, something I've never experienced before.

My Algoforce arrived a couple of hours ago, I had a quick refresher flick through the Quick start guide that came in the box and had a play around, to my surprise I could use it inside my house on default sensitivity and it was quite stable, I was able to test some coins on it for target ID and mess around learning the menu navigation. It's a puzzle at first as you need to remember the irons purposes, most icons are a giveaway as to what they do and the screen even tells you which ones to press on certain screens. So far first impressions on usability is for a detector with settings like this, it's very easy to use. I was able to configure my 10" X-coil on it in no time without the need for the instructions. It quickly calibrates to coils, a couple of seconds if that and you can store their size in there so you can easily go back to them, it comes pre-configured with a few common coils. It comes with this cool bag to lug it around in, I shouldn't say lug it around as it weighs nothing, it's super light and makes the 6000 feel heavy. The 6000 in the picture is shrunken down a bit for storage but was put there for a bit of a size reference. This is the contents of the package. All very professionally made, the look and feel is a long way different to the more homemade feel of the QED, a similar priced PI machine. And it all assembled with the 10" X-coil on it and configured. It's really easy to assemble, It takes a bit of getting used to the coil connector, it's different that's for sure, I'm sure if someone didn't like it they could put a GPX 5000 one into the shaft as I'm pretty sure you can buy the part but it worked fine and once, I knew what I was doing it did the trick, it doesn't use coil rubbers, a different design entirely but it does work and is probably perfectly fine, I'm just not used to it and with X-coils have very solid ears they don't flex out to fit it between them, at first I didn't think it fit the X-coils but I worked out if you slide them in from the back they fit, trying to get them in from the top of the ears is impossible. Maybe X-coils need to adjust their coils for an extra millimetre or two of width on the ears to make it an easier fit. I'll discuss this with them as they are resuming production of their GPX coils due to this detector hitting the market. Now, I filmed some video, it is very raw, my usual style of no editing and what you see is what you get, in the video you're seeing what I saw the first time doing it, I'd not even tested the nuggets I went over prior to filming. I'd just checked a couple to ensure it even worked 🙂 I'd used the detector for about 10 minutes at home in total before filming the video so be gentle, I'm just learning it. I will say for a fact it's more sensitive to small gold than the GPX 5000, some of these nuggets I used in the video the 5000 can't hit on at all. It's also more sensitive than the QED by a significant margin. I tested on a $1 coin, and had the target ID then I went into my yard where a couple of $1 coins are buried, and it was able to ID them very well, with a stable ID, I was quite surprised by this and I have to go back out with a VLF and double check it all and get some video. This is all very early days, but I'm certainly happy with it, it handles EMI so well for a PI , better than anything I've used before, and I think even for someone that just has a GPX 4500/5000 it would be a big compliment to it being more sensitive and picking up the gold the 5000 misses due to it being porous or just generally weak on, and for anyone not wanting to pay the crazy Minelab pricing for a 6000 or 7000 it's a bargain. On lead shotgun pellets it's similar to the 6000, neither will hit the #9 pellet but as the sizes increase both are the same with the pellets they will detect. I've not checked depths or anything yet just ability to hit them comes in at the same size pellet. I have so much to experiment on it yet, but happy with it for sure. The videos currently still processing by Youtube to HD but the SD version looks available now. I haven't even watched the video myself, this is raw as it gets.

Well, as someone in low mineral ground often looking for tiny gold, I can lay down a few points that matter. Without a doubt a higher frequency VLF like the Garrett 24k, Gold Bug 2, Equinox, Manticore, Legend, the list goes on and on will hit smaller gold, much smaller gold, and get more depth on these very tiny bits too, however once the bits creep up in size to the .1 of a gram bit and more (we will use it as a generic example cut off not a definite guaranteed cut off) then even with little minerals the PI takes over for depth, then as the gold gets bigger again say fox example 1 gram, the VLF with something like an 11" coil starts to gain some ground again but the PI's and ZVT will always be deeper. I used to use a VLF all the time for prospecting, even though I had a GPX 4500 sitting there, why? It found more tiny bits often, I had more chance of getting gold. I was convinced to put more effort into my PI and I found when I did, I lost the tiny bits entirely so found less in number of pieces and went home with nothing a lot more but the slightly bigger bits started to appear a bit deeper down so my gold weight increased. Then the GPZ and small coils came along to my stable, it was a lot more sensitive to the small stuff than the 4500 and felt more like a combination of the VLF and PI, I was getting a lot more gold and never felt the need for the VLF anymore, the bits the VLF got the GPZ didn't were very small, the 0.02 of a gram and smaller, I then purchased a 6000, found it very similar to the GPZ on small gold performance mainly as I am fortunate to have small coils for my GPZ but I always felt the GPZ was going much deeper. It's really hard to prove this sort of thing, it's not like I'm going to walk around with both detectors, it's more when using one you notice depth on targets more than using the other and some basic air testing in a way verifies it for me at least, if it's not seeing it sitting on the ground with the coil swinging above it it's sure not seeing it in the ground is my theory. The Algoforce now comes along, again it appears to hit similar size bits as the 6000 and 7000, I think it has a little less depth on them, but still hitting them well. The VLF's I put all of these detectors in competition with on small gold are the 19kHz range, not the higher frequency machines. Detectors like the Gold Bug Pro, think of the smallest bits it will hit, that's more in line with the best of the best in the PI and ZVT tiny target performance. That's not talking about depth, it's talking about the smallest gold they will hit, depth varies but often the PI's and GPZ will exceed the VLF depth too, so many variables. I think the cut off point for PI and GPZ on tiny gold is about 0.03 of a gram, anything below that you need a VLF. Minelab did this chart for the 6000's release, indicating it was better on a 0.05g nugget than the GM 1000, and they ranked the GPZ so low, but that's their fault for not releasing coils for it. I scoffed at this as no way in the world is the 6000 more sensitive to 0.05 than a GM, but in the right hot soil, maybe it is, certainly not my soil.

Hi Steve, You mentioned that when you were in Meekatharra you only used the 11 x 7 DD. Any particular reason? Did you try the mono at all? I was in Cue (120 klms south of you) using a 6000 (mono coil) and getting good gold as in the pictures I DM’d you. Now I’m back in Kalgoorlie and today we drove about 90 klms north east to a tenement that has been good to us in the past using 6000’s and mono coils. Axiom and 11 x 7 mono drove me insane. Ground balance was difficult at best and on several occasions simply would not happen. Literally scream it’s head off on the up and down while trying to ground balance and only a factory reset would bring it back. Sensitivity on 2 (nothing higher was usable without ground balance every 3 steps), fine mode, tracking off. Also we tested using the usual 0.11 gram piece been using for years. Sensitivity at 3-4 had the Axiom running just bearable but could not hear the test nugget sitting on the surface. Crank sensitivity up to 5-6 and you could hear the target in amongst the noise but it was unusable due to instability and noise. Literally ground balance every step at this setting. We both had a crack and tried many different settings all the while remembering your comments on the higher gain in production units. This Axion defaults to sensitivity 4 so has the higher gain. Tried different speed, mode, threshold settings. 👎🏻 Tried the DD. Quieter and smoother (as expected) but couldn’t hear the test nugget under 6 sensitivity, like the mono but pretty much unusable at that sensitivity. 6000 hits the test nugget without issue. Don’t know what else to try. The 6000 operated normally (flat out, threshold turned back on) and we also had a 4500 that was a bit noisier than normal however could be tuned quiet enough to use and find gold. Starting to wonder if I have a dud coil or unit. Would have spent two full days now in 11 different locations with same results. Frustration. Videos and comments on good old Spewtube show Warren and the NQX crew and you (and others) getting nice small 0.10 gram and smaller nuggets at Tibooburra and Victoria however I have zero confidence my Axiom will ever do that in WA. Getting nowhere fast here. Been trying to sort it (in case PEBDAS) but run out of things to try.

Im looking at $2850 ish Aussie with a 12" nf and powerbank. $8999 for a 6000 and $4500 Sdc

I've been reading this thread wondering myself if the 6000 or 5000 would do better on a 2 gram nugget. We've had a spell of good weather this last week so I decided to get out today before the next storm moved in and do a depth test. I don't have a 2 gram nugget, but I do have a .95 & 2.69. I buried the .95 gram nugget at 8" and the 2.69 at 9" I also buried a 1 oz lead slug at 10" and 2 .58 cal minie balls that weight 1.5 oz and buried those at 12" and 14". The soil I did the test in was damp and on the Deus 2 will almost fill the mineral bar half way, my soil is also alkaline. Obviously results in other soil types may be different. I don't have the 5000 but I do have a 4500 so that is what I used. Both the 6000 and 4500 had 11" mono coils on them. BTW I tried using the Deus 2 with 11" coil and it failed to hit any of the targets. First up was the 6000, on the .95 it was a soft but obvious signal using normal timing, sensitivity 2 notches from max. The 2.69 gram nugget was stronger and very obvious, 1/2 oz slug was very loud, 12" 1.5 oz was soft but obvious, 14" was a no go. Next up was the 4500 11" mono commander coil, running normal timing, motion slow, sensitivity at preset, GB fixed. 4500 couldn't hear the .95 I also tried sensitive extra with no luck. 2.69 was very obvious and feel like it gave a better response than the 6000. 1 oz slug was also very loud on the 4500. 12" 1.5 oz was very obvious and the 14" was a no go. I don't have a large coil for the 4500 yet, but I did try the 13 x 17 mono on the 6000 and still couldn't get the 14" 1.5 oz lead. But over the 12" it boosted the signal to the point that I felt like it sounded like the 4500 with the 11" mono. I wish I'd of had time to bury some of the targets deeper and maybe bury the 14" 1.5 oz somewhere else as there may have been a hot rock of something interfering with it. But a snow storm was coming over the mountain and I had to leave. I did a video of the test and at some point will post it on YouTube. Side note as I know this thread was about the 5000 vs 6000. I took the Axiom as well with the 11x13 mono. It wouldn't hit the .95 gram at 8" But did hit everything else with obvious signals except the 14" 1.5 oz slug. As far as 11" coils go, I feel like on multi gram targets all 3 machines are fairly close in performance, within an inch. However, I'd give the edge to the 4500 especially since there are way bigger coils available for it.