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I did a quick in the ground depth test today in a freshwater (frozen) lake beach cut using the Axiom with 11X7 Mono and DD coils, GPX 4000 with an older Nugget Finder 10X5" mono and Deus 2 using its 9" coil. Deus 2 was really along for the ride. I used it to test for iron mineralization and for targets in the test area so I tested these targets with it too. I had a 0.03 gram nugget at 2.5" depth, a 0.15 gram nugget at 5" depth and US clad dime (2.27 grams) and a US nickel (5 grams) at 10" depth. I had these targets taped to some 13" long shims and they were stuck about 2" into the vertical wall of the cut. Photo just shows the test setup. I only tested one target inserted into the cut at a time. Iron mineralization was moderate to high as shown by the Deus 2 iron mineralization meter (graph at bottom left of display screen). I first tested the GPX 4000 using General/Normal Mono coil setting with Gain on 12. That little Nugget Finder 10X5 coil gave clear, soft hits on both gold nuggets and also easily hit both US coins at 10" depth. Next I tested the Axiom with the 11X7" focused core DD coil running in Fine/Slow with gain on 4. I had no problems ground balancing this DD coil at this site. The responses on both gold nugget targets were faint and audible but they were not as sharp as the GPX 4000 responses with the Nugget Finder Elliptical. The Axiom DD had strong, clear responses on the 10" coins. Next was the Axiom with the 11X7" Mono coil running Fine/Slow with gain on 4. No problems ground balancing. The responses on the 2.5" and 5" deep nuggets were more sharp and rivaled the responses of the GPX 4000 with the 10X5" Nugget Finder. The Mono coil also gave strong, clear responses on the 10" US coins. Deus 2 using FMF Goldfield and the Mono program set on 45 kHz, Pitch tones, -6.4 disc, had almost identical responses on the 2 gold nuggets. The targets responses were a bit faint but clearly audible. For me anyway, definitely "Dig Me" responses. Both programs were also able to elicit a response over the 10" deep coins. They were not strong responses but at least FMF Goldfield had enough information to throw up some fairly accurate target IDs occasionally on both coins. I also gave the Sensitive and Deep High Conductor programs a chance to hit those coins..........absolutely no response. Hope this helps anyone that was wondering about the Axiom especially and even Deus 2. Both are very capable detectors in high iron mineralization even on small targets. GPX4000 with that ancient Nugget Finder elliptical......amazing.

FYI, GPAA just put out detector bundles with good Axiom and very good 24K prices. https://gpaastore.com/collections/discounted-items/products/garrett-axiom-bundle

The Axiom is already a upper grade pulse detector, and obviously Garrett listened to experienced nugget hunters when designing it, and now that it has been in the field in far more hands and conditions we see the few weaknesses it has, and Ways To Improve it. Below I list what comes to mind up to this point, Please add to this list for Garrets consideration. 1. It really needs Bluetooth, for the simple reason everyone has their own headset they like best. 2. The present wireless is too weak and seems directional, so drops out easily. 3. The Lower end of the Sensitivity setting scale should be expanded so finer changes can be made, the change from setting 2 to 3 to 4 is too course. 4. Threshold setting has the same problem as the sensitivity setting, it tends be be too course at the lower end of the scale. 5. Offer Conventional Elliptical DD Coils with more sensitive pointy ends to deal with noisy black sand and be able to get into tight places better, 5 x 10 would be a good start. Longer Term Design Improvements -- 1. Change to a high contrast Anti Glare Color Screen, and add Sun Shade to the top. (not unreasonable for a high end machine). 2. Change to a more flexible type of coil cable to work better with the nice collapsible shafts, perhaps just changing to silicone mix plastic cover would be enough. Suggested Future Avenue of Improving Technology -- As is, The Axiom has the ability to apparently use the Threshold to filter out background noise, Not just reduce its volume at least at silent minimal setting of --9, So Much So that Sensitivity can be set to Max to keep depth on ground that would otherwise require a very low sensitivity setting. I Highly Suggest that be explored and refined as a separate Noise Filter optional setting. LISTENING GARRETT..?

This test was on the worst Black Sand Ground I have seen, although it is not as bad as it was a few years ago, I suspect the Black Sand has sunk deeper. Years ago NO detector could even see a Brass Shotgun Shell deeper than even with ground level.! I tested 3 detectors, My Equinox 800, My Whites Goldmaster GMT, and the new Garrett Axiom. The first two are very good VLF detectors, the Axiom is the latest technology Pulse Detector. Pulse Detectors are almost always better in really bad ground conditions. ALL 3 detectors would not ground balance fully on this ground, at least at anywhere near normal sensitivity, the GMT did at reduced sensitivity. Interesting Axiom testing -- I tested with 3 coils, The 11 x 13 DD, The 7 x 11 DD and The 7 x 11 Mono. NONE of the coils would fully ground balance at even a sensitivity setting of 3, and was noisy at 2. The exception was in Salt Mode, it at least came close to balancing, so was the quietest with a low threshold setting. Fine Mode, was basically non usable with ALL coils and a sensitivity above 2. Normal was usable but noisy at 3, But really hard on the ears. Large, about the same as Normal, just not as clear on the target. Salt, was by far the quietest but with depth loss of 1 to 2 inches. Target - a piece of lead, likely a banged up 22 bullet, just 6 inches deep, NO coil would detect this target in this ground at less than a sensitivity setting of 3, and was Very Noisy at 3. INTERESTINGLY -- ALL modes, except Fine, could be run at FULL Sensitivity, but with the Threshold OFF at -9..! AND detect the target.! The ONLY other way to run it was with sensitivity below 3 (and miss the target) or go insane from ground noise. ( NOTE - I usually run my detectors slightly hot, with minimal threshold, so am used to background noise, But that is NOT possible here.) The 11 x 13 DD had the clearest and strongest target response. The 7 x 11 DD was OK, But Surprisingly More Noisy. I had expected it to be less noisy looking at less ground, but maybe it is more sensitive, so reacts more to the ground that is not fully balanced out. The 7 x 11 Mono was as expected, slightly more sensitive than the same size DD, But substantially noisier. Strange, But with no threshold it has to break past a zero point to signal anything, But it will in this extreme ground. Normally there is a substantial sensitivity loss with no low threshold, but with ground this noisy it seems to filter the noise, with a smaller sensitivity loss. Unfortunately the Dual Balance did not seem to work, even holding the button until it goes into dual balance, I suspect because it was not hot Rocks, Just Black Sands, so couldn't tell the difference, and balance numbers were inconsistent and all over the place. BTW, neither VLF could see the target deeper than 2 inches.

Use code Holiday at garrett direct, and it gets you $600 of the axiom. For those looking to buy one, now may be a good time

I really like my Axiom. However I was having an issue with my 11X7" DD coil. It would not ground balance using the Fine timing and would usually ground balance in the Normal timing. My 11X7" Mono had no problems ground balancing in Fine or Normal on the same ground. Kind of odd. I called Garrett and they immediately gave me an RMA number. Since I had owned my Axiom for more than 30 days, they asked me to pay for shipping to them and they paid for shipping back to me. I made a video and sent it to them. I also asked for an extra coil bolt. I only sent the coil, not the entire detector. I got my new 11X7" DD coil today via FedEx and they remembered my request for an extra coil bolt, so a 2.5 week turnaround which is really good in my opinion. So far this new DD coil seems to be working much better than my original one. Thanks Garrett and thanks to Steve H for encouraging me to send it in for a checkup and replacement if needed.

Hello to all i was wondering if this Garett was working well on the beach???? RR

I have seen rumors of some third party coils for the Axiom, But are any really available now.? If so how do they compare to what the factory selection is.?

I had planned a trip to Arizona to get to know the Garrett Axiom for the first full week of November. Of course, I got sick and was still sick when I finally left Denver on Monday November 13th. I did make it to Phoenix and got into the area I was hunting by midday on Tuesday. I got in about 18 hours of detecting time with the Axiom and even though I was tired from being sick, I enjoyed using it very much. The area I was hunting is not known for large nuggets. The largest that I have found in this area is 6 grams and I wasn't expecting anything like that. 1 gram sized or smaller gold was fine with me. The ground in this area is moderately iron mineralized with lots of dark gray quartzite looking hot rocks that are full of magnetite, lots of hot rock caliche, basalt, tuft, porphyry, andesite, schists, and other benign metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. This place was super dry. They really need some rain in this area of central Arizona. I committed to dig every possible target each session until I got too tired to safely dig which happened after about 6 hours in 85 degrees Fahrenheit heat. Since it was still pretty hot and rattlesnakes and a pack of ornery wild mules were still in the area, I used Aukey B80 wireless earbuds with a Bluetooth transmitter plugged into the headphone jack instead of over the ear wireless headphones. I only used the 11X7" Mono coil with the Axiom since bedrock is not very deep at this location and I wanted to really see how small a target the Axiom could handle. I was running the latest available update and did a full reset before getting started. As Steve H. suggested in one of his posts, I kept the Axiom's sensitivity at 4. I tried 5 for a bit but there was really no point in doing that. Sensitivity 4 out of 8 was plenty sensitive. I was using the Fine timing, Slow speed, threshold on 14, volume on 8, and the Axiom usually ground balanced around 48/25 with ground tracking OFF. I did try the more advanced ground balance window a couple of times when the prevalent hot rocks were getting overwhelming but I would eventually come back to the original ground balance. So basically these were very close to default settings. There was enough EMI and ground noise in this area near Phoenix to cause the occasional warble which never fully went away even after frequency shifts. However, compared to the sometimes unstable SDC 2300 and GPX 6000 when I've used them in this area, the Axiom was very quiet and predictable as far as the non-target warbles that it sometimes produced. The photos show the targets that I recovered. I did not keep any of the pesky hot rocks that were unavoidable. The smaller plate has a 0.32 gram flat nugget and a 0.12 gram rice kernel shaped nugget. There are several wire targets on that smaller plate that do not register a weight on my cheap gram scales which go to 0.00 grams. Several lead shards give their weight as 0.01 grams. Both of the small nuggets were around 4" deep as were many of the targets on the smaller plate. Some of the targets on the larger plate were easily detected at 8+" deep using the full length of my Garrett ProPointer AT pinpointer as a ruler. As far as I am concerned the Axiom is extremely sensitive to small sub gram targets just the way it is and it's 16 hour battery life, great ergonomics, well organized display, excellent features and overall performance are really amazing.

Hello everyone ! new user here, first of all thanks for this awesome forum, well made and functional. I have been detecting for a couple years now with my trusty companion equinox 800 that follows me in steep mountain climbs, long hikes and swims to get to remote areas were ancient settlements can be found without trash. I mainly search in low trash environments, for obvious reasons, but often the geological deposit is too high to get to the desired historical level and my VLF just can’t find any target under 20cm. For this very reason I was looking for a good PI machine, packable in a backpack, that can help me go deeper to the relics/hoards i’m looking for, without going on bulky machines that make you dig 2 meters for you need a damn excavator (those PI that you bring around in two person used by the military to find unexploded ordinance or bombs). For obvious reasons the Garrett AXIOM should be my choice (modern, lightweight, ironcheck, ergonomic, easy setup..) but i’m just afraid it can’t pack the punch that I need to go deeper. In comparison I’m looking at the Minelab GPX5000 (older, heavier, bulky, iron reject, huge aftermarket for coils, hard to learn) that being around for more than 10 years has been tested and tested again, proving itself a well made machine that should suit my needs. Now, I know technology has made big steps forward in the last 10 years, but i’m doubtful wether to trust a new product that hasn’t been reviewed as well as an other, overall when buying a detector that costs 4000€ !! In my opinion all the ergonomics and versatility of the AXIOM can’t come without any loss in other aspect…. maybe the energy that flows through the coil of the GPX (seen that huge battery pack) is more than the AXIOM, hence less reach ? Maybe the AXIOM has been developed too specifically for gold and less for silver and bronze ? I’m afraid that the AXIOM is just a very very good upgrade to my EQUINOX, and not a deep machine like i’m looking for ! Earlier I have posted the video that made doubt between the two machines, i’ll post it again here to make you understand the kind of depth and targets i’m looking for with this new machine: Please help me ! Its now months i’m choosing and start to feel philosophically undecided like Soren Kierkegaard 😫

Now that the Axiom has been out awhile are there any relic hunters that can provide some feedback on how the Axiom compares to the GPX 4500/5000 on discrimination? I've scoured the internet and have found a couple of competing opinions but very little other than that. I've owned the GPX 4500 and now 5000 and for 2 years I didn't own a vlf machine and I was very successful at finding Civil War relics in pounded sites in my area. Once you get your ear "tuned" I dug very little iron. Also on the Axiom is the iron check a button you hold down or a mode you can leave it in for those high iron areas?

this is a tip from Kevin Hoagland on the Axiom, I actually tried this Tone adjustment tip with my Axiom and it did seem to help with being able to hear things clearer, with me having severe tinnitus this seemed to work for me (Video Below)

Has anyone tried using a different set of headphones with a wireless transmitter with the Axiom ??? Being in Arizona and the areas I am detecting, I like to stay aware of whats going on around me, there is always the possibility of stepping on a rattle snake or running into a bear or mountain lion, or even a large herd of javalina, which is just a few of the reasons I do not like using over the ear headphones, so I used one of my wireless transmitters with the Axiom today and connected my Avantree Torus neckband speaker to the transmitter which they actually worked great, i had to turn the volume way down on the Axiom as well as turning the volume down on the Avantree Torus to keep the volume from being way to loud. I started out with the Mono Coil on the Axiom and then realized that the Iron Check does not work with the Mono Coils, and the axiom will tell you in a hurry with this annoying sound that sounds like a telephone ringer that tells you (Hey Stupid You Have the wrong coil attached to the Axiom for the Iron Check Feature to work) then it dawned on me to swap over to the one of the DDs, I had not tried the Iron Check feature yet while using headphones so not sure its the same with the supplied wireless headphones or not (referring to that telephone ringer) but it was with the Avantree Torus, I had tried the iron check feature without headphones and the DD Coil but not with headphones and the incorrect coil attached until today, other than that telephone ringer I got while using the 11x7 Mono the Avantree Torus worked great with the Axiom and allowed me to stay aware of what my wife was doing, as well as what was going on around me, I do have a few other wireless bone conduction headphones that I will also be trying out with the wireless transmitter on the Axiom but every wireless headphone I have tried I end up going back to the Avantree Torus, simply because they are an outstanding product that just works, all the other wireless headphones I have tried with various detectors one of the main issues is not enough volume level, not really sure this would be an issue with the Axiom, every other detector I have tried using different headphones on were limited by the amount of volume control on each detector I used them with but with the amount of volume control you have with the Axiom it may just be a case that all my wireless bone conduction headphones will work with the axiom. I really like the Avantree Torus and use them with every detector I have some have built in Bluetooth capabilities, and others Like the Garrett GM 24K I use a wireless transmitter to go wireless also, the wireless transmitter I used with the Axiom i did not notice any kind of interference at all I attached the transmitter across the top above the charging port at the back of the arm cuff using a strip of sticky back Velcro on the Axiom and the other side of the Velcro which is also sticky backed on the bottom of wireless transmitter, this makes it very easy to remove the transmitter if I need or want to the supplied headphones that come with the Axiom are ok and work good but again being in Arizona they are just to hot, and restrict your ability to know what is going on around you, winter may be a different story

Just curious I would Like to pick up like three or four extra Lower Shafts and coil bolts, plus the rubber washers that go on the lower shaft for the Axiom Will Garrett eventually start producing extra Lower Rods and coil bolts for the Axiom that can be Purchased ??? I like having extra lower shafts and coil bolts to make it a bit easier when I want to swap out to a different coil, just mount your extra coils on to Lower rods and then its a matter of just swapping out the lower rod with coil already attached, I do wish Garrett would have supplied a coil bolt and the rubber washers with each coil, but its not a deal breaker but it would have been nice to have a spare coil bolt at the very least just curious if this will eventually happen

I know quite a few people have been wanting this, and many have been asking X-coils if they were going to do it, and it turns out they have been working away on it in the background experimenting with sizes and types of coils, and the first to be introduced is the 8" DOD coil compatible with the Axiom. 8" would be the coil I'd want the most for sure. A big bonus and something X-coils in particular wanted to take advantage of was the Axiom's discrimination abilities and by being a DOD design this makes that possible. It also detects along the entire length of the coil being a DOD. This coil is just plug and play, no adapters required (THANK YOU GARRETT). It's currently not for sale, I can't imagine it will be long until it is.

Hi all- I'm new to the forum. I appreciate the detectorist community here Getting to my question- I've been trying out the new Axiom over the past several days between placer sites, tailings, and salt beaches in SoCal. Garrett is marketing a new "DD-FC" or Focused Core style coil- has anyone had any experience with 'em? I wonder how they work in mineralized areas, non-mineralized areas, and wet salt beaches. I'm not sure if these are just hype- it seems like the negative aspects of mono coils may still be present and render the coil useless in the wet. From what I've read, mono coils are not as EMI friendly and don't perform well in heavy mineralization/wet salt. Thanks! Site: https://garrett.com/sport/axiom Coils: Axiom 13" x 11" DD-FC (PN: 2237000) and 11" x 7" DD-FC (PN: 2237400).

I realize I am late to the party as far as the Axiom. Some of this may have been said already. I haven't read every word or post about the Axiom on this forum yet. I want to say first that I have had a love hate relationship with the GPX 6000. I realize it may have been rushed to release during a world-wide pandemic. So were some other detectors. However, as much as I like the GPX 6000, it has always seemed to me to be a thrown together detector on the outside with some great software engineering on the inside. The flimsy stock coils, weird wobbly twisting won't lockup shaft system, uneven weight distribution, and the well documented audio/speaker/EMI issues just continue to make me wonder how many corners did Minelab have to cut on this detector. It still detects really well, no complaints there, when it can handle EMI conditions and is super, even hyper sensitive to small sub gram targets. I just needed something else that I can trust on deep coins and relics in high iron mineralization and at a saltwater beach along with some rudimentary iron discrimination. So, the Axiom. This is the first pulse induction detector that I have used that seems to be put together from the ground up, from the tip of the battery compartment to the toe of the coils with a complete design in mind. No "hey lets throw this component from this detector and this component from this detector and that battery compartment we already have with this shaft system" kind of mentality and cost cutting. It is a complete design build aside from the use of Garretts Z-Lynk wireless system which I simply do not care for and the shape of the control box which resembles the ACE Apex. I am super impressed and very delighted to see this from a detector company. Nokta came close with the Simplex/Legend but many of the exterior materials used for those two very budget minded detectors are nowhere near the quality of what is used on the Axiom and I would not expect them to be. I am still learning this detector after only a few days. It will take me awhile. What I can see immediately is that it is plenty sensitive to small sub gram gold, it can handle difficult ground conditions well and it has just about every operational feature I need laid out with a very uncomplicated user interface. The Axiom reminds me a lot of the GPX 4000 to GPX 5000 but with a much less complex and hard to access user interface. I can easily see that the Axiom will be much more suited to relic and deep coin hunting than the GPX 6000. I did a lot of testing on about 40 common relics with the 6000 using all of the timings and I never could find a consistent, easy to follow pattern (easy for me anyway) when changing from Mono to DD coils or even changing from Normal to Diffucult using the same type of coil as far as low-high-low or high-low-high audio characteristics. The Axiom does not have this issue. So far it has been very consistent in my preliminary testing on a few common relics and US coins. I am still trying to get used to the 11X7" Focused Core DD coil that came with mine. It is definitely different and I will keep studying Steve's remarks about it. I really like the iron audio discrimination feature that works with DD coils!!! Steve, I know you helped with both the GPX 6000 and the Axiom. Thank you very much for all that you did on these PI detectors during their design and well before that too.

I have been doing some testing before selling some PI detectors that I really like. The testing was done on 0.75 gram lead, 0.25 gram lead and 0.1 gram gold targets using two containers of dirt from an area northwest of Phoenix Arizona and from an area south of Breckenridge Colorado. Both samples are very mineralized with both iron and volcanic material. I placed each target one inch below the surface of each dirt sample and used a ruler stuck one inch into the containers to measure coil height above the target in the dirt. Not by any means a totally realistic test, but as close as I can get right now. I was using a TDI Pulse Scan stock 14.4v battery with Reg Sniff mods, a GPX 6000 and an Axiom. Here are the results and a photo of the dirt containers. The Arizona dirt was no problem for all three detectors to ground balance on. The Colorado dirt was another story. The TDI would not ground balance well at all on it, the GPX 6000 was noisy on it, amazingly enough the Axiom Mono coil was very quiet on that dirt and the Axiom DD coil came up with some really odd ground balance numbers on that dirt....15/03 and was a bit unstable. I was able to run the sensitivity on the TDI and the Axiom at around 85% of max before they became unstable. The GPX 6000 became unstable at Manual 7 of 10 so I could only run it at 60% of maximum. It might have been able to have even better results, but there was EMI in the area with power lines about 1/4 mile away.

is it worth purchasing the 11x7 DD Axiom coil since I already have the 11x7 Mono coil I do like the Iron Check on the Axiom which can only be accessed while running the 13x11 DD but I sure do not want to run that 13x11 coil all the time just to be able to access the Iron Check on the Axiom, so this is one of the reasons I am thinking about purchasing the 11x7 DD are there other advantages of the 11x7 DD Axiom coil that I am over looking, I know DD coils handles EMI and mineralized ground better, but are there other things I should consider that the 11x7 DD can do better than the 11x7 Mono, just picking peoples minds trying to figure out what I want to do will the 11x7 DD coil see deeper than the 11x7 Mono coil ??? these are question I keep going round and round in my mind so any insight would be great Also thought about waiting for Detec to get off their Butts with after market coils for the Axiom but not sure I want to wait that long, and is there any word on the after market coils from Detec on after market coils any recommendations on this would be greatly appreciated Thanks to all that read and reply

As the header reads picked up an Axiom played around a bit on my 1.6 acres started out with the 11x7 Mono and could not get it to run stable at all, no power lines above ground or below close to where I was playing, cell phone was not in my pocket, no metal in my shoes or in my pockets set up my threshold to where it was barely heard, set the tones to my liking Ground Balanced, performed frequency shift did both the GB and frequency shift several times, tried lowering the sensitivity, sensitivity at 1 and 2 nothing would smooth it out, tried switching from slow, medium and fast, also tried going fine,normal,large, and salt with the 11x7 Mono, nothing helped can not recall what my Ground balance numbers were with the 11x7 Mono I switched coils to the 13x11 DD and went back through adjusted the sensitivity to 2- 3 was even able to push it up to 5 before it was getting a little to sparky, it ran smooth as silk at a setting of 2 and 3 on the sensitivity, and even 4 on the sens was usable but I kept it around 2-3 my yard has a extreme amount of magnetite and heavy salt content which is what I believe was giving the 11x7 mono fits, this is my theory anyways, swung over two small test nuggets that I have thanks to Reese Townes, have not weighed either but they are tinny with the 11x7 mono I could not hear those two little nuggets other than a couple little chirps here and there, because of all the ground noise I was getting, but with the 13x11 DD those two little nuggets were very audible and could be heard very well with the rise in the threshold two little bloop, bloops the 13x11 DD throws the balance of the Axiom off quite a bit though but the weight is manageable, I am going to go ahead and pick up a 11x7 DD, just to get the balance back and have when situations occur that the 11x7 mono does not work or cannot be used for a first high end PI I am pretty happy with my purchase and I got a pretty good deal on it, it will take some learning like any other detector but I will get there I have been reading all the threads and post that pertain to the Axiom, and appreciate every ones post about the Axiom especially Mr Steve H as it helps with the learning curve of the Axiom I did swing over an area in my yard with the 13x11 DD and got a booming Woo Woo hit, that I will dig up in the future as I have to take it easy because my back is a bit jacked rite now in fact I ended up in the hospital last Saturday because of a messed up disc in my right lower back, but I am looking forward to my new adventure with the Axiom

I just spotted this on the new Garrett Direct website: The Axiom is updateable via the same process that is used by the Garrett Apex. The current firmware version is displayed for a split second when you first turn on the Axiom. The top ground balance number will show 01 and the bottom one 47. A blank position in the bar across the top in the final .2 part. The graphic below shows what I see when I turn my Axiom on. It is so fast you might have to do it repeatedly to take in all the info. If you so much as blink you will miss it. And just so nobody asks, I'm not involved in or testing any updates so can offer no clues as to what is in the works.

The first thing you want to do is look on the back cover to see the man Steve H. with the Axiom in his hand. It says Novice To Professional- Garrett Finds Gold. Chuck

I was detecting some old mining piles that were pushed around years ago and was able to score I really nice chunky Gold Specimen with the Axiom. Some after pics of the quick spit washed showed a nice find for my efforts. Globby gold on one side. 13" MONO coil on the Axiom while using Garrett AT Carrot Pointer. Beautiful. . 2.17 ozt Sucking the juice out of it. Hey you only live once right.🤣

As explained elsewhere my metal detecting is winding down from my glory days. I will never quit detecting, but it is a more casual close to home thing going forward. With that in mind I just don't need the dozen detectors I usually have had banging around the house for most of the last couple decades. I had already weeded things down pretty well but job one was to stop getting new detectors. The last new detector I added to my mix was the XP Deus 2 a couple years ago. After disposing of other models, like the Tarsacci for instance, I was left with the following: Minelab Equinox Garrett Axiom XP Deus 2 White's DFX For what I do I'm pretty satisfied with the Axiom as a general purpose PI so that's settled. The DFX sports a Bigfoot coil, and I own the machine as much to run the coil as the other way around, so it is not going anywhere. In fact it might become my most used VLF soon. So what to do with the Equinox 800 and Deus 2? The Manticore was really looking like a replacement for both. I can't really get enthused about the XP way of things. People rave about the light weight being a real factor for them, but I don't consider weight to be an issue for me with any detector weighing under three pounds. At the end of the day coils are a big deal for me, and I don't like proprietary limited coil options. Wireless coils leave me cold. People can argue with me all they want but they are wasting their time. I like wired coils, and I lean to detectors with third party coil options. So it is the coils that decided it for me. Minelab took too long with Manticore coils and now I just don't care any more. I'm also peeved XP has withheld the 5x10 coil from Deus 2 owners. My Equinox 800 I have a 6" round coil, the Coiltek 5x10, the stock 11" coil, and the Minelab 12x15 coil. XP has nothing similar to offer in way of coils. Nor does the Manticore. Plus I have custom rods for my Equinox perfect for both compact backpacking and for beach use. I even have an S rod that I have yet to use. The icing on the cake is a set of custom Tony Eisenhower underwater headphones I really like. Would I get rid of all that and keep the Deus 2? No. Would I trade all that for the Manticore as it exists right now? No. So I think I have after ages finally weeded it down to three detectors. The Deus 2 will find a new home. And I am left with... Garrett Axiom - my most used detector for gold prospecting and beach detecting Minelab Equinox 800 with full accessory set - do it all coin, relic, jewelry, gold nuggets, you name it White's DFX with Bigfoot - Park jewelry use almost exclusively Maybe, just maybe the Manticore will tempt me again in a year or so, once the software bugs and coil drought get straightened out. But after 50 years I feel like I have got off the new detector merry go round. There really is something to be said for using a machine you know inside and out, and fact is my Equinox talks to me. The Deus 2 still speaks French and frankly I just don't care to make the effort to learn French. Too old to learn new tricks? Maybe. The main thing for me is I won't waste any more time thinking about this machine or that machine and instead just focus purely on using what I have to best effect. Compared to what I started with 50 years ago I'm drenched in fabulous technology I once only dreamed of, so now matter how I look at it I'm thrilled with the detectors I have now. Minelab Equinox 800 with 6" coil and telescoping rod White's DFX with Bigfoot coil Garrett Axiom with 7x11 coil Equinox 800 with 12x15 coil and steveg counterweighted rod The perfect pair? Axiom 7x11 and Equinox telescoping 5x10

Just back from a mission and had a wee problem with the head/LCD trying to part ways with handle, seems to be held in by a wad of silastic/silicone. (as per photo) This happened during travel in my overhead cushioned detector tray built into my Troop Carriers original 1986 model to current Troopy. The detector is still working AOK and will not be returned for warranty claim at least until end of 23 season, instead whilst back in my workshop will construct a bracket to hold head/LCD more securely. I also have been reassessing my judgment of its performance vs the 6K and now am of the opinion there is nothing between them, whereas before I have considered the 6K has a slight edge. I believe this is because I have through experience with settings obtaining better depth and sensitivity than when I made my first judgement. Am very impressed with its performance particularly amongst creek rocks where there is a considerable air gap between coil and ground. Please as this threads author I am not interested in this developing into a negative Garret or Manufacturers Bashing Thread. The Axiom is a positive gold magnet magic detector.