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As we all know the GPX 6000 coil ears have cracking problems, quite a number of people after hearing of it and inspecting their coils found they had cracks they didn't even know about. It's been said they revised the plastic they use to make the coils to prevent the cracking, but has anyone been able to find out the date this took place? Is it very recent I wonder or did they do it some time ago? Much like the speaker EMI problem every coil before a certain date is going to have the dodgy plastic formula. I've had my coil replaced recently under warranty for being noisy but it wasn't replaced with a new date code coil, in fact the coil I got it replaced with is likely older than my 6000 as I only bought my 6000 in May of this year and I was provided a replacement coil from 2021 by the looks of the writing on the coils package. If anyone finds out the date of the plastic change that'd be appreciated although I guess Minelab likes to keep this stuff secret to stop people wanting their stuff fixed/replaced.

After reading about the axiom I started thinking about selling my 4500. I like the features and the weight of the axiom. I wonder if it would handle hot rocks better than my 4500. I run into a lot of basalt hot rocks in the El Paso mountains by Randsburg Ca.

Part 1 My first attempt of a video, please excuse the sound on part 2, not sure why its cutting out. These examples are for the hottest ground. The Equinox works great at target separation in low mineralized ground.

Well well well, what do we have here! They've finally accepted they made a mistake, after lots of complaining went unanswered they've had to accept they have released faulty GPX's with speaker problems and are going to do warranty on them, oddly only for Australian's so far, if you access their website from other countries IP's the content is not there, only from Australian IP's. People knew they had a problem, people knew their detector was not like the others yet it went unanswered for how long? How many times were people being accused of being whingers when they knew they had a problem! They could have acknowledged when the newly manufactured GPX's with the update take place from to give us an idea. Was it from August this year? Was it January? Was it last year? Looks to me like they're encouraging people to use headphones so they don't notice the problem with theirs and are not being upfront about how many potentially problematic ones are out there to avoid having to do warranty on them. They know the serial numbers affected, they could just contact the owners, most people have registered their warranty, that gives them the contact details. They could do the right thing and contact everyone with a faulty unit that they have the details of rather than wait to be contacted by those that realise they have a faulty unit. They also have a video on how to do it For those with an acceptable IP address https://www.minelab.com/anzea/metal-detectors/gpx-6000 and clicking updates. They must be gradually going to roll the "recall" out around the world so as to not flood their service agents or something, they will have to get the parts to them all starting off with Australia, the easiest one I guess. Here's a screen print of the page for those that can't see it GPX 6000 - Metal Detector speaker problem.pdf Here is an example video of one of the symptoms of the fault, thanks GotAU

I made a quick overnight trip to Rye Patch to do some more testing with the GPZ and 17" Concentric Coil. My main goal is to familiarize myself with the Z combination for an upcoming trip to Australia. This testing was merely for my own edification, not to prove any point about this Machine/Coil vs that Machine/Coil. I dug the first 2 nuggets last night and it was getting dark so I didn't have time to do any cross checking. This morning I marked 3 undug targets with the GPZ and 17" XCoil Concentric. I then went over them with the GPZ XCoil 17x12 Spiral Wound. That combination picked up 2 of the 3 targets. I then went over all three with the GPX 6000, 14x9 Coiltek combination. The 6000 heard 1 of the 3, but while detecting back to the truck it picked up 2 more targets. I started over with the Z 17"CC and it picked up the 2 new targets no problem. I then ran the Z 17x12 over the new targets. It picked them up no problem, but on the way back to the truck the 17x12 picked up a faint noise in an old drywash hole. I dug down to bedrock and found bits of charcoal and just general noise so I gave up on it. The 17" CC relocated the 1 missed target and I dug down a few inches thinking to use the 6000 as a pinpointer. It still couldn't pick up the target. I finally dug it out, a tiny piece of steel down about 6 inches. I then dug up the 4 targets which included the 2 remaining targets the 17"CC found and the 2 the 6000 found. 2 were bits of steel and 2 were small round nuggets. Coincidently, the 2 gold targets were the ones found by the 6000, but verified by both coils on the Z. By then it was approaching 10:00 AM, and the NV desert still gets hot this time of year. But, before I left I went back to the 17" CC combination and went over the drywash hole. A clear tone somewhere in the bottom of that hole. The unfortunate thing about the Concentric coil is the receive winding is about 8" round dead center. You're waving 17" of coil with the equivalent of an 8" round receiver. Nearly impossible to pinpoint in a foot deep hole. I dug the hole out some more and tried the 6000 over it. Very noisy, but a faint low tone in the sidewall of the hole. I dug it out some more and finally got a booming target in the spoils. Heartbreak, 1.5 inch piece of rusted steel. My random thoughts on this little experiment are this: 1. The XCoil 17" Concentric will not miss much, "IF" you have fairly flat ground and can consistently overlap your swings to insure you get that 8" receive winding over the targets. 2. The XCoil 17x12 Spiral Wound coil is nearly as good and will ultimately cover more ground with a whole lot less effort. 3. The 6000 with 14x9 Coiltek is no slouch and could save the day if you're old and tired like me. I would be hard pressed to swing the 17"CC all day. The deepest nugget the 6000 found was down about 5 inches, very respectable for a sub/sub gram nugget. All this is very unscientific. I'm at mercy of time and weather in the NV desert this time of year. I did what I could with the equipment I had with me. Rye Patch is a tough hunt in the best of circumstances, so finding 4 nuggets in about 6 hours of detecting is beating the odds. I've had more than a few skunk days out there.

Just received my 'Crittas Offroad' stem-lock and lower shaft kit today and fitted it. Instructions are rather rudimentary but the task is an easy one. Remove the ML lower and middle stems and unscrew the 'locking' (never) ring, exposing the threaded plastic ferrule. Use a hacksaw blade or dremel-type elec rotary tool with cutting disc (that's what I used) and slice through the thread along the same axis as the stem until you determine that its cut through to the upper stem level. Then use a flat blade screwdriver to wedge open the cut and then use a pair of narrow pliers to grip and remove the 'never locking' piece of junk away from the upper stem. It will take a bit of wriggling and twisting to break the glue but mine broke free fairly easy. Reassembly means you unscrew the locking attachment with an allen (hex) key to open up the attachment to the diameter of the new stem. Then push it on with the locking lever part facing the coil end. Re-tighten with the allen key until very firm but don't over-tighten coz the stem may crack. Then insert the new stem (with coil attached) and adjust axis and length to suit your height. I did it without the use of the 'instructions' in about 15 minutes. No downsides to this aftermarket fix....the supplied stem is extra long and the same fiberglass or polycarb 'carbon fiber' look as the factory stem. The coil end of the stem has rubber washers attached already (but no coil bolt). The locking attachment tightens very snug onto the upper stem and the actual locking lever is fully adjustable for position and firmness. I haven't used it in-field yet (tomorrow) but I've tried to twist it off axis with my foot on the coil and it holds firm. YAY!!!!! A problem that should never have occurred is now FIXED. AU$150 spent but the extra 'Tall-man' stem is worth AU$100 by itself. Very happy chappy

Had the opportunity to meet up with Steve Herschbach and Steve (Condor) over the weekend and do some gold nugget hunting and testing of the new Garrett Axiom. I took along a few machines with some new updates and coils to try out on this trip and just wanted to give a few thoughts on what I experienced as well as share a video I did of the trip. Unfortunately I missed out on the detector comparison and recovery of the big nugget Condor found. But was involved in the reburial of the nugget and testing of multiple machines and coils over it. You can read Condor's story below. The clear winner was the 7000 with the 17" concentric coil. Close behind at about and inch (maybe more) less depth was the 6000 running either the 11" or 13x17 mono coil seemed to make no difference. Axiom in this scenario was in third running either the 7x11 or 11x13 coils. While I was there Steve let me use the Axiom for about 15 or 20 minutes. Now obviously that's not enough time to become an expert by any means. But it did allow me to experience the Axiom first hand. I just used the settings Steve had loaded at the time and I'm not even sure what timing was being used. Garrett did a good job with the Axiom. It is very well balanced and one can easily swing it all day long with the 7x11 coil. Menu seems very straight forward and easy to navigate. The machine is well built and folds down to a very compact size for easy transport. Having used many PI's in the passed, I feel I could make an easy transition to the Axiom and do well with it. Two things I noticed in my limited time with the Axiom are, first, the threshold is very similar to the 6000 and has a little wavier in it. A good running 6000 has a small wavier in the threshold, unlike the 5000 which can have a rock solid threshold. Second, target response on the Axiom seemed to be a little sharper than either the 5000 or 6000. Not saying either is good or bad, it's just some observations I took away with me. Overall I'm excited to get one when they become available. Hopefully by the first week of November so I can take it relic hunting in Virginia. XP Deus 2 running the 9" coil with the latest update allowing disc notch has greatly improved the machine in trash and hot rock strewn areas. I ran the D2 through a very trashy area with disc notched out up to 25 as most of your smaller shallow gold will ID in the 30's. I was able to pull a .40 gram nugget from the mess and was happy with it's performance in that scenario. Finally, the new GoldHawk 5x10 mono coil is a really great coil IMO. It makes the threshold on the 6000 even smoother than it was before and handles bad ground well. In this particular area there is a lot of salt and red clay. With the 11" and bigger coils the 6000 moans and groans over this ground in areas. With the 5x10 there are very few places it has any trouble at all. I think this will allow a person to hear smaller and possibly deeper nuggets with the added stability. Sensitivity to small gold is also amazing. We buried a .10 gram nugget next to the big nugget Condor found and ran various coils over it on the 6000 and Axiom. I think it was about 1.5 inches deep and Steve commented that I was being a little optimistic about being able to detect it. The 5x10 GoldHawk coil picked it no problem and was easily the winner in this case. The next day I took it to an area I had pulled a few nuggets from in the past with the 11" mono on the 6000 and had gridded the area at least 2 times before. I was able to pull 7 nuggets from this same patch which really was amazing. Ended up with 2.4 grams for the trip. Video is below if any of you are interested in watching.

I just ran an indoor test of my GPX 6000. Using the supplied Bluetooth connected headphones with max volume. With room lights including one fluorescent light ON and nearby computer ON the EMI noise with the 11” Mono coil is almost unusable at any settings. With the 14” Double D coil; Max Sensitivity without Threshold ON it is almost silent; With Threshold ON it has a normal level of EMI noise (similar to the 11” Mono EMI level in open country). It detected a sub-gram nugget a few inches from the coil with no problem. My Galaxy A10e phone which I carry with me when detecting (Turned ON) causes no problems when rubbed against the Control Head or the Detector Housing. It is detected as a target when moved over the coil. It appears that the electronics shielding in my GPX 6000 and the 14” coil cable are working quite well. Have a good day, Chet

Update 9/30/22 I wrote the post that started this thread over a month ago. I questioned why anyone would be selling GPX 6000 metal detectors they owned, to place an order for an Axiom, when the product was still under development. Nobody has any independent evidence in hand about how the final shipping version of the Axiom will compare to the GPX 6000, and I have been frank in saying that I should be considered a biased source. My main concern, however, were that people were taking my selling my own GPX 6000 as meaning perhaps more than it does. So in the post I stated straight up I thought it was premature for anyone to be selling a GPX 6000 to order an Axiom. Since then, nothing has changed per se as regards that recommendation. I do know, however, that feedback from myself and others means the Axiom is undergoing significant upgrades in capability still, and that this process will continue until Garrett feels they have a product they are satisfied with. That means it is simply too early to decide exactly how these detectors compare. I know I really like what this detector has to offer, and I am certainly finding gold with it. There are, however, things I felt could be improved. The latest developments as of today have left me feeling more optimistic than ever that the Axiom will be a worthy competitor when it finally reaches the market. That being the case, I decided to update my previous post with this simple statement. And that is to note that it is not over until it is over, and people should withhold judgment until the final Axiom is out, and various independent people have a chance to compare it to existing detectors. I'll recuse myself from that process, as I have been to involved with the prototype testing, and do not want anyone looking to me as being anything but biased on the subject. Frankly, that just gets me off the hot plate, an easy out. I'll end with my stock recommendation. The wisest course of action with any new metal detector models is always to wait. Wait until it is out, and if you can, wait until others you know and trust have had to to evaluate the detector, and report on it. Let them be the guinea pigs. There is almost never any reason to be giving money to dealers based on pre-release information, unless you are just dying to be the first kid on the block with a new toy. With that said, let the wait continue. Trying to rush Garrett at this juncture helps nobody. What is needed is patience with a capital P, so that all the time possible is given the engineers to tweak and tune, and deliver the absolute best product possible. 10/13/22 - Latest Commentary Here

I bought the GPZ XCoil Concentric for my upcoming trip to Australia coming in mid September. I wanted to put some run time on it so when Steve H suggested we take a short trip to Sawtooth to meet with forum member ABenson I jumped at the chance. Steve H has an old patch that he has detected for over 10 years, I've detected it for over 6 years. We generally find a few pickers but it really has been hunted to death. The benefit of a hunted to death patch is there is no more trash, so any target stands a good chance of being the good yellow stuff. I ran the 17" Concentric as hot as the ground would bear, Normal, High Yield, Sens 17. The ground has a lot of alkali salt, and the upper couple inches was damp from a recent rain so I added in the "Patch Find" setting to quiet the ground a little. After a couple hours with no targets other than a few boot scrapes in hot ground, I got a good repeatable tone on the slope of an old push. Since I'm new to the Concentric I had no idea what that signal was telling me. If I had to guess from the tone, I would say under a gram nugget, 4 to 6 inches down. So I marked the target and walked back to the truck to get my GPX 6000 and the new Coiltek 14x9 coil. Steve H was nearby so we decided to check the target with the new Axiom. We got there and neither the 6k nor the Axiom could hear the target. I had to go back to the truck and get the Z to verify the target was where I had marked. A clear and repeatable tone in both Normal and Difficult for the Z. We pulled a couple inches off the top and started the whole process over. The 6k gave a faint low tone over the target, but not something that would ordinarily stop me in prospecting mode. In fact, I dig very few low tones in this ground because of the hot ground and hot rocks. I'll defer to Steve H for his assessment of how the Axiom was doing over the same target. We did a lot more testing, and found a seam of hot red clay on the target, but to skip to the chase, we recovered a 4.6 gram nugget (4.7 on Steve's scale) at a minimum of 13 inches and probably closer to 14 inches. We reached a few preliminary conclusions on ground handling, raw detecting power and pricing of the 3 detectors, based on this one unscientific, ad hoc test with the detectors and coils we had available. Our ideas on detector performance were severely challenged in some later completely unscientific tests. More to come, Steve H is probably better suited to explain how things changed.

Here’s a simple fix for the 6000 twisting shaft issue- just put a 1/8th inch thick dry O-Ring inside each of the locking rings. When you twist the locking rings, the o-rings compresses and tightens up between the shaft locking ring and collet keeping the shaft sections from spinning as easily. I used these two sized o-rings (in inches): 13/16 x 1-1/16 x 1/8 3/4 x 1 x 1/8 Fully unscrew each plastic locking ring and separate each rod, leaving the plastic locking rings in place on them and put the o-rings on. Be sure the o-rings fit snuggly but not too tight around each rod as shown below. Then insert the rods back in place and reconnect the threaded locking rings with the o-rings between the two parts. The o-rings will slip between the plastic collets and the ring wall as you screw on the locking ring. When the locking ring gets hand-tight, the o-rings will provide more locking force between the rod sections so they can’t spin as easily.

Now that the Axiom is out and they plan on doing updates after user feedback within the first year, we should all send Minelab an email asking for an update to all our problems with the 6000 (and wants like Fe discrimination). Its been a year and complete silence. We have a big community here, maybe if we do that and include things like Steve offloading his (and he was a big part in the 6000), perhaps it will get their ass moving to do something. If not we might be able to assume its a hardware failure and move on to the Axiom and tell them that reason in doing so! If you can type a post you can send an email. Shouldn’t take longer than 15mins. What do we have to lose! 😁😁

Yesterday I was meant to be cleaning up my garage, I'd made a mess of it and the boss told me it must be returned to normal but fortunately for me JW contacted me first thing in the morning asking if I wanted to go for a detect. This was enough for the "boss" to tell me I can do the garage today instead... yet here I am 🙂 We took the coils to a spot we've both detected a lot, a huge amount really but it was a good testing ground for the Coiltek's due to the high EMI envrionment, powerlines, buildings, airport, it's got them all 🙂 I knew from my initial testing at home the Coilteks were working A LOT better for me than my 11" coil, and I now suspect I've had a faulty 11" coil since I got my detector and it explains why I didn't like the 6000. I went over ground I'd done with the 11" coil as a bit of a test for the 10x5" Coiltek, I'd done this ground to the best of my ability and JW has been hammering it too, he's got quite a bit out of this area too. I didn't take many photos as I think most people are more interested in how the coils behave more so than photos of them. We arrived at about 10am, mostly the ground wasn't frozen except in shady spots which was handy as it's been frozen a lot lately. JW put on my Coiltek 14x9" and I used the Coiltek 10x5". It wasn't even 10 minutes and JW comes walking up as he'd found his first bit of gold with the 14x9", right near where we put our bags down, off to an incredible start, I'm guessing it's about .2 to .3 of a gram. Down in the bedrock too. Off to a good start for an area we've done so much. My first target I was sure was going to be gold ended up being a shot pellet, I really have no idea how pellets get into places like this, but they do. I had to move giant rocks by levering them with my pick and dropping them off the cliff, it took a lot of effort and I'm amazed how strong the Davsgold picks are, the jobs I do with them moving and lifting rocks is pretty incredible that they don't break. JW had lost his pick on a previous visit to this area, left it behind somewhere when he left, we were hoping we'd find it but as someone else had been detecting there too ( we could tell by dig holes ) there was a likelihood it was gone. I thought I'd upload this video as it shows the pains of detecting 🙂 The next target shortly after was only a few steps away from this one and it turned out to be a nugget. I'd missed this one in the past as it was well hidden, I had to smash out some of a bush to get the coil under there to even detect the ground, I'd not done that before but when you're in an area you've flogged to death you need to do these things in the hope of finding something. Here is a bit of a video of the find, as with most of my videos just raw footage, I don't like editing as to me raw footage is more informative than a chopped up and edited video. I was happy with the performance of the 10x5", a real game changer for me as I'm confident my 11" is faulty, it's away at the moment at the service agent to be checked, they can't look at it until next week so I'm eagerly awaiting their results, if it's not faulty its a piece of junk and will become a sacrificial lamb to get the one part of it I find valuable, it's chip, if its faulty then maybe I'll be happier with the replacement, soon find out. I switched the detector on and even though in a very high EMI environment and with JW detecting close by with his 6000 I had no significant EMI issues, I didn't even need to noise cancel although I did do one, I didn't need to regularly noise cancel and factory reset often like I did with the stock coil either, in fact unless right near the power lines a noise cancel was never required. Not once during the entire day did my detector go nutty, no police sirens or UFO sounds, nothing! Such a contrast to my stock coil that literally drove me mad, I was so frustrated with the detector I wanted to smash it. I was able to tilt the coil and go up and detect cliffs and nothing, no problems, if anything slightly higher EMI when off the ground due to the interference in this high EMI area from the power lines mostly. Nothing that I'd consider an issue that's for sure. This is the first day prospecting with the 6000 I actually found it enjoyable and started to like the detector. Here is a video showing my experience around and under the power lines with the Coilteks, this is a very high EMI area with houses nearby, power lines obviously, an International airport very close by, I mostly dedicated this to the 14x9" as we all know the bigger the coil the worse the EMI and I think it handled the situation very well, not quite GPZ with small X-coil or Concentric capability as I can run that maxed out under the same lines and keep it stable but for a GPX it did remarkably well I think. These Coiltek's for me are soooooo much better than my possibly faulty 11". My second nugget of the day was one I was more impressed with, it was in a little bedrock area JW and I have both hammered with our 6000's, in the video I said I did this spot with my 8" X-coil on the GPZ but I was in fact wrong, It was my GPX and 11" I did it with, and found a bit of gold within about 15 inches of this nugget using the 11" so we both missed this bit for some reason, The piece of gold I found the last time I used my 6000 was so close to where this one was, in the same line of bedrock only and only about 15 inches away, JW jogged my memory by reminding me the bit I found next to this one in this video was the bit where he came over with his GPX 6000 and 17x13" and even as we dug it out further the 17x13" was completely blind to it until it was near touching the coil. So, after a day of using between the 10x5" and 14x9" I am much happier with my GPX 6000, the majority of problems I had with it are resolved by changing to these coils, if it was that I had a faulty 11" coil then that's great news but if not and these are just that much better than the 11" coil then that's fine by me. The major complaint I had from the day was the shaft twist, especially with the 14x9" coil, not the coils fault by any means but something to be aware of. JW ended up with 2 nuggets also, very similar sizes to mine, one smaller and one bigger one. Getting any in this particular area is very much a challenge these days but a good testing ground. My 6000 went flat so it was game over for me but I went over to JW who had a signal in some bedrock he was trying to smash out, quite close to the power lines and his 11" was working to an acceptable level there I thought but he said some days his is better than others, my 11" would have been doing police sirens and all sorts of strange noises in that same spot. It was a very faint signal and he couldn't smash it out with his pick, the rock was too hard so he's going to have to go back with some heavy equipment, I had the 14x9" on at the time and turned on my detector and it lasted long enough after a rest turned off to go over that target and it got no signal, but that's not a surprise I already figured out the 11" was slightly more sensitive to tiny gold than the 14x9", we are confident it was a tiny bit of gold, so he'll go back and get it. I'm more confident the 10x5" would have had a signal on that target than the 14x9", it's significantly more sensitive to smaller targets. So yes, I now like my 6000 except a few things about it like the wobby shaft and questionable reliability, but it's not going to replace my GPZ, not even close, I still much prefer the GPZ but I'm lucky in that I have a great range of coils for it. And JW ended up finding his lost pick! So a good day for all.

Times are tough out on the range, those lunkers elusive as can be, but gold fever still going after 30 years and I can't shake it off nor do I want to. These days finding 1 piece regardless of the weight is a big WIN for me. For me just being out in the foothills of the Sierras brings me peace and relaxation, at times I find a piece of that rare yellow metal we call gold. Yesterday was that day, I was armed with my 4500 and 11 inch mono commander coil hiked up to the small creek and started to work the side bench with the intentions of using my hearing skills and digging the slightest rise and fall of the threshold. It was about an hour or so until I finally sensed a change in the threshold and did the usual boot drag, put the coil over the bare ground and the threshold just a bit more noticeable. Digging down an inch at a time until I got down to about 3 inches I saw this golden ray of light like the rays of the sun blinding ones eyes when driving directly 😳 into the sun's direction, blinding me. I reached down with my hand and grabbed it with a smile 😃 so wide and a feeling of ✌ VICTORY. My years of experience and ears tuned to the slightest change in threshold led me to another piece of gold! Regardless of the detector coil combo you use in the right hands these old coils have the ability to still sniff out gold. This is my little 🏆 of the day..a small piece but a little victory these days. Hope today I find the big brother.

Just some pictures of my two favorite configurations, Garrett Axiom with 7" x 11" mono (4lbs 3.8oz) and Minelab GPX 6000 with 11" round mono (4lbs 8.6oz). Weighed on my postal scales as configured, both perfectly balanced, a real joy to swing and use. Mainly wanted to give people a look at the "look," and general proportions of both detectors. Click or double click photos to see or download full size versions. The Axiom coil looks "longer" than the 6000 coil in the photo, but that's an optical illusion. I just measured both coils, GPX is 11" round, and Axiom is a true 7" x 11" modified elliptical. Both excellent examples of what we should be getting in way of easy swinging, ergonomic PI detectors. Finally! Garrett Axiom Quick Facts, Owner's Manual, Etc. Minelab GPX 6000 & Garrett Axiom Minelab GPX 6000 & Garrett Axiom Minelab GPX 6000 & Garrett Axiom Minelab GPX 6000 & Garrett Axiom Minelab GPX 6000 11" round mono & Garrett Axiom 7" x 11" elliptical mono

So I've recently started using my GPX 5000 as a coin and jewellery detector, I've been using the Coiltek 11" Anti Interference coil on it, this coil is fantastic for the job, the most stable threshold you'll ever hear on a GPX, although sadly the coil is now discontinued, Detech make a similar coil though but I know nothing about their version and if it works as well. At the moment I'm considering an Axiom as I'm sure quite a few others are too, the main focus so far on the detector has been prospecting so it's time to find out how it goes as a coin and jewellery detector, and of course relics for those lucky enough to live in a place that has relics. With my coin and jewellery spots there is always a lot of EMI around as obviously where you hunt these things are places with heavy human occupation. The other places I'd use it are at beaches which around here especially popular beaches where the finds could be made generally have houses all around them so many sources of EMI. An example of how good the Coiltek AI is on my GPX under some high voltage power lines And another video showing the Coiltek AI coil being used inside my house, a crazy high EMI environment showing just how well it handles EMI This is the question, how well is the Axiom going to compete with this? Is it naturally good with EMI with a DD coil? Being a detector with no protective chips to prevent aftermarket coils perhaps manufacturers would be able to make AI coils for it too? I would think Detech would be one of the first to take on coils for the Axiom and seeing they make AI coils already it might end up possible. These videos were filmed using my old Aussie made ratty GPX 4500, my GPX 5000 is much more stable although I can't really complain how well the 4500 works with the AI coil, the 5000 is even better. I didn't own the 5000 when I took the video. I guess for the answers to my questions it's going to take time for people to have the Axiom in their hands but with a few on order already from people giving up their GPX 6000 due to it's EMI problems as they hunt in high EMI environments I'm sure it won't be long and a few friendly helpful users will give me the advice I'm chasing 🙂

I was looking for an external speaker to put closer to my ears. I see the 6k uses bluetooth and picked up a LEZII BT525 wireless waterproof speaker with volume control. The speaker works and pairs up with the GPX6000. Anybody else doing this, and what speakers are known to work? https://www.amazon.com/Shower-Speaker-Bluetooth-Waterproof-Portable/dp/B07JVHGN54/ref=asc_df_B07JVHGN54/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312099670269&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8403305686597357607&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9051682&hvtargid=pla-588401982372&psc=1

Gold prospecting hobbyists find moving further afield in the Kimberley still pays handsomely https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-07/prospecting-for-kimberley-gold-outback-rise-metal/101209176

The chart shows current GPX-6000 coil sizes, weights, and areas. I hope this chart can help you find out which coil to bye in the future. Phrunt- the 6 X 8.5 specifics have been added to the chart.

Well it’s been an amazing year here in the gold fields of the good ol USA. This month (June) is the 1 year Anniversary of the GPX-6000 getting into customers hands and into the gold fields. Wonder what your feelings are and if you feel it’s taken over as the new KING? As a well known Minelab Dealer who’s sold more GPX-6000 than most dealers and my Field Staff/I keeps in contact with many of the customers, I can assure you it’s earned the status of “KING” in the US. Is there still a few who think the GPZ-7000 wears the crown? Most certainly, but the reality is the FINDS & FACTS. No Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard dirt slinging coil swinging soap opera here…JUST THE FACTS. GPX-6000 SUCCESS - Finds more pieces of gold vs a GPZ-7000. I’ve had more customers finding more gold nuggets, even those who traded in their 7000 back to me for the GPX-6000. Just ask on here and most who have owned both will tell you 5 to 1, or 7 to 1 and maybe 10 to 1 ration. GPX-6000 DUMMY PROOF. More User Friendly. Yes the GPZ is leaps/bounds easier than a GPX-5000. Any we now know the 6000 is easier than a 7000. GPX-6000 ERGONOMICS. is easier to swing. This alone was my main reason for getting a 6000. Finding the extra nuggets is a bonus. So many of my customers felt the same way. GPX-6000 VALUE - is $2500 less money (at least today anyway). Now watch Minelab change the price and add another $500, like they did on the GPZ-7000. After all, the one year is now up so the introductory price is suspect to market change bla bla bla. If you have been thinking of getting a GPX-6000, best to move sooner than later or you just might be paying more. GPX-6000 SIZING is more compact and easier to store in RV, easier to hike or ride a motorcycle/bike and just around overall better design. GPX-6000 RESPONSE responds to a variety of different styles of gold better than a 7000 (if you don’t find it, you don’t know what you missing). GPX-6000 VOLUME is best, almost too good. Those little nuggets really POP…even to the weakest of ears. GPX-6000 ACCESSORIES. Minelab coils, coil covers, lower shafts and batteries are priced way better than those for a GPZ-7000. GPX-6000 FUN FACTOR – Just ask the folks who own them. I get emails and calls from my customers so much more often now...vs a GPZ-7000. Our 3 days Field Training is more fun and there are more golden smiles being shared. More happy drives on the way home and more happy wives to know their hubbies had success. GPX-6000 COILS – With the new CoilTek & Nugget Finder coils coming real soon, the options are even better. We all like options. GPX-6000 NEWEST TECHNOLOGY – Who wants to use a 7 yr old cell phone (GPZ-7000). Now all you Amber Heard fans can challenge the above facts, but you know the outcome already…. Anyway, I’m all ears. On a side note. Lets give some more FACTS that we have had happened to us, or observed. GPX-6000 has more background noise and EMI issues when compared to the GPZ-7000. I’m looking forward to seeing either a software upgrade (if possible) or a new improved model in a couple years. Doubt they will come out with a new model GPX-6000 for at least 3 yrs. GPX-6000 out of the box issues. Yes it’s not what we had expected from Minelab but at least they have taken care of every customer that I am aware of. After all, some of the original complaints was new to Minelab PI’s customers. Bottom line, Minelab let some of us down when compared to previous new releases. GPX-6000 timings on a rare occasion have issues with a certain hot rock or soil. I give the GPZ-7000 the edge for those rare occasions. GPX-6000 on Deepest nuggets of size. Yes the GPZ-7000 has a little more depth on those few rarest of nuggets. I recently witnessed a nice piece found at depth with a GPZ-7000 and know the GPX-6000 would be short a few inches. I did find more gold that weekend though than the GPZ-7000. GPX-6000 coils from Minelab seem to not hold up as well as GPZ-7000 coils. But Minelab does make sure customer gets taken care of. Yes there has been a lot of hashing and bashing (Jonny vs Amber) of the GPX-6000, but the bottom line is, not one customer has never been taken care of, that I know. Heck I have a brand new truck with less than a 1000 miles and it’s had 2 recalls already. Am I ready to walk away? Not as long as the manufacture takes care of me. I realize not every person across the world hunts the same kind of ground most of us hunt in the US, so on a rare occasion a 7 might do you right. I also know of a select few guys who are more focused on the biggest of deep gold at no matter what the expense. You are the rare occasion and not the majority of folks who hunt gold. I also know some of you have had such great success and still do, you are content trying to be Arnold Schwarzenegger. It’s all good either way you swing a GPX or GPZ. As long as you are getting outdoors, having fun and finding a little gold. That’s life my friend. No rocking chairs for us. Attached are a few pics of customers GPX-6000 Success. Please don't take it wrong if I didn't share your pic since I have many happy customers

I've been using the Minelab GPX 6000 the last few months for gold nugget hunting. Also been doing some experimenting with it for relic hunting. Left early Friday morning and got out to Northern Nevada and meet up with Chuck (GB_Amateur) for all day Friday and half of Saturday until the 30 mph winds drove us off. I had planned to stay until Sunday morning. But decided to just drive back to Utah a day early and get out of the wind. Below is the gold I found. On the way home one of my hunting buddies in Utah called and wanted to know if I wanted to get out Sunday to an old fort site. So I decided why change detectors, I'll just use the 6000 and see how it does on relics. So for about 4 hours I tested my theory about what targets would be found using settings I came up with specifically for relic hunting. My relic hunting settings/coil on the GPX 6000 are: 11" mono, difficult timing, threshold ON, sensitivity 1 (lowest setting), dig only low tones. In theory, digging low tones only you will dig on the low end of the scale small pewter buttons and $1 gold coins. You will avoid, most .22 brass and lead, percussion caps, small foil and small bits of iron. The cutoff on the high end is about silver dimes. So IHP, all gold coins except the $20, 3 cents silver, half dimes, all bullets and round balls, cuff and coat buttons will be a low tone. Silver dimes and up will be a high tone. I would still dig the right sounding high tone based on sound, shape and size if I came across one. So the real test for this hunt is would my buddy Mike dig less iron that I would with him using the GPX 5000 with iron reject or me using the GPX 6000 using my settings. The picture right below is Mike's finds and just below his are my finds. You be the judge. Also did a video if anyone is interested in seeing the GPX 6000 in action relic hunting.

Here is a decent video from Tassie Boys Prospecting, he's actually one of the new Minelab detect-spurts. Tasmania detecting is much like NZ detecting, the bushland looks VERY similar, so it might go some way into explaining why I like certain detectors and coils more than others 🙂 One of my favourite creeks is so hard to get into now it's getting near impossible and like these guys it's full of hot rocks that send detectors wild, the problem is there is gold to be found if I'm patient enough and willing to crawl through the bush to get to it.

Although this has a bitter sweet ending there is some good stuff in this from Bill. Always is in his videos. He tells it & shows it how it is out in the field. For those of you that struggle with the ratty threshold with the 11" mono he covers this & I thought he had his detector running pretty damn nice. D4G

There has been a bit of debate about how widespread GPX 6000 faults are, so what better way than to do a poll and see. I didn't bother including accessory faults like headphones into the mix as they don't really matter as much but would likely increase the number of people with issues. It would be interesting to see how widespread the problems are so a poll seems the best way to work it out. Please be honest with your answers or there is no point to the poll. If you haven't had a fault don't say you have just because you're disappointed about the build quality overall. If your shaft twists but it doesn't bother you you should say yes it twists, this sort of thing helps Minelab be aware problems that they may offer us a solution for, so why hide it? They replaced everyone's Equinox shaft when they had wobbly ones. I've changed the poll to anonymous as some people prefer that they don't reveal who they are in this case.

Here it the Nugget Finder GPX 6000 coil prices for New Zealand, a bit of an indication of what to expect. We’ve received the pricing for the GPX6000 Nuggetfinder coils this morning with some more information. Unfortunately they can’t give us an exact release date due to some uncertainty around the supply of some parts. They have also advised that the 8x6” won’t be available until August/September. (8”x6”) NZ$689.00 / $449 USD (12”x7”) NZ$729.00 / $475 USD (16”x10”) NZ$779.00 / $508 USD I wouldn't mind the little 8x6" but the 10x5" Coiltek is increasingly looking more attractive with a far better price and also a shorter time until it's release. Of course every country will have different pricing with their shipping costs being different and taxes and so on just it will just give you a basic idea.