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  1. The two coils that I've used for the most part on my machine(s) are the Coiltek 9'' and Coiltek 10'' by 5'' Goldhawks. I haven't used either stock coil in the goldfields yet.
  2. X-Coils have been working away in the background and took me by surprise with this one, I've always wanted a Concentric coil for my GPX 5000 but not a giant sized one, and I think they've nailed it with the perfect size coil for my needs, a 15" Concentric for the legacy GPX. I have a spot that I like to detect that's quite close to home but the hot rocks drive me mad with the GPZ there, I've found a few bits of gold there, biggest is 1.2 grams and that was with the Equinox 800 and 11" coil, the reason I was using it was I got sick of digging hot rocks with the GPZ, I haven't even bothered to take the 6000 there as I already know it's worse on these particular hot rocks than the GPZ. I've had the GPX 4500 there once but had a fair bit of problems with EMI as it's near a busy road and every car going past sent my 4500 nuts, their alternator or something, you could hear them coming. It's quite a steep gully with a road going through the bottom of it. This nugget would have been no more than 20 feet from the road So, I'm very much looking forward to using this 15" Concentric coil on my 5000 and going back to this spot. In mono mode on the GPX it's a full-fledged spiral mono coil, flick it to DD mode and it's a Concentric coil which handles bad ground and my hot rocks very well, along with being very good for EMI. A real 2 in 1 coil. This coil will be on its way to me very soon, I can't wait to use it. My 5000 hardly weighs more than my 6000 now with its carbon fibre shaft and lithium battery setup.
  3. I don't often bother to enter competitions, and I recently entered a Coiltek one not because I was hoping or expecting to win, more so as I wanted to express my view on the Coiltek 10x5" GPX 6000 coil, I really like that coil and felt it deserved some praise and what better way to do it than by putting my view in their competition where many will read it. It's my first ever Coiltek competition entry, they hold regular competitions, I'm constantly seeing happy winners of their competitions. Either way, to my surprise I won and they sent me a nice Christmas gift package. This was from their newsletter. Detectorist Simon Muilwijk won a Coiltek merch pack for sharing this with us: “I've been very happy with the Coiltek 10x5" GPX 6000 coil, certainly the most sensitive coil available for the detector, runs nice and stable too,.” So, if anyone's thinking of entering one of their competitions, go for it, you may just win it. I didn't even hunt around for a gloat photo with a bigger bit of gold or anything to try and impress, I just put up my first gold find with it on the first day using it. And my gift package. Thanks @Coiltek, and most importantly, thanks for making the coils I want to use and having them available in a timely manner, keep it up! An even smaller coil for the 6000 in elliptical shape would be appreciated seeing the other one talked about may never exist, and replicating the Nox coils for the Manticore would be great, an even smaller elliptical for that would be perfect too, say a 6.5 x 3.5" solid coil for small gold sniping in creeks!
  4. 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 😫
  5. I have used the Minelab GPX 5000 since it was introduced, and in fact probably owned the first one in Alaska. I have used the Garrett ATX also since it came out with one of the first units off the production line. I have been putting this review off while I got to know the ATX. I now have over 100 hours on the detector in a variety of environments so the time has come. This metal detector comparison review was very challenging for me to write. It pits two very different yet very similar detectors against each other. In a way it is almost like discussing three detectors instead of two, and there is the issue of a huge price difference. I apologize for the length but this is a case where I wanted to be as thorough as possible on the subject. This is the review you will never see published in a magazine! In a way it is all about that price differential. If the two detectors were priced similarly there would be much less debate than is going to occur amongst people and a far easier buying decision for some to make. For me personally it really is a story of the Garrett ATX being two very different detectors at once and so I will start the review there. I have been metal detecting over forty years now, and metal detecting is very important in my life. Not a day goes by that I do not think about, write about, or actually go out metal detecting. Luckily for me a large chunk of my income is derived from metal detecting and so I can justify a collection of metal detectors for what I do. I engage in quite a few detecting activities and I strive to have the very best detector possible at my disposal for whatever it is I am doing. Because of this I am constantly on the look for new detectors that might help me in some way. However, now that the technology is maturing I have the bases pretty well covered. The only thing I was still looking for was a detector that satisfied me while water detecting in Hawaii. Every other detecting scenario I have covered to my satisfaction, but every time I hit the water in Hawaii I was left wanting something better than was available. The combination of salt water, volcanic rock, and military grade electrical interference is very challenging for any detector. What I generally want is a combination of stability and power with good ergonomics. The perfect detector should only signal on desired targets and nothing else, at good depth, while feeling good on my arm. I obviously reject detectors that get poor depth - these are usually the lower price detectors. Most top tier models are very competitive in the depth department. Other detectors I have put aside solely due to an inability to handle electrical interference. Fine machines otherwise, but unstable in an urban environment. Other detectors are too noisy in mineralized ground or too chatty in dense trash. And finally, some detectors are holdovers from the old days of heavy and clunky. I do not like detectors that make my arm hurt! I was therefore very excited when I heard the Garrett ATX was on the way. I was very familiar with its predecessor, the Garrett Infinium, which was tantalizingly close to my perfect Hawaii detector. Unfortunately the Infinium suffered in the stability department. I was also aware of the Garrett Recon Pro AML-1000 military demining detector. I was intrigued by its having a non-motion monotone search mode and wondered if that could be incorporated into a new improved "Infinium Pro" model. I not only had Hawaii in mind but started envisioning scenarios involving underwater sniping for gold employing a metal detector. Add to this that neither Minelab nor White's seemed interested in putting a waterproof ground balancing pulse induction metal detector in my hands. I never expected it would be Garrett that would come out with a second generation model based on the Infinium before anyone else got to first base. I have told you all this to explain what I was expecting and hoping for in the Garrett ATX. The fact is Garrett delivered with flying colors on my desires and the ATX is now one if the most important detectors in my collection. I have already paid for the detector with jewelry found and it is the Hawaii detector I always hoped for. Garrett ATX in Hawaii If we are talking about the Garrett ATX as a new waterproof detector for use on black sand or volcanic island beaches the review can end right here. The Garrett ATX is a superb detector for those conditions and well worth the money. There is only one fly in the ointment. If you look at the full page ads for the Garrett ATX it is clearly being marketed as a prospecting detector, and one pretty clearly aimed at Minelab's top end models. Specifically "The ATX performs head-to-head with the most expensive prospecting detectors in the world." ads by Amazon... Interestingly enough this idea was not even on my radar. I had always thought it was a huge mistake for the Infinium to be set up as direct competition for the high end Minelabs. Anyone involved in that remembers the hype and resulting disappointment and backlash. The Infinium eventually found its place but more as a water and relic hunting machine than a prospecting detector, although it is a capable enough unit. My hope was to avoid a similar scenario with the ATX. I do not like hype and prefer things to be under sold so people are pleasantly surprised when their expectations are exceeded. Hype leads to disappointment when inflated claims cannot be met. The reality here however is that Garrett has chosen to make prospecting the battlefield of choice. There is a lot of money at stake here for a lot of people, and so I am going to do my best here to compare the two units as dry land prospecting detectors. I think we can all agree that if you are looking at both the Garrett ATX and Minelab GPX 5000 and need the detector to be waterproof the Garrett ATX wins hands down. The funny thing here is that if Garrett was gunning for Minelab then in my opinion they went about it the wrong way. I get the distinct impression the design process was backwards. It was not a matter of "what do prospectors want in a metal detector?" I think it was "we have this housing on the shelf we developed at great expense to go after a military contract. We need to leverage our development cost by putting something in that housing we can sell to the public." In other words, I do not see any sign of design following function. All I see is a prospecting detector crammed in a box inappropriate for the desired end use. If Steve Jobs was into metal detectors he would be rolling in his grave. I will have to suffice instead by simply shaking my head at missed opportunity. I will explain more about that later. Let's set ergonomics aside though for now and just talk about straight up prospecting performance. How does the Garrett ATX fare against the Minelab GPX 5000 on gold in mineralized ground? I have done fairly extensive tests but I do have to throw in the caveat that the world is a big place and when you discuss prospecting detectors one truth is paramount. It is all about the ground mineralization and hot rocks. What works well in one place fails in another, and for this reason alone I cannot offer 100% assurances. I have spent a month traveling Western Australia detecting every day and so I am quite familiar with what prospectors face there. I am not about to begin to offer more than an opinion about how these two detectors fare in the worst Australian ground but I do think my conclusions will prove to be true. I can tell anyone right now knowing detectors the way I do that either machine will prove superior at certain locations given their differing capabilities. In a nutshell, the Garrett ATX has a ridiculously good circuit. The engineers at Garrett have done a superb job of producing a detector that out of box performs extremely well on a wide variety of gold in a wide variety of ground conditions. I tested both units in some very red mineralized soil, both outfitted with stock DD coils. The ATX comes with a 12" x 10" DD coil. The GPX 5000 comes with two coils, one of which is an 11" round DD coil and this is what I used. The nuggets ranged from 0.1 gram to 6.5 ounces. Test conditions The impression I was left with was definitely not how the GPX 5000 blows the ATX away but instead by how well the Garrett ATX does. It is impossible to not be impressed by how well the $2120 detector does when run head-to-head against a $5795 detector. Garrett has done a fantastic job and in my opinion their advertising claims are not off base. This is a serious prospecting circuit well worth consideration. The two detectors basically differ in the range of gold they find best. The Garrett ATX skews towards the smaller more commonly found gold nuggets. The Minelab GPX 5000 skews towards larger gold nuggets that tend to be the goal of professional prospectors. Out of box with similar coils the ATX will find small gold nuggets the GPX 5000 would normally miss without special coils and tuning tricks. It does this simply and with no fuss. However, in mineralized ground with similar coils the GPX easily bests the ATX on large nuggets. By large I mean one ounce and larger and by easily I mean by a margin of 10-15%. The GPX 5000 does this using a coil that in my case had never been on the detector before. Most Minelab users would never consider hobbling the detector by putting the 11" round DD coil on if hunting large nuggets at depth. It is informative therefore that even doing this in the interest of "fairness" and with nothing more than stock Normal timing with Gain bumped to 16 (out of 20) the Minelab GPX 5000 easily outperformed the Garrett ATX on a 6.5 ounce nugget. The ATX was at max Gain of 13 for the test. Now the depth differential here was only about two inches but I have to throw in the huge caution note again that it will vary depending on ground conditions. Absolute depth was about 17" ATX versus 19" GPX for good solid signals. The kind nobody can miss. Again, do not take these as some sort of magical numbers as ground conditions and even nugget shape and alloy could cause you to get some surprising differences. That is why I hate mentioning exact depths and differences in most cases and just stick to relative conclusions. But you are going to ask so there you go. For reference a Fisher Gold Bug Pro with 13" round DD coil and White's GMT with 14" elliptical DD both with settings jacked to the max were barely able to obtain this solid gold 6.5 ounce nugget at 12" in this ground and the GMT in particular would not really have been able to hunt maxed out the way it was. Depending on who is reading this the response may be "really, only two inches?" or "wow, two whole inches!" Similarly, it is interesting to see the GPX with DD coil scrub a little nugget with no signal that the ATX easily detects at a couple inches. This however does end up being my basic and not new finding by any means. Others have reported similar results. The ATX does better on small gold and the GPX on large straight out of box with stock DD coils. I do believe the GPX has more ability to handle more varied and more intense ground conditions and hot rocks due to its many adjustments. However, this is more a belief than a fact as so far the ATX has easily handled everything I have thrown at it, including salt water, basalt rocks, and electrical interference in Hawaii. Garrett does make use of a salient fact in its advertising. The ATX handles a wide range of conditions with deceptively few settings. This makes it very easy to set up and it avoids a common complaint with the GPX detectors. They are so complex people are often left wondering if they have the optimum settings for the conditions. I know for a fact from observation that many people tend to use timings that are too aggressive for the actual conditions when using a GPX. The tendency often is to find something that seems to work well and then to just default to that way if doing things, even if conditions change. To get the best performance out of a GPX does require that a person be somewhat of a tuning wizard. The bottom line for many more casual prospectors in the United States especially is that the Garrett ATX represents a fantastic value. It is truly impossible to say but in my case at least most of the gold I find in the US with my GPX an ATX would have found it also. In particular when hunting areas where bedrock is a foot or less the ground would have to be extremely hot indeed for the ATX to not only find what the GPX will but to have an edge on the more common small gold. Even in deeper ground as long as the gold is measured in grams and not ounces and the ground not extremely mineralized the ATX is going to be a close match with the GPX. Again, out of box with stock DD coils. Where the ATX is going to clearly come up short is on large nuggets, especially those sought after 1 ounce and larger nuggets at depth and on gold in the worst mineralized ground and hot rock locations. To be perfectly honest I feel my putting an 11" inch round DD coil on my GPX 5000 in the interest of being fair does not reflect for one second how I look for gold. I am not out there being fair, I am out there looking for gold. I will be running a larger mono coil with settings optimized for larger gold and then the difference in large gold performance between the ATX and GPX is even more pronounced. I would consider a 10-15% to be a bare minimum advantage gained while in effect running the GPX with its hands tied. I have not done comparisons on the iron discrimination systems but I find the method used by the ATX to be inherently more reassuring. The GPX reacts to shallow ferrous targets by blanking out, a sort of non response. The ATX has a momentary ferrous check that kicks in at the touch of a button, and that gives a low tone growl on iron, which provides a more nuanced and natural response expected by most detector users. I am not a big fan of using discrimination on either unit but I did find the ATX method more to my liking for confirming shallow ferrous stuff as trash that I already thought was trash due to the response. Note that on either detector the ferrous rejection only works on shallow items and only with a DD coil. The amount of rejection is adjustable on the GPX and preset on the ATX so more tests really need to be done in this regard to determine which is the more accurate and useful system. Minelab GPX 5000 and Garrett ATX (Minelab outfitted with optional Nugget Finder coil) I do own both detectors and there is a simple reality here. If I am going looking for gold in the water, be it jewelry or nuggets in a creek, I will grab the ATX. For any other prospecting, the vast majority of it, I will be using the GPX 5000. I am not sure where the line between casual and serious is, but I am way, way over on the serious side. I spend a great deal of time targeting and hunting deep ground looking in areas where very large nuggets have been found historically. Most of the ground I detect I am hunting because it has produced nuggets weighing a pound or more in the past. I hunt tailing piles a lot so bedrock is tens of feet down, and the gold can be at any depth from shallow to extremely deep. I think most professionals would tell you that small gold is what happens along the way while looking for the big stuff, and at the end of the day it is the big stuff or the lack of it that makes the difference. I found over thirteen ounces of nuggets metal detecting in 2013 which is no great sum of gold in my book, but well over half of it was in the form of two nuggets, one weighing 6.5 ounces and the other 2.37 ounces. Now in this case the ATX would have found both these nuggets. Yet I would not use anything but a Minelab GPX for what I am doing. I am spending a lot of valuable time going over ground that I may only get one shot at. I plan these things well in advance and not only time but good money is invested in taking my best shot at getting good results. I basically cannot afford to be running anything that I feel does not give me the best chance of delivering that make or break it big nugget. One nugget can make all the difference between a month of lackluster results and fantastic success. If both the Garrett ATX and Minelab GPX 5000 detectors had exactly identical electronic performance I would still be swinging the GPX. I am on one hand very impressed with the ATX as a nugget detector and on the other hand very disappointed by it. The up front decision to use the Recon AML-1000 housing is an automatic fail from a nugget detecting perspective in my opinion. It adds not only needless weight but weight that is very much an impediment in rough, uneven terrain. This is accentuated by a stock coil that is sensitive to knocks and bumps. It requires an extra level of coil control to manipulate the detector in such a way as to not produce excessive false signals. This differs from Minelab coils that basically do not false at all unless something is wrong with them. I would caution anyone using a detector the way I do that the ATX requires extra care as regards the possibility of repetitive motion injury. Trust me as somebody who detected too much one year and ignored the signs this is something to regard seriously. A harness is a must for weeks of long daily use of the ATX. I shudder to think about how the detector feels with the 20" long rear mounted mono coil hanging off the front. That is an ergonomic nightmare. The ATX features silicone lubricated battery door o-rings that collect dirt. The coil connectors also have o-ring seals and even worse delicate pin connectors subject to damage if not carefully lined up. The headphone connector is similar to the coil connectors. All these are required to make the detector waterproof and not only unneeded for normal dry land use but an impediment as regards serviceability in the field. The coils are sold as a unit with the telescoping rod assembly adding needless expense and weight and making carrying an extra coil around something to be avoided. The rear mount enables the ability of the detector to fold up but is another weak point from a serviceability aspect and ergonomically the worst way to mount a coil. I always considered ergonomics to be the easy low hanging fruit for anyone considering manufacture of a detector to compete with the Minelab PI series, and I am frankly amazed anyone could make something even heavier I am less excited about handling. It is an absolute fact I would put the GPX aside for an alternative, even if that alternative was next best in overall gold ability, if it offered a big advantage ergonomically. I in fact often do decline to "harness up" and set the GPX aside in favor of a lightweight VLF at times because I am just too tired or not in the mood. More importantly, in steep terrain bedrock is often shallow and so when hunting hillsides and slopes there really is no advantage to using a GPX in ground only inches deep. I would very gladly use a properly designed Garrett ATX instead of a Minelab GPX in many situations that I currently encounter. In particular areas where bedrock is less than a foot deep or in areas where large nuggets have historically never been seen. The only reason right now that is not going to happen is I do not want the ATX on my arm. Yes, the ATX has an inherent advantage on small gold but nothing I can't negate by putting on a small mono coil and running the GPX hot. No, in my opinion Garrett missed a major opportunity to wow somebody like me by putting a fantastic prospecting circuit in a package very inappropriate for the target audience. Metal detectors are tools. Now the fact is that for the average person Craftsman tools do just fine and represent good value. But the guy making his living with his toolbox is probably going to be investing in Snap-on tools. It is an apt analogy accentuated by the real performance difference that exists between the Garrett ATX and Minelab GPX detectors on the kind of gold most pros are looking for. The vast number of accessory coils and other aftermarket options on top of a well proven platform makes it an easy decision for the serious prospector. Minelab makes a tool designed specifically for a certain job. The Garrett ATX unfortunately I feel is a duck out of water when employed for normal prospecting uses. I do have to say my hat is off to Garrett for producing a detector that is the first to really give Minelab a run for the money. I hope they do follow up and produce a model expressly designed from the ground up as a dry land prospecting machine. It may well become my primary prospecting detector if they do so. If you have read this review carefully you should understand the issues involved. For many people wanting maximum bang for the buck a Garrett ATX straight up and used properly is a real bargain in a PI prospecting machine. It can and will find gold and find it very well. The guys like me (you know who you are) that probably already have a Minelab PI plus extra coils, batteries and so forth can continue waiting for the next big thing in nugget detecting. You may also consider the Garrett for exactly the reason I did. It is waterproof, and currently is the closest thing you can get to a Minelab PI in a waterproof package. In closing I am curious to see how both detectors do for me this year. The ATX has the lead with about 2.5 ounces of gold and platinum jewelry found so far. I plan on using it often to hunt jewelry every chance I get in 2014. The GPX I will once again be taking to Alaska for a couple months of nugget detecting which may or may not pay off with a large nugget found. I will be hunting the right places but large gold is rare almost anywhere you go. Given the lead the ATX already has the GPX has its work cut out for it so it should make for an interesting year. For those of you trying to decide between these two very fine metal detectors I can only sympathize and count my blessings for not having to make such decisions. However, I hope this helps you with your decision because I have done my best to try and do just that. Good luck and good hunting! 2020 Note: Since this review was written in 2014 the price for the ATX was remained the same, while the price for the Minelab GPX 4500 and GPX 5000 have both come down considerably. This does change the value proposition offered by the Garrett ATX, especially as regards the Minelab GPX 4500, which can now be had for only a few hundred dollars more than an ATX. Detailed information on the Garrett ATX Detailed information on the Minelab GPX 5000 Great video by another party (a Garrett dealer) confirming the above results at another location with a different large nugget....
  6. Hi, i bought a minelab gpx 4500, it will come with 11" coil. i will use the detector at places heavly searched with for example xp deus 2, ctx3030, and other detectors. the sites are medieval, roman, bronze age, etc. so... i need a deep coil to go deeper than the others detectors. question 1-wich coils do you recomend? question 2- i read that the mono coil are the deepest, but in places with a lot of iron, it would be a pain... i was looking at the detech website, they have mono coils, dd coils, and concentric coils, this concentric coils will go deeper than the dd coils? wich type of coil will be better for this type of conditions? question 3-detech coils vs commander coils, with the same size, they will work almost the same? question 4-i will receive the detector without battery, so i need to buy a new battery. i saw a guy selling a homemade battery, are this type of batterys something i can trust? they will work like a original, and the detector will get the same deep? or its better for me to buy a original battery? thanks
  7. I've never been overly impressed with the swing arm design of the GPZ 7000, it does its job of course but the rubber part on it is always doomed for failure. I've never really used my swing arm but JW who I often detect with always uses his, he's a real coil control person and I'm wilder and crazier however I've decided with gold getting very hard to get I need to up my game. I've seen JW break his swing arm I think 3 times it is now since I've known him and I can't be bothered with that and trying to deal with warranty and the costs associated with sending it in all the time. I figured I'd have a go at making my own for my 6000 and use that as a starting point, the idea to do so came out of nowhere, I was going through stuff in my garage having a clean out and found some old alloy pipes that looked like they were off a tent and had just the bits I needed to give it a go, I wanted to do it all out of junk I was getting rid of. So, I dismantled the pipes, drilled out the rivets holding the plastic bits I wanted on and salvaged what I needed. I also had some old ski poles I was throwing out which gave me an idea to use as a handle, they're made of super light fiberglass too so added no real weight to it. I used old electrical conduit PVC pipe for the main shaft of it. I might make a carbon fibre version next with a black ski pole handle 🙂 My bits and pieces. The black connectors were off the tent poles, the PVC pipe and my ski pole that I've cut to size. I wanted a bit of the fiberglass up inside the PVC for strength and for more grip when gluing. Oddly the ski pole was quite a tight fit inside the PVC so it worked out perfectly, just some good epoxy and they're now stuck together for life. I removed the strap out of the ski pole handle. Just a little Velcro strap to hold it up next to the detector when not in use, doesn't really need it as it stays there by itself pretty well. I used a nylon nut and bolt to hold it on, I might get a bigger tougher one if that one causes a problem. I had to heat the PVC pipe to get it over the little black connector as it was too tight of a fit, once heated I was able to squeeze it in with some epoxy on it, very tight fit though. and my ski pole handle, worked out nice, comfortable to hold too. So, I'm open to ideas, has anyone made one? Made a better design? This was just a quick 15-minute job and I have lots of the parts left to make up more so I can adjust my design, I've a few more ski poles laying around that are old junkers too that I can rip handles off if I rebuild it differently. I'm going to make one up for my GPX 5000 too once I'm completely happy with it'.
  8. Are you having low run times on your gpx6000 batteries? Or other battery related issues? Here is some important information regarding that. https://www.minelab.com/anzea/support/product-notices?article=516981&fbclid=IwAR2wdWbKiRuHo2nvrxpVq5t6v1_WcGtR5NJYMEumj39CGViBpvaTltAI3AY
  9. I might be in the market for a 12" NF Z-Search coil and my research shows me 3 different versions. Why is this and what are the changes or upgrades? It seems the US is not getting the newest black version? Your thoughts across the pond is ideal for my eyes and knowledge. If my knowledge gathering is correct, the 1st version is white with red decal. Then and what I'm seeing in USA is this white with black decal, see below. Finally and the newest version is black with red decal. I know Nugget Finder is a very well known and long time respected company but seeing 3 different color configurations has me scratching my head. Please help me those who know.
  10. Now that there are many man hours on the GPX 6000 by experts, I would like to know opinion or field experience of using Manual gain vs Auto or Auto+? I remember reading somewhere that the Auto settings can result in a higher effective gain result than even Manual 10 (max) but I dont know if this is a fact or just an opinion. I have mostly used Auto from the beginning but wanted to know what other use and under what conditions.
  11. Can somebody help a 84 year old guy with some feed back, a little confused. Most people seem to like the 12x7 on the 6000 better than the stock 11" for various reasons, but I understand the 12x7 is not hot out to the edge of the coil, so it would not be good in a rocky or brushy situation. Seems like a deal breaker it your area is primarily rocks or brush. Am I missing something here? Also is the 12x7 better in hotter ground better than the 11"? So am I thinking right please? Thanks for any feedback
  12. 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
  13. Saw this vid they did not use the 7000 in normal just difficult has any one modes the 5000 and seen this as a positive and a way to go don’t want to ruffle the feathers so to say but when they did the7000 in Difficult why not run the 500” the same got a stink vide from not apples To apples please be nice just hit me funny and I ain’t the sharpest bloke I have a modded as 2200 and it has uncreated me in a lot of ways just don’t want to get all shinny on some BS I see the 7000 is best but is it really thanks your humble student
  14. I'm looking for a quieter coil for my 6000. What is the difference between the 10"x5" ct and 9" round ct besides price and shape?
  15. My 6000 won’t power up. Yes the battery has been charged and checked with the 12v volt charger and the 110V charger. I have checked the voltage of the battery and it is 8 volts, but I am not sure what it really should be. I am in Quartzsite, Az. If anyone is here and would be willing to help, by let me try your battery in my 6000 it sure would help me out. Miner Depot is not open yet and won’t be for another week. If it is something other than the battery I would like to ship it off to Minelab repair as soon as I can, or get another battery headed this way.
  16. 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.
  17. Will the ML-80 headphones work with the GPX 6000? I have a pair that came with my Equinox that have never been used. I would like to send in my regular 6000 headphones (ML-100?) to the repair center and really don’t want to use my 6000 without a wireless set. I have tried searching for my question with no luck. I would think it has been ash before.
  18. Hello friend of mine Frank C guided me to this site I'm looking for info on the best coil for GPX 6000 the moment I only have stock coils but I'm looking for something more quiet and hopefully deeper thanks for any info Steve
  19. hi , i need to know the data of this mosfet and help me to bot it on ma gpx 5000 dosn`t work thanks .
  20. I found this guy's video interesting; he bought a 12" Concentric X-coil prototype for his GPZ off Dave Dench and was using it to compare to other coils/detectors for his own interest really but decided to film some stuff. He's not associated with X-coils in any way and bought both of his X-coils and the 12" Concentric he is using is a prototype and never released to the public for sale so he was lucky to be able to buy it off Dave. I already own all the coils in question in the video so already knew my results so I wasn't all that interested in that part of the video however what stood out to me in his video was the performance difference between Normal and Difficult on the 6000, I've heard a lot of people say there is very little in it, I always felt differently that difficult is fairly neutered compared to normal but I put it down to my soils, then I see this guy's video in Western Australia's red dirt and he's seeing the same as I do by the looks of it. You can skip to about the 10-minute mark to just see the difference he's seeing between normal and difficult on the 6000 if you don't have interest in the GPZ side of it. He found some targets and compared the detectors and coils on them, the targets turned out to be gold. I guess the people confident that there is very little difference between normal and difficult could be basing that off their soil where normal isn't working as well as it can so its performance is hindered making it more like the performance of difficult but for people that can run in normal on the 6000, they will quite clearly see the difference in performance between the two modes with normal being significantly better. The GPZ is the same although I think the performance difference is much more dramatic, if I had to run the GPZ in difficult I'd be quite disappointed by its performance as I've been spoilt by my soil conditions meaning I can mostly run in normal everywhere and I think that's partly why some think the 6000 is doing better for them than the 7000 did, as the 6000 even in difficult is better than the 7000 on very small gold in standard coil setups regardless of which of the modes you're in. In 7000 with a smaller coil in soils that it can run effectively in normal is a beast so I hope if there ever is a GPZ 8000 they have improved the ground handling enough so people stuck in difficult can experience the power of normal in their soils and that I think will be the key to the 8000's success along with offering the right size and types of coils. I even go as far as putting up with a noisy normal than switching to difficult on the GPZ as I've proven to myself time and time again that if I was in difficult on the GPZ, I'd miss so much gold and by the looks of his video he would be missing a lot of gold in difficult on the 6000 he'd find in normal too. If he had not cleared the rocks around where the nugget was to get the GPX coil very close to the ground it would entirely miss the gold in difficult but likely would find it in normal.
  21. 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
  22. I've had this coil for a couple of months now but hadn't got around to using it until today. JW asked if I wanted to go for a detect this afternoon, I was having a day off skiing as the weather wasn't going to be all that great so it worked out well, perfect time to test out the coil. JW also has the coil, he's used it a bit recently at this spot but not overly had any success with it, in saying that it's going over ground that's been done by the GPZ and X-coils along with the 6000 and 11" and I've had my 6000 and Coiltek 10x5" there a few times too so it's a big ask to do well. We discussed his experience with the his 12x7" on the drive to the spot, he's found his is a bit bump sensitive and doesn't have edge sensitivity with small targets, I was a bit worried at this point I'd wasted my money buying one. This time he took his GM1000 and GPZ and 15"CC and I took my 6000 with the 12x7" NF. JW started off using the GM and popped up a tiny nugget pretty quickly, he brought it over to me and put it down on a rock and we ran my coil over it to see if it behaves any different to his, and nope, edge sensitivity is non-existent on small targets, mine is the same. The area of the coil outside of the red line marked with the X is completely dead on very small targets, the target needs to get beyond the windings to the inner area of the coil to respond. I maybe a bit generous with my red line as it seemed with the nose of the coil the gold was under the sticker before it would respond. This is a bit of a typical spiral coil thing, my 14x9" NF EVO was where I first experienced this with the centre of the coil being the most sensitive area, but I was a little surprised as I hadn't noticed the same on the stock 11" nor the Coiltek 10x5", I'll have to check that now but it means it's not an ideal coil for rocky areas for me with no edge sensitivity on small gold. Throughout the afternoon finding shot pellets I was able to verify this and indeed the edge lacks sensitivity. Tilting the coil on edge to locate tiny targets just can't work like it does with a bundle mono on the older GPX series. It's not the end of the world but something to be aware of, especially for those that hunt tiny targets. Now with the negative out of the way the coil behaved brilliantly, absolutely no bump sensitivity like JW is experiencing with his, I made sure of that by being quite aggressive with it on rocky areas and I ran in normal with maximum sensitivity all afternoon and it was fine except when really close to the power lines where I dropped down to about half sensitivity but didn't need to if I wanted to put up with a bit more instability. In both below videos I was in maximum sensitivity even though I was near powerlines. I think it did very well with hot rocks, I only encountered one hot rock all day, quite unusual for this area as it has a lot of them but it had me going, such a faint target from the surface, I dug down and the target was well below the depth I'd expect to find a pellet and still a faint signal so I was hoping it was a little nugget, but after messing around trying to find it for some time it turned out a small hot rock, the size of a reasonable sized coin. Damn! I thought it was going to be my first bit of Xceed gold. I don't use auto or auto +, I don't believe that auto+ can give higher sensitivity than maximum manual like has been said, if anyone would experience that it would be me in my very mild soils but I've never once found auto+ to be more sensitive than manual, the same was said about the GM 1000, I find it not correct, manual is always more sensitive. The NF appears to like pellets, responds nicely on them, near surface tiny targets give a great signal. The pellet to the right is a #9 bird shot, the pellet on the left was the smallest size I was finding, pretty small and a great response on them, I'm confident it will find smaller if there. Here was my first nugget of the afternoon, it was on a bit of a cliff ledge I climbed down onto hoping I was the first to ever detect it, turns out I probably was, pretty easy target, quite a small bit but had a good response The rest of the afternoon consisted of trying to find other ground I personally hadn't detected before while also trying to think of spots others are less likely to have been over before too, detecting the hard to get to spots basically, and lifting and flipping big rocks over to check under them, areas others had yet detected seeing it's such a hard-hit spot. Then, after some time and no success I ventured down onto a little cliff ledge that I found a couple of nuggets with my Coiltek 10x5" when I first got it, figured I may as well try that spot again as I don't think anyone else had detected it so I climbed down and starting going at it, I found 2 pellets down there which was a surprise as I surely would have dug them previously with the 10x5" and the 8" X-coil on the GPZ that have both been there, I doubt they were new but always possible I guess, they were just near surface targets. Then I hit a big boomer of a target, I couldn't remember ignoring any targets here but I must have and I do tend to get lazy with boomer signals especially if I'm tired from the heat in summer, today being winter I was full of beans and ready to dig it all, even my Equinox would have found this one with ease though so I'm pretty confident I was lazy the other times and ignored it, silly me. Quite a meaty bit. I decided I'd keep checking out this ledge after that, and nothing more, I even climbed down lower and risked being stabbed to death by the thorned plants to reach another bit lower down but unfortunately the only target turned out junk, I was able to benefit from the discrimination on my Sphinx 03 pinpointer to not have to keep battling the rocks and recovering this target, it told me it was ferrous so I passed. I used the Sphinx to help recover the previous two gold nuggets and a heap of pellets and its discrimination was accurate, always a green light on the gold and lead pellets and a red light on the junk. For those interested, the Sphinx worked perfectly with the GPX, I noticed no issues at all having it on my belt with its holster and liked it turned itself on when I removed it from the holster and off again when I put it back in, no need to press any buttons. At the start of the afternoon, I did notice I needed to do a noise cancel with it turned on and the GPX sounded like a Police Siren every time I turned the Sphinx on, once noise cancelled with it turned on it was all good. Now the weather was starting to turn and JW's head popped out over the top of the ledge I was on seeing how I've been going, he saw the weather coming in over the mountains and thought we should bail out, wise idea as we only just got back to my car when the rain really hit. Unfortunately, he only ended up with the tiny bit with his Gold Monster that he got right at the start. So, overall happy with the 12x7", ran really well, worked under and around the power lines OK, no issues with stability tilting it and using it on rock ledges, sensitivity seemed great on small targets except for the noticeable lack of edge sensitivity on small targets. No bump sensitivity unlike Jw's 12x7" and overall, a good coil by the looks of it. I still think I prefer my Coiltek 10x5", similar sensitivity but I didn't notice any edge sensitivity issues, both run nice and stable although it's quite possible the NF ran quieter over all, more time will tell there. As for the Sphinx 03, quite possibly my favourite pin pointer over-taking my Garrett Carrot AT, just need to make sure it doesn't interfere with the GPZ now. Here was my junk, not bad considering 2 bits of gold. On my drive home I drove past the ski field entrance I go to the most and the cars were all coming down covered in snow, good call not to go today in the end but great to get more snow for my next time up! Yay!
  23. “Based on gold nugget performance only. I don’t care about the ergonomics one way or the other. Will the Axiom for sure make lots of finds I can’t possibly make with my GPX 5000? Should I sell my GPX to get the Axiom based on that assumption?” That’s the question that was posed to me. And my short answer is no. The Axiom is in the same general ballpark as the GPX 5000, but there is no particular reason to think its performance is different enough to make a real difference. What one will normally find, the other one probably will also. Though coils are a factor, and at six coils versus over 100 the GPX has a definite edge. I’d bet on a 5000 with 18” round mono on a four ounce nugget at depth versus Axiom with 14”x16” mono every time. On small gold things get more interesting, but a 5000 with a 6x8 Sadie coil is no slouch. So while I’m an Axiom fan, I’m not telling any GPX 5000 owners they need to switch based purely on performance. Especially if you are very comfortable with the 5000 in general. If you own no PI at all and are looking for one or the other, well, that’s a more interesting question for sure. I lean Axiom myself if that’s the case, but if a person is only interested in multi ounce gold at depth, well, it’s the coils again. It just depends on the person and the situation as to which might be the better pick. If anyone does go from any of the battery on harness Minelabs to an Axiom it would be great to hear how it’s worked out, one way or the other.
  24. I took a good friend to The Dragon's Lair to teach him how to find gold with his brand new GPX6000 and within an hour he had found his first nugget with it. He is excited to find more and we are exploring a new area close to one of mine and GoldRyder's claim. After I got him lined out on hunting with the 6000, I reworked my patch that has given up hundreds of nuggets and just pulled one tiny piece of gold out. I couldn't pull anymore gold out when I was getting ready to leave, so I focused heavily on very faint iffy signals that did not repeat, and pulled out some iron tiny trash. I got a non repeatable signal and scraped a thin layer back and heard a soft faint whisper repeating. I ended up digging a .63 of a gram nugget out shaped like a heart. It was about 14" deep maybe a little more. Damn this 6000 is impressive. I got it all on video and it will go up in about a month. I have the depth marked into my pick handle and will measure it soon. What a fine and impressive machine. Hats off to Minelab!
  25. Hi all. I have in the past used a SD2200d at the beach and now run a GP 3000. It gives great depth and very basic discrimination, and I am easily able to get coins at about 16-17" with a Detech 15x12 DD SEF coil, using discrim on half-way and salt mode. Just wondering if there would be much of a depth or sensitivity difference if I was to upgrade to a 4500 or 5000? Has anyone here used either of them at the beach before? I have the opportunity to get a 4500 pretty cheap but for the cost, would I be best to get an old 5000 instead? Would it even go much deeper than my 3000? Would be keen to hear reviews from anyone that's tried.
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