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Condor and I met Andy out in the desert during a brief spell of good weather for a little detector testing and nugget hunting. Andy put together some good video footage during the trip of the Axiom in action.

The Axiom has had quite a significant price drop in Australia by calling it the Garrett Axiom Lite and dropping back to a single coil although the coils are quite inexpensive anyway. Now at 5 grand Australian, they're saying the Lite package RRP is $6299, but selling for $4999. They're still trying to get $7385 for the full package though, super expensive, I think. Better to buy the lite and whatever other accessory from the full you want; I'd skip the headphones and just get a Bluetooth transmitter for 30 bucks if it were me and use headphones or in my case the Avantree Torus I've got already. I've been monitoring their stock levels which for what appears to be a poorly selling detector (In Australia) they should never display; it's hovering at 2 detectors of the full package. They must think the lite package is going to sell more, they have 37 in stock of it. This is direct from Garrett Australia, Axiom Lite 11" Mono (garrettaustralia.com.au) We will be able to monitor how well its selling by looking at their stock levels, see if it goes down from 37 at any point soon. It will be interesting to see if this new pricing model helps with the uptake of it in the Australian market, although with other players now in the game also there it may end up more difficult than just this price drop and they may need to go a fair bit further yet but a step in the right direction for sure, hopefully it helps them get more sales in Australia so we can see how it performs in Australia more so than we've been able to see so far with very limited users, especially on social media and forums. Update - 12 March 2024 New Zealand is now also offered the Garrett Lite package!

Good deal on axiom with 60th anniversary discount coupon

I like to be prepared when I go into the field. I always carry extra coil bolts and washers. Does anyone have a link to where these can be purchased? Trying to look them up all I can find are Garrett AT series bolts and washers.

I've been charging the Axiom for about 10/11 hours. It's still flashing. If I unplug it and turn it on it shows a full charge. If I plug it back on the charger it flashes. It did this the first time I charged it also. The second and third time no issue. should I just unplug it?

I took it out for the second time today to do a little day trip. I'm liking the Bogenes program. I can't believe how small some of the bits of rusty iron are. Head of a pin size. I have no doubt the Axiom will find tiny tiny gold running Bogenes. As for today I managed two pickers.

This is a link to a video of a Axiom running a 13 inch DD coil. I did a Factory Reset and ran the same ground balance a second time with the same results, the ground did not seem extreme, it was basically mostly Granite rock on a hillside with maybe an inch of loose soil blown on the surface. The target was on the surface and was likely a small 22 pistol size bullet half smashed. It was as if the target had been mostly Ground Balanced Out, BUT there were no other targets anywhere near by, it only acted like it did in Fine Mode. I could understand it if the ground somehow ground balanced very closed to the bullet reading, BUT it did not ground balance the same in any mode other than Fine. Bug in Fine Mode Balancing.? Odd. https://photos.app.goo.gl/5PAE8CR6fKQarSf18

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

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

I've had the Axiom for a about 2 months now and up to this point have just been testing it against other PI's on gold nuggets. The weather looked good enough to head to the Nevada desert this last weekend, so I asked Steve & Steve if they wanted to meet up. They agreed. Weather was a little cold at night, still in the upper 20's low 30's, but day time temps were mid 60's. Perfect metal detecting weather! Steve has been using the Axiom for quite some time now and has always said it really is a great PI. I have to agree, especially if you're looking for a multi purpose PI to use not only gold nugget hunting but relic or beach hunting. I really look at the Axiom as being a great replacement for the now discontinued GPX 5000. The Axiom is far better on small gold than the GPX 5000 IMO and hands down just a better setup overall. It's real nice to have all the functions right there available at you finger tips. Wireless headphones, rechargeable battery that lasts 2 days and great ergonomics just add to the appeal. One thing that's real hard for me to do it put time in on a new metal detector when you're at a site you've used other metal detectors on the past that have a proven track record. I had the Manticore and GPX 6000 with as well. So forcing myself to use the Axiom for 4 hour stretches at a time was hard to say the least. Especially when there was gold being found by others in the party. But using the Axiom did not disappoint and I can confidently say it will find both small and big gold about as good as any other PI's I've used. I used the 7x11 DD coil the entire trip, my settings for the most part were fine gold, sensitivity at 5-6 and threshold at 15. First nugget I found with the Axiom came on day 2 as I was exploring some new ground I hadn't detected over before. I saw a dirt pile a few hundred yards away so worked towards it. About 10 feet away from the pile I got the first signal I'd heard in probably 20 minutes. Turned out to be a .16 gram nugget at about an inch. The second nugget came on the morning of day 3 about 3 hours before I had to leave. I was hunting some large piles of dirt that had lots of junk in them. Got a loud high tone that I figured was going to be trash, but dug it anyway. Turns out it was a large 4.1 gram nugget. Man did that make my trip. Obviously I dug a lot of other junk targets on the trip. But when you're digging bird shot, aluminum foil and small wire you know a machine is capable of finding small gold. Best thing about the trip is everyone found gold. I'll let Steve and Steve chime in if they want with their finds.

I went out for two days in the NV desert to use my new Axiom. I played with the setting for the first day trying to figure out the machine and what it was telling me. By the end of the day I was running a negative threshold. Day two I spent the morning in an area that looked promising. Tons of quartz and thermally altered schist with veins of quartz mixed in. This area was absolutely silent except for a 22 bullet down about six inches. I decided to give Rye Patch district a go on the way home. The Axiom ran so quiet in the morning I thought I was way off on what I was doing. At Rye Patch I started picking up minuscule bits or iron. I was also finding tiny fragments of bullets. I met a fellow detectorist while I was there. He was using the 6000, a 4500 I think, and a goldmonster. Preferring the 4500 over the 6000 which he said was giving to much feedback with the underlying clays being so wet. Since I was finding so many little fragments and bits I knew the machine was working as it should. When I found a target I would scrape the top 1-2" and check to see if it moved. Most of the little bits were surface. A few troublesome pieces of wire were 4" down. It was getting late and I was still working on the skunk. I was headed back to the truck and got a nice hi low sound that gave a similar result when I turned on it. I scratched off two inches and it sounded better. Went to 4" and it sounded better. At 4" I was hitting some rocks. I pried the first one out and poked the nose of the coil in the hole. The sound was so good. I pried the second rock out and stuck the coil in the hole. Nothing. Checked the rock and it's a fantastic signal. I scraped the clay off the rock and ran that glob over the coil. I had it. My first nugget ever! Update of first impression. The Axiom battery seems like it will run forever. It dropped 1 bar day one and 1 bar day two. I did re-charge it overnight. The arm cuff felt tight the first night I tried it but it flexed into a good fit. The Zlink headphones will drop out if not positioned properly. The settings I settled were 7 and -7. Very little ground noise.

I find the speculation that the E1500 will somehow outperform detectors costing much more money to be, well, how to put this nicely… questionable at best. If this detector was GPX 6000 class it would be stupid to sell it for one quarter the price of a GPX 6000. I don’t think Alex is stupid. Here is the current price structure in Australia as of today after Garrett just introduced the lower priced stripped down Axiom package: 1. GPZ 7000 $10,499 2. GPX 6000 $8,999 with two coils 3. Garrett Axiom $4,999 with one coil 4. SDC 2300 $4,399 5. E1500 with Sadie & Battery $2649 6. Minelab Manticore $2499 7. Gold Monster $1299 I have pretty solid information in hand indicating that you are going to get what you pay for. The E1500 is a very affordable option at close the price of a top end VLF and will outperform said VLFs on gold in mineralized ground. Time will tell but I think the E1500 will fall short of SDC 2300 and Axiom level performance, essentially being a bridge between VLF detectors and those models. The 6000 and 7000 will continue to rule the roost but at twice the price of the SDC/Axiom level you are not getting twice the depth. Pulling a number out of my ass I’d assign a very debatable expectation of about a 15% increase in overall performance at each major step up in price. People can of course argue that number all day long but I think it is very important to give newbies some sense of reality. Twice the money does not get twice the performance. Gains are more like 10% - 15% - 20%…. pick your number, but it’s not double, triple, quadruple. If I was still selling detectors I’d explain to this new customer that they can go find a gold nugget with a Gold Monster or a Manticore. I’d explain that for not much more than a Manticore they could get an AlgoForce E1500 and be able to deal with mineralized ground and hot rocks that will give the VLF models real trouble. I’d tell them that for substantially more money they could get some very solid bang for the buck in the Axiom/SDC range, a step up from E1500 but still not top tier. Finally, I’d tell them that if money is no object and they simply want the best performance they can get, to look at the 6000 or 7000. I’d comment that out of the box with provided coils the 6000 would have the edge for smaller gold, and the 7000 the edge on larger gold. Adding aftermarket coils (and more money) to the 7000 can close the gap between it and the 6000 on small gold, but nothing you do to the 6000 will have it hitting the big stuff as deep as the 7000. That would be my short and sweet sales presentation and I offer it up as the most simplified big picture no B.S. look at the scene as you are likely to find. My somewhat educated opinions only, feel free to toss in trash bin if you don’t agree. In the States this would be the situation if the E1500 could be had here: 1. GPZ 7000 $8,999 2. GPX 6000 $6,499 with two coils 3. Garrett Axiom $3,995 with two coils 4. SDC 2300 $3,599 5. E1500 with Sadie & Battery under $1999 6. Minelab Manticore $1699 7. Gold Monster $799

I received and set up my Axiom last night. I've charged it and turned it on in the backyard. Runs fairly quiet in the backyard and it's going to take some time to get used to using a PI. The arm cuff needs some work. The cuff is quite small and I am unable to use the Velcro strap as it's definitely too short. Maybe Herke(sp) makes an aftermarket cuff? Brass Medic also notes this cuff issue in an unboxing he does on YouTube. If someone can let Garrett know that larger people have a fitment issue they might adjust the cuff size? Trial run in the NV desert tomorrow.

I'm planning on going out this upcoming week for a day or two to run the Axiom for the first time. Of the two coils that it comes with the 13x11 DD or 11x7 mono what coil is the best one to start with near the Rye Patch placers? Which coil gives the best depth?

Anyone know off hand what size i need for the torx screws on battery box. Smallest i currently have is t9 its smaller than that. Thanks

I've been reading the forum for a bit. I've decided on purchasing an Axiom as my first PI machine. I've read the Axiom forum and ergonomics is important to me. It seems like a good first PI with an intuitive menu. I do have a few questions? is the control and battery compartment water resistant? Will it withstand rain? Does the axiom come with wireless headphones or do I need to purchase the Z link separately?

Just a video I found comparing the 2. I suspect his .01 g nugget was actually a 0.1 g.

Hi Jeff, An update...2 of us have sent our Axioms back and waiting for a response. I hadn't heard anything after a week so emailed Garrett Australia. I got this "We have received the machine and I will be testing through the week." - so obviously we are not a priority to them. I spoke to a Garrett dealer last week and mentioned the issues, he remained tight lipped and just rolled his eyes and said he was about ready to rip their sign off the wall. I also spoke to a detector repair technician and again, same response - they didn't think much of them at all indicating their performance was sub par to the price. Word obviously is getting around and Garrett don't seem to be interested in listening. From what I can see - their ground handling ability is the first major problem and without that, not much else will work. Being that the majority of detector basics come from a component level - looking for a software fix isn't going to be easy without changing the electronics. The GPX 6000 has a lot more that needs to be corrected than the EMI speaker system fix. That's just the official recognized problem. A company called Detectormods here in Aust. offers the upgrades at a rather steep fee $$$. https://detectormods.com/news/20/all-about-the-new-2020-upgrades The guy "Woody" had a YouTube channel and explains further short comings of the 6000. Be aware, he rambles on for about an hours to part with 15 minutes of actual information. To his credit, I applied some of the mods from one of his videos to my old 7000 and is ran so smooth and quiet, I had to "kick the coil" to see if it was still on. I run bogenes so is dead quiet till it hits a target. ..........."Basically, I feel ripped off by these two giants of the metal detecting industry more often than not."............... At least with the GPX 6000 you have options and a company that admits some of the detectors faults. As for the DD coils, people are always talking about needing them and our coil manufacturers "usually" listen....eventually. I'd say hang in there and maybe contact Nugget Finder, Coiltek and X-Coils to see where they are at? Garrett just plain deny there is any problems although they always counter with "we are happy to test the detector for any possible issues" then get our detectors back "No Fault Found"???? I'd strongly suggest selling the Axiom and use the 6000 until a successor for the 7000 comes out - which could be some time yet. Maybe even send it over for the mods to fix the issues with the money from the Axiom, you will be happy you did! I'm pretty sure that is currently the only place offering them. Ahhh, the life of a detectorist..............................

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

It thawed out enough today to do a much deeper test in a semi frozen freshwater beach erosion cut using the Axiom with 13X11" Mono coil, GPX 4000 with Coiltek Elite 14X9" Camo Mono and Deus 2 9" DD coil. I wanted to see if the pulse induction Axiom and GPX 4000 using similar settings and similar sized coils had similar performance. This is important to me since the Axiom is the new detector on the block and it sure is a joy to operate and swing. No worrying about craning my neck to see the GPX front and back panels, worrying if I have accidentally bumped a toggle switch and in the case of the 4000 with no backlight.....trying to see what the display says and then getting strapped in for the ride. None of that is necessary with the Axiom. All the controls are right in front of me to easily see and manipulate and the ergonomics are off the chart good. But how is its performance on deep coins and is that transferrable to deeper jewelry, relics and deeper gold nuggets? Deus 2 once again, was along for the ride. It did great giving an iron mineralization reading and for checking the test area for any obvious targets and clearing them out. So, I ran it through the test knowing full well that it was way out of its league due to its 9" coil and it being a VLF. The test was on a 0.5 gram Liberian 24K gold coin, a 5 gram US nickel and a 5.75 gram US quarter (a high conductive target) . I dug three notches about 2" into the cut that these targets could easily fit into. I made one notch at 9" from the surface/swing area, a second notch at 13" and the deepest notch at 18". The Fisher F-Pulse pinpointer in the photo is 9" long. iron mineralization again was pretty high using the Deus 2's iron mineralization meter (lower left display bar graph). You can actually see the black sand on the surface of this beach and in some of the photos. I started with the Axiom using its 13X11" mono coil using the Normal timing/Slow speed with sensitivity on 3 as 4 was just a little unstable for the EMI and ground conditions. Ground balanced easily and stayed fixed. Threshold was just audible. I tested the 0.5 gram gold coin at 9" depth. The Axiom with 13X11" coil had no problem giving a text book high/low fairly sharp audio response on all sweeps. It wasn't loud, but it was easily a no doubt Dig Me type signal for me. Raising the coil an inch or so and the target response became very iffy. Next I tested the 5 gram US nickel at 13" depth. The Axiom responded with a solid, sharp, text book high/low response on all sweeps. Again, these responses were not loud, but they were very obvious, no doubt responses. I moved the 5 gram US nickel to the 18" notch. The Axiom responded with a smooth, broad, one way low/high response swinging from right to left. The response swinging from left to right was much shorter and mostly a higher tone. I could have mistaken this response for shallow ground noise, but since it was very repeatable I probably would have dug that target. The US quarter at 18" had a similar but fainter response. Digging that target........maybe. I then did the same tests with the GPX 4000 running in Normal/General/Slow with gain on 10 and with the threshold barely audible. The Coiltek Elite 14X9" Mono coil was very quiet after doing a frequency scan and ground balanced easily and stayed that way throughout the testing. The 9" deep 0.5 gram gold coin sounded sharper on the GPX. The response was high/low as expected but it was a bit more clearly defined and obvious than on the Axiom. Digging that response all day. Raising the coil about 1" resulted in a very iffy response. The 13" deep 5 gram US nickel also sounded a bit sharper and clearer than the Axiom, but the overall high/low response actually seemed to have less volume/signal strength. The nickel at 18" did not have a broad response like the Axiom. It was very short and faint, but clearly something under the coil. Much softer response than the Axiom. The 5.7 gram US quarter had a similar response at 18" with just a quick rising tone above the threshold. Deus 2 using its 9" coil running FMF Goldfield, no Disc IAR, sensitivity 95, reactivity 2, audio response 4 could barely hit the 9" deep 0.5 gram gold coin and I mean barely. Without headphones, I would not have heard that response or even looked at the display for a possible target iD. Understandably, it could not hit any of the deeper targets. No mode could hit them. I expected that so no surprise. Once again, the Axiom really held its own against a fine pulse induction detector like the GPX 4000 setup similarly.

I have an Axiom and a good old AT-Gold for hunting in water. I've been trying to find out why Garrett favors blunt ends on it's coils. I've found one brief reference in a forum that the design provides more depth on the front and back end of the coil. I've also seen a reference that stated that the rounded corners may be the hottest part of the edge. They seem to use this design for both DD and Mono coils across all of their products. Can anyone talk about the good and bad aspects of the blunt end design? Why is the round coil design better or worse?

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

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

Try THIS in Lake Tahoe STEVE.! Below is a link I hope works to a admittedly low quality phone video I took at the worst black sand area I have ever seen. NOTE - The Outrageous settings on the Axiom are - Salt Mode, Sensitivity at Minimum of 1, Threshold at -9 So NO Threshold, Auto ground balance off. Machine would not ground balance in ANY mode or sensitivity on this ground and gave a Zero Zero balance number for both balance readouts, and no target could be heard over the very loud ground noise, SO I turned threshold OFF completely, and that helped BUT now still the ground was being detected as targets.! SO I reduced the sensitivity until most of the ground was no longer detected, that turned out to be all the way down to 1, and still I had to lift the coil about two inches above the ground to eliminate most ground signalling, to test a target I put a dime down 3 inches and it Clearly and Repeatedly detected it, even buried. Note it does have a different target sound than normal. I did not try it deeper, but am sure it would work with the signal as strong as it was with the coil 2 inch above the ground, so actually a distance of 5 inches in this ridiculous ground. Salt Mode, Sensitivity of 1, and NO Threshold - Went From Undetectable Ground to working well, Who in their right mind would even try such settings.!! 🙃 https://photos.app.goo.gl/rVhX4avWLfiUBTrc9