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  1. Yesterday, JW and I went for a bit of a hike to a remote spot in the mountains, I hadn't been here at all since my GPX 4500 a few years ago, and JW had been a small few times since trying out his GPX 6000 and found a few bits. The hike in is what puts it on the backburner all the time 🙂 It's a close drive from JW's house, but a big steep uphill hike, and from my house it's about an hour's drive so by the time I get home I'm stuck to the car seat, man it's hard to stand up after a massive hike and an hour's drive home after a day's detecting with the hike back to the car, at least the hike back is downhill all the way. I ran the car's seat heater the whole drive home to help the muscles recover! JW has a few years of age over me, but he is certainly fitter. It's a really cool place to go though, with great views of the surrounding mountains, unfortunately I can't put up scenery photos for fear of revealing the location to prying eyes, as you can work out the basic location by using the bigger mountains to get an idea of where I was. There has been a bit of mining in the area, and reworked in the depression years, but the earlier mining was done with a lot of work and water monitors (canons) blasting water at the hillsides to recover the gold. The Chinese hit it pretty hard too, staying longer than the other miners going over it again. It's interesting how they get somewhere, then just stop. The soils an interesting colour, almost white. Quite the drop off here down to the ground below, but oddly at least I think you'd be crazy not not to detect these high areas, as gold often pops up in the most unusual of places. My first bit of gold for the day was a bit of a surprise to me, it was a fairly faint signal, yet it was very shallow, I thought it is more likely a pellet although this area barely has any pellets at all, in fact it barely has any targets, if you get a target the chances are high its gold, aside from the occasional old bit of miner's junk like cans and a few nails most targets are gold so it's certainly a dig it all location. I took a little video of the target, so weak of a signal for the size of the gold I thought, although I'm more used to using the 10x5" Coiltek which is more sensitive but still, I was pretty disappointed. This is the little scrape of a hole it came from. The piece of gold. And its weight, quite a reasonable size piece for me, anything over .1 is pretty decent size for me 😛 I was so taken back by how weak the signal on it was I tested it this morning with the Algoforce to see how well it would do, even though it has the larger 10" round coil on it, I thought the Algoforce gave a better signal response on this particular piece. It's a bit of rough looking piece. The other interesting thing is it was right next to someone's previous dig hole, probably JW or I, we were likely using older technology at the time, as I'd only been here with my 4500 which no doubt would miss this piece of gold. It's very unlikely this person didn't go over the nugget and they missed it. The joys of newer technology. Next piece was in the path you walk on to hike to this area, there are tracks all over the place, mostly from old miners I guess however now they're hiking trails and go all through the area, you can even walk from one of my favourite ski fields to this area on tracks. This is it's dig hole, another very shallow target, an OK signal. This is the little guy Smaller than the last bit, but a much better signal. Just ignore the shaft twist in this photo, it's a feature of the 6000 🙂 After that I was walking along detecting the path, but no other gold to be found in that particular area, I did find old boot tacks though which is pretty cool, one spot had a bunch of them in one hole so I gave up recovering them, that miners boots must have fallen apart at that spot 🙂 The gold spot is the dig hole just above the pick in this photo. Here is a little video of it, I haven't watched the videos back yet but it likely shows this one had a better target signal than the previous bigger bit I found. It was pretty easy to film gold finds here as there is so little junk about, so filming bits of digs is worthwhile knowing they're likely gold. Next piece was on top of a little ridge It was my biggest bit of the day, had trouble carrying it for the hike back to the car. Deepest of the holes too. A smooth bit. This is its spot. And a little video of it, the second target next to it was one of 2 pellets I found all day. That was my last bit for the day, the day felt like it went really quick though, we finished up detecting about 7pm, but both of us didn't realize the time and thought it was about 5pm I guess. A benefit or a negative depending on how you look at it coming from the GPZ and GPX 5000 is the 6000 can have the pick so close to the coil it's not funny, it always surprises me how close the pick can go, even when you lay it down recovering targets so while using it I have a belt attached pick holder and in this location I am glad I did, as sometimes its half an hour between targets so nice to holster your pick. The super strong magnet I've got in my pick handle makes life easy too, if I'm using it more regularly, I can just attach it to my pick holder using the magnet to save the effort. It stays there when walking around as long as the pick doesn't bottom out on the ground. So other notable things from the day, this piece of quartz was so weird, it doesn't show up as well in the photo but its flat smoothed off and much like a tile or bench top, and really glossy, so weird. You can see the shine on that one side, but the entire flat surface of it is like that, and its smooth and flat although the photo doesn't show that well. It's like someone's cut it smooth and painted it with polyurethane. And my junk for the day, there was also a nail which I left behind and you can see why I say it's a dig it all location. I'm used to digging hundreds of pellets on the farm land locations, this spot, 2 🙂 Both big pellets too. And last but not least, some old miners' tins I found, I left them where they were, a bit of history. I think this tin can was never opened. This one looked like a giant sardine tin. I think I'll get a bit fitter so the hike and day of swinging a detector around going up and over hills and mounds of soils doesn't wear me down so much and go back to this spot more often, I do really like going there, it just takes it out of me. It's very difficult to E-Bike there too as much of the path is on a cliff side with a big drop and very skinny path no more than 40cm wide in many spots, I've done it before but ended up walking the bike much of the way as I wasn't crazy enough to ride it through the steep drop off areas. Today I'm completely jelly legs and walking is a challenge 🙂 JW doubled my gold count, he came away with 6 pieces, pretty small ones too, he was using the GPX 6000 and 10x5" Coiltek coil, a better choice of coil for the day, I think. I only had the NF coil on as it was left on there from a previous time. It was good to take the 6000 out though, leave it much longer and the old motor may seize from lack of use.
  2. Isn't this interesting, buy a GPX 6000 and Minelab will give you a free Coiltek coil. 😅 I have a feeling the Equinox 600 is about to be discontinued. Giving them away with a GPZ, on sale to clear stock in the US. They're giving away free M8 coils with the Manticore when people are still struggling to buy them the world over.
  3. 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
  4. Please help me out with some GPX experiences. Living in the eastern US I don`t have the opportunity to use the 5000 much. I try to do two or three trips a year in gold country, so my actual time on the machine is limited compared to those who can get out more often, so any advice or helpful hints are much appreciated to shorten the learning curve.
  5. Hi Folks, It’s Sunday afternoon here and I’m trying to get ready for a few days detecting over the next couple of weeks. I’ve been working some gully areas with a mate but he’s gone away on a prospecting trip for a month and it looks like I’ll be working solo during that time. We put out a YouTube clip last week and it was so easy with two on the job. When we detected a target, one person would film as the other person dug out the buried metallic object. It saved a lot of time as normally tripods etc need to be set up and this often becomes a frustration that can take the edge off a trip. I decided that I’d mount my GoPro on the shaft of the 6000 to make life a bit easier for some of the footage that I plan to take on the next outing. When I looked through the various assortment of mounts that I had for the camera, there was nothing suitable for the job so I decided to make one. It is a simple task that can be achieved with some PVC pipe, some basic hand tools and a hot air gun. A piece of 50mm pipe was cut to 30mm in length and a slit was cut down one side. A spacer block and two cramping blocks were then cut from some scrap timber. You can see on the left hand side of the photo that the lower shaft of the 6000 was ready to be used as a mandrel to shape the PVC. The hot air gun was then used to heat the pipe until it became soft and pliable. This only took about 10 seconds. The PVC was then shaped around the shaft and the blocks were positioned in place. A G cramp held the moulded plastic in place until it was cured. I had to repeat the process a couple of times until I was satisfied with the shape of the mount. It was a simple matter of reheating the PVC to soften it before reshaping it again. The mount took a couple of minutes to cool before being trimmed, shaped and drilled to fit the GoPro. An off-cut of 3.5mm acrylic was shaped as a spacer to fit between the camera legs. Stainless washers could have been used for this component. The mount was attached to the detector and secured with the standard locking screw and a 5mm wing nut. Using scrap PVC is a cheap way of moulding all sorts of mounts for prospecting gear. I’ve just finished making a bathyscope from some 100mm sewer pipe. You may be able to see the light fittings at the bottom. They were all made using a similar method to the mount shown above. I noticed a local prospector was using a bathyscope when he was detecting in water. I thought it was a good idea as it can be time consuming trying to recover gold from submerged crevices without one. Have a look at Bedrock Gold’s channel if you get the chance. It really does speed things up.
  6. In his long-winded video, he finds that there is nothing connecting the PCB to the shield, the confirmation that 2 components are replaced to fix the speaker EMI issue, the graphite paint is very patchy (and has no screen wire embedded to average it) and after doing '5 or 6', he confirms that they are all the same. I agree with him, it seems extremely odd to have only a passive shield and hope that the detector can combat EMI. Something's not right methinks....
  7. The cable and chip module that I salvaged is from a used GPX 17”x13” coil. The graphite coil shielding has a separate ground/drain wire. I haven’t been able to use it with a standard GPX 5000 coil because the ground/drain wire is internally connected to the mono cable coax shield. Also the GPX 6000 appears to be finicky if the inductance, capacitance and resistance are not just right. I don’t know if the 11” ID chip would signal the control box to expect some different coil specifications. A few days ago I salvaged the cable and module from a defective GPX 6000 14” Double D coil. I have wired it up to a standard 5 pin connector to adapt to the X-Coil connectors. I also rewired a ML GPX 5000 Commander 11” DD coil to the same pin connections as the X-Coils. In testing there are no coil faults and it appears to be working. But with both a GPZ 14 coil and the modified 11” DD coil there is very low sensitivity. I will do some troubleshooting to find out what is wrong.
  8. Hi all. A fella I know, who we will call Jim, has been given (yes GIVEN!!) a GPX 5000 and has asked me for help to set it up. I think it is a year or so old but never been used as the original owner is unwell. I recently helped my sister's boyfriend who had issues with his 4500 so had roughly read the manual. The 4500 actually had a speaker issue as well so although we got it working OK the Threshold was still quiet. My less than expert diagnosis (from a bit of research here and PA Forum) was that his curly cord might be a bit defective and it isn't boosting the audio to the speaker. Anyway, I stopped around the other night and helped the bloke with the 5000 as best as I could having roughly ready the manual again. Now this bloke is technology illiterate and is not someone who is going to sit down and read or understand the 112 pages of the Minelab GPX 5000 manual. I did give him a print out of Steve H's GPX 5000 bit from the Detector Review area of this forum but even that is beyond him (the Timings/Mineralisation diagram for example). So, I have set the 5000 up to a point where the Threshold is humming nicely and we were finding targets in the bush quite easily. With the 5000 are an 11" mono Commander and I think it was a 17"X11" mono Commander. No DD which I thought was unusual but maybe they came in a package without a DD? The original owner might still have a few bits and pieces too as it seemed there were a few things missing. Have written up what I think are the absolute essentials for Jim to know about and change if he feels confident to do so. There are sooooo many controls on a 5000 that I feel like a 5 year old is in control of the cabin of a jumbo jet! The following is 112 pages condensed down to 2 😳 Wondering if those with the knowledge would be happy to peruse it and advise if they think it is a reasonable synopsis of all that is important. I have left out anything which I don't think is imperative for Jim to know or play with - at least at the start anyway. Things like battery voltage, etc. Have left many other things like Target Volume at factory presets. I also don't want it running really hot and Jim digging lots of ghost signals. So are my timings suggestions reasonable for moderate mineralisation ground with some hot rocks, moderate amounts of red, wet clay, etc? I generally cannot run Normal mode on the GPZ or the GPX6 in the local area if that is some guide. Rx Gain and Stabilizer - I think this is maybe going to raise the most discussion 😀 I have another old mate over near Mt Beauty that has a 5000 but he is a bit the same as Jim as he has no idea about technology either. But, he does find more than his fair share of gold and his detector runs very smooth and appears particularly sensitive to genuine targets without digging a lot of ground noise. He was previously running his 5000's Rx Gain and Stabilizer at settings provided by the dealer he had purchased off. He was then told by another old bloke to try the Stabilizer at half of the Rx Gain. Whatever the Rx Gain was, make the Stabilizer half. So that is what he has done ever since and he feels it is heaps better. Having never used a GPX 4500 or 5000 other than twice in the past 2 weeks I would really appreciate some constructive feedback before I pass this on to Jim 🙏 Cheers, N.E. GPX 5000. Front Panel:: Search Mode: Choose General. Deep is for detecting a small area slowly and carefully. Custom - then provides you with Patch, Hi-Mineral, Hi-Trash and Pinpoint. Soil/Timings: Normal - best wide range of performance. Enhance - cancels most ground noise and hot rocks. Special - If you choose Special on the Front Panel the following settings will then be available on the Rear Panel. - Sensitive Smooth - For severe soils. - Fine Gold - Good for small gold in mineralised soil. Ignores a lot of hot rocks and ground signal. - Sensitive Extra - Can increase hot rock signals. Better for mild ground. Good with Double D coils. - Salt/Gold - For very salty areas - salt lakes, high salt content gold fields, beach. - Sharp - More powerful but will increase false signals. - Coin/Relic - For low mineralisation areas. Poor ground balancing ability in high mineralisation. My suggestion is to start in Enhance. Could also try Special (Front Panel) and then Fine Gold (Rear Panel). Coil/Rx: Double D. Mono. Use this always unless you actually use a Double D coil. Cancel. Ground Balance: Tracking or Fixed - use Tracking. Back Panel:: I have only covered the things which you might need to alter from the Factory Preset settings. Rx Gain: Has a Range of 1 - 20. Adjust upwards until the Threshold starts to break up/get wobbly and then slightly reduce until the Threshold is stable again. Stabiliser: As Stabiliser increases it increases the sound of faint signals. But, it also increases the sound of EMI and ground noise, etc. Old mate thinks it should be half of what Rx Gain is. So if Rx Gain is at 10, then set your Stabiliser at 5. Audio Tone: Set it to suit your hearing. Factory Press is 50 but lower tones for older people can be better. On a day of detecting: Set up your Front Panel - Search Mode - Soil/Timings - Coil Rx - Ground Balance. Turn on the detector. Set the Threshold so that you can hear it easily. Do an Auto-Tune. If the Threshold is not nice and quiet - do it again. If it is still noisy check you Rx Gain and try turning it down. Set your Rx Gain (rear Panel) so that it is as high as you can go without the Threshold being wobbly. Set your Stabilizer at half of the Rx Gain. Perform a Ground Balance. Turn the Threshold down so it is just an audible Mozzie Hum. Start detecting.
  9. I have permission to hunt a property that is a couple miles away from Pea Ridge Battlefield. I have been finding some keepers with my Deus 1, with the 9 " and 11" X35 coils. I recently picked up a GPX 4500 in great shape, with a 12x8 platypus DD coil, 2 11" mono coils, a 11"DD, a 15"x12" mono, and a 18" mono. I going to see what I can find. I have used the SD2000 up to the GP Extreme, but not the GPX 4500. My question to the members is, how good is the iron reject, can it knock out iron the size of 16d rusty nails.
  10. I have been looking at pi detectors lately never used pi before have used gold monster and regular coin machines alot want a pi for gold nugget hunting. I have heard alot of good and bad about the 5000 great detector but very complicated as well. Most gold in and around redding california are little bits from what ive heard obviously big chunks come out rarely. Is a 5000 worth it for a novice who doesnt get out as much as he would like or find something simpler like a sdc 2300. Thanks in advance. Will check back at replys later at work now
  11. Hi all, I work for Avantree, and I stumbled upon this forum and noticed that many of you in the prospecting community are enjoying our Torus for use with your detectors! We would love to continue supplying quality audio devices for the prospecting community. We're currently developing a new product called the Sky Infinity. It is a bundle including our Infinity earbuds (https://www.avantalk.com/products/infinity-multifunctional-wireless-earbuds) and the Relay Bluetooth transmitter (https://avantree.com/relay-airplane-bluetooth-adapter-for-headphones). We will also include a 6.3mm to 3.5mm adapter so you can plug the Relay into your detector. The Infinity earbuds have the aptX Adaptive and LE audio codecs. aptX Adaptive's latency levels are slightly higher than aptX Low Latency (which the Torus has) at 60ms delay v.s 40ms, but provides far superior sound quality. LE audio is a new technology as phrunt mentioned earlier, which trumps both aptX Adaptive and aptX Low Latency. Unfortunately, we do not yet have a transmitter that supports LE audio, but if there's enough interest in this, we can definitely develop one! If you're interested in trying the Sky Infinity bundle for use with your detector, let me know via message. We can send you one to try! If you have any other ideas for a product that would work well with your detector, please share and we can develop something great for you.
  12. 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..............................
  13. Just sent my 5000 to Mick at Detectronics. Any good advice on settings when it comes home. Sounds like 3oclock is the sweet spot on the gain. We have pretty easy ground here in Montana in most places but do have some hot spots here and there. Also with the new level 4 mod sounds like the evo 15" is the go to all around coil. Thoughts?
  14. Maurice Coppola (a very well known Golden Triangle prospector) has another video comparing various detectors and coils. Well worth a watch.
  15. So I'm in Idaho and dont see Algoforce making any inroads here for a at least a few months. What can I do to upgrade my gpx 4500 ? Don't have any aftermarket coils but I'm working on it. Are any upgrades going to be worth it? I have have learned a lot on this forum and thank everyone for posting their knowledge. I don't always have the time to geek out on the subtleties that might give me an edge. Yes I have found gold and do my research. I guess I'm asking if the aftermarket coils are worth it?
  16. I figured I'd contact Nugget Finder to see what's going on with the other GPX 6000 coils, I quite like my Xceed 12x7" so intend to buy the 8x6" also, I think it'd be a weapon on the 6000. So, to save anyone else wasting Rohan's time replying to endless emails about when the coils will be available, I thought I'd post it here. This was his reply. Hi Simon Releasing the 16x10 is our priority at this stage, I don’t expect to have the 8x6 ready for sale until sometime in 2024. I understand these delays may be frustrating and I appreciate your patience. Regards Rohan Perhaps that means the 16x10" may be released this year, but the little guy is a fair while off yet, a shame as spring/summer (now) is when I do most of my detecting so I'll miss out this season. I'll stick to my GPZ and 8" X-Coil for the most powerful small coil detector for now.
  17. 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.
  18. What is so special about this Battery Cable and why are they so so expensive,do you have to buy it solely from Minelab or do aftermarket ones even if they are made do the same job but at a far cheaper price,i absolutely hate being taken for a ride when a company dictates high prices for something just like this battery cable. As far as i can gather a few folks have mentioned this is a weak link due to it moving all the time,has anyone got any suggestions on who makes cheaper ones but of the same quality as i might carry one as a spare backup one in my detecting bag. Once again many thanks
  19. I was watching this video from Woody that he did about 3 months ago, oddly my GPX 4500 had the exact same problem whereby they'd painted the housing causing the alloy front and rear plates not to contact the housing, thereby making the alloy grounding not perform as it was intended so I had to file the paint off and it worked very well. Then with the 6000 it appears they've done the same thing, EMI shielding painted the housing, yet not connected it to the ground of the detector. It's just bizarre how these things take place. I do wonder if this is something that was a problem on early 6000's and they've resolved as they've worked it out, and later ones have the grounding done properly. I've no idea if mines been done or not, and the way he does it is a bit crude although working, I'd not do it that way with the squished washer, the tap washer seems a bit better and something a bit better than one of the fibrous cardboard types might be alright, still I prefer if this is the case and there is a grounding problem on them they fix it as a warranty repair, perhaps as part of the EMI fix with the inductors this was part of their procedures fixing this problem too, as I did notice not only was my detector no longer going crazy randomly it also appeared to be more stable with general EMI.
  20. Quick Question: Would you rather use a 6000 with the 13'' by 17'' coil or the 5000 with a 13'' by 17'' evo coil on a two gram nugget? That's the average size of nuggets here. And how much would a 15'' evo coil give me over that?
  21. You and Rob have both mentioned this. Yet it is apparently still made and sold in Australia? What the ???????
  22. 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.
  23. Now that the Axiom has been out awhile are there any relic hunters that can provide some feedback on how the Axiom compares to the GPX 4500/5000 on discrimination? I've scoured the internet and have found a couple of competing opinions but very little other than that. I've owned the GPX 4500 and now 5000 and for 2 years I didn't own a vlf machine and I was very successful at finding Civil War relics in pounded sites in my area. Once you get your ear "tuned" I dug very little iron. Also on the Axiom is the iron check a button you hold down or a mode you can leave it in for those high iron areas?
  24. So I read all the old reviews on here for the GPX17 coil for the 6000. Is everyone still in love with this coil like the old reviews indicate? The 6000 is my primary gold detector and I dont have a 7000 or 5000, and I also know the 6000 will never match these machines regarding depth on larger gold. Is the GPX17 still a good coil to have for patch hunting in open ground and some extra depth compared to the stock 11 inch or the NF 12x7? I was patiently waiting for the NF 16x10 mono coil to be released but it does not appear like this is going to happen any time soon and maybe never. Please advise if the GPX17 is a worthwhile investment now or should I wait for another year to see if the NF coil will be released. I have not seen any field test results comparing the GPX17 to the NF 16x10 even though it appears that JP and maybe others have tested it. Please advise, Ceril
  25. 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.
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