Axiom At The Beach

[Pyriteboy]

I took the Axiom to my local beach for a 2.5 hour test spin to see what would happen. Staying in one spot, I just gridded the area to see how the detector behaved to different targets. The ground was moderately mineralized from some weather we are experiencing; no sugar-hip white flow sand here....
These are my observations:

• The 11 x 7 mono is too hot and will not work at my beaches
• The 13 x 11 DD can be used but it picks up too much EMI when turned to pinpoint.
• While using the 13 x 11 DD, most targets scream, even at depth.
• While using the 13 x 11 DD, you will detect high-conductor targets that are so deep you might pass on digging them (clad coins).
• The Axiom is a beast run amok at the beach and has to be de-tuned to operate effectively.
• After-market open coil designs will only help the Axiom's performance at the beach.
• My wish-list beach coil would be a 12 x 10 DD open design.
• It's a bitch keeping a beach scoop and the 13 x 11 DD coil apart when digging a target.
• The Axiom out-performs the White's Big Box TDI on the wet sand.

Here are the settings I came up with:

SENSITIVITY.................2

MODE............................Normal

SPEED...........................Medium

THRESHOLD................5

GROUND BALANCE....Manual

These settings put the Axiom in a poor man's "silent search mode". There is more work to be done with adjustments, but I think it was effective in eliminating some of the chatter whilst not giving up detection to subtle tones. Will have to bring a slew of high and low conductor targets with me the next time I put the machine to the test.

The photo is the result of 2.5 hours of testing. Sorry, no gold, but let's play for keeps the next few days and see what happens....

Questions welcome!

-Jerry

 

[All_Metal_Mode]

I am getting the feeling from some of the recent real world use Axiom posts that a lot of “holy s#!t” type comments are in our collective future regarding the Axiom’s sensitivity. I am excited to see the coils that people come up with.

I think Steve and others posting on Garret’s seemingly muted strategy to not oversell the capabilities of the machine and just let people be pleasantly surprised will pay off so long as build quality remains consistent.

For beach use, especially with a scoop in tow, I am probably getting an 11 x 7 DD (I want one anyway). I was noticing detecting in my 1 acre property that my T-handled digger needed to be well outside the swing of my 13 x 11 DD or the detector would pick it up. I am surprised to hear the DD still had issues with EMI in pinpoint….what were you experiencing, a warble or something? What you said about the mono being too hot on a beach jives with the power I think this machine has.

It’s a PI so you’re digging it all, but like you I am going through the learning curve of listening to what the target sound is telling me. What I am seeing is that the iron check feature is pretty darn accurate. That won’t save you from aluminum and clad, but it helps. PI on the beach is all about depth, seeing what the VLF missed or passed by.

What would you say you are seeing as far as accuracy of where the detector is saying the target is located? Are you getting slower/faster recovery between targets from previous PI machines? If it’s screaming on a target at depth that’s both awesome and also a little disconcerting….part of that learning curve for target response.

Great write up, thank you for this!

[Steve Herschbach]

Was this a fresh water beach? If not, then why are you not running salt mode? Looks like saltwater finds to me, and if you are using Normal - well, no, it's normally not going to run right.

A person can certainly try hotter modes, but if the detector is acting like you are describing, then the mode may be too hot for the stuff you are hunting.

[Pyriteboy]

1 hour ago, All_Metal_Mode said:

I am surprised to hear the DD still had issues with EMI in pinpoint….what were you experiencing, a warble or something?

With the bottom of the coil partially facing up at the sky when pinpointing, the EMI wobble sound was substantial, with the root cause being large holes needed to be dug for deep targets. Trying to force the large DD coil in the hole sideways to pinpoint is not the way I will be doing it going forward. It is a habit of mine from nugget hunting. This is in Hermosa Beach, tons of airplanes, cellphones, lifeguards chatting over their radios.

2 hours ago, All_Metal_Mode said:

hat would you say you are seeing as far as accuracy of where the detector is saying the target is located? Are you getting slower/faster recovery between targets from previous PI machines? If it’s screaming on a target at depth that’s both awesome and also a little disconcerting

Accuracy seemed fine, it was me who had to adjust to the DD's center + estimate depth and then figure where to put the scoop. The 13 x 11 DD is a little big to be ripping through a patch of targets, but with a smaller coil I believe the recovery would be faster. Screaming on a target at depth is plain awesome; I believe this detector is more than capable to hear the subtle response of low-conductor gold at depth.

[Pyriteboy]

58 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Was this a fresh water beach? If not, then why are you not running salt mode? Looks like saltwater finds to me, and if you are using Normal - well, no, it's not going to run right.

Hi Steve, saltwater beach. I tried salt mode but was not successful in quieting the machine down. It is possible that I ran salt mode in sens 3 and not 2, so when I go back for another test run, I will have a cheat sheet with all the possible combinations of timings/settings with sensitivity level 2. The settings I listed did work fairly well but another test run will determine if there are any that are better.

[Steve Herschbach]

Sounds like EMI may be the main issue here. That’s a separate issue from the beach itself.

Use salt mode and DD coil. Sensitivity 3-4. Axiom is super powerful by intent, do not think you are getting less by finding a stable setting. That’s the goal, get it stable, go detect, have faith. 

Axiom does very well with ENI for a PI, but it’s still a PI, and some places will be problematic in that regard.

[Steve Herschbach]

Wanted to say that due to the nature of the modes and EMI it’s not impossible that Salt mode could be more affected by EMI than Normal. I have no evidence to back that up except different modes are receiving different frequencies and so it might be that has something to do with salt not seeming as good as normal. Sounds like you know your stuff though, so I’m sure you will figure it out.

[Rivers rat]

6 hours ago, Pyriteboy said:

I took the Axiom to my local beach for a 2.5 hour test spin to see what would happen. Staying in one spot, I just gridded the area to see how the detector behaved to different targets. The ground was moderately mineralized from some weather we are experiencing; no sugar-hip white flow sand here....
These are my observations:

• The 11 x 7 mono is too hot and will not work at my beaches
• The 13 x 11 DD can be used but it picks up too much EMI when turned to pinpoint.
• While using the 13 x 11 DD, most targets scream, even at depth.
• While using the 13 x 11 DD, you will detect high-conductor targets that are so deep you might pass on digging them (clad coins).
• The Axiom is a beast run amok at the beach and has to be de-tuned to operate effectively.
• After-market open coil designs will only help the Axiom's performance at the beach.
• My wish-list beach coil would be a 12 x 10 DD open design.
• It's a bitch keeping a beach scoop and the 13 x 11 DD coil apart when digging a target.
• The Axiom out-performs the White's Big Box TDI on the wet sand.

Here are the settings I came up with:

SENSITIVITY.................2

MODE............................Normal

SPEED...........................Medium

THRESHOLD................5

GROUND BALANCE....Manual

These settings put the Axiom in a poor man's "silent search mode". There is more work to be done with adjustments, but I think it was effective in eliminating some of the chatter whilst not giving up detection to subtle tones. Will have to bring a slew of high and low conductor targets with me the next time I put the machine to the test.

The photo is the result of 2.5 hours of testing. Sorry, no gold, but let's play for keeps the next few days and see what happens....

Questions welcome!

-Jerry

 

Thanks i was waiting for that always interesting to see how modernish PI work on the beach

 

RR

[abenson]

I would run speed slow. If it's anything like the 5000 a slower motion will allow less EMI to enter. It may have no correlation at all to the 5000 but you can try it and see what happens.

Also most saltwater beaches I could run the 5000 in normal and even sharp sometimes. So it's possible you could run the Axiom in normal or large and get decent results. The only place I ever had to run salt mode on the GPX is the Great Salt Lake. But even then some places closer to inlet I could run it in normal.

[Steve Herschbach]

6 minutes ago, abenson said:

I would run speed slow. If it's anything like the 5000 a slower motion will allow less EMI to enter. It may have no correlation at all to the 5000 but you can try it and see what happens.

Also most saltwater beaches I could run the 5000 in normal and even sharp sometimes. So it's possible you could run the Axiom in normal or large and get decent results. The only place I ever had to run salt mode on the GPX is the Great Salt Lake. But even then some places closer to inlet I could run it in normal.

The higher the speed setting the noisier the Axiom is. EMI or no EMI, that's just the way the circuit works. Set slow and go low and slow, unless wanting to just cover ground fast - but at a cost.

You should always try things like Normal or Large and use them if they work, but the Axiom is a hotter machine than the GPX 5000 so it's not as easy to use non-salt options in salt. But with the right coil and settings options you just never know. The name of the game is experiment and find out.