Garrett Axiom Vs Minelab 6000

[aerospace guy]

Just took the Axiom out last weekend for the 1st time due to weather 1st then 2 medical issues next. I am interested also but I am NOT a good source of info for that due to lack of experience with the Axiom. In my other post (rough roads due to rain) I mentioned that a 6000 user had found 16 nuggets over 3 days in the same "undercut" road. So Ken..last name NOT mentioned, please respond to this topic so we can ALL get a better idea of capabilities of the 2 machines. Did you find ALL of the nuggets with your 6000 or did you get "help" with a Gold Big or some such also? You found some nuggets SO SMALL they would give my EQ800 a 'run- for-it's'-money'! When I took instruction with Gerry at his class at Rye Patch with the EQ800 we had a contest to see who could find the smallest nugget and wow can the EQ find small stuff! Ken's nuggets rivaled those small nuggets...if in fact he found them all with his 6000 and did NOT also use another detector like a VLF . So Ken, please chime in on how you managed to do so well with your 6000 and some "tips" .

                     Myself...I need some help as I am sure I must be running sensitivity too high on the Axiom and am NOT getting the most out of it although I DID find a nice size nugget fairly deep that Ken missed. A pat on the back for me!

[davsgold]

On 6/2/2023 at 6:42 AM, dig4gold said:

Hi Davsgold. Is that a patch you hadn't had an X coil over on the GPZ 7000? Thanks.

D4G

we certainly have had x-coils in the vicinity and close to this spot, whether or not exactly over it I can't be sure, but there were some detector holes from last year in and around this spot, not sure if they were ours or not though,

cheers dave 

[Arky]

Guess I'm lucky because it's not an either-or choice for me. My detecting partner is my wife and we run both. If I had to choose one, it would be the 6000, but it is definitely close and I don't feel disadvantaged when Sally is running the 6000 and I'm on the Axiom. I like the A in hot ground and love the ergonomics. Have found small gold in beat-up club claims at Quartzsite with both and prefer the Axiom in hot rock settings.

If I was on a tight budget I'd go Axiom because I think it's more versatile out of the box. I agree that running in 3 or 4 on the A is best for learning the machine.

Like many of you, I had to get the fix on the 6000 and also prefer the CoilTek 10 x5 on the 6000 over the stock 11, but it is really a case of getting to know your tools and using the right one for the situation.

Lots of good advice on this thread. Having been in the field with Gerry and Lunk, I trust their advise. Would still be looking for the first nugget without their advice and training.

Mike

[VicR]

On 6/3/2023 at 8:38 AM, Gerry in Idaho said:

For a 50% more price increase of the GPX-6000 in the USA $6000 vs $4000 for the Axiom, what is best?  I don't see the average person needing to spend the extra $2000 and in fact I would recommend that person get a good VLF to complement the PI.

Different pricing story in Australia - Axiom retails for $7385 AUD and the GPX6000 retails for $8000 AUD - so the GPX6000 is only $600 AUD ($360 US) more - not a very significant $2000 US difference.

I am guessing that Minelab set the GPX6000 US price first  in  2021 at $6000 US , then used the exchange rate at the time ($0.75) to arrive at the Australian price of $8000 AUD.

So the big question for Minelab is do they change the price in the US to get closer to the Axiom? If you take the Australian price of $8000 AUD and covert to US (using current AUD $0.60 exchange rate) you get a price of $4800 US - still $800 US more but a big reduction on the current $2000 US price difference. This would generate more sales but would the increase unit sales volume generate more gross margin dollars than they are currently making ? - that is what Minelab would be pondering.  They would also have to take into account other Minelab gold machines (how they compare price wise) & any new products on the planning board.

 

 

[mn90403]

I wonder what ML's boxed and ready to ship from Malaysia price is with that exchange rate of what they pay?  They don't really have to take delivery of all of the product in Australia, do they?

[VicR]

Their ex works cost out of Malaysia would be in US$ and they would ship to centralised warehouses around the globe - they would not ship to Australia then to the US - you would be just adding significant cost to the product with no added benefit - they would ship direct from Malaysia to US. Because they buy in US$ there would not be any exchange rate variation when selling into the US market - the exchange rate would only have an effect if Minelab wanted to convert money in their US$ account to Aussie $.

[Steve Herschbach]

Note - I’ve combined this thread with the other thread on the same subject.

On 6/1/2023 at 11:24 PM, jasong said:

I'm curious if the Axiom does this too behind the scenes, or it's true manual? It is manual when in manual, period.

The people like myself who love to ramble on about the tiny minutia of detectors and equipment all seem to be quiet on this release, to my frustration as I keep coming here hoping to see a nitty gritty comparison between the Axiom and the 6 and leaving hungry. ? If it was cheaper (like, market shakeup less expensive), or not such a potentially lateral move, I'd be tempted to do it myself just because I am missing having a detector I trust 100%. 

The question is skewed by the price difference in Oz and the US. I've been quite clear I think the 6000 has the edge for nugget detecting. The easy answer if they are the same price is get the 6000. It's the safe answer.

I have not used a 6000 in over a year now, and so getting into the nitty gritty versus the last build version of the Axiom is not really possible for me. I am satisfied to be using the Axiom and quite honestly I just don't care. I had a chance to pick up a 6000 for a song recently to maybe get into the question and passed. I don't need another detector for what I'm doing. Mainly I'd rather let truly unbiased end users speak to the situation given my involvement with Garrett and the Axiom. Plus these days I'd rather just go detecting than spend time in the field splitting hairs over detectors.

The interesting questions arise since the differential is small, and the Axiom does have features the 6000 lacks that might matter more in some situations, especially for non-nugget uses. Chase Goldman and the relic hunters in Virginia, for instance, have a whole different view point about the machine.

But again, at the same price, let's call it for the 6000 and nuggets. The big question for US users then - is the 6000 worth a 50% price premium over the Axiom? You Oz guys simply have a different situation and Minelab is a safe answer. Here in the US, it's not so simple. $4000 versus $6000 is a real and serious price difference and for some people it makes a genuine difference to consider. Is that $2000 worth it? That, my friends, is an interesting question, and one only answerable by the person involved. For casual users, maybe not. For very hard core users, probably. But that's as much as I intend on getting into it, as again, I think it's best for others with zero connections to industry or brand loyalties to speak to the issue.

It is a shame in one way though. If Garrett had come out with the Axiom a year before the 6000, instead of the other way around, it would have shook the detecting world. Honestly people, take the 6000 out of this equation, people would be falling all over themselves to get Axioms, even in Oz. Minelab simply beat Garrett to the punch, and in doing so stole the wind from their sails. But that does not take away from what Garrett has done here, which in my opinion is be the first US manufacturer to make a PI nugget worth mentioning as a real option for at least some people to that offered by the Minelab monolith.

[1515Art]

I have both and they are more alike than they are different both are lite weight and easy to swing all day long, my time using the new Axiom is  limited so I’ll limit my comments on performance to the fact they both hit on the tinniest of targets, the 6000 is ahead for now in the search coil selection but the 6000 coils I believe are chipped the Axiom I’m actually not certain but I think are not time will tell if the Aftermarket coils for the Axiom get an advantage but not yet, the iron check and display may give the Axiom an advantage but I have not used it enough to understand what it is telling me enough to trust this feature but over time I hope to. I did get a chance to operate the Axiom in an extreme environment  looking for meteorites in a dry salty lake bed where I’m told metal detectors are seldom used if ever due to the salty ground a visual identification method and a magnet stick is the preferred collection method. Trying the Axiom in salt mode to my surprise it handled the conditions with ease. Firing the Axiom up first time in the salt I doubted it would be effective but there was just the slightest groan swinging the coil side to side and in less than a minute it hit on a target not a meteorite but a fine 1” long piece of wire it will identify targets in these conditions. Next I set a .3g test nugget on the dry salty lake bed and the signal air testing was as clear in salt mode as it was in fine mode in the gold placer. I was focused on finding a meteorite in a area I’d never before hunted and not comparison testing so never tried the 6000 but think it would have struggled as the fine, normal and large Axiom modes all overloaded blanking out trying to hear a target in these conditions. I hunted a few hours digging a couple dozen targets mostly bullets along with the assorted bullet shells and tiny pieces of wire a few of the 22 slugs were 4 to 5 inches deep hit loud and would have been detectable deeper I’m sure and there is little doubt it will if id put the Axioms coil over one I’d hear it but I was just not in the right area.

[Gold Catcher]

On 3/8/2023 at 10:16 PM, RONS DETECTORS MINELAB said:

Axiom also for use in more surface iron infested grounds using DD discrimination. One year more warranty on 6000 though.

How would you rate the PI discrimination compared to VLF discrimination? I always thought that if discrimination at all then better with VLF.

GC