Axiom First Time Out

[peterinaust]

Used the Axiom for the first-time last week, in Georgetown area North Queensland Australia. Happy with machine, but no gold! I was frustrated with the amount of hot rocks and ground noise, this was when using tracking off. The ground balance values were staying pretty constant, no big changes when moving along. So tried auto tracking slow, med, and fast all helped but I was worried I could track a target out. Started out with sensitivity of three and slowly worked up to 4 and 5 machine ran quit smooth at these settings. Normal mode seemed a bit smoother again.

So what I am trying to say is how better to deal with hot rocks and ground noise? I do like the Axiom but not trusting it yet. Any clues please.

PS meant to so was mainly in Fine mode and trying Normal but mainly in Fine.

[Steve Herschbach]

DD coil, low to moderate sensitivity, and employ ground balance window as needed. Hate to say it but you have to play with it. The Axiom easily handles one hot rock type. However, while in Oz I had to play with the machine quite a bit to get decent operation on two disparate hot rocks at once - ironstone and laterite hot rocks in the same location. If you have ground that is one thing, and two wildly different rocks, it takes quite a bit of fiddling to get it all to shut up, and you still may get blow back chirps on rocks in very close proximity to the coil. But those are literally on the surface. Be aware that the more aggressive you get with the ground balance window the more possibility some nugget signals are also attenuated.

I know places where my GPZ 7000 and GPX 6000 both struggled mightily with hot rocks, and I am certain there are places where the Axiom will struggle also. It just depends on the exact mix of issues at hand. Hopefully you find the solution that works for you on your ground, and report back, good or bad. Good luck!

 

[peterinaust]

Thanks Steve, I did try the 13" DD coil but found it a bit heavy, I'll have to make up a bungy cord for it, not ready to buy a smaller DD yet. Got to learn the machine more yet. I did play with settings a fair bit, the 7000 doesn't play up at all same area. but yes, different machines. I was pretty disappointed, but I'll get it.

Will be out again about 4 weeks. And yes, there were two different rocks don't know what you would call them but two different rocks if you could call one of them a rock more like clumps ant bed and maybe been through a fire? this one the 7000 will get sometimes.

Otherwise, happy.

[RedDirtDan]

@peterinaust - I'm also new to my Axiom and just learning all the different options. Have found lots of small, non-gold targets so I know it's just a matter of time hopefully.

I also find the 13" DD coil is a bit unbalanced and nose heavy - I am looking at the 11" DD (but not ready to drop the $600 on it yet) because I find the 11" Mono to be perfectly balanced.

[Steve Herschbach]

I prefer the 11” mono first, 11” DD second, and 13” mono third, as my coils of use at this time. I agree, the 13” DD ruins the ergonomics as being nose heavy, and so it spends less time on the machine. When it does, I let it ride on the ground. Whatever, if you are struggling with ground a DD will usually help. And this out of shape 65 year old guy can still swing the 13” DD on Axiom for an 8 hour plus day with a bungee support, so it’s not that bad. 

That being said, in my opinion the strength of the Focused Core DD is being hotter in the center, but that also takes away from the traditional ability of a DD to handle hotter ground better than a mono. I’d like a traditional DD coil for the Axiom for that reason. While I’d still recommend the DD over the mono for tough ground situations, it’s not quite the magic fix that a traditional milder reacting DD coil would possibly be.