Garrett Axiom Rye Patch Rain And Nuggets

[Calmark]

5 hours ago, dirtman said:

Sounds like you've "taken to" the Axiom well 👍

I'm a Lurker trying to learn as much as possible about this USA entry to Electronic Prospecting.

My main concern yet is to start seeing nuggets being detected at depths, like 6 to 18 inches 😎🤠🎯

Good Luck an Happy Huntn !

I haven't been chasing deep or big nuggets with my Axiom so far.  I've swung the 11x7 mono coil nearly exclusively because its small and light.  Apart from those advantages, its finding tiny gold, even near the surface I've missed with my gpx 5000.  

At some later date, I'll probably buy the Garrett 13x11 mono and rescan some areas with the hopes of picking up some deeper and bigger nuggets.  Generally, I don't dig many nuggets past 6-8 inches, but have gotten some 12in+ in the past.  Right now, with hard-baked dirt, I'll likely wait until fall and rains to soften the ground before I switch to a bigger coil.  For now, I'm happy finding a nugget or two per trip that have been missed in the past, even if they tend to be on the smaller side.

[Gerry in Idaho]

17 hours ago, Calmark said:

I believe the ability to manually select different modes or timings on the Axiom are what set it apart from more automatic units like the ML 6k.  Got salt?  Switch to salt mode without need to swapping to a different DD coil.  Too many tiny shards of iron from cans or wires wasting time?  Switch to normal timing to knock out the tiny targets.  And even low sensitivity settings find the gold, and quite tiny and coarse too.  I have more sub .1gr nuggets with the Axiom so far than I ever got with the GPX 5000 and even my SDC!

Mark,  Glad you were able to score some Rye Patch gold on the last soaking adventure.  What's even more impressive is your ability to do it with the Axiom.  I've said it so many times before, but some folks think it's sales talk.  Glad you mentioned it as well.  The Axiom with it's Fine Tuning capabilities can do things the more expensive GPX-6000 can not.  

As for depth, I've dug some 12"+ nuggets (specimens) and on bigger gold, the Axiom is so close to the GPX-6000, you are splitting hairs.

My group was there training June 9th - 11th and the ground was not that bad, but it was still the worst June hunt I have ever done.  I think 15 to 20 nuggets were found by all.  There was a storm coming in when we left, so that must have been afterwards, as the pics below were not as such when we pulled out.

Yes I was sent a couple pics of the cross roads to the burn barrel turn off.  Looked like a serious gully washer came down.  

 

Majuba in the background.

Again, great on you for realizing the situation you were in, the GPX-6000 was not the best tool.  Thats why I always take  a couple on any given trip.

Lundy,  When the ground is ideal, be sure to let us all know so we can head that way.

[Gerry in Idaho]

10 hours ago, dirtman said:

Sounds like you've "taken to" the Axiom well 👍

I'm a Lurker trying to learn as much as possible about this USA entry to Electronic Prospecting.

My main concern yet is to start seeing nuggets being detected at depths, like 6 to 18 inches 😎🤠🎯

Good Luck an Happy Huntn !

Not my deepest Axiom gold but one I caught on video.  Sorry for the extra exuberant...but I get all giggle when chunky in the hand. 

 

[Calmark]

5 hours ago, Desert Dawg said:

We were camped out on the South end Jim Williams memorial site same time as you were there, mon-thur, I was giving a couple greenhorns lessons on vlfs but they were falsing in the saturated ground excessively, was a bad time for that with the saturated ground, my gpx6000 ran quiet in same soils, with the exceed 12x7. My internal speaker went south out there just after the minelab fix, it still works with the bluetooth headphones or earbuds. Annoying for sure. That storm tue afternoon was a humdinger, it had the ravines around us roaring for a few hrs. No gold for us. But a great time out camping and cooking.

It can be tough to get nuggets at Rye Patch any time of year, but when you and I were there, the soggy ground and weather made it even more of a challenge for sure.  I'm sorry your group didn't get any gold.  I detected over 3 days last summer in June and also got skunked using my ML 6000 in dry ground.  I helped two older greenhorn guys with vlf machines who were there set up their machines and scan some signals I found.  One had a gpx 4500 he didn't know how to use, so I had him switch that machine and to his 11in mono and set all the proper settings for him.  I saw both  later in the afternoon, and they had quite a few dug targets, but no gold.  We all had a great time camping out and sharing the fun of prospecting and that's what its all about.  

[Calmark]

46 minutes ago, Gerry in Idaho said:

Mark,  Glad you were able to score some Rye Patch gold on the last soaking adventure.  What's even more impressive is your ability to do it with the Axiom.  I've said it so many times before, but some folks think it's sales talk.  Glad you mentioned it as well.  The Axiom with it's Fine Tuning capabilities can do things the more expensive GPX-6000 can not.  

As for depth, I've dug some 12"+ nuggets (specimens) and on bigger gold, the Axiom is so close to the GPX-6000, you are splitting hairs.

My group was there training June 9th - 11th and the ground was not that bad, but it was still the worst June hunt I have ever done.  I think 15 to 20 nuggets were found by all.  There was a storm coming in when we left, so that must have been afterwards, as the pics below were not as such when we pulled out.

Yes I was sent a couple pics of the cross roads to the burn barrel turn off.  Looked like a serious gully washer came down.  

Majuba in the background.

Again, great on you for realizing the situation you were in, the GPX-6000 was not the best tool.  Thats why I always take  a couple on any given trip.

Lundy,  When the ground is ideal, be sure to let us all know so we can head that way.

Gerry, sorry I came late and missed the party during your training session.  I'm glad you guys came away with a few nuggets despite the tough conditions.  

Yep, the Axiom performs very well.  I don't feel I'm under gunned when out detecting with my brother using his ML 6k, or when I loan my dad my 6k.  It finds nuggets plenty small and really shines signaling well on the coarse gold older tech has been more blind to.  I definitely appreciate the ability to switch settings to suit the conditions like I was able to do during my last trip to Rye Patch.  It "paid" off having a second detector along.  I have plans to take the Axiom into some hot rock infested sites later this summer.

I've included a picture of that same wash on Tuesday afternoon as I left.  I just got out before the roadbed was so deeply eroded it would have drowned my truck to cross, haha.  After I got through, I watched several whole sage brush bushes float by on the brisk current!!  Talk about a nice mini-monsoon!

[dirtman]

5 hours ago, Calmark said:

I haven't been chasing deep or big nuggets with my Axiom so far.  I've swung the 11x7 mono coil nearly exclusively because its small and light.  Apart from those advantages, its finding tiny gold, even near the surface I've missed with my gpx 5000.  

At some later date, I'll probably buy the Garrett 13x11 mono and rescan some areas with the hopes of picking up some deeper and bigger nuggets.  Generally, I don't dig many nuggets past 6-8 inches, but have gotten some 12in+ in the past.  Right now, with hard-baked dirt, I'll likely wait until fall and rains to soften the ground before I switch to a bigger coil.  For now, I'm happy finding a nugget or two per trip that have been missed in the past, even if they tend to be on the smaller side.

I'm hoping to see in the coming weeks/months some targets while someone's using the Largest size factory coils 👍