Looking For Deep Search Machine: Axiom Or GPX 5000

[GoodAmount]

I recently treated myself to a second hand GPZ 7000 after reaching a major milestone. It came with an X-Coil 17x12 and NF 17x13., but I also splashed out and bought an 8” X-Coil, which pretty much lives on the machine now - it’s surprisingly deep for such a small coil and super sensitive to the small stuff. Most of the gold I’m finding is between 0.02 and 0.1g (below is a pic of a 0.03g piece I found today), and it’s not uncommon to hit 0.1g pieces at 4 inches. Every so often I’m lucky enough to ping bigger ones at depth, like this 5g piece that rang out loud with that beautiful warbly tone at 10”. I knew it was gold as soon as I heard it.

After I’ve gone over the ground with the 8” I usually put one of the bigger coils on and go over the ground again, occasionally hitting deeper pieces, but not as commonly as I would hope. I’m planning to get a 15” CC in the coming months to see if that makes any difference, but my gold take has quadrupled regardless since getting the machine, so I’m super happy!

I’ve also been enjoying watching WestOzAdventures find deep gold in Western Australia with the Zed, for those who are interested. 

 

[phrunt]

9 hours ago, GoodAmount said:

After I’ve gone over the ground with the 8” I usually put one of the bigger coils on and go over the ground again, occasionally hitting deeper pieces, but not as commonly as I would hope. I’m planning to get a 15” CC in the coming months to see if that makes any difference, but my gold take has quadrupled regardless since getting the machine, so I’m super happy!

The 15" CC was a slow starter as everyone bought the 17" CC as they all figured bigger will find bigger gold deeper.  Then when a few started to get the 15" they realized it had almost the same depth as the 17" on bigger stuff but was far more sensitive to smaller gold making it the perfect all-round coil for all sizes of gold, it's almost as sensitive as the 8" coil but with very good depth on all sizes of gold.  The 15" CC is now their best seller.

I use the 15" CC when I can, the 8" when I have to, that is when the ground isn't suitable for such a large coil, your brain will hurt when you get the 15" CC as you won't want to take the 8" off, until you get used to the 15"CC of course.  Both are very good and my favourite two coils for the GPZ but they have their place, 8" for rocky bushy ground, 15" for all else.  You are also set with having that 17x12" spiral for patch hunting as it will be better than both the 8" and 15" CC for that as it has significantly better ground coverage, the 15"CC will be deeper though especially on small gold, although in my case I prefer to use the 15x10" for ground coverage as our gold tends to be smaller here but the 15"CC still towers over it for small gold sensitivity, it just covers ground faster as the CC's need an overlap of about 1/3, a little less of about 1/4 if you're lucky enough to be able to hunt in normal.