First Time Out With The Axiom Gold Nugget Hunting & It Doesn't Disappoint

[abenson]

I've had the Axiom for a about 2 months now and up to this point have just been testing it against other PI's on gold nuggets. The weather looked good enough to head to the Nevada desert this last weekend, so I asked Steve & Steve if they wanted to meet up. They agreed. Weather was a little cold at night, still in the upper 20's low 30's, but day time temps were mid 60's. Perfect metal detecting weather!

Steve has been using the Axiom for quite some time now and has always said it really is a great PI. I have to agree, especially if you're looking for a multi purpose PI to use not only gold nugget hunting but relic or beach hunting. I really look at the Axiom as being a great replacement for the now discontinued GPX 5000. The Axiom is far better on small gold than the GPX 5000 IMO and hands down just a better setup overall. It's real nice to have all the functions right there available at you finger tips. Wireless headphones, rechargeable battery that lasts 2 days and great ergonomics just add to the appeal.

One thing that's real hard for me to do it put time in on a new metal detector when you're at a site you've used other metal detectors on the past that have a proven track record. I had the Manticore and GPX 6000 with as well. So forcing myself to use the Axiom for 4 hour stretches at a time was hard to say the least. Especially when there was gold being found by others in the party. But using the Axiom did not disappoint and I can confidently say it will find both small and big gold about as good as any other PI's I've used.

I used the 7x11 DD coil the entire trip, my settings for the most part were fine gold, sensitivity at 5-6 and threshold at 15. First nugget I found with the Axiom came on day 2 as I was exploring some new ground I hadn't detected over before. I saw a dirt pile a few hundred yards away so worked towards it. About 10 feet away from the pile I got the first signal I'd heard in probably 20 minutes. Turned out to be a .16 gram nugget at about an inch. The second nugget came on the morning of day 3 about 3 hours before I had to leave. I was hunting some large piles of dirt that had lots of junk in them. Got a loud high tone that I figured was going to be trash, but dug it anyway. Turns out it was a large 4.1 gram nugget. Man did that make my trip. Obviously I dug a lot of other junk targets on the trip. But when you're digging bird shot, aluminum foil and small wire you know a machine is capable of finding small gold.

Best thing about the trip is everyone found gold. I'll let Steve and Steve chime in if they want with their finds.

 

[phrunt]

That's a great monster nugget.  You've got it positioned so it looks like a Scotty Dog sitting down. 🙂

Something I find intriguing with the Axiom is the DD coils, they seem to be favoured on the Axiom where as other detectors you put 'em on if you have to.

[UT Dave]

Awesome.  Looks like it was a heckuva good time!

- Dave

[RedDirtDan]

11 hours ago, phrunt said:

Something I find intriguing with the Axiom is the DD coils, they seem to be favoured on the Axiom where as other detectors you put 'em on if you have to.

I've noticed this - mine came with the 7x11 mono and 11x13 DD as per standard in Australia, but given the number of people with 6000's who put on smaller nugget finder, etc coils - I reckon I'd swap the 11x13 DD for a 7x11 DD in a heartbeat (for my conditions, i.e. not the WA nugget fields.

[abenson]

14 hours ago, phrunt said:

That's a great monster nugget.  You've got it positioned so it looks like a Scotty Dog sitting down. 🙂

Something I find intriguing with the Axiom is the DD coils, they seem to be favoured on the Axiom where as other detectors you put 'em on if you have to.

We thought it looked like one of Steve's Doodle dogs positioned another way 

In the tests I've done in my soil type the DD is more sensitive to the small nuggets.

 

 

[Steve Herschbach]

It was great meeting with you out there Andy, good times and great weather…. and that nice nugget!

 

[RickUK]

Very well done and the Axiom does sound like a tremendous detector,i dont plan on getting one as in theory we dont have gold nuggets as such here in the UK,we of course do have gold coinage and artefacts so would work well detecting for those.

[Arky]

My experience with the Axiom is similar to Andy's. I've been alternating between Sally's 6000 with a 10x5 Goldhawk coil and the Axiom and tend to default to the 6000 when she isn't using it. But the more I use the Axiom, the more I like it. Mostly use the 11" mono, mostly due to the size of the DD it came with, but reading your post, am seriously considering a smaller DD coil. As far as gold finds, I'd say the two are close to equal.

[tboykin]

@Steve Herschbach and @abenson how are the roads out that way? My family is itching to get out but I want to make sure the roads are dry enough.

[abenson]

The Roads were good for us but starting Saturday rain is in the forecast for the next 9 days.