Technologies that Garrett introduced with the Axiom are significant. Garrett’s TERRA-SCAN™ technology is tech I didn’t see coming and didn’t expect to be as powerful and as accurate as it has proven to be in my testing. It is a huge gain in mineralized soil and hot rock workability.
Garrett’s ULTRA-PULSE™ is another breakthrough tech for Garrett. I feel that the Garrett team took now-common modes and expanded functionality over a broader spectrum, allowing me to easily detect gold in areas and sizes that have been challenging in the past. The Axiom’s ability to even find gold in the sub-1/3-gram category has more than surprised and impressed me. The Axiom’s overall capabilities for finding small and large gold are excellent. And although the largest nugget I have found to date is 7 grams outside of my test beds, I am confident that when I do swing the coil over anything larger it will be in my pocket.
The only real pushback that I have gotten on the Axiom is based on its price point. Most detectorists I have talked to or let use the Axiom when I have run into them in the field do not believe that an advanced Pulse Induction detector like the Axiom could have a $4,000price tag. They feel that there must be a lot missing in functionality until they, like me, use the Axiom. I do not know how Garrett established the pricing; my best guess is that between Garrett Electronics and other companies that Garrett has decades of relationships with, and of course being in the Dallas, Texas, area with manufacturing companies like TI and STMicroelectronics and others, may play a big part in this.
The bottom line for me is that I have used and most likely abused the Axiom and I know I have pushed the Axiom well past the intended limits, and have in all but a few instances been satisfied with the outcomes. The Axiom, in my opinion, may not be at 100% of its potential yet. And now that it is in the hands of more than field testers, I know that Garrett is listening to all of the feedback, and I am sure making changes based on the majority over the minority of pre-launch detectorists.
This leads me to one feature of the Axiom that I left until the end of this review. The Axion is updateable. When updates to the machine are available, they will be downloadable from the Garrett website. The Axiom comes with a USB cable to install updates from your computer. I installed a prelaunch update after getting the detector and the process was simple and straightforward.
I expect that as the Axiom becomes more prevalent on the PI stage, others will agree that the Axion is a rock-solid detector that I can depend on to find a wide spectrum of gold, handles bad ground and hot rocks, and gives me a huge amount of information in understanding the ground I am working and the ability to make changes quickly and precisely. The Axiom tagline says it best: Find More Gold.
I have only scratched the surface of the Garrett Axiom. Frankly, I could easily write at least another page and would require a lot of visual space. Which gave me an idea: Over the course of the next few months, I will be creating a video series on the Axiom where I will be in the field sharing not only the functions of the Axiom, but how I use each function to my type and style of nugget hunting. This will give you the opportunity to see and hear exactly what I do in the field. These videos will be on the GPAA Gold Trails YouTube channel, https://bit.ly/GoldTrails. If you are kind enough to subscribe to the channel, please hit the bell to get notifications for videos as I post them.
Until we meet up out there in some nugget patch, be good to yourself and get out and prospect.
- Kevin Hoagland
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