I hate to ask this question once again but...

[pulltabMiner]

...if I am going to incur the wife's wrath by buying an ATX, I at least want to make it worthwhile.

I live in Kansas. My soil is neither devil nor inert. You could say it's sort of in the Goldielocks zone. I've heard tales and I've heard fables that a P.I. machine will not reach deeper coins than I already do with my Deus (11 inch coil). HOWEVER, we all saw the video where the guy used his minelab P.I. machine in combination with his Etrac to find REALLY deep stuff in someone's yard.

So, will the P.I. go deeper in my soil than my Deus? I'd really hate to use my money to pay bills or something boring like that!

I already know that the P.I. will go deeper in hot soil than a VLF machine.

 

[John-Edmonton]

It was tested in highly mineralized soil in Australia and Virginia. I know Bearkat also did some tests in highly minerized soils. Hopefully he can chime in as well as others.....

Check pot some of his videos if you haven't already done so.

 

[GoldChaser]

You may want to watch Bearkat's 4-nugget video. Towards the end he checks the targets with his VLF machine, the AT Gold. The AT Gold saw all 4 targets.
The ATX should be able to see targets deeper than your VLF machine. But not a whole lot deeper. My recommendation is to go to a dealer and test them side by side in your soil with your target of choice.