10 Things I Like And 5 Things Don't Like About The Garrett Apex

[Joe D.]

   It's like many have said previously about the first run of any detector, or related equipment! Until it's been out in mass for awhile to work out the inevitable bugs, it's not truly tested! 👍👍

[Dances With Doves]

On 9/27/2021 at 4:35 PM, Jeff McClendon said:

I sent the Viper coil, control box and MS-3s in for repair/evaluation. Garrett returned the same Viper coil to me after checking it. So, I am moving on. 

This appears to be another perfectly good detector that just can't handle the iron rich/volcanic ash filled moderate to high mineralization in my area. Simultaneous multi frequency detector technology is definitely not equal from one technology to another even within the same manufacturer........Minelab BBS and FBS technology detectors get mediocre results where I often detect. Minelab Multi IQ is excellent here..............

 Hi Jeff.Did the X-terra handle  your bad ground better then the Apex ?Also what  X-terra coils did you like in your ground for     rings and coins  ?

[Jeff McClendon]

8 hours ago, Dances With Doves said:

 Hi Jeff.Did the X-terra handle  your bad ground better then the Apex ?Also what  X-terra coils did you like in your ground for     rings and coins  ?

The X-Terras I owned all had jumpy and unstable target IDs in discrimination modes here on targets deeper than 3”, very much like the Apex. So I mostly used my XT 70 and 705 with the 18.75 kHz elliptical coil for gold prospecting and relic hunting in all metal prospecting mode. 
 

The Apex having the SMF option gave me some hope that it might do better here. Didn’t happen. Abenson’s embedded video earlier in the thread showed the same behavior that I experienced with both Apex detectors I tested. In a “dig it all” scenario the unstable kaleidoscope of tones and ID numbers can be excused. If “dig it all” is not an option ……………….. not much fun. 

This interesting paragraph is from page 9 of the APEX User's Manual. The second sentence definitely applies to my situation and Abenson's too especially if you substitute the word deeper for the word small....targets:

"Target ID can vary widely based upon the target’s size and thickness because small, thin pieces of metal cannot conduct electrical current as well as thicker pieces of metal. In addition, mineralized soils can cause Target ID errors, especially for small targets."

I have been very impressed with the Apex as an emergency/alternative  gold prospecting detector. Its sensitivity to .1 gram sized and larger sub gram sized gold is better than my former AT Gold even with the Viper coil. I wouldn’t hesitate to use it for near surface gold prospecting IF the ground is not too mineralized. 

[palzynski]

12 hours ago, Joe D. said:

   It's like many have said previously about the first run of any detector, or related equipment! Until it's been out in mass for awhile to work out the inevitable bugs, it's not truly tested! 👍👍

For me they have not tested the Apex enough before releasing it to customers. I mean serious testing by experienced users . They probably wanted to release the Apex as soon as possible , I am not sure that it was a good idea ...

[kac]

Figured I would resurect this thread after giving the apex some serious hours in the field.

Things I do like:

Well balanced

Light weight

Excellent separation in iron and around trash

Iron wrap on large silver is minimal and often non existant (can stack more than 10 quarters and still get a good high pitch tone to dig though numbers will max at 99 starting around 7 quarters with Ultimate 9" coil)

Things that could be better:

Audio takes some getting used to. Bit too short making it seem like there are more targets when larger targets are present and can be tricky to isolate. Once a target is isolated the machine will lock in fine and give good tid's. If Garrett used the AT Pro audio the machine would be tough to beat.

Noticed when beach hunting there is a substantial gap between ground balanencing from dry to wet sand so jumping between MF and MS can be a pain without having a manual ground balance. In other words as you hit dry sand it may have some wet sand below making the MF noisy but MS is too much of a shift giving up too much depth. All dry sand or all wet the machine runs like a champ. Lack of manual ground balancing makes it a bit tricky hitting that in between.