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Garrett Apex Superfly Air Test


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Let us say 15 inches . To obtain the value for a target buried in the ground substract 30% , this gives 10,5 inches ( 26cm ) estimated in the ground .  The Equinox 11coil depth is around 11 inches , so their perfos seem to be similar ...

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Yes. But I was not asked to compare detectors. I never do. Thanks

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Pretty impressive. How well does the Apex and superfly balance out? Total weaight approx?

Last question are the numbers bit more stable? Found the Superfly more stable on my Multi Kruzer than the stock.

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The detectors balance is great. Feels very lite to me. When the ice melts I will get out and test the numbers and stability in my iron enriched Virginia red clay. 

 

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Hi George,

I'm considering either the Super Fly or the Detech Ultimate 11.5 for my Apex.  I recently watched a video on YouTube by Thrace Metal Detectors demonstrating the Apex with the Viper coil identifying a silver coin-like pendant as iron (air-test) when on edge.
I did similar testing with my Apex (also w/ the Viper) to see if this was true of mine as well.
Unfortunately, I found that it was...for some items...but not others.
My Apex identified the following items as iron when on edge...
Fat/heavy .925 ring (TID flat 92-99; TID on edge 1-30)
Thin intertwined Tiffany .925 rings (TID flat 94-95; TID on edge 1-33)
1941 US Silver Half-Dollar (TID flat 98-99; TID on edge 'iron range', forgot to note #'s)
1968 US Silver Half-Dollar (TID flat 98-99; TID on edge 0)
1971 US Silver Dollar (TID flat 99; TID on edge 0)
There were some .925 rings and pendants the Apex identified correctly, as well as a 1945 US quarter which was a solid 92 in any orientation.  Have you experienced this with your Apex?  Do you know how it performs with silver on edge with the Super Fly?
Thrace's video demonstrated the Detech might handle silver better, but I'm wondering if the Super Fly can do the same.
Thanks,

Mike

 

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Having a couple of Nel coils the Nel Big and Superfly, I think Nel did a great job on the Superfly. Depth difference between the Ultimate 13 and a Superfly at 12" should be nearly unoticeable but weight difference is big. If your banging around in the woods or where there are obstructions the Ultimate would be tougher. Not sure if that helps. Hopefully George will tell us how it works out.

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18 hours ago, Mike305 said:

Hi George,

I'm considering either the Super Fly or the Detech Ultimate 11.5 for my Apex.  I recently watched a video on YouTube by Thrace Metal Detectors demonstrating the Apex with the Viper coil identifying a silver coin-like pendant as iron (air-test) when on edge.
I did similar testing with my Apex (also w/ the Viper) to see if this was true of mine as well.
Unfortunately, I found that it was...for some items...but not others.
My Apex identified the following items as iron when on edge...
Fat/heavy .925 ring (TID flat 92-99; TID on edge 1-30)
Thin intertwined Tiffany .925 rings (TID flat 94-95; TID on edge 1-33)
1941 US Silver Half-Dollar (TID flat 98-99; TID on edge 'iron range', forgot to note #'s)
1968 US Silver Half-Dollar (TID flat 98-99; TID on edge 0)
1971 US Silver Dollar (TID flat 99; TID on edge 0)
There were some .925 rings and pendants the Apex identified correctly, as well as a 1945 US quarter which was a solid 92 in any orientation.  Have you experienced this with your Apex?  Do you know how it performs with silver on edge with the Super Fly?
Thrace's video demonstrated the Detech might handle silver better, but I'm wondering if the Super Fly can do the same.
Thanks,

Mike

 

This is primarily a function of the detector not the coil though a smaller coil could help with on-edge target ID but with some depth loss.  It also appears to be a more pronounced weakness associated with multifrequency detectors in general, from my experience.  Fortunately, whether you are swinging the Apex or Equinox, there is a potential remedy quick check that you can attempt that might improve things (I know, a lot of qualifiers in that statement but there are too many variables in play to say anything other than the standard  "your mileage may vary" discaimer).  Switch to single frequency on the fly and see if the iffy, potential on-edge target ID resolves itself into a dig me signal.  You may have to play with the frequencies to see which one gives the best chance of success and you need to watch out for the possibility that you may be fooled by turning a true ferrous signal in multi to a falsing high signal in single (especially with Equinox where the iron bias feature that helps to keep falsing somewhat in check is not functional in single frequency).  But in my opinion it is worth a shot and something to put into one's multifrequency detector target interrogation bag of tricks.  The Equinox 800 really makes this target technique easy with its custom user profile slot which can store any custom setting mode configuration desired (including single frequency vs. multi) and simply a single toggle button press away (rather than scrolling through all single frequency settings).

Would be interested in your Apex "on-edge" target test results in single frequency mode to see if my theory carries over to Apex.

Also  you never mentioned if the ferrous ID remained consistent even after you turned 90 degrees on the target.

HTH

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8 hours ago, Mike305 said:

I recently watched a video on YouTube by Thrace Metal Detectors demonstrating the Apex with the Viper coil identifying a silver coin-like pendant as iron (air-test) when on edge.

Here's a link to that video.  For starters, maybe I'm naive or overly conservative handling my detectors but I would never change coils with the detector turned on.  The silver pendant has some kind of clasp or attachment loop.  What is its composition?  Finally, at least one of his tests resulted in mostly high tones (when the pendant was on edge).

Regarding your air tests (coins being much better, IMO).  Would you give more details, including settings?  How far away from the coil were you swiping the coins?  Which orientation(s) when on edge?  What do you mean by 1-33 and 0 for digital TID's?  Did you get any high tones with coins on edge or were they always iron grunts?

I've seen Silver zone--> Iron zone wrap-around before.  (Opposite direction, too, even more commonly?)  When the Minelab Equinox was released, stacks of silver coins resulted in this anomaly.  A Minelab software update alleviated that problem, at least in many cases; not sure if it was all of them.

An in-ground test would be more realistic, if you have the ability to do that.

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