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The parks are finally melted off and the mud is even starting to get better in some parts of some parks. So this morning I hit one of the oldest and no doubt THE trashiest park around here. It was machine gun everywhere. Decided to try All Terrain Trash Reject. Took my best guess and a manual GB of 15, did a long press noise cancel and the machine was running just the tiniest bit sparky at 22 sensitivity - I didn't try any higher or lower, left it there the whole hunt. Pretty happy with how the Manticore picks high conductors out of the trash with the 11" coil in this mode. Was getting everything from surface drops to 8-9" coins. Ended up with two wheaties and a '46 Rosie. And a bunch of clad. Didn't dig too, too much trash. But was digging a lot of aluminum twist caps for the first half of the hunt or so, before I started getting a handle on how not to dig them (just looking for ID spread on a cross check) and then I only dug two or three after that. My big gripe with the Manticore right now is no wireless options (without a dongle). Warm enough this morning that I was hating on the earphones after a couple of hours. But with so many people around I didn't want to run the speaker either, so I left them on. I don't really want to use a separate transmitter, but I think I'm going to have to. The earphones just aren't going to work for me as the weather continues to warm up. - Dave

New members now have limited access until they reach Full Member status. There is no ability to include links or to edit their own posts until they have made 10 posts and been a member more than 30 days. There is no access to posting classifieds until after 10 posts and 30 days. They can post in response to an ad however. There is a limit of one Personal Message conversation per day so they can contact people with ads in the Classifieds in private if desired. Any account that has not posted at all in the 30 day period will be deleted. Anyone with more than one but less than 10 posts will simply remain in the regular Member account status indefinitely. The accounts that make at least ten valid posts and have been a member at least 30 days will automatically be promoted to the new Full Member status. This will give access to the Classifieds, remove the PM limit, allow links and post editing, preset "signatures" and more. This does not affect any existing accounts!! Any current members with less than 10 posts etc need not worry as all accounts as of this morning were promoted to Full Member status. Anyone with no posts however should at least post once or lose your account after 30 days have passed. This was done to stop the excessive spammer activity after consulting the current membership over the last month. It should pretty much put a complete halt to that sort of thing, while also encouraging new members to be more active. Lurkers are welcome, but will need to post at least once. Thank you everyone for the valuable feedback on this subject. I will monitor the new setup but if anyone experiences anything odd due to the new setup, please let me know. I changed quite a few forum settings and hopefully got it all right.

I've started to conclude that SF must have sent the shipment of 1.8M 1909s wheat pennies to Oregon:-) No doubt many of the early SF coins were shipped to Oregon, Washington, Idaho and NV. Only have found one 1909 without a mint mark. Added the 3rd 1909s wheat to my collection, and the second in the last month. Been unlucky in that many of my 10s or 13s coins have really been quite clean, but the 09s coins have all suffered a bit in our soil. It's no beauty, but still fun to pull a key date.

You'd be amazed how big the market is for basic detecting. Of course the Apex is not for you Jeff - that was never its intention. And of course there are not a lot of Apex users on this forum. Nor Ace users nor Garrett users in general. People here make them quite unwelcome. If you are not running what people deem to be the best (what THEY use) then you are a second class citizen. Threads like this always end up making it clear at some point. I tried twice to start forums here focused on budget detector users, but they went nowhere, as the high end owners just hung out and kept saying how they could not own those machines, because, god forbid, they lacked a ground balance, or certain custom tone settings. No focus on simply how to get the best out of whatever a person owns. I could own an Ace detector and still do better than most because I know the dirty secret. It’s not the magic detector. It’s the user, the hours, and the right location for whatever detector it is you own. People should go to the Garrett Searcher Archives and spend an hour just looking at finds made by Ace series detectors. These detectors have been hugely popular and make tremendous finds for people. I used an Ace 300 versus a Vanquish on numerous “found target comparisons” and what impressed me most was how good the Ace was, just the opposite of what you’d think reading comments on this website.

Steve: I live in Phoenix area, 75, retired and bored. Decided to get out and learn something that is enjoyable, challenging, outdoors with plenty of exercise. With at least a 1000 steps a day. Searching for gold nuggets has always been a bucket list event. Researched gold detectors and wanted to achieve better odds of detecting in areas in Arizona that have been prospected over and over again. Research, limited by my knowledge, led me to the new Garrett Axiom and found that you are the best advocate of testing and tweaking this new detector and have read a lot of your post while doing my research. Minelab seems to be superior with the 7000 I felt the Axiom was my choice and less expensive than the 6000, plus offered more advance features. I decided on the Axiom and bought the package with 11x7 mono and 13x11 DD and added the 16x14 DD. The 16x14DD in the event I can visit the Mojave desert. Plan to learn how to detect using the 13x11 DD. Not doing this to make a living. But would like to find what others may have passed over due to the limitations of their detectors. Just want the exercise, be able to enjoy seeing parts of the state that everyone misses out on. Looking forward to this venture but going to start by learning how this detector works. Joined a local prospecting club to access areas where I can legally detect and meet others that have detected for a while. Plus plan to detect more often than others that can only go on weekends. Also, not really interested in dredging or panning. Just joined Detectorprospector as a new member and will continue to monitor your research and others who have also bought the Axiom. Really appreciate your insight as you and others with updates about your findings, also. Wish me luck.

The Apex does seem a bit pricey, here it's about the same price as an Equinox 600 which is why I haven't purchased one, I'm a massive fan of my Ace 300i, I really enjoy using it and it's a deep machine, if only it had different audio than the doorbell tones. In saying that it's better than the duck being murdered sounds of the Simplex 🙂 I often wonder how the Apex would go in my soils, judging by my Ace 300 or 250 I'd say probably quite well. I would say I'm a happy Ace user and feel confident with my hunting locations for coins in mild relatively iron jink free soils with the majority of junk being pull tabs I would not be left dramatically behind by any detector I've used.

I was able to get out a couple times this weekend to a local soccer complex. I stayed on the sidelines and in the shaded areas. I took the Deus II with the 11" on Saturday and was able to find 121 coins in 3 hours. There were 29 quarters and 29 dimes along with mostly pennies. I have hit this place many times before with the Equinox 800, so I was a bit surprised by the number of high conductors that sounded through the machine gun sounds of bottle caps and pull tabs. I ran the fast program with a few changes. The black ring that came from behind tall netting that stops balls from going into the water, is stainless. The pendant was right in front of a team bench; there were many targets under the coil, but the 72 ID was unwaivering. The other ring is aluminum. Today, I took the Equinox out for old times sake with the 15" coil. I wanted to cover some ground and focus on numbers between 5-12. The gold helmet, the second one I have found (the first was also at this park by the basketball area), rang up a steady 8. I was in Park 1 with the horseshoe engaged and 7 recovery speed.

I appreciate this guys! When I created this book, I just made it for me, but then I thought why not help so others with the Deus 2. I put it out there for free but also put a note that if anyone wants to take their appreciation to the next level, then they could send me an old coin. I have it saved as a PDF file also so you can save the PDF version to your phone and scroll though it in the field if you want to. I tried to attach the PDF to the previous post but it didn't seem to attach, The file was too big. You can find the PDF file in the Following link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/deusii/posts/3507171489562326/ If the link does not work for some reason it is in the "Files" tab at the top of the main page of the Facebook XP Deus 2 Group page.

I don’t disagree with your evaluation Jeff. I disagree that the Garrett Forum is the place for it. There are people who actually own the Apex and like it, and don’t care about other detectors or what they cost. Can’t they have a place to discuss their detectors without being told they could have owned this or that instead for whatever the reason may be? Value is in the eye of the beholder. Maybe a person just wants to buy a detector made in the U.S. and is willing to spend more money to do it. Maybe they just like the design. Maybe they just like yellow. Point is what you value is not what everyone values. Garrett is a very popular brand in the country, and the absence of activity on the Garrett Forum has gone on long enough. Despite some people having issues or not liking the price, there are also lots of very happy owners. I'd like them to feel welcome here, not drive them away. If people don’t like or appreciate the brand or the models, feel free to voice it here on the Comparisons Forum. But avoid the Garrett Forum. Seems like a simple ask. Thanks.

Steve, I'm very happy to hear you, and others, reiterate that sentiment! When you're a new member here, it can be intimidating to post anything, when using what "some" may consider an "inferior or subpar" detector! Frankly, to me, there is no such thing, as they will all find stuff! And it is definitely the user and their mastery of that detector, being the primary factor in their success! I know several people that can detect circles around some others, using an "old", or "cheap" detector, simply by knowing all the subtle nuances that these "inferior" machines tell them! Digital, and most definitely, analog machines still have a firm place in my arsenal, as they still preform! At some point, like many here, when I'm ready to whittle down my machines to a handful, I will still have at least one "old inferior" machine to pull out the stuff that gets passed over by the "latest and greatest" out there!🍀👍👍

Steve brings up a very valid point with regard to high end users driving off the entry level folks. The Ace line to me is tort of the VW Beetle of metal detectors. Nothing flashy, at times put down, but fun to run and it gets the job done. Case in point since Steve mentioned the Ace 300. Through some buddies I met this older guy (80+) who, despite having plenty of dough and can afford any of the new multi's, will only hunt with his Ace 300. My friends told me that at the parks he is simply unbeatable and they all swing Eqinoxes and Deus II's. I accompanied him on a gold prospecting trip and while we all had high end PI's and gold machines, he had his Ace 300. None of us found gold but he found the same amount of junk that we all did. I would say with regard to the Apex, just keep in mind that Garrett introduced it as part of the Ace line. From there judge it accordingly.

I didn't know what the hoochie coochie gal was. But asked on Friendly and found out. It's a vintage roach clip 😂. vintage ROACH CLIP holder RISQUE WOMAN nude LADY pinup | #151908684 (worthpoint.com) - Dave

I had a couple of hours to detect today after another mini blizzard. I decided to stay close to home and hunt next to a curb at a local park that I have hunted with Deus 1 and the Equinox 800 in the past. The area I was hunting is absolutely loaded with aluminum trash and steel crown bottle caps with various states of rust unless they are recent drops. Very iron mineralized ground on top of the thousands of trash targets. Knowing this in advance I was thankful that I have the Deus 2 (and the Legend and Equinox 900) which do not have half of the regularly found aluminum pull tabs ID's landing right on top of the most common gold ring target IDs and the US nickel target IDs (Equinox 600/800/Vanquish models) both of which I really enjoy digging. In the past I have tried Deus 1 at places like this and quickly became super frustrated with all of the silver target ID range responses that could easily be US copper pennies, clad dimes clad quarters, silver coins and silver jewelry but instead were lowly pull tabs and bits of aluminum along with steel crown bottle caps that were showing up in the upper 80s to upper 90s target ID range due to severe up averaging if they were deeper than 3" or so in this iron rich dirt. Deus 2 using its multi modes based on the Fast program simply does not do that to all of that aluminum and steel trash unless it is right at the edge of detection in the dirt around here, so I had no hesitation picking it for detecting this super trashed area. I was using a saved program based on Sensitive, with 5 tones Square Wave audio, disc on 10, iron audio ON, reactivity 2, Silencer 1, bottle cap reject 1 and sensitivity on 95. Deus 2 was a bit jittery but consistent which is how I like it. The US nickel medium pitched tone was set up to sound on target IDs between 59 and 63. The highest tone for clad dimes and up was set 90 to 99. So, I concentrated on the gold and silver range of target IDs specifically any good sounding target with a consistent ID of 59 to 63 and any target with a consistent target ID of 90 and above and was basically cherry picking for US nickels/medium sized gold rings and US coins above zinc pennies with any silver thrown in. The 1.9 gram 10K ring had a target ID of 62/63 just like the nickels and square tabs in the photo. These targets were in the 3 to 6" depth range. There has been a lot of chatter about using single frequencies for detecting and how they are just "better" especially in reference to the new Minelab X-Terra Pro. I deliberately checked the target IDs of each of the low to mid conductor targets in the bottom half of the paper plate photo before digging them. I used default Deus 2 Mono set on 17 kHz. All of those targets which are normally 59 to 66 had target IDs above 85................. I'm very happy to use Deus 2 FMF simultaneous multi frequency tech, that's for sure since I can at least call the non-ferrous conductivity of targets before I dig them for the most part. Thanks for reading.

If I had an Apex I'm confident I would do well with it, I do well with my Ace 250, and my Ace 300. Perhaps I'm in ideal conditions for them but yay for me if that's the case, they're actually enjoyable to use, turn on and go simplicity and the Ace is a deep detector with my Nel Tornado on it, it does better in my soils than much more expensive detectors for depth. If I was the owner of an Apex I'd take advantage of one thing it has over the other Multi Freakers on the market, AFTERMARKET coils and I'd be buying the Detech Ultimate before my Apex even arrived! One of my favourite VLF coils of all time, and it's on the Apex, I would like to be swinging that! Silver coins here I come! It's probably lucky for me the NZ dealer has no stock, I just checked, and I'd get in trouble with the wife if another detector appeared in the mail in the next week 😛

If you compare all detectors on the market it is like comparing all cars on the market. It can get confusing comparing Chevy to Subaru to Hyundai to Honda to Ford. The Apex is priced relative to other Garrett models and for where it fits in their lineup, and if you want to know what the deal is, you look at their lineup and prices. Same as you would do with the other companies. It's Garrett's opinion that the Apex fits in just above the Ace 400 but below the AT Gold in their product line. As a long time retailer I will say this. People in general go low end (the budget buyer) or high end (money does not matter). The area in the middle was never what sold for me. Too expensive for the budget person, not featured enough for the power user. The Apex sits squarely in that middle of the road zone and pleases neither group. I think it all basically misses the point and misunderstands what is really going on, which is it is just a toe in the water for things to come.

As a high end user I wish the Ace Apex had more horsepower, and look forward to a future model that does. It is an Ace model though and Garrett is in no way overselling it as being anything but that. I do very much appreciate it's physical design however, as it is close to what seems perfect to me. Very solid, easy to swing, compact control box with large visible display that is easy to navigate, good affordable coil options, rechargeable, wireless, etc.

It would be nice to have a Garrett Forum for Garrett users. It’s not the place for comparing brands. We have a forum for that specifically, and so what started as a thread for Garrett people on the Garrett Forum has been split and moved to the Comparisons Forum. The original thread can still be found here. Most people just buy what they want since these are trivial purchases for many people. Relative value is in the eye of the beholder. Garrett has a huge fan base, and I’d ask that people that prefer other brands, for whatever reason, avoid the Garrett Forum. Let the people that own the brand have a place to share information and stories. Thanks.

Mine's round too. I haven't had much issue with it except in the water. Then it gets loose pretty quickly. I wonder if you put a regular nylon nut on first then went over that with the wing nut would keep it tight. Idea from midalake. Thanks

Sanded in beaches suck 🙄 I could never detect longer than 2 hours on one. Luckily the beaches I am usually on have no protection from the waves, so there might be some sections that is not sanded in. I'm getting pretty burnt form the long drives, so if the season ends early, that's ok with me 😄 Not sure what the big wedge piece of iron is. The big spikes are fairly common with all the docks and boardwalks that have been in the area for many years. They build them and the ocean breaks them up. The cycle of life 😅 Yep, most state run beaches do not allow detecting during the season. This is because we have smaller beaches than some of the other coastal areas down south and out west. If you have a beach here that is a half mile long, that's a big beach. 😥 I would have been very happy with just the silver from the hunt. But gold does make me much happier. 😉 You can search the wet sand if you want, but the GPX is not waterproof by any stretch of the imagination. It works best in dry sand or wet areas that have exposed rocks. Doesn't help much if the beach is sanded in. I rarely do wet sand unless I see some evidence of exposed big rocks or a very steep slope. I have to admit, my GPX has taken some hits from waves that snuck up on me. Luckily, it never went under. Thank You. I need a day off after digging that 😄 Without the GPX, my beach hunts would be very boring. I would probably relic hunt or hit parks with the Manticore

Nice find...those are hard targets...never found crown but have found 3 grills...this one is my favorite. strick

I do believe that is the finest collection of ring pulls that I have ever seen Strick.

May 25 2002 When I woke up this morning there was a cold drizzle of rain coming down and dampening the camp. We all gathered at my camper for breakfast. Jacob said he wanted to come up to the dig site so we decided we would all just go up together like we used to do. Seeing as it was a little cool we were anxious to get to our work and warm up some. Jacob took a look at our open trench work and made a few suggestions as to widening it out some and cutting a ramp descending deeper into the mountain heading north. So we all worked on that all morning and Jacob took samples to pan every half hour or so. When we broke for lunch we asked him what he thought about the progress and gold at the current site. He was very positive about it and was convinced we were going to hit some heavy gold deposits sooner than later. That was always good encouragement coming from someone like him who had the experience we lacked. He’s been here and done it before and we all trust his judgment. By day’s end we had washed 17 yards of gravel and were all pretty happy because Jacob had been showing us a little gold in the test pans all day long. TO BE CONTINUED ................

Why does detecting forum management have to be so difficult!!?😉 Your a good sport Steve, and a patient soul! (Mostly)!🤣👍👍

My "newb again" two zincolns of opinion. phrunt mentions this from time to time after showing some find ...."My 300 would have found this too" ! The old and or cheaper detectors all still go beep when over metal and yes , even gold too. Maybe not quite as deep but a beep is a beep (unless it's boop). Discrimination and the other bells and whistles on the top end detectors is impressive but here I am (along with many others) digging it all to not miss any of the more elusive goodies ! I'm not down playing the benefit of a fine tuned ground balance but even without it a detector still finds a lot of targets . My best friend uses a Garrett 300 and he bests me on occasion. His coil passed over that item and mine didn't. How many of us have picked up an extra detector for backup or when you talk a non addict or the grand kids into joining you on a hunt ? A friend on my forums wanted to try the hobby and I steered her to a Vanquish 440 ! She's "diggin'" it ! It's nuts to spend the big buck$ if you're not sure you will use something enough to make it worth the extra cash spent.

I have tested the 28 for a French shop ( Chateau Numis ) a year ago . Look at my report at Test XP DEUS 2 28FMF en terres intérieures (metaux-detection.fr) , its in French I hope you can translate it using google ... Long story short the test was very positive , except that the 28 is too front heavy for me as I like light machines . And a pinpointer is required as it is quite difficult to center the targets with such a big coil.. Then I preferred to wait for the 22 before buying a D2 . It was a good decision the 22 is the perfect coil for me .. For me the 22 is a must have for inland hunters you cant go wrong with it . The 28 is more dedicated to beach hunters or clean inland areas I think ...

I already made a very thorough gold ring chart before I sold all of my scrap gold rings when gold topped $1900 per ounce US. In thick aluminum trash of all sizes with Deus 2 aluminum target IDs from the mid 30s to high 90s and coin popping only, no shovel digging, I have to pick my poison carefully and hunt areas repeatedly, concentrating on different groups of potential gold ring target IDs. Digging everything is absolutely not an option here.

Welcome to the Forum @John Oliver Keep us up to speed on your experiences.

Looks like a tie plate for railroad track. Holes are for the spikes. Rail would probably sit between the raised or shoulders on the right side in third pic or against the raised on the left, with the spikes anchoring the rail down.

An update. The Apex used in the test video was completely checked out by Garrett after this video was made and received a clean bill of health. That includes the Viper and Ripper coils. I did manage to sell it on Ebay for my friend. As far as I know, he is no longer detecting. Taking into account the more difficult soil conditions here, I wonder if his experience would have been different and if he would still be detecting if he had purchased a used Equinox 600, new Vanquish or new Legend with the $492 US he spent on the Apex with Z Lynk headphones?

I will be getting a 11x13 coil soon. I plan on getting a longer plastic bolt and tossing that wing nut thing and putting double nuts on to tighten. Double nuts NEVER loosen.

Had a bad coil out of the box and Garrett replaced it without any hassles right away. Wasn't weeks later and gobs of back and force through emails. Machine does get bit noisy in iron infested grounds and trashy areas you really need the small coil to be able to follow the audio because it is so short. Ground balancing is crutial on that machine as it is surprisingly sensitive even with the Reaper coil. Very easy to run it too hot and not realize it. Wet sand and even black sand it does incredibly well. Reaper coil runs whisper quiet in the wet and has a fair amount of depth. I think if they ever put the AT Pro audio on that machine it would fly off the shelves. Lot of bang for the buck.

Good work Jeff...Those broken pull tabs I'm always hopeful that it's a possible gold ring... On the pull tabs We have all dug out share of them...at one point I was saving just for fun...but that got old quick 😄 strick

Garrett is starting to release videos showing the Apex and it's features, I always found these sorts of videos very helpful when I was learning my Ace detector when I was new to detecting so I figured I'd drop them here to help people find them that may in the future need them. I think Garrett's done a good job with the Apex, it's often forgotten it's a beginners detector and Garrett certainly doesn't try say otherwise in their videos, very honest, if anything I think they under-rate it. I'm sure if I owned an Apex I'd do very well with it in my detecting spots, after all a majority of my coins finds I could have made with my Ace 300, and many of them have been. I guess not too long ago a detector with this pedigree and features would be considered much more than a beginners detector. I still think the Apex is one of the best looking detectors on the market, love the big screen and design. I hope their AT Series replacement follows along looking like the Apex.

Some may find this interesting, a tear-down of a GPZ 7000.

Today I was looking for Gold rings, but ended up with 8 nickles, some dimes & quarters, my settings on my ORX using the 9" HF coil where . Coin Deep -72 gain , 2 sweep speed- disc set to 5.5 Now I have done some testing on 6 gold Items from 10k-- to 14 K in yellow and white gold I wanted to find which frequincey Hit the Gold the best . and after going threw 13.3- to 58KHz i found i got all objects better and deeper using 15.6 khz so if i run across gold i have probably the best chance of finding it

Hey GotAU, sorry for the slow response. I do use a Minelab Profind 35 but I'm not sure that I actually used it last year when using the 17" coil. Most of the targets were shallower (6-10" deep), easily pinpointed and then recovered with a scoop. The only target that was deeper than a foot was a 16 gram spiky piece and I was using the 11" coil at the time. The Profind does set the GPX6 off a little at times and then at other times it is fine. I'm guessing dependent on what noise cancel channel the GPX6 is on at the time. I dare say there would not be much difference whether the 11"or 17" coils are attached. Have dug some deep trash targets with it in the Victorian Golden Triangle. The 16 gram piece I mentioned above I didn't actually go over the same ground with the 17" as it was too noisy due to salt and the fact that my brother in law had already been over the area with a GPZ 7000 (14" and 19" coils) so felt that most deeper targets would have been found already. Although, he hadn't found that piece and quite a few smaller ones 🤔 Going back to roughly the same area this year so might try if things are lean 👍

9" Ultimate is a great coil on the apex.

I agree with palzunski, the 22cm (9in) coil has really worked well for me too. It is a joy to swing and I can cover small or huge areas with it. The only reason I'm looking at getting a large coil is to add to my detecting tool set. For beaches and fields that have sparse targets, I think a larger coil would be great, but I don't feel like I need it. Eventually I may collect all 3 coils, but in the mean time, my 22 is really working well for me.

I sold my previous Garrett 24K and a couple of other detectors this past summer since I needed some money fast for home plumbing repairs. I really missed my 24K!!!! Thankfully Rick (Mi) sold his to Walt (wltdwiz) who sold it to me. Very happy to own a 24K again. I also hope Nel or Garrett are able to produce more coils for the 24K in the future. Thanks for adding Garrett's version to the Detector Database Steve.

I checked the setting in Goldfield and they were all wrong. It was in 20khz and C disc at 10. Switched to M and tested with A disc and all was well. Goldfield is better than Park on the jewelry. The gold I used in the air test is in the photo. Park setting I used: M2, Recovery 3, Iron filter 1, Stability 4, C disc with nails notched and everything else is open. I like digging iron relics.

Dave Ahhhhhh ! Experienced but exploring new directions . You sure are picking up his clues well ! Now I know what you "will be making in 20 years" 👍 that's today ! You have bragging rights and the pics do it for you too !

You are lucky , I did receive a new coil from the Garrett European after service but they never replaced the CB which I believe was faulty too . Eventually as I was very disappointed by the detector I sold what I could . I sold the coil as it was brand new and seemed to be ok and the Z lynk wireless headphones (which are excellent ) . And the CB went to the recycling bin , as I didnt want to sell a probable faulty component to an other user ... End of the story ..

Yes 1300E is a good price . Over here the same config is proposed at 1600E . XP DEUS II Pack 28FMFRCWS6 - metaux-detection.fr Just personally I prefer the 22cm coil , the 28cm is much heavier than the 22 ( 420 vs 330g ) , and the 22 is much more accurate and easier to use in the irons than the 28. These 2 coils are very different , the 28 is more a specialized coil for depth in clean areas while the 22 is much more polyvalent with almost he same depth than the 28 ...

D4G Why did I say newb ? Dave told us in the first sentence in this post.(which has more of his sweet lookin' creations) I agree Dave has skills.. One of those "naturals" no doubt ! 😎 I'm wondering what he'll be making after 20 years of experience ? 🤔 Dave Please don't tell us you learned on U toob ! 😉

Nice hunt...I'll bet you cant wait for the small coil..will we ever get the small coil? To the left of that lock...thats what I like 😄 Is it some kinda pin? strick

You can't magic marker a VDB on that baby? 😄 What a nice coin! Any S mint mark on early wheats is a great find. Now you need the S Indians.

Yes, I do tend to focus on small gold, mainly because I'd rather go home with something rather than nothing, I have a hard enough time finding the small bits let alone a bigger one 🙂 I do tend to use the 15" CC the most out of my coils on my GPZ so that with any luck would find me a deeper one if it was there, it's been my most successful coil on that detector and I prefer to use the GPZ if I'm hoping for something bigger, the GPX I've decided is my smaller gold and can't be bothered rigging up machine.

I use both the Apex and the Deus 2 presently. I've been using an Apex since late 2020. The first one (early in production) had issues right out of the box, but Garrett sent an entirely new one and a return label for the first unit. The replacement unit developed a coil issue after a short time, and again, Garrett sent a new, replacement coil. That's top notch Garrett service. Since the coil replacement, the machine has been bullet proof for me. I like using it with the 5x8 coil, as its feather light to swing. It's easy to use, and once you learn it's characteristics, you can find plenty of good targets. I have found a lot of coins and relics with it. And, after learning the Deus 2 for a period of time, went over some of the same sites and found little more. How does it compare to the Deus 2? No comparison. The Deus 2 can spank it on separation, unmasking, and flexibility, but sometimes on some sites, those aren't so important. The Deus 2 is much higher tech and it's firmware is more refined. As the video references, the Apex not submersible, nor does it have the flexibility and adjust-ability of the Deus 2, but does a pretty decent job for about 1/3 the price, and is simple to use. The ability to have a rechargeable battery, wireless headphones and link-able PP are a plus. I use the Deus 2 with the same type wireless setup. Somewhat like the latest Xterra Pro from M-L and Nokta Simplex series, Garrett could extend the Apex into the Ace series. They could offer machines with SMF capability, but fixed on one select-able frequency at a time, suitable for beach use, and others for general purpose hunting, each with a subset of functions of the Apex. Garrett would benefit by lower prices on common components used across the (new)Ace line, and retire the old Ace line with the disposable batteries and bulky control box. Hey Steve Moore, do we have your attention? I believe the Apex has been a stepping stone into SMF for Garrett, and hope they improve the firmware and update the Apex, and perhaps release a new higher end machine (soon) that can compare/compete with the other manufacturers in the SMF category.

Welcome to the forum. I think it is hard to find a better retirement activity than metal detecting. Lots of walking and lots of getting up and down, something we need to keep doing as we age. It gets a person out of the house for sure. It can be a great activity for loners, and also for social types via clubs and group outings. I think starting with a PI is not a bad idea as it focuses a person less on the whiz bang technology in new detector, and more about just getting and digging targets. How well you do is more about finding the right locations and then get with the program recovering targets. You don't have to overthink PI detecting. So yes, good luck with your new hobby!

8 hours! I can't imagine that long of a hunt right now for a couple of reasons. Family and sanded in beaches. Your results are worth the effort. We'll miss your beach posts once they kick you off. Mitchel