Jeff McClendon

I realize this is the Garrett forum and an APEX specific topic so I am hesitant to state negative things about the APEX. All I will say is that its simultaneous multi frequency technology cannot compete with the Minelab Vanquish, Minelab Equinox models, XP Deus 2 or Nokta Legend. Whether that was Garrett’s intention I have no idea. I am very familiar with all of those detectors and have owned two APEX detectors. I just simply cannot recommend the APEX unless it is for the most basic detecting or for a secondary saltwater beach detector.

Thanks for the link to the FTP pinpointer manual CPT. I still have my Quest pinpointer. It is a keeper and a great backup. I have had no issues with my Tek-Point pinpointers. I just make sure to have them on when doing a detector frequency scan to minimize crosstalk. I keep my Tek Point on Max sensitivity and use both tone and vibrate simultaneously. I make certain to keep my detector’s coil well away (like 3 feet) from my Tek-Point when checking targets in the ground to the point of not laying my detector down next to me with the coil near my dig hole when recovering targets. I actually lay it down at right angle to my target and body. On damp ground that is also mineralized, I do occasionally get a little falsing but a quick retune usually takes care of it. The Legend’s wireless headphones have really good ambient noise cancelling. It is hard for me to hear my Tek-Point when using it with those headphones. I have no problem hearing it using my Nox 800, 900, Deus 2 and some other detectors.

Deus 2, Equinox 900 and the Legend all have "tight discernment" of targets from my experience until targets start to be deep enough to be at the edge of detection. That really helps me when I am deciding how to hunt a modern aluminum and steel alloy trashed area. Some places I hunt have more spread out targets so I can dig everything that sounds good or has consistent enough numbers to get my attention. At other places like the curb area I hunted in the write-up, there is absolutely no way to dig even a tenth of the targets since there are just way too many. It's like hunting a carpet of rusty nails infested site except that the carpet of targets are nearly all non-ferrous. Those targets on the plate are the only ones I dug except for two aluminum screw caps that had US quarter target ID numbers that got tossed out with a dozen or so steel crown bottle caps that were on the surface. I really stuck to my plan of just digging the good sounding nickel and silver range targets. I wasn't notching anything and I will definitely go back to that spot and concentrate on other likely aluminum/gold target IDs in the 50s and 70s on another day since I heard a ton of them. The area I hunted was about 30 feet long and 10 feet wide and the amount of targets in that tiny area that Deus 2 audibly detected is ridiculous.

Same as the Equinox 700/900, target ID 25/26

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.

I have hunted around 50 Denver area parks regularly and thoroughly with an Equinox 800 since getting one back in mid 2018. I have hunted some of those same parks and exact same areas recently with the Legend, Deus 2 and Equinox 900 and I have been removing lots of nickels with each detector that I just couldn’t definitively pick out of the adjacent aluminum trash with the Equinox 800. There were just too many overlapping aluminum targets that shared the Equinox 600/800 12/13 target ID area. With the Legend, Deus 2 and Equinox 900, the nickel target ID area is not nearly as crowded with other overlapping trash target IDs. Nickels and gold rings with similar IDs are super easy to hear with these expanded target ID detectors.

Deus 2 is a big improvement over Deus 1 for people that hunt in iron mineralization, salt mineralization or both at the same time since it runs much quieter and ground balances better in those more extreme ground conditions. It is also a big improvement over Deus 1 for any kind of submerged in water hunting. For people that hunt in steel alloy and aluminum trashed parks, Deus 2 is a gigantic improvement over Deus 1. I basically would not take a Deus 1 into a really modern trashed area with constant aluminum and steel bottle cap trash in the past. For people who depend on correct target IDs and audio tones on deeper targets especially low to mid conductor non-ferrous targets, Deus 2 is a humongous improvement over Deus 1 if soil or beach conditions are even slightly mineralized. Up averaging of deeper coin sized targets for the most part has been eliminated until the depth of detection is reached in most ground conditions that aren't too extreme. It still has virtually the same great ergonomics as Deus 1, same portability, and same fantastic iron trash handling.

Absolutely!!!

Thanks for being patient with some of these posts Daniel since I didn’t read anywhere in your posts where you asked for Legend help, advice, tips or even said anything about not knowing what you were doing besides the discrepancy in the printed manual. Anyway, when is the last time anyone not named Daniel that has posted advice has found an 1885 Seated dime? It has been three years since I found a seated dime but it was an 1887. Well done Daniel.

Only issues I have are being dumb and sometimes having a problem with fully connecting to this site's server meaning I will get to say the main forum page and only a third of it will load so I see down to maybe the Classifieds topic and everything below that is blank. I have that issue on my 2019 Mac mini, 2021 Dell Laptop, iPhone 13 and iPad Pro whether I am using them with my CenturyLink Wifi, with 5g or LTE data away from home or at other WiFi locations. It's annoying but I just start over and everything eventually works out. Some other sites won't load at all sometimes. At least Detector Prospector partially loads but then freezes. It also my have absolutely nothing to do with the Detector Prospector server.

I still have a Teknetics G2+ with 10X5 elliptical coil. It is the only single frequency VLF that I own. It will slightly outperform my Equinox 800, 900, Legend and Deus 2 on coin sized target when comparing target IDs using their selectable single frequencies around 20 kHz and the Tek G2+ using its fixed 19 kHz. The G2+ can ID 3” deep US nickels and pull tabs, etc. pretty well. Those SMFs using 20kHz struggle to correctly ID 3” deep low conductors in my dirt. Put those SMFs in their multi settings and they will totally outperform the G2+ on coin sized object detection and identification of coin sized objects deeper than 3”. The Legend and Nox in their gold modes whether using their multi setting or 40 kHz single frequency easily outperform the G2+ on sub gram gold. Deus 2 with 9” coil using its SMF gold mode and its Mono selectable single frequencies above 20 kHz performs about the same as the G2+ on sub gram gold.

Same coil. I just don't know how big it is. Sorry.

I was able to use it for about an hour on my trip to Arizona in a head to head with the Equinox 900. I was cleaning out a small natural nugget trap between to large basalt boulders in an active wash where I have found two roughly 4 gram nuggets in the past. The Legend and Nox 900 didn’t find any gold but they cleaned up half a dozen lead, tin and wire targets that were less than 0.1 gram that were on bedrock. Had any gold been there they both would have easily detected it.

6” for the smallest stuff. 10x5 is just a great all around coil.

6” and 10X5” Both were excellent. Nox 800 performance level

What he said for sure. Some detector software engineers set defaults on these more complicated SMF VLF detectors very aggressively (XP). Others like Nokta go in the other direction and setup defaults so the detector will behave a little better for newbies.

All four SMF detectors that I currently use can have a big target ID spread on zinc pennies depending on what condition they are in. I use 6 or Full tones for coin and jewelry most of the time. The Legend and the other SMFs I use have such good audio ID accuracy that I often don't look at the screen until I am ready to pinpoint a target for recovery. The audio tones tell me plenty about each target. For a beginner, that much audio variation may be too much sometimes.

Bill, version 1.11 software also has Park defaulting with 2 tones, recovery speed 5 and iron filter on 8. I think Beach still defaults to 2 tones also. I can only speculate. Park is probably used a lot by new users and beginners. Having Park Multi on 2 tones (ferrous/non ferrous) recovery speed 5 and iron filter 8 really simplifies things for a new user. Personally, I would probably hunt saltwater beaches in default 2 tones or the 2 tone Pitch audio anyway so that one makes sense to me.

Monte was one of the truly good guys in this hobby. I never met him. I did exchange letters, emails and online posts with him. He was always very quick to offer technical help when it was asked for, encouragement and support for me when I was having issues with a detector conundrum. He never preached at me, never got cross or put off with me for respectfully questioning his thoughts or for disagreeing with him. He was very generous with his time both in his correspondences with me and with friends of mine who actually knew him. Most of all, I will miss reading his posts on all things metal detecting. Thank you Monte. Well wishes to Monte Jr. and all the rest of Monte's family, many friends and detecting acquaintances.

Check this out: I have owned all of the Vanquish models. They ace this test, no problem and have the same results as the Equinox models when they are using their Multi IQ technology. If the X-Terra Pro has the same implementation of 5, 10 and 15 kHz selectable single frequency tech as the Equinox models and the X-Terra Pro will be used on moderate to high iron mineralized ground or saltwater beaches with lots of black sand, even with a good ground balance, the target ID accuracy may start to resemble the testing linked to on targets at 3" depth or deeper which is where Equinox selectable single frequencies start to rapidly up average everything where I detect. The XT Pro is waterproof and it will have better target separation/recovery speed than the Vanquish models. Iron handling may also be a bit better. Ground balancing would be a tossup for me in most of the soil conditions around here. If I was debating between a Vanquish model and the X-Terra Pro for the detecting areas I detect in right now I would have to get both. I would probably just get the Vanquish 440 and the XT Pro but I would want wireless headphones for the XT Pro (another $140 or so). Then I would notice that Minelab conveniently offers the Equinox 700 which comes with wireless headphones for $599 US, tack on the 15% USA military discount and I can get the Nox 700 for around $500 US which would be less money than a Vanquish 440, XT Pro and ML 85 headphones. If I lived in an area with little or no iron mineralization and I was mostly hunting with a ferrous/non-ferrous agenda instead of perfect target IDs, I would seriously consider the XT Pro. If I need really good target IDs on deeper targets than surface to 6" and I don’t need waterproof .........Vanquish.

Clad dime is doing that on both Equinox models using 40 kHz and on Deus 2 using 25 kHz during this testing.

Its 32 degrees F with north winds blowing 15 to 20 mph so I gave up on detecting today. Anyone thinking of buying a current or newer model Simplex, ORX, Deus 1 or X-Terra Pro who has tough soil or saltwater/black sand beach conditions might want to pay attention to these results assuming that the selectable single frequency tech in the Equinox, Legend and Deus 2 is similar to their single/selectable single frequency only model counterparts. I did decide to do some outdoor test garden target ID comparisons between the simultaneous multi frequency technology and the selectable single frequency technology of the Equinox 800, Equinox 900, Legend and Deus 2. I have moderate to high iron mineralization in my test garden so these results will be on the extreme side. Check the Multi results for each detector to see what the target IDs should be relatively speaking. A US nickel 6" deep, US clad dime 6" deep and a US clad quarter 6" deep were the targets. They have been in the ground, undisturbed for 3 years at least. The 6" clad dime is a really tough target in these soil conditions. All four detectors even in their Multi setting up averaged the clad dime quite a bit. These are just my test results on a cold windy day. They may not be the same for you. So, just some information....nothing more.

If you want to use the Bluetooth wireless audio, good luck. The compatible ML85s (not for sale yet) will cost a minimum of $140 US (current ML80 price). Otherwise a third party system like Garrett's EZ Lynk and some others will be okay for land hunting until third party Bluetooth LE headphones and earbuds are proven to work with Minelab's proprietary BT LE wireless system (or not!!!). The waterproof, selectable single frequency, wireless capable, lightweight, collapsible shaft X-Terra Pro is not just a competitor for Nokta. It also makes the Garrett Ace and AT series, most First Texas Products VLFs, Deus 1, ORX and Minelab's own Go Find series look either over priced or downright silly.

Steve asked me a question on page 1. I answered it as best I could based on what I know from experience and what I have seen from the Equinox 900, Deus 2 and the Legend. So far, I am definitely not seeing a staggering or even a significant quantifiable difference in performance between these detectors apart from gold prospecting and available coil choices. Since I don’t dive, the biggest differences for me are versatility, ease of use and price. I hope XP’s upcoming software update fixes the three issues I have with it: really small target detection, weird target IDs for non-ferrous near iron and pairing/handshake issues with the WS6 as master. I hope the Nox 700/900 don’t leak and coil ears don’t break. I don’t use my speaker on my Legend so I really don’t care if it goes out. Personally, if I was doing a 3 meter drop test or a 3 meter toss test from what I have seen so far, the Legend would survive both. The other two…..I have my doubts. I don’t get into to which manufacturer said or did this or that from a marketing standpoint. I just go out and detect with these amazing detectors.

I still own my Tek G2+. No, I would not prefer it to any of the latest SMF detectors at a saltwater beach. Same goes for the Simplex, Deus 1, ORX and any other single frequency even if it has a so called salt mode especially if there is even moderate black sand. The G2+ could handle down to 8" maximum depth at the east and west coast beaches I have used it and an F19 on and that was dry to damp sand only. Very wet sand and surf where I was using them.....forget it. Anybody thinking the X-Terra Pro is going to rival these SMFs for depth in wet salt sand or submerged in saltwater probably needs to think again. I am seeing people on other forums (not this one) going goo goo gah gah over the X-Terra Pro like it is an Equinox 700/900 Lite and is the deal of the century. It may look like an Equinox but without Multi IQ SMF tech, it is absolutely not an Equinox Lite. Instead it is basically a V-Flex selectable single frequency detector that is waterproof, lightweight, with a collapsable shaft system with good coil selection, some other good features and at a very good price. It is another nail in the coffin for the current Garrett AT series in my opinion for anyone that is paying attention just like the Simplex was. It also does a number on any VLF offering from FTP using frequencies at or lower than 19 kHz.