Hunting With The Garrett Apex

[abenson]

4 hours ago, Bob Sickler said:

Possibly your western minerals might be affecting the outcome in target rich locations? For me I've had some really good success with the Apex in areas like the trash embankment above, but I can't be sure all was found... Do we ever know. Most of my targets were buried no deeper than few inches if I remember correctly, but there surely was a lot of iron noise. I tried the Deus II on the same hill in the fast mode and didn't do much better and I know their processor is a lot faster.

That was definitely another reason I moved on to other machines. Mineralization here is bad and also limited depth with the Apex. 5" dime here was a no go with the Apex. IMO the Apex having SMF and ground balance capabilities, should have been able to handle the ground here. The Legend at slightly more money than the Apex, is a very impressive machine. I hope Garrett gets it right with the Storm.

[Jeff McClendon]

15 hours ago, Bill (S. CA) said:

All kidding aside, I'm just happy to see the Apex get a little credit.  I thought from the get go it was unfairly dismissed and then just ignored.  

Andy and I both tried to make the Apex work in our western USA soil conditions. My experiences were very similar to Andy’s. I actually bought two different ones hoping that the first one was just a lemon. Lost money when I sold them.

I didn’t unfairly dismiss or ignore the Apex. I really liked everything about it except for the way it detected here. I gave it an honest go. It just couldn’t handle the ground conditions that the Equinox, Legend, Deus 2 and Manticore handle easily.

I also really hope that Garrett’s next SMF detector will be able to handle the ground conditions here a lot better than the Apex. I really like Garrett as a company, I like the Axiom a lot and would love to own and use an all terrain, fully competitive Garrett simultaneous multi frequency detector.

[Mike305]

On 4/21/2024 at 3:21 AM, Bob Sickler said:

How does everyone feel about distracting bright colors on metal detectors and what would you like to see on the new Garrett release hopefully coming soon?

Did not care for the yellow either...so I tried to create an Apex Pro by painting my control box with a rubberized paint.  Not that it necessarily needed it, but I like to think it is more water resistant as well.  I also silicone glued a rubber bushing to the audio port so when my headphones are plugged in it's a tight fit and water intrusion less likely.  I would prefer all black for the Storm.

 

[Bob Sickler]

I hope everyone here didn't think I meant the Apex was the do-all, end-all detector, it's not! No detector I have ever owned, reviewed, or tested has been. I think the manufacturers have tried, but none so far have been totally successful... The variance of mineral intensity throughout the world is just too daunting and performance trade-offs will always be an issue. If they were ultimately successful someday, we'd all own it and multi-faceted forums such as this would likely cease to exist!... It might be just "show and tell" from then on or "my coil's bigger than yours"! 🙂

I've only spoke on the Apex's virtues in my own ground context and the comfort it has afforded me. My beloved Teknetics Mark I (too heavy) was a killer in my own ground, take it relic hunting down South in hot ground and it failed miserably. This is the precise reason I tried to initiate a national network of field testing when I worked for a magazine. Retrospectively ironic is my most favorite coin ever found... It was found using my 1979 Garrett ADS Groundhog, a non-motion discriminator! Fond memories, but no depth performance match for today's detectors.

I think Garrett's future in the sport arena of metal detection will rely a lot on this upcoming release. I think they are acutely aware of their competition. The fact that they are heavily invested throughout the world in security detection will always keep them afloat as a company. I also think they were quite wise to purchase White's assets and gain their loyal customer following. For me, I'm looking forward to any ergonomic, lightweight, well-designed interface, high-performing and solidly built detector that will keep me swinging for the future. Oh yeah, it has to work in my dirt and leave me with a few bucks in my wallet! 🙂

[Steve Herschbach]

Just a reminder - this is the Garrett Forum for people who like and appreciate their Garrett detectors, where they can do so without people telling them that Brand X is better. You want to make brand to brand comparisons, take it to the Comparisons Forum.

I also do not find the Apex to be a powerhouse in my soil and have said so, but I don’t make it my mission to make sure I repeat that on every thread on the Garrett Forum to people who are happy with theirs.

I truly feel sorry for people who own and enjoy a Garrett Ace 150 or a Bounty Hunter. They go out and have fun and find things. Then they find a forum or get on Facebook, and get told what they own is not “the best” by all the people who are sure they own “the best.” There is a general elitist attitude on these forums that can’t tolerate anyone saying anything good about anything other than a dozen detector models. Own anything else and you will rapidly be made into a second class citizen here… and leave.

Great, maybe your car is better than my car, but truth is I like my car and I don’t want your car. Maybe people just like and want to support Garrett products regardless of whether somebody else thinks they should not.

[Jeff McClendon]

27 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Just a reminder - this is the Garrett Forum for people who like and appreciate their Garrett detectors, where they can do so without people telling them that Brand X is better. You want to make brand to brand comparisons, take it to the Comparisons Forum.

I also do not find the Apex to be a powerhouse in my soil and have said so, but I don’t make it my mission to make sure I repeat that on every thread on the Garrett Forum to people who are happy with theirs.

I truly feel sorry for people who own and enjoy a Garrett Ace 150 or a Bounty Hunter. They go out and have fun and find things. Then they find a forum or get on Facebook, and get told what they own is not “the best” by all the people who are sure they own “the best.” There is a general elitist attitude on these forums that can’t tolerate anyone saying anything good about anything other than a dozen detector models. Own anything else and you will rapidly be made into a second class citizen here… and leave. Great, maybe your car is better than my car, but truth is I like my car and I don’t want your car. Maybe people just like and want to support Garrett products regardless of whether somebody else thinks they should not.

The OP and another poster started this topic with a direct comparison between the Garrett Apex and the XP Deus 2 on page one.

I was going to stay out of it but I don't want unknowing prospective Apex buyers to get the wrong impression. I think the OP did a good job of making it clear later on that the Apex does have some issues in higher iron mineralization.

For me it has nothing to do with elitism.

I don't enjoy using detectors that don't perform well where I detect. I am too old to waste time wondering what a detector is trying to tell me in a simple park hunt situation on 4" deep or less targets. I don't care who made the detector. If that means I have to buy more expensive detectors because of soil mineralization levels then that doesn't make me an elitist.

I am a longtime happy Garrett owner that just wants them to produce a better SMF VLF.

[kac]

Apex's Hybrid audio is not for everyone. The short response can make it difficult to isolate targets in high trash areas and hard to tell if your falsing if out of ground balance in bad ground or your swing is too fast in high mineralized ground. It is especially difficult to run for those like myself that are accustomed to smooth audio and audio that follows the size of a target rather than sound off on lead of the swing.

I have found plenty with the Apex and have done incredibly well with it but I struggle in those conditions. On the other hand my hunting buddy uses it quite a bit and it was a big upgrade from is old Ace. He is able to pick out targets easily with it and he oddly struggles with other machines like my D2, AT Pro and Tesoros. His comfort zone is with that short beep and following the display and mine is hunting by sound. Both of us to well and I can't say the Apex has made him miss targets other than not putting the coil over the target or running discrim too high.

Would changing the audio change minds for those who gave up their Apex? I know if it had modulated audio I would use mine more. I do find it comfortable to swing and really nice easy to read display.

[Jeff McClendon]

5 minutes ago, kac said:

Apex's Hybrid audio is not for everyone. The short response can make it difficult to isolate targets in high trash areas and hard to tell if your falsing if out of ground balance in bad ground or your swing is too fast in high mineralized ground. It is especially difficult to run for those like myself that are accustomed to smooth audio and audio that follows the size of a target rather than sound off on lead of the swing.

I have found plenty with the Apex and have done incredibly well with it but I struggle in those conditions. On the other hand my hunting buddy uses it quite a bit and it was a big upgrade from is old Ace. He is able to pick out targets easily with it and he oddly struggles with other machines like my D2, AT Pro and Tesoros. His comfort zone is with that short beep and following the display and mine is hunting by sound. Both of us to well and I can't say the Apex has made him miss targets other than not putting the coil over the target or running discrim too high.

Would changing the audio change minds for those who gave up their Apex? I know if it had modulated audio I would use mine more. I do find it comfortable to swing and really nice easy to read display.

I don't mind the Apex audio quality or the length of the tones. I do mind it being stuck on 5 tones. When a simple non-ferrous low to mid conductor aluminum coins sized target at 4" deep is sounding off with all 5 tones......that gets old quick. A 1 or 2 tone option would make the Apex a lot more flexible in my opinion.

[phrunt]

It's audio seems like an upgrade from my Ace 300 doorbell audio, and sounds like a big upgrade from the earlier Ace series in general.  

I wish the Apex wasn't cost prohibitive in NZ as I would be a proud owner of it, and in my mild soils I'm sure it would do fantastic and there are many people just like me out there, in milder soils where most detectors thrive.  People like me can buy an Apex and like its design with excellent build quality, nice screen, good enough feature set and its performance generally would be perfectly suitable to do well.

It always puts a smirk on my face when I take out my Ace 300 and pull up some silvers, it adds to the thrill of the find knowing a detector many frown upon brings up the goods and with a nice big coil on it like my Tornado it's one of the deepest VLF's on silver coins I have, must be its frequency helping.

 A 6 to 8" NZ $1 coin prior to digging, perfect ID, easy Target, it can find a lot deeper than this.  This was when I first got my Ace 300, you'll see my Target ID cheat sheet stuck to the top of the detector for my cherry picking 😛  Look at my notching, I've noticed out just about everything only wanting to find $1 and $2 coins and of course big silvers, I was cruising over a an old sports field cherry picking coins I wanted to find knowing they were about.  This is how I set it up for my daughter too, she only wants $1 and $2 coins, doesn't care about finding old coins she can't spend 🙂

I'd really love to own an Apex, but I can't justify paying the price of an Equinox 800 to own one, Garrett's NZ Pricing is way out of line unfortunately, as their detectors appear to work very well in our soil conditions and if were priced right would be very good sellers in NZ.

[abenson]

1 minute ago, Jeff McClendon said:

I don't mind the Apex audio quality or the length of the tones. I do mind it being stuck on 5 tones. A 1 or 2 tone option would make the Apex a lot more flexible in my opinion.

I like the Apex audio myself. I also think I would like it better if I had more tone options. 2 or 3 tone would be great.