Hunting With The Garrett Apex

[Mike305]

On 4/19/2024 at 12:25 AM, Bob Sickler said:

Very important to not ignore overly loud signals. I have an 1850's NYS Militia Plate on my dresser to remind me of that! Yes, we have all found those deeply (intentionally) buried aluminum soda and beer cans too! 

Thanks, Bob.  Good advice.  I do much the same as you.  I can't dig them all on my iron (and beer can) infested beach, but I occasionally dig the 'probably big iron' signals and have been richly rewarded.  One such find was a large heavy Gucci silver bangle bracelet that put me halfway to paying for the Apex.  In my first summer with the Apex, the finds paid for the Apex many times over.  So I bought another one...and finally retired my Sovereign GT.  Love my Apex(es).

[Bob Sickler]

Thanks everyone... Now back on topic and I'll give everyone a break! 🙂 I have two observations/questions for what seems to be our little niche Apex user group!

1) I get myself into "alphabet soup" target scenarios sometimes with the Apex and I have noticed in some tough target concentrations, after about 4 passes over a seemingly good hit, the target audio starts to morph in swing stages and sometimes ends up being turned to an iron "grunt" indication... Most times ultimately proves to be a correct analytical... Usually times a rusted and bent square nail. Be advised I use no discrimination at all generally. It's almost as if the Apex shifts to analyze a troubled target at each frequency (5, 10, 15, and 20kHz in its Multi-Flex platform). This seems to sometimes happen only when the "going gets tough" so-to-speak. I'd love to have a chance to query Garrett Engineering on this. Would it be a glitch with a happy ending, or is this a Garrett proprietary SMF characteristic (?). To best illustrate my success with this nuance, the attached image is a collection of finds made in about one hour on the side of an old trash embankment, about 20 feet from an old home site. Most of the targets sounded off with a hard "blip" to gain a smoother edge tone on multiple passes. Many of the "good sounding" targets got worse and stopped repeating and turned into iron "grunts". Has any other Apex land hunter experienced the same thing?

2) This is getting slightly into the "Storm is Coming" topic... I tend to be very sensitive to color given my career as a graphic artist/designer. While I enjoy looking at the Apex color scheme in photos, the bright yellow rim around the control housing can be distracting in the field for me. I like the new camo Apex, but I'm just not into signature endorsements on metal detectors. I asked the factory if it were possible to order just a camo control housing for my Apex and they declined naturally probably in fear I would void my warranty. To be clear, I don't need to disguise myself to disappear into the woods, I just want a housing that doesn't contrast my natural surroundings and doesn't distract me. I'm hoping the new Garrett release is either all black or total camo. I actually like "digital camo" most of all like their older caps... So much so that everything in my kit has now become "digital camo" - my backpack, molle pouches, dig bag, cell phone pouch with spare 9V pocket, Winter coat.... HELP! 🙂 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?

[DIG5050]

Bob, that is a nice assortment of targets you found. It looks like you had a good time at this site.  
 

The bright yellow CB is not to my liking, either.  Soon after the release of the Apex, the Sly Lynx Garrett Apex cover popped up on Amazon.  They had black, camo, and pixel camo. They are nice covers and hide the bright yellow color (!)  as well as keeping the display from becoming scratched, and helps keep the keyboard clean.

I ended up buying the camo and pixelated camo versions, and after nearly 4 years of use, still look like new.  Alas, I no longer see the camo or pixel camo versions available. 

On the new “Storm” release I would like to see black or camo.
 HH, Bob,!

[Bob Sickler]

13 hours ago, DIG5050 said:

Bob, that is a nice assortment of targets you found. It looks like you had a good time at this site.  
 

The bright yellow CB is not to my liking, either.  Soon after the release of the Apex, the Sly Lynx Garrett Apex cover popped up on Amazon.  They had black, camo, and pixel camo. They are nice covers and hide the bright yellow color (!)  as well as keeping the display from becoming scratched, and helps keep the keyboard clean.

I ended up buying the camo and pixelated camo versions, and after nearly 4 years of use, still look like new.  Alas, I no longer see the camo or pixel camo versions available. 

On the new “Storm” release I would like to see black or camo.
 HH, Bob,!

I'd like to add that the site was lived in for many generations and the silver "Rosie" was found at the bottom of the embankment. I added it in for a scale reference to the other targets. The other silver is a pendant found halfway down the hill and appears to be fairly old. As you can see there is many years of discards, including two CW buttons... Calvary and General service. I can only imagine the old worn out uniforms being tossed down the embankment! The "C" is actually gold plated. The wheel at top I believe is from a child's toy cannon. I think it really reinforced my affinity for the Apex that day considering there were a ton of iron "grunts" there!

Thanks for the tip on the cover! I might try one sometime! I never gave them any thought before.

I should have added a comment on the Apex display. I find mine to be at its best in bright sunlight, even in shade it is still clear and defined. I've had other LCD displays on various brands be almost non-readable and especially in shade.

[Bill (S. CA)]

Holy cow, I had no idea that Bob's joining the forum would generate such activity with regard to the Apex!  Despite my previous efforts in that regard it took a rock star like Bob to get things going.  Oh well, I don't mind being an opening act...

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.  

Just a couple of random comments:

• I don't care about detector colors.  If you saw the mismatched furniture in my living room you would understand.
• I doubt that Garrett will update the Apex again.  I just don't see what that would do for them from a business perspective.
• I prefer the Viper coil over the Reaper coil.  The Viper coil is amazing and super light weight.  For me, the Reaper is a bit heavy and outside of coverage doesn't offer me any advantages.

Last thing, I'm happy to see activity about Garrett detectors.  Hopefully this carries over to the Storm when it comes out.

Bill

 

[Bob Sickler]

Hey Bill, I always had hoped to be a rock star, but that was with a guitar! 🙂 Seriously, I'm no rock star with a metal detector either. I put my searchcoils on like everybody else does. I'm just lucky to have found some great places to hunt for the last 56 years and the "gift of gab" to talk about it! The real treasures I've found are the friendships I've made in the hobby.

"I don't care about detector colors.  If you saw the mismatched furniture in my living room"... You my friend could be a standup comedian! 🙂 Wait, maybe you're color blind! 🙂

I think you might be correct about Garrett not furthering the Apex, but I do hope they use some of the feature strengths found on the Apex into a new model. You are right again, the Viper is an all-around great coil.

Let's hope all us Garrett fans get a "good kinda soaking" real soon!

[phrunt]

The problem is they thought they'd promote it before releasing it by their Storm is coming marketing, this may have backfired on them with heavy discounting by the biggest competitor on their best machine.  Once someone buys a machine like that, they're very unlikely to buy another one a month or two later.  They need to get this storm out the door, the longer they wait the worse it gets.

We saw it again recently, Nokta had been talking about a PI years, Algoforce hits the market and takes it by surprise with no clues it was coming at all, now Nokta suddenly do a naming contest for their PI that looks like it's finally coming, but not necessarily, it took years after their Legend naming contest until it hit the market.  Maybe the Algoforce release shook them a bit.

Manufacturers would be smarter to take the market by surprise like XP with the Deus 2 and not leak a new model is coming when it's not ready to release, it just doesn't seem to work in their favour.  I really hope the storm hits soon, and it uses the Apex design, love that big screen and overall design.

[Bob Sickler]

Maybe Garrett should using parachutes in a rain storm! 🙂

[abenson]

On 4/20/2024 at 12:21 PM, Bob Sickler said:

Thanks everyone... Now back on topic and I'll give everyone a break! 🙂 I have two observations/questions for what seems to be our little niche Apex user group!

1) I get myself into "alphabet soup" target scenarios sometimes with the Apex and I have noticed in some tough target concentrations, after about 4 passes over a seemingly good hit, the target audio starts to morph in swing stages and sometimes ends up being turned to an iron "grunt" indication... Most times ultimately proves to be a correct analytical... Usually times a rusted and bent square nail. Be advised I use no discrimination at all generally. It's almost as if the Apex shifts to analyze a troubled target at each frequency (5, 10, 15, and 20kHz in its Multi-Flex platform). This seems to sometimes happen only when the "going gets tough" so-to-speak. I'd love to have a chance to query Garrett Engineering on this. Would it be a glitch with a happy ending, or is this a Garrett proprietary SMF characteristic (?). To best illustrate my success with this nuance, the attached image is a collection of finds made in about one hour on the side of an old trash embankment, about 20 feet from an old home site. Most of the targets sounded off with a hard "blip" to gain a smoother edge tone on multiple passes. Many of the "good sounding" targets got worse and stopped repeating and turned into iron "grunts". Has any other Apex land hunter experienced the same thing?

Having had 3 Apexs at different times since release, I experienced similar issues when hunting target rich areas. This ultimately resulted in me giving up on the Apex for my type of hunting. Not saying the Apex is a bad machine, but target rich environments like ghost towns and relic site are not one of its strong points. I noticed it just has a difficult time isolating good targets in these scenarios and target ID is very unstable. One the other hand it can pretty much hang with the best of them on the salt water beaches.

[Bob Sickler]

49 minutes ago, abenson said:

Having had 3 Apexs at different times since release, I experienced similar issues when hunting target rich areas. This ultimately resulted in me giving up on the Apex for my type of hunting. Not saying the Apex is a bad machine, but target rich environments like ghost towns and relic site are not one of its strong points. I noticed it just has a difficult time isolating good targets in these scenarios and target ID is very unstable. One the other hand it can pretty much hang with the best of them on the salt water beaches.

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.