Recently I was able to get together with a few friends including Gypsy Jewels who was using a prototype of the Garrett Apex. Our good friend Mr. Dennis Wynne lined up a great piece of property here in Texas that consisted of a rock wall corral and a house that dated back to sometime in the mid 1800’s.
Although the finds were surprisingly slim, being at such a cool historical site with good friends is what it is all about, what more could you ask for? I will tell you what else could make it better, seeing Garrett’s soon to be released Apex in action!
What I noticed right off is the sleek design, the thin control housing, and the large display. Seeing the size of the numbers on the screen was refreshing. For many years us detectorists and especially those with eyesight issues have been asking the metal detector manufacturers with a larger display and Garrett delivered!
For much of the day everyone headed out in their own direction metal detecting, checking in on each other from time to time to see how it was going. Early afternoon I found myself metal detecting near Gypsy in an area heavily inundated with small bits of iron. As a relic hunter I thought to myself “if the Apex can handle this area I will be impressed” I turned off my metal detector, pulled off my headphones and listened to the Apex.
I do not know how she had the Apex set up but I can tell you it was handling the iron like a pro. One of the biggest issues I’ve found with digital metal detectors while working in heavy iron is a lot of falsing on iron that will obviously slow you down and many metal detectors I’ve used often have a hard alerting you to a good target amongst the heavy iron.
The Garrett Apex was not only handling this area with heavy concentrations of iron like a champ, it was doing an excellent job of alerting her to good targets. The Apex was impressing me!
Another thing I noticed while following her around was the tones coming through her headphones. I have always liked the tones that the Garrett AT Pro put out and the Apex was no different. It had a good range of tones and they were easily distinguishable. I also always liked that you could easily hear the nuances within each tone of the AT Pro and the Apex was no different.
I turned my metal detector back on and continued metal detecting after a short time and her and I went on our separate ways eventually. Later in the afternoon we all ended up at the truck refueling with liquids and snacks. My shoulder and neck were done with swinging so I put my metal detector away and decided to follow Gypsy around and learn more about the Apex.
She decided to try the other side of the gravel road where her and Dennis had worked some earlier and possibly found another house site. This particular area had more iron in it than the previous area her and I were in together and once again, the Apex was handling it like a champ. She quickly worked through the area picking out the good targets without any problem, the Apex was running smooth.
I also got to witness something else with the Apex that I have not seen in a long time. For several years I ran a Minelab E-trac and its ability to lock on to good targets that had iron present was amazing. Several coins and relic were recovered with many pieces of iron around it and often times even in the same hole using the E-trac. I currently own and have used many great metal detectors since the E-trac and none have been as good as the E-trac in that aspect. The Garrett Apex quickly put me in mind of the E-trac, on three occasions I watched Gypsy dig holes that had at least a few pieces of iron in it and the Apex had locked onto the good target in the hole impressively.
We were hunting in a wooded area where the finds just were not very deep. My deepest relic was probably somewhere around 4 inches. Although most targets were very shallow, I did watch Gypsy dig a small piece of old copper that was at roughly six inches with iron in the same hole and actually above the copper. In no way is this any kind of indication of what the Apex is capable of but I do know that piece of small copper sounded good on the Apex and was repeating, there was no question whether or not to dig it.
As the day was winding down, I was able to wrestle the Apex away from Gypsy to see how it felt in my hand and to feel the weight. Luckily, Gypsy was tired from all day metal detecting and I only received one black eye, a bloody nose, and a busted lip. I feel certain if she were not so tired, I would have never got my hands on it!! Again, I was impressed and although it looks light and expected it to be light somehow it was lighter than I expected. It felt great in my hands as well. Unfortunately, I was only able to hold it for a second before the Angry Gypsy badger leapt to her feet. I feel certain I am probably tougher than her but I decided it was best to lay down the Apex and run for my life!
I would not want anyone to get the wrong impression. By no means is this any kind of review just my first impressions of Garrett’s new Ace Apex. Everything I am hearing from Gypsy who now has MANY hours on the metal detector has been impressive but it is not my place to share with you, I will leave that to her when the time comes.
Remember in the first paragraph I said the finds were slim? They were but we each made a couple decent finds and Gypsy made an amazing discovery with the Apex the next day but again, I am going to leave that up to Gypsy!
Great observations Mike! Indeed, Gypsy got a bucket lister the next day. And that permission dates back a ways to the 1860’s. All in all, I too was impressed with the new Garrett Apex. One thing I noticed also, was the rapid recovery speed in iron. That means a fast processor, and in this case with that larger coil, I was impressed with the recovery speed in iron infested spots.
In my opinion, the number one thing that opens up an older area to new finds, is that fast recovery speed that allows you to hear the good targets mixed in with the bad targets. In this case, the Apex showed itself to be up to the task.
Though I am not a Garrett user most of the time, I think the new Apex is a winner for Garrett’s lineup!