Should she stay or should she go.....

kozman4907

Elite Member
Joined
Aug 25, 2013
Messages
839
Location
Hunterdon County; NJ
I am in bit of a quandary. I got very frustrated this past spring and sold all of my machines. I went all in on the Garrett apex. I got to be honest, I am not sure she is the one. I have had it few months and hunted a few different locations.

I am missing my minelab equinox 600. I sold it to a very close friend who was in need of a machine.

I have also played with the Deus Orx. That seems like a fantastic machine. But I am the type of guy who never enjoys overly technical machines. I had a Whites Dfx, and couldn't wait to trade it on another machine. Lol

So I am hunting old farms and such. I also hunt salt beach, my family own a house on NJ shore.

Should I get trying the apex, buy another nox 600,or get the sexy Orx and spend another few months learning about her [emoji848]

Thanks Koz[emoji3]

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For the money get a Minelab Vanquish AND a Nokta Makro Simplex instead of the Equinox 600.
 
I am worried that it would be to similar in performance to the ace apex?

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From everything I've read, the 600 is better in most respects. If I recall correctly, it'll handle iron trash better. I know there are other reasons, but can't remember what they are.

I think the Apex has better ergonomics, but I hate straight shaft machines.
 
I had an equinox 600 and an ORX at the same time. If your doing inland hunting for most of the time I would stick to the ORX. I have owned 2 eq 600. And although I enjoyed the nice large screen and the configuration, the eq600 shaft would not stay tight and often was wobbling.

I found the ORX was easier to swing for long period of time and got great depth and performed better compared to the equinox.

People try to say that XP units are not good in trashy areas. That is coming from people who did not take the time to learn the tones and ID.



Give it a chance. It is the best unit I have ever tried and i Have also went ahead and purchased a full deus set up

I also had a vanquish 540. If you want to save some bucks and stick to the tones and ID of a Minelab, I think the vanquish can keep up with the equinox 600 easily. Plus it is 1/2 the price new as an eq600 would cost used.


In my opinion the vanquish 540 is the best bang for the buck.

I just wasn't crazy about the stem set up of the vanquish.


I have stuck with the XP units. I find the far superior to everything else I have tried. I have owned a ton of units through the years. They are faster and deeper than anything else I have owned.


If I was searching on salt water beaches half of the time I would go for an equinox.
 
I had an equinox 600 and an ORX at the same time. If your doing inland hunting for most of the time I would stick to the ORX. I have owned 2 eq 600. And although I enjoyed the nice large screen and the configuration, the eq600 shaft would not stay tight and often was wobbling.



I found the ORX was easier to swing for long period of time and got great depth and performed better compared to the equinox.



People try to say that XP units are not good in trashy areas. That is coming from people who did not take the time to learn the tones and ID.







Give it a chance. It is the best unit I have ever tried and i Have also went ahead and purchased a full deus set up



I also had a vanquish 540. If you want to save some bucks and stick to the tones and ID of a Minelab, I think the vanquish can keep up with the equinox 600 easily. Plus it is 1/2 the price new as an eq600 would cost used.





In my opinion the vanquish 540 is the best bang for the buck.



I just wasn't crazy about the stem set up of the vanquish.





I have stuck with the XP units. I find the far superior to everything else I have tried. I have owned a ton of units through the years. They are faster and deeper than anything else I have owned.





If I was searching on salt water beaches half of the time I would go for an equinox.
Thank you for your response! I am thinking the 5 times a year i hunt tbe shore my apex would be great. The Orx would be great for old farms homes i hunt in NJ and PA.

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Thank you for your response! I am thinking the 5 times a year i hunt tbe shore my apex would be great. The Orx would be great for old farms homes i hunt in NJ and PA.

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You will not regret that decision at all.


Before I got my ORX I have tried several different machines here at home and elsewhere. The F75, T2, Minelabs equinox, Minelab XS, whites MXT, VX3, V3i, Makro Racer , anfibio, multi kruzer and several others but those are enough to get the idea.

With those I had only found 3 small musket balls here at home. That was with the Nokta Makro units. One racer even had a 14 inch aftermarket coil. After I started using XP units i found over 20 in the same area. Some were of the 36 caliber and a lot of the others were the small buck and ball shot from the civil war and they were all at above average depths.


So that is what made my decision to stick with XP units.


Their 9 inch coil, either x35 or the white HF coil, were deeper than those machines with their 11 inch stock coils along with the 13 inch one for the Racer.

They have superior recovery rate. I know Garrett is a fore father company that set many standards in the hobby itself. Charles Garrett is a legend and was a great person. I have also used a lot of their machines. They made some good ones.

And I am not bashing the name brand at all or any other name for that matter either. Only bringing it up because of what you are currently swinging.


But since I have tried the XP stuff, I find them far superior to everything else I have owned to date.

Now this is where I live and I have mild soil conditions. If I was elsewhere I may not feel the same.


Some are going to probably blast me for this post.....oh you didn't set this right or you didn't set that right. Nonsense. I have been doing this stuff since about 1983. Have saw many changes of technology and have owned plenty of machines since that time.


This is from my own experience.


Your going to enjoy it.
 
I had an equinox 600 and an ORX at the same time. If your doing inland hunting for most of the time I would stick to the ORX. I have owned 2 eq 600. And although I enjoyed the nice large screen and the configuration, the eq600 shaft would not stay tight and often was wobbling.

I found the ORX was easier to swing for long period of time and got great depth and performed better compared to the equinox.

People try to say that XP units are not good in trashy areas. That is coming from people who did not take the time to learn the tones and ID.



Give it a chance. It is the best unit I have ever tried and i Have also went ahead and purchased a full deus set up

I also had a vanquish 540. If you want to save some bucks and stick to the tones and ID of a Minelab, I think the vanquish can keep up with the equinox 600 easily. Plus it is 1/2 the price new as an eq600 would cost used.


In my opinion the vanquish 540 is the best bang for the buck.

I just wasn't crazy about the stem set up of the vanquish.


I have stuck with the XP units. I find the far superior to everything else I have tried. I have owned a ton of units through the years. They are faster and deeper than anything else I have owned.


If I was searching on salt water beaches half of the time I would go for an equinox.

The above advice about the 540 is good, but I'd like to add that if the OP hunts in highly mineralized soil, the ability to ground balance with the 600 might be worth the extra money.
 
So, I have used and owned every detector I am going to talk about here. I am not giving opinions based on something I heard or read.

These are real life experiences mostly in moderate to high iron mineralization in moderate to thick aluminum and iron trashed areas and at saltwater beaches.

The Vanquish series and the Garrett Ace APEX (along with the Simplex whose tones you didn't care for) are the top of the Entry Level food chain as far as features and performance. They will work just about anywhere very well for basic hunting. The Vanquish and APEX are excellent at saltwater beaches again for basic hunting in dry and wet sand and for shallow tidal pools.

The APEX has very good target separation in iron trash, fairly good in aluminum trash and it has fairly accurate target ID in my area down to 4" depth. After that the target ID accuracy deteriorates quickly. If you are in an area with digging restrictions that might be important. If you are free to dig with a shovel whenever you get a hit no matter what the audio or target ID is.........it doesn't matter. Having simultaneous multi frequency and single frequency operation is a really nice feature on the APEX. The Multi works great at saltwater beaches......otherwise I did not find it to be any better than single frequency operation in moderate to high iron mineralization.

I am with others here as far as the ergonomics of the Vanquish especially with the 12" coil. Those detectors get really nose heavy with that coil. With the 8" or 10" coils the ergos are pretty good. The Vanquish has only fair target separation and recovery speed from my experience where I detect. I would not take it to a carpet of nails or aluminum location with the expectation that it will do well with unmasking...it won't. Minelab had to skimp on some things with the Vanquish series and recovery speed is defititely one area where they cut some corners. It has average to slightly below average recovery speed and target separation in my opinion where I detect. Depth with accurate target ID is outstanding on the other hand, unless the target is really deep, bent rusty iron which will often cause the Vanquish to not give enough definitive iron/not iron information. It will definitely ID deep, edge of detection non-ferrous targets that are not close to iron extremely well, even low and mid conductor non-ferrous targets. If the target is a 10" deep US nickel or brass shell casing, the Vanquish will correctly ID it both with numbers and tone. It won't up average or down average on those targets like most detectors will. From my experience, that is due to its Multi IQ simultaneous multi frequency operation and not just because it is an SMF detector. Anyone who thinks that all SMF detector technology is basically the same and operates the same with the same advantages is way off base. As mentioned by another poster, the Vanquish internal ground balance system will not handle high iron mineralization. So, if you are hunting in high iron mineralization you cannot use the horseshoe button. Using it will create tons of iron target range ground noise and ghost iron targets.

I have owned an XP ORX and an XP Deus off and on for the last 8 years. I still own a Deus. I consider the ORX to be a Deus with a lot less features and adjustability but with very similar depth, speed and detecting qualities to a Deus in its default Goldfield mode or default, three tone Fast mode. I am one of those people that bigtim1973 is referring to when mentioning the ORX and Deus in trashy areas. What he didn't say is that I don't enjoy using them in a carpet of modern aluminum trash, especially the ORX. The ORX has very limited tonal nuances in its three tone Coin Modes compared to the Deus when working in thick modern aluminum trash. I can get by with the Deus in that situation but the ORX drove me crazy personally since I could not get enough audio information on targets with overlapping IDs like pull-tabs, nickels and some gold jewelry when the aluminum was really thick. Where aluminum targets are not too tightly spaced the ORX was just fine.

In thick iron trash, there are no better detectors than the Deus and ORX. They do not have the same iron handling capabilities however. The Deus has a below zero down to -6.4 iron range. The ORX iron range stops at zero so some very small/thin iron based tin targets, small wire and iron ground mineralization using the ORX Coin Modes can either be missed or cause unintended masking.

If you have digging restrictions the ORX and Deus do not have good target ID and audio accuracy on non ferrous targets deeper than 4" where I detect, especially for low and mid conductors. The target IDs and tones are pushed up into the high 80s and 90s, 99 or no target ID very quickly on deeper targets and all the tones are high tones. If you can always use a shovel, that is not a problem. The Deus and ORX will definitely hit on some really deep targets. I love the white 9" HF coil for its amazing depth for its circumference. The X35 coils are excellent coils too, I just didn't notice that much difference depth wise between the three different sizes. The ability to change to so many single frequencies is really amazing. You cannot submerge the coils without losing the wireless signal unless you buy the XP Deus underwater kit. It's not expensive. I just always cringed when I submerged that expensive coil with a battery, wireless module and circuit board inside of it........especially in saltwater.


Since you didn't care for the Simplex tones, I would definitely try to get some pre- purchase time on the ORX to see if you and the audio are a match. There are some similarities audio wise.

You have already owned a Nox 600 so you have a pretty good idea how it compares to the APEX. Where I detect, the Multi IQ simultaneous multi frequency setting is far superior to using the Nox in single frequencies. Using single frequencies creates the same up-averaging on low and mid conductor non-ferrous targets as other single frequency detectors on targets deeper than 4". Using the Multi setting, here anyway, the Nox has rock solid IDs on low, mid and high conductor non-ferrous targets at any depth down to the edge of detection. Similar to the Vanquish, the Nox will have a hard time on deep rusty bent iron. That is the built-in weakness of the Multi IQ system and is why there have been updates to the iron bias settings. Iron bias helps (it is not perfect by any means) on shallower iron but it doesn't offer much help on deep rusty nails or other small and medium sized deep iron. So for thick iron trash, the Nox in Multi is just average in my opinion. It is plenty fast and separates and unmasks really well, it just can't handle carpet of nails iron ID as well as the Deus and ORX. In thick aluminum trash using the Multi setting, it is excellent and gives me enough audio information in 5 or full tones to distinguish between many non-ferrous targets with overlapping target IDs.

I expect some fanboy references. I just use detectors that work for me in my hunting conditions. I could care less what the manufacturers name is, where its made or how much it has or hasn't been hyped.
 
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Having never used the Nox 600 (or 800 for that matter) I cannot comment to that regard.

I will share my thoughts on the Apex and Orx (I own both).

I live on the opposite end of NJ, so my soil conditions are likely a bit different from yours.

The Apex:

I’ve found it to be an excellent machine overall. While it isn’t as good (in iron trash) as the Orx, it is better in modern trash and still does well in iron trash. In fact (for my use) it is much better in iron trash than I expected it to be. It does very well in salt conditions (wet sand and water) but that type of hunting is minimal (for me). I find the depth to be quite reasonable - roughly 10 inches on a quarter (stock coil) - for my needs. Most of the time I use the small coil because it is easier to use in tight spaces and I believe it separates better (than the stock coil). I do believe the small coil isn’t as deep as the stock coil, but it doesn’t seem to lose much depth. At any rate depth isn’t an issue - for me - since I’m more concerned about finding targets in heavy trash. For that purpose, I’ve found the Apex to perform very well.

I prefer the (wireless) headphones of the Apex (to me they are the best I’ve used) though they are a bit warm in the heat of summer. I prefer the simplicity of the settings on the Apex (the ORX isn’t complicated though). For areas with a lot of modern trash, I prefer the Apex. For wet salt hunting, I prefer the Apex. I prefer the tones of the Apex. I prefer the screen of the Apex.

The ORX:

Amazing in iron trash. Not my pick for hunting in modern trash (aluminum) since the scale used puts aluminum trash very near to coins (all high tone). There is no ability to change tone breaks, and different frequency choices all revert to one scale (18 khz I believe) - so the user is forced to keep a steady eye on the VDI, or to dig everything that gives a high tone. Digging every high tone isn’t an issue if those targets are somewhat sparse, but many locations are so trashy that digging all high tones is futile. I have found the depth to be very good (9 inch X35 coil) and separation is remarkable. The ORX does well in wet salt sand (ground balance to salt) but you’ll lose the signal if the coil goes under the water (unless you buy the water kit - which makes the coil a wired connection).

I prefer the ORX in iron trash. I prefer the ORX for ease of transport and ease of changing coils. I prefer the balance of the ORX (though the Apex is very good). I prefer the nearly weightless ORX for long hunts. I prefer the shaft of the ORX. I prefer the separation abilities of the ORX (though the Apex is quite good). I prefer the ORX’s ability to finely tune discrimination (verses the block discrimination of the Apex).

Both machines get high marks from me. I believe the two machines compliment each other very nicely. I think their different approaches provide users with ample solutions to most hunting conditions. Both are fun machines.
 
Well yes, modern trash fools every thing. However, I rarely hunt in areas loaded with can slaw if you will either.


My idea of a trashy area is iron for the most part.


Aluminum screwcaps can ring up the same as class rings.

Again though since your searching fields and farmland where there is a low contaminated of can slaw and modern trash, the XP stuff works great
 
I agree with tahtsadatsagogo,also make sure you do the update on the apex it really makes it come to life
 
Wow so many options for me, I am thinking Orx,then watch a video of nox I am i should have that one.

I am kinda feeling like a teenager [emoji15]

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