The Nail Board Performance Test came about on an encounter I had 26 years ago. It was an actual in-the-field encounter in a very iron contaminated ghost town in Utah, and it is important to point out the value of such a test, the type of detecting I was doing, and the detector and coil choices I make when evaluating any detector using the NB.

I was Relic Hunting, not Coin hunting. I was working an old-use site that had a very dense array of Iron Nails and other ferrous debris, not an urban park or other location that has minimal ferrous trash but where I can still get into a lot of modern discards I was aware of the challenges and was prepared with the right detector for the task, and using the best size, shape and type coil for that detector to handle dense iron.

I have some detector and coil combinations that, by design, can handle the NBPT as well as serve me well when hunting typical urban parks and schools, tot-lots or sports fields. But I have also owned, used and enjoyed quite a few detectors that are at-their-best when used for average types of Coin Hunting sites, but fail miserably on the NB. I'll mention two of my favorite Coin Hunting detectors I have used in the last decade that I really like, and those are the Teknetics Omega 8000 and Fisher F44. Early-on I switched to using the round 8" Concentric on the Omega, and with the last one I had I preferred the same coil that I kept mounted on my F44, and that was the round 7" Concentric.

These detectors worked very well for urban coin producing sites and dealt with average modern trash just fine. And if I did get into a trashier place, such as near a picnic ground, I'd often switch to the small, round 5" DD coil. But as good as those detectors were for what they were best designed for, even with the 5" DD coil they couldn't come close to passing the NB challenge. Thus, they were not a very good pick if setting out to hunt a very iron littered site, so the NBPT did what it is best designed for, and that is qualifying a detector as a good or bad choice to use for separation if hunting in a lot of Iron Nails or other ferrous debris.

What I have found with the new Garrett Apex is a very nicely configured detector that is simple-to-use, offers amble adjustment functions, and even with the somewhat bigger-size coil it does a much better job on the NB than a lot of the competitive models. It is working well for daily trips to the city park for Coin Hunting, and can do passably now in some littered old-site encounters, but shows promise to do much better with a decent smaller-size search coil.. Besides, the Apex is a 'fun' detector to grab and put to work.

Monte

"Your EYES ... the only 100% accurate form of Discrimination!"
Stinkwater Wells Trading Post
Metal Detector Evaluations and Product ReviewsI'm now 'back home' in Farr West Utah monte@ahrps.org ... or ... monte@stinkwaterwells.com 503-481-8147Detector Outfit: A selection of my chosen makes and models, with the best coils mounted for the tasks I'll take on.F-19 * F-5 * Racer * Racer 2 * V-540 * Relic * Silver Sabre µMAX * Bandido II µMAX * XLTPinpointers: Garrett AT Pro-Pointers .. Headphones: 'Hornet' .. MS-3 Z-Lynk .. ML-80 *** All working well today to make memories for tomorrow. ***