Best Setting for AT PRO on the beach

[BLK HOLE]

Heading to Nags Head in a couple of weeks and want to try out my AT PRO in the surf and beach. Any suggestions on best settings and any pointers?

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Minelab PRO-FIND 35 Waterproof Pinpointer Metal Detector for Experts with Tone ID & Adjustable Sensitivity - Grab it through Amazon!

[Terry Soloman]

Have a hammer ready when you get home.

Best of luck to you. Because it is not built for saltwater, turn your sensitivity down until it stops falsing too much on the wet sand and in the water. It will work great on the dry sand at full sensitivity. Take a good sandscoop!

 

[ron lord]

AT PRO fresh water great ,salt water suck.

 

[Molewacker]

Be sure to GB when you go from dry sand to damp sand to water - and yes, the salt will get you crazy!

 

[dfallis1]

I too have the AT Pro and have taken it to the beach several times. I don't do beach hunting a lot, I usually hunt farm fields/ homesteads. I normally have my machine set on Pro with Disrim set to 19 and Sens set at one notch from the top, works great. For the beach I found that coin mode with Sens half way works fine. Of course ground balance first. I hope these tips help, good luck

 

[redcobra8u]

AT PRO fresh water great ,salt water suck.

What he said.

 

[Bodhi69]

It seems to work fine in the dry sand with little to no discrimination. In the wet sand I have no problem digging plenty of coins and jewelry using Zero mode, Set your Iron Disc to 25 and drop the first two bars of sensitivity. Additionally make sure to Ground balance it once you get into the wet sand. Regularly dig coins at 5-6 inches in wet beach sand using these settings. The only frustration I have is the amount of surface Iron flakes that signal (but I don't want to increase my iron discrimination)

 

[Bodhi69]

Keep in mind that any of the beaches on the eastern shore have a lot of iron flakes ranging in size from 1-2cm up to the size of a quarter or Cob. This is due to all of the beach replenishment that occurs after big storms. The large iron pipes they use to pump the sand flakes off in the sand. I always inspect the surface or take a small skim of the sand before digging deep after getting a hit. I also keep a magnet on my scoop which helps pick up some of the flakes. Hope this helps.

 

[flgliderpilot]

Heading to Nags Head in a couple of weeks and want to try out my AT PRO in the surf and beach. Any suggestions on best settings and any pointers?

Pro Zero, no notches. In the water you might want to notch out one or two where you get the most falseing but only if necessary. It'll be faintly chatty in the water, but a good target will be loud.

Pull tabs 53-55
Nickels 52-53
Quarters 86
Dimes 81
Pennies 71-75 (they chirp)
Bottle caps (wave the tip of the coil over and you'll hear iron)
Use pinpoint to avoid very large targets (six pack)
Pass on anything 45 or less.

Also avoid digging anything that is REALLY bouncy (from iron to the 90s). Usually metal flakes.

Ground balance often.

Any discrimination will remove useful information so avoid it.

Good luck!

 

[flgliderpilot]

AT PRO fresh water great ,salt water suck.

Suck "ish". I used my ATP in the salt water for the first year and did pretty well. I have found far more with my CZ-21, but my best water find was actually with the ATP.

Single freq VLF so it is not the best choice but when I was hunting with my buddy who was using a CZ-21 and I was using an ATP, I actually dug same number of targets as he did (yes in the water) and found the same amount of jewelry pretty consistently. Later upgraded to a CZ-21... ATP is now a dry sand machine, and backup water machine. ATP is chatty and lacks depth in the water though.

 

[FLORIDA KEYS PIRATE]

Set it to " Buy it now " on eBay , and then buy a Excal II. [emoji51]


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[barrywk]

hey blk hole..ive been using my at pro at myrtle beach. To make it work pretty good I have had to manually take the GB down to bout 8 to 11. Of course its not best beach detector but it can be adjusted to work pretty good. With the GB down I have been able to run sense wide open or one notch down...ln the wet sand.I have found clad and bottle caps six inches plus and have found bobby pins 4 inches plus. There is still some noise from saltwater but not overbearing and I can still hear the targets easily {with headphones}. I was using a 15 inch nel coil. I didn't go into the water because with that big coil it was more than I wanted to deal with. all in all it did better than my expectations after listening to people who have never used an at pro tell me that it wont work in the wet sand...lol....Barry

 

[sturrat]

Pro Zero
Sensitivity 2 notches from full
Discrimination at 37

 

[slider66]

I have used my AT Pro here in Florida with no problem. You will have to manual ground balance it in the wet sand and in the water. For me manual at 13 or 12 worked pretty good for me. I have several excal's now and the CTX. Also just picked up a Tesoro Sandshark. I'm up to 8 detectors now and I think that is all I need. LOL. The AT Pro is a great machine. I have found some really nice things with it. Best of luck to you.

 

[lookindown]

I get tired of telling people that the AT Pro works good on Florida beaches and in the salt water...they are so used to a VLF machine not working in salt environment, especially the guys that have been in the hobby for years...the AT Pro is not a normal VLF...mine will run stable and hits on targets only about two inches shallower than my CZ21...of course its not as good as a CZ or Excal but it will work in salt environment in Florida...I also made nice finds with mine, using it for one whole summer...found just as much gold that summer as two of my friends found with CZs...it was my first year water detecting, they had been doing it 15 years....my first detector was an ACE 250 and it was useless in the wet sand...so the AT pro is not a waterproof ACE 250 like some think.

 

[FL Treasure Hunter]

I hunt quite often in saltwater from 1-3' deep and along the wet sand and the best settings I have found are as follows. (These are what I use and others may have better suggestions but this has seemed to work for me)

Wet and dry sand:
Mode- Pro zero
Disc-40
Sens- 2 notches from full
Ground balance manual- 8 to 12 depending on feedback
------------------------------
Water 1-3'
Mode- Pro zero
Disc- 40
Sens- 3 from full
Ground balance manual- 5 to 8 depending on feedback.

-Happy Hunting