At Pro and the Deep Silver Woes

[Lakemonster]

A forum member here and I were hunting an old location yesterday.

He was swingin his F75 and I was using the AT. He finds a signal to dig and calls me over after he has a 12 inch hole dug. He asked me to get an opinion of the signal he was chasing. I check it out and the readings were inconsistent ranging from 68-91.... something I would typically write off as a mangled can and keep walking. His F75 was doing the same thing.

The target was soon out of the hole and it turned up being a nice Merc.

I have to admit... this did a number on my confidence level. How many good, deep silvers have I walked over? I know its best to dig all "iffy's", but wow....

Just left me a bit frustrated.... I gotta go out this morning and dig the iffy stuff to get my mojo back.

[John-Edmonton]

As a good target gets deeper, the ability of a metal detector to accurately ID it starts to decline. You have just observed this. One can either lose confidence over this, or gain confidence, knowing that any target that is DEEP should be further investigated, because it is probably old. These issues are part of the learning curve. They eventually make a great hunter!

[Dwight S]

As a good target gets deeper, the ability of a metal detector to accurately ID it starts to decline. You have just observed this. One can either lose confidence over this, or gain confidence, knowing that any target that is DEEP should be further investigated, because it is probably old. These issues are part of the learning curve. They eventually make a great hunter!

I agree completely with John. Recently I was on a very trashy spot that I thought should contain some old significant relics. I got a deep signal, indicated at 12" that wouldn't give me an ID, the trash next to it was overwhelming, but I could tell there was something else below it and since it was so deep, I figured it had to be old. I dug down and recovered a old 50-70 bullet casing, this was the US Government standard from 1866 to 1873. By the end of the day, I had two in the pouch. Nothing really great, but it was nice to grab something deep and old.

[Sandman]

Besides the deep coins not being ID'ed correctly and being iffy signals, it the item is slanted it also gives off iffy signals. This is why I prefer none display detectors.

[Lakemonster]

Well...

I went out to another old spot where I knew old coins had to be this morning. I made myself dig ALL the stuff 8+ inches with sketchy signals. I did get suckered into diggin aluminum. However, once again, I ran into the same situation. I dug about a 9 inch wheat ranging from 58-82. Not a big deal, but I did get the lesson learned. After 6 inches.... if I get a high tone and the VDI is comin in low...Im diggin it.

I'm still happy with the AT, it is what it is, I just didnt realize this sort of limitation when I bought it. Seeing the F75 doing the same thing leads me to believe this is a shared trait with single frequency machines. I bought the AT to get wet... that was a need I now have filled.

Sandman, yup... the AT is my first real digital machine. If I had been swingin my Tesoro or my old ADS...it would have beeped and I would have dug it. Then again... my first old lunchbox dinosaur probably wouldnt have reached down there anyhow.

[George (MN)]

I thought a detector couldn't do better in the ground than in the air & my AT Pro is silent in air test on dime past 11"? The AT Pro I believe IDs nearly all coins correctly down to about 7" on dimes & a little better I'd guess on a quarter or half.

Hardly ever does anyone report a Mercury at 12" with any detector, let alone a proper ID. Even those who have the $1,000+ Minelabs say the ID is only good to about 7". I got a 7" deep clad dime with my AT Pro that IDed correctly despite some mineralization & extreme dryness. I never got a dime that IDed correctly beyond 4" with Ace 250 & most detectors only rarely IDed dimes correctly at 5"-6" with 4" being the max on many.

I noticed your IDs 68-91 on 12" deep Merc & 58-82 on wheat. Interesting it still saw the Merc as more conductive on the average IDs. I guees I good rule for 8"+ is dig anything that averages above pulltab on several passes.

IDs on copper coins may jump more than silver which may be the corrosion factor, or what some call the halo factor. This can make penny beeps larger in pinpoint, too.

I was using a Fisher F70 with 16" depth reading but never got a coin past 5.25" as if I couldn't recognize it as a probable coin I left it.

I think the AT Pro should generally give correct IDs to at least 7". This can really cut down on the trash except gold might be missed. I can get many coins with it digging little trash & no loss of depth when turning up disc. Best wishes, George (MN)

[gleaner1]

One of my pro posts concerns I think ten or twelve spongy wheats and a merc all at 5" deep min (plus additional 2 or 3" of thick grass). The atpro will sound faint high pitch on silver and copper cents at 8" I have seen and done it, but the grounds were mild and "clean". The trick is to find deep silver spots to hunt. Then you will find deep silver.

I would not think the pro will find dimes at much greater than 10", but I would have dug anything that broke 90, could be anything at that range. An aluminum can you can outline and tell the size. Same with the little dime. At 8" lets say, a little silver dime will sound of no bigger than a poker chip when properly detuned in pp mode.

[wingmaster]

This happens to multi freq. detectors as well not just on the single freq. detectors, you need to listen for those faint deep signals, as this is where alot of the good old stuff resides.

[Bart@Big Boys Hobbies]

Dont give up on the AT yet. Its a great machine. Yours will out do his in certain situations!