At pro

Jay In NewKen

Sr. Member
Jun 24, 2012
465
130
New Kensington, Pa
Detector(s) used
Garrett AT Pro, Garrett Ace 250, Pro-Pointer
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
What settings do people use to try to eliminate trash, like beer tops or old pop tabs... Just got the pro last week. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I mostly hunt at parks and beaches.

You really don't want to discriminate pull tabs out if you want to find gold. Especially at the beach! If you do, from penny down will silence those tones
 

cudamark

Gold Member
Top Banner Poster
Mar 16, 2011
13,223
14,548
San Diego
🥇 Banner finds
1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
3
Detector(s) used
XP Deus 2, Equinox 800/900, Fisher Impulse AQ, E-Trac, 3 Excal 1000's, White's TM808, VibraProbe, 15" NEL Attack, Mi6, Steath 920ix and 720i scoops, TRX, etc....
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
You really don't want to discriminate pull tabs out if you want to find gold. Especially at the beach! If you do, from penny down will silence those tones
Yup, in most cases that's true. Some old junky parks where you just want to find old silver and Indians, I might kill off the tabs too. Do an air test with a tab and/or bottle cap. Crank up the discrimination to where they don't register and give it a try. It will ignore gold, nickels, and other low conductive metals doing this so I only do it as a last resort if I just have to hunt a place that bad.
 

Harvo

Jr. Member
Aug 17, 2013
54
7
Cape Coral, FL
Detector(s) used
AT Pro / Whites Surfmaster PI
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I have an At Pro as well, I took it to the beach and park so far. It is hard to get use to the numbers jumping around (even if it is a coin)
I use the standard / coin mode with the dec. set at 40. and Iron off. I have done testing with coins, caps, and tabs. It is hard to figure out what is good vs. junk. I have watched tones of Youtube video on the At Pro. it is like they have a different machine then what I have.
The good thing is if there is metal in the ground it will pick it up. I was digging alot of gum foil at the beach. I hit the elem. button on that number and it keep beeping. When I went over foil. I read something that said it takes about 100 hrs. to figure out the good and bad sounds.

I have detected for years with the Whites Surfmaster PI, if there is metal it picks it up. I wanted a new machine to discriminate.
I have about 10 hrs on the AT PRO, so maybe 90 hrs I will be a pro.
 

firemac

Bronze Member
Apr 14, 2012
1,756
414
Irving Texas and the beach
Detector(s) used
Garrett AT Pro Garrett pro pointer Minelab Etrac & excal ll
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I have an At Pro as well, I took it to the beach and park so far. It is hard to get use to the numbers jumping around (even if it is a coin)
I use the standard / coin mode with the dec. set at 40. and Iron off. I have done testing with coins, caps, and tabs. It is hard to figure out what is good vs. junk. I have watched tones of Youtube video on the At Pro. it is like they have a different machine then what I have.
The good thing is if there is metal in the ground it will pick it up. I was digging alot of gum foil at the beach. I hit the elem. button on that number and it keep beeping. When I went over foil. I read something that said it takes about 100 hrs. to figure out the good and bad sounds.

I have detected for years with the Whites Surfmaster PI, if there is metal it picks it up. I wanted a new machine to discriminate.
I have about 10 hrs on the AT PRO, so maybe 90 hrs I will be a pro.
You need to get out of standard and into the pro mode ! The tones mine makes in pro coin are fantastic and easy for my ears to read, bottle caps come in as a 78 every time on mine and pull tabs are form mid 50's to mid 60ish, give the pro mode a shot, I think you will be surprised. HH
 

Tedyoh

Bronze Member
Apr 13, 2013
1,566
1,619
N.E. Ohio
Detector(s) used
XP Deus, NOX 600, XP Deus II
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I agree don't discriminate, I found my first gold anything 2 weeks ago (an 1856 $2.50 gold coin made in to a "Love Token") that rang up as 55-56, thought it was a lead bullet and almost didn't dig it. For twist off beer caps, if you have the iron audio on in Pro Mode, it will grunt ever so slightly once the coil first detects it, then you will get a nice tone when the coil is about centered over it then it will grunt again as the coil leaves it. Pull tabs you just have to deal with........
 

173jumper

Newbie
Aug 27, 2013
1
2
Midwest
Detector(s) used
Garrett ACE250
Garrett AT Pro
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I think the At Pro is the best detector for it's money on the market. My recomendation is to keep it in factory mode during the initial learning curve, detect on standard mode until you find a good target, change to Pro mode and listen to the sounds and note the target number. When you learn the sounds and can gennerally ID the what the target is move to Pro mode full time and slowing reduce your discrimination and increasing sensitivity, turning on iron sounds as your learing curve increases. That's my $.02.
 

Harvo

Jr. Member
Aug 17, 2013
54
7
Cape Coral, FL
Detector(s) used
AT Pro / Whites Surfmaster PI
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
My At Pro sounds like it is screaming at me in the Pro / Coin mode. I watched a youtube video the numbers were jumping all around, the person was like there is a coin by a nail or iron, he dug down and was correct. That is the reason I bought the machine. My machine was going from 30/50/90. I thought I may have a piece of silver because of the 90. I dug it up and had a gum rapper. I did find a couple of quarters and dont hear the junky tones, just a solid tone. I would rather dig everything for now and be safe. Bottle caps show the same number as a quarter. I will also us the headphones, I usually don't wear them.

Lastly, I was by a fence and got a reading of the fence, hit element and box went away but the machine kept sounding off. All the videos I watched make it look really easy to determine what is in the ground. I will have to video what my machine is doing.
 

Harvo

Jr. Member
Aug 17, 2013
54
7
Cape Coral, FL
Detector(s) used
AT Pro / Whites Surfmaster PI
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
You need to get out of standard and into the pro mode ! The tones mine makes in pro coin are fantastic and easy for my ears to read, bottle caps come in as a 78 every time on mine and pull tabs are form mid 50's to mid 60ish, give the pro mode a shot, I think you will be surprised. HH

What does a quarter read on your machine?
 

RobRieman

Silver Member
Nov 12, 2012
3,282
1,915
Cincinnati Ohio
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
3
Detector(s) used
White's V3i / Minelab E-trac
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Make sure you are ground balancing correctly. It sounds to me your getting chatter from not having the proper GB. If you have to drop it manually a couple numbers after an auto GB.
 

beerguy

Bronze Member
May 6, 2004
1,138
1,174
Camano Island, WA
Detector(s) used
CTX3030,
Many more on a rotating basis.
Park Ranger and Pack Mule pouches by Freeloader!
I think that beginning detectorists should buy a machine that has no target ID. You would then be forced to dig based soley on the sound.

I am sure that others will chime in here, and agree that your ears are the best discriminators out there.
Stop staring at the screen and listen. Dig everything at first and you will figure this out.
 

laurenB

Jr. Member
Aug 24, 2013
87
38
New York
Detector(s) used
V3i, Garrett Pinpointer Pro
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I am loving 'beerguy's response to this thread!

I haven't used a detector for 20 years. I read up and watched YouTube for hours and decided to buy the v3i (waiting for it to arrive in the mail) with the eventual plan of learning to recognize the sounds and not use a detector with discrimination and a big glaring screen, also eliminating weight.

So I think I did it backwards, but, an opportunity arose and I didn't want to spend too much time learning right now.
 

gleaner1

Silver Member
Feb 1, 2009
4,495
1,038
Gateway to the 1000 Islands
Detector(s) used
Sometime(s)
Primary Interest:
Other
Try not to eliminate trash with the machine. Eliminate trash with your ears by using the tones. This is where you will end up eventually if you get a real passion for the sport. You will need to get the scrim up a few notches in the brutal trash but try to use as little as possible.
 

Sapper724

Sr. Member
May 28, 2013
425
184
Northwestern WI
Detector(s) used
Garrett AT PRO (Current)
Minelab Etrac (Current)
Garrett Pro Pointer
Sampson 31" Digger

Fisher F2 (RIP)
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I have found that I have better luck and more interesting finds if I ignore the numbers. It takes a while to learn the tones, but once you do, it's like magic
 

Tnmountains

Super Moderator
Staff member
Jan 27, 2009
18,716
11,709
South East Tennessee on Ga, Ala line
🥇 Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
Tesoro Conquistador freq shift
Fisher F75
Garrett AT-Pro
Garet carrot
Neodymium magnets
5' Probe
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I am hunting over a bottle dump so am getting a lot of trashy signals on the atpro. But i am also getting civil war bullets and rivets so far under the dump. Plus I like the old bottles. Mine is more of an excavation getting to the good stuff.
 

Rawhide

Silver Member
Nov 17, 2010
3,590
2,185
SouthWestern USA
Detector(s) used
Nox 800, Etrac, F75, AT Pro. Last two for sale.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I dont own a AT Pro, but I head straight to the trash areas on purpose. Since no one said it, I will tell you what I do. I dig it. Now 90% of the time I know what Im gonna dig with my non garret detector. But there is gold hiding in the trash. After i get a bellyful of trash. I will crank it up on the disc, everything but a quarter. It gets real quiet, and I just cherry pick a bit. There is some basics that will make your machine work better. Ground Balance, and sensitivity settings will find it. The disc and notch funtions on most machines can fine tune even more. I search in several modes, but have one mode I like more than others. Maybe some will share there favorite settings here.
 

bzbadger

Bronze Member
Jun 25, 2013
1,130
818
Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland
Detector(s) used
Bounty Hunter QD II, Garrett Ace 150 & 350, Fisher ID Excel, Fisher coinstrike, Fisher Cz6, Fisher Gemini II, Garrett AT Pro, Garrett GTI 1500,Teknetiks omega 8000, Nokta Fors Gold
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I'd have to agree about learning in standard and as u find a target switch to pro mode to hear that sound and memorize. The good thing about the pro is the "roll tone" if its trash you guys know by hearing the low high low tones. Don't just swing a couple times swing and listen for that low tone or the quick little grunt, switching to iron audio isn't always the answer either as I've seen some ppl speak of it as the "there's your answer"button. Also I know you guys know this for sure...the headphones that come with the ATP are crap, not loud enough and don't allow separation in the tones. You want to see/hear what this machine can do? Buy a good set of headphones and it makes a difference..heck I bought a $10 set of koss P9 ear buds that put out better sound than that of what comes standard. I borrowed a buddy's set of grey ghosts and was like where have you been all my life, they were awesome.

Get your facts first, then distort them as you please-Mark Twain
 

Harvo

Jr. Member
Aug 17, 2013
54
7
Cape Coral, FL
Detector(s) used
AT Pro / Whites Surfmaster PI
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
What settings do people use to try to eliminate trash, like beer tops or old pop tabs... Just got the pro last week. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I mostly hunt at parks and beaches.

I just had my AT Pro out last night. I am still learning as well. I had it at Pro/Coin, Descrim. at 40, sensitivity at 3 bars, make sure you ground balance it. I went to two different parks and one GB setting was at 50 and the other was at 70.

Also, I am learning the number, 78 would be bottle cap, 81 is a pull tab, (so is a dime on my machine) the numbers will jump around and 81 comes up as well.

Before I started I took out my own change to see the readings. I only dug those numbers all 90's and 50's in case of gold. If you dig 50's you will get some junk.

Good Luck
 

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Top