AT Pro advice

[JVA5th]

I've been using the At Pro a long time and I'm finally going to ask for help. I've switched to using it on zero mode with no discrimination and done much better, however when it comes to trashy places like parks I still never know what is trash and isn't. Pull tabs, aluminum, and bottle caps all sound like what can be rings and deep coins or just valuable things sitting vertical. Mid tones can often be good things but trash is all mid tone. I watch the numbers too but that I still haven't figured a way to see what is trash and what isn't. I'm just trying to learn to be more efficient. I appreciate any advice given.

 

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[U.B.]

Make a new test garden, burying a penny, nickel, dime, and a quarter.
It’s best to bury a zinc penny, a copper penny, a clad dime and quarter; as well as a silver dime, and quarter. You’ll be able to distinguish the different tones. Nickels always ring up 51-53. When you find a target, scan it one way, and then again at 90 degrees. Repeatability in tone is what you’re looking for. As for gold, I’ve found it from the mid 40’s to the high 70’s, be prepared to find a lot of trash, and a lot of pennies. Dig it all. Welcome to Pro-Zero and good luck.

 

[smallfoot]

I use some discrimination in Zero mode usually about 30. I keep iron audio on. For me it's easy to leave most of the small iron trash stuff out that way. I usually dig any thing above the 30 that repeats. Iron audio with those settings will probably annoy you in trashy areas but out in the woods it'll help keep you in the iron where if there's stuff left in todays world it was missed by someone else that didn't want to fight the iron. Go slow and use a small coil to get in tight places. There are too many things that sound alike and toss the same signals to turn down digging one...
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[JVA5th]

Just here in California at least where I live parks are so trash filled. I don't mind all the tones on I've got used to that and move slow. Mid tones are everywhere in the parks and it's all beer caps, pull tabs, and aluminum foil. Problem I have is the few rings I've found in the park and silver have always been funky mid tones that are like trash. If I dug all the mid tones I'd be digging constantly in some places. I thought maybe I'm doing something wrong or have been ignorant of something. I've been using pro mode on zero mode no iron discrimination and done so much better because for some reason you get a lot of signals usually blocked out and can find deeper and smaller stuff. I just thought maybe I just don't know something making me be inefficient. I also always use the small coil as most places I am are either heavily trashed with iron(old farming or mining areas or aluminum(parks) so the small coil helps a lot. I just feel I'm doing something wrong as I've been doing this for over 10 years and in parks I tend to do horribly.

 

[BigWaveDave]

I share the same problems you do with the Pro...
I go pro mode zero, Jack iron discrimination all way to 40, sensitivity at 2 or 3 bars.... and run with it.
If I’m feeling tough, I’ll close my eyes, and just listen to tones. Depending on the location, I’ll just cherry pick the high tones, and the mid tones I’ll ignore, unless it’s a solid/consistent VDI.
Once the high tones are gone, I’ll get to those 50-60’s.
I’m pretty sure I’ve never dug a keeper in the 40’s, and those targets 30 and below I don’t want rusty junk.

No doubt over the years I’ve missed some stuff, but overall I think I’m pretty proficient with my machine.

 

[JVA5th]

I share the same problems you do with the Pro...
I go pro mode zero, Jack iron discrimination all way to 40, sensitivity at 2 or 3 bars.... and run with it.
If I’m feeling tough, I’ll close my eyes, and just listen to tones. Depending on the location, I’ll just cherry pick the high tones, and the mid tones I’ll ignore, unless it’s a solid/consistent VDI.
Once the high tones are gone, I’ll get to those 50-60’s.
I’m pretty sure I’ve never dug a keeper in the 40’s, and those targets 30 and below I don’t want rusty junk.

No doubt over the years I’ve missed some stuff, but overall I think I’m pretty proficient with my machine.

My problem is I'm never sure what to do all my gold and silver finds have been off of weird sketchy mid tone signals that bounced all over the place. I though there had to be some trick that I was missing. I guess it's just difficult to do and that I am doing things right than. Bottle caps I can kind of tell when it's one of those as you will get mid tone but a slight iron growl on the end of the swing but otherwise everything else sounds the same. I don't use iron discrimination because I've learned to get used to the iron sounds and often iron will mask good finds so if you discrimate it you miss good stuff at least in my experience.

 

[smallfoot]

It's sad but true that most of the public areas are trashy. But you're answering your own questions. Lots of good stuff falls in the same range as far as numbers and sounds. Think like this tho, dig it all, some of those odd mid tones will be good. That ones that weren't, won't be there next time..

 

[smallfoot]

Do you use pin point on the machine much? Seems to be a clue sometimes on signals that give loud high tones like cans and big bottle caps if you try to pin point you can generally tell if it's large or small. Sometimes my original signal doesn't sound big but pin point will tell you different. Those iron patches keep me busy when I find them. I know there are machines that might have newer technology but the pro will find it amongst the trash. The plantation that I hunted with CCDAMEEK has some areas where we think an old home was. I got in an area that provided 16 targets in a place small enough to cover with a pup tent.

 

[JVA5th]

Do you use pin point on the machine much? Seems to be a clue sometimes on signals that give loud high tones like cans and big bottle caps if you try to pin point you can generally tell if it's large or small. Sometimes my original signal doesn't sound big but pin point will tell you different. Those iron patches keep me busy when I find them. I know there are machines that might have newer technology but the pro will find it amongst the trash. The plantation that I hunted with CCDAMEEK has some areas where we think an old home was. I got in an area that provided 16 targets in a place small enough to cover with a pup tent.

I can try that I've never really used the pin point feature because I have a Whites pinpointer and it just kicks butt. So I never really ever got to figure that feature could narrow things down

 

[Clad2Silver]

If you hunt with no discrimination you have to expect that you'll dig a lot of junk. One place I've been pounding is a field that was once home to the carnival when it came to town in the early 1950's and may have been used for social events long before that. I hunt in custom mode with some of the trash numbers notched out and I've dug silver coins, sterling jewelry, Indians, and a couple of large cents out of that field. I don't want to have to dig a lot of trash so I don't hunt in Zero mode. Just try to memorize numbers that CONSISTENTLY give you trash and then ignore those numbers.

 

[Irishgoldhound]

Pro zero 35 Iron is how I hunt all the time in parks. At beaches I may use less or no discrimination. In parks, I’m looking first for gold rings exclusively. I go back after and dig the iffy scratchy signals. My technique is, I hammer out a park digging all pull tab signals and solid signals generally only from 50-77this gives you the best chance at finding the most valuable items at the park “gold rings”...your odds go up when you just focus on a certain range of numbers concentrating only on gold rings. When I feel the park is fairly cleaned out from possible gold rings then I focus on other valuables like silver and gold chains. Dig every solid pull tab signal you can and then dig some more and watch your gold ring count increase much faster. Trying to figure out what every signal/target is and what your machine is telling you especially with no discrimination can tire you out. Treasure hunt for only certain items at one time. For me this helps me focus on what I want and what to expect instead of hunting all over the chart.

 

[Squirrel322]

I can’t help with the AT Pro but I have spent a lot of time hunting a trashy park over the past three years. I always hunt with zero discrimination. I think the more time you spend hunting in those trashy conditions the more you will become sensitive to the nuances of those signals.

For those weird sketchy mid tone signals that bounced all over the place, listen for them to spike up in the copper/silver range. With a good target like a coin in trash the point on the ground your coil will signal should ideally be consistent. False high tones are more likely to inconsistently signal or appear to signal from more than one point on the ground. So even if the tone is bouncing around (but reaching into the copper/silver range) the point on the ground producing that bouncy signal should be consistent.

Even with trashy signals that bounce around I’ve notice the length or shape of the high tone should still be short and sharp for a coin. A false high tone or trashy target will produce a high tone signal that is longer, graduated or trails on the backside.

 

[JVA5th]

Thank you for the info Irish and Squirrel, along with everyone else too that contributed I really appreciate it so much. As I'll always say I greatly appreciate this community and I'm glad to to part of it for all these years.