How To Get Maximum Depth + Performance Out Of Your AT Series ( Pro & Gold)

John-Edmonton

Silver Member
Mar 21, 2005
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* With the AT Pro, learn and hunt in Pro mode. It is deeper then standard mode. With the AT Gold, the all metal mode is deeper then Disc 1 or Disc 2.

* Has a place been hunted out? Go back and try again after a good rain soaking. Moist wet soil gives better sensitivity and greater depth readings for targets.

* If you get a nice high audio and a VDI in the 70's or 80's, dig it.

* The larger the coil the deeper it goes. However, too many targets under a large coil can mask a good target. If you get a slight good audio using the large coil, lift it up 2-3 inches and center the coil where the good audio was. Often times the good target will be much clearer.

* Get a coil cover and scrub the ground. Some people scan the ground inches above it...."DON'T" You can gain a couple of inches scrubbing, which is significant.

* Don't swing too fast! Just because it has a very fast "recovery speed"......doesn't mean it can always pick out that one good silver coin amongst several pieces of junk. The electronics still need to process lots of information.

"SWING TOO FAST, YOU WILL COME IN LAST"​

* Swinging too fast can make you a sloppy hunter. You also risk eventually cracking/breaking your coil and elephant ears from the constant banging on trees, playground equipment or concrete.

* If you are getting lots of EMI or increased mineralization which is causing erratic audio, try adjusting your discrimination first, before lowering the sensitivity. This sometimes lets the machine run smoother without losing any depth.

* If you get mixture of audio signals, scan the target from different directions. Sometimes a good target is beside or partially underneath a good target. The AT Series has a unique ability to pick out those good targets amongst the trash. Going at the target from different directions allows the AT Pro to perform even better!

* Ground balance your machine occasionally. Temperature can change, and directly affect the settings. Hunting in shade vs. sun can vary. "a 14 degree difference on a lawn area to a 35 degree difference on a parking lot." But, the mineralization can also change between areas....so again...ground balance periodically.

* To increase the depth/sensitivity to silver targets, lower the ground balanced numbers 10-20 points

* If you are hunting an area that is absolutely covered with nails, try ground balancing out a nail until it is nothing but a small amount of static. Now....all the copper & silver targets will give a loud audio response....BUT the target ID will be off.

* Build a test garden...use good & bad targets at different depths. You will soon discover that deep silver targets beyond depths of 8 or more inches begin to not sound off as a high pitch or that the VDI numbers remain in the 80's. That is very good information to know. My rule of thumb states if it's deep....it's old. Dig it! It costs you nothing.
testgarden2.jpg

* Run your battery charges at the top 1/4 fully charged, not the last 1/4 charged battery condition segment. The AT Series will run 100% until the battery runs down to a certain point. Because nobody knows exactly where that point is on their machine, don't try and find out. With the price of cheap alkalines or rechargeable "AA" batteries, you should never reach that unknown power loss point. Bring spares, or top off your recharge ables before the hunt

* Read the manual and watch the videos. Garrett has posted many videos to help with problem areas such as pin-pointing, ground balancing, iron-audio, target id, target sizing. These are just a few. Go to the link for a complete view :

Click below on either for more information.......

AT Pro: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL604F7F89599F7075

AT Gold: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD2EF0C2E0942DB76
 

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chatmangreer

Full Member
Mar 4, 2012
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I like, I like. The "Garden" idea is good. I'll have to rig one up myself. Thanks
 

Zodiacdiverdave

Silver Member
Mar 18, 2011
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A lot of great tips there John. I have a question about the batteries. The NiMH batteries have a voltage of 1.2, does this effect the performance of the ATP at all?
 

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John-Edmonton

John-Edmonton

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Mar 21, 2005
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A lot of great tips there John. I have a question about the batteries. The NiMH batteries have a voltage of 1.2, does this effect the performance of the ATP at all?

The NiMH batteries work fine. Just consider changing them when they get to to 2 bars, although the AT's still seem to be OK at the 2 bar position.
 

McClod

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Jun 14, 2013
285
211
Oregon
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Great tips! Just the answers to the question I was looking for today! THANK YOU for posting this!!!
 

Digger2

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Apr 9, 2013
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Good Post!!:thumbsup:
 

G.I.B.

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Feb 23, 2007
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As always John, some great information. Thanks
 

Kodiak43351

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Normsel

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Sep 10, 2012
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D'Iberville MS
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Maybe I am o lazy to look but how do you ground balance out a nail. I have never tried it. I always ground balance several times during a hunt but have never tried to balance out nails or anything. Do you just lower the balance numbers?
 

Metal Detecting Stuff

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Mar 19, 2012
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You should normally only ground balance over clean soil without metal. You can eliminate nails by using discrimination. You can also notch out an individual target sector by using the eliminate feature. If you have the target that you want to eliminate, wave it under the coil, then press the eliminate button. If you don't have the target but know the sector, just move the black block to that sector and press eliminate.

John's tecnique is an intriguing idea, I'll have to try it sometime.

Wayne

www.metaldetectingstuff.com
 

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Normsel

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I do use discriminate when I want to block out all iron but I have never used GB to accomplish it. For the most part I only leave iron audio off.
 

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John-Edmonton

John-Edmonton

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Mar 21, 2005
4,400
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Garrett- Master Hunter CX,Infinium, 1350, 2500, ACE 150-water converted 250, GTA 500,1500 Scorpion, AT Pro
I do use discriminate when I want to block out all iron but I have never used GB to accomplish it. For the most part I only leave iron audio off.

Sometimes it's better to hunt with iron audio on, as when you go over iffy signals, with absolutely no iron, then that signal should be further investigated.
 

Ifoundit69

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I got to give my two sense on this one , I have been using the at pro for a few years now and honestly pro mode is nice but I have a witness as to detection of masked objects and deep depths and the pro mode failed horribly. Me and my digging bud where at a site which most would see in a civil war picture book and I wont mention the location but after we hit the area hard a few times we produced less and less each time then after a nice rain we came back to hit it again my buddy wasnt finding anything so out of trial and error I decided to put it standard mode all metal and swinging at a slight faster pace and basically 85 percent of the time if we got even one chime of the bell tone we dug down to find a nice three ringer or button hiding in some iron and in pro mode not even as much as a peep indicating precious metal just a loud iron grunt so hummmm not sure I agree with pro mode being the deepest selection either as some of the lead was siting at 12- 14 inch's . So food for though guys !
 

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