Using AT Pro in Hot Soil

[Kenkoehn1950]

I live in Denver, Co and when I ground balance my machine, it comes in around 92/93 no matter where I hunt in the Denver area. That being said, I usually hunt in pro zero mode with sensitivity set from full to 2 bars down and iron disc at 35. Haven't found a coin deeper than 6" in a year's full of hunting. I'm wondering how much extra depth I can gain by hunting with zero iron disc?

 

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[RobRieman]

None unless you are hunting for iron coins.

 

[Kenkoehn1950]

Nice answer......

 

[bigfoot1]

funny answer but possibly untrue.comparison air tests are done with no descrim for a reason.All filtering on a vlf machine comes at the cost of depth.also mineralised soil causes higher gb settings...again filtering...less depth.And finally some areas of our country have not had the extended time history as others...coins etc not usually as deep.Some soil conditions are not as condusive to coins etc sinking.mountain areas famous for this.
I too live at elevation in a mining district,almost 8000ft.I swing an atp my buddy swings an etrac.....only once ever have either of us ever found a coin below 7 inches in years of hunting up here.It was a morgan in pine needle sluff at 13 inches.was a 1900 and didnt even make it all the way to hard soil,was still in lower sluff.
It is possible that you are doing great with what conditions you are presented with.
cheers

 

[DiggerinVA]

I have a buddy who uses the NEL Tornado coil on his atp and says he gained around 2 inches in bad ground. Im gonna get one for my AT gold.

 

[xr7ator]

Ken. Factory preset is 80. Have you tried just using that? You should be able to hit a quarter deeper than 6" but you have to be in an area that has deep coins. I live in Denver and swing the atp. First make sure you have a spot that is clear of targets and then lower sens to two or three bars, ground balance, then lower the number by 10, manually.
Run the sens back up to one bar less than max. I run around 30 on iron descrim.
Last advice is to SLOW DOWN. Yes, the atp hits hard on targets 1,2,3,4 inches while swinging at high speed. Not so much with deeper targets. If you get a very marginal signal, slow waaaay down and go over it a few more times, really slow. Look at the depth meter...if it is showing real deep and it is a coin sized signal, try moving to standard coins and if you can get it to bell tone, dig it. That is the only time I use standard mode.
I used this method at Sloan's lake park except I had manually moved the ground balance number down by 15. At 15, the pinpoint seems to go away but a real deep coin os only going to hit in the middle of the coil so no pin point really needed. I do find that if I only lower the number by 5 or 10, the pinpoint still works and I am getting deeper. The coin I found at Sloan's was a 1920d merc at about 9 inches using stock coil. I was swinging very slow and got a squek high tone. Swinging back over it, just a small iron grunt, swing again and again, very slow, mostly getting just the grunt but the target seemed coin sized and I could get it to bell tone in standard coin so I dug it and was happy to see silver.
Deep coins takes patients and practice. Go to a place you know deep coins have been found and....HH ALL!

 

[RobRieman]

Nice answer......

It wasn't meant to be a joke. Give it a try and see if you find deeper coins. I have never seen a difference in depth with a little iron disc but it's an easy test to try. The soil in your area may make a difference also. Good luck!

 

[DiggerinVA]

Ken. Factory preset is 80. Have you tried just using that? You should be able to hit a quarter deeper than 6" but you have to be in an area that has deep coins. I live in Denver and swing the atp. First make sure you have a spot that is clear of targets and then lower sens to two or three bars, ground balance, then lower the number by 10, manually.
Run the sens back up to one bar less than max. I run around 30 on iron descrim.
Last advice is to SLOW DOWN. Yes, the atp hits hard on targets 1,2,3,4 inches while swinging at high speed. Not so much with deeper targets. If you get a very marginal signal, slow waaaay down and go over it a few more times, really slow. Look at the depth meter...if it is showing real deep and it is a coin sized signal, try moving to standard coins and if you can get it to bell tone, dig it. That is the only time I use standard mode.
I used this method at Sloan's lake park except I had manually moved the ground balance number down by 15. At 15, the pinpoint seems to go away but a real deep coin os only going to hit in the middle of the coil so no pin point really needed. I do find that if I only lower the number by 5 or 10, the pinpoint still works and I am getting deeper. The coin I found at Sloan's was a 1920d merc at about 9 inches using stock coil. I was swinging very slow and got a squek high tone. Swinging back over it, just a small iron grunt, swing again and again, very slow, mostly getting just the grunt but the target seemed coin sized and I could get it to bell tone in standard coin so I dug it and was happy to see silver.
Deep coins takes patients and practice. Go to a place you know deep coins have been found and....HH ALL!

If you dont GB at the sense that you are hunting with, you have done nothing......the machine will pick up more iron, etc in the ground at higher sense, thus needing a higher GB. And if you use auto GB and lower 10, you have again, done nothing. 10 digits in GB is alot! The most you should drop would be 1 or 2 and i dont recommend that. I will however, up the number 1 or 2 to prevent any falsing in areas with "hotspots"......The truth is, the worse the ground is the more important a good ground balance is for perfomance.

 

[gleaner1]

you do not need to get all worked up into a frothing lather and get your panties all up in a big itchy bunch about sense settings and gb settings with a atpro. If you change the sense, and you aint sure, then gb again, it only takes a few seconds. If you aint finding anything deeper than six inches, suck it up and join the crowds.

 

[gunsil]

It likely isn't the detector's fault that you aren't finding coins below six inches. Fact is that if the soil is undisturbed there will not be many coins below 6". This is why depth is over rated for much hunting and you often see great coins found with low end machines. You're also in an area with no real early settlement so there aren't going to be 1700s coins that may be deeper, but I have found plenty early coins here in the east and rarely below 6" deep. I think if you aren't finding them with your ATP it is simply because they aren't there.

 

[Tnmountains]

I have a test garden that is several years old. Silver,copper,brass and lead. I test my machine often and play with the settings. It should hit some past six. Do a test garden and tamp the soil down good. That is how I start with my machines. I do not put much faith in air test. Good wet soil and GB right you should hit them. Slow down is true. I can't swing that machine as fast as I want and sometimes when digging the plug as more is exposed my reading jump up. I want to hear iron so that slows me down.
Also sometimes they just are not there unless your friend is pulling them out. If he gets deep signal have him call you over to swing over it. He won't mind.
Good luck!

 

[BLINGfromtheSWING]

I use an AT Gold here in Michigan, and with just the 8" DD coil, I pulled a Barber at 9". Now, it didnt ring up on the display, but you can hear it. Good headphones, and slow hunting have made the difference. My buddy had a Minlab Safari, went right over a spot before I hit it and I pulled a Indian head at 8"...just my 2 cents...good luck

 

[DiggerinVA]

AT gold is a very underrated and over looked machine. Best vlf I have used for mid range conductors. Hits lead (and gold) hard...even at good depths. Found a few bullets a while back at a confederate camp with the ATP. Figured that was all....took the gold back and wow...many more deep bullets there. Not a pi machine....but a great vlf for relics!

 

[Mach1Pilot]

I've personally observed a civil war bullet hit hard on the AT Gold at 10" deep in HOT Virginia mineralized soils... but it read "00" on the screen! If the soils are hot you might be hearing them but mistaking them for iron.... or like has been suggested the coins just may not be there.

 

[gleaner1]

I use an AT Gold here in Michigan, and with just the 8" DD coil, I pulled a Barber at 9". Now, it didnt ring up on the display, but you can hear it. Good headphones, and slow hunting have made the difference. My buddy had a Minlab Safari, went right over a spot before I hit it and I pulled a Indian head at 8"...just my 2 cents...good luck

A barber...what? Dime quarter or half.

 

[gleaner1]

I've personally observed a civil war bullet hit hard on the AT Gold at 10" deep in HOT Virginia mineralized soils... but it read "00" on the screen! If the soils are hot you might be hearing them but mistaking them for iron.... or like has been suggested the coins just may not be there.

I wonder how good the target sounded since it hit so hard. I wonder what the value of a screen is. I wonder. Not really.

 

[BLINGfromtheSWING]

The barber I found was a dime, sorry I thought I stated that.

 

[DiggerinVA]

I wonder how good the target sounded since it hit so hard. I wonder what the value of a screen is. I wonder. Not really.

I dont know what you are trying to say here....but i have dug multiple good targets with low or no TID on my Garrett machines. They just sounded "clean" and i knew they were deep. This is just part of learning your machine and most all detectors lose their ability to ID targets at a certain depth. Also, most relic hunters dig nearly everything, especially in bad ground where ID on targets is seldom right....

 

[gleaner1]

I dont know what you are trying to say here....but i have dug multiple good targets with low or no TID on my Garrett machines. They just sounded "clean" and i knew they were deep. This is just part of learning your machine and most all detectors lose their ability to ID targets at a certain depth. Also, most relic hunters dig nearly everything, especially in bad ground where ID on targets is seldom right....

I was just wondering how that particular lead sounded, or how it got dug to begin with. We know it read 00 which sucks out loud. But it got dug for some reason. Was it because it sounded a certain way, maybe a good way, or was it because it gave a crap 00 number on the screen? That's all I meant.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Hello,

The AT Pro and AT Gold should easily hit a coin deeper than 6". Mine ground balance out at 93, we have a lot of iron where I live. I have hit very deep coins at 12" at various times, not all the time; depends on many factors. Perhaps in your area that is the depth coins are located.

Best Regards,