2nd guessing my AT Pro purchase

[detectingpro]

All fella can do is hate on people who hate the at pro. It's JUST a friggin OPINION!! The at pro is great for some and not so great for others. Get over it

Sent from my expensive phone I really don't need

 

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[Kodiak43351]

I found my first silver dime within the first 2 hours of use ...countless wheats and 6 indian heads from 187? something -1890 all in the last 20 or so hours...and plenty of bottle caps that even my ace 350 missed..."didnt think that was possible" ... So what excatly do i need to learn how to pass bottle caps because you think you heard some iron in the tone? and pick the clad from the local parks?

i hardly ever go to local parks I mostly hunt fields and old home sites. But when I do hunt an area that is going to have the newer trash items I learned how to tell they were under my coil. I too have found many old coins and relics my oldest being a 1837 lc and lots of Indian head cents that my 350 completely missed. What I don't understand is why you always bad mouthed the 350 and Garrett and then went and bought the at pro why not another machine or brand? Is it that the at pro is a capable machine and was a good upgrade from the 350? Now that you have the at pro you still get on at pro threads and say bottle cap machine when a lot of people have told you how to tell the diff but you still post neg comments on these threads. You have been doing this even before I was a member when I use to just read all the threads when I was researching. There are some detectors that I have used that I couldn't stand but I have never went on that forum and said one neg word about the persons machine they use. Guess we just have diff personalities. When you are planning on getting another machine I suggest you do as much research as possible (videos, reviews and what machine is meant for) before you purchase a machine. If I didn't like my machine I wouldn't feel the need to defend it when someone bashes it for a reason that most others are not having a problem with. You don't see this crap on other forums. Guess since there are so many at pro sales that it's going to bring all types to this forum. Good luck and hope you find what you are looking for even if it is clearing all the bottle caps off a site.

 

[fella]

All fella can do is hate on people who hate the at pro. It's JUST a friggin OPINION!! The at pro is great for some and not so great for others. Get over it

Not if it's intelligently done I don't.
Get over it!

 

[Sandman]

Fella, I could have sent you a PM but I want everyone to know where I stand in regards to misleading advertising. Garrett's own website states: WATERPROOF TO 10 FEET OR 3 METERS
Ideal for use in both fresh and saltwater
AT Pro will ground balance to saltwater. Fresh water it is fine. Saying it will GB in saltwater is like saying visibility is ten miles but what if fog rolls in? All beaches have various amounts of salt concentrations even within feet on the wet sand. Toss in black sand and it is a different ball game. A fresh rain will dilute the salt concentrations and this is why some guys claim the ATP is great at their beach. I only encourage newcomers to the hobby to do their home work and read between the hype.

Tesoro has a great detector in the Tiger Shark which has a Saltwater Mode, but I found it to only work well at some coast beaches and not others. White's has a nice Beach Hunter ID that operates on two freq. but they advertise the coil as, "Neutral Buoyant," when in fact the coils float like corks. This works great for above the water, but I found this harder to hold near the bottom. They also used to leak unless you were extremely careful with the O ring. But that has been solved.

Did I make myself clear on this?

 

[fella]

Yep Crystal!

Maybe you should lead out with post like that more often. It's so much more informative and intelligible than "the ATP sucks on salt beaches" and "I told you so" you usually lead out with.

Did I make myself clear on this?

 

[detectingpro]

Calm down fella it's just a detector

Sent from my expensive phone I really don't need

 

[fella]

Calm down fella it's just a detector

Despite what ya think, I'm not wound up about it.

 

[TheCaribbeanDigger]

Of course I'm a newbie with my ATP but the first mini hunt I did of approx. 2 1/2 hours at the beach the machine worked great! Of course it's not a pulse detector but to me it's just right! Coming from a pretty much learned F2 I know my ATP works great in the wet sand section. Actually pretty amazed at how quiet it worked! Some sounds any now and then but very stable with the 11" coil!Found a dime clad in the 8-9" range. Well I had to leave the beach since it started to rain...I know! It's freakin waterproof but my Iphone ain't plus I did not had my bathing suit on...LOL!

 

[Kodiak43351]

Of course I'm a newbie with my ATP but the first mini hunt I did of approx. 2 1/2 hours at the beach the machine worked great! Of course it's not a pulse detector but to me it's just right! Coming from a pretty much learned F2 I know my ATP works great in the wet sand section. Actually pretty amazed at how quiet it worked! Some sounds any now and then but very stable with the 11" coil!Found a dime clad in the 8-9" range. Well I had to leave the beach since it started to rain...I know! It's freakin waterproof but my Iphone ain't plus I did not had my bathing suit on...LOL!

glad to hear it's working for you on the beach. Hope you start finding the gold rings.

 

[TheCaribbeanDigger]

glad to hear it's working for you on the beach. Hope you start finding the gold rings.

Me too my friend, me too!

 

[extractor]

Its a very well marketed and extremely popular machine Pete....
If you have the box you can get very close to what you paid for it on Ebay, or even posted here.

My advice, and of course advice varies, is to get a good used sovereign GT for about the same price as a new AT PRO

The SGT's are arguably the best non waterproof mineralized wet sand (non pulse induction) machines ever made. Certainly for the money. They are basically a non waterproof Minelab Excaliber II.
I guarantee you will find lots of modern currency every time you hunt with one. If you hunt long enough you will actually find the kind of things you are hoping to find also.
They are no longer popular right now because the Manufacturers have found that putting target ID meters on their low end machines enable them to sell for twice or three times as much as their base models, even though the ID meters perform questionably at best.
The SGT was one of the most sought after and popular detectors up until just about two years ago, and many old-timers swear by them still.
These machines set the standard not to long ago, and in the hands of experienced users continue to outperform even their intended replacements.....

Regards,

EP

Great post !

 

[signal_line]

Pete, you really know how to drag the haters out of the woodwork. LOL I own an AT Gold and I know it does a lot of crackling in wet sand but it still pulls deep targets. You can't expect to do as good as seasoned users. It's going to take some time if you plan on working the more-demanding conditions. For starters, the Auto Ground Balance might not be working perfectly in the salt conditions. I've read you should not pump the coil more than one inch high when balancing in salt. You really should bury a target then do a manual ground balance to get the best possible response. If you have competition you are going to have to find deep targets. These don't always give an accurate target ID number, sometimes no number just a small, sharp response. Sometimes it just takes digging all the little peaked tones until you start to figure out what a good target sounds like instead of relying on the ID number. Another suggestion is to check with Clive Clynick. Think he lives in Ontario. He has some super good books on water hunting. I would say it's a must.

 

[3stooge]

Pete, I am so glad you posted and that I found and read your post. Your situation sounds a lot like mine, except my wife and I live down the coast a ways from you (in Washington state) we have black sand beaches too.

I've been researching what metal detector to get for my wife and I to share and hours of research lead me to the ATPRO and before pulling the trigger, I decided to search this forum. Now I have to reevaluate the decision.

From my research, I had told my wife that we would just have to avoid the wet sand, but reading your experience with even dry sand leaves me wondering. I hope u post about your experience with the new coil.

I will have to give the sand shark another look now.

 

[fella]

I will have to give the sand shark another look now.

Maybe someone else can chime in on this too as I have zero experience with PI's.

As I understand it, the Sand Shark has no ground balancing feature and again may NOT be a decent unit on your black sand beaches!

 

[rainyday101]

The Tiger Shark does have a ground balance. I have never tried mine in a saltwater situation, because like fella I live in Wisc. It is a single freq VLF and would not be ideal for saltwater situations. It might work in some areas, but again it would not be the ideal choice for saltwater beaches. Fella, the Sand Shark is the PI unit.

 

[fella]

The Tiger Shark does have a ground balance. I have never tried mine in a saltwater situation, because like fella I live in Wisc. It is a single freq VLF and would not be ideal for saltwater situations. It might work in some areas, but again it would not be the ideal choice for saltwater beaches. Fella, the Sand Shark is the PI unit.

Yeah my bad. He/she said Sand Shark, I meant Sand but said Tiger. I edited it!