AT Pro...personal experiences...what are yours?

[bzepol8]

Hi all,

This is my first post. I wanted to sound off about my experiences with the AT PRO. In summary,
-I had the falsing issue. Sent it back and everything is fine now. Garrett has great customer service. IF you have not sent yours in yet, you should. They even gave me a brand new coil, no questions asked.
-I have a quarter buried at almost 9 ( 8 3/4) inches in my back yard in Folsom, CA (yeah, you know Folsom. Where the prison is. Johnny Cash's old hangout.) The AT pro sounds off on this coin with no problem, where a certain competitor's "badger" machine is silent on the same coin.
-I found a 100 year old Waltham pocket watch in a local park a month ago at 7 inches with the AT PRO. It was a wreck but had a little gold on the bezel.
-I have only used the MXT, Vaquero, AT PRO and Tejon, but I like the PRO best, even if it other MD 'ers seem to think this machine is a little "inferior" in the MD world.
-If you can think of a better machine to recommend than the AT pro, I'd like to know because this machine seems like it has it all.


Thanks,

Brandon

 

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[goodmore]

I found the AT Pro to be real nice detector. I recently combined it with the AT Gold stock 5 x 8 coil. I fell more in love with the detector. What a great combo.

The AT Pro is not as deep as the 1200.00 models.
It separates targets very very well. With the 5 x 8 coil it is the best I have found. I have used other fast recovery detectors, but the audio of the AT
Pro puts it near the top of the list for me. There is no doubt about the high tone in the junk for me.
It is not as noisy as some other brands. I can hunt with no discrimination and easily pick out the high tones. And I never get that head spinning constant chatter that some detectors deliver.
It hits nickels very hard. Some detectors I have used failed at this simple task.
The Numbers on the screen are very accurate. At least until the targets get deep. Even the smaller coil numbers match up nicely on the screen.
Battery life is good. I never log my hours, but they last well enough.
Rinsing the unit off after a hunt is nice.
Hunting in the rain with no worries or putting it down in the wet grass with no worries is nice.
The Iron Audio I use only on certain targets. But it is a nice feature. It will keep you from digging that big falsing iron.
After the coil wires are trained hooking them up is quite easy. Until then it is a pain.
It could use a back light.
One hell of a detector for fresh water.
Garrett is a great company.
I wish they would make an extension cord so I could chest mount the unit.
I'm waiting on the multi frequency version.

 

[gleaner1]

I like mine, it will not miss a non-ferrous target in the most cinder/rusty crap lawn you can shake it over. It handles iron very well, and it can take a decent sweep speed. I run the big dd, pro mode, custom, zero scrim, iron reject at 40, iron audio off, sense as much as it will take, and I bob coil for gb over clean gound (which only takes a couple seconds). My philosophy is the more crap I can hear, the more goodies I will hear. Anything remotely non ferrous will beep thru mid tone or higher. I do dig up some iron, usually shallow rusty crown caps. The thing is amazing, or a dud, it just depends on the user I guess. I found five silver dimes including a 1904 barber, three gold rings, an indian cent, a couple buffs, a bunch of wheats, a sterling bracelet, to name some finds. All these came out of horribly trashy lawns and parks since last March. I have threatened to sell off all my machines and grab a F75 but I think I'll keep the pro, I am just starting to learn it. I wish it had a back/forth button between two scrim modes.

 

[bzepol8]

Thanks for your opinions. I think both of you who responded to my post should make your suggestions known to Garrett on the next release for the PRO. I too, would love a backlight and dual discrimination and multi frequencies. I suppose we'll have to wait and see.

 

[Born2Dtect]

The AT pro is excellent for the money. I think they put it out a little early. The first ones had shaft problems, then the coils had problems, they updated the software, and finally the connectors are not good for salt water. A little more field testing would have helped. I heard and saw all these problems first hand even though I don,t own one. My hunting buddy is a Garrett user. The one really good thing is that they do stand behind them and they are learning. I use the Garrett Pro Pointer and love it.

Ed D.

 

[zoomie4713]

I have found more quality items than ever since purchasing my at-pro i have found 6 large cents,few Indians, 2 British 1/2 cents civil war buttons and lots of flat colonial buttons. this has all been within the last 2 months. prior to this the only old coins were some Indians. I love this machine, run it at all metal and little discrim. I'm going to post a photo when the frost sets in here in Pennsylvania. here is hoping for a warm winter.

HH

 

[gleaner1]

The Old Man is very happy with the ATPro. Learned alot with the standard coin mode and am now switching to ProCustomMode with some iron reject. Will dig any number over 50 from now on. Has anyone located any good jewelry items with numbers below 50 - let me know. The Old Man is a little dumb but is not stupid. He knows that one can happily find 20,000 coins for a total of maybe $1000.oo dollars but the finding of some diamond and gold pieces of jewelry could well surpass that amount. Set your goals for 2012 high and hit the ground running. Good luck to all.

Atpro should not find much gold jewelry below fiddy. But just dig it all. To be sure.

 

[TheGeorgiaCanuck]

The Old Man is very happy with the ATPro. Learned alot with the standard coin mode and am now switching to ProCustomMode with some iron reject. Will dig any number over 50 from now on. Has anyone located any good jewelry items with numbers below 50 - let me know. The Old Man is a little dumb but is not stupid. He knows that one can happily find 20,000 coins for a total of maybe $1000.oo dollars but the finding of some diamond and gold pieces of jewelry could well surpass that amount. Set your goals for 2012 high and hit the ground running. Good luck to all.

Atpro should not find much gold jewelry below fiddy. But just dig it all. To be sure.

I have a 18k thin mans wedding band that hits 43-44 on the AT-Pro. And I've seen a post of a ring find that hit on his AT-Pro at 38-40. I always say, if it sounds good, or suspicious..."DIG!"

 

[goodmore]

Foil has a tendency to bounce the numbers. Especially from two different directions. A ring usually holds very consistent numbers. Most women's rings fall into the foil range.

 

[Dwight S]

I have a White's XLT that I've had for 10 years, when I bought my AT Pro, I bought it as a "backup". I loved the XLT, I've found quite a bit of stuff with it. I felt like I knew it pretty well, but there are a lot of settings and I often wondered if I was missing something. When I got the AT Pro, I decided to give it a good go to be sure I was comfortable with it. Well, a year later, it's my primary detector and the XLT is my backup. I love the easy setup, the double D coil, and the quick & easy descrimination features.

 

[TheGeorgiaCanuck]

The Old Man does not want to miss any good bling. Will now dig anything over 40! A lot of foil in the 40's but it only takes a few secs to determine that. Now someone will say that they found a $5,000.oo ring at below 40 - Lol. Wish they had a ATPro thirty or forty years ago. I remember the old detectors that you had to swing like a weed wracker and the ones that you had to search slow to try and listen for that real slight whisper of a sound for a hopefully old deep coin. And the ones that blasted your ears off if you came upon a buried pop can. My hats off to the Garrett engineer who designed this detector. Sure there are a few things that could have done different but over all the ATPro does the job for me.

I love this detector myself. But I'd really be interested to see it crossed with a GTI2500 series. I'd call it the AT-Platinum. All the best features of the AT-Pro/AT-Gold and the 2500 in one package, with DD coils, and Concentric coils too.

 

[bzepol8]

I think you are on to something here Georgia Canuck. I was huge into golf before I got into MD. The two hobbies have much in common. They both use very specialized equipment and the user is always trying to find that special edge with their equipment. One golf club manufacturer in particular, Taylor Made, keeps the public swarming after its products because it takes a successful club or concept and builds and innovates on that one model, creating many more successful iterations. In fact, they release a brand new club and not 3 months later, they have a new and improved model out. The strategy is highly successful. Failure to innovate caused many competitiors of this company to perish. Could Garret be following this same philosophy? How far behind can the AT Platinum be? This machine seems to have the buzz factor for Garret to ride this wave for a long time. I must confess, I briefly thought about trading in the ATP for the ATG.

Brandon

 

[Jrlevers]

Does anyone have experience with the AT Pro for beach hunting? I'm looking for another detector for my time down at the shore because I found the Compadre I bought does not perform well in the sand.

 

[George (MN)]

I have no experience using my AT Pro at a saltwater beach, but I think one user said it was OK when sensitivity was turned down to 5. The conductivity of salt might ID about 40 for any that beeps, as a White's I used to have said salt conductivity was between iron & foil. Some rings could ID at 40, but most will read over 40. Best wishes, George (MN)

 

[GibH]

I went out for the first time in almost a year yesterday. I've had the AT-Pro for several months and haven't used it other than to test out in the yard. Our beaches are pretty mild (no minerals and black sand) and had no problem on the wet sand. I had no trouble picking up a dime at 6-8" and on edge. Functionally I am quite happy with it.

My biggest gripe is the ergonomics. I only managed about 90 minutes and my arm was useless for the rest of the afternoon and evening. I'm only 5'5" and the cuff is still about 2 inches short. It's ridiculous that you spend almost six hundred bucks on a detector and then have to mod it to make it useable.

 

[Bev]

I'm going to throw my two cents in here about the AT Pro.
I began hunting with a Radio shack detector, bought an Ace 150, moved up to a 250 then finally after many questions and research bought an AT Pro. No regrets.
I did hear that the first AT's with the serial number beginning with #30 had issues BUT just as quickly I was reassured that Garrett is right there with customer service and are second to none.
I ended up buying new and started using it in STD standard mode which is similar to the 250. Once I started getting the numbers down I forced myself to use just the PRO mode and it was the best thing I did. Now, no offense please, the STD mode seemed elementary.
Probably due to lack of experience, I hated the double D coil with it's 3 separate pinpointers. I was always miscalculating my targets, my holes looked like craters and frustrations ran high. I bought a concentric 6x9 and am absolutely out of my mind with happiness!
Well, I had a small issue with my AT last week where instead of tones I was getting high and low static volume. Hey, it's an electronic device. Stuff happens. They were incredibly pleasant on the phone, called when they received it and even called to give me an update on the repair. I don't want to shock anyone but- a real live human answers the phone!
A friend who wheels and deals in detectors let me borrow his AT while mine is being looked at. I have forced myself again to leave my comfort zone and use the double D. I've nailed it. Is it my favorite? No, I still like the concentrics and plan to purchase a 9x12 but the double D gets the depth and picks out the good stuff.
I too wish it was back-lit with dimmer control. I also wish it had a volume control on the housing because using the headphone adapter with regular earphones makes it super-loud and getting earphones with volume control in the wire just adds more weight. I also secretly wish the headphones were just a little bit smaller and less noticable so I don't look like such a nerd ball. I would rather be mistaken for someone listening to an ipod while weed-wacking if it keeps people from gawking!
I love Garrett. I love the customer service. I love the quality. I can imagine using the AT Pro for a good long time and not out-growing it.
I am thinking of selling my Ace 250 and all the accessories in order to find either another Pro as a back up or finding a deal on an AT Gold- only because the coils and accessories are interchangable and it just makes more sense to buy accessories within the AT Series.

 

[HighPlainsHunter]

I'm going to throw my two cents in here about the AT Pro.
I began hunting with a Radio shack detector, bought an Ace 150, moved up to a 250 then finally after many questions and research bought an AT Pro. No regrets.
I did hear that the first AT's with the serial number beginning with #30 had issues BUT just as quickly I was reassured that Garrett is right there with customer service and are second to none.
I ended up buying new and started using it in STD standard mode which is similar to the 250. Once I started getting the numbers down I forced myself to use just the PRO mode and it was the best thing I did. Now, no offense please, the STD mode seemed elementary.
Probably due to lack of experience, I hated the double D coil with it's 3 separate pinpointers. I was always miscalculating my targets, my holes looked like craters and frustrations ran high. I bought a concentric 6x9 and am absolutely out of my mind with happiness!
Well, I had a small issue with my AT last week where instead of tones I was getting high and low static volume. Hey, it's an electronic device. Stuff happens. They were incredibly pleasant on the phone, called when they received it and even called to give me an update on the repair. I don't want to shock anyone but- a real live human answers the phone!
A friend who wheels and deals in detectors let me borrow his AT while mine is being looked at. I have forced myself again to leave my comfort zone and use the double D. I've nailed it. Is it my favorite? No, I still like the concentrics and plan to purchase a 9x12 but the double D gets the depth and picks out the good stuff.
I too wish it was back-lit with dimmer control. I also wish it had a volume control on the housing because using the headphone adapter with regular earphones makes it super-loud and getting earphones with volume control in the wire just adds more weight. I also secretly wish the headphones were just a little bit smaller and less noticable so I don't look like such a nerd ball. I would rather be mistaken for someone listening to an ipod while weed-wacking if it keeps people from gawking!
I love Garrett. I love the customer service. I love the quality. I can imagine using the AT Pro for a good long time and not out-growing it.
I am thinking of selling my Ace 250 and all the accessories in order to find either another Pro as a back up or finding a deal on an AT Gold- only because the coils and accessories are interchangable and it just makes more sense to buy accessories within the AT Series.

Very nicely written.

Good hunting,
HighPlainsHunter

 

[bzepol8]

Bev,

I read every word of your post and I must agree, it was very nicely written. I also agree with your thought about the size of the ATP headphone and most MD headphones in particular. I think the hobby could go a long way if a major manufacter would make MD components more sleek, the headphones being first to be redesigned. Why can't metal detectors use earbuds like those for an Ipod? Somebody let me know if they have the answer.

Thanks to all who responded to my post. I have read every word. There are many great members on this board.

Brandon

 

[Bev]

Thanks guys and I tried to be careful and stick with facts.

We had a "great flood" here in RI in 2010. (there's a point to this) A lot of buyers of homes say Oh I dont want a house that had water. Well, what I say to that is, homes that never ever flooded had water in 2010. It's not so much that the home had water then, but what was done immediately to prevent further damage and rectify the situation.

Same goes for products and customer service. Electronics are tempermental by nature. The AT Pro is a machine that allows hunters to hunt in very tough elements. You're going to have issues sooner or later with any machine that can do as much as the pro both on land and in water- an electronics worst common enemy. Garrett, with their willingness to stand by their products, gives me the confidence to purchase any of their products.

If you think spending more will give you more, think about it next time a Mercedes passes you by on a flat bed.

 

[Dwight S]

If you think spending more will give you more, think about it next time a Mercedes passes you by on a flat bed.

AMEN, sister! The AT Pro is a good machine that hasn't been without a few issues, but Garrett stands by them. If you (anyone) can't learn to trust or have confidence in it and give up on it, then unfortunatly it's your loss.

That's part of the reason I always chime in to tell that I have one of the early machines and have never had any of the issues ( I know other's too...), to show people that these issues were isolated. Something my father always told me to remember..."Nothing man made is EVER perfect..."

Speaking of cars... Had an aquaintance who purchased a new Range Rover, he drove it from the dealership to the office, about 8 miles, from the office it went back to the dealership on a flatbed. How's that for a confidence builder with a $70,000 vehicle?