At pro users, question on depth and separation

[49er12]

At pro users what is your maximum depth, do you use stock coil or More expensive coil. Reason asking it performs ok, some question the separation from junk to good stuff. Would you recommend a newer coil for 200 bucks more or simply buy a better more expensive machine, loyalty put aside what would you do to gain a bit more and separation. Better machine or better coil.

 

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[The Dirt Pirate]

I've been using my AT Pro for the past 4 days and I haven't found anything but junk with it so far. I'm not sure if I haven't learned the machine yet, or not, but it seems to give a lot of false signals. I have the stock coil. I'm planning on trying again tomorrow all day.

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

I have an AT Gold and I bought the sniper coil because I hunt some trashy areas and I get about 8 inches with stock and sniper on a coin sized object if a larger object I get 12 inches and one park I go to I can track the water pipe, not sure of the depth on that because a park employee told me what it was I kept beeping on and he was surprised it picked it up, so it must be somewhat deep.

 

[FreeBirdTim]

I've been using my AT Pro for the past 4 days and I haven't found anything but junk with it so far.

After I bought the At Pro, it took me a month to start appreciating how good it was. Not a complicated machine, but it does take practice to figure out all the settings and sounds. You'll have to put in a good 100 hours to master it, in my opinion.

 

[BigWaveDave]

Absolutely I’d recommend a better coil, but don’t waste money on a “bigger, deeper” coil.
The stock coil is a solid tool for the Pro, but the 5x8 absolutely crushes it when it comes to target ID, and pinpointing.
Depth is the same, IMO..... and makes the machine lighter= more hunting without the fatigue.
I’ve found with “deeper” coils, the target is harder to read, as in not so consistent.
No doubt I’ve walked over a Banner find or two, but that was before I got the Max as an insurance policy.
Once I’ve cleaned out the permission with the Pro, the Max confirms that I’m pretty damn good at what I do.
Also, trashy areas suck with the stock, 5x8 solves that problem.

 

[The Dirt Pirate]

Yeah, I've put in about 20 hours with it so far. I'm going to be trying it again today. I already figured out one reason that I was getting so much falsing and I got it fixed, or at least I hope it fixed it.

 

[Dirty Digger Doug]

I was picking targets that were 12 inches plus today. I'm using the pro. Been using it every day with a minimum of 5 hours a day. To find good stuff you have to be somewhere good. Soft damp soil causes items to sink. Here in Michigan the freeze thaw cycles draw things down. If I get a loud fuzzy sound but the numbers on the machine say 40 or higher I can usually pick a good target out by waving the coil back and forth over the the trashy sound location. I am using the stock coil. Look at some of my posts on today's finds and see what I'm getting. It's been awesome.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Good Luck with the AT Pro. The smaller coil as some have mentioned is great for trash areas (parks...etc). You need many more hours to understand that machine or any mid-range machine for that matter.

Keep at it! We look forward to seeing your treasures!

 

[49er12]

I completely understanding no your machine but , I’ve heard the at pro stock coil , doesn’t separate well, Or am I wrong what’s the average depth of the machine on coins, relics are different maybe brass, copper, iron. Bottom line are we getting the maximum out of the machine or would a new coil that cost 150.00 and up make sense or would equinox’s 800 be better results

 

[40 Rounds]

I purchased an AT Pro back in early March and it the only detector i have right now with the stock coil. I am still learning the machine and from my own experience while it has received high praise from a lot of folks it is not an easy machine to master. I set it to Standard mode coins, iron disc 00 and sensitivity turned way down. I went over a couple of properties and cleaned up on the clad. I was digging a couple of bucks in clad at these locations...all 4 inches or less. An occasional wheatie or other descent coin/relic will pop up but really I am grazing the surface. With the settings I mentioned above if you go over a coin it the beep will assault you. The problem is I must be missing all of the deeper targets because the number of clad coins and relics I am finding would seemingly support that there would be better stuff there. As an example I just worked an 1880 property today and while I found another small handful of clad after being there for the 4th time I have yet to find a wheatie or silver coin there. It has not all been modern as I did find a 1892 V nickel there on my 2nd visit. The issue there is nickels are not the easiest to pick out and it was near a tree so the root system prevented it from going deeper. As I recall the V nickel was at 3-4 inches. Today in an attempt to get deeper targets I did some research on-line and from that I changed my settings to "Pro Mode Zero" with iron discrimination set at 35 and the sensitivity at 3-4 bars. I would say the results were mixed. i pulled a few deeper targets but again not a single wheatie or old coin. What are you running your setting s at 49er12?

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

Yeah, I've put in about 20 hours with it so far. I'm going to be trying it again today. I already figured out one reason that I was getting so much falsing and I got it fixed, or at least I hope it fixed it.

Make sure you wrap the wire from your coil around from the front of your shaft not from the back the coil will pick up the wire if you go around the back that can cause some falsing.

 

[The Dirt Pirate]

I put in 9 more hours using the At Pro today. The reason that I get so much junk at the sites that I've been detecting at is because I am the first person to ever detect them. I have been finding antique beer cans and all sorts of random metal junk. I found a new location today near an abandoned gold mine that looks like it will provide me with weeks if not months of detecting because it's a huge site with old foundations and shacks that have fallen over. I walked around the site for probably half an hour today and it was obvious that no one has detected it because there are square nails and all sorts of metal laying right on top of the ground on one side of the road.

 

[xr7ator]

The stock coil seperates just fine, imo. GO SLOW. I have the at pro, gold and max. I have the standard soilc 5x8, 9.5 concentric and a 12x13 aftermarket. My favorit coil is the standard coil on the at pro. The 5x8 will lose a little depth but not much.

 

[Dirty Digger Doug]

Turn your sensitivity all the way up. I use pro coin mode all the time. You will still ping on big iron and you will see the numbers for all targets under the coil.

 

[40 Rounds]

Turn your sensitivity all the way up. I use pro coin mode all the time. You will still ping on big iron and you will see the numbers for all targets under the coil.

Doug, what number do you set your iron disc and what kind of depth are you getting with those settings? I have been digging at an 1880 property and have not dug a single wheatie oe silver so my depth must be pretty limited with the settings I am using.

 

[The Dirt Pirate]

I've been experimenting with settings and zeroing out the iron disc has helped a ton. I also used 3 plastic zip ties to keep the cord for the coil snug and that's also helped a lot. I'm picking up targets 14 and 16 inches down now. Go slow and pay attention to the sounds as well as the numbers and you will start to see a difference.

 

[xr7ator]

40 Rounds. Pro mode zero but lower that 35 to about 28. The lower you run this number, the more stuff you will dig. Junk? You bet. Some IHP's and or wheats that are crusty, absolutely, if they are there to be found in the first place. Go 30 if 28 is too much junk. In areas with hardly any targets, I run with iron audio on. It will allow you to hear the small deep stuff. If you get a scratch, slow waaaay down and go over the target to see if you can get a better tone. Run the sensitivity one bar from the highest setting. Raise the sensitivuty up to the highest over a faint deep target to meybe get a little better hit. But, really, just dig it. I dig all deep targets. Many times I am fooled by rust, but this is part of the hobby. If you get the coil over a silver quarter at 8 inches, you'll know it.
The more you experiment, the more you'll know what the machine can and can not do. I have dug silver dimes that were just a scratch...no high tone. 8 inches is a tough silver dime to find with the AT Pro unless conditions are right OR you know you are in an area where there are deep oldies to be had.

Good luck and have some fun!

 

[The Dirt Pirate]

I just tried detecting with the sensitivity all the way up and I guess it's different in every area depending on the soil because when I did it I started getting false signals every few inches so I turned it back down. I am picking up deep targets though. The thing that sucks about the area I'm detecting in is that in some spots the ground is really soft sand, but a few yards away the ground is like concrete so I've had to walk away from some signals because I wasn't able to dig.

 

[smallfoot]

I've got easy soil here. Sand with maybe 2" to 4" of loose loam on top. I set mine on pro zero, iron disc at 30, max sensitivity unless I'm close to power and then I bump that down about 2 pixels. With those settings I get coins down to a foot, larger targets down to 16". I dug a large hoe blade yesterday that was probably deeper. I've been using the pro for a while and feel pretty confident with it. Mine still has the stock coil. I bought a Super sniper coil and used it once. I thought it would improve the pro but honestly I don't think it did anything better than the stock coil except maybe pinpointing the target. The site I hunt here mostly has areas of trashy iron signals(old farm field), but if there is a high tone anywhere in the grunts, I slow down, if it repeats I dig it. The stock coil will separate good if you know it's actually doing it. You have to trust the machine. When i set the iron disc on 30, with iron audio on, most of the small iron stuff just grunts, so any mid or high tone gets checked for a repeat signal and I dig a bunch of non-ferrous out of the trashy areas. You can usually tell if a target is large iron by getting high numbers and tones but just pinpointing will tell you it's sizable. I dig those knowing it's a piece of bean pot or old stove or just big parts of wagons or such, but I like finding tools and that get me lots of them. It's a great machine. Have not had any problems with it and damned if it ain't really waterproof..

 

[Dirty Digger Doug]

I leave the iron coil mostly at its setting of 35. Once in a while I will lower it to 30. But only if there is not much iron around. Unfortunately for you the property you're checking just may not have anything on it or it may have been detected in the past. Adults don't typically lose their change especially when it could buy so much. Kids do as they play with it. So look for places where the kids played or where adults would need to put their hands in their pockets. Best places I have found is where they parked the car, along the walks to the house or garage and at the doors. I find targets up to about 12" regularly. Always manually ground balance your machine each time you turn it on.