Frustrated..AT Pro is just a penny Magnet!

[Normsel]

My ATP found $6.25 in quarters, $2 in dimes 2 nickels and 9 pennies this morning. It would seem your just hunting a bad spot. A total of $8.44 this morning in 2-1/2 hours

 

[Irishgoldhound]

Yeah I know I'm in a bad spot but that's the whole idea, gotta hunt the bad to get to the good. Like I say it becomes frustrating when you hit a slump for a couple months of only crumbs in your pocket. I know it'll pick up again. After digging 200 pennies and then being surprised by a merc dime when you think it's just another copper, is a great feeling.

 

[lookindown]

I set her at 35 iron, so if the gold is there then it should let me know. I talked to my dealer and he said maybe I should set it at zero. Gold is mixed with other metal alloys so it could be cancelling out the gold if you discriminate to much iron.

With the disc set at 35 you wont miss any gold. In two years all my gold has come in between 40 and 76...with the low numbers being small hollow earrings and the high numbers being large 10k rings....most gold reads in the 50s.

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

Getting so tired of the only good signals being pennies that my AT pro slams on! I've found more gold with my Garrett 250 and more silver as well. My AT pro just doesn't find the stuff like my Ace can. Maybe I'm putting on too much discrimination. What would be an upgrade from an AT pro, that I could get better results with.

haha...Man..I know exactly where you are on the problem you are having....When I first got my ATP, i felt the same way.

I had already mastered my ACE and felt i knew exaclty what it was telling me...There was a learning curve with the ATP...and i acutally would put it back in the car and use the ACE...But I had to get over and learn the machine.

One thign i noticed is you cant move as fast as you could with the ACE....I wouldnt discard it just yet....i know it mos def goes alot deeper and is more accurate....Im just now starting to REALLY starting to "Get it"...and i know i wont put the ATP down ....Have faith my freind....good things will happen

 

[Sapper724]

You won't pass up silver, trust me. Silver should ring in at 82-84 if it's a dime, and 87-89 if a quarter. It'll come in loud and clear, and scream at you, even if it's deeper. I run my discrimination at 0, and usually ground balance and then bring it down 10 to run it a little hot. I still dig the 80-81 signals because I save my copper pennies anyways, since they don't make them anymore. If I'm in a real penny infested site, I'll pass up the zincs. Just remember, sometimes it's not the detector's fault. If the site has been cherry picked clean, or just doesn't have the silver, your detector won't find it. I love my AT Pro, it felt like forever to find my first silver with it, but once I did, it was rolling in nicely. Good luck!

 

[Zodiacdiverdave]

I have to admit I have turned down the penny signals from time to time but only when it starts to become overwhelming but I always go back at a later date and clean them out.
Believe in the ATP, it can and will pull the silver out of the ground, this past weekend I pulled out a half dime (my fourth with the ATP) and a 1/2 Reale and believe me these are small thin coins.

As for discrim, I leave mine at 35 unless I am looking for an iron patch. I tested the ATP with a small 14K gold ring and it was hitting the 50s, a gold sovereign rings up in the 60s. if you are hunting for raw gold then keep it below 35. hope this helps you out.
ZDD

 

[Kodiak43351]

I was at a school this summer after I got the pro and was hitting pennies everywhere. I got tired of digging them and came across yet another penny signal I decided I wasn't going to dig it and started to walk away and I couldn't do it for some reason I dug it and out popped a silver ring. I dig all penny signals no matter what now.

 

[petey1231]

Pro mode iron audio off until find good unsure target discrim 35 -40 if trashy ground - no discrim if clean - 5x8 coil - low slow ground balance in pro zero mode before switching to custom etc - forget standard mode this machine is meant for pro mode much faster than 250 in pro mode doesn't even compare.
Sensitivity two down from top - perfect settings

 

[Normsel]

I was in a really small park today that had never been hunted. After digging two dimes and 28 pennies i decided to pass on the pennies and go for silver or clad. I could have dug over 100 more pennies easily. I ended up with $6.50 in quarters and dimes and like i said 28 pennies. In the past week I have found over $42 and didn't dig on Friday and two days less than 1-1/2 hours.

Practice, practice practice whether it be the ATP or any detector. I didn't feel comfy with my ACE 250 until i had 100 hours on it and my ATP until I had 100+ hours on it.

 

[Sapper724]

Even after 100 hours I still learn new stuff!

 

[paul of Penna]

Wait a minute.....your at pro says 81 and it's a penny, but you get annoyed that the signal isn't an 84? Simply pass the coil over a silver dime and it'll say what it says when you pass over a silver dime! Same goes for any other silver coin.......and shotshell bottom........or pulltab........get it!
The AT PRO just plain kicks *ss.
Paul

 

[Sapper724]

It's an awesome machine, that's for sure. Great bang for your buck!

 

[Backbacon]

Copper Artifacts ring up as 81 on my AT PRO so by all means don't dig those signals. Did it ever occur to you that there may be something waiting for you in the same whole when your remove the Cent signal, a gold ring perhaps? There are many desirable targets that ring up as 81 on the PRO so dig them all.

 

[badpenny]

Depending on the year of the Penny they will ring up different on the VDI because of the metals which were used in them. I dig them all knowing full well that most likely it is a penny. Hell, they get me just as excited as digging a silver quarter. The other day I craved the ping so I threw the AT Pro in the car because I had to go care for some things at my parents house and thought I would spend an hour in the yard walking around checking for my fathers drops. I usually laugh each time I dig a penny as I know he is above looking down at the old man digging pennies and screwing with me. However the other day I walked past his beloved hedges and scanning near the edge of them when I got a good silver signal, I thought what's up with that, and as I looked down I could see the edge of the coin sticking through the ground. I bent down a simply pulled out the coin and it was a 1943 quarter, I looked up and said thanks Pop... and kept hunting.

That all said, I mostly pulled pennies out of the property, a few pieces of silver but that was about it. As a kid I remember the place always having cousins, aunts, uncles etc. and they sat on the ground for the most part but nothing was found that made me go "Oh wow!". We were dirt poor, as were our relatives so there was nothing to loose except a penny or two, so any that I find at these old home sites I think are pretty cool; they had a story I am sure and I try to imagine what that story was.

 

[Bart@Big Boys Hobbies]

Practice, practice practice whether it be the ATP or any detector. I didn't feel comfy with my ACE 250 until i had 100 hours on it and my ATP until I had 100+ hours on it.

Great info here!

 

[Irishgoldhound]

Really great comments! It feels great to come on here after a long day of detecting and read such positive and helpful suggestions to master your machine and this awesome hobby! I'm definitely not going to be letting those pennies pass me by from now on. Wondering if anyone on here has an E-trac as well as an AT pro and what your finds are compared to eachother

 

[Sapper724]

My Etrac should be here in a couple days, but I won't get to use it much, our snowstorm is moving in right now

 

[Irishgoldhound]

Yeah I'm really dreading another winter and no detecting for a while. Sucks! I've been hearing a lot of people talking about how great the ETrac is and how much more they find and how the ETrac can pick out better and deeper targets with better and more accurate readings.

 

[Sapper724]

Well I cant really say yet. I'll try it out though. I still am a firm believer in the AT Pro, I'll have mine forever, I love that machine. I just wanted to give a Minelab a try.

 

[Potts]

Myself digging penny's isn't a big deal they all add up...this season I dug just over 10 pounds in clad and penny's, small in comparison to some but I knew I wasn't going to make a living off it. The AT-Pro is great unit for the price....I have well over 100 hours of using mine and I'm still amazed with it's full potential.