Garrett AT PRO issues, OR Operator error?

[Perrycolove]

Im new to this but i need input. Ive had my garrett pro actively in use for about 50hrs now. I took it to a spot where ww2 items have been found. It was also a covered up trash site, over grown field etc.
I had to redo my ground balance a few times since it goes from diff soils. With sensitivity half way, iron disc set, my first signal was high, in the 80s.
And i got a normal dime. My second one was high as well, 67, and i got a copper penny. Then it went downhill from there.
Every signal I dug was in the 70 to 99 range. All of it was old beer cans, chunks of bolts, an old top to a mason jar, and i gave up after the last hole..
At pro said 8 inches, ended up being 3ft down and it was a piece of pipe in concrete!!!
What am I doing wrong? At my house which was an old dump site I picked out a small cash of wheats and three mercury dimes right out fron of the house, but the signal is the same to that as compared to tin, aluminum, copper, and nails.
I read somewhere about the coil not seated correct so ill check that, and some serial numbers showed up as false readings which Im curious about.
But my serial number is newer so I kinda dismissed that as well.
Any help would be appreciated.

 

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[cudamark]

The numbers are just guesses by the machine based on U.S. coins. Size matters too. A tiny piece of can slaw reads down low, just above iron, whereas, a complete aluminum can screams up with silver and copper. Figure out the size by swinging the coil around the target without getting a signal, and by checking the depth reading when pin pointing. You'll get the hang of it eventually. If you think you can avoid digging junk totally, you've joined the wrong hobby!

 

[mlutz]

I use mine in the PRO mode and most junk/aluminum has a lower tone just before it goes to a higher pitch. I am certainly no expert, but a couple of days I dug everything just to get the hang of the tones, I (think) that I have a better handle on it now. Maybe after a couple of years I will be getting better. I think we all have had the same or similar frustrations.

On a couple of occasions, I had the same low then high tone and found a square nail and a Minnie ball just under it. Again... no telling what's down there. Good luck.

 

[relic nut]

Look at it this way.... Be glad it's not easy, or there wouldn't be any good targets left. The more you hunt, the better you will get. Have fun, and good luck. [emoji256]

HH, RN

 

[Hal2k]

It's hard to do but have patience and it fall in place. That is something I did not have very much of until I started metal detecting, I had to learn patience. The best way to do it is run in pro-zero and learn the sounds. You never know what you are going to find when the detector goes off and you stick shovel in ground. Good luck hope it all works out for you.

 

[Bamadad53]

If you get a signal that you think is good, raise your coil above it about 6 or 8 inches high. If it still sound good it probably is a large piece of trash.

Bamadad

 

[digger460]

I've been hunting an old farm for quite a while, and it's loaded with what you mentioned. For some reason a 10# chunk of iron, mason lid, etc., ring between 60 and 80. Maybe 3 or 400 hrs. with our machines , will let us hear those subtle clue's that say "don't dig!"

Have you tried another area with less trash?

Hard not to dig those good number's tho. Ya just never no

 

[John-Edmonton]

The machine will give you the most accuracy on coin sized objects. If you are over a strong iffy target, continue swinging the coil while raising the coil. If you are at about 12" with still a strong audio signal, it is larger then a coin sized object. Your call to dig or not,.

 

[perry2]

5-6 years ago we were detecting a large flea mkt. site and over and over were getting a strong 84-85 at 8"
I can't pass up a Quarter signal// so we dug them--
Always they were flattened soda cans at about 7" ( put there by the guys laying in the loam and sod. 3-4 years before //)-
-Next year we learned the trick of raising the coil and solved the problem. Perry

 

[EastCoastmetal]

What if its a large mason jar full of silver coins, would be about the size of a can and I bet you could lift the machine 6 to 8 inches off the ground and still get a ding. Would digging 1000 beer cans be worth one hoard of silver coins? I don't know... hehe my back hurts just thinking about it.

 

[ohiochris]

What if its a large mason jar full of silver coins, would be about the size of a can and I bet you could lift the machine 6 to 8 inches off the ground and still get a ding. Would digging 1000 beer cans be worth one hoard of silver coins? I don't know... hehe my back hurts just thinking about it.

Learning which ones to pass up is just as important as learning which ones to dig. Unless you want to dig every single oddball metal item out of the ground you just have to accept that we may all miss some good things now and then. We all dream of buried jars full of silver coins but stuff like that is pretty rare , usually found more by accident than on purpose. When deciding which targets to dig its good to keep in mind that spending more time digging oddball items that have a very slim chance of being anything good....means having less time to hunt for targets we know have a higher potential for being worth the time.

 

[Zip Zip]

Here is another thing about tones, each brand of detector speaks it's own language, and you have to learn your detectors language (usually by digging every hit) to see what it is telling you what it might be. Larry Sallee once wrote about an old timer who went out on a club nugget hunt. Most of the people whizzed pass an area that he thought might be a good spot. This old timer slowly passed his coil over a 10 X 10 area. There were no zip's but ,,,,,, the threshold did rise in spots. He dug those faint hits and brought home a few small nuggets and everyone else got skunked

 

[Perrycolove]

okay so a little update, first my house is on and old trash and ash dump site for the farm. Chunks of old mower parts, cans, nails, more nails, lead fishing weights, pipes etc.
I turned my sensitivity down a bit due to all the signals i was picking up. And switched to pro mode. I got a high signal from a large chunk of pipe that was facing up, so it ping off the two sides like it was a coin close to the top. I'm playing in zero mode right now to hear everything. It is helping raising the coil sometimes too. thanks for that little tid bit of info.

 

[Perrycolove]