How To Get Maximum Depth/Performance From Your AT Pro/AT Gold

John-Edmonton

Silver Member
Mar 21, 2005
4,399
3,950
Canada
Detector(s) used
Garrett- Master Hunter CX,Infinium, 1350, 2500, ACE 150-water converted 250, GTA 500,1500 Scorpion, AT Pro
* With the AT Pro, learn and hunt in Pro mode. It is deeper then standard mode. With the AT Gold, the all metal mode is deeper then Disc 1 or Disc 2. * Has a place been hunted out? Go back and try again after a good rain soaking. Moist wet soil gives better sensitivity and greater depth readings for targets. * If you get a nice high audio and a VDI in the 70's or 80's, dig it. * The larger the coil the deeper it goes. However, too many targets under a large coil can mask a good target. If you get a slight good audio using the large coil, lift it up 2-3 inches and center the coil where the good audio was. Often times the good target will be much clearer. * Get a coil cover and scrub the ground. Some people scan the ground inches above it...."DON'T" You can gain a couple of inches scrubbing, which is significant. * Don't swing too fast! Just because it has a very fast "recovery speed"......doesn't mean it can always pick out that one good silver coin amongst several pieces of junk. The electronics still need to process lots of information. "SWING TOO FAST, YOU WILL COME LAST" * Swinging too fast can make you a sloppy hunter. You also risk eventually cracking/breaking your coil and elephant ears from the constant banging on trees, playground equipment or concrete. * If you are getting lots of EMI or increased mineralization which is causing erratic audio, try adjusting your discrimination first, before lowering the sensitivity. This sometimes lets the machine run smoother without losing any depth. * If you get mixture of audio signals, scan the target from different directions. Sometimes a good target is beside or partially underneath a good target. The AT Series has a unique ability to pick out those good targets amongst the trash. Going at the target from different directions allows the AT Pro to perform even better! * Ground balance your machine occasionally. Temperature can change, and directly affect the settings. Hunting in shade vs. sun can vary. "a 14 degree difference on a lawn area to a 35 degree difference on a parking lot." But, the mineralization can also change between areas....so again...ground balance periodically. * To increase the depth/sensitivity to silver targets, lower the ground balanced numbers several points * If you are hunting an area that is absolutely covered with nails, try ground balancing out a nail until it is nothing but a small amount of static. Now....all the copper & silver targets will give a loud audio response....BUT the target ID will be off. * Build a test garden...use good & bad targets at different depths. You will soon discover that deep silver targets beyond depths of 8 or more inches begin to not sound off as a high pitch or that the VDI numbers remain in the 80's. That is very good information to know. My rule of thumb states if it's deep....it's old. Dig it! It costs you nothing. * Run your battery charges at the top 1/4 fully charged, not the last 1/4 charged battery condition segment. The AT Series will run 100% until the battery runs down to a certain point. Because nobody knows exactly where that point is on their machine, don't try and find out. With the price of cheap alkalines or rechargeable "AA" batteries, you should never reach that unknown power loss point. Bring spares, or top off your recharge ables before the hunt * Read the manual and watch the videos. Garrett has posted many videos to help with problem areas such as pin-pointing, ground balancing, iron-audio, target id, target sizing. These are just a few. Go to the Garrett Web Site. testgarden2.jpg
 

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spartan67

Greenie
Feb 1, 2014
11
7
Michigan
Detector(s) used
Garrett AT Pro
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Thanks for the great information. Still waiting for the snow to melt to build a test garden and to use my new ATP!
 

Kodiak43351

Bronze Member
May 6, 2013
2,279
1,091
NW Ohio
Detector(s) used
At Max,Xp deus,At pro, At gold, pro pointer, ace 350 bounty hunter. Lesche hand and t handle digging tools, Sask kustom digger, Garrett edge digger and Garrett retriever, Garrett classifier made into
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Awesome information John couldn't of summed it up better than you did. I don't think there is anything to add that I can think of.
 

signal_line

Silver Member
Nov 14, 2011
3,601
1,835
Detector(s) used
XP Deus
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
If you have the AT Gold, learn to use the All Metal Mode. As Clive Clynick says (clivesgoldpage) learning to tell ferrous from non-ferrous with the All Metal Mode is the most important skill you can learn. All his books are loaded with good info, but there is alot on water hunting that may not be of use to some of us land-locked types. "Site-Reading for Gold and Silver" has some good stuff in it. He has a new book I haven't read yet "The Gold Jewelry Hunters Handbook".
 

KY PI

Jr. Member
Sep 19, 2011
25
2
Northeastern Kentucky
Detector(s) used
White's MXT PRO
Thanks for the great info! I just got my ATP and very anxious to try it out. I have been using a White's MXT for the past few years and had decided to get the ATP for water hunting but one of my hunting buddies got one and I have been very impressed with his finds. Going out to assemble the ATP right now! HH!!!!!
 

Mach1Pilot

Silver Member
Jul 21, 2008
3,000
1,160
Bedford County, PA
🥇 Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
Minelab, Fisher, Teknetics and more!
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Very nice, John. Lots of wisdom shared in that single post. :thumbsup:
 

barrywk

Full Member
May 2, 2013
225
134
lancaster sc
Detector(s) used
Minelab Xterra 505...At Pro...T2...F5.....F70.....xterra 705...AT Gold......Pro pointer....Pro find 25......XP Deus...gti 2500
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
John....i was just a couple of days ago wondering about this......i have an area im detecting that u cant put the coil down without being over a nail.....My question is ,u said ground balance the nails out ....do u mean u can ground balance the detector over a nail and that will work instead of scriming them out....Thanx barrywk
 

OP
OP
John-Edmonton

John-Edmonton

Silver Member
Mar 21, 2005
4,399
3,950
Canada
Detector(s) used
Garrett- Master Hunter CX,Infinium, 1350, 2500, ACE 150-water converted 250, GTA 500,1500 Scorpion, AT Pro
John....i was just a couple of days ago wondering about this......i have an area im detecting that u cant put the coil down without being over a nail.....My question is ,u said ground balance the nails out ....do u mean u can ground balance the detector over a nail and that will work instead of scriming them out....Thanx barrywk

Actually, someone did exactly that, ground balanced over a rusty nail, in an area just littered with rusty nails, and had some success with toning back the iron audio signals, yet still allowing for higher tones. I am sure he lost some depth over this setup, but it is another means of attacking an area littered with nails.
 

signal_line

Silver Member
Nov 14, 2011
3,601
1,835
Detector(s) used
XP Deus
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
John....i was just a couple of days ago wondering about this......i have an area im detecting that u cant put the coil down without being over a nail.....My question is ,u said ground balance the nails out ....do u mean u can ground balance the detector over a nail and that will work instead of scriming them out....Thanx barrywk

You might try adding more iron discrimination to eliminate nails. Like in the instructional videos, take a nail and sweep over it while increasing the iron discrimination until it is broken up. Iron audio should catch them. I don't know about the AT Pro but the AT Gold has what is called tone roll--several quick tones (like a drum roll) when over a nail. I know I have dug nails and scratched my head, then I decided to recheck the hole and found a coin. As for ground balancing to a nail, remember you will not get accurate ID numbers.
 

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DanFL1962

Full Member
Jan 8, 2010
176
16
Lawrence County, PA & Brevard County, Florida
Detector(s) used
AT-Pro & BHID
Primary Interest:
Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
Now that I have an AT Pro in my hands....this info is invaluable! Thanks!

If you are hunting an area that is absolutely covered with nails, try ground balancing out a nail until it is nothing but a small amount of static.
I have access to a nightmare property that nobody else likes to hunt because of the excessive trash. I'm still using the standard coil....but these kinds of tips give me hope! :)
 

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