Get used to those bottle caps though...the AT loves them. Just listen really carefully for dirty broken signals, if it sounds good, just keep swinging and listen for signal break ups...sometimes they are very slight(the cleaner a signal is the better otherwise, broken signals generally for me end up being crap)...even when the ID is hopping around the 80-82's...Well, let me add that this applies if you are in 'Pro' mode which gives more continuous sound information than 'Standard' mode. Yeah, you need to dig most everything at first, but you'll learn quickly what is fun to dig and what isn't. People tell me to notch caps out, but I lose my quarters and similar items if I do that. Bench test everything you can get your hands on that you might encounter in the field/sands etc.
Pinpointing is a pain for me with the AT/DD coil at times. I generally need to pinpoint from two angles, not always but often.
You might consider latching onto a nice signal, something you might suspect what it is, and then swing and flip through all six modes, paying attention to the sounds and to what the ID is telling you using each mode. Each mode is almost like using a different detector imho. :P
Ground balancing...I am now doing what some users are doing, which is...after they use the auto ground balance by pumping the machine while holding the ground balance button down, they manually increase or decrease the 'balanced' setting they get with their particular soil. Apparently, this enhances signal sensitivity and depth for greater or lesser conductive targets. As I understand it, lowering it from 'auto balanced' will make it more sensitive to high conductive metals like silver, and raising it sensitive to low conductive metals. However, there will be some trade off to doing this of course. Any AT Pro users, or the manual can correct me here in case I didn't explain this well or correctly. Anyway, around here in Iowa, my soil usually balances in the 80's but I manually set this back to the 70s. I am still experimenting though, so I am not authorizing any of this. Have had the AT for over a year...still trying to learn it. :P
Yesterday I was in Pro Custom mode, Iron Disc at around 30, notched out everything below 60, kept sensitivity to full, although, i change this often during a hunt...if it's too busy chirping off dirty ground, I back off the sensitivity...but generally I like to run factory preset or two notches up from that.
Not sure if i am only rambling or if it helps. Oh well, welcome to TN.
