So what am I doing wrong?

[AtomicDog]

My in-laws yard was once the location of a general store next to the train tracks. There's also a story about a train that wrecked there while carrying confederate soldiers. Sounds like the perfect place so I take the new AT Pro out for a test drive. I start in standard coin mode ground balanced to 85. I get a solid 99 with the bell wringing and dig up a splitting wedge. Next coin hits are a mayonnaise jar lid and a diet coke can. For reference I place a quarter in the ground to the depth of the spade laying flat at about 7 inches. I can barely detect it. Now I'm one of the first people to lose a quarter testing a new detector. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

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[wvwildman]

try it all metal dig everything

 

[smokeythecat]

You've got to get the big iron out first. As the "rust stain" in the soil dissipates, you'll start finding the smaller targets. Use minimal discrimination, only discriminate out small iron nails. Forget the meter. Dig everything that is not obviously a nail. I went to this one spot about 10 times and dug probably 100 pounds of iron out of it. THEN the coins, buttons and bullets started to appear.

 

[releventchair]

I,m not an pro user, take my advice with a grain of salt. Practice will help. Great idea planting a coin. Heck make a test garden with a mix of items at various depths. Labeled so you know what they are. Lacking a place for that,glue or tape objects to a piece of cardboard and place it on a "clean"area you checked to be sure no signals are there. Did you try different modes on your buried coin? Sensitivity?. Too a fresh coin site may not ring up like a coin that has been there a while.
That barely pick it up is great,headphones can help but time on your machine will more. Stick with it,soil conditions a factor in depth sometimes.
You,ll be finding neat stuff. H.H.

 

[Barto]

If all else fails, you can always read the operators manual.

 

[AtomicDog]

Read the manual (several times). Watched the videos on the Garrett site. Tried and compared standard and pro versions of the modes. I must have missed the section that states a large splitting wedge has the same signature as a silver coin or that a quarter lying flat at seven inches is too deep to detect. Thanks to everyone for all the tips and advice!

 

[Fabbr]

Getting all of the big iron out of the ground is a great idea, if you get a nice coin sounding signal, lift your coil up of off the ground several(4-6)inches if you still hear it its either a very shallow coin or a large piece of trash, a pointer will help. I use mine to quickly determine if its a good target, after raising the coil and still getting a signal, scan the ground with a pointer, if its a shallow coin/target the pointer will pick it up, if the pointer doesn't 'see' it and the detector does several inches above the ground you are looking at a target much larger than a coin, get to know pro mode gradually, nothing will help more than time, digging lots of targets, and remembering subtle nuances about the desireable targets that you do dig...I love my at pro, it must be re balanced occasionally and I can rarely run the sensitivity wide open around here due to lots of trash, I dug a 1/4" x 3/32" chrome needle bearing yesterday at 8 inches deep(in pro coins mode), I would have swore it was a deep coin, the cool thing was there was a really old marble down there with it, practice and be patient and it will come together.

 

[DirtAngler]

You will find that iron giving high tones happens a lot due to wrap around, where the signal bounces from the low signal to the high signal. Sometimes discriminating out your high VDI, if you have notch capabilities. helps with this but it's not 100 percent. Also, any fresh buried coin will not give the same strength signal as one that has been buried for years due to the ground matrix. JMHO.

 

[AtomicDog]

Thanks for the tips and explanations.

 

[vpnavy]

Just hang in there AtomicDog. Most of us go through the same "learning process." Don't you just love "If all else fails, you can always read the operators manual." - bet that helped you out!

Anyway, WE all go through the same experience when starting out - don't give up - just make it a point to learn something new about your new Detector (and hobby) everytime you go out. Let us know what you first keeper is.

 

[woody_g]

like anything else it takes time to learn your new machine sure some people go out and find a gold ring their first day out.each timeyou get out and detect the more you will learn your machine.one good thing is if you do have any questions about anything they have a Garrett forum under brands where you can get most of your questions answered.good luck and HH

 

[AtomicDog]

I'm not discouraged by the splitting wedge, etc. I'm thrilled to unearth a piece of history. I was just surprised that the detector couldn't tell the difference. I spent half an hour today digging a hole nearly elbow deep and sifting through dirt to find the head of a nail. I guess the AT Pro works after all.

 

[Fabbr]

Once you learn pro mode you will be able to tell that the nail head was not a coin or piece of jewelry, this machine has a medium learning curve. Ive got around 30 hours on mine and learn more each time I use it, definately way different than the analog machine i grew up on. Im digging less trash and more coins with mt at pro as time goes on, running standard mode the bell tone will keep you busy on more trash targets just my 2 cents.