got the AT pro with the 5x8 DD coil in December and already clocked about 50hrs on it .....I am loving life compared to my whites coinmaster pro, and continuing to more and more everyday as I get better with the machine. The AT pro is a chatty machine, but if you learn to speak it's language it will pay off greatly.
it was a hard choice for me between the fisher F75 and the at pro but it really came down to the at pro being fully submergible and the f75 not......I have got a lot of swimming holes I want to be hitting when the weather gets warmer
while other machines seemed to be superior to the at pro in some areas, it really is the most versatile for the money.
a certain part of me didn't want to buy the AT just because it seemed to be the "cool" metal detector to buy. The bandwagon metal detector for the detectorist who really does not even know what he wants out of a metal detector. It is viewed as the "go to " detector for the newb who watched a few episodes of diggers and bought it without a thought as to what machine would actually best suit him.
so I spent months, exhaustively researching every machine I could find that was under $1000 and came right around full circle back to the AT pro. that is what I suggest to the original poster.....take your time, research machines, decide on what it is you aim to accomplish and what kind of terrain or soil type you will be hunting in, and decide on what will really be the best machine for YOU.
in the end you gotta realize that buying it because it is cool is just as dumb as not buying it because it's cool. if I get heckled a bit for having it by people I run into who are not aware of the tedious process underwent on me deciding on it....I could really care less. You are gonna spend a lot of time with whatever detector you buy....I really suggest doing everything you can to pick the RIGHT one for YOU
I think you will find ( as I did) that the search function on the site will be a valuable tool in getting specific information about any detector, as just about any basic question you could have concerning a particular machine, has already been discussed again and again.
you can even go so far as to PM people on the forum who you see are using a particular machine you are interested in, that's what I did.
most importantly.......have fun and get out there and dig
