I still use mine. It is very sensitive to coins and rings. It Especially likes nickels! It is very easy and simple to use, it normally ground-tunes very easily! It is lightweight and goes for months on 2 nine volt batteries! No bells and whistles here but I can determine the depth and target size with only one pass! This detector uses the off-resonance technology and responds like a cross between a TR and BFO! That is upon detecting a target, the pitch increases similiar to a BFO! If you ever used a BFO, you would know that it is a joy to use and different targets make it squeal differently. Well so is the case of the Pro-2, except it is a lot more sensitive to small coins than any of the BFO's could be!........Love my Pro.....................HH...............Joe
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Another Cult Detector: AH PRO 2
- Thread starter John(H)
- Start date
Steve, AH Pro made the following detectors: Pro, Pro-2, SuperPro, SuperPro-2, SuperPro V, Nugget Hunter, Phantom and Quintron. There are more but that is all that I can remember at this time! The Pro came out in either 1974?, 1975? and was one of the 1st true discriminators. Most of their competition at the time only had limited discrimination and had trouble with backreadings on their coils. This wasn't so with the Pro! All of the AH line were meant for Coin Hunting except the Nugget Hunter which was built for gold Nugget and Coin Hunting! The Pro was very sensitive to Nickels and rings! In the Pro-2 these features were enhanced plus a tone control was added and the control box was slimmed down! In the SuperPro and SuperPro V the discrimination was enhanced so that it was very sensitive to Silver Coins, copper and brass. Not very sensitive to Nickels! I believe that this was made due to the Silver Coin CherryPicking Era! Not familiar with the Nugget Hunter! The Phantom and the Quintron were both non-motion, ground compensating VLF Discriminators. Although I have never owned any of these 2 I have read many posts from those who do! Out of the above, I own The Pro, Pro-2, and SuperPro! My favorite at this time is the Pro-2 with the Pro as a close 2nd! Most public sites have been cherrypicked over for the silver coins a long time ago! I believe that silver dimes deep and on edge are still out there, also many gold rings are left in the ground since most hunters bypass all of the screwcap and pulltab signals which are where these ring fall into! Also it is hard to explain but in about 85% of the time or so, I can tell the difference between pulltabs and coins/rings! And this is using the machine set on the lower nickel setting! The Pro-2 is probably older than most of the Hunters that I meet in the field and most have never heard of this brand! Also most are fast to condemn it since it is sooooooooooo old, but they usually shut up when they see my coin and ring count! But then it isn't the machine, they say that I'm just LUCKY! But of course, Luck doesn't have any thing to do with it, but it sure doesn't hurt!...................HH...........Joe
Doctorcoinz
New member
Rings...
I think more thin gold rings with stones in are still left on many trashy sites than are "pull tab reading rings". Most hunters pass over the foil readings but a fair few will dig pull tab readings. I have found more gold rings in the foil range than i have found in the pull tab range. Small thin rings lay buried all over the place but are the hardest to find because they get masked out easier. I have dug hundreds of tabs out over the last 12 months but no rings have come out as yet.
I think more thin gold rings with stones in are still left on many trashy sites than are "pull tab reading rings". Most hunters pass over the foil readings but a fair few will dig pull tab readings. I have found more gold rings in the foil range than i have found in the pull tab range. Small thin rings lay buried all over the place but are the hardest to find because they get masked out easier. I have dug hundreds of tabs out over the last 12 months but no rings have come out as yet.
Doctorcoinz
New member
Using an old detector is a bit like having a time machine i guess, swinging it now can take you back to the time of manufacture almost.
I like swinging old detectors too especially some of the better ones.
It's like listening to abba music for me - i like to go back..
I like swinging old detectors too especially some of the better ones.
It's like listening to abba music for me - i like to go back..
Garystrangelove
New member
Over the last 20 years or so i have found quite a few gold rings and i firmly believe luck plays a bigger part with gold rings than it does in coin shooting. One week i found 2 nice big chunky gold rings. It took me 6 years to find my next gold ring although i did find some brass rings and small childrens silver rings in between this period of time. I now am trying ring hunting with the se which i bought not long back.
One thing for sure, the foil range rings are far easier to find than those in the pulltab range because it will be necessary to dig every pulltab to make sure no ring is passed over. My strategy is to dig foil and skip over the pulltabs because in my area there are so many of them. I don't beach hunt but those that do generally dig them all. One place to check for rings is around playgrounds. The swing sets and other equipment that are used by children. I do go for most of the pulltabs in those areas, also, many of those areas have either woodchips or pea-gravel that makes the digging easier. Since I am not big on pulltab digging, the targets that get my attention are from foil up to the nickel. The new pulltabs are just a tad over the nickel range so I usually leave them in the ground. The larger, usually older rectangular pulltabs, that have a higher conductivity than the ones with beaver tails are some that I dig too, they are just a little lower in conductivity than zinc pennies maybe are a good bet too because hopefully they are not in great abundance as the round and smaller rectangular ones. The requirement to hunt like this is to have a detector that has a meter/and or tones that can give you an advantage, like the XL-Pro or some of the higher resolution digital metered detectors. Of course ground minerals and deeper targets will hinder meter performance but the way I figure, most rings and pulltabs are shallow anyway (not including the beach). The only sure way though is to dig it all, something that I don't plan on doing. Now for old sites with little modern trash, I dig everything above iron.
Steve: Hunting for foil-range rings, although easiest done with a TID detector, this feat can also be done with a non-TID machine! I can calibrate my detector's dial to see where the foil range drops out! From this info I can isolate the foil signals and concentrate on these type of targets! I have taken a pencil to lightly mark the drop-off points on my detector for these and the nickel targets! Of course, this is time consuming and some times it is just alot easier to dig the target anyway! Also.............at the beach I dig all the targets since my ring and jewelry count is always higher than at any other site location!..................HH...........Joe
My favourite the Super Pro Fine Tuner was the deepest seeking machine in the range and had the advantage of a full range ground control. Unfortunately the weight was a little high at 4.5 lbs.
The Pro 2 Automatic had three discriminate settings + all metal, the same as the Super Pro. Lost the fine tune off the hand grip but had push button re tuning. Also lost a pound in weight which made it more pleasent in use than its big brother. Unfortunately only a two position ground control.
Pro 2 Fine Tuner. 3.5lbs. Three discrim. settings + all metal. Two position ground control and the same weight as the Pro 2 Automatic.
Then there was a range of 'Backpacker' models. Very light weight for the time as they were all at/around the 2lb mark. No ground control on any of these.
Base model was the Backpacker 1 Fine Tuner. Only had a discriminate mode.
Backpacker 2 Automatic had push button tuning, two discrim. settings and all metal.
Backpacker 2 Fine Tuner had manual control of sensitivity and stability plus an all metal mode. Two discrim. settings.
All the above claimed 80 hours battery life (with headphones, I assume). I never did that well with the Super Pro.
Coil was only six inches.
I had a modified Super Pro as the stock version wasn't quite what was needed in Europe. As standard the discrimination ran from foil through to bottle cap reject. I had mine changed so that the discrimination range was the same as the Pro 2's running from a nails setting with the loss of the high level discrimination part of the range which you just dare not use on any of our sites.
The Pro 2 Automatic had three discriminate settings + all metal, the same as the Super Pro. Lost the fine tune off the hand grip but had push button re tuning. Also lost a pound in weight which made it more pleasent in use than its big brother. Unfortunately only a two position ground control.
Pro 2 Fine Tuner. 3.5lbs. Three discrim. settings + all metal. Two position ground control and the same weight as the Pro 2 Automatic.
Then there was a range of 'Backpacker' models. Very light weight for the time as they were all at/around the 2lb mark. No ground control on any of these.
Base model was the Backpacker 1 Fine Tuner. Only had a discriminate mode.
Backpacker 2 Automatic had push button tuning, two discrim. settings and all metal.
Backpacker 2 Fine Tuner had manual control of sensitivity and stability plus an all metal mode. Two discrim. settings.
All the above claimed 80 hours battery life (with headphones, I assume). I never did that well with the Super Pro.
Coil was only six inches.
I had a modified Super Pro as the stock version wasn't quite what was needed in Europe. As standard the discrimination ran from foil through to bottle cap reject. I had mine changed so that the discrimination range was the same as the Pro 2's running from a nails setting with the loss of the high level discrimination part of the range which you just dare not use on any of our sites.
I recently purchased a A. H. Electronics Backpacker 2 ( the one without the fine tuning control on the handle ). It appears to work. I did not give it extensive testing yet because I am concerned that the lower shaft is attached to the search coil via a brass bolt and brass wing nut.
It is a concern because there is metal so near to the coil. Would that not interfere with sensitivity?
If anyone knows for sure whether this connection type is standard or not I would greatly appreciate knowing so.
Mike
It is a concern because there is metal so near to the coil. Would that not interfere with sensitivity?
If anyone knows for sure whether this connection type is standard or not I would greatly appreciate knowing so.
Mike
Mike,
The brass bolt and nut will not have much, if any impact. Generally, the bolt used is made of stainless steel but I have one BP2 that has a plain steel bolt and that would be the worse of all possible types of bolts. Even the steel bolt doesn't seem to have much of an impact.
If you have one of the units without the fine tuning in the handle, then you must have one of the auto tune units. They are the most desired of the BP models. Yours should have a small button in the upper left corner that, when pushed will retune the unit.
Reg
PS: I forgot to mention that the red button simply shorts out a resistor on the autotune circuit. If that button is replaced with a pot such as a 1 meg and a resistor is placed in series, then you can have an adjustable speed autotune design. This helps in really bad ground.
The brass bolt and nut will not have much, if any impact. Generally, the bolt used is made of stainless steel but I have one BP2 that has a plain steel bolt and that would be the worse of all possible types of bolts. Even the steel bolt doesn't seem to have much of an impact.
If you have one of the units without the fine tuning in the handle, then you must have one of the auto tune units. They are the most desired of the BP models. Yours should have a small button in the upper left corner that, when pushed will retune the unit.
Reg
PS: I forgot to mention that the red button simply shorts out a resistor on the autotune circuit. If that button is replaced with a pot such as a 1 meg and a resistor is placed in series, then you can have an adjustable speed autotune design. This helps in really bad ground.
Pushing the button isn't necessary since the autotune is always working. Keep the coil level and use a smooth sweep and all will be fine. Pushing the button and using sloppy techniques will result in the detector being out of the best tune setting, so don't use the autotune to compensate for bad sweep techniques.
Remember, this detector is ground sensitive, meaning the worse the ground conditions, the harder it will be to keep the unit tuned for maximum performance even if you push the button often. Raising the coil a little helps but depth is lost when that is done.
This detector works best in mild ground.
Always push the button over clear ground, otherwise, the detector will be out of tune by a long ways.
Reg
Remember, this detector is ground sensitive, meaning the worse the ground conditions, the harder it will be to keep the unit tuned for maximum performance even if you push the button often. Raising the coil a little helps but depth is lost when that is done.
This detector works best in mild ground.
Always push the button over clear ground, otherwise, the detector will be out of tune by a long ways.
Reg