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AT Pro in mineralized ground
- Thread starter wayne_etc
- Start date
Where I'm at the soil is moderate to highly mineralized. I haven't had a lot of experience (yet) but my AT-Pro seems to do pretty good. It ground balances in the upper 70's to low 80s. Previous to the ATP I had a Teknetics Delta 4000 with factory set GB. It didn't do very well here, at least in my opinion. Apparently highly mineralized soils are a challenge for most detectors to some extent.
it does a pretty good job. I live in Australia and we have some pretty harsh grounds here and the ATP handles it pretty well. I do have to turn down the sensitivity a little bit in the more dense areas to compensate for such conditions and you will loose some depth but that's a small price to pay for such an affordable and versatile machine. Running any machine on a single frequency (VLF) will always cause issues in heavy mineralization......... period! Manual ground balance is also your best friend in these type of conditions and the ATP does have that option 
Cheers!
Cheers!
88junior
Well-known member
Wayne I live in North Georgia tons of red clay here and I think the AT Pro does better than any detector I have used in this soil! I am going to try and eventually get a AT-Gold which is supposed to handle bad soil a little better to use on Civil War relics they supposedly hit on lower conductors better to.
nick1curtis
Member
junior now you have me thinking about an at gold. all i do is relic hunt and i just used my nautilus today on a site i have been hitting all week with the at pro and i squeaked out about 6 poncho eyes and 4 small rivets. oh yea and 2 minie balls(they were pretty deep though so i dont blame the AT 
).
the way i look at it is that the at pro/gold were built to be used in creeks/streams and beaches. they both should be able to handle high mineralization to a certain extent. i cant vouch for the gold, but the at pro gets the job done here in VA
). the way i look at it is that the at pro/gold were built to be used in creeks/streams and beaches. they both should be able to handle high mineralization to a certain extent. i cant vouch for the gold, but the at pro gets the job done here in VA
wayne_etc said:
I'll see your highly mineralized sticky red clay and raise you highly mineralized adobe with some black sand and volcanic debris thrown for the fun of it from Northern California. Nasty ground to hunt in with any metal detector. Got to cut through the mineralization to get the beeps. I've got a high end detector. Even adjusting it to optimum performance in my ground conditions, the AT Pro with the 5x8 coil attached does very well against it. I've hit solid coin targets at 8 inches and "iffies" deeper. It does what I had intended it to do and it does it very well. My ground VDIs anywhere from 85 to 92.
oakhunter27
New member
I live in ohio and when i auto gb the at pro it hits 80 tp89 but still dpes a great job of it starts chattering i just change the freq
William-NM
New member
Hi Wayne,
I have both ATs and like the AT Gold with 5x8 coil for the trashy, highly mineralized conditions that I often hunt. If you're in gold country, the ATG will be a little more sensitive to small gold and has the ground balance window and more iron discrimination. That being said, 2 of the 3 larger nuggets that I found recently were found using the AT Pro. The AT Gold is also an excellent relic and coin shooter. Of course, if you plan to hunt freshwater beaches and creeks, either machine will serve you well, but the AT Gold is not recommended for salt water beaches (it's OK in the dry sand).
Best of luck!
I have both ATs and like the AT Gold with 5x8 coil for the trashy, highly mineralized conditions that I often hunt. If you're in gold country, the ATG will be a little more sensitive to small gold and has the ground balance window and more iron discrimination. That being said, 2 of the 3 larger nuggets that I found recently were found using the AT Pro. The AT Gold is also an excellent relic and coin shooter. Of course, if you plan to hunt freshwater beaches and creeks, either machine will serve you well, but the AT Gold is not recommended for salt water beaches (it's OK in the dry sand).
Best of luck!
David-Edmonton
New member
William-NM said:
What happens to the AT Gold in salt water? Does is just go erratic? Is it of any use in such water?
William-NM
New member
I can't speak from experience - no salt water around me (darn!). Garrett doesn't recommend it for salt water use - I don't think it will ground balance. Others have said that it worked OK on the dry sand areas, though.