AT Pro target readings

[olddude]

Is there anything written that gives a basic idea of what different medals read on the AT Pro? I just got the AT Pro and am trying to learn all the different sounds and numbers that are displayed on this machine. I seem to dig more pop tops, alum foil, shotgun cases and iron washers than anything else. Anything alum sounds so good I can't help but dig it and the iron pieces with a hole in the middle always seems to fool me into digging.

I know nothing is written in stone as far as readings are concerned a lot depends on machine settings, temp, weather, soil condition...wet, dry, trace elements that make up the soil and other things. I was just wondering what other people that have used this machine are seeing on the dial for buttons or other campsite items and heaven forbid a CSA buckel or something like that.LOL

It just seems like when I was hunting mostly with the Nautilus I was finding a lot of bullets but the brass items were also poping up more often. It seems that when I was using that machine my brass finds were pretty close to being on a ratio of 5 to 1, being 5 bullets to some sort of brass item (not iron clad ratio), but you get the idea. I've been hunting with this machine for a couple months now and other than shot gun hulls I've only seen 2 small rivits and one eagle cuff button and what's sad I can't remember what the reading was or what they sounded like once they came out of the ground because they sounded just like all the rest of the junk I was diging and just happened to be something worthwhile. I've been trying to take note of the readings on the meter compared to the sound and most bullets come in from mid 50's to upper 60's with one .69 cal bullet hitting 74 on the meter and it sounded like an alum can at over 6 inches deep.

I know I'm missing some brass items that are mixed in with the trashy items but am having a hard time figuring out what and when to dig with this machine.

 

[Sleepyjim]

http://metaldetectingforum.com/group.php?do=discuss&discussionid=699


Jim

 

[jim tn]

I dug 2 bigger bullets yesterday and they were pretty much in the 74 to 76 range. Brass and copper usually sound good, but depending on depth and size of the piece, can read from 80 up to 86/87. I haven't dug a good button yet. Crushed bottle caps with some depth still get me to digging and seem to be around 77. Unfortunately, I've dug some wheat cents and at least 1 I H that read 77. Good luck. HH jim tn

 

[olddude]

I dug 2 bigger bullets yesterday and they were pretty much in the 74 to 76 range. Brass and copper usually sound good, but depending on depth and size of the piece, can read from 80 up to 86/87. I haven't dug a good button yet. Crushed bottle caps with some depth still get me to digging and seem to be around 77. Unfortunately, I've dug some wheat cents and at least 1 I H that read 77. Good luck. HH jim tn

Thanks, In the dirt I'm hunting most of the bullets read in the 60's although on huge .69 cal I dug yesterday did ring in at around 73 but it was not as deep as most of the others were. Most of the stuff I have dug in the high 80's has been junk, pop tops, small scraps of really rusted iron and yeah, the bottle caps and iron rings or washers. The only brass I have dug with this machine has been one small cuff eagle button and a couple of small rivits and they were in the 50's. The cuff button was in a hole that I had already dug 3 bullets and a buck and ball load. After I got the last small buckshot out of the hole I checked it once more and got another reading a little deeper that rang in at 54 and I thought it was another buckshot but it ended up being a small cuff button.

About the only places left to hunt that haven't been beaten to death are these large trashy areas which are a real pain but a digger has to do what a digger has to do to keep finding stuff.

 

[olddude]

http://metaldetectingforum.com/group.php?do=discuss&discussionid=699


Jim

I can see that this link will be very helpful. Thanks a million for posting it.

 

[fongu]

I have a hard time on land compared to the water and I guess it's because of the conductivity of the wet sand. I can't remember what shotgun shells show on the DVI, but they are about the size of a coin. I got skunked at a local church a week or two ago and didn't have much time to detect. Even items that had a great tone were some type of yellow foil I've never seen before. The truth is, I do better in the water and just don't have enough time on land to help much. If it's got a good tone or high range, I dig it. If it's foil or some can slaw, so be it. That's better than missing a great target. Good luck with your dirt fishing and remember even some of the people who have been doing this for decades dig a lot of junk, but they also find a lot of good targets. Babe Ruth struck out a lot but he hit a lot of home runs. I prefer my GTI-2500 on land except for an area with lots of trash. Listen for the tone and that little pip sound if you're hunting in pro zero mode, it's telling you something is worth digging. HH.

 

[Sleepyjim]

I have a hard time on land compared to the water and I guess it's because of the conductivity of the wet sand. I can't remember what shotgun shells show on the DVI, but they are about the size of a coin. I got skunked at a local church a week or two ago and didn't have much time to detect. Even items that had a great tone were some type of yellow foil I've never seen before. The truth is, I do better in the water and just don't have enough time on land to help much. If it's got a good tone or high range, I dig it. If it's foil or some can slaw, so be it. That's better than missing a great target. Good luck with your dirt fishing and remember even some of the people who have been doing this for decades dig a lot of junk, but they also find a lot of good targets. Babe Ruth struck out a lot but he hit a lot of home runs. I prefer my GTI-2500 on land except for an area with lots of trash. Listen for the tone and that little pip sound if you're hunting in pro zero mode, it's telling you something is worth digging. HH.

True!
Even the Garrett videos show non good stuff being found.....

Jim

 

[olddude]

I have a hard time on land compared to the water and I guess it's because of the conductivity of the wet sand. I can't remember what shotgun shells show on the DVI, but they are about the size of a coin. I got skunked at a local church a week or two ago and didn't have much time to detect. Even items that had a great tone were some type of yellow foil I've never seen before. The truth is, I do better in the water and just don't have enough time on land to help much. If it's got a good tone or high range, I dig it. If it's foil or some can slaw, so be it. That's better than missing a great target. Good luck with your dirt fishing and remember even some of the people who have been doing this for decades dig a lot of junk, but they also find a lot of good targets. Babe Ruth struck out a lot but he hit a lot of home runs. I prefer my GTI-2500 on land except for an area with lots of trash. Listen for the tone and that little pip sound if you're hunting in pro zero mode, it's telling you something is worth digging. HH.

Well, that's what I bought this machine for......mainly water hunting. I have so many creeks and swamps close by that saw a lot of action that I couldn't hunt in with my Nautilus. The Nautie has been acting up so I had to send it off to the doctor to get patched back up and once I started hunting with this machine I wanted to keep at it until I learned it to the point I had confidence in it. I never got the chance to hunt the places I want to because hunting season came in and you have to be careful in the woods while that's going on. Hopefully I'll have this machine figured out enough by the time it goes out to to get into a few spots I have been wanting to look at before the bugs come back out in the spring.

Do the sounds and signals read the same in the water as they make on dirt? Or.....will I have to learn the machine all over again once I take it to the water?

 

[mudpuppy]

I bought this machine primarily for water/beach/wet hunting...Its mainly in the water, excluding the beach, I've not dug any target on land with it yet!. I run Pro Zero, iron off, 40 disc, and as soft a sens as the bottom dictates. If I'm hunting a hard bottom, then I run the sens down about 3 clicks...mid range or less...if theres a lot of trash and iron, you can sort of hover the coil off the bottom a few inches and try to just use the center of it as if it were a sniper coil...if I get in deep sand, I run it up until it falses on the sand ripples then back it off...It will NOT miss a ring or pulltab, or nickel even relatively deep ones running a lighter sens...thing is, dont trust the TIDs too much, get all the high iron/low foil scratchy signals you can...37 on up..you will hear the good ones even with disc set at 40 and iron off....if you are in an area with lots of shotshells, they hit 61, but so do some nice gold rings..nickels depending upon the masking and iron in the strata can come in anywhere from 42 on up to 60 with the main reading of 52ish...You should not go through any memorable learning curve from dirt to water...in fact, the both should be complementary, water hunting makes you a better dirt hunter and vice versa...a lower sens will let you hear the size of an object better and pick through iron trash real good too...Winter water hunting is very productive, nobody in your way, usually the water level is down somewhat, no boats or heat or bugs...a very good time to find some gold if thats what you are after. Listen for the size and tightness of the targets for coins and rings, after a while you wont even look at the screen except for initial set up... do not discount scratchy foil, pulltabby, or small signals, as they could be gold chains...mid range tones for gold/plat...it sure is a great machine for water hunting, I'm very happy with it.
Mud

 

[fongu]

I started out in the water and have more experience than on land, and I just know most of the time by experience if it's a good target or not. Sometimes you get fooled by the tone and the DVI readings, but the target you don't dig may be the one you're looking for. The last time I got out was in a tot lot and the coins I found hit right where they do in the water. I didn't start out in the pro mode, I started out in what I call the beginner's mode and I have such a brain fog right now I can't think of that mode. Once I got used to the beginner's mode I switched to pro mode. Remember to ground balance your detector and some times you have to do it more than once. Unless you're in a swim area or place a lot of people hang out you may not find a lot of coins. On the other hand, it might be full of relics. I myself get a stronger tone in the water because it's more conductive, but if it reads above 40 or has a good tone below 40 on the DVI, I dig it. Remember in pro mode you have to set the discrimination. Some people set it at 35-40, but I set mine based on what the trash targets are reading. If I'm hitting iron or other targets at 26, I'll set it at 28 or 30. Some times I don't set any discrimination in pro mode zero and even tho I have multiple targets, if I get that pip sound and you will hear it, I dig. Found my only 18K ring that way. I picked this ring out of about 7 other trash targets with ranges all over the place or rather the At/Pro picked it out and I was just lucky enough to dig this great target. I got a low reading but had the pip sound and found a clad dime, about 1966 or 1967 and the DVI was about 10 if I remember correctly, but I got the pip sound and dug. A chain will be all over the place sometimes.