Beach Hunting With My AT PRO

[Lenmcgold]

Going to Pacific Ocean soon for some beach hunting. Would like your thoughts/advice on a couple of points. I will search water line, and in the water - since this area has lots of folks detecting the drys sand areas, but few in the water. How deep should I go? The other thing is should I try Low tide, High tide, Middle tide or does it make any difference. Advice always appreciated, and the best to all. Len

 

[tomcatpl]

i always star 2-3 hours before low tide go as deep as u can go ....but i hear the at pro is not as good in the salt beaches

 

[PowerDetecting]

I see a couple people using the AT pro here in South Carolina and they seem to do good but they are always on dry sand never wet sand.. If you are going to be hunting out of the water then it doesnt matter when you go as long as there is beach to detect. If you are going to be in the water Id be there at least an hour before low tide and get out as deep as you can get.

 

[Megagold]

The ATPro falses on the beach, even with the sens down...Dig and dig and nothing there...but it will find coins and can slaw in the wet sand...

 

[Megagold]

Good Lord! Don't hunt high tide...we may never see you again!...lol Hunt low tide, but also check the sea and wind factor for your beach. An hour before and thru the low tide time. Be careful out there. I'd hunt the surf line for now until you learn more. Good luck!

 

[Sailorman]

The AT-Pro has tricks to setting up the ground balance for wet salt water. That's what gets most people in trouble with it causing falsing. I can wade and even work the surf line without issues. They are not as deep as a dedicated salt water machine but if you have one in your hand and a beach in front of you it beats having nothing!

You will need to change ground balance from dry sand to wet sand and again from there to the water. You can do the pump routine and then drop 5 to 10 points and it will usually be fine. On my beaches that usually yields 15 or so dry sand, 10 on wet sand and 5 in the water. Sense is usually about 4 bars. Coil control is important. If you're bumping the wet sand it can cause some falsing.

In the water I usually don't find much that's not large trash deeper then 6", use the coil raising trick to check for large junk. In the wet sand depth is 8" or so and dry sand like the dirt. Make sure you don't get black sand buildup in your coil cover. That's why I don't use one at the beach. They just cause problems.

 

[Bill - De]

Manually set the ground balance as said previously, to 5-10 under what the detector sets it to, for salt. Go to the beach a few hours before low tide, and you can hunt thru low tide to a few hours after. Stay knee to waist-deep water, since you are doing this for he first time. Any deeper, and you will be fighting the waves to stay upright, and hold on to your detector and scoop. Recovering targets will be a problem, as every time you pull a scoop of sand up, the hold immediately fills in. And pinpointing your target is not so easy in the water. You can't see the coil or the scoop.

Suggest you tie a lanyard to your scoop, and detector, and keep it loosely tied to, otherwise you may lose it in rough surf. Stay safe, and post back here after you return.