Beach hunting

[makitaman60]

Going back to the gulf coast this weekend this time I'm taking the AT Pro. Any advice on the settings for beach hunting. I'll be on the Florida panhandle closed to Destin to give you some idea on the type of beach if some of you have hunted this area before let me know what you recommend. I used my Etrac last weekend no big finds but I was surprised on the depth I was getting on some coins. Got the AT mainly for River and creeks but would like to see how it measures up on the beach. Only true way to compare is have them both there hitting the same target, but I would like to get the feel of it on the beach just to see how it reacts to the ground. Anyways let me hear from y'all .

 

[mudpuppy]

Dancer was just there with his Pro in Feb...and he hunted hard for a good amount of time, we got a lot of good info from him regarding settings and whatnot...scroll back through the Forum to early/mid Feb..

Anyway, what he said, on the dry sand, you will be able to skip along very briskly with the Pro with great depth and no loss of performance...Let us know how you do!
Mud

 

[Dancer]

Makita, the Pro is great on the dry, not bad on most wet. Some beaches have more trash than others. So I ran dis. 35-40. The sens. as high as you can stand. Many places I could run full out.
I hunt Panama City Beach couple months a winter. Heavily hunted. The Pro will go deep. I really think the difference in depth between machines is the hunter. The Pro can really sort out the targets once you learn the tones.

 

[Ytcoinshooter]

It's great in dry sand. In wet sand don't let your coil false by touching it to the sand as you swing. A manual ground balance and a huge reduction in sens may help.

 

[jim tn]

I've been on the Ga coast with mine and dry sand is a breeze and can dig some very deep targets. Over wet sand my g b was in the teens and while a little chattery, I could easily tell targets and running pro 0 with max or near max sen. Have fun and good luck, Lot of targets in the dry sand two summers ago when we visited Destin towards the fall. HH jim tn

 

[Power Guy]

Heading to Indian Rocks Beach for a family reunion in August. (AT pro will be joining me)

 

[Forrest Mc]

I was there two years ago and the AT Pro did fine in the dry. I ground balanced normally and ran in Pro Zero, 33 discrim, full sensitivity in the dry sand. Down in the wet up to my knees in water I ran the ground balance about 15 as I recall. It was my first try at wet detecting in the surf and didn't stay in more than 15 minutes due to buffeting by the surf and tide. Most of our finds were at the towel and umbrella line. We would go out after the sunbathers left and the attendant put the umbrellas away for the night. In the mornings about 7ish a tractor worked the dry sand pulling a motorized screener. Now there is a great part time job with benefits!

 

[makitaman60]

great guys thanks for the info. I'll get you a update on how it turns out.

 

[makitaman60]

OK guys , I scored 24 cents two dimes and four pennies. Some piece of jewelry looks like silver. But anyway had a great time. The coins I found were shallow, so this isn't a good comparison to Etrac.My lesson learned was to be able to operate both machines and have some idea of what I was doing. The AT Pro really faults on wet sand but it was adjustable, ran the discrenation couple down from top. I personaly think the etrac would out perform. Thanks !!