Pyledriver
Active member
I finally got some alone time with my AT Pro!! I spent an afternoon at a local lake that has been frustrating me for a couple years now. The reason this lake is frustrating is that it has yielded 2 gold rings from the same beach, and I can't manage to find much else since then. THAT compounded by the fact that it apparently used to be a pulltab dumping ground, PLUS it's all clay 'round here and they just spread sand over the top of it. Just for extra measure, parts of this beach are gooey, jello-like mush that will stick you in place and just piss you off enough to skip wading those parts. Now all that fun is just ONE large swim beach! However, I feel there is much more to find here once I unlock the secrets of this particular beach...
My hunt started out in the sand-it was very windy and in the 40's so the water wasn't really looking too appealing! I walked along the wash line-where the waves break and the finer sand is towards land, and the coarser stuff along the water's edge. I walked the entire beach line (including the quagmire) and found a ton of pulltabs as usual for this place. I also pulled some bottlecaps-they sound mostly like good stuff and even with iron ID on, they'll still fool you unless you want to spend a lot of time swinging and examining the signal. Now I will say that by then end of the day my ear had been trained to where I knew the sound of a bottlecap and my digs confirmed that I am now trained! This was a dig it all hunt and I knew it would be uphill all the way! About lunch time I decided I needed to head back to the Jeep and get some vittles but I just had to check out a really rough looking patch of beach that had big rocks and trash scattered throughout. Well what do you know...THAT'S where all those coins have been hiding!! So this real-world revelation reminded me that I had read about the phenomenon of heavies collecting in one spot. Another hour passed while I dug up fishing weights, dimes and nickles..but no pennies.
After lunch I got some energy back-remember, this was a 'dig it all' hunt-and decided to work the areas of the beach that had obvious washing from water erosion on land cutting the sand and washing it into the water. I found more coins, pennies mostly, along with another few pounds of pulltabs and bottlecaps. Finally back down to the water's edge, I decided to go ahead and get in. Once in the water I began to find pennies. A little further out and nickels and quarters started appearing. After concentrating on the ends of the large washes going out about knee deep, I finally had a few finds to put in my mud-covered pouch. Naturally this is about the time the phone rings and reminds me of my evening appointments! Did I mention that Mr. Murphy is in control of my Outlook calendar? LOL...
So the finds at the end of the day were about $2.00 in clad, several fishing weights, a junk buckle from a swimsuit, and enough pulltabs and beavertails to start a nice recycling bin. This is about what I expected from this beach but as I mentioned, I know there is more gold there to be found. I just need a partner and a quick diet so I can fit into my wetsuit!
Now, my thoughts on the AT Pro. HOLY CRAP, it's almost too deep for this beach!! I dug scoop after scoop of sand, all the way down to the clay base in some places, which was over a foot, and even into the clay at times. My arm was worn out from working that scoop! There were times that I would dig and dig and finally decided that the clay could keep it's secrets! Now all that was with a sensitivity of 5, I never bothered to bump it up any. The AT ran smoothly, only chattering when I first started into the water, which I quickly fixed by strapping the cable down tightly to the shaft. It does have more muffled signal tones when in the water-like all my other detectors I've waded with. I'm finally getting the hang of pinpointing with this coil. I got into a habit of skipping the pinpoint function because my Scorpion and Excal were so exact with the target being at the front of the coil. The AT targets (doing the DD drag) seem to be 'frontish' on the coil, but a bit back, like around the first opening in the spiderweb of the coil. Once I got that down, I quit using the pinpoint function and had no trouble. I couldn't resist dunking the detector just for grins, which it shook off just like it's supposed to. The control housing is slightly buoyant, which will come in handy for me in future cache hunts where we'll be using a river to access our location. At least I know that it won't sink to the bottom and be lost forever! If snorkeling (in 10' or less) I may decide to add some weight, we'll just have to see! A couple other things I noticed, keep your scoop WELL away from the coil! If you're wearing waders double check if there is a steel shank in the boots. My solution to both of these problems was to extend the shaft one notch, and watch what I was doing. I'm happy I put the rod extender on this detector.
The waterproof phones..are waterproof, loud, at least until I put a piece of rubber in there, and seemed pretty comfortable to my uneducated cranium. The detector cleaned up easily and I particularly noticed that the shaft did NOT get all jammed up with sand like my Excal! I think I'm gonna leave that coil wobble, it's not that bad to begin with! So my AT has earned it's place right next to my 1911 .45 auto. It has some slop to use in bad conditions, is comfortable after just a couple mods, and has plenty enough power to confidently get the job done, accurate, and just quirky enough to match my personality! Now I just need to get out and use it more!
My hunt started out in the sand-it was very windy and in the 40's so the water wasn't really looking too appealing! I walked along the wash line-where the waves break and the finer sand is towards land, and the coarser stuff along the water's edge. I walked the entire beach line (including the quagmire) and found a ton of pulltabs as usual for this place. I also pulled some bottlecaps-they sound mostly like good stuff and even with iron ID on, they'll still fool you unless you want to spend a lot of time swinging and examining the signal. Now I will say that by then end of the day my ear had been trained to where I knew the sound of a bottlecap and my digs confirmed that I am now trained! This was a dig it all hunt and I knew it would be uphill all the way! About lunch time I decided I needed to head back to the Jeep and get some vittles but I just had to check out a really rough looking patch of beach that had big rocks and trash scattered throughout. Well what do you know...THAT'S where all those coins have been hiding!! So this real-world revelation reminded me that I had read about the phenomenon of heavies collecting in one spot. Another hour passed while I dug up fishing weights, dimes and nickles..but no pennies.
After lunch I got some energy back-remember, this was a 'dig it all' hunt-and decided to work the areas of the beach that had obvious washing from water erosion on land cutting the sand and washing it into the water. I found more coins, pennies mostly, along with another few pounds of pulltabs and bottlecaps. Finally back down to the water's edge, I decided to go ahead and get in. Once in the water I began to find pennies. A little further out and nickels and quarters started appearing. After concentrating on the ends of the large washes going out about knee deep, I finally had a few finds to put in my mud-covered pouch. Naturally this is about the time the phone rings and reminds me of my evening appointments! Did I mention that Mr. Murphy is in control of my Outlook calendar? LOL...
So the finds at the end of the day were about $2.00 in clad, several fishing weights, a junk buckle from a swimsuit, and enough pulltabs and beavertails to start a nice recycling bin. This is about what I expected from this beach but as I mentioned, I know there is more gold there to be found. I just need a partner and a quick diet so I can fit into my wetsuit!
Now, my thoughts on the AT Pro. HOLY CRAP, it's almost too deep for this beach!! I dug scoop after scoop of sand, all the way down to the clay base in some places, which was over a foot, and even into the clay at times. My arm was worn out from working that scoop! There were times that I would dig and dig and finally decided that the clay could keep it's secrets! Now all that was with a sensitivity of 5, I never bothered to bump it up any. The AT ran smoothly, only chattering when I first started into the water, which I quickly fixed by strapping the cable down tightly to the shaft. It does have more muffled signal tones when in the water-like all my other detectors I've waded with. I'm finally getting the hang of pinpointing with this coil. I got into a habit of skipping the pinpoint function because my Scorpion and Excal were so exact with the target being at the front of the coil. The AT targets (doing the DD drag) seem to be 'frontish' on the coil, but a bit back, like around the first opening in the spiderweb of the coil. Once I got that down, I quit using the pinpoint function and had no trouble. I couldn't resist dunking the detector just for grins, which it shook off just like it's supposed to. The control housing is slightly buoyant, which will come in handy for me in future cache hunts where we'll be using a river to access our location. At least I know that it won't sink to the bottom and be lost forever! If snorkeling (in 10' or less) I may decide to add some weight, we'll just have to see! A couple other things I noticed, keep your scoop WELL away from the coil! If you're wearing waders double check if there is a steel shank in the boots. My solution to both of these problems was to extend the shaft one notch, and watch what I was doing. I'm happy I put the rod extender on this detector.
The waterproof phones..are waterproof, loud, at least until I put a piece of rubber in there, and seemed pretty comfortable to my uneducated cranium. The detector cleaned up easily and I particularly noticed that the shaft did NOT get all jammed up with sand like my Excal! I think I'm gonna leave that coil wobble, it's not that bad to begin with! So my AT has earned it's place right next to my 1911 .45 auto. It has some slop to use in bad conditions, is comfortable after just a couple mods, and has plenty enough power to confidently get the job done, accurate, and just quirky enough to match my personality! Now I just need to get out and use it more!
Thanks for the fresh water review!
I'm so glad that Garret finally came out with a fresh water wading VLF machine. I haven't purchased an AT Pro yet, but I will this spring. It'll be really nice to use at some fresh water swimming beaches. My old VLF Sea Hunter is about ready for a museum!
By the way, I love my 1911, too!
Happy Hunting!