Garret AT PRO will be here soon!

[LittleJohn]

I have a Garrett AT PRO on the way with the the stock coil as well as the 5X8. It will be my daughters machine, and I plan to use it a bit to become familiar with it as well. She has been detecting with me for a couple of seasons now and she is very familiar with the Tesoro Tejon, just not as proficient as she could be....but that was a difficult machine for me to master as well...it took time swinging it to learn all the warbles and snaps and crackles.

Hopefully the AT PRO will shorten the learning curve a bit for her and allow her to dig better targets instead of anything that makes a beep under her coil. Once she starts having a higher percentage of success, I believe that she will really enjoy the hobby a lot more...she likes it a lot now, but I think it will even make it more enjoyable for her with better finds.

Plan is to do some park hunting for clad and jewelry to build her confidence level with the machine before we head to the relic fields with it. I enjoy reading ya'alls posts about the AT PRO and any advice on the setup of the AT PRO for a Garrett newbie is greatly appreciated. Thanks

LittleJohn

 

[jim tn]

Have her play (and you)a bit with all the modes just so she gets a feel for them all. Pro Zero is a great mode for old coin hunting. Keep everything a little tame for a few hours. Good luck, its a wonderful all around detector. HH jim tn

 

[mudpuppy]

Congratulations! Lets see..Basic assembly....be very careful when you attach the headphones and the coil, do not be heavy handed as you attempt to do this..make sure those little pins are straight and get into their sockets....and make sure they are seated properly before you tighten up the collar nuts....you can also remove the shaft camlocks if you wish, especially if this machine will be deployed in the water, seems little fine grit gets in them and they are about impossible to unscrew...takes a pair of channellocks! I even filed the raised rings on the lower shaft off, sanded the lower shaft some and hit it with a fine car wax...there was so much grit in mine, I had to pound the lower shaft out of there with a mallet, and hone the inside with a dowel and some wet/dry paper!
It makes changing the batteries easier too, without that upper one, and I have had no trouble with shaft wobble...other than that, wrap coil cable around shaft and gently tape it off 6" or so above the coil so it dont flop around..
And like Jim said, run sort of soft for a bit...plenty o power 3 clicks down from full sens! Chose a comfortable program...I like ProZero, 40 disc, iron off for water hunting...I'll go iron on when swinging the beach though, I like to find knives, lighters and whatnot there....good thing is this is a very active Forum, and folks are using the Pro for many varieties of hunting and willing to help. You are a great Father! Good Luck!
Mud

 

[John-Edmonton]

I think she will like the Pro. The TID, which can be like a double edged sword both good and bad, will really shorten the learning curve. Dad's responsibility to remind her that TID is not always telling the truth.

You are a very lucky man. Your daughter likes to metal detect also. All my 4 kids only came out with me when they were very young, and I had to keep them in suspense by seeding the sand with coins at the playgrounds. When they got older, they just lost interest. Hunting with your daughter will always give her some great memories later on.

Good luck to both of you!

John

 

[LittleJohn]

Thanks guys, I wondered for the first year or two if she would stick with it, but she has...and now it's time for her to move to the next step. I am pretty excited for her, I told her about the new machine and she is really looking forward to using it and learning with it.

Unfortunately today we are getting slammed with 8-12 inches of snow and zero or sub zero weather with drifting snow and wind. So....we wont be able to get out any time soon, but I can assure you we will be airtesting her new machine until the batteries wear out...I am pretty sure of that!

I know all too well that TID machines can be a double edged sword, and she will learn that as well... like we all had to. I cant wait for the look on her face when she pulls out her first silver coin or piece of jewelry.

Thanks for the setup advice...looks like it's time to hunker down for a cold snap with snow and hot chocolate.

LittleJohn

 

[asiandigger]

Man you made a great purchase. I got my Garrett AT Pro on July 28, 2013, spent 2 weeks learning the tones and VDI (ran only on (PRO ZERO MODE). I'm at 32 rings and a little over a $1000 dollars and clads.
15 gold rings... 10 (14K rings)... 2 (10K rings)..... 3 (14K White gold rings)..8 junk rings....9 (.925 silver ring) strictly hunting public parks only) . along with 6 silver dimes and 1 half dollar benjamin. I'm more of a Jewelry and clad hunter don't care much about relics. Oh forgot to mention I ran it with the 8x11 coil for awhile but now using the 5x8 ( so good I sold the big coil and never took of the small coil again) Good luck on your new AT PRO

 

[LittleJohn]

It arrived yesterday in the mail! I got everything put together and did some reading in the owners manual and then fired it up to do some it testing and listen to it's sound. I put it in Pro mode/zero and started listening to the different coins.

With the 5x8 coil it was air testing on most common clad coins at 8-9 inches, even a nickel! Spent about a half hour showing the daughter how to pinpoint with it and air testing. She is stoked! If we didnt have 10 inches of snow in the front yard and 3 degrees outside, I am certain she would have been in the test garden!

Looking forward to the spring thaw, I am pretty sure when she gets this machine figured out good...she will be showing me how it's all done. I really do like the AT PRO from what I have seen so far and she couldn't stop smiling yesterday in anticipation of going out detecting again. I'm sure she will be posting her "finds". Thanks ya'all.

LittleJohn

 

[William-NM]

Heck, yeah - I'd be pretty excited too! That'll be a great machine for her. It's harsh that you have to wait for the weather to break, but there are a lot of great youtube videos and maybe she'll get interested in researching sites to hunt. It's fun to learn some local history along the way!

 

[Night Crawler]

Hi LittleJohn

Just a heads up on the coil changes which I have to remind myself to do is a "Factory Reset" when you swap coils (then the usual ground balance). It gets a bit "Buggy" if you don't Reset the machine after a coil change (mine does anyways).

Just a reminder if you weren't already aware of it LJ, I didn't see you mention that when you put the 5X8 coil on the machine.

With the 5x8 coil it was air testing on most common clad coins at 8-9 inches, even a nickel! Spent about a half hour showing the daughter how to pinpoint with it and air testing.
LittleJohn

 

[LittleJohn]

How do I do a factory reset?

 

[metalhead]

How do I do a factory reset?

While detector is on, press and hold the power button for 5 to 10 seconds until detector produces a fast double beep. This will restore to factory settings(pg4 & pg11 ofowner's manual)or pgs w/display shown w/explanation of controls.
Happy Hunting!

 

[Night Crawler]

Hi LJ

metalhead gave you the proper way to reset the machine.

The one thing I would like to mention here, is once you have done the reset, the machine will deault back to STD Mode, just select the Mode you want to run in then Ground Balance after that.