It is true from Minelab sight Sov GT is discontinued Dec.31st

[deepdiger60]

http://www.minelab.com/usa/consumer/knowledge-base/news?article=112873
Bummer !

 

[hershey1]

Yes along with the SE Pro. HH

 

[Smudge]

Oh Minelab, you are messing up so huge discontinuing the Sovereign.

Yeah, sure. Everybody is going to rush out and grab the CTX.

Good thinking.

 

[Critterhunter]

There are a lot of serious beach hunters out there who have the Sovereign for the sand and the Excal for the water. Just seems to me they'd want to keep that one/two punch combo going. Funny thing...I just was thumbing through a metal detecting magazine from a few months back and there was a Minelab full page ad for the Excalibur along with a pile of rings and a quote from the guy who found them. He said something like "My Excalibur and my Sovereign GT found all these at the beach for me." Right then and there you can see the brilliance of a new machine in the $1000 range that is a morphed Sov/Excal. Waterproof meter, lighter, so the ability to use on land for old coins, on the dry sand, or in the water. The AT Pro's huge success proves that one out right there.

 

[deepdiger60]

Critter since you mentioned the AT Pro ill say that is a pretty good machine i been reading bout it and watching vid,s for a month or so,might be my back-up machine next Spring great fetcher's also , there is guy from another forum Aquachigger who makes video,s of his hunts with it 35 years of experience with MD,s the video is 50 minutes very good hunt in a river with his buddy worth watching look at the end of all his finds he has at home !!!!! over the years it knocked my socks off . Just a great video Jim

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XDtV2Ee-Eg

 

[Critterhunter]

Yep, great value in a dual purpose land/water machine, being that it's light and with a full function LCD screen so it's just as comfortable on land as in the water. What, it's like going for right around $500 or so in a water/land unit. Unheard of price wise, not to mention their excellent warranty. Will it get as deep as a Sovereign or Excal on land or in the water, especially in mineralized soil or sand or salt water? No, but by the same token it's got somewhat better ability from what I hear to sound off to finer gold like thinner chains or earrings for water hunting. Most days I don't care about that for the water, as most gold dropped is in the form of rings, and even the thinnest of gold rings will bang SUPER deep on a Minelab due to them being an intact metal loop, but just the same when a beach is hit hard already with your GT or Excal be nice to wade some more and look for somewhat finer gold.

Also, many FBS guys use it as a backup on land for days of working heavy trash without the need to slow down as much in sweep speed in order to avoid missing targets. Sure, the Minelabs will pull coins out of iron or junk extremely well so long as you slow down your sweep, but on some days you drank too much coffeee and just want to move around more. Also, makes a great fast woods scouter looking for areas of activity, or say to fast clad hunt. Will it outperform a Minelab in depth on old coins or gold rings? Not from what I'm reading. Will it unmask more? Not so long as you slow down with your Minelab and are using a coil with a good sharp DD line. But just the same it has some perks for a dual purpose backup land/water unit IMO.

My main thing is I can wade belly button deep already with my GT chest mounted, so while I know the Excal is cream of the crop in terms of a water unit, I just can't see paying that much for a duplicate of my GT to go that last two feet. So I'm willing to trade off a bit in depth for a much lower price fot foot of that extra wading depth. Besides, sooner or later I'll be picking up a Plano waterproof box to throw my GT into on days I'm water hunting, mounted on a back shaft snap on extension, to wade that last two feet, so I only want the At Pro for the cheap price, the extra sensitivity to non-ring finer gold, and as a back up on land for fast sweep days or say when it's raining. At that price it's worth it, but for sure for the best depth on coins or gold rings, both at the beach or on land, then it's the Excal or Sovereign all the way.

Unmasking ability in terms of recovery speed is a non-issue so far as I'm concerned so long as you don't sweep like you are launching a golf ball. Separation/unmasking is more related to the sharpness of the coil's detection field IMO. You can't unmask what a coil can't see separately. Besides, I prefer slow for working dead sites now to really sniff around, and I think slow hits on deep stuff harder too since the machine ain't trying to reset on you. I've owned fast and slow over the years. These days I prefer slow on most days, but I still want fast here and there...

Regardless, at it's price for a full function land/water unit, the AT Pro is at least worth worthy consideration as a backup unit for situations. It's just too cheap of a machine not to consider, and that's coming from a guy who was never a Garrett fan for years. Great value there, but just the same in terms of the premium of water units the Excal is where it's at. Nothing better for super deep coins or even the thinnest of gold rings. Look elsewhere for fine chains or tiny earings, like say a Tesoro, but I hear the AT Pro is at least better than the BBS or FBS units at that fine stuff.

 

[E-TREC-Virginia]

Critter since you mentioned the AT Pro ill say that is a pretty good machine i been reading bout it and watching vid,s for a month or so,might be my back-up machine next Spring great fetcher's also , there is guy from another forum Aquachigger who makes video,s of his hunts with it 35 years of experience with MD,s the video is 50 minutes very good hunt in a river with his buddy worth watching look at the end of all his finds he has at home !!!!! over the years it knocked my socks off . Just a great video Jim

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XDtV2Ee-Eg

Thanks for sharing the video. Very impressed with now the AT Pro preformed and seeing their setup for fresh water river hunting was very helpful as well. Do you have any contact info for Aquachigger as I would like to get in touch with him to see if he would be interested in getting together for a hunt. I believe he is pretty close to me based on the location where he made his video.

 

[Roscue2]

He said something like "My Excalibur and my Sovereign GT found all these at the beach for me." Right then and there you can see the brilliance of a new machine in the $1000 range that is a morphed Sov/Excal. Waterproof meter, lighter, so the ability to use on land for old coins, on the dry sand, or in the water. The AT Pro's huge success proves that one out right there.

I do not think ML will make a $1000 beach machine that combines the Sov/Excal. IMO that would be undermining the CTX with its $2000+ price tag. It would appear that the CTX is the water machine ML wants to compete with for the moment IMO.

HH and GL

 

[deepdiger60]

Critter since you mentioned the AT Pro ill say that is a pretty good machine i been reading bout it and watching vid,s for a month or so,might be my back-up machine next Spring great fetcher's also , there is guy from another forum Aquachigger who makes video,s of his hunts with it 35 years of experience with MD,s the video is 50 minutes very good hunt in a river with his buddy worth watching look at the end of all his finds he has at home !!!!! over the years it knocked my socks off . Just a great video Jim

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XDtV2Ee-Eg

Thanks for sharing the video. Very impressed with now the AT Pro preformed and seeing their setup for fresh water river hunting was very helpful as well. Do you have any contact info for Aquachigger as I would like to get in touch with him to see if he would be interested in getting together for a hunt. I believe he is pretty close to me based on the location where he made his video.

Steve i dont not know him personally but if you go to this link you can contact him I been following his finds since 2008 .HH Jim

http://www.youtube.com/user/aquachigger

 

[deepdiger60]

Yep, great value in a dual purpose land/water machine, being that it's light and with a full function LCD screen so it's just as comfortable on land as in the water. What, it's like going for right around $500 or so in a water/land unit. Unheard of price wise, not to mention their excellent warranty. Will it get as deep as a Sovereign or Excal on land or in the water, especially in mineralized soil or sand or salt water? No, but by the same token it's got somewhat better ability from what I hear to sound off to finer gold like thinner chains or earrings for water hunting. Most days I don't care about that for the water, as most gold dropped is in the form of rings, and even the thinnest of gold rings will bang SUPER deep on a Minelab due to them being an intact metal loop, but just the same when a beach is hit hard already with your GT or Excal be nice to wade some more and look for somewhat finer gold.

Also, many FBS guys use it as a backup on land for days of working heavy trash without the need to slow down as much in sweep speed in order to avoid missing targets. Sure, the Minelabs will pull coins out of iron or junk extremely well so long as you slow down your sweep, but on some days you drank too much coffeee and just want to move around more. Also, makes a great fast woods scouter looking for areas of activity, or say to fast clad hunt. Will it outperform a Minelab in depth on old coins or gold rings? Not from what I'm reading. Will it unmask more? Not so long as you slow down with your Minelab and are using a coil with a good sharp DD line. But just the same it has some perks for a dual purpose backup land/water unit IMO.

My main thing is I can wade belly button deep already with my GT chest mounted, so while I know the Excal is cream of the crop in terms of a water unit, I just can't see paying that much for a duplicate of my GT to go that last two feet. So I'm willing to trade off a bit in depth for a much lower price fot foot of that extra wading depth. Besides, sooner or later I'll be picking up a Plano waterproof box to throw my GT into on days I'm water hunting, mounted on a back shaft snap on extension, to wade that last two feet, so I only want the At Pro for the cheap price, the extra sensitivity to non-ring finer gold, and as a back up on land for fast sweep days or say when it's raining. At that price it's worth it, but for sure for the best depth on coins or gold rings, both at the beach or on land, then it's the Excal or Sovereign all the way.

Unmasking ability in terms of recovery speed is a non-issue so far as I'm concerned so long as you don't sweep like you are launching a golf ball. Separation/unmasking is more related to the sharpness of the coil's detection field IMO. You can't unmask what a coil can't see separately. Besides, I prefer slow for working dead sites now to really sniff around, and I think slow hits on deep stuff harder too since the machine ain't trying to reset on you. I've owned fast and slow over the years. These days I prefer slow on most days, but I still want fast here and there...

Regardless, at it's price for a full function land/water unit, the AT Pro is at least worth worthy consideration as a backup unit for situations. It's just too cheap of a machine not to consider, and that's coming from a guy who was never a Garrett fan for years. Great value there, but just the same in terms of the premium of water units the Excal is where it's at. Nothing better for super deep coins or even the thinnest of gold rings. Look elsewhere for fine chains or tiny earings, like say a Tesoro, but I hear the AT Pro is at least better than the BBS or FBS units at that fine stuff.

As a back-up machine price wise and the ability's it as IMO you cant go wrong something to seriously look in to this Winter . Jim

 

[Neil]

Critter since you mentioned the AT Pro ill say that is a pretty good machine i been reading bout it and watching vid,s for a month or so,might be my back-up machine next Spring great fetcher's also , there is guy from another forum Aquachigger who makes video,s of his hunts with it 35 years of experience with MD,s the video is 50 minutes very good hunt in a river with his buddy worth watching look at the end of all his finds he has at home !!!!! over the years it knocked my socks off . Just a great video Jim

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XDtV2Ee-Eg

Jim they are excellent detectors. Ive got the pro and gold versions. if you haven any questions about them shoot me a pm, ive been using them for a few months now and know them pretty well.

 

[Critterhunter]

As a back-up machine price wise and the ability's it as IMO you cant go wrong something to seriously look in to this Winter . Jim

I've been watching some videos on it and talking to a few people who own them and can give me some contrast to other machines. Seems like a solid unit. Saw one video where the guy stuck a $1 gold piece (which is very small) on edge in the crack of his wood patio floor and obviously had nails around it that the patio was built with. It sounded off to that coin on edge no problem, which was very impressive, because it's small, thin, and on edge...So you'd think it's presenting a very tiny low conductive edge for the machine to see.

That *might* speak some to it's ability to hit a bit finer gold items than a Minelab, but the coin still being an intact "loop" that's not a sure statement about said abilities. Some guys are saying it's got somewhat better ability on thinner chains or tiny earrings than a Minelab. I don't care about that kind of sensitivity on land. Makes a machine too noisy IMO having owned several units over the years that had finer gold ability, and on most days in the water I ain't looking for that kind of stuff anyway and rather am after gold rings, but just the same on a "dead" beach you've already worked out with a Minelab, there might be some merit to re-scanning with the AT Pro maybe for somewhat smaller stuff. The Minelabs will hit even the thinnest of gold rings at extreme depth due to them being an intact loop, though. I ain't worried about that.

I am worried about it's higher frequency though in my soils or sands. Every single frequency machine I ever owned or tried in my soil over the years had issues with depth and stability due to my minerals.

Really I'd never even consider one if it was say $800 or more. Then I might as well buy an Excal for that better performance and depth in mineralized beaches, but for the low price of the thing just too tempting not to pick one up as a land/water backup and such to my Minelabs. Even on most days though I'd rather chest mount my GT to wade with, and when I pick up a $20 Planno waterproof box to throw my GT into for water hunting days to go deeper, I probably wouldn't even break out the AT all that much at all for the water, so in no way am I trying to say it's the answer to a Minelab on the beach and such.

Never was a big Garrett fan myself. Didn't like anything from them I've owned or used over the years until the Pro Pointer came along. Hear the Ace 250 is a pretty deep little machine for it's price and makes a great starter unit. The Pro Pointer and that Ace made me pay a little more attention to them, and now the amazing low price of that AT Pro has me taking a serious look here.

Don't want to sound like I'm pushing it over a Minelab though, because I ain't. We all know how awesome the Minelabs are on land or in water...