New AT Pro User with some basic questions

[Locusman_Fla]

Hi AT Pro Forum Members:

I am rather new to the AT Pro machine - I have had it for about 6 months but have not gotten around to using it much until recently.

I was using it last week in a trashy park near a salt water beach. I have so far only really used the Coins mode with the standard elliptical coil.
I noticed that it is capable of getting very good depth, but that it gets overwhelmed with false signals and/or overloads in a high-trash environment if you don't back off the sensitivity significantly (like to 3 or 4 bars). And I noticed that a very slow sweep speed seems to work better in high target density areas also.

This particular beach park is riddled with rusty bottlecaps and nails - along with coins, ptabs, jewelry and the whole nine yards. The AT gets fooled sometimes on the bottlecaps - it thinks they are coins, but reading tends to be much jumpier than a true coin signal I have noticed. Maybe I need to play with the Iron Audio feature and see if that helps. The AT pro did fairly well the day I used it - but I couldn't get much depth on targets due to having to back the sensitivity down so much.

In general, I just want to get some more experienced users' opinions on the Iron Audio feature to see if that would help my performance in these type of high-trash areas.

Thanks in Advance,

Locusman - Florida

 

[Rick1-2]

hello, i usually leave my iron audio on like that when i get a good tone with no iron then i dig it, bottle caps do sound good sometimes, most of the times actually especially those aluminum ones, the ones on beer bottles have a different sound to them that u can tell with the iron audio, i use mine on pro zero with discrimination up to 35, the more u use it the better you'll get, i do sweep a little fast until i get a good tone then i go over it slow, sometimes when u sweep fast over a target it sounds good and when u go over it again slow real slow u get more info about it, good luck and have fun.

 

[copper kidd]

I use pro zero mode with iron disc around 22. In my areas that I hunt there is usually a lot of square nails and screws that will get canceled out at 22-23, and I leave the iron audio off. You will still hear the iron grunts but will not get a ding or ring sound. If you hit a target that sounds iffy, then switch your iron disc on and you will get a VDI reading of it usually. Leaving your iron disc off will help with deeper targets that are faint sounding with no VDI read out, but you will still hear the iron grunts.
So when you hit a target that sounds good, (no iron grunts) go over it again with the iron disc on and listen good , then again switch iron disc off and go over again. If all sounds good , dig it.
You can also take a bottle cap and bury it, now go over it slowly and you will here a grunt, good signal, grunt as you pass over it. The iron grunt will come first as you approach the target, then you will get a good signal and then hear a iron grunt as you pass the target. Try it out, learn the sounds and readings you get with different objects.
If you are in an area that has a lot of lets say 2" nails laying around, get the VDI from a few then notch that number out, and you will eliminate the nail problem, but also any good target in the same reading. Trade offs.
Go on you tube and watch some Garret AT Pro instruction videos, they may also help you out.

Good luck and HH

 

[John-Edmonton]

[size=large]Hunting in standard mode makes the detector more sensitive to all targets, resulting in it appearing unstable. Turn back the sensitivity, and you should get better results. Hunting in pro mode is what I suggest. The tones are not as erratic, and Pro Mode's tones give you better quality to help with discrimination abilities. If you have the 5 x 8 inch coil, use it in trashy parks. It will get better target separation. Below are some suggestions to help increase your target finds.[/size]

[size=large]* With the AT Pro, learn and hunt in Pro mode. It is deeper then standard mode. With the AT Gold, the all metal mode is deeper then Disc 1 or Disc 2.

* Has a place been hunted out? Go back and try again after a good rain soaking. Moist wet soil gives better sensitivity and greater depth readings for targets.

* If you get a nice high aHow To Get Maximum Depth + Performance Out Of Your AT Series ( Pro & Gold)
udio and a VDI in the 70's or 80's, dig it.

* The larger the coil the deeper it goes. However, too many targets under a large coil can mask a good target. If you get a slight good audio using the large coil, lift it up 2-3 inches and center the coil where the good audio was. Often times the good target will be much clearer.

* Get a coil cover and scrub the ground. Some people scan the ground inches above it...."DON'T" You can gain a couple of inches scrubbing, which is significant.

* Don't swing too fast! Just because it has a very fast "recovery speed"......doesn't mean it can always pick out that one good silver coin amongst several pieces of junk. The electronics still need to process lots of information.

"SWING TOO FAST, YOU WILL COME IN LAST"

* Swinging too fast can make you a sloppy hunter. You also risk eventually cracking/breaking your coil and elephant ears from the constant banging on trees, playground equipment or concrete.

* If you are getting lots of EMI or increased mineralization which is causing erratic audio, try adjusting your discrimination first, before lowering the sensitivity. This sometimes lets the machine run smoother without losing any depth.

* If you get mixture of audio signals, scan the target from different directions. Sometimes a good target is beside or partially underneath a good target. The AT Series has a unique ability to pick out those good targets amongst the trash. Going at the target from different directions allows the AT Pro to perform even better!

* Ground balance your machine occasionally. Temperature can change, and directly affect the settings. Hunting in shade vs. sun can vary. "a 14 degree difference on a lawn area to a 35 degree difference on a parking lot." But, the mineralization can also change between areas....so again...ground balance periodically.

* To increase the depth/sensitivity to silver targets, lower the ground balanced numbers 10-20 points

* If you are hunting an area that is absolutely covered with nails, try ground balancing out a nail until it is nothing but a small amount of static. Now....all the copper & silver targets will give a loud audio response....BUT the target ID will be off.

*Bottle cap? Stomp hard on the target. Often times, an old bottles cap's halo will break, and the reading will change from a good coin sounding target to a bottle cap or junk.
Don't forget to use the iron audio feature if searching for coins or silver.

* Build a test garden...use good & bad targets at different depths. You will soon discover that deep silver targets beyond depths of 8 or more inches begin to not sound off as a high pitch or that the VDI numbers remain in the 80's. That is very good information to know. My rule of thumb states if it's deep....it's old. Dig it! It costs you nothing.[/size]

Below is my test garden.......just an example of how you might want to construct one......

 

[jim tn]

My favorite settings for sniffing out the old and usually thus, the better stuff, is iron audio off, pro zero mode, 0 disc and full sen. I like to hear everything and listen for that mellow high tone intermingled next to iron or other trash items. The A T Pro is a great detector for hunting trash and iron, but is not a notorious depth demon. Hence, why I usually opt for full sen. Listen to the target carefully, bottle caps usually have a clip sound at their edge as you swing over them. Good luck! HH jim tn

 

[Leslie(nova scotia)]

try the youtube vids as they are very useful.

Run my old beast in the pro zero mode, two bare west and iron at 19. Hope she serves youz well!

 

[ohiochris]

You just have to get some more experience with it , learn what its telling you. If you leave the iron audio on it can drive you nuts , especially in a place like that. I would advise you to leave the iron audio off and just turn it on to check targets for iron , if you get the iron grunt just before and/or just after you pas over the target then you know its either iron or there is iron nearby. If multiple targets are possible then work the coil over the spot from different angles and develop a mental picture of whats in the ground and how the targets relate to each other. It wont help you on all of them but it helps on some. There is a difference between knowing how to use the functions and actually putting it into practice , hands on experience and repetition is what teaches your brain how to interpret what the detector and its functions are telling you.

 

[langsy]

https://youtu.be/1rB5Ke3SVdM https://youtu.be/NxQvxEa2Tb4 2 links from garrett MD a trashy park it might help and an instructional vid from garrett type garrett at pro basics on you tube and it will bring up 7 instructional vids on how to use the at pro