Salt Water Surf Hunting and the AT PRO

[bearkat4160]

Brent Weaver is the engineer behind the AT PRO. I thought this might be of interest so I pulled this off the Friendly Metal Detecting Forum:

"Mineralized black-sands are a challenge for any detector. However, the AT Pro performs quite well in these conditions for the following reasons:

- The DD coil design significantly reduces the negative effects of ground minerals.

- The ground balancing function also significantly reduces the performance-robbing effects of ground minerals.

- The internal filtering and signal processing are designed to address highly mineralized environments."

 

[Tony in FL]

The many pages of marketing information on the AT PRO do not say anything about it being recommended for a salt water environment. The chart which shows the recommended uses of each Garrett detector makes it clear that the AT PRO is NOT recommended for surf hunting. Since another category is dry beach / fresh water hunting it seems that surf hunting means the water and wet sand of a salt water environment.

The Garrett detectors that are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for surf hunting use pulse induction and the ones that are simply RECOMMENDED for surf hunting have a salt water elimination mode. Since the AT PRO does not use pulse induction nor does not have a salt water elimination mode it seems logical that it is not recommended for surf hunting and would probably not fair so well in such an environment. I think it is a bummer Garrett did not add a salt water elimination mode to this detector but perhaps they felt giving it salt water capability could cannibalize sales away from some of their more expensive models.

 

[SteveP(NH)]

Brent Weaver is the engineer behind the AT PRO. I thought this might be of interest so I pulled this off the Friendly Metal Detecting Forum:

"Mineralized black-sands are a challenge for any detector. However, the AT Pro performs quite well in these conditions for the following reasons:

- The DD coil design significantly reduces the negative effects of ground minerals.

- The ground balancing function also significantly reduces the performance-robbing effects of ground minerals.

- The internal filtering and signal processing are designed to address highly mineralized environments."

If you look at what Brent said, all it says is how the AT PRO will do on black sand which by itself is a more common problem in gold fields, its the combination of salt and black sand that is the trouble at some beaches. Also in his section of the video Brent starts out by saying he designed the machine for the professional relic hunter he didn't mention ocean beach hunters.

I think the fact that Garrett did not check off the box next to Salt water beaches for the AT PRO in its buyer's guide offers much more clarity about their position about the AT PRO and salt water beaches. I know some have pointed out that the buyer's guide was printed a while ago and could be out of date but the online version says the same thing and it could be updated in 15 or 20 minutes assuming one had the original artwork to start with.

 

[Stix]

What a bunch of whiners...Wow. Those looking for a reason to bash this very versatile detector congrats. Here is your only ammo so far against it. Some of you seem so proud to put it down. Such a shame. Seems everyone needs to protect there beloved.

Grow up and enjoy the new items we get. The machine is a great step for Garrett and deserves props in specs we shall see in performance.

 

[Tony in FL]

What a bunch of whiners...Wow. Those looking for a reason to bash this very versatile detector congrats. Here is your only ammo so far against it. Some of you seem so proud to put it down. Such a shame. Seems everyone needs to protect there beloved.

Grow up and enjoy the new items we get. The machine is a great step for Garrett and deserves props in specs we shall see in performance.

No offence but you need to slow down and read the thread more carefully. The purpose of this thread was to clarify the big question on a lot of people's minds of whether or not the AT PRO is meant to be a salt water surf hunting machine. And the clarification is based on information put out by Garrett. I suspect that the AT PRO will be hugely successful in many areas and I think it is fantastic how Garrett is breaking new ground by making a water proof general purpose detector with an LCD display. However I am primarily a surf hunter in Florida and was seriously considering purchasing the AT PRO until I found out Garrett does not recommend it for salt water surf hunting. I am sure there are plenty of people living in coastal areas that were also considering the AT PRO because at first glance it seems like it might be a good salt water machine.

 

[bearkat4160]

Yeh I hear ya on that chart thingy. However Charles Garrett wrote a book about electronic prospecting and the main detector he was touting at the time was the Master Hunter CX...and every time I looked at that chart the prospecting tab was NOT checked off on that chart in accordance with the MH CX. SO much for the chart...

It will do fine in the Salt...not the best, not the worst....heck I did pretty good with my GTI 2500 in the wet salty sand and water in all metal mode on the Florida beaches when I lived there.

I dont see the big deal everyone is making...hecklers gotta heckle I guess.

As Brent said....AGAIN...."The internal filtering and signal processing are designed to address highly mineralized environments." Mmm, Salt is mineralized.

Enough said...

Alan

 

[bearkat4160]

Just wait and see if we hear some reports on the AT PRO at the beach and see how she does. I did well with my 2500 in the wet...I think the AT will do better in that environment. Dont discount it too quick till we get some reports!

Alan

 

[widebody]

[size=large]Tony in fl., your a better man than me. everyone who has voiced their concerns should be very offended by these name calling bullies.
as for you Stix, if you can afford to throw away $600 on a machine that's not going to do what you thought then go for it. others should consider cancelling their pre-orders if they thought this machine was a salt water /surf machine. i've read so many posts now that i don't know if Garrett's to blame for the missleading hype or just greedy dealers looking to cash in on what they see as good a seller as the 250 is. some of this hype could have been just an honest misreading of the way Garrett said things. like that engineer quoted earlier concerning black sand. he didn't say anything about salt water or surf but there seem to be some here who want to lead folks into thinking he did.
ya got two weeks. i think.
you take that machine and dunk it in salt water and you'll wash your warranty away. [/size]

 

[SteveP(NH)]

Yeh I hear ya on that chart thingy. However Charles Garrett wrote a book about electronic prospecting and the main detector he was touting at the time was the Master Hunter CX...and every time I looked at that chart the prospecting tab was NOT checked off on that chart in accordance with the MH CX. SO much for the chart...

It will do fine in the Salt...not the best, not the worst....heck I did pretty good with my GTI 2500 in the wet salty sand and water in all metal mode on the Florida beaches when I lived there.

I dont see the big deal everyone is making...hecklers gotta heckle I guess.

As Brent said....AGAIN...."The internal filtering and signal processing are designed to address highly mineralized environments." Mmm, Salt is mineralized.

Enough said...

Alan

To me the big deal is that someone who is new to the hobby might get confused and buy this machine to be a primary machine for salt water beach hunting and then get disappointed when they don't have the experience to handle the machine in salt and black sand at the same time and then get a bad opinion of Garrett when the problem is that they bought the wrong machine for the job. It is clear that Garrett designed this machine as a relic hunter first, and then a coin shooter second, and I guess you might say a prospecting machine third. Now I am sure it would be good if someone only goes to the beach a couple of times a year and so it wouldn't be worth their while to buy a dedicated beach machine but to use the example you sited, I am sure that someone with the massive amount of experience that Charles Garrett has could do just fine with this machine at the beach, but some one new to the hobby will likely have a much harder time with it. Like it or not some will read your post and take it to mean that Garrett is recommending this machine for salt water beaches and it is plain to see that they are not.

I know you and the other hard core Garrett guys are really excited about this machine and rightfully so, but saying it is the end all and be all of detectors is going a little overboard. I learned on a Garrett and have a lot of respect for the technical innovation and the machines they have done over the years and so have pre-ordered one without any real field test reports from independent sources and I am sure it will be a great relic machine and a very good coin shooter but I question whether it is a good idea to go beyond those statements until it gets in users hands and is proven to be a first line machine for other types of detecting.

 

[kwdstalker]

for those of you that don't think it will not work why don't you go get one of the other brands you think will work? that way there will be some more for us that don't hunt in salt water all the time to buy it for what is made for.

 

[bearkat4160]

Yeh about newbees I agree completely...it happened the same on the Infinium, which was designed for gold prospecting. The newbe beach guys bought it and it drove them nuts and they complained to Garrett. It could happen with the AT Pro also. I doubt it though, as it should be more quiet in the surf than the Infinium but definatly wont compete with it depth wise.

It is mainly a Relic hunting machine, fresh water machine...I really dont think it will do bad in the salty surf though, maybe not on par with an Excal, but way better than typical coin machines.

If I had one I would try it at the beach...I think that fact it doesnt have a true all metal mode that will give it an edge on stability in the surf. My 2500 was quite loud in all metal in the surf but I knew what was metal signal and what was noise from the mineralized salt...kinda like prospecting.

Should be getting some reports in the next couple weeks.

Alan

 

[SteveP(NH)]

The many pages of marketing information on the AT PRO do not say anything about it being recommended for a salt water environment. The chart which shows the recommended uses of each Garrett detector makes it clear that the AT PRO is NOT recommended for surf hunting. Since another category is dry beach / fresh water hunting it seems that surf hunting means the water and wet sand of a salt water environment.

The Garrett detectors that are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for surf hunting use pulse induction and the ones that are simply RECOMMENDED for surf hunting have a salt water elimination mode. Since the AT PRO does not use pulse induction nor does not have a salt water elimination mode it seems logical that it is not recommended for surf hunting and would probably not fair so well in such an environment. I think it is a bummer Garrett did not add a salt water elimination mode to this detector but perhaps they felt giving it salt water capability could cannibalize sales away from some of their more expensive models.

Good analysis, though one other thing that is very important for VLF machines at the beach is an auto-tracking system for the ground balance so it can keep up with the rapidly changing ground values at salt water beaches even the multi-frequency VLF machines need a ground tracking system to keep up with the ground balance at the beaches. The GTIs have an auto-tracking ground balance system so they could at least keep up with the ground balance. The AT PRO doesn't have auto-tracking so you will need to ground balance it quite often in the wet salt to keep up with the changing salt water content as the tide goes in or out and as you move closer to or farther away from the ocean. The fast track system that the AT PRO has allows you to set the ground balance by pressing a button instead of having to manually tweak the ground balance controls (though you can do that if desired) but it won't do anything to re-adjust the ground balance until you press the button again.

 

[Stix]

[size=large]Tony in fl., your a better man than me. everyone who has voiced their concerns should be very offended by these name calling bullies.
as for you Stix, if you can afford to throw away $600 on a machine that's not going to do what you thought then go for it. others should consider cancelling their pre-orders if they thought this machine was a salt water /surf machine. i've read so many posts now that i don't know if Garrett's to blame for the missleading hype or just greedy dealers looking to cash in on what they see as good a seller as the 250 is. some of this hype could have been just an honest misreading of the way Garrett said things. like that engineer quoted earlier concerning black sand. he didn't say anything about salt water or surf but there seem to be some here who want to lead folks into thinking he did.
ya got two weeks. i think.
you take that machine and dunk it in salt water and you'll wash your warranty away. [/size]

Lol name calling bullies Whiner is a generalization. I never said pre-order I said wait and see on performance. Nobody should order until they are out and reviewed that is a given. The step Garrett finally took looks like a good one. The tone is most seem to giddy with reasons to bash the machine. The only reason I can figure is because of the over zealous claims out there. Seems very petty is all. Why not let them have the fun and excitement of a new machine finally and let the facts come out when they are getting reviewed used.


Anyone who preorders before hand should expect the unknown. No need to coddle everyone. Its there own responsibility to understand what they are getting into.

 

[khouse]

The chart says the Ace 150 can't find relics either. We know that's not true. But for me the ATpro is exactly what I wanted. Every 7 years I get to Florida. If it just does OK in the wet then I'll be happy. I personally hunt the dry sand. For all the others that have been waiting for a VLF all terrain machine that IS salt rated then you need to buy this machine. Well maybe after looking at it the ATpro doesn't seem so bad? I know which one I would buy... The Garrett!
http://www.kellycodetectors.com/cobra/beachmagnet.htm

 

[widebody]

[size=large]perfect example of missleading with words. the chart only says which machines are Recommended and for what. nowhere does it say any of the machines can or can't do something. same thing on the at pro. it doesn't say it won't work. it just doesn't recommend it. if it gets screwed up by being used in surf i think garrett will hide behind it's chart.
i suspect this is how the idea got out the AT PRO was good in surf and saltwater use.
i do agree these folks must fend for themselves. there are those who may be correct and you can get away with using it in the salt water.
HH and hope the machine fulfills your wishes.











at



pro could be used in salt.[/size]

 

[khouse]

Let's face it if your hunting nuggets all the time -well there's dedicated machine's for that. If your in the salt surf all the time - well there's machines for that. If you want to hunt fresh water beaches and in the water, coin shoot,relic hunt and occasionally hunt the wet salt and prospect there's a machine for that - The ATpro. I got to have it!

 

[SteveP(NH)]

Let's face it if your hunting nuggets all the time -well there's dedicated machine's for that. If your in the salt surf all the time - well there's machines for that. If you want to hunt fresh water beaches and in the water, coin shoot,relic hunt and occasionally hunt the wet salt and prospect there's a machine for that - The ATpro. I got to have it!

Very well said - Kenny's post should be pinned to the top of the forum all by itself as you can't sum it up much better than that.

 

[Jerry-Wi]

Let's face it if your hunting nuggets all the time -well there's dedicated machine's for that. If your in the salt surf all the time - well there's machines for that. If you want to hunt fresh water beaches and in the water, coin shoot,relic hunt and occasionally hunt the wet salt and prospect there's a machine for that - The ATpro. I got to have it!

I agree! Show me another machine that will do as much as the AT pro, has all the same features and is waterproof.

I love the machine I am using now. (original Grand Master Hunter) but it is getting too heavy for me to swing. I looked at an Ace 250 but the GMH has much better target ID.

The AT pro takes care of the weight and target ID issues for me.
It is pre-ordered and I cannot wait till the little brown truck shows up.

Jerry

 

[EZrider]

There is a whole forum to discuss comparisons to the AT. Let's not hijack this thread. This thread is strictly about the AT and saltwater.

 

[Jerry-Wi]

There is a whole forum to discuss comparisons to the AT. Let's not hijack this thread. This thread is strictly about the AT and saltwater.

You could have fooled me. This thread has been going on since October 27 and much of it has been negative or just plain hair spliting.

I saw some things that I liked in the ads and ordered one. However I will not comment on how well it works or not until I have one in hand.

I will be glad when they are out and the speculation ends.

Jerry