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saltwater hunting...
- Thread starter VDI53
- Start date
deep-digger-dan
New member
The the AT Pro out! They don't work at the beach. I had to buy a minelab etrac to find goods stuff at the beach. The Garrett just can't handle the salt sand.
If you get a minelab you will be screaming COME ON, GET IN!
If you get a minelab you will be screaming COME ON, GET IN!
mudslingers8
New member
I live at the beach in fl. I have a AT Pro, Minelab Excal and just ordered a CZ 21 From BBH. I plan on selling the excal this spring. The At Pro in dry sand is my go to machine, in wet sand & water I use the excal. IN wet sand & salt water you can find targets up to 6". In dry sand 10-12" with the Pro. the Excal will go deeper in wet sand & the water. Ground Balance the Pro often & hunt areas that others miss. The advantage the pro has over many machines is the sensitivity to small gold. I dig everything over 39. You never know what you will find. Last week I dug a 1892 Indian head penny next to a bench in the sand leading to the beach in Naples fl. While there go find a few parks go early & do some hunting I have found most that visit or live here just do the beach & water, surprise yourself.
Last July my father called me to NY he had been diagnosed with cancer they gave him 3 mos. I drove up with the PRO to visit. I had one morning to hit the local park that has been hit regularly since the 70's in 1 1/2 hrs. I found $7.50 in clad a 10k gold heart pendant, 1/2 of it's chain and a silver cross. You never know, surprise yourself & think outside the box.
PS: The class ring from CO. I found at the beach with the PRO, the little girl sent back a thank you note & $10
mudslinger
Last July my father called me to NY he had been diagnosed with cancer they gave him 3 mos. I drove up with the PRO to visit. I had one morning to hit the local park that has been hit regularly since the 70's in 1 1/2 hrs. I found $7.50 in clad a 10k gold heart pendant, 1/2 of it's chain and a silver cross. You never know, surprise yourself & think outside the box.
PS: The class ring from CO. I found at the beach with the PRO, the little girl sent back a thank you note & $10
mudslinger
I admit I don't do salt water hunting. I have an AT Gold. The manual says it works in salt sand, just not recommended for the water. The AT Pro manual say it can be used in salt water. So the naysayers be damned. You might want to get some of Clive Clynick books (sorry don't recall if I spelled his name correctly). He goes by CJC on the forums. Highly recommended.
Obviously you don't want to detect everything below 39. That's bogus. Deep targets do read lower, so look for anything above iron or decide your own cut-off level. And if your ears get tired, go higher. Learning to hear the deep targets takes some practice. Listen for the short, quick, narrow, sharp hits with sharp edges. They sound like they speed up. Read you manual, take it with you, and try every control setting. You may have to use manual ground balance, bury a target and adjust.
Obviously you don't want to detect everything below 39. That's bogus. Deep targets do read lower, so look for anything above iron or decide your own cut-off level. And if your ears get tired, go higher. Learning to hear the deep targets takes some practice. Listen for the short, quick, narrow, sharp hits with sharp edges. They sound like they speed up. Read you manual, take it with you, and try every control setting. You may have to use manual ground balance, bury a target and adjust.
Right now one of our brother AtPro users, Dancer, is at the gulf...he's working it pretty good and will have a report when he gets home..seems his experience is like mudslinger said..Pro's are sensitive to small gold and chains...they really hit chains very well...you get CJC's new book and you will learn a lot...especially with all the miles of beach you have to work..a guy has to think right, and that book will help you do it.
.
Mud
.Mud
I've never done any salt water detecting with my At/Pro so I don't know myself. I can wish you good luck & happy hunting. If you have any doubts about detecting certain areas, ask before you detect. Some areas are off limits according to what I read on some other forums. Certain state parks let you detect in the dry or wet sand, but supposedly not the dunes. Hope you find some great targets and post your finds for all to see.
Qualifier...I don't consider myself an expert. I have pounded the northeast saltwater beaches for a while and my opinion is, you can find targets at the beach, in the wet sand, with a single frequency unit. You will do much better with a multifrequency. A pulse, once learned will do great, but if you have already learned a pulse, you're probably not reading this thread. Good luck down there, and have fun. Artie
Clive's newest book looks good. "The Gold Jewelry Hunters Handbook". Clive is big on the All Metal Mode. He says you can learn a lot more about the target's characteristics with AMM than you can with Discriminate mode. He says areas of heavy iron trash it works better than discriminate. Of course you have to use his techniques.
Forrest Mc
Member
I took my AT Pro to Ft. Walton Beach, FL and had a great time digging up finds in the dry sand and surf. There are good tutorials on the Garrett.com site and the one on saltwater setup is helpful - http://www.garrett.com/hobbysite/hbby_at_pro_saltwater_video.aspx
In my case, I would hunt the blanket line and the umbrella line early morning before the tractor came along pulling the power sand sifter.
Best of luck
In my case, I would hunt the blanket line and the umbrella line early morning before the tractor came along pulling the power sand sifter.
Best of luck
Thanks for making mention of my new one, Mike. What I would add to the discussion is that to consistently find gold you need to really boost your accuracy--and thus, your time usage. Confirming your targets in all metal helps to accomplish this in that you are now getting a ton of additional information on the signal's: size, shape, consistency, solidity, and depth. Another important signal feature is how it relates to the surrounding ground. Those targets that put off a wide, drawn-out all metal tone will usually be objects that are corroded into the ground such as steel (bottle caps) iron or rusing tin. Because gold is such a good conductor there are a lot of signal features that will add up to a good response. Weak, broken, or inconsistent responses are much les likely to be gold. This is where good coil control skills to perform a few all metal test passes come in--allowing you to gather this information quickly. These skills will boost your accuracy a lot in difficult hunt environments. Also, in acquiring targets, all metal mode is much less succeptable to waves, black sand or changes in the ground's consistency. I've yet to see any detector that will perform better in discrimiante mode than in all metal mode.
cjc
clivesgoldpage.com
cjc
clivesgoldpage.com
I haven' hunted the salt water beach for months, but have often. You can do it with the ATP in water, wet and dry sand.
Ground balance VERY often. We have a lot of black sand here, on the Texas Gulf Coast. You can often see the sand change from the tide line up. Strips of sand. I GB for one and hunt it going down the beach for a didtance and turn around GB for the next strip of sand and return to the starting point. The beaches here are mostly very flat. When I find the strip with the most targets I hunt it. I don't believe I have ever found a coin size target below 4 inches. But, I may have done better to manually adjust the GB. I do in soil.
Ground balance VERY often. We have a lot of black sand here, on the Texas Gulf Coast. You can often see the sand change from the tide line up. Strips of sand. I GB for one and hunt it going down the beach for a didtance and turn around GB for the next strip of sand and return to the starting point. The beaches here are mostly very flat. When I find the strip with the most targets I hunt it. I don't believe I have ever found a coin size target below 4 inches. But, I may have done better to manually adjust the GB. I do in soil.
I have a few different machines ......The AT Pro will ground balance on SOME wet sand saltwater beaches .....SOME is the operative word here ......Unlike the Minelab Etrac which will automatically adjust for the wet / dry / damp conditions of the sand and mineral content , the AT Pro needs to be constantly ground balanced .....When ground balancing in wet salt sand ( if ithe salt and mineral content is not too high ) your numbers will be very low ( in the teens ) .....Depth is not near as deep in the wet salt sand as it is when hunting the dry sand ...... As one of the other posters mentioned , the AT Pro is pretty darn good at hunting gold in the dry sand .....and will surely find it's share of silver and clad too !!..... It's light in weight to swing around and move quickly with .....Towel lines are a good hunt also with the AT Pro ....Jim
WaterWalker
Well-known member
Ground balance, or set to about 15-20 for the salt water. Kill the iron to 38, set Sens to avoid really annoying wave signals. Dig all the good sounding targets, don't waste time trying to read the VID screen; as it is difficult in the sunlight and under water not to say anything about Polarized sunglasses.
I have less that 50 hours with the ATPro in the salt water. I have found 2 silver, 4 gold and 1 platinum in salt water 1 on damp sand and another 2 platinum rings in a snow bank.
I purchased the ATPro to teach my grandson the art of water detecting. He has more time with the detector than I (mainly in fresh water). He has 3 rings to his count; 2 silver and 1 silver and gold. Not bad for a short 10 year old. He has shot upward over the winter. With new waders, gloves and desire to find a gold ring...I'll have to watch out this summer.
When searching for a lost ring I try to get the mating ring and set the ATPro's notch filters so ALL I will hear is the ring. The 2 platinum rings in the snow bank were the ONLY signals I got within the 45 minute search to find them.
I have less that 50 hours with the ATPro in the salt water. I have found 2 silver, 4 gold and 1 platinum in salt water 1 on damp sand and another 2 platinum rings in a snow bank.
I purchased the ATPro to teach my grandson the art of water detecting. He has more time with the detector than I (mainly in fresh water). He has 3 rings to his count; 2 silver and 1 silver and gold. Not bad for a short 10 year old. He has shot upward over the winter. With new waders, gloves and desire to find a gold ring...I'll have to watch out this summer.
When searching for a lost ring I try to get the mating ring and set the ATPro's notch filters so ALL I will hear is the ring. The 2 platinum rings in the snow bank were the ONLY signals I got within the 45 minute search to find them.
Night Crawler
New member
As MikeLab stated, deeper the target, the lower tones you will get and why I run Pro Mode Wide Open. With my machine, it starts around 7".
As for Salt Water hunting, I use my machine in Salt Water, Wet Sands, and Dry Sands with no issues using the 8.5x11 coil. I'm in the Pacific North West.
As for Salt Water hunting, I use my machine in Salt Water, Wet Sands, and Dry Sands with no issues using the 8.5x11 coil. I'm in the Pacific North West.