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TAKING A LITTLE POLL. I see this element of belly aching because the AT PRO may or may not not be totally geared for saltwater hunting. How many of yo

Brent Weaver, Garrett's lead engineer and the designer of the AT Pro says at the beginning of his video segment that he designed the machine to be first and foremost a high performance relic machine. He didn't say anything about it being designed to be a good beach machine. I guess just because they made it waterproof so you can use it in a rain storm some people have gotten the idea that it should work well at a salt water beach. I don't know why anyone would jump to that conclusion in the first place. You do not go relic hunting at salt water beaches so its performance at salt water beaches should not be a factor in anyone's decision whether to buy the unit or not because it would be silly to buy this particular machine if you are a salt water beach hunter and are looking for a machine for that purpose.
 
Because I don't hunt saltwater...however if I did I would buy a CZ or Sov. as they both work well in a saltwater enviroment and still are an excellent coin and relic units. As far as gold nuggetts buy yourself a gold nugget unit as smaller nuggetts are easily missed and that what one mostly finds but they add up...
 
I do lots of salt water hunting..............but will leave that up to The PI machines and multi frequency detectors


It's like putting a Ford Pinto in a Nascar Race...........You just can not compete with the big boys, with a single frequency detectors in wet salt.


But maybe Garrett will throw us a curve ball, And make the Pro the first single frequency detector to go deep in wet salt sand... we will soon see
 
I have the Sea Hunter II for my rare trips to the beach,. I want a truly waterproof detector for all weather detecting in the parks, not having to worry about inadequate rain protection for my land detectors. Could buy the Detectorpro Wader, or the ATI Pro. Would still want a cover to protect the Pro from scratches.
 
I would not buy one if it did not do well in Saltwater .....It's an AT ( all terrain ) and the feature that drew me too it is that it will go under water ......This to me includes Saltwater ....If it doesn't do it , it's just another $600 detector to me with a selling point that it goes under fresh water ..... I have both fresh and Saltwater near me , but Salt is where more jewelry is ...My machines have already paid for themselves .....It's a great machine for those who don't live near Saltwater, but doesn't help those of us who do ....and should surely not be compared to $1500 machines that CAN hunt wet salty sand as was mentioned in an earlier thread ...... BTW, this is NOT Belly aching as you call it ..... This is merely asking to see this machine do everything you are hyping it to do !!!..... So far we have seen nothing ......Only talk ..... I'm sure that this will be a nice machine for what it does and Garrett makes some wonderful products ..... The fact that it can go underwater is a feat in itself ...... We don't hunt in air , and so far what we have seen of this detector is air ... In the ground will be the real judge of what this machine can do , just like any other machine ..... Jim
 
We are salt beach hunters and have pre- ordered our AT Pro Internationals.

The reasons for doing so are -

1. DD coils designed to ignore mineralisation.

2. Manual GB should eliminate any more mineralisation.

3. If we can use the Ace 250 on wet salt with a factory preset GB,
surely the AT Pro must give us some advantage and extra depth in said environment.
 
Yes, I would still buy one if it fares terrible in salt water. In fact placed an order for one this week.

I live on the West coast so already have Pi's, Water proof BBS & FBS technology for serious west coast ocean wet sand detecting, What I'm more interested in is a VLF fresh water detector capable of handling tough mineralization. And to be honest, I don't have high hopes the AT Pro can handle our West Coast ocean wet sand but am hoping it can handle our tough fresh water lakes..

We have some fresh water lakes that create masking, The tough mineralization creates a blanket masking the targets making it impossible for a VLF detector in disc mode to get decent depth yet have the sensitivity to get the smaller gold jewelry finds.

Other than using a Pi, About the only other way to penetrate fresh water black sand and get the sensitivity needed on smaller finds is a good VLF detector using all metal mode with both visual and audio ID in all-metal, I'm hoping the AT Pro can achieve decent depth yet have the sensitivity to get the smaller pieces of jewelry from fresh water lakes with tough mineralization. Only a few detectors can acheive this and that's in all-metal ID mode, Let's hope the AT Pro can as well.

Plus, The AT Pro 8.5 x 11" DD coil may be too big for fresh water lakes with tough mineralization. Yes, a DD does help stability and because of masking the smaller AT PRO 6.5 x 9" Super Sniper Coil may be the better coil for both stability & sensitivity and will surely have less drag.

Quite honestly, Looking forward to the AT Pro not only for fresh water hunting but for relic detecting, coin shooting and gold jewelry detecting as well. If it only serves only one of these I'll still be happy as a Lark, A VLF detector under $600 and waterproof to boot is a steal.

Yes, I've got an AT Pro ordered now just need to place an order on an AT Pro 6.5 x 9" Super Sniper Coil in which I feel will enhance the AT Pro even more for fresh water and for inland gold jewelry hunting.

Paul (Ca)
 
It would be great if it worked well in both places but I am not letting the possibility that it might not stop me from purchasing one.

HH

Beachcomber
 
While DD coils will HELP with higher mineralization , they are not the end all be all , and when you get to the salty sand with black sand running thru it , you will not be able to ground balance worth a darn , even with a manual ground balance ....YOu will have to take your detector and G. B. in dry sand and then walk over to the wet sand to hunt ..... I can take ANY detector and hunt wet salt beaches !!... Let's see what kind of depth these machines can get in wet salt ....You can turn down the sensitivity on ANY machine and hunt the wet salt , but how deep is the question ....Can you get down at least a foot with your Ace 250 ? .....Ace 350 ? ...... Can you get down 8 inches in wet salt ? ...... Every machine made has it's limitations ..... For what the AT Pro is made to do , and for it's price point, it will surely sell and do very well ...Let's not get carried away with how good this machine is SUPPOSE to do ..... Is a matter of fact , we can speculate all day long ....We really won't know until they come out and folks get to use them to see for themselves ..... Myself ? ....I've bought into the next best thing too many times ....I have the "wait and see"attitude now ..... There are a lot of people pre odering these machines that have NEVER seen it work !!.....All the better for me !! ..... I'll have plenty to read about and be better equipt to make a rational, educated , decision based on fact , not hype ... ....Jim
 
I guess people jumped to that conclusion because he also said you could hunt 10ft underwater all day without it leaking. To me that says water hunting machine. But that's just me. Plus I have seen pix of it underwater which also tends to make me think water machine. We'll see.....only a few more weeks to go :)

HH

Beachcomber
 
Hey even if it's a good wet sand/ dry sand machine but not that great in the saltwater the higher frequency will make it better at detecting the small gold and thin chains that the multifrequency and PI's can't see. Plus you can hunt in the rain :)

HH

Beachcomber
 
......and who's saying that it will hunt in wet sand ? ....... If t wil hunt wet sand , it will hunt saltwater ..... I don't care if I miss small gold , but I have not problem finding tiny Gold childrens post earings with diamonds in them .... They SLAM the headphones !!.......I will admit that I don't hear the small/fine gold chains , but that really doesn't concern me ..... As far as hunting in the rain ? ...... Not something I do now , and really don't plan on doing it in the future , but I guess it could be a plus for some .....:shrug: ...Jim
 
There is no problem that I can see unless they claim it will do something that it can't. Looks like a good detector with some features not found in the past Garrett lineup so it should be a good seller but if people actually think that there is a detector that will do it all and do it well under all situations then who am I to rain on their parade.
 
You can take single frequency gold only machines and most can do a good job in the wet salt. This is because of the expanded GB capabilities. It's possible that Garrett will expand the GB range to help accommodate black and conductive salt? It is possible.... I took a Whites Classic 3 that I added GB to several years ago to the salt. It did good but not great. The technology of that machine is close to 20 years old. So who is to say that a single frequency machine can give you good results in the wet salt. Heck, I'm just throwing it out there for discussion.....
 
As I haven't used a metal detector in the last 30 years it's almost as if I'm completely new to the sport. The last one I bought was a Garrett Master Hunter way back in the '70's. So far I haven't seen anything on how the AT Pro will work in salt water or wet sand. Could someone please point me in the right direction?
 
I have a minelab 705 and i bought it because of its "multi purpose" but soon got aggravated that one of the best coils for the beach HF6x10 cant even go in the water.
Im getting the AT not primarily for salt as i have many fresh water sand bars i want to detect,but if it does well in the salt thats a plus too.
And the primary coil is big enough to cover a lot of ground.
 
Is this our feedback from that trip? Anyway I've already ordered mine. I'm a coin hunter but see the benefits of the big iron zone.
 
Uncle Willy said:
Yeah they went down Thursday to use it in the ocean and tweak it a bit.
Bill
Click to expand...

You are killing me with this talk of Garrett engineers tweaking the AT for saltwater usage with the product so close to launch. If "tweaking" means they are using existing settings to try to improve the ability to hunt in saltwater, then that suggests that Garrett engineers may not have done so much testing with the AT in saltwater. This seems inconsistent with the product design life cycle if they had real intentions making this machine excel in salt water environments. If on the other hand "tweaking" means they are modifying the internal design to be better for saltwater usage then then the idea of this machine being released next month seems unrealistic, unless they come out with a version 1 (without the salt water tweaks) and later a version 2 (with the salt water tweaks).

Anyway with respect to your poll since I live in Florida near the coast I would not buy it if it did not perform at least reasonably well in salt water / wet sand. I am hoping it does in fact perform well as it could be a nice backup for my Excalibur, loaner machine for friends I wish to take hunting, as well as a general purpose land machine.
 
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