Myers Depot Metal Detectors

At pro questions.

Jarrett

Jarrett

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 28, 2014
Messages
479
Location
Alberta,Canada
Hey everyone I just got an at pro. I posted this in detectors but figured I'd try in this thread as well.

So I have a test garden in my back yard. Have some silver coins burried. I have a quarter at 3"with nails around it. A dime at 6" in a clean hole, and a quarter at 9".

I'm running in pro zero. Iron disc 35, sensitivity tried differant levels iron audio on and off. Ground balance 85. Stock coil.

I cannot for the life of me to get a digable signal on the quarter and nails. And barley get an audible pitch with the dime at 6 inches. If I didn't know it was there I wouldn't find it.

I also layed a copper penny down on top of the grass and about 6 inches apart I put a gold ring a silver dime and a silver quarter to try to get an idea where they hit on the vdi. One target bleeds into the next. Ex. The ring will hit and so will the penny even though I'm hovering around the ring. Is the target seperation with the stock coil just garbage? Papa told me about having issues if the coil isn't connected properly. So tightened it up still have the same results.

Now there is snow on the ground so I thought maybe that had something to do with it. I got my delta 4000 out and it hit all targets no problem. Clearly zipped right over my line of coins and ring. Giving totally seperate ids. Not bleeding together at all. Couldn't hit the quarter with it but never could and the burried dime had a jumpy vdi but crystal clear audio.

I have read about the amazing depth on the at pro and quick processor and target seperation. I have not noticed this at all. Mind you I've had 2 hours with it now. Don't get me wrong there is just somethin about it that makes me smile everytime I look at. I'm super pumped to get into some water with it. I have also ordered the 5x8 coil so I'm hoping the target seperation is way better than the stock coil. Over all I'd have to rate the detector at 6 out of 10 for the money. The delta is far superior in processing speed and target seperation. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong just don't know what. If any one has any suggestions let me know.

I also ran it in standard and the bell tones were clear above my line of targets vdi was jumpy. I thought maybe sens was too high so dropped it right down and still had bleeding numbers.
 
With the stock coil you will not get great separation with iron close to a good target but you will learn to pick up on that good tone coming through the iron. I have to say that after running the AT Pro for a couple years, I have never had a detector that was so good at hitting coins next to iron. I have dug literally dozens of coins with a nail or other object in the same hole.
As many have said, the 5X8 coil is a must have for trashy areas and I also really like the NEL Tornado 13X12 coil for hitting that deep silver in non trashy areas.
I know you are probably chomping at the bit to use this machine but don't read too much into the results of your test, as you cannot replicate an object that has been buried for a long period of time and is covered by naturally compacted soil. You may get close but not always. Just putting in the hours with the detector will be what pays off in the long run. I have over 300 hours on the AT Pro and it feels like an extension of myself when I run it. It's just that comfortable to run now.
Good luck and HH
 
Thanks again choppadude. I did notice the pleathra of tones coming through the head phones and thought "great now I need to learn the hidden message in this" lol. I'm sure I'll get it I do think I'm going to order the tornado coil as well looks like a Good choice for hitting those deeper targets. Guess they say a 100 hours gets you to the point of knowin your detector so I only have 98 to go woooo lol.
 
From what others have posted , it seems that test gardens are not very reliable.
The length of time in the soil , mineralization , skill of operator may all very and we get different resaults . As I got better using the ATP , I found that it is the repeatable tones to listen for , the iron audio , vdi , depth just give you a little help not to be depended on . The whispers that posters speak of are the faint repeatable tones in pro mode giving a indication of depth and quality . I was diging in trashy iron near a garage foundation , strong signals sometimes turned weak and even shifting around . Among the noise I got a faint tone seemed small , I moved away went around it ,came back over the vdi # was consistent and that silver tone did not change ,as I uncovered a silver quarter on edge. That is when I understood what everyone was talking about. Learn the tones, everything else just gives you some clues. I like to hunt older sites and dig a lot of targets to see how old of a site I'm in, that helped me a lot with learning the tones and ID 's of targets. Good Luck
HH
Agree with Chopper
 
Good point about test gardens, most targets need time to acclimate to ground and creates a detectable "halo" for that consistent, repeatable tone.

I got the AT on DEC 12th and hunted 30 plus hours a week through Jan 4th. Looking forward to a full season swinging it. Ran in PRO/ZERO 35 discrimination.....IMO its a fairly noisy machine. Which is why I ended up running DISC so high. Depth is not an issue, right off the bat I found some deep Wheaties-8-10 inches easy and a silver quarter at 5 inches that blew my ears off! The second day I recognized a distinct separation of tones like the video.... 7 inches down...iron nail laying across a 1920's wheat. I was very impressed and even posted about it at the time. Since then a lot of the dual tones where you would expect a coin and iron....were just junk....like old pieces of cans or pieces of iron/steel/solder.
It seems like a workhorse for the money, but the over-chatter might cause me to jump to a F-75 or Minelab. Ill certainly give the AT a good start once the snow melts!! Cant wait!!!

PS - I used both coils on different days...ended up using the stock the most and had no problem pin pointing at all. Ill have to give the 5x8 more time.....AND dig more mid tones...cherry picked last year...:)
 
Since I put the 5X8 DD coil on my AT Pro I haven't taken it off.
I can't comment on your inability to find the coins in your coin garden but I'd check the cable connections and cable winding before I go ape.
I have missed coins of every denomination even after several passes over a area, but when I went back and really slowed my swing they showed up as a tiny blip on the headphones.
A characteristic of the AT Pro that I had to get used to was its tendency to sample a target, regardless of its size or composition, and then just move on to a more prominent target....i.e., ping on a dime (81) or quarter (85-89) and then lock in on a zinc penny (75).
Then, when returning to the ping and hovering the AT Pro seems to gradually lock on to the more desirable target and the signal gets stronger the longer you hover.
Bugs the day lights out of me but it's something I've gotten use to and now use it to my advantage by listening for those pings.
I have no experience with any other metal detectors other than my old Bounty Hunter to form a comparison with the ATP, but, for a metal detector within my budget, skill level and expectations of finding bountiful wealth, the ATP is about all I need.

AT Pro/GPP/Fiskars Diggers/BH Outback/CT Hand held
 
Your going to get a lot of opinions about the two coils and even the std and pro modes . I would have a hard time swearing which one is better , I felt the 5/8 was a little better separating so I leave it on . Most people opinions on disc setting about the same . Now here is the difference, STYLE OF HUNTING , and LOCATION . It would take a book to cover all , for me some older area's , I'm wide open going in std removing hard hits , if I like what I'm seeing a couple pass's in pro using disc as needed remember the gold setting is close to trash . Develope a style and adapt to the location . Some people hate the std mode I find it useful sometimes , some hate the iron audio , I use it to get a feeling for what's below. What I don't like on the ATP is how easy it is to lose your setting , like your in pro zero and do not realize you touched it and are now in std custom. It's happened to me a lot when I first started , so I can see why some would like that setting eliminated. All the advice so far has been right on . As a note read the definition of pro in the book , Does not really mean professional .
HH
 
I've read a few posts where people complain about pin pointing so far this has been bang on. I guess I was just supprised actually standing there jaw dropped that it wouldn't go zip,zip,zip over a line of targets on the ground. My $200 dollar detector sounds off like a machine gun with varrying pitch over the line. I will say that I dug some aluminum soffit out of my yard and roofing nails that were by my test garden that I didn't know existed. And I went over the area before. Read about a thousand posts about how fast the recovery speed and the target seperation is. I couldn't disagree with this more at this point. My bounty hunter and delta 4000 beat it so far hands down. As a turn on and go detector in std mode it's a let down. In my honest opinion with a stock coil it should be worth $500 max in canadian dollars not $750. I guess if I lived in the states and got one at a non rape price I'd be happy. Don't get me wrong I'm going to tear it up this spring and hopefully eat crow. But first impression meh medicocre at best.
 
I noticed that on low conductors it hits hard an deep but seems like it struggles with high conductors. I can see why relic guys love it. Now maybe it's the frequency that lacks for us coin guys. Again don't get me wrong I can see it's potential and do like it. Is it a gift from god like everything you read makes it out to be no. Swung it all day now starting to figure out what it's telling me hits deep on nails. Got to learn that quick digging a rusty nail false up to your elbow in frozen ground is no fun. I am supprised at how accurate it is at hitting canadian clad. Before it was always a supprise on what you got. This nails the id on clad fairly well. Noticed it has kinda a grunty sound on tabs as well gold rings are a lot cleaner sounding. And my god it loves bottle caps I'm sure I dug as many today as I did all last season. Starting to understand the broken tone on them as well. I'm used to being able to swing fast the at pro makes you slow right down.
 
I had an ATP and it had far less than amazing depth although I did find some good stuff with it. Depth was average at best and target id was good up to the 4-6" range. Make sure you are properly ground balanced as this will have a big effect on deep coins. I would play around with the gb while swinging over the coins to see if your ground would be better running a couple numbers up or down from where it automatically ground balanced.
 
Ok just watched a few videos on the ATP. Mine is no where as close in performance as the videos. Pulled the coil right of rewrapped it and did a factory reset. Wow what a differance hits everything in the test garden no problem. Hopefully this isn't an ongoing issue.
 
Have you tried pro custom? I run mind on that most of the time. Make sure your GB is a clear area, mind kinda quite on that setting.
 
Jarrett said:
Ok just watched a few videos on the ATP. Mine is no where as close in performance as the videos. Pulled the coil right of rewrapped it and did a factory reset. Wow what a differance hits everything in the test garden no problem. Hopefully this isn't an ongoing issue.
Click to expand...

Most computers can use a re-boot now and then. Glad to hear things are back to normal...
 
You will get better signals after the coins have been in the ground for a whilw, about two weeks. Or, quicker if you water them in.

Also, Make sure the coil connection is tight. When new it seems tight, but will loosen, and has to be retightened frequently until broken it. Wiggle the plug while turning the ring. This may help
 
Jarrett said:
Ok just watched a few videos on the ATP. Mine is no where as close in performance as the videos. Pulled the coil right of rewrapped it and did a factory reset. Wow what a differance hits everything in the test garden no problem. Hopefully this isn't an ongoing issue.
Click to expand...

I'm glad to hear that because i knew something wasn't right. You'll really start liking this machine now. And when you do get the 5x8 you'll see the difference. It may not hit as hard on coins due to the higher frequency, but it will find really small stuff and lower conductors better than some othee detectors.
 
Well papa when your right your right. After you told me about that I loosened and re fastened it about 5 times. Man it's tight to screw that coil on. I just took the coil right off and reset then bam works like a charm. Still find the recovery speed a little slow. I planted my test garden in June just for the record. Bought the 5x8 off ebay sent them a message to find out why it hasn't shipped yet and their sold out. :( well guess I got to wait an extra week or find another one. Any one have any experience with the nel version of the 5x8 compared to the garrett one?
 
Another tip is to ground balance BEFORE you set any discrimination. If you are not ground balancing over completely "clean" ground then your detector will not be properly balanced and will not perform as it should.
 
Ya choppadude I learnt that the hard way already. Trying to ground balance over iron. Thanks for the tip pappa
 
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