Wet sand under dry & false signals...what to do

Mozhoven

Full Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2012
Messages
171
Location
Middletown, CT
I've attempted to bring my AT Pro to the beach a few times and leave with little to show for it other than a sunburn and frustration.

One beach in particular has nice dry sand for about 6" then it gets wet. The problem is that I'm getting a lot of nice 90+ VDI signals that read about 8"-10" down that seem to never materialize. I realize upon digging that the sand gets wet a about 6" down and perhaps that's causing a false signal. I'm at a loss of what to do because it seems to be a steady signal (not chattery like what can happen at the waterline before you GB properly). I can't exactly GB in the hole, I might loose the target (if it even exists).

No matter how deep I dig, the signal still reads 8"-10" down from the bottom of the hole. I might mention that that signal that was 90+ before I started, drops to a lower number the deeper I dig. What gives?

P.S. I might mention that I have been finding pennies and nickels (and trash) at the same site with clear signals...
 
You are probably chasing a big chunk of iron... you can pass it by its not a treasure chest ;)
 
I've had to reduce my GB manually by 2 or 3 clicks to get that to go away. I agree about big iron... maybe a city marker or something... lots of them on VA Beach in the dry sand.

Don't give up and keep swinging. You may not be finding much because you haven't put your coil over the good stuff (or sanded in and the detector can't get that deep...).

Good Luck and HH!
 
The AT Pro is not a good choice for salt beaches because it is a single frequency detector. It is OK in the dry sand but it cannot handle the wet salt very well.

Multi-frequency detectors or Pulse Induction detectors are better choices for the beach, as they are able to eliminate the salts.
 
Agreed, BUT...

the AT Pro does pretty well in the salt sand and water. Garrett has videos out there to help people set the AT Pro up for success, but the big thing is really spending the time and not giving up because "the detector doesn't do __________ well... guess I'd better buy another detector", when with just a little work you can make the detector work as advertised...

I used mine at the beach til I got the Excal and while I didn't find a ton of stuff (sanded in) I was able to get smooth, quiet operation by having some patience and working on how I use the machine. I only got the Excal since I got a bonus and decided it was for me this year...

Good luck, spend a little time experimenting with the machine and you'll be fine. If you decide on another detector that's ok, but the AT will work as long as you put the effort into it.
 
If you are detecting around salt water then yes, you will encounter false signals. Under the dry sand rests wet, salty sand. It will read like a high conductor and probably read very deep.
 
Also try decreasing the sensitivity and increasing the discrimination. I have to run mine up to the max of 40 before it settles down a lot. I will try changing the ground balance some too as suggested above. I hunt in Florida salt water.
 
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