power of the garrett at pro versus garrett ace

corij

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if each machine is fitted with the same coil does the at pro punch deeper or the same as the aces? anyone on here have first hand knowledge?

im asking after reading a post on the net where it was mentioned in passing that they have the same output [albeit different freq]
 
Have no experience with the Ace series but I will tell you the deepest find I ever made with my AT PRO is six inches thats why I call it my six inch wonder all finds with it were six inches or less
 
I don't know about depth but my friend with a 350 seems to have a harder time picking the goodies out of the trash than I do with the pro.
 
I don't have any experience with an AT Pro, but I started with an Ace400 and upgraded to an AT Max this year. To make a very long story short, I see little to no difference in depth performance in my soil between the two units. I routinely dug coins in the 0 to 6" range with the Ace400, and I currently see the same with the Max. I've dug exactly 2 coins deeper than 6" this year with the Max, and they were only at 8". Maybe there just aren't many coins deeper than 6" in NW Ohio...:roll:

In many ways, I feel like my "upgrade" to the Max amounts to gaining waterproofing, the ability to ground balance, and a backlight for easier night hunting. My "good" finds have increased with the upgrade, but at this point, I attribute that more to better quality hunt sites and increasing skill level. I just haven't come across any signals so far that made me stop and say "wow - the Ace wouldn't have seen that". Maybe there is a difference in recovery speed between the two series of detectors, which would help the AT series unmask targets better, but I never compared the two side by side to test that. From strictly a depth standpoint, I see little difference.
 
if each machine is fitted with the same coil does the at pro punch deeper or the same as the aces? anyone on here have first hand knowledge?

im asking after reading a post on the net where it was mentioned in passing that they have the same output [albeit different freq]

I have the ACE250 with a 4" Sniper coil and found a sterling silver ring at the water's edge at low tide that was 10" deep... So I know that the ACE will find deep objects, though a lot of those are trash and a few goodies.
 
AT Pro is deeper. It's not a depth demon, but depth is decent. The Ace series is not as deep and doesn't unmask as well. Caveat: I only used the Ace 250 when I traded for the day with a buddy, so my experience with the Ace isn't extensive. But long enough to know I didn't care for it. I never liked the old Garrett binary audio and to add insult to injury, it's yellow. Bright fricking canary yellow!

I've had a Pro for over 7 years. Like I said earlier, it's not incredibly deep. But in my moderate soil (GB almost always mid 70's to mid 80's) it's more than a 6" wonder. With the 5X8 coil, my deepest measured small coins (1c or 10c) rounded to the nearest 1/2 inch are at 7.5". With the stock 8X11 coil add another 1-1.5" of depth.

There are some ways to get more depth with the Pro. First of all a technique that works with some other detectors too is the fast back and forth shake with the coil over the target. If a softer partially broken high tone gets solid or mostly solid, more often than not you're golden with copper or silver. Or strangely enough a deep nickel. For some reason deep nickels often give a predominantly high tone with the fast wiggle. Maybe the roundness?

Dropping the GB 10-20 numbers below balanced adds a bit of depth when conditions allow.

When coils are switched on the AT PRO, they say when first turning it on to do a long press of the power button til the beeps to sync the detector to the coil. Didn't realize you were supposed to do that the first few years I used it.

The audio is where it's at with the Pro. It's like being fluent in a second language. That's why I've still got it around despite:
Depth below top tier
Mediocre build quality
Too small screen and no backlight
More difficult proprietary connectors
Bad ergo with the stock coil - nose heavy
 
if each machine is fitted with the same coil does the at pro punch deeper or the same as the aces? anyone on here have first hand knowledge?

im asking after reading a post on the net where it was mentioned in passing that they have the same output [albeit different freq]
Don't get too hung up on depth. I've found at least 60 pre-1900 coins and almost all were found in the 4 to 6 inch depth range. Most of my coin finds in the 7 to 10 inch range end up being Jefferson nickels. Nothing worse than digging up a coin that deep and seeing Jefferson's bust on the coin! LOL!
 
AT Pro is deeper. It's not a depth demon, but depth is decent. The Ace series is not as deep and doesn't unmask as well. Caveat: I only used the Ace 250 when I traded for the day with a buddy, so my experience with the Ace isn't extensive. But long enough to know I didn't care for it. I never liked the old Garrett binary audio and to add insult to injury, it's yellow. Bright fricking canary yellow!

I've had a Pro for over 7 years. Like I said earlier, it's not incredibly deep. But in my moderate soil (GB almost always mid 70's to mid 80's) it's more than a 6" wonder. With the 5X8 coil, my deepest measured small coins (1c or 10c) rounded to the nearest 1/2 inch are at 7.5". With the stock 8X11 coil add another 1-1.5" of depth.

There are some ways to get more depth with the Pro. First of all a technique that works with some other detectors too is the fast back and forth shake with the coil over the target. If a softer partially broken high tone gets solid or mostly solid, more often than not you're golden with copper or silver. Or strangely enough a deep nickel. For some reason deep nickels often give a predominantly high tone with the fast wiggle. Maybe the roundness?

Dropping the GB 10-20 numbers below balanced adds a bit of depth when conditions allow.

When coils are switched on the AT PRO, they say when first turning it on to do a long press of the power button til the beeps to sync the detector to the coil. Didn't realize you were supposed to do that the first few years I used it.

The audio is where it's at with the Pro. It's like being fluent in a second language. That's why I've still got it around despite:
Depth below top tier
Mediocre build quality
Too small screen and no backlight
More difficult proprietary connectors
Bad ergo with the stock coil - nose heavy

funny, I had the same operator issue with coil change on my AT Pro I used for 3 years. Bought the 8x5" coil after 6 months and never reset the AT Pro. It was not until after 2 1/2 years I bought the Nel Thunder from a well known dealer and he made a point to tell me to reset the AT Pro after each coil change. I must have missed that in the manual. I am not sure how that degraded my use on the 5x8" coil but I used it a lot and found a lot of good targets. for my type of hunting it was my preferred coil. I just have to assume that I reset the AT Pro for other reasons when I had the smaller coil on and solved the problem that I never noticed.
 
I have no problems digging 8" coins with my 5x8 coil and the AT Gold, any further than that is usually a gamble and usually I lose. I found a king george copper this year in a wooded area I have hammered to death this year at 8.5" with it. Then again, my buddy hit a half dime at about 8" with his equinox (stock coil is 11") that my AT gold wouldn't even see (5×8" coil). Had I been using a bigger coil I'm confident I would have heard it. Ive used the ace 250 extensively, as well as the AT pro and AT gold. The ace series is a nice starting detector, but its nowhere near as capable (depth wise and unmasking ability) as an AT pro. I just wish the AT pro had a threshold.
 
The AT Pro has a more consistent ID at depth. I used several Ace 250s and no ID lock on dimes beyond 4" in my moderately mineralized soil. I got a dime at 7" with the AT PRO that IDed as dime on every pass, even with very dry ground.



if each machine is fitted with the same coil does the at pro punch deeper or the same as the aces? anyone on here have first hand knowledge?

im asking after reading a post on the net where it was mentioned in passing that they have the same output [albeit different freq]
 
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