Help with the AT Pro on the beach

CWES

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Jun 11, 2013
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I just got my AT Pro and I'm having trouble on the beach in the wet sand. I ground balanced it, iron disc is 20, sensitivity is three from full, and nothing notched out. I keep getting hits at 80-99 but theres nothing there. Anybody got advice?
 
I just got my AT Pro and I'm having trouble on the beach in the wet sand. I ground balanced it, iron disc is 20, sensitivity is three from full, and nothing notched out. I keep getting hits at 80-99 but theres nothing there. Anybody got advice?

Hunted CT beaches during Christmas break with my AT Pro... Found several silvers after Sandy moved thru... Wished i could remember the setting though... My advice... Dont ground balance... Manual it down to 60-70. Run on zero mode with 20 to 40 iron disc. 2 bars from full sens. Throw a coin or two on the ground and hear how distinctive they sound. Then you can learn to ignore the falses... They sound clearly different from good high tone targets... Also dig those 45 to 60 solid hits... Running it hot is a good trick... Learned from the best... capt silver!
Learn to listen to everything
 
On the beach here in Florida I have to manually ground balance the machine. It usually goes down to about 10 on the ground balance.
I sometimes have to turn the sensitivity down even lower to prevent false signals but if you go over a coin it will surely let you know.

Pete
 
I had the same trouble. Small pieces of metal, like chips, that were detected by the ATP, but not the pro pointer. Scapped off the side of ships I think. There should be larger too. The vdi will jump around on the high end. You can't ground balance over them. You'll have to find a clean piece of beach or manual gb. run the GB to between 12 and 16 in wet saltwater, higher as you head inland.
 
Try running you disc up to the max of 40. Otherwise, I do what you do and still sometimes it will be chatty but not always, never have figured that out yet but it is manageable. I don't dig the type signals you describe either but always check them with iron audio. If there is something there it will hit solid and steady. Now I also find as I move up the beach to drier sand I can reduce the disc but I don't bother. Watch for electo interference too.
 
You are also having the probably because the AT Pro was not made to be a salt water machine it has 1 frequency where as salt water machine have dual frequency or multi frequency technology you are going to have to set your sensitivity so low that you will loose a good amount of depth it isnt really worth it. You need a machine that can handle the salt water sand.

Also if the at pro had a ground tracking feature it would be able to handle the ground balance better because it could change as it went along.
 
I hunt in the saltwater with my AT Pro 90% of the time. When I hit numbers like that and nothings there it usually means it's a big deep object. I have hit cans DEEP! I usually give up on an object after so many inches. My machine usually GB at 12 with four bars of sensitivity.
 
I used to first do an auto balance (which was usually around 20) then I would manually drop the balance down atleast 5 more (making it 15), that would seem to really help with chatter without having to lower the sensitivity down a lot. also instead of using the pinpoint button i'd just drop the targets off the tip of the coil, this makes pinpointing on the wet much easier
 
VLF detectors are "small gold" dead in salt water, wet salt sand. Salt is a mineral, mix it up with water and it becomes conductive. Ground balance adjustments and different coils can be configured to battle mineralization. Any adjustments for conductivity issues and it becomes "small gold dead" in wet salt sand/salt water. Garrett responded to questions I also had with this:

"Thank you for your purchase of Garrett products. We are happy that you`re pleased with your AT Pro. In order to get the best performance in your salt water beach environment , Garrett suggests you use a PI detector ( pulse induction ) instead of a VLF detector. As mentioned in the owner`s manual , the saltwater environment is challenging for any Continuous Wave (VLF) detector, and the Garrett engineers have developed the best state of the art machine available on the market today designed to deal with these conditions. It is a very effective tool for this application however , adverse conditions may dictate ( if necessary ) the need to notch out the pixel under foil thus allowing a reduction to some items. To better address your questions , I have forwarded your requests to our Marketing and our Engineering depts. Please remain patient as we wait for their response.

Best regards"

These three statements caught my attention -
1. "In order to get the best performance in your salt water beach environment , Garrett suggests you use a PI detector ( pulse induction ) instead of a VLF detector."

2. "the saltwater environment is challenging for any Continuous Wave (VLF) detector"

3. "adverse conditions may dictate ( if necessary ) the need to notch out the pixel under foil thus allowing a reduction to some items."

Tie a string on a gold ring (or anything considered "small gold") and bury it down a bit in the wet sand right at the water's edge. Please report back the results. If you are serious about hunting for gold jewelry in those conditions found at salt water beaches, according to Garrett, a pulse induction detector is what they recommend. In dry sand, the AT Pro is a great machine to use. Good luck and happy hunting.
 
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