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My AT Pro. What am I missing?

lookiethere

Junior Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2012
Messages
47
Location
Northern MI
Hi all. First a little background. I've had a string of Garrett's through the last 20 plus years, the latest being the ATP which I've had for a few. I do a lot of research to try to find old sites which haven't been hit hard through the past and generally have pretty good luck at it. I run the 5X8 and understand I might be losing a little depth.
So here's the thing. When I find these unhammered sites I find plenty of indians, V nickles and cool relics buttttt??? WHERE'S THE SILVER? Have these sites been cherry picked or is the silver just not there? I've seriously thought about sending it to Garrett to be checked out many times and then I'll hit on a silver after many swing hours.
The ATP just loves pennies, and I know I know you just have to put your coil over the silver, right? But I've always worried the ATP just has trouble in the silver range. I'm really tempted to try out an E-trac just for this reason as I'm primarily a coin shotter. Thoughts?
 
I should have added that I always run pro zero, wide open, one bar under max sens. and ground balance a few different ways. I've got ALOT of hours on it.
 
The ATP finds the silver, it did for me at least when I was over it. Your areas could be cherry picked or just not have any silver.
 
I know absolutely nothing about the AtPro except hunting side by side with it. I know for an absolute fact it doesn't get as deep as an Etrac in Michigan soil.

There are two Michigan water hunters I know of that love them and are very good at finding gold in iron. I have no idea why you can find indians and V nickles but not silver.

I am wondering how you know these areas are not hit. There could easily be some cherry pickers where you are.

I have come up north and hit a few lakes and the locals don't even know I am around. There are a lot of detectorists in Michigan.
 
The ATP finds the silver, it did for me at least when I was over it. Your areas could be cherry picked or just not have any silver.

Agreed Bucktrout, just makes me wonder how I see guys constantly getting silver in hunted out parks, 200 silvers for the year, etc. What the heck? I can't tell you the amount of clad I've found that is 1965 or just over. That is my primary concern. It hits on clad just fine.
 
I know absolutely nothing about the AtPro except hunting side by side with it. I know for an absolute fact it doesn't get as deep as an Etrac in Michigan soil.

There are two Michigan water hunters I know of that love them and are very good at finding gold in iron. I have no idea why you can find indians and V nickles but not silver.

I am wondering how you know these areas are not hit. There could easily be some cherry pickers where you are.

I have come up north and hit a few lakes and the locals don't even know I am around. There are a lot of detectorists in Michigan.

I don't know that those sites have never been hit. I just assume they haven't been hammered or I wouldn't be getting such old pennies and nickles.
 
I don't know that those sites have never been hit. I just assume they haven't been hammered or I wouldn't be getting such old pennies and nickles.

Cherry pickers could care less about pennies and nickles and a lot of machines let you program them out.

Just remember if you dig it all you will win in the long run. Gold coins ring up as zinc pennies or lower.

A good 1914D penny is worth over 500.00. Let the cherry pickers have the silver. One gold ring will easily be worth a bunch of silver dimes.

If you have some silver coins to air test, you will know your machine is working properly.
 
Cherry pickers could care less about pennies and nickles and a lot of machines let you program them out.

Just remember if you dig it all you will win in the long run. Gold coins ring up as zinc pennies or lower.

A good 1914D penny is worth over 500.00. Let the cherry pickers have the silver. One gold ring will easily be worth a bunch of silver dimes.

If you have some silver coins to air test, you will know your machine is working properly.

A really good point there my freind. I have no doubt that I have passed over alot of gold through the years due to my laziness to dig pulltabs and foil. I guess I'm just curious as to whether the ATP has a specific weakness in the silver range. Depth of detection not in consideration.
 
Watch some Hoover Boys videos on YouTube..ATP has no problem finding silver.

Found several when I had the ATP. I'm guessing it's your site or you just haven't swung over it yet.
 
The ATP is very good at finding silver. But you cant find silver if silver isn't there. Ive hunted MANY sites that should have had silver but none ever turned up. Those sites may have been hunted and cherry picked leaving low value pennies and nickels behind ....and that's probably the case , or there just wasn't any silver there. You would think that some sites HAVE to have had silver lost there but that's not always the case , as random as things can be there HAS to be places where people dropped pennies but nothing else. Ive found almost as much silver in places there normally wouldnt be any as in places where the history and location says it should be , its so random that its never a sure thing. But on a positive note , if you haven't carefully searched every square inch of the site then there could still be some there somewhere. Its frustrating , but keep at it , something will turn up.
 
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There is some truth,,sometimes,,,you get what you pay for.

A few extra comments.

Folks need to remember,,,even though a coin (silver) is depth detectable using even the At Pro,,,some detectors like (etrac) do a better job of actually locating and telling you what you have under the coil.

Now can At Pro be used and some head to heads be down say with etrac,,,and the At Pro indeed alerts?? Yes

But this is not a realistic test per se.

And yes on virgin sites,,,even ace 250 can pull some silver loot.

I have seen it done.
And the day it happened I was using etrac,,my brother ace 250.
But did the ace 250 indicate the actual silver quarter that was at roughly 5"?? No
It was iding between tab and penny.

Ran the etrac with sunray 5" coil over it,,bam 12-47.

I knew pretty well what my brother was about to dig,,,he had no idea.
Soil minerals at this spot definitely above medium levels.
 
One way to look at detectors,,,and depth..

Ever turn you auto stereo up all the way,,volume wise.

How did it sound???
Crappier right.

When turned down sounds better.

So,,a metal detector that is an capable of pulling 8.5" dime,,,if it has to be run hot,,,vs a detector that will hit the same dime with NOT running hot.

Which one on average even in the hands of high proficient detectorists,,would likely bring home more silver day in day out.

Some folks read where some folks do pull some deeper say silver dimes, etc,,at times,,,but is this the norm??

And some folks try and equate this is the norm with this detector,,hence buy one.

And don't forget,,,if you base detector performance with depth of finds,,,if this person reporting is hunting boatloads to eventually find these seemingly deeper silver coins,,,,,this itself could be very misleading.

Ever heard the phrase,,a blind hog can find and acorn or two.

Detecting in a sense is when comparing detectors,,,based on probability.
Some detectors the way they work and are engineered,,,depending on detecting scenario,,,have a higher probability to find certain targets.

A good detectorists,,,by way of experience,,,knows better when to gamble or not.

Really what it is all about.

Knowing when to call your detector's bluff.

Some folks here are very good at doing it too.
 
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Around about 5 or 6 inches silver dimes are out of reach of the 5 x 8 search coil. The stock search coil will get down around 9 inches or so on a silver dime. Even though most silver coins are within range of the 5 x 8 a lot are not. The biggest culprit is target masking and hunting at sites where no silver coins exist.

I got another AT Pro that's going to be delivered today. I never used the stock search coil because I didn't like how nose heavy it was, so I used the 5 x8. This time I'm going to figure out a way to balance the stock coil. Maybe a rod extension out the back with some lead at the end of it. I like the AT Pro and I'm going to figure out a way to make it work for me this time around.

beephead
 
In 2015 I found just shy of 100 silvers/sterling pieces with my ATP. It had no problem hitting silver coins or jewelry.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
This time I'm going to figure out a way to balance the stock coil. Maybe a rod extension out the back with some lead at the end of it. I like the AT Pro and I'm going to figure out a way to make it work for me this time around.

beephead
I bought a "Gizmo" for my Ace from the guy on here that makes them... It does the trick!!
 
Thanks to all for your ideas. I may go back to the stock coil although I too struggle with the nose heaviness of using it. Also I wonder how much silver I may have passed over because the target ID wasn't in the perfect silver range.
 
Thanks to all for your ideas. I may go back to the stock coil although I too struggle with the nose heaviness of using it. Also I wonder how much silver I may have passed over because the target ID wasn't in the perfect silver range.

Old thin dimes often come up in the wheat penny range. I absolutely killed it with the 5x8 coil, but for maximum depth bigger coil is better.
 
Search every site with both coils , what you miss with one you may get with the other. Then try again from a different direction , you would be surprised what a difference even that can make sometimes.
 
The AT PRO does good on silver. I found a 3 cent piece at 6 inches in a field and a 3 cent piece at 2 inches in a park in an area that was hit hard by a guy with an Etrac. It's not always the detector, it's how it is used, that's what makes the difference. The Garrett Gizmo helps balance the detector.
 
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