AT Pro Salt Water

Amish Truck said:

A friend of mine wants to buy a quality detector for land hunting.
I suggested that he should take a look at the AT Pro....
Then he said, I will also use it while vacationing in Florida.
I've read several posts about the AT Pro and salt beaches/water...

What detector would you suggest for land and salty sand hunting with a budget between $400 - $700?

Dig On!

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Here is a comprehensive list of all major brand detectors that are good for salt water beaches. http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=248905

Amish Truck said:

I suggested that he should take a look at the AT Pro.... Then he said, I will also use it while vacationing in Florida.
Dig On!

Click to expand...

AT-P, AT-G, and AT-Maxx can all be used at salt water beaches in the dry sand without any problems. If you encounter black sand, wet sand, or submerged in water, that is the challenge. To compensate, you can decrease the sensitivity and ground balance every few feet. You will hear false signals but with a little practice you can discern the difference between a good target and the falsing.

Salt water hunting isn't cheap, but if you can deal with the nuances until you save enough $$$ for a competent machine, then you can make the AT series work.

Seems the list in the link above is missing a couple model detectors.

Guess which ones??

One of them is in my signature line as detectors currently used.

For what it's worth, your buddy sounds like me. I mainly detect on land but I vacation to florida and bring my detector there too. I really enjoy the beach much more than the land so I might be more picky when it comes to the ATP beach review.

The AT Pro is a great detector on the land and it's completely fine in the dry sand. Pretty good actually. However it just isn't good in the wet sand which is the nature of any single frequency machine. It makes a lot of false readings and just won't detect any deep targets at all.

I hear several people say you can decrease the sensitivity of the machine and "make it work" in salty wet sand but it really just doesn't. It will detect a couple inches and you might get lucky on a fresh drop but it's a pain and very chattery.

if the top end budget is 700, it seems like eeking it out to $8 or 900 would be worth the equinox 800. I dont have any personal experience with this machine but it seems lots of others on the forum are loving it for the beach and the land.

Should get an Equinox 600 I doubt anything else can compete at $650 retail. A dealer on the Fmdf can sell you one for less!!

Like others have said, great on dry beach sand, not so good in wet sand and the water, enough to make me want to throw it in the ocean anyway
I have the Equinox 800 and my AT Pro gets less and less use these days, it's still a great machine though.

tnsharpshooter said:

Seems the list in the link above is missing a couple model detectors.

Guess which ones??

One of them is in my signature line as detectors currently used.

Click to expand...

If you are referring to the NOX, did you see the updated list on page 2?

If not, please keep in mind the list is for PI and "True" Multi-frequency machines, e.g, machines that operate multiple frequencies simultaneously. If my resources are incorrect, please provide info and I'll update. Meanwhile, here is what I've found for the detectors listed on your signature:

NOX 800 - Yes, and it is on the list
Etrac - Yes, and it is on the list
Explorer - Yes, and it is on the list
Nokta Impact - N/A, single frequency VLF that only operates one frequency at a time.
Detech Chaser - N/A, single frequency VLF
XP Deus - N/A, single frequency VLF
Deep tech Warrior - N/A, single frequency VLF

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