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Garrett AT PRO issues

overtone

New member
I have had my AT PRO for about 5 days and have about 24 hours of use with the 8.5" DD coil. I live in SE CT and It seems to struggle on the wet sand and is nearly unusable in the ocean due to crazy noise and detects. Fresh water lake hunting went well and also dry inland dirt detecting. Found a nice Standing liberty quarter at about ten inches in an area I had previously hunted with the ACE 250. Did I make a mistake thinking this machine would work for wet sand and ocean. I have tried lowering sensitivity and manual lowering the ground balance as recommended without great results. I have been mostly using Pro mode. Any thoughts are appreciated.
 
Did you ground balance on the wet sand or in the water? You need to do that and manually run the gb down to about 11 to hunt in the wet sand or in the water. Retread the owners manual sections on gb and hunting saltwater and watch the youtube videos garrett has out on the subject. It should be able to run stable in saltwater so that you can find some stuff. Good luck!
 
The AT Pro is a single frequency detector. On some beaches it will do OK and others it will struggle. There are adjustments that can help. You can do a search on that. In the dry sand the AT Pro will work fine. But in the wet there are much better detectors.
 
I have to ground balance more than one time in fresh water. I don't know if that will help or not. In zero mode, I put the iron at about 28-35 depending on what I run across. I use the iron audio most of the time but in the deeper water about neck deep, I usually leave it off. Make sure there's no target under your coil when you ground balance.
 
You should learn the machine in an easier environment for awhile. Then move to saltwater and wet sand, which can be very challenging, depending on the beach. More frequented beaches will have more trash and that will have an affect. The beach I usually hunt has been littered with chips of metal of various sizes. Scrapped from a ship I believe. This has made it impossible to hunt parts of it, so I hunt elsewhere until they dissipate.

As for the wet sand. I have found that you must ground balance almost constantly if you try to move in and out from the water line. There are deposits of black sand. It's best to move along the waterline and move in a little and double back.
 
I appreciate all the suggestions. I spoke to Garrett about this and the tech said he has received numerous reports of this problem of detecting salt water beaches in CT, MA RI etc... Must be the black sand and minerals. I guess that is why you all have so many machines. Well, if you can't beat them join them. What do you think about a Sovereign GT for the wet sand? Thoughts.
 
is your ATP serial number start from 531xxxxx ?
 
If you are going to invest in an additional beach detector, I would look at the Minelab EXCAL, Fisher CZ-20 or 21, or even a Whites BEACH hUNTER ID, those are ALL Waterproof!!
That way you can detect the water and not have to worry about RUINING a SOV-GT in the Saltwater!! Hope this HELPS, Les Robinson
 
I use the Sovereign Gt for the wet sand with no problems. I do have to change (decrease) the sensitivity setting as I transition from the wet to dry sand. Otherwise it chatters as I swing the coil. The Sovereign requires a slower sweep speed than other detectors. Just remember the Sovereign Gt is only waterproof up to the control box. Get the control box wet with salt water and you got big (expensive) problems.
 
Yes it is 531xxxxx. What does that mean? Oh bye the way this Saturday the coil flooded in the surf in knee high or less water I believe due to heavy under toe / drag.
 
You really need to go back to your salt water Beach that your going to hunt, and see what detectors the other hunters are using, not all salt water Beach's are the same, The Detector that works great on my Beach, might false all day on your beach.
Good luck & HH
 
i agree 200%
Plus i believe that a real beach metal detector means a PI detector with all cons and pros.
 
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