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I Recently Had The Opportunity To Do Some Field Work With The Garrett ATX Metal Detector

John-Edmonton

Moderator
Staff member
I have been doing some of fieldwork recently testing the new Garrett ATX metal detector. It was used both on land and freshwater. My initial thoughts on the new Garrett ATX PI (Pulse Induction) metal detector were quite remarkable. Now I have been using the Infinium (also a PI) since 2007 and also used the Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II for some time. They have each rewarded me with lots of gold/silver rings, jewelry and lots of coins. The new ATX is a much improvement over the Infinium. I was amazed at how well it responded to tiny conductors. Many a 22 shell/bullets and small buckshot slipped through my water scoop holes, located from decent depths. Using the 12" coil, it also responded well to various chains which I also dug from the fresh water lakes. I did manage one thin gold chain, the one shown below beside the gold ring.

atxa_zpsa1677cea.jpg~original
DSC_02282_zps7ea145eb.jpg~original


That smaller coil based inside the larger coil 12" coils are both DD coils. I've been told that they both work together to respond to tiny conductive targets.

I also noticed an improvement in depth using the 12" coil on the ATX compared to the Infinium using the 10" x 14" mono coil. As my initial experience several years ago, going from a VLF water machine to a PI, I discovered a whole new crop of rings, coins, jewelry and also junk that were now available to me that other people using VLF detectors just could not reach. I had a record year that year using both my Infinium and other VLF water machines. Now with the ATX, I also ran into a similar scenario. I again found a new crop of coins, rings and junk at even deeper depths then the areas I hunted using my Infinium. Now in all honesty, the new crop was not as fruitful as when I internally used the Infinium, but the improvement was definitely there. I had to wait until the swimming was over for the summer to hunt most of my water locations, as the holes I had to dig with my scoop were very deep, and no matter how hard I try, I never seem to be able to get those deep holes filled in completely, so I opted to wait.

Now the ATX utilizes an iron check completely different from the Infinium. With a push of a button, running the coil over an unknown iron target will give a low audio similar to the iron audio featured on the AT Series. The ATX gave that iron response on bottle caps, large nails, rusty cans, metal washers and some recent Canadian clad. It is limited to depth, and seemed to work quite well on bottle caps to about 4 inches, more on tin cans and variable results with nails. It's up to the user to learn the limitations of this feature. I didn't use the discrimination mode at all, as it is one typical of PI's, in that it can be used to stabilize the detector in certain environments. It should not to be used to knock out certain targets, as you begin to loose depth as you increase the discrimination.

atx_zpsb773a1e8.jpg~original


Above is my initial depth test done in my backyard in motion mode. The results are partially flawed, in that I had to deal with a lot of unexpected EMI and could not operate the ATX above a sensitivity of 6, (max @13) otherwise the target audio got lost in the EMI audio. Out in the field however, I could easily run the sensitivity near or at max with the detector well ground balanced and running with auto track turned on. And similar to the Infinium, the higher the threshold is set, the deeper the target can be picked up.

The audio is unique. One set of low-high audio tones is usually copper , silver, bronze and sometimes iron. The other set of tones high-low is typical of gold, iron and other possibilities. Bobby pins and straight nails give off a series of 8 soft bleeps. If the 8 bleeps are strong, check it. I found one silver ring with loud strong 8 bleeps, probably due to it's orientation to the coil. Not sure of the signal? Utilize the iron check.

I did take the ATX to two different locations looking for relics in the woods. The first location was just littered with iron nails, cans, buried tinfoil etc. and although I found nothing of any significance, I accidentally did find a Coke bottle from 1949, digging a low-high target, which turned out to be a rusted piece of wire, and it also gave a nice low iron grunt on it like the AT Series.

I am still learning this new detector, and will soon post a decent depth graph to show it's potential on various targets. So far, for the greatest results using this metal detector, I have observed that you need to use your ears, as the audio on a target, although often times faint, will give clues to whether it might be a coin or a rusty ball of tinfoil. You also have to selectively pick your sites for best results. Busy parks are a lesson in frustration, as are certain locations in a body of water. PI's tend to be a niche detector, and not always popular with the general metal detector users. However, a decent PI, in the right hands can be a killer. I look forward to some more ATX water hunts this year until freeze-up.

For more Information on the ATX....Click below:

http://www.garrett.com/hobbysite/hbby_atx_main.aspx
 
Thanks John, very informative. If I read your comments correctly then in your view the ATX has greater depth and sensitivity to small targets than the Infinium.
On a scale of 1 to 10 how much better do you rate the ATX?

Dave
 
It's definitely an improvement over the Infinium. Greater sensitivity, faster swing speed, all controls nicely accessible with your thumbs for all adjustments, automatic "best" operating frequency ability, iron check with the push of a button, pinpointing, automatic ground tracking, just to name a few.
 
Thanks John I have one question . I hunt beaches in S.C. and N.C. both have black sand and I hunt the wet sand at low tide. Also in the water knee deep where the waves are crossing over the coil every few seconds. Do you know if it has been tested in those conditions yet? And if so did the waves bother the detector ? How about the black sand? Thanks
 
It is nice to see some hands on reporting. I do hope EMI and salt water stability is improved over the Infinium. But it sounds like it is doing the main thing it needs to do - get better depth than the Infinium. Thanks for the report!
 
I can't replicate your scenarios, as I have only hunted in freshwater so far. I can add to this that the ATX is more stable in the freshwater environment with waves then the Infinium. The Infinium worked best with the control box either in the water or out of the water. If in-between, the water caused an annoying audio at times, but a signal would always over ride this. The ATX operates about the same in all the scenarios. I was told that the ATX should balance nicely to and including salt water. As far as the black sands go, I''ll see if I can some information on that as well the salt water running over the coil next week. I am working this weekend, so unfortunately, I won't be able to get out to experiment with the ATX.
 
John thanks so much for your time and your reply.
 
Nice report.
Thanks for your efforts.
Keep us posted.

Thanks again!
More to think about now.
 
Looking forward to your next report, this one was very informative and I'm jealous you get to field test one!! If this bad boy can snag some chains, I'm in!! With all of the pendants I've found over the years, I've never snagged a chain by itself. You know there has to be some!!
 
On all my tests, for depth purposes, the non motion mode got the best results. I took the unit 5 miles south of Edmonton, out to a gravel road, tweaked the sensitivity up high, along with the threshold, and I was getting readings around 20 inches on a US nickel in pristine condition, with the help of the re-tune button. There were no power lines nearby, or any cables running underground. Although it was definitely a weak signal, it was there, and If I was looking to dig those quiet repeating wisps of a signal, I would have dug this one.

When switching between modes on the ATX, I notice a double click would get me either motion or non-motion. The non-motion mode is validated with 5 stationary red LED.s lighting up on the console face. The motion mode has a red LED in constant motion, validating that you are now in the motion mode. So simple to switch back and forth.

Non-Motion mode is shown below. Hit Shift key (it lights up) then hit Non-Motion until you get the 5 stationary LEDS. Hit shift key again or wait several seconds and it will turn off automatically.
 
I called Garrett today, and as far as the black sands go, it should work fine. It has the manual ground balance, sensitivity plus advancing the discrimination might help if there are still issues. The shallow waves over the coil still is up in the air. I think a lot of machines suffer from this. In all honesty, I don't have an answer on that one yet. I suspect you will get an answer if not from me, then someone else who has been in that specific environment soon.
 
John-Edmonton said:
I called Garrett today, and as far as the black sands go, it should work fine. It has the manual ground balance, sensitivity plus advancing the discrimination might help if there are still issues. The shallow waves over the coil still is up in the air. I think a lot of machines suffer from this. In all honesty, I don't have an answer on that one yet. I suspect you will get an answer if not from me, then someone else who has been in that specific environment soon.

Good post John! From what Garrett told me on the hunt it will work well in just about any type of soil. They have done lots of pre testing with it to make sure of that.
 
I'm not sure how long you got to run the machine, but what is Garrett saying that it will do on battery life? The AA batteries are a big turn off for me with a pulse machine. It seems like the higher powered pulse machines utilize a rechargable lithium ion battery pack of some sort. I'm not expecting the overall battery life to be great...but this is being based on what we saw with the Infinium and TDI SL. It can get very expensive if you run the machine a lot. Even if you run rechargable AAs, the battery life will be even shorter than with regular AA alkaline batteries.

Looking forward to seeing more on this machine though. As someone else said, Minelab has set the mark with their GPX machines and I'm not expecting a $2,000 machine to be able to equal one of those...it would be nice to get an inbetween unit though. Certainly the Infinium was a great intro pulse machine, but couldn't exactly hang with a TDI in depth...maybe the ATX will be a great inbetween unit...landing somewhere between the TDI and GPX. That would be worth the $ for sure.
 
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