Nel thunder on AT Pro

[maxxkatt]

last month got the Nel thunder for my AT Pro. Primary reason was to do more open farm field hunting and beach hunting when on vacation. Went to Daytona Beach mid Jan 2018 and it did pretty good in the wet sand and surf. Has a tendency to create false tones when half in and out of water or when you bump the bottom. Need to keep it completely under water but off the bottom. Somewhat of a challenge in the ankle deep surf.

Took a while to trust its pinpointing ability. I am digging deeper targets now. I always wondered when using my AT Pro stock coil and the 5" x 8" coil I was finding most targets 6" or less unless they were large targets. Now finding on a regular basis 9" to 11" inch targets even some small one. The kellyco salesman gave me some advice on the Nel Thunder coil. drop the sensitivity to 1/2 like 4 down from max and then ground balance and then move back to two down. Also never let the battery indicator go below 3/4 full.

any ideas why he told me that? I forgot to ask him. He is an experienced detectorist.

and yes it is heavier than I think the specs indicated. So it is a little heavier than the stock and I can live with that for the time being. and finding deeper targets means digging deeper (duh) and that is hard with my lesche shark. I have to always dig a wider hole since the shark by its design digs a narrow hole like a post hole digger but it is hard to get the deep dirt out with the shovel. I end up chopping the dirt up and pulling it out with my hand. Any tips on using the lesche shark will be appreciated.

 

[John-Edmonton]

The electronics always use less power then the the batteries produce. The AT Pro will run just as well at one bare as it will with 5. It is good practice to turn the sensitivity down somewhat when ground balancing any metal detector. If the environment has EMI and or high mineralization, the machine will have a very difficult time doing a proper ground balance. He was correct with those instructions. Any time you detect in a new environment such as wet sand to dry sand, wet sand to water, woods to manicured grass, you should always re-ground balance the detector.

If using the MAX or GOLD, you can utilize the ground balance window, to allow the detector to work well in areas where the mineralization frequently changes without constantly ground balancing.

 

[marcomo]

Don't know who your salesman was at Kellyco, but his battery advice is dead wrong like John says.

If you change your batteries when they are 3/4 charged, you are wasting time and money and getting no improvement in performance.

As to your digger question...George Lesche owns Predator tools and they are a sponsor of this forum. His Predator Raptor will move dirt a lot faster and easier than what you are using, but it is rather pricey.

 

[FindingHistory]

"It is good practice to turn the sensitivity down somewhat when ground balancing any metal detector. If the environment has EMI and or high mineralization, the machine will have a very difficult time doing a proper ground balance. He was correct with those instructions."

-- Wow, that was an extremely helpful piece of information for me, John, especially since I'm in an area (SW Pennsylvania) that seems to have a pretty high mineralization. Thanks so much. I just got my AT Pro for Christmas, so I am still learning the ropes between the hard frozen soil and muddy mess of winter and early spring. I've had detectors before, but have only had ground balance in the last year (I've owned a Bounty Hunter Land Ranger Pro for a little over a year, and now the AT Pro). Thanks for posting tips like this that are not readily obvious through reading the instruction manual. It's great to hear from folks like you on this forum who have years of experience with detecting in general and the AT Pro in particular.