Trip out to a NJ Beach

[Howard Snell]

I took a trip out to a popular trashy NJ beach. I started off swinging my Excalibur and my heavy heavy scoop. As my arms tires and my back hurt I switched off to the AT Pro. This I feel is the AT's special nich while it doesn't go as deep as the excal on rings the AT will pick up chains and I can swing the thing darn near all day. My concearn though I didn't seem to be getting good depth. I ground balanced and re ground balanced was three bars down on the sensitivity becuase of chatter and had fresh batteries but the 6 inches of depth wasn't happening. Is NJ dry shore sand all that different than dry land?

 

[MikeLab]

I don't know about NJ sand, but sand here is high mineralization. That means the ground balance has to be accurate. I made the mistake of trying to ground balance in the discriminate mode. The iron discrimination can hide iron targets that are under the coil and the ground balance will be way off.

 

[Howard Snell]

At the time I was in pro mode iron desc set to 30 I don't know if that would make a difference

 

[MikeLab]

The instructional video for the AT GOLD says in high mineralization you should keep the coil low when ground balancing -- not pumping 8 inches high like the manual says. When you pump the coil all the way to the ground, sometimes in damp salt the last inch is the most important. So you should balance to that. Then search with the coil in that inch inch zone. You may even try to manual ground balance. Another thing, high mineralization with discrimination is not he best mode to hunt it. You may have no choice if the trash is too much, but you might try all metal.

 

[Sailorman]

I auto balance and then drop 5 to 8 points. Two bars down on sens. Usually wind up at 0 to 5 wading, around 10 in wet sand and 15 in dry sand on my beaches. I'm using the 5 by 8, just works better for me in the surf. Don't know if that helps!