Garrett ATX Review - Beach Detecting In Hawaii

[waterman]

Excellent report on the ATX, enjoyed the read and you finds, well done

[Keith Southern]

Great report on the ATX Steve....very well written to I might add...

and Yes the ATX is very very very EMI resistant is it not...unreal how calm they have it even in urban areas full of electrical smog...

Congrat's on the find's...

yes those ring's could of made you write down a  over biased raving review...some time elapsed does help take it all in for review purposes..

and yet I see the ATX as one well engineered pulse machine... again a 21st century pulse...and I see no need to revert back to the Infinium and as of now even the TDI...

thanks for the excellent read as alway's..

you deserve the goodies!!

Keith

[IDdesertman]

Epic post, and a great haul there Steve!

[Steve Herschbach]

Hi Keith,

TDI and ATX, what to do? I like the fact I can hip or chest mount my TDI but that is not enough. So right now I am holding on to my TDI for three reasons:

1. I can shut the ground balance completely off, and in ground that permits this it is a very powerful detector. I plan on doing a pretty extensive run of my ATX in default ground balance minimum mode against the TDI with ground balance off to see if the TDI has enough extra advantage if any in that situation to warrant holding on to it. Intent there is mostly hunting in sand.

2. For coins in trash, I can shut low conductive signals completely off with TDI, a very nice feature for coin hunting trashy sites. However, while the Infinium drove me a bit batty with audio barrage there is something less harsh about the responses on the ATX that make it more tolerable. So I am going to do a serious park hunt or two with both detectors along hunting and marking high conductive targets to see how it goes. One small problem with shutting low conductive tones off on the TDI is that mixed tone trash items are more likely to trick me, though I have learned usually to switch to all tones for a double check before digging.

3. I need to experiment more with the TDI ability to completely reject ferrous targets. Depth is lost, but how is it for target masking, see through, etc.?

There is one weird factor. The ATX is cool looking. I was surprised that my wife thought it had a good look to it. When she says something positive about how a detector looks it means something.

Certainly if I had to choose right now between the two the ATX would stay and the TDI go. I want to take real advantage of having both on hand however to learn more about both so am in no hurry to make a decision.

[Keith Southern]

Hey Steve...

I'm down to just one P.I. and the ATX is it..so I dont have the option to contemplate over the TDI LOL!!

but the TDI can do some nice tricks at times with the manual Ground bal and tone selector....

Yet at the same time  TO ME the ATX seems more audio descriptive with the awesome coil design they have...

I really like the Garrett has spent time on the audio of there newest machine's.....the AT's and Now the ATX has some wonderful audio quality....

And I'm sort of an Audiophile junkie when it comes to detector's...I love the ability to hear minute things  and Garrett seems on board with that thought process too...

Not weird at all about the looks Steve.....and looks don't mean a thing, but to be truthful the ATX looks like a serious piece of gear....It got the look to make people think who are watching from afar that Hey this guy must be doing something important ....

Keith

[cdv]

Hi Steve.... wondered how you did in Hawaii and was searching for the answers....totally forgot about this Forum that I had saved the link to... signed up just so I could reply.....

That write up on the ATX was great.... I swear I learned more about the ATX from your write up than I have using it lately...admittedly, I have used it way less than the CTX so that is part of the reason...

Hope you continue to have good success with the ATX.... and write about too!

 

Cliff

[Steve Herschbach]

Hi Cliff,

I enjoy two things about metal detecting. The actual going metal detecting for stuff part is the real fun part. But I also just like learning about new detectors. It is fun figuring out what each model does best. So I do have a tendency to get infatuated with new detectors. A simple case of Stevie gets a new toy. I find PI detectors to be more challenging than VLF detectors and so the ATX is right up my alley. GBPI detectors have always been clunky, heavy beasts, but in the ATX I see the potential finally for a PI that is more in line with what people expect from a VLF. The ATX runs more like a VLF than a PI, just with different operating characteristics. And it could obviously be put in a package weighing under 4 pounds. I do not know who will do it first but I can see that a light weight high performance GBPI is now just around the corner. Garrett can do it first, the question is will they?

[AUgie]

Steve:

Like others, I've been reading your Hawaiian detecting exploits for years, particularly with the Infinium.

You make a good effort to "curb your enthusiasm", or at least take account of it - but the enthusiasm, and all the detail it highlights in your recounting, lets the detector show itself all the more fully.

Thanks for an uninhibited and personal "review" where the detector really shines through.

AUgie

[Steve Herschbach]

Hi AUgie,

The ATX is a great detector. Honestly, because I own a GPX 5000 it will get used more as a jewelry detector than a prospecting detector but I do want to try some sniping in California rivers with it. It will find the gold wet or dry. I expect the relic guys are really going to like it also so it looks like Garrett has a hit on their hands.

Garrett put a link to this post on their Facebook page which boosted the views. I did up a good photo of the finds and a little story and submitted it for their Find of the Month Contest so am crossing my fingers. The prize is an AT Gold! http://www.garrett.com/hobbysite/hbby_favoirite_find_2014_us.aspx

Man, this year sure is blasting off fast. March already!

[Paleomanjim]

Steve, thanks very much for sharing your experience with the ATX in Hawaii.  Yours is the best info I have read about the ATX so far. I have had my ATX a few months now (my first PI machine) and I have been using it for meteorites, gold prospecting and twice at the beach.  I like it a lot and use it in combination with by Fisher gold bug 2, depending on what I am searching for. So far I have been using the ATX with the discrimination always set at 0, the sensitivity usually at max, and fully ground balanced. On my 2 beach trips I had to reduce sensitivity to 9 or 10 which worked fairly well and I never really considered increasing discrimination. After reading your article I will experiment more with using discrimination and sensitivity together to optimize my target search. And also I will pay more attention to the high low or low high sounds to learn more about what the target actually may be. 

   I have never tried underwater detecting but after reading this article you have got me fired up and ready to give it a go. I will need to buy the Garrett underwater phones and maybe a weight belt and perhaps a wet suit? I have done lots of snorkeling so I am ready to go there. Just curious about the weight belt though, is it really necessary? My concern is that the belt could be a safety issue in the surf? Or maybe there is a quick release....I have never used one. Also, how deep can targets be fanned underwater and do you fan in combination with a sand scoop? Sorry for all the questions, if there is a good book on underwater metal detecting you can recommend I would appreciate it. Thanks again for the great info, Jim