Garrett AT Gold, Thanks Steve

[ddmk6]

Just wanted to say Hello to everybody and add a big thank you to Steve for his help selecting my new AT Gold.

Steve your post in the old forum http://www.akmining.biz/forums/showthread.php/2094-Garrett-AT-Pro-versus-AT-Gold.html really iced the cake when making my decision.  Thank you for taking the time to help others and share your knowledge.

I bought an AT Gold to add to my bag of tricks.  If you read the other post in the link, I was looking for something to compliment my GPX 5000 and GMT.  I originally intended the AT Gold to be a turn on and go detector for searching cabin sites found while tromping around through the woods.  After getting to spend a couple hours with the AT Gold I think it's duties will be expanded a bit.

I am quite pleased with the performance and ease of use, it will fill the gap between the 5000 and GMT perfectly for my needs.  With the small DD coil that comes with it, In all metal mode I was able to pickup my small test nuggets I use for the GMT, granted not nearly as strong or consistent as the GMT but it will pick them up if I am right on them.  For what I bought this machine for that's better than I expected.

I was able to get out to a local spot to play around for an hour or so before I had to head out of town.  The coins in the pic were all found in a very trashy area using discrim 1 setting and iron discrim set at 30, sensitivity maxed out or one notch down from max.  I would still get some bleed through from the trash but the coins came through loud and clear, with a positive I.D. of 81 to 83 on the screen.  You knew for sure it was a coin before digging.  Granted most of these coins are newer vintage ( a couple wheats in there) than what I'm looking for but they came through loud and clear.  Target separation was excellent and very quick.

If anyone is considering this unit...I wouldn't hesitate.

I can't wait to continue my testing (and finding).

Thanks again,  Kenny

[Steve Herschbach]

Thank you Kenny. I need to get a dedicated AT Gold page built soon, and your post reminded me of that. The Garrett AT Gold is a unique value in a metal detector. Fully featured with everything I expect from an above water detector, lightweight, yet waterproof to 10 feet. Truly all terrain, and an incredible value for the price. The 5" x 8" DD coil has gotten kudos from many people as a superb coil. It has developed a well deserved reputation for pulling non-ferrous items out of ferrous junk. A very capable all metal prospecting circuit on top of all that with a unique ground balance "window". Just a great little detector and Garrett should be very proud of it and its sibling, the AT Pro.

I am glad it is working out so well for you!

[ddmk6]

I can't wait to test out that ground balance "window".  From the video it looks pretty impressive.  I know of a couple spots that are perfect candidates for testing this feature.  The 5000 won't even navigate this ground....it has gold though, just need to see if the AT will make it more pleasant to hunt :-)

 

Hopefully it won't be spring before I get to test it out some more.  I will post what I learn when I get a chance check it out some more.

 

Kenny

[Guest Paul (Ca)]

Hi Kenny,
 
Thanks for sharing you picked up the At Gold,  That is indeed a good detector especially when using the all-metal feature for tough soil.
 
Three of my favorites are the GMT, MXT and now the At-Gold, Serious machines when using the prospecting mode.  What I found is when in extreme tough areas such as black sand the target gets knocked down in the iron range and ID as iron and what's happening is allot of fresh water users are passing up these signals because they think it's iron, And they use disc mode which does not have the extra sensitivity as all-metal including the AT Gold they are missing targets masked by the black sand.  If you ever find yourself in really tough soil go after those signals that ID as iron bet you will be surprise to see that iron signal will be low or a high conductive target, Remember all-metal in tough soil gives you an edge. 
 
Paul (Ca)

[ddmk6]

Hello Paul,

 

Thanks for the tip on hot ground.  I did notice the ID scale lowered during the nail test when I was watching the video.  I will definitely keep that in mind while I'm learning the in's and out's of this new machine. 

 

I probably won't have a chance to put this thing through a serious workout until spring.  I'm thinking it was a great investment though.  So far it has done everything they say it can do, no question.  Can't wait to test out the ground balance "window" on a favorite patch of hot rocks. 

 

Kenny

[Steve Herschbach]

Just remember that ground balance is just another type of discrimination. You are discriminating out the particular ferrous type reading of the ground itself.

Now as Paul has pointed out ground mineralization tends to pull target id lower, so almost any non-ferrous item will get identified as ferrous if the signal is weak enough. Not only can gold read just like a little piece of ferrous trash, but some gold reads just the same as a hot rock. The more aggressive the ground balancing, the more chance of some gold also getting tuned out.

What I am saying is be cautious with that ground balance window and keep it as conservative as possible.

[ddmk6]

Cautious for sure Steve.  It would be nice to see what one can get away with and still be successful.  I wonder if there is any correlation between the ground balance number and the target ID position on the scale.  Example a ground balance of 55 and gold reads 48 on the I.D. scale.  Then another spot where ground balance is 64 and gold may read 36.

 

I'll have to take some notes and see if there is any relation there.  Probably not, there are just way too many variables.  Be fun to test though.

 

Kenny

[WesH]

ddmk6

  I did the same thing, picked up this detector to fill the gap between my gpx4000, sd2100 and my gmt.  When mysd2100 went swimming last year while detecting a small creek I decided it was time for a water proof machine.  Haven't put it through its paces yet, like you will probably have to wait until spring.  I also bought the other two coils that are available for it.  The little 4in should be a really good snipping coil.

Good Luck, Wes.

[ddmk6]

A little update on the AT Gold...

I hit a couple spots today getting to know the machine a little better.  The coins were all found at a grade school I used to visit daily some years ago :-)  The four on the upper left (bad pic I know, sorry) are wheats.  Oldest being a '27.  This machine is smokin on pennies and dimes and quarters.  Found my first nickel today though, I was starting to get a complex....

The brass valve, bullets, little buckle and the bottle are all from an old mine site that has been worked over pretty good.  I was really surprized to find the brass valve, this area has been known to give up some big gold.

The more I use this little machine the more I like it.  It will be perfect for what I bought it for.  It's not a small gold machine though.  It will find small stuff but it has a hard time doing it.  In all metal using the iron I.D. tone there is no consistency, most of the small stuff I have tested so far all sounds off like iron.  The meter is completely inaccurate on the small stuff as well, all over the place.  Running in disc one, as Steve mentioned earlier there is a definite loss.  The machine will still hear these same pieces but not nearly as clear and once again the graph is completely unreliable.  If your looking for smaller gold with this machine it will have to be in all metal mode, just dig everything.  But if your in an area that has gold, you really need to dig everything anyways.  I included a pic of the piece I used to test, it's .2 dwt.  Just an FYI for someone that may be considering this primarily for a gold machine.  There are better options if all you are doing is prospecting.  But for general purpose....this thing kicks butt

I haven't found any coin size targets much past 6" yet so the jury is still out on depth.  I'm still fiddling with ground balance numbers and sensitivity recipe's trying to see what it like best :-)

 

[Keith Southern]

Hey Kenny glad you enjoy the AT-GOLD..

Fine machine for sure...

I must say I have tested out alot fo detectors for unmasking over the years and thye have progressed slowly but surely...

in the last few years manufacturers have started to realized theres more in the iron sites to be found and started to offer us the detectorist instrument's to combat the situation head on...

What is it we need to go head on in a iron hole type site...

1-Higher freq's(18-25 Khz is the norm now)...

2-Ability to break tone on the most troublemsome iron ...In most cases Nail's the number one site masker in the world...

3-fast shutdown on target's.Greater seperation

4-minimal filtering of target signal's...in other words we need bleedy rejection not clean rejection...

5-Tight superior designed DD coil's

6 Iron Volume audio...this is useful when you are in abundance of iron like nails and you have broken your tone right at nail..So now it break low to high tone at this spot.but with iron volume we can control the low tone output for a less fatiguing hunt...

The AT series from Garrett are leading edge...though they lack SOME  of the top shelf feautures mentioned above  for a true site machine, I can promise you they do VERY VERY well in the iron...especially with the 5x8 DD BT coil installed....

The At series also takes well to a more negative ground balance in disc mode than some machines are able to achieve.Why negative? Well if the dirt is bad enough smaller and or deeper targets can be called iron and at tiems if the dirt issevere enough they dont have to be deep to be signaled as iron... But a bit of a negative ground bal can help you SEE THROUGH the mineral a bit better....And luckily the AT series is able to run a good but begaitve wiht the excellent DD design they have and still have an Intelligent hunt...

Next time out wiht your AT try some differnet ground settings than normal and notice how it changes the sensitivity to different conductor's.....

I may aslo add once you really get into trying to work a site to its fullest potential that is full of iron you may want make sure you allow the Iron audio to remain on...Why?

Well when you allow the iron audio to report instead of null like a regular disc circuit does you are keeping the audio gate open constantly and you are not having to start up and shut down in an iron saturated site....You just get your sweep speed right and allow the full audio report to flow through the headphone's...Also by doing this you can get a clearer picture of the rejected target...in this case iron...

Some will say put disc on zero and and let the machine set the tone break but thast really a no-no for any serious unmasking and site unlocking...you need to fine tune the disc/Tone break for the individual site and evn ground setting to achieve the best result's...

One thing unique to the AT is that there not the fastest like the XP GMP or DTVG or DEUS or T2/F75 and such but they are able to Blend up target's with a audio that in my opinion is second to none and also uncanny for a digital machine to posses..

I have a video I did of the AT on a dollar gold piece...it shows the need for the iron audio to be ON for the ultimate unlock.

Please take a look

Keith