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Info On AT Gold, Rye Patch


MrDingo21

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Hello everyone. I haven't really gotten out to use my detector since buying it last year spring time (Garrett AT Gold). I'm not sure exactly how to use it and would love some pointers or would be very happy to get with someone local and teach me some pointers. I am a GPAA member and I am thinking about going to the claim they have out by Rye Patch next Tuesday Dec 04. I have never been out to that area so any info on that would be appreciated as well. Thank you very much and have a great week.

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The only way to learn a metal detector is to use it. I highly recommend you immediately start “aluminum detecting” at nearby parks or playground areas. Aluminum and gold read the same, and the smaller the aluminum you can find, the better you are at gold detecting.

As far as Rye Patch do be in the right location.

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9 hours ago, MrDingo21 said:

Hello everyone. I haven't really gotten out to use my detector since buying it last year spring time (Garrett AT Gold). I'm not sure exactly how to use it and would love some pointers or would be very happy to get with someone local and teach me some pointers. I am a GPAA member and I am thinking about going to the claim they have out by Rye Patch next Tuesday Dec 04. I have never been out to that area so any info on that would be appreciated as well. Thank you very much and have a great week.

If you can get to a place where there's mineralized soil (like in the goldfields, before you go) make a test bed in the mineralized soil (maybe make some with regular sand and black sand? I always have buckets of mineralized soil around; they come in right handy) for those bits of aluminum so you can experience some of the real-world conditions of trying to locate your aluminum-gold in somewhat challenging conditions.

If you can't get any practice soil/a place with similar ground conditions, just have at it in mild soil until you've tuned your ear to threshold breaks as you'll always want to investigate them when you're in the gold fields. (For your test-bed, plant your aluminum at various depths until you can't hear it anymore, then bring it up slightly and bury it again and repeat until you can barely hear a signal. You'll be earning your spurs when you only get a break (at target depth while scrubbing the ground) in the threshold when you're over a marked spot with a target (regardless of size) buried at depth (the size will determine how deeply you'll hear the bigger targets, the smaller ones will of course be under less soil before they disappear, and in mineralized soil, you'll lose the depth ability a lot faster).

All the best,

Lanny

 

P.S. If none of this is news to you, carry on and good luck.

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I did try a park by the elementary school about a minute from where I live and found some soda pop tabs and gum wrappers but it ended quickly since my little hand shovel ended up just bending away and broke. I will have to give figure out how to make a test bed so I can practice. I guess trial and error is the only way to kind of help me learn how to do this lol. Also I think we are supposed to be getting a storm this weekend so maybe ill just wait and like Steve said hit the parks and playgrounds. I did manage to get my detecting card for the parks in the Reno area so that's a start.

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Actually, any place you have to use your detector to "tune" your ear is an excellent place to start, and if you can hunt parks in your area, that's a great way to begin.

I will add this though, Steve's advice about using various sizes of aluminium, down to tiny bits (like small gold size=very small too) will give you an exceptionally great chance to simulate what you'll actually be after, so a testbed is a solid idea as well.  Moreover, if you live in Reno, shouldn't you be able to head out to the surrounding area and sprinkle those aluminum bits into some of your local ground? (I've never detected in Reno [been there a few times], but the geology of the surrounding area looked like it would likely produce some reactive ground which would be good enough to help with learning ground balance as well?) (Others from the Reno area can jump in here to comment about the soil conditions in the surrounding area as I'm no expert whatsoever.)

All the best, and good luck when you do get to have a chance to go for the gold,

Lanny

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  • 4 months later...

I'm on the east coast here and we live in a rust bucket so the Garretts do pretty well here with the extended iron tone. I assume the vdi readouts would be similar if not identical between the gold, pro and max. I use the pro, my buddy has the max and gold here is dead on with nickels 51-solid 52's. Hefty square tabs will be the same as platinum or slightly under. There are many times when beaver tail of a pull tab that is curled over will hit in the gold range.

I think the big difference on the AT Gold vs the Max and Pro is the higher frequency that it runs giving it more sensitivity to gold range and little less on silver. Lower frequencies >15khz get a bit more depth and less sensitive to gold.

If your getting erratic numbers just slow your swing and swing at a steady rate.  The AT series do have fast recovery but if there is a lot of trash around and your swing is too fast the machine won't settle and lock on the target. 

Lastly Ground Balance often, I always do a quick bob over quiet areas as I go along just to keep the machine on track. Easy enough to toss on Iron Audio and if your machine is quiet then GB it. 

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