ddmk6

That's world class stuff right there. Can't wait to see more of this!! Thanks for sharing. Kenny

Very cool video Keith, thank for sharing. Your detailed explanations in your posts really helped make some things click today when I was doing a little searching. I had to drop my truck off for some service today and I had a couple hours to kill waiting to pick it up. There just happens to be some old abandoned houses in the lot next door :-) I played around with the negative ground balance and the sensitivity settings in all modes. Some pretty cool results. I found another pocket full of pennies, but also tested with my little piece of gold. I may have been a little hasty in my opinion of the AT gold in my previous post. The ground was pretty mild with a GB of 76. I adjusted the ground balance with about 3 clicks negative (so around 73) and the sensitivity one notch down from full. The machine would detect the small nugget in all 3 modes (granted not as strong in disc modes), but what was cool was the neither iron audio or the graph once showed iron. The graph was still inconsistent ranging from 45 to 90, but never once dropped into the iron range. This was true for all 3 modes. When running an even ground balance, the piece of gold would activate the iron audio and of course drop into the iron range on the graph as well. I think the coolest thing today was finding a nickel. Just an ordinary 1971 nickel that was about 3" deep. What was so interesting about it was that another couple inches below the nickel was a rusted tin can, directly underneath it. I was definitely impressed. Granted when the signal hit, I had no idea what the target was but I could tell there was something unique or separate signals. When looking at the graph a solid part of the signal was in the range I will dig, so after it I went. I popped the nickel out then rechecked the hole and heard the other signal still there. I just had to grin when I uncovered the can and the whole picture came to light. I'm going to second what Ray said about the iron tone. What a wonderful thing it would be to be able to turn it down a notch. Or maybe just make it trigger a red light or something. It definitely overloads my ears. Thank you for everyones comments and opinions. It really helps reading all of this and picking up little bits here and there. This machine is really going to be fun when I get to the point of comfort and consistent results. Kenny

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 :-)

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

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

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

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