Garrett ATX Relic Hunt For Absolute Newbie

[fishersari]

Hello there, I just got permission to a land dating back from 1600 around 10 acres. The land are palm oil plantations, clay soil and has puddle of water all over the place depending on river water lock. the land is not virgin site as I know many detectorists has entered without owner permission. I have detected a land adjacent to the land in question  (with permission of course ) so I assume the soil condition is almost the same.. I know nothing about how mineralize the soil are but i have target sample (tin coin) with me all the time. Sometimes manticore can detect (fresh buried target sample) around 12 inches, sometimes just around 6 to 8 inches (wish the Manticore has mineralization's meter) which i think is because of heavy fertilizer used. The problem is I only got permission to detect for 2 days. 

With above scenario in mind, I'm thinking of bringing along my friend ATX with standard coil but I doubting myself, does the ATX will be wasting the precious time because:

1. I know nothing about PI

2. I know nothing on how to operate the ATX, my friend will teach me the basic and i will try to learn as much as I could in 3 days on the beach.. lol

3. Do you think the ATX will possibly sniff out deeper target than Manticore, I will be using the ATX for sparse targets area/very low ferrous targets density only.

Im planning to bring a PI machine because all the detectorist were using vlf and Im hoping the ATX will sniff out deeper target that out of vlf range Or i just better off using the Manticore alone. Thank you in advance

[Steve Herschbach]

On 1/20/2025 at 5:01 AM, fishersari said:

 

1. I know nothing about PI. Nothing to know, bump up the sensitivity, ground balance, detect. hi-lo tones are small/low conductive targets, lo-hi tones are large/high conductive targets. There is no such thing as reliable ferrous versus non-ferrous on a PI so forget the iron check feature.

2. I know nothing on how to operate the ATX, my friend will teach me the basic and i will try to learn as much as I could in 3 days on the beach.. lol See above.

3. Do you think the ATX will possibly sniff out deeper target than Manticore, I will be using the ATX for sparse targets area/very low ferrous targets density only. No possibly about it, the ATX will punch deeper than Manticore in bad ground. Low mineral ground don't bother with the ATX, use the Manticore.