AT Pro International - The Real Story

  Hi everyone.

First let me say that I have no connection with Garrett or any of their distributors. I am just an ordinary bloke who does metal detecting as a hobby. I am also not going to knock any other make of detector - far from it. ALL detectors in the market today will ALL do an excellent job.

However, I've seen quite a few posts on various forums that comment on the AT Pro but are from people who say they have never used one. Most of the comments are knocking the AT, with stories about falsing, lack of depth, no true all metal mode etc. Most of the comments just simply say the AT Pro is on good and you should but a Fisher 75, E-Trac, Deus, GoldMaxx Power etc. I get the impression that many of these folk are just anti-Garrett.

So, to balance out these comments by people who have never used the AT Pro, or if they have it was for an hour or so only, I thought I would post the real story. We need to get the business of air tests out of the way too. ALL air tests on ALL machines are a waste of time, other than to let you hear the tones without interference. Air tests will NOT tell you how

First, the people who knock the AT Pro without having used one really should know better. You can't comment on a detector until you have used it for some time and understand how it works and what it is telling you. Therefore 90% of their comments can be ignored.

Second, there are some issues with the AT Pro.  

a) The early models did have a problem with falsing and this HAS been fixed by Garrett. If you buy one now the only falsing you will get is caused by the operator setting it up wrongly. The solution - just as it is with ALL detectors is to turn down the sensitivity.

b) The coin depth indicator is not particularly accurate (see below) But first we need to get the business of air tests out of the way too. ALL air tests on ALL machines are a waste of time, other than to let you hear the tones without interference. Air tests will NOT tell you how deep any detector will go in the filed. it depends on the soil, mineralisation, sensitivity and lots of other factors. I have yet to see anyone detect a coin that is hovering in mid air. In the field I have detected small finds down as deep as 14". I think that compares pretty well with most any other detector.

c) The coin depth indicator isn't too good, especially in STD mode. The solution is to ignore the scale, switch to PRO and listen to the signal. The louder it is, the shallower the object. Really deep objects sound fainter. For me that's a pretty good indicator of the true depth.

d) Just like every detector, the target ID display only gives an approximation of the type of object. It is far better to listen to the tones and then cross check with the target ID display rather than relying solely on the display.

e) It's not as good as the E-Trac or Deus. Absolutely true!  However, the AT Pro is less than half the price of those machines so you would expect them to be 'better'.

So now for the upside:

a) The AT Pro has a fairly straightforward learning curve. The tones are simple and easy to understand after a while.
b) It really does have a lot of depth (see above).
c) It's lightweight.
d) It works well on both inland sites, beaches and in the water.
e) It is relatively cheap to buy.

One major advantage of the AT Pro is that you do not need to spend your time deciding which of the pre-set programs you need to use. Nor do you need to waste time setting up your own programmes (why would you DO that when e.g. the Deus has eleven (eleven!) pre-sets that will deal with anything? If you want to waste time fiddling about like that then go ahead. Personally I would rather be out there detecting.

Bearing in mind the price, the ease of use, the versatility of it and the fact that it is a deep machine and of course that it DOES find stuff, then for me it has been a really good buy.

 





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http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,27454.msg194453.html#msg194453

Bergman, If the AT Pro is pulling coins at 14" then it will match the Deus and the Etrac,
as for the falsing the only thing I've heard is when people dont ground balance in the water when going from the sand
and the only problem many owners complain about was the arm cup lenth, but they fixed that now

The At Pro and now the AT Gold seems to be up there with the best of them, and I will be going to check out the AT Gold.
the best part is as you said you dont have to stuff around programming,

The AT series of detectors could become some of Garretts finest machines ever, Just like the infinium.

AU

Posted on: September 11, 2011, 06:32:47 AM

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I also agree with Avision4u2liveby, Air tests help you to get an Idea or map out you coils detecting field,
I have done air tests with 2 machines by the same company and got differant depths in air
weather it was the coils or the machines I dont know but they were differant,

AU

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		Quote:			Posted by Burgman
	I'm just sitting here waiting for the backlash from the White's Deus and E-Trackers

Well Mate I use only Whites, But saying that I only use the MXTs just because I want to detect not Program,
and to me they are about the best for the areas that I work and when I took off the big 300 coil and fitted a
smaller one I saw someone dig a ringpull at 12" with it now that was a shock,

so I understand the way your thinking, and I use to have an Etrac and as you said about jumpy IDs
well my Etrac could give you 9 sets of numbers for one Item and it did that in air tests or in the ground,
So far My Machines work just Like they were made to and I cant fault them,

AU


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I cant wait for the AT Gold to come over here and I would love to get my hands on the AT Pro,
its a pleasing thought that garretts new line of machines are of this standard its just like they
use to be only with a modern twist,

AU

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http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,27454.msg194721.html#msg194721

I'm considering buying an AT PRO, but wanted to confirm one thing before I did. I currently have an ACE 250 and find the target ID feature is fairly accurate. Is this the case for the AT PRO? Thank you for your help

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