The following review was written by an owner and user of the Garrett AT Pro metal detector. I am going to describe my first hand experiences with this metal detector and describe the features, benefits, and capabilities of this machine. I purchased the Garrett AT Pro Adventure Pack in the Spring of 2013. Prior to this, I owned and used several other metal detectors, but was looking to up my game and step into a better quality detector. After performing much research, determining what my maximum budget would be, and consulting with a number of veteran detectorists, the Garrett AT Pro was my top choice.
I live in Kentucky, and there is a lot of iron in the soil here. So a metal detector with hi-res iron discrimination was a big factor in making my decision. Use touchpad setting allow you to choose iron discrimination in one of 40 levels to help you separate good targets from trash. The Iron Audio mode allows you to hear discriminated iron and helps you determine if you are on to a target you should dig or not.
The AT Pro has an automatic ground balancing feature that helps to tune the detector to the soil type you are hunting in. This can help to increase the accuracy of the machine and reduce chatter. This feature is easy to use. You simply press and hold the ground balance button, while you bounce the coil from just above the ground to many inches above the ground. You will hear some buzzing which turns to silence, and when this happens, the detector is ground balanced.
I really loved how easy it was to get up to speed and comfortable with this detector. This in part is due to the number of educational videos that Garrett has on their website. You can see them here. I watched them all a couple of times before my AT Pro arrived, and this really cut my learning curve down.
You can set this detector in one of six modes. There is a zero discrimination setting, custom setting, and coin setting for both the Standard and Pro modes. Beginners may want to hunt in the Standard mode initially, which sounds bell tones depending upon the type of metal detected. I hunt exclusively in the Pro mode, which takes a little getting used to but really puts you in touch with what is being detected beneath the ground. Your ears do a lot of the work in this mode. You get low pitch tones for iron, mid-range tones for things like nickels and gold, and high pitched tones for coins and silver. You get screaming loud tones for large or shallow items, and faint tones for objects that are really deep.
The AT Pro has a fast recovery speed, so you can quickly hear the tones adjust as you pass over multiple objects or metal types that are in close proximity to each other. This is great for hunting in trashy areas, where those coins or other desirable object may be mixed in with nails and other trash. It supports notch discrimination, so you can notch out specific signal ranges to suit your needs and depending upon the scenario of your hunt.
The pinpointing feature of the AT Pro works very well. There are instructional videos on pinpointing on Garrett’s website too. It will attempt to determine the depth of a coin-sized target, so you know up front how deep you might need to dig. It also helps you determine the exact spot to dig, so you can dig smaller holes and do less potential damage to the ground. I use this feature in conjunction with the DD-wiggle method to pinpoint. With the DD-wiggle method, you wiggle the coil from side to side over the spot where you are getting the strongest signal. Then you step to the side of that spot and wiggle over the same location at a 90 degree angle. At the spot where the signal is strongest, you have honed in on the exact spot to dig.
Another thing I really love about this detector is the VDI Target ID numbers. Instead of just telling you that the detector thinks it has located a ring, or a penny, nickel, dime, or quarter, it gives you a target ID number. While the target IDs are not always exact and can be influenced by other metals close to the object detected, it gives you a pretty good confidence level of what has been detected. When you see a VDI of 80, you can be pretty sure that it is a penny. When you see a VDI of 82 or 83, you can be pretty confident that you are on to a silver dime or clad dime. VDIs of 85 – 90 are usually going to be some type of quarter.
I have also used these VDI target ID numbers to help speed ring recoveries. A husband needed assistance locating a lost wedding band. His wife had a matching band. By checking the VDI number on her band, I could see that it rang up as a 42, which was on the low end of the scale for gold rings. This VDI number is often associated with foils and I might have passed this signal over otherwise. The ring was located and it was a 10K gold band. You can reference a list of the Garrett AT Pro VDI Numbers to help you learn more about this detector.
OK, now for one of the biggest reasons that I settled on purchasing this Garrett AT Pro… It is waterproof to up to 10 feet. It can be fully submerged, where other detectors can just have their search coils only submerged. This was important for me, because I really wanted to do some water detecting in the creeks, swimming holes, and freshwater beaches at the local lakes. These areas can be honey holes for jewelry, because other detectorists can’t hunt in the water. You need to be aware that the Garrett headphones that come with the AT Pro are not waterproof. You will need to get some waterproof metal detecting headphones if you plan to take them under water.
[easyazon_block add_to_cart=”default” align=”left” asin=”B00B4HS2MQ” cloaking=”default” layout=”left” localization=”default” locale=”US” nofollow=”default” new_window=”default” tag=”thedirtfisher-20″]I mentioned that I purchased the Garrett AT Pro Adventure Pack. This option came with more than just the metal detector itself, at just a slightly increased cost. It was the best value for what you get. I paid around $635.00 for everything, where the best price I could find on the detector alone was $595.00. So it cost about $40.00 more to get all of the accessories. The Adventure Pack contained:
- The Garrett AT Pro metal detector
- The Garrett land headphones (pretty decent quality too)
- An 8.5″ x 11″ search coil cover to protect the coil
- The Garrett Edge digging tool with belt sheath
- A Garrett camo treasure pouch for all your finds
- A Garrett deluxe detector bag for storing and transporting your detector and all your accessories
The AT Pro is light weight and has great battery life. It is powered by AA batteries, which I preferred over a rechargeable battery pack because I can always keep extra AA batteries with me in the field. I also liked the fact that there is a big community of Garrett AT Pro users out there, so learning more and getting support and tips in metal detecting forums is easy. There are even some Facebook metal detecting groups specifically for the Garrett AT Pro, like Nugget Noggin’s AT Pro Team. Nugget Noggin is a guy who does lots of YouTube videos and is a Garrett AT Pro user.
[easyazon_image add_to_cart=”default” align=”left” asin=”B00BC0NEYG” cloaking=”default” height=”160″ localization=”default” locale=”US” nofollow=”default” new_window=”default” src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31LN4dVwMQL._SL160_.jpg” tag=”thedirtfisher-20″ width=”160″]Garrett AT Pro 5×8 inch DD Coil[/easyazon_image]The only add-on for the AT Pro that I would recommend is the Garrett AT Pro 5×8 inch DD Coil. It costs around $127.00, but is a must-have for really trashy areas. That large 8.5″ x 11″ search coil covers a lot of ground. This smaller 5″ x 8″ search coil helps cut through all the signals and focus in on the good ones. I use this smaller coil exclusively when hunting around old homes.
Well, that is about it for now. I hope you find this information helpful in your quest for a new detector. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them below. Any comments from other Garrett AT Pro users are welcome too. Thanks for reading, good luck, and happy detecting!
