Im going to get a new detector and was wondering which of the two should i get?
I like the at because its light and you can do shallow water hunting, but i also all of the good stuff found with both of them... Some care to try and help me out? hahaha
Well I use a AT-Gold and previously had a Etrac I wouldn't trade the AT-Gold for any other machine on the market! I am a very content and happy camper with my AT Gold. I use it on coins,jewelry,relics and it does great on all of them. Oh yeah you can also take it in the water up to 10 ft.
Let me say first, I am a Minelab fan-boy and am particularly found of the Explorer series. The explorers do have a bit of a learning curve, but once you get to know the machine and learn what its telling you, they are hard to beat on deep silver and really on deep anything, it handles the saltwater beaches and shallows very well and really its just great all around detector....well in most cases it is. In this case the choice between the 2 comes down to where your going to be hunting, you mention the AT Gold, if you plan on doing prospecting for small nuggets the Explorer will let you down, it just wont do what the AT Gold will do in the gold fields. Now if you are planing on saltwater hunting the the AT Gold is not going to cut it, Garrett well even tell you that is not recommended for salt water, you will get a lot of falsing/chatter, its that same higher frequency that makes it better for gold detection that hurts it in the salt. If your going to be prospecting and FRESH water detecting I think you will be way ahead with the AT, if your just going to be doing general detecting and a little salt beach hunting I would go with the Explorer. But if you are going to be prospecting and saltwater hunting a lot I doubt you will be happy all the time with either of them. Maybe you should have a look at the AT PRO it will handle the salt a little better then the AT Gold and do better on the nuggets then the Explorer
I agree with Slowdown about the use of each. I don't live anywhere near saltwater and I've been looking to get either an AT Gold or a Gold Bug Pro. But I'm leaning toward a AT Gold as I have the ability to snorkel the local rivers and creeks when the weather gets really hot and that ends up being the only option to detect. Explorer's, in general, are not that good with gold unless you happen upon a LARGE gold ring. I've tested my SE Pro with all kinds of gold buried at various depths in little plastic bags in various soils and sand at the lake beach, and it can only see fat wedding bands and large HS rings. It cannot see strung or lumped small gold chains, small gold earrings etc... but heavy chains in a lump, it reads as scratchy foil. So when detecting, it could be a hot dog wrap of aluminum in a flattened ball, a Wrigleys wrapper, or sometimes just the tail of a beavertail PT. In comparison, my 7.5hz Delta 4000, by Teknetics, sees gold better than my Explorer. But that's a dig it situation as well because the numbers and tones are EXACTLY the same as foil, nickels and PT's. It's your call. But my vote would be the AT Gold, unless your using it in saltwater.
Ed
hey benjy,you said on the Cali forum you would be huntig demos and camps right?With that,I say go with the gold. If your going to do mostly deep turf,then I would recomend explorer.
Tell us about the type of hunting you will be doing?
Well the explorer got sold so now im going to get a G2. For my hunting it will be good, and all the deep silver around here has already been found.
He of little faith. The deep silver is never gone. There's even some shallow stuff still around too. Hunted out? Nah can't be.
I agree, its never hunted out. i go over spots i myself have hunted several times, and still make good finds. no i take that back GREAT finds. the class ring i pulled up a couple weeks ago was the last thing i expected to pull up from the woods, and directly in the exact spot i had gone over several times
( no exaggeration maybe 12 or more times i had hit this area, and still pulled up a gold ring ) hunted out ... no way .... i will never believe a place is hunted out ...
step off the beaten path a little and go slow .... if it was detected in the past. it really depends on how slow and thoroughly they went over the area. take your time ...
there`s some good stuff still out there for you. guaranteed ...
good luck, take it slow. and rest assured, there is still some great finds in the dirt waiting for you ...
The silver isnt completely gone,but the area benjy hunts is the same area Paul and a multitudeof others have hammered with explorers for a long time.