ATX arrived today. ....I'm sure it's gonna be good to me

Hi Jack. That was only a 1 hour hunt at a saltwater beach. I was hitting the bottom of slope right by the water. Being that I had the sens maxed and didn't GB machine was a little noisy but targets were clearly heard. I only dug hi-lo signals. Pinpointing is amazing on this machine for me even without using pinpoint button every target was right in center of coil. This machine is deep the nickle was about 14" and was loud. The other targets were anywhere from 6-12" even the little screw. I can't beleave how sensitive this machine is to small targets I Definatly think my gold chain count will go up compared to using my Excal. This was the absolute first time I ever used an ATX so I have a ways to go to fully understand it's language and settings. I didn't dig one piece of aluminum this time out didn't find any gold either but I only had an hour to try machine out. I'm gonna get out this weekend with it I'll post my finds hopefully will snag some gold I know it's out there somewhere " I hope!" Lol.

John

Got my first hunt in with the ATX. My only problem I had was the old beach I hunted filled up so fast with people it restricted me severely on the area I could hunt. Went from me at 10 o'clock to 75-100 people in a matter of an hour. Birthday party for a small kid, ie; jumping/bouncing house in place IOW.
The hunt, immediately got a very deep quarter, 14 or so inches in the sand. Got a toe ring about half that. Then a what appeared to be a 16 penny nail. Important find! At one angle the nail sounded good. 90 degrees over and it double signaled. Played with it walking around it for several minutes not knowing if it was 2 targets or one. Sitting on top of the hard packed red clay some 12 inches deep under the sand was the nail. Then dug a wheat penny about 10 inches deep sitting on top of the hard packed red clay and I wondered again what the black stuff was, it was on the other targets also. Black sandy looking stuff. It leaches from the clay I'm thinking as water for years penetrates the ground. Black sand is thick that deep eveywhere I dug to the red clay layer. Moved up the hill some as I know the sand is well over 2 ft there from previous years. Experienced a whispering signal that went high/low. It would repeat intermittently dug and dug for it but left it in the hole. The signal got better after about 10 or so inches of sand was removed from on top of it but still a whisper and now repeatable all the way around. Dayum my scoop is the Jack Flynn custom RTG SS scoop they made for me, and it's I think 14 inches long from front to back. Yep I gave up on that one. Dug some deep old beavertail parts and a chunk of iron about big as a silver dollar. Got a modern hair clip and a pretty deep old fashioned hair clip/fastener. Lazy me should have been up there right after daylight this morning.
What I did find out. If you are researching a signal and fixing to dig it. Before you do that. Scan a "landing place" for the scoop dumpings as you dig. It needs to be totally clear of metals. Or else you'll keep right on getting confused and chasing what you thought you had just dug.
With the sensitivity turned down or all the way down it is still deeper than your VLF. As you go up in sensitivity you better have a BIG scoop and some stamina. I started at full and reduced it to half.
If the coil center gets a signal the first tone you get is the imaginary line in which the target is located, the second signal is feedback. 90 degree turn down the same imaginary line you just drew and it's dead nuts right there.
The machine really handles well to me for being so heavy, almost 7 pounds. Well 7 lbs is 7 lbs..... for me it's gonna be worth it as I've now opened up areas that have not been detected. They're past the 8 inch mark most would never be able to see what's down there. More later....

Congrats on your first finds with the ATX, Jack. Just think what's still under all that sand!!!
Have fun!

Wayne

Pleasant Garden, NC
AT Max, Nokta Impact, MX Sport, Nokta FORS Relic, GPX 4800, Infinium, Racer, Deus, F75SE, Nautilus DMC II (order of acquisition, last to first)

Does an archeologist argue with a plow? A bureaucrat with a bulldozer?

Looking good Jack. Reminds me of the Jaws movie. Instead of a bigger boat---a bigger scoop!!!

Yep that was about at an hour. It takes a while to dig deep holes like that. Never could get in the water for all the floaters/birthday party goers.

Nice finds Jack, thanks for the tips. your not kidding about needing a big scoop, my scoop weights 8lbs all stainless. With the ATX in one hand and a big scoop in the other digging these deep holes I just might get in shape soon lol. I'm heading to beach tonight with ATX, my girlfriend is gonna use the Excal 1000. We'll see how it goes. Wish you luck on your next trip out.

John

Here's a pic of what came off the same deep sand beach in a couple of hunts winter before last. Found with the GT. It didn't see near as deep as the ATX does. That's why I know it's there....I'd say 75% of it was not a good signal at all just came crackling through the nulling the machine was doing, breakthrough I call it. Snap crackle and popping was the key with the GT. BTW there was a lot of beavertail pulltabs mixed in on those hunts.




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2015 01:39AM by Jack Flynn.

WoW

I'd definitely be pounding that site with that ATX too!

I have a site that produced a pile of goodies like that a few yrs back too and I know there's still more there deeper/out of range of the VLF's

no one knows about the lake/site way out in the woods and 4x4 needed to get to the site/lake so I'm just itchin to get my hands on an ATX before someone finds the place and uses a pulse machine in it! lol

The biggest indicator for me was this was laying on top of or just inside the red clay that the sand is over and a section of the beach had been washed really good by some heavy heavy rain. Like reading a book when you put 2 and 2 together, should add up to gold and silver............

Gold has to be on my doorstep. Arrived just before dawn to beat the heat and the bathing beauties. Just starting to break light on the horizon. This was some easy diggin this morning. Decided to dig any signal I got high/low and low/high. Definately put a lot more targets in my pouch. Yesterday tried to dig just high/lows. Newer clad and some old stuff, wheats, lead weights and beavertails. I dropped the hand full of rusted nails in the trash there not thinking of takin a picture of it too. Figured out that maybe for what I'm doing trying to get the good stuff, dig it all just might be my best bet "on this particular beach". The pinpoint on this monster really really accelerated my digging 10 fold. Ran the machine on it's lowest sensitivity setting. I've also read where pinpoint uses the batteries up quicker. After yesterday and today about 7 or so hours total I'm still at 2 beeps on the battery charge. I moved over to a shallower sand wise part of the beach just off the normally used part. Here's about 6 hours and I'm whipped, gold is on my doorstep though. The odds have shifted in my favor. FWIW a seven pound detector isn't that bad, my right arm is only sore in the elbow joint lol. You can tell which targets were laying on top of the red clay by how they look. Deepest maybe 12 inches to the clay layer, most of it shallower.




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2015 04:15PM by Jack Flynn.

I've wondered what a pulse machine might do on our freshwater beaches. We have a clay/shoal/shell layer at some of them. I was mistaken in that the local beaches weren't used much anymore. I went fishing earlier in the week and put the boat in at a ramp down from one of the beaches. That beach was packed at 3 o clock. And remained packed til we loaded up just before dark. Lots of bathing beauties too. No need in fishing too far from eye candy haha

Daniel I dug some 10 or 15 of the greasiest nails you ever seen. Didn't dig much tiny stuff like I expected but if it falls through the quarter inch screen in the bottom of the scoop I don't go after it. My experience has been split shot and it's a pain to find then realize what it is. Today's hunt was free flowing white sand except the deepies. That's nice to scoop in. Fast too! Heck if that many people are in the water where you mention i would get myself in there too. Detector in hand.