Paleomanjim

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  1. I am selling my Garrett ATX Extreme PI metal detector. This is a pulse induction machine with extreme sensitivity. I bought this from KellyCo just over a year ago and I am including all the extra's that were included with the package. I also purchased an underwater headset and a goodybag for beach hunting that I am including. I used this around 6 times, mostly for hunting meteorites and nuggets at Gold Basin and Franconia. I am now into RC planes and have not used this detector since last spring so that is the reason for selling it. It is still under factory warranty and in perfect condition. Fantastic machine. Here is a video I posted on my first meteorite find using this machine: I believe I have this priced fairly low so price is $1600 firm. My email is: Paleomanjim@yahoo.com Cell: 949-235-2625 Factory Included: 10x12 inch DD search coil Adjustable Land Headphones with cushioned ear cups Multi-use travel and storage case with ATX Logo Custom Detector Sling by Garrett Metal Detectors AA (double A) alkaline batteries Rechargeable batteries Battery charger
  2. I think it is a great detector Rick. Most chondrites at Franconia and Gold Basin are on or close to the surface, so the ATX should find em. Really like the ability to find large nuggets at depth, just in case I ever get lucky enough to walk over one! It is a bit heavy, I took the sling attachment and attached it to my backpack instead, works much better not having the strap behind the neck. It is almost too quiet though! I wore tennis shoes this time instead of my boots that have metal in em, the ATX just purrs. You are right, there is not much for junk targets out there and most hot rocks do not sound off, so not much time is spent digging up false targets. I only dug one target, a 45 caliber bullet several inches down, man did it scream! I think the ATX is going to be great for finding those irons at Franconia. Most of the irons are in that extremely hot ground so with the GB2 I was having to dig a lot of false targets. And I think there may be a few larger irons down deep that the ATX will pull out that the GB2 could not reach. Thanks for the invite Friday, my wife is home and made other plans for us so I cant make it this time, but maybe next....jim
  3. Tested several meteorites, including chondrites and irons at various depths, 2 small gold nuggets, and a nickel. Interesting results.....Merry Christmas folks....jim http://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=6RvqIn0IK_4
  4. Fred, I was hunting both gold and meteorites and I had no idea what the target was, could have been trash, gold or meteorite. Why not use the iron check to get an idea what the target is? The ATX will sometimes give a grunt on larger iron targets, but not so much on small iron targets. At this point in my learning curve I am still digging every target. On this case the iron check did not give a grunt meaning it could have been a nugget, no way to know without digging. I suspect that chondrites will never give the iron grunt on the ATX, but I will need to test some larger onesl If that proves to be true then there will be no need to dig targets that grunt at Gold Basin....
  5. Hello all. I got my new Garrett ATX a few days ago. The weather forecast for Gold Basin Arizona was good so I decided to head out there for a few days to try out the new detector. Overall, I am very pleased with it. This is my first P.I. machine, I have been using a Gold Bug 2 for the last 3 years. The new Garrett was nice and quiet. As soon as it is ground balanced and the threshold was set it just hums quietly, almost never responding to hot rocks. The sling made the detector light and I used the headphones to improve sound and battery life. I ran the detector around 4 hours each day and the rechargeable batteries finally ran out on the last day, so around 12 hours of battery life. The only issue I had was with ground balancing. Normally the auto ground balancing works with 5 or 6 pumps of the coil. On 2 occasions the detector failed to ground balance. The first time it failed I tried several more times a few feet away and it finally balanced. The next day, Tuesday, the ground balance failed again. This time I was in the middle of hunting and the detector was already balanced but I decided to balance it again as the ground changed and looked hotter. It failed to balance, even after 30 pumps or more. I tried a dozen or more times in different areas hoping to get it balanced because it was more or less screaming continuously. No luck. I finally gave up and decided to have lunch. When I turned the detector back on it balanced fine and was not an issue again that day or today either. I have re-read the owners manual and I believe it may have been a tuning issue. The manual states retuning is rarely needed unless in non-motion mode but perhaps the motion mode can have tuning issues as well. I am still not sure of the case, perhaps if I had pushed retune it would have balanced out. Any thoughts or suggestions from others? On the way home I decided to have one last hunt and and it payed off with a nice 27.4 gram meteorite! All in all it was a great hunt, good weather, met some more nice folks out there, got comfortable using the Garrett ATX, and brought home a nice space rock!....jim
  6. Ooops, disregard that last question, more or less got it figured out. Found the sling instructions separate from the owners manual. Kinda strange because the pic in the instructions shows the harbinger attached to the detector pole. I put my left arm through the sling, wrapped the rest of it over my right shoulder and placed the loop at the end over the control display unit and it feels pretty good. Not sure if that is how it is supposed to go, but it works for me....jim
  7. Hello all. Just got my ATX, seems pretty cool so far. I tried it out in my back yard with poor results, probably because there is a cell phone tower 100 yards away. I could not get the noise to settle down, continuous fluctuations even with the detector perfectly still. Got to get use to PI technology I guess. Went to a nearby field and had good results. Not as sensitive to small gold as my GB 2, but for sure deeper on larger gold. Really looking forward to trying it out in the field next week. QUESTION: How is the sling attached? I can find nothing in the owners manual showing how to attach it. The video on the Garrett website shows a guy using the sling but he has a harbinger attached to the sling that is attached to the detector rod, parts not included in my sling. Tried numerous ways, none of them see quite right, is their a proper way to attach it? I am heading to Gold Basin on Monday and the sling may come in handy so any tips appreciated....thanks....jim
  8. Thanks for all the great info on the ATX. I have been reviewing all the info and Youtube videos I can find on this detector, most of which are very positive and I just purchased one. Hope to get it this week and try it out in the field next week. I have a Gold Bug 2 which has been a great detector but I look forward to the greater depth the ATX should provide and for considerably less cost than the ML. Really like the telescoping feature, small size and portability, should fit easily into a backpack. Just one question: How long do the batteries last when fully charged? It's great not to have to carry a large battery pack around but just wondering how many back up AA's I'll need to bring along. Thanks again to everyone for all the great info, really helped me to make the decision on buying one.....jim
  9. This is 5 minute video of a manual lever operated dry washer that I just completed and field tested at Gold Basin. The ground was still a bit damp from recent rains in the area but the little puffer still managed to find a bit of gold and a small nugget........ Enjoy.....jim