Open Box Garrett AT Gold Metal Detector with 5 x 8 in DD Coil

An open box Garrett AT Gold brings a waterproof VLF for natural gold in freshwater creeks and mineralized ground to prospectors at a discount, with Garrett's 3-year warranty. Garrett's AT Gold box holds the 5 x 8 inch PROformance DD searchcoil and wired MS-2 headphones, and the detector runs at 18 kHz.

What is in the box with this open box Garrett AT Gold

Garrett's standard contents for the AT Gold (Garrett part 1140680)

• Garrett AT Gold control housing with S-shaped stem
• Upper and lower stem
• Searchcoil mounting hardware: wing nut, two mounting washers and threaded bolt
• 5 x 8 inch PROformance DD searchcoil with coil cover
• Garrett MS-2 wired headphones with headband and ear cushions
• Four AA batteries in the battery holder, installed
• Owner's manual and warranty card

About this open box Garrett AT Gold

Our open box Garrett AT Gold is sold at a discount. Garrett's 3-year warranty applies, the same as on a new AT Gold. Every open box and demo detector we have is in our open box collection.

About the Garrett AT Gold

The Garrett AT Gold is designed for people who want to search for natural gold while keeping useful capabilities for relic hunting. Gold prospecting brings different challenges from ordinary coin hunting: small nuggets, mineralized soil, hot rocks and weak target responses. The AT Gold answers with an 18 kHz operating frequency, which Garrett describes as optimized for gold prospecting and which is higher than the 15 kHz Garrett AT Pro and the 13.6 kHz AT Max, plus adjustable ground balance with a Ground Balance Window, a true All Metal mode and a housing Garrett rates waterproof to 10 feet (3 meters) in fresh water. Higher frequencies can be useful for smaller, lower-conductivity targets, but 18 kHz does not detect every small nugget or deliver the greatest depth on its own; target size, shape, orientation, ground mineralization and coil choice all influence performance.

We would not recommend the AT Gold simply because it has the word Gold in its name. Its features make the most sense when you expect to spend real time searching for natural gold or small relics.

Garrett AT Gold search modes and key settings

• Three modes: a true All Metal mode plus two discrimination modes, DISC 1 and DISC 2, with Pro audio and electronic pinpointing. In All Metal the proportional audio reports changes in signal strength, useful because prospectors rely heavily on sound. On a remote gold-bearing site with little modern trash, All Metal lets you investigate faint responses that could be small nuggets; it also responds to iron and other junk, and digging questionable signals is often part of prospecting.
• Ground balance and Ground Balance Window: manual and automatic ground balance with Fast Track, plus a Ground Balance Window adjustable from 0 to 6 (Garrett's default of 2 suits most conditions). On a creek bed where mild gravel gives way to iron-rich stones over short distances, the window accommodates a broader range of ground. We would not jump to the widest setting, because adjustments involve tradeoffs in target response; experiment over known targets and difficult ground. Highly mineralized rocks can still produce signals that resemble metal.
• Iron discrimination and Iron Audio: iron discrimination from 0 to 44, Iron Audio and All Metal Iron Audio (some iron discrimination must be set for Iron Audio to work). Around rusty iron left from old mining activity, Iron Audio gives more information about certain ferrous responses, but a small nugget close to iron can produce a complicated response, so we would investigate questionable signals rather than rely on discrimination.
• Sensitivity, threshold and target ID: eight sensitivity settings, an adjustable threshold, four slightly different frequencies (F1 to F4), and a 0 to 99 digital target ID with a 20-segment graphic scale. A particular sound or number never proves gold: lead, aluminum and other non-ferrous metals can respond much like a nugget.

Water and creek prospecting with the Garrett AT Gold

Garrett says the AT Gold is built to withstand dust, dirt and being submerged to 10 feet (3 meters) in fresh water. The included headphones are not waterproof, as Garrett's manual states, and for submersion Garrett specifies its waterproof headphones. On a shallow freshwater creek in an area with documented gold, the compact coil and waterproof housing let you work cracks, crevices and exposed bedrock where gold collects, including in shallow water. We would use the AT Gold for freshwater prospecting and inland detecting, not for saltwater beaches: wet salt sand is electrically conductive, and waterproof construction does not make a detector suited to it. See our waterproof metal detectors.

Where the Garrett AT Gold works well, and where it does not

Gold-bearing creeks, rocky terrain and mineralized ground suit the AT Gold, and it also helps on an old farmstead with small brass buttons, lead and iron debris, where the 18 kHz frequency and compact coil help when investigating smaller targets. It is not the ideal Garrett for every kind of relic hunting, and someone who mainly hunts coins in parks and on freshwater beaches may prefer the AT Pro or the Garrett AT Max. No detector can tell you whether a creek holds gold either: understanding local geology and historical gold production remains essential, and we would research known gold-bearing areas, land ownership and prospecting rules, and get permission, before traveling. See our gold detectors.

Garrett AT Gold coil and batteries

The 5 x 8 inch PROformance Double-D searchcoil is a useful size for prospecting: on a rocky creek bed with exposed bedrock and narrow spaces between rocks, a compact coil is easier to maneuver, and its narrower detection footprint helps around small targets near mineralized rocks or other metal. It covers less ground, so on large open fields a larger compatible coil may be worth considering; our coil guide explains the tradeoffs. Four AA batteries come installed and run the AT Gold for 20 to 40 hours depending on battery type and quality.

Getting started with the Garrett AT Gold

The mistake we would warn new prospectors about is swinging too fast. A tiny piece of gold may give only a weak response, so keep a controlled sweep with the coil close to the ground, avoid lifting it at the end of each pass, overlap each pass, and check repeatable signals from different directions.

Garrett AT Gold specifications

Garrett covers the AT Gold with a 3-year warranty, as it now does for its detectors, pinpointers and searchcoils.

For our full Garrett AT Gold guide, settings advice and comparisons, see the Garrett AT Gold collection.