Should AT Pro easily find a 1 gram gold ?

My son purchased an AT Pro International a year or so ago.
Since then he melted down a bunch of gold flakes we collected from Slaty Creek and it weighs 1.1 grams.
I put the piece on the ground and the machine doesn't pick it up very well , even with it on full sensitivity.
The piece is ball shaped and if I wave it over the top of the coil , it beeps okay , but when trying to detect it it won't.
I tried burying the piece an inch under the dirt and it took me half an hour to find it using classifier.
I sort of got it lost when digging and could not find it in my dirt pile.

Could it be because it is spherical or because it is melted down or is it I suck or is it not meant for small things and only finds large.
Even when it did beep , I think the number was about 40 , which is on the verge of iron.
I thought gold would sing at around 60 or more.

It costs more than a gold monster and I seen a bloke who finds tenth of a gram bits religiously and routinely with his monster.

Anyone can enlighten me please ?

Hi moeee,

I am not a Garrett expert and have not used on for many years but your AT Pro should pick up a .5 gram nugget and should have no issue with 1 gram. If you hit the ball shape nugget with a hammer you should pick it up better but the Gold Monster will always do better with the tiny gold.

I was wondering perhaps the coil is too big ? Is the Gold Monster coil just 5 inches ?
Could it be that the ground of my backyard is absorbing the power or something?
Is it difficult to wind my own coil ?
Be nice to be able to use the detector and not buy a gold specific unit.

I did try it once at Creswick and dug up a bunch of ring pulls , foil , and bits of iron.
After an hour of that it was no longer fun and became as interesting as ironing and folding clothes and putting them away.

Hi mate the AT pro runs at 15khz from memory and in all metal should pick up that 1grm at around 3 inches or so.. maybe 4 if ya lucky...
And the gold monster runs at 45khz and will screem on bits the AT wont see.The monster is a specific gold detector..where the AT is a specific coin and treasure machine...The AT gold runs at 18khz and with a small coil will pick up small shallow gold in mild ground. :Y: