Your experiences with the garrett ace 250?

[damiani1]

Hi, I am new to these forums and becoming addicted to metal detecting! With that being said I will ask a question I was thinking about:

So, I have had my garrett ace 250 for about 4 months which i picked up off craigslist for $150 used. My most notable finds have been a 200 peso coin (approximately $16), a silver ring, and a vintage mastercraft lighter.
I have been hunting in many different spots around my area and trying to avoid the "junk" by discriminating out iron/foil. There is an island by my house that I access with my kayak that has had settlers dating back to the 1750's. I was just there and went with the mindset of avoiding all the jumping signals (reads as $.25 then as foil/iron and it is usually junk). I ended up having about an hour of detecting and ended up digging 3 things that ringed in without jumping all around. I ended up finding a clad penny (2 inches) , a vintage mastercraft lighter (6 inches) and a key chain tag of some sort (4 inches). The island is filled with a lot of foil/pop tabs/beer caps as well.

With that being said, How do you garrett ace 250 user's try to determine a "good item" from your "common trash." OR Did you end up moving on to a detector in the same price range such as a tesoro silver umax?

 

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[Minrelica]

A good rule of thumb when starting out with the ACE 250 is to hunt in Jewelry mode... You will not miss any coins by doing this... Also, as far as distinguishing trash from treasure, the short answer is that you can't, not 100% anyway... With the 250, if you get the same signal swinging over the target in both directions, dig it. Give your machine more than 4 months of use before looking past it and thinking about upgrading... Unless of course you are like me and just can't wait.. ... I used the 250 for a year and then bought a AT Pro which was a good next step imo unless you're looking to try a different brand.

 

[bigfoot1]

wit nailed it bro...listen and learn.everything you ask will answer itself in time.My huntin bud swings a 250 and it misses nothing.The trick for you is to retrieve the targets faster I suppose.Do you have a pro pointer yet ?

 

[damiani1]

Yea I don't have a pin pointer :P I have borrowed a friends bounty hunter pin pointer which isn't that great and it greatly sped up recovery. So my guess is the pro pointer would work wonders.

 

[Maburger]

I've had mine for about 2 months now and each time I go out I try to take the extra time to concentrate on the reading. I try to guess what the item is and after 2 or 3 times if I've had pull tabs as a correct guess I quit digging that specific signal. Yes I might be missing some good stuff but I'll be going over the same area again in the near future.
I studied a lot and read and re- read reviews, read comments on many different forums before purchasing mine. I know the good stuff is out there. I have gone over a ball park that has been there since the 50's 3 times now. Each time I have moved back about a decade. I know there's old stuff there I just need more experience with my machine.
Practice, practice and practice some more.
Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[doc-d]

thanks for the great tips.......

 

[dholland02]

Had mine for 6 months got bored and annoyed by the bell tones. Ill never recommend one to someone who wants to get serious about this hobby.

 

[fella]

Had mine for 6 months got bored and annoyed by the bell tones. Ill never recommend one to someone who wants to get serious about this hobby.

I hear ya!
When I got back into the hobby after many many years away from it, I started with a borrowed Ace 350. Knowing I want to keep at the hobby for good, it took me less than a week to realize it's limitations.

 

[damiani1]

I just got back from a quick park sweeping by my house and things would ring up as .10 and .25 but as soon as I dug them they would change to a foil/iron reading?

 

[Maburger]

Yea, the 250 is great at finding foil. Sometimes I will clear away some of the surface dirt and swing again, which seams to clear up the reading. When pinpointing does the meter stay full or does it tend to fade down. I find this to be an indicator of trash as well. If it doesn't stay at a full reading when moving both directions and N/ S / E & W then it seems to be trash. Again, Practice is the only way to learn your machine. I can't count the number of hours I have put in but each time I get better results. I am now getting some good results at 6-8". I am still digging Those metal screw on bottle caps but that's ok too. Might find my gold that way??

 

[ringfinder]

I bought my Ace 250 in 2006, since then, I have bought the larger and smaller coils. That first year, my partner and I found over 4,000 clad coins each! I

Also found over 300 silver coins and one cannon ball! I like to hunt in all metal and listen for the steady high pitched signals. Make sure the sounds are repeatable, by that I mean, the sound is good, north-south, east-west! I usually don't use the pin pointer on the detector, I just watch where I crisscross the coil when listening for that repeatable signal. As for that pesky foil, listen to what it sounds like, dig some more of that stuff and hopefully you will quit digging foil. Practice,practice, practice, that's the key!

Myself, I try to stay away from those areas that are very trashy. I have only been detecting 30 years! Oh, by the way, turn that sensitivity DOWN, if your detector is erratic, your sensitivity is to high! I usually run mine around half way.

Hope some of this helps, don't get discouraged, everyone digs trash, but that first Gold Ring, Spanish reale, silver dime will make it all so much fun!

HH, Ringfinder