Ace 250 questions

[Clad the Impaler]

Hi all. I'm a fairly new user of the Ace 250. I got mine last August, and have used it a lot recently, as I'm on vacation. I wasn't getting any deep signals, or digging any deep or old coins (I'm a coinshooter). I finally figured out that I had the sensitivity on it's 2nd or 3rd lowest setting, as the parks here are really trashy and the detector always going off is annoying. I reset the sensitivity to near max (2nd highest setting), and was able to locate a few clad coins that I had missed earlier. Again, though, the detector goes off A LOT, and it can be annoying. I used the discrimination and elimination features to eliminate all signals except coins. Is this going to hamper my ability to recover jewelry (especially gold)? Is there a "sweet spot" for the Ace 250 where you can still get deep signals/old coins, but the detector doesn't go off constantly due to excessive trash. I am using the larger coil (on loan from another detectorist) and I know that's why it goes off a lot (we sometimes hunt in the woods where a bigger coil is an advantage once you get away from the trashy areas). I know I need a sniper coil and a good probe/pinpointer (among other things), but I can't afford them right now. Does anyone have any suggestions that might help? I've only found modern era clad coins so far, and would really like to maximize my chances of finding older silver coins. Thanks.

 

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[favored papa]

as they say to find old coins you have to get the coil over it first. in other words keep hunting. if you want the possibility of gold use the coin mode and dig it all. About 200 pull tabs to each gold. if you really want to get less thrash, make a custom mode program with only pennies, dimes, quarter, half, and dollars. if you add nickels, you will still pull tabs.

to practice pin pointing get some colored golf tees, pin point one way put in a tee, go 90 degrees pin point agin,

 

[ricknaks]

try the relics mode with the disc at 3 or 4 and dig the hi tones,it works for me.and if you can get the sniper coil.

 

[Benjamin52]

I would also suggest the relic mode, you can forget the Iron targets anyway if you want to find gold... Many people here on the forum sy that gold is a bad conductor and often hard to find so the only way is the hard way I guess...dig everything up exceptif you are sure it is iron.

I can`t say anything about your depth problem, I often get signals from 8+inches that I do not dig because of the hard soil and mostly it is only trash anyway.... Maybe your lack of deep signals has to do with soil composition?

Have ypu tried bench testing to see what depth you can get in air?

 

[sandtrout]

here's a 4x6 card I made for my conditions here in southern california...the thing that SUCKS is that gold can be found almost everywhere....i always use the "jewelry" mode unless i'm cherry picking (and even then i won't notch out nickels!). if you're not pulling pulltabs, you're missing some of the gold!

 

[Swartzie]

The 250 definitely does not like trashy areas. The best advice I can give when working in trashy areas is to really shorten your swing of the coil. Like a couple inches or so. If you hear a decent signal amongst the trashy bleeps and blips the 250 makes then investigate. Circle around the target and try to get a somewhat decent signal out of it and ignore all the chatter the machine is making. If you get a consistent signal for two or three swings then I'd dig it. With experience you'll begin to understand what to investigate and dig and what to leave alone. But, to get that experience you'll have to dig a lot of trash. But, above all use short swings and overlap your sweeping a bunch in trashy spots. My experience with the sniper coil is it is really depth limited and it picks up stuff that is very small. Most my success with the 250 has been with the 10x14 DD excellerator coil. I know it's a big coil and the rule of thumb is don't use a big coil in trashy spots, but it handled trashy areas better than the stock coil. DD's in general are better at separating targets.

-Swartzie

 

[oldgold]

I agree with Sandtrout.
always use the "jewelry" mode
I know that I missed some gold when I used the machine in "coin" mode.

 

[sandtrout]

A lot of time the older coins are at the older parks. I've got a park where I've found nothing deeper than 4" and I've went back over it with a Tesoro Vaquero that's been "super tuned" and still found nothing. At another park I found a dime at 8" and quarters at 9.5 inches and, of course, the stuff that's within the first 3" like jewelry. The ACE 250 doesn't really discriminate...it "notches". According to Garrett, you do lose a bit of depth by the notching (1/2" to 1") but it doesn't matter whether you notch out one segment or all 12 segments (which I do sometimes when it's too hot to wear headphones but, of course, my eyes are GLUED to the screen!). At a regular park, a friend of mine (who's been detecting forever) said it takes him anywhere from 200 to 400 pulltabs for every gold ring he's found, and 1/3 of them hit on the nickel. It's possible you're at a park with no old coins. Plus...you'll get better after you've put in some time on your machine. There's 2 ACE 250's (or any other detector)...there's the one you put together out of the box, read the instructions, insert batteries, and find all kinds of stuff. Then there's the 2nd one...the one you been on for 100 to 200+ hours, done air tests with, spent time in your test garden with, and BONDED with...you'll like that one better than the 1st one. The first one is kind of a toy...the second one is a tool.

 

[scaupus]

A lot of time the older coins are at the older parks. I've got a park where I've found nothing deeper than 4" and I've went back over it with a Tesoro Vaquero that's been "super tuned" and still found nothing. At another park I found a dime at 8" and quarters at 9.5 inches and, of course, the stuff that's within the first 3" like jewelry. The ACE 250 doesn't really discriminate...it "notches". According to Garrett, you do lose a bit of depth by the notching (1/2" to 1") but it doesn't matter whether you notch out one segment or all 12 segments (which I do sometimes when it's too hot to wear headphones but, of course, my eyes are GLUED to the screen!). At a regular park, a friend of mine (who's been detecting forever) said it takes him anywhere from 200 to 400 pulltabs for every gold ring he's found, and 1/3 of them hit on the nickel. It's possible you're at a park with no old coins. Plus...you'll get better after you've put in some time on your machine. There's 2 ACE 250's (or any other detector)...there's the one you put together out of the box, read the instructions, insert batteries, and find all kinds of stuff. Then there's the 2nd one...the one you been on for 100 to 200+ hours, done air tests with, spent time in your test garden with, and BONDED with...you'll like that one better than the 1st one. The first one is kind of a toy...the second one is a tool.

Sometimes I hang the earphones around my neck, it's cooler and I can still hear the tones depending on the volume level. I was wondering about that 200 to 400 pulltabs per gold ring statistic. Does that include the cans chewed up by mowers and strewn all over? I find about 5-10 pieces of those for every pulltab I find. Add in the bottle caps and whatnot, and according to that statistic, I'd be pulling up 1000-4000 pieces of trash for every gold ring. Lately, I've tried a scheme in our neighborhood park (which only goes back to the 1970's), going over an area with the trash/gold spots notched out, picking out coins and brass/bronze objects. Then I go over the area with just the nickel setting, pulling out nickels, but mostly pulltabs. Finally, now, I'm working the trash settings, digging out fragments of aluminum cans and zinc pennies. I don't know if I have the attention span to look for gold rings considering all the trash I have to dig. I begin thinking I could be finding silver coins, or historical relics again if I moved on to a better location with the machine set for coin-shooting, instead of pulling out contemporary aluminum fragments.

 

[Monty]

You need to set the sensitivity at about the 4th notch and slow your swing speed down for deeper targets. I use a set of Radio Shack light weight stereo headphones when the weather is warm. You have to be alert for weaker tones for deep signals, and could possibly be missing them by having your headphones off your ears. I once found a silver dime at 9" with my ACE 250, but that was not common. About 6 inches was all I could get most small coins. Monty