Field Test Report: Garrett Ace 350

[ColonelDan]

As an independent member of the Kellyco Test Team, I've conducted a series of field tests on a variety of equipment at the request of Kellyco. They wanted an unbiased/independent opinion of the selected equipment and I willingly obliged.

I have no obligations to or financial interest in any of the tested items, retailers or manufacturers...and that includes Kellyco. I'm just an average user providing the view from my foxhole.

Below is a link to the field test report on the item in this post's title line.

Please keep in mind, as is always the case with such sophisticated equipment, this report reflects results based on the specific test conditions as outlined in the report itself. Your results may somewhat vary based on a different set of conditions.


Field Test Report

 

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[releventchair]

Quite a test.

The 350 is one that benefits from a tight "wiggle" when a target is iffy.
Fresh coins act platter sized too.
High sensitivity settings pick up tiny objects ,and in areas of multiple or shallow targets dropping it a couple notches, and even a couple more if minute object locating continues saves the tedium of recovering those same tiny objects.

Pin pointing feature takes practice and occasional targets or conditions can affect accuracy.
Custom settings cure any boredom of ability , and can also counter the machines ability to sniff out ghosts of previous metals(iron in particular) when on high sens..
The optional 5x8 coil is great for trashy sites while the stock coil can cover more ground effectively when hunting low target numbers areas.
Jewelry mode is a default for myself.
Most bouncy iffy targets giving solid hits in multiple directions get recovered.

Silver has a mild sweet tone when deep ,different than shallow ones or clad.
With time running the unit put in silver can be found by that same "hint" of a tone when other objects/targets are near. Can be missed easier though so digging iron out can be of benefit where time and sight allow over time.
Try to confirm with that tight wiggle again if a hint of a light tone is mixed in with iron.

A learning curve as in all detectors; is going to factor in learning ones language .
In the 350's case ,iron and bottle caps and nulling of iron in discrim mode are notable curves.
I don't get frustrated when the unit detects something round and metal and I dig despite it being iffy in particular I.D. , to find it is round and metal.
It is seeing better than my eye underground...
While iron gets noted and not dwelled on in discrim (when notched out) ,on occasion the icon remains highlighted and if not given a pause to clear ; is the detector still effective while icon remains highlighted?
Not wanting to miss targets I give it a pause away from the cause and retry the area.
Definitely not a weed whacking speed for best efficiency if all targets are the goal.
A slow and overlapping pattern can produce surprisingly in well hunted areas with practice.
A faster swing for shallow targets.
A fast(no ,not that fast) swing with stock coil and high sens can get most high coins and near surface targets if the operator notes the "hit" and returns to swing slow ,or wiggle on the iffy's.
A problem with all units when swinging rather than hovering a serpentine course, arises when the coil at ends of swing is above ,rather than skimming the surface thereby losing depth and accuracy.
Dig when in doubt till characteristics of machine are better known but similar doubt in varying conditions means recovering targets when in doubt....While rarely different than suspected ,occasionally a surprise pops up.
A versatile unit once learned.