Minelabs vs garrett ace 250

[dirtfishingdave]

Hello everyone,

Sunday myself, Dave and Curtis were at an old home site where we have permission to hunt. It was wet rainy day here in pittsburgh Pennsylvania, we were covering an area where we had not detected yet. Curtis he runs a garrett ace 250, dave runs a minelab explorer se, and I run minelab ctx3030. Dave and I agreed that curtis should start first with his ace 250 and hunt the grass area near the sidewalk where the old house once stood. Curtis has never found a silver coin yet. We figured he would dig a silver here. We would wait until he has it covered and go in with the minelabs and clean up what he missed or see the targets deep where he doesn't get a beep. After a couple of hours he says he has covered a section of lawn 25 feet by 15 feet. Curtis doesn't recover any coins in this area. Dave and I start covering with the minelabs. Immediately I dig a zinc penny, dave digs a 1949 Jefferson nickel. I get 12-34 signal at 7 inches deep, I am thinking Indian Head penny. Instead I dig a beautiful 1939 mercury dime and a dateless buffalo nickel in the same hole. I worked a little area no bigger than 5ft by 10 feet and dig a lead toy horse, a pair of war nickels, 2 wheat pennies, a cosmoplastic token from 1956 that was shot through with a rifle, and bunch of other stuff. I did dig more stuff that isn't in the picture, like a pair of keys and a bunch of iron trash.

So ,did the rain and wet grass affect how the garrett ace 250 preformed or was it something else? I am not sure, but I know we are going back to this spot to search for more lost gems. Good luck to all and happy hunting!

 

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[pepperj]

Nice going on the finds, getting a horse toy is always a cool find to dig.

Even though the 250 is a really good machine and does the job most of the time, the Minelabs have that extra step that's needed sometimes. That's a good amount of time spent on a small area with the 250 and the user would of covered it pretty good. The only true comparison that can be made IMO is if the Minelab gets a signal then to see if the 250 can pick it up also, anything else there might be a small variable in the equation that might of thrown the 250 off the signal.

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

Ive actually been on the other side of the fence whereas my Ace was finding silver coins, but my buddies Etrac wasnt.

And really In my case it was all about where we were hunting...I know it took me a little while to slow down with my ace and get deeper targets....it could be a variety of things...but i dont think the grass was it


I have hunted with people that swing the coil 8 inches off the ground..or "rainbow" thier swing...But I think its still a very capable machine...and NOTHING comapred to Exployer or 3030


Great Finds BTW!

 

[park pirate]

The wet ground should have been better for the 250, its hard to beat a minelab....

 

[ModernMiner]

Did Curtis have his detector turned on? Just kidding. Great post and congrats on the finds.
-MM-

 

[Metal Magnet]

well, i don't know the situation in this case, but I know from personal experience that a lot depends on the operator. I have searched with people who had far superior machines. Sometimes I can best them. Sometimes they get me. It is interesting, however, to see how personal acumen, detector type, etc. come together on a hunt. Good finds!

 

[Nick A]

Curious about settings on the machines. I forget exactly how the Ace discrimination works, but if that's set too high that might not have helped any. When you guys hit that patch with the Minelabs, I would have been curious if you had the Ace go over the same targets and see what kind of response they gave. That might be helpful for the Ace user to know what to listen for that they currently are not.

 

[dirtfishingdave]

Ace 250 was running in all metal, explorer was 22 sensitivity, coin mode, ctx3030 was auto+3 sensitivity, running at 26 out of 30, coin mode, gain 18 , threshold at 30 the maximum.


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[poorman15]

The wet ground should have been better for the 250, its hard to beat a minelab....

I run and Explorer SE and covered an area pretty heavily and found no silver. Took the new AT Pro there and hit a Merc on my second trip. THe SE had a standard coil and the Pro I put on a 5X8 which I think was the ticket. Tons of old square nails and small iron. I love both of these Machines and companies. I now use the Minelab for less trashy area with the bigger coil and the AT Pro for kickin' brush and trashy areas.

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

I run and Explorer SE and covered an area pretty heavily and found no silver. Took the new AT Pro there and hit a Merc on my second trip. THe SE had a standard coil and the Pro I put on a 5X8 which I think was the ticket. Tons of old square nails and small iron. I love both of these Machines and companies. I now use the Minelab for less trashy area with the bigger coil and the AT Pro for kickin' brush and trashy areas.

Yea, There are so many variables..i have went over areas that i have pounded 10+ times...and still walk away with stuff from there ...I would let him know not to get discouraged

"There are good days in detecting and bad days....the Ace 250 just had a bad day"

 

[Tom_in_CA]

reply

Hello everyone,

Sunday myself, Dave and Curtis were at an old home site where we have permission to hunt. It was wet rainy day here in pittsburgh Pennsylvania, we were covering an area where we had not detected yet. Curtis he runs a garrett ace 250, dave runs a minelab explorer se, and I run minelab ctx3030. Dave and I agreed that curtis should start first with his ace 250 and hunt the grass area near the sidewalk where the old house once stood. Curtis has never found a silver coin yet. We figured he would dig a silver here. We would wait until he has it covered and go in with the minelabs and clean up what he missed or see the targets deep where he doesn't get a beep. After a couple of hours he says he has covered a section of lawn 25 feet by 15 feet. Curtis doesn't recover any coins in this area. Dave and I start covering with the minelabs. Immediately I dig a zinc penny, dave digs a 1949 Jefferson nickel. I get 12-34 signal at 7 inches deep, I am thinking Indian Head penny. Instead I dig a beautiful 1939 mercury dime and a dateless buffalo nickel in the same hole. I worked a little area no bigger than 5ft by 10 feet and dig a lead toy horse, a pair of war nickels, 2 wheat pennies, a cosmoplastic token from 1956 that was shot through with a rifle, and bunch of other stuff. I did dig more stuff that isn't in the picture, like a pair of keys and a bunch of iron trash.

So ,did the rain and wet grass affect how the garrett ace 250 preformed or was it something else? I am not sure, but I know we are going back to this spot to search for more lost gems. Good luck to all and happy hunting!

View attachment 902229

Good post. I knew when reading it that any ace 250 proponents would probably dismiss it as being a "settings issue" (ie.: the ace user didn't have controls set optimally). Or that the 250 user must not have been a proficient experienced user, blah blah blah. And sure enough, that's exactly the replies that get floated.

But I would agree with you, that once "proficiency" and "settings" are outside the discussion, and "all things being equal", the Minelab explorers will spank the 250.

I have been side by side with a 250 user, and flagged several signals for him to go over. And trust me: he could sit there till the cows came home, trying every conceivable setting, swing speed, etc... But to no avail. He would walk away admitting that he would never have heard it, had it not been pointed out to him. So the next time I saw him on the beach, he'd ditched the 250, and gone and bought an explorer.

 

[Metal Detecting Stuff]

Dave, you don't mention the depth that the coins were recovered. It could be a situation where the coins are below the depth capabilities of the Ace.It also could be that iron was masking the coin targets. Mineralization could also affect the Ace depth. Lots of factors, so it's hard to say. If he was finding things, he also could have dug some of the trash that could mask good targets. I suspect he will find more coins if you guys go back.

Wayne

Metal Detector Sales and Rentals | Fisher, Garrett, Minelab, Lesche and DetectorPro

 

[smokeythecat]

I think also a settings issue. Sometimes I run rings around the mine lab guys sometimes its the other way around.

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

I have been side by side with a 250 user, and flagged several signals for him to go over. And trust me: he could sit there till the cows came home, trying every conceivable setting, swing speed, etc... But to no avail. He would walk away admitting that he would never have heard it, had it not been pointed out to him. So the next time I saw him on the beach, he'd ditched the 250, and gone and bought an explorer.

Yea, I knwo that is true. My Buddy I hunt with , with an Etrac, has called me over to check targets he got, and the ACE didnt even touch it, and it would end up being a Silver/Wheat or something good....But the ace is still a very capable machine for beginners...I used it for a little over 2 years and my finds got better and better every year

Plus that thing Kicks ASSSSS in finding gold

Next time you should see who can find gold quicker

 

[WHADIFIND]

This reminds me of a story about 2 golfers playing. One had been around quite a bit and had some pretty good equip. to boot.
The other one had been playing golf for quite some time too. He only had a few clubs and wasn't very good but he enjoyed it so he kept trying. Even though it frustrated the beejabbers outta him.

He complained on one hole that he could could hit long drives like his buddy if he could just afford some good equip.

On the next hole, his friend asked if he could borrow the frustrated golfer's driver. He drove. Hole in one!

He just turned to his friend, smiled and handed his driver back to him.

That doesn't mean that more, better, expensive will not help. One tends to get what they paid for, but, it's more about the hands that holds the equip.

Let your friend try the Minelab. His ear just might be more tuned to it's frequency.

Happy Hunting!

 

[cjon455]

An old timer that I hunted with uses a whites mxt and I has my atpro and he found a large cent within feet of me, I don't think I went over the spot he found it on but he's a firm believer in it not being the equipment but often the person holding it and their finely tuned ear. However in this case I believe it's not a good comparison, kinda like comparing a mustang Shelby gt500 to a 1989 dodge dart. I own an ace 350 and have checked targets that my atpro found and the 350 didn't even make a peep. Apples to apples, that's all

 

[Zodiacdiverdave]

I don't think Curtis needs a Minelab, he just needs to get out more.
ZDD

 

[Pointman]

You can get a weak signal and move the coil another inch and get a perfect hit. There are so many variables. I also think that you can go back after a hard freeze and find more coins.

Today, I found a 1945 wheat in a 12 x 25' area that I gridded heavily in every direction with my CTX on two other occasions and with two coils. The first time we hunted the spot was with our AT Pros and came out with nothing. Since, I have found 8 wheat cents and a 1943 Canadian penny and a token.

 

[detroitdigger]

Minelabs are superior to the Ace 250, but it is a great machine for the money! It could also depend on how Your buddy had the machine tuned as well. It could be a few different factors. HH

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Na the Ace 250 had a cold and was a little stuffy. You should run the minelabs first then the 250 over a target that would tell if it is a depth difference.