treasurekidd
Bronze Member
Well, it took me almost until the end of my forst year of metal detecting to figure out why I was finding tons of coins, but very few older coins. I have an ACE250, and I find that the target ID is very accurate for targets at 4" or less. I also find that the pinppoint feature does seem to have trouble locking a target at more than 6", unless that target is a large item, like a beer can at 10" reading as a dime or a quarter at 4". With that said, I want to remind everyone of a lesson I learned early on. The target ID, depth indicator and pinpoint features, while very helpful accessories at times, are just that: accessories. I think we all, myself included, tend to rely too heavily on these accessories instead of concentrating on using the belltones, and our own experience to tell us what is what. I have a simple rule of thumb with the ACE250 that I try, and I stress TRY, to follow. Any target showing 4" or less, I go with what the target ID says when deciding to dig. If the target is 6" or deeper, I TRY to disregard the fact that the target ID is jumping from nickel to penny to dime, and that the pinpoint is thready and inconsistent. At 6" or more, you need to realize that the effectiveness of the electronics accessories are limited, but that the effectivness of your belltones, and your own hard earned experience are not. You know what a good, solid signal sounds like, right? Use your own experience with your detector to determine what that weak, inconsistent signal is telling you, and you'll find that you know if you want to dig it or not. If your not sure, play the guessing game. Try to guess what your target is while you're cutting the plug. After a few weeks of playing this guessing game, you'll find that more often than not, your guess is correct.
The ACE250 is a great detector for the money, but it's still only a beginner machine. Yes, it's great at cleaning up the school yard or playground with the 2"-4" clad targets, but you need to remember that it is not a $700 detector, and as such, is limited in certain situations. The ACE250 will detect almost as deeply as the other, more expensive machines, but not if your running it in coin mode all the time. Get out there, and try running it in all metal with the sensitivity up as high as you can go without falsing, and see how it does. You know what a good signal sounds like, so use your experience, and don't let all the "easy" features it comes with blind you to the valuable experience you could get by using your ears and brains, rather that just your eyes. When using the ACE250, deeper, older targets call for a change of tactics over clad hunting, so give it a try and see how it works. The results might suprise you, as they have me when I remember to do it!! Hopefully, using these new tactics, next year will bring a lot more of the older stuff! HH!
The ACE250 is a great detector for the money, but it's still only a beginner machine. Yes, it's great at cleaning up the school yard or playground with the 2"-4" clad targets, but you need to remember that it is not a $700 detector, and as such, is limited in certain situations. The ACE250 will detect almost as deeply as the other, more expensive machines, but not if your running it in coin mode all the time. Get out there, and try running it in all metal with the sensitivity up as high as you can go without falsing, and see how it does. You know what a good signal sounds like, so use your experience, and don't let all the "easy" features it comes with blind you to the valuable experience you could get by using your ears and brains, rather that just your eyes. When using the ACE250, deeper, older targets call for a change of tactics over clad hunting, so give it a try and see how it works. The results might suprise you, as they have me when I remember to do it!! Hopefully, using these new tactics, next year will bring a lot more of the older stuff! HH!
