recommendation for upgrade

[Murph]

now that I have some hours in with the ace 250 I am getting a better understanding of my needs for a detector. Ace does fine but I am sure there are better machines.

Primary hunting grounds will be public beaches.

Good discrimination is a must. I would like to exclude everything but gold and silver for sper of the moment hunts were time is a factor; before and during work day when there is an extra hour. Clad is fine for weekend hunts when there is plenty of time but the public beaches I hunt are not likely to produce any old coins so I would like to exclude them from certain hunts, and of course want to avoid digging as much trash as possible. I can actually accomplish this to some degree with my ace 250 but problem is certain trash items, a nickle, gold and silver all target ID as a nickel. Even my first toy detector from radio shack was able to exclude anything but gold and silver when needed so this is my primary gripe with the ace 250. Extensive bench testing with the ace has provided me with no reliable way to target only gold and silver.

Many trash items with the 250 will give me a solid target ID and tone for a nickel. Unfortunately notching this out also notches out gold and silver. Not a good thing. Maybe there is something I am missing here that will allow me to rectify this

LCD must be back lit for night and pre dawn hunts.

Under water hunts are highly unlikely but surfs edge and rainy weather hunts are on the list so housing must be water proof.

Ok that's a pretty short list so what detector under a grand do I want?

 

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[erikk]

First of all you can't eliminate everything except gold and silver. You want gold-dig tabs and nickels. I use a Minelab Excalibur 1000 and set the discrimination to reject just iron and dig everything else. It does not have a backlight and you are going by sounds alone. If you are going to hunt the beach and be successful you will dig a lot of targets. Also it is going to be quite a leap going from an Ace 250 to the kind of detector you are talking about.The Excal will go deep,about 4 times what the Ace 250 will do and is completely waterproof. Be prepared to dig, but remember that all the shallow targets that were easy have most likely been picked off. IMHO the Excal is a super beach/water detector. I am sure there are others that will do the Job but the Excal is the one for me

 

[Gribnitz]

There is not a machine that is going to find only silver and gold. If there were, I think everyone in the world would have one. Gold reads all over the place depending on the size of the object and the purity of the gold. You said beach hunting...fresh water or salt water ? If you want to hunt salt water, get yourself a dedicated beach machine.

 

[Murph]

OK guys thanks for the replies. it has been some time between the old detector which was some kind of low end bounty hunter and this new ace so my recollections may not be 100 percent accurate but I seem to remember having an easier time tone wise when hitting precious metals with the old detector. Saltwater beach and I don't seem to be having to much problem even in wet sand as far as the ace misbehaving to badly. Sand is said to be 100 percent quartz; west coast of FLA.

These are highly populated public beaches that get replenished with finds on a daily basis. The thing that has me concerned is the coin count seems to be the same between the two detectors but jewelry finds are strangely absent when it comes to the ace. Maybe just bad luck.

Have heard rumours of night hunts being conducted on these beaches which may be one explanation but I see no evidence of this when I hit the sand at sunrise. I am sure I will get it figured out or maybe my luck will just change. I will check into the excal as a possible upgrade.

 

[erikk]

What beaches are you hunting?

 

[Murph]

mostly siesta. got out again this morning. Still finding plenty of coins. I keep hearing people say "where there's coins on a beach there is jewelry" but I am yet to find my first piece with the ace. I still can only discern two tones from the ace. I wish they had just made the nickel tone the same as the rest of the coin tones which IMO would make the detector easier to use.

My jewelry finds with my previous detector came at the north shell road access on siesta which has now been reduced to almost nothing with the use of no trespass signs. . this was pretty much a locals/passed out drunk spot and a good producer but not any more. Need to get on the other side of the pass from this location which is south lido; highly populated and large area open to public. Next time for sure, maybe even this evening if I don't have to head out for work today.

don't get much south of manasota key as far as hunting grounds so your just a tad south of me. I wouldnt bother with manasota beachs as they charge to park and even coin finds have been low for me in this location.

 

[erikk]

Yes, I know. I hunt mostly from Englewood to Naples. You need to get an Excal or something that goes deeper than the Ace. The competition is pretty stiff out here and without a top notch machine that goes DEEP your chances are pretty slim on finding anything but clad or a recent ring/jewelry drop