the ATV trails produce again!!! Thanks also to Danimal...ACE 250 technique!!

funkman

Bronze Member
Apr 19, 2006
1,062
23
Middletown, NY
Detector(s) used
AT Pro & Ace 250
Went back to my trails again this Saturday with my son. First we started sifting at a trash site that Earthworks helped me find...thanks Gary! When he was hunting my site a few weeks ago he dug up an old bottle and some pottery shards. I went back to this same section and found more shards of pottery and glass using the sifter that Bluezman was kind enough to make and give to me....thanks Charlie!
Anyway while sifting I noticed that there was also ash in the hole so I figured this was definately one of the trash sites. I also found in my sifter and ornamental object that is shaped like a flower or something. You will see it in the picture on the left.
After an hour or so of sifting I figured I would do a little detecting. Now is where I have to really thank Danimal for his technique. Some of you maybe have tried this but I heard about it from him and have been bugging him with questions to fully understand it and I treid it for the first time and it worked great. Now I have the Ace 250 as you all probably know and what he told me that he does is that he detects with the pinpoint button pushed in all the time. What this does is kinda like scanning the ground for anything metal. WHat happens is that when I swing my coil in the normal way is that it will give me a signal that there is something under my coil if I pass the coil over the object, kinda like this crude drawing:

(.)
now the parentheses (however you spell them) is the coil and the period is the object, say a coin. Now when swinging normal I would get that nice belltone when I swing over this coin. Now take a look at this crude drawing:

() .
notice how the coin (period) is not under my coil? Well this is how this technique works. When swinging with the pinpoint button pushed in the bars for pinpoint will increase as your coil gets closer to the object. You can "zoom" in to where the object is by moving closer to the object and when the bars are at maximum you are right over it. Then you release the pinpoint button and swing normally to get an ID of what it is. The beauty of this technique is that you don;t have to be swinging over the object but be near it and the pinpoint bars will increase showing you something is close to you.
SO now I try this method at my ATV trails and go up where I found 4 or 5 flat buttons and the 1811 large cent. The ground has dried and now I can detect the actual ruts that the atv's dug into it. They have been really muddy in the past. SO I am using this technique and I notice the pinpoint bars increase a little and get my coil over the object. If I was just going in a straight line I would have not found this item, but since holding the pinpoint button down, the detector was telling me something was close by and all I had to do was zero in to it. When I got over the target I released the pinpointer button and swung normally and got a good signal of penny/dime. I started digging and out popped a nice copper coin which turned out to be another large cent! This one the date is unknown but by looking at the shape of Liberty's head I can safely say it is the classic head design from 1808-1814!
Now I stated doing the techniques somemore and zeroed in on another signal. This one I swung normally over and got nothing on target ID. I re-checked in pinpoint mode and sure enough I was over the object. Started digging and re-checking and using the pinpointer I got it out...another flat button! This one is a small one as you can see by the pic. According to information I have...thanks Mountainman 2....it is a type that was manufactured from 1800-1830. The best thing about this technique is that if I was swinging normally, I would not have found this falt button at all because the detector did not register it...even in all metal mode, but because I had pinpoint pushed in I got right over it and found it.

Anyway sorry for the long post but wanted to give you all an idea of this technique and how it helped me this past Saturday. I'm sure this technique would work with other detectors that have pinpoint. Worth a try.

Happy Hunting to all!

Funkman
 

Attachments

  • P1010004.JPG
    P1010004.JPG
    90.2 KB · Views: 1,012
  • P1010002.JPG
    P1010002.JPG
    95 KB · Views: 1,027
Upvote 0
No problem about the long post. Some of us live for this stuff, anyway great finds and a strange technique.

WTG, Keep @ it and HH!!
 

Funkman & Danimal, THANK YOU for sharing. I can see how leaving it in pinpoint would work wonders. I can't wait to try it! I really appreciate how helpful people have been with advice and tecniques on the Ace. It's working for me.

You have an awesome site there, I wish you continued luck with this site. Keep up the awesome work, don't forget to share with us.
 

Nice finds, especially on the Large Cent.

That ACE will get deep with that techinque. I can't really do that with the Explorer.

Bob
 

Good finds.

Yeh, with the White's DFX this is called mixed-mode. But, the nice thing about the DFX is that mixed-mode means it will find everything as you discrbed, and work like a regular detector at the same time,why they call it mixed-mode. It buzzes over the iron and beeps on the coins. I've been hunting with it exclusively, and love it.

Good luck as you hunt on.

HH
Ken
 

Great post, thanks for that info to keep in mind when I purchase a new detector in a few months. I like the one im using, but dont like the fact I never know if im over the target when digging or next to it and end up with a pretty good size hole.
 

Kas said:
Good finds.

Yeh, with the White's DFX this is called mixed-mode. But, the nice thing about the DFX is that mixed-mode means it will find everything as you discrbed, and work like a regular detector at the same time,why they call it mixed-mode. It buzzes over the iron and beeps on the coins. I've been hunting with it exclusively, and love it.

Good luck as you hunt on.

HH
Ken

Kas-
Actually, with my DFX I just spend most of the time hunting with my pinpoint trigger flipped forward, locking it on, and release to ID once a target has been "aquired".
This technique is NOT real good in "target rich" environments, ESPECIALLY when there are GOOD target shallow, as you spend too much time going back and forth from "aquire" to "ID"
I have tried mixed mode on my DFX and it's kinda maddening listening to your threshold hum AND all of the discrimination tones simultaneously. I gues you could get used to it though. It drove me crazy (er) :D

Funk...glad you finally understand what I was talking about all that time. Lots of folks though that when you are selecting "All-Metal" on the Ace's panel that it IS all-metal, which it is not. True all metal is non-motion and like Mirage says, the Ace goes VERY deep that way. Too bad you cannot manually ground balance OR adjust threshold tone on the ACE or you REALLY could work that puppy, because sometimes soil conditions won't wllow the ACE to hold a decent threshold tone when in pinpoint. Sometimes you have to press and release and repress pinpiont almost on every other swing.
Either way it DOES allow MUCH more effective searching when not hunting wide-open areas like parks and fields, where you can easily overlap your swings nicely.
Oh yeah...I am AMAZED that the pinpoint button on my Ace is still working, as I held that sucker down for over a year!

BTW, a member of the findemall forum with the screename Khouse (dunno if he posts here) will modify your Ace with aDFX pinpoint TRIGGER which will lock forward so you don't have to hold the damn button mashed lol. I almost had him do this for me (but then I bought my DFX)

Now I just gotta find me a large cent and I'll be happy!

Dan
 

Dan,

If you could make a trip out to me I would let you out at my site. I found 4 large cents and 1 indian head and 1 English one penny at this site so far.

Thanks again Dan

Funkman
 

Cool finds, congrats!
 

mountainman 2 said:
Nice finds again Funkman. I bet it wouldn't be long before you pull your first old silver out of that site. WTG,MM2

Yeah, but I'd be careful though. Knowing what you have found already you might need to carry some nitro pills when that big ole silver coin smiles at you, lol...Congrats on the great finds.
 

Congrats on the large cent!!
 

Funkman, nice finds - Congrats. Also, thanks for the 250 tip. can't wait to try it.
 

Nice finds funkman!........that is a technique that I've never heard or thought of, but you got me interested in giving it a try. One big question funkman...........is there any serious battery drain with this technique?
 

Ricardo,

I have only used it this Saurday for about an hour and I had 3 bars on battery when started and 3 bars on battery when finished. I assume it would cause a little drain because you are really pushing the electronics to their full potential but I don;t think that after a few hours you should have dead batteries.
One thing I did notice is that you have to sometimes lay off the pinpoint button and pres it again to start getting the humming from the pinpoint mode. I noticed one time I was scanning in this method and the pinpoint bars were blank for a nice stretch of land. I let go of the button and re-pressed it and scanned and then started to get some reaction. I think Danimal mentioned something about this in his reply to this post. I will ask him to let us know about this issue.

Thanks all for the replies

Funkman
 

Funk-
Feel free to post any of what I wrote to you about this in PMs. I think I addressed all this already. The Ace won't hold a steady threshold "hum" very well (works better in moist soil) in some soils. I bet I have to release and redepress pinpoint every 2-3 swings. I pay NO attention to the "number of bars" showing on the signal strength...I just listen to the threshold hum. When the hum goes away, I let go and re-hit it.
Oh yeah...in SOME soil conditions it seems like it won't get a good "hum" at all...then I try this: Lift the coil 3-4 inches up, depress and then lower the coil to scrub while holding pinpoint. Sometimes it'll get a nice tone that way.

Doing this allows the ACE to punch as deep as most any detector out there to tell you SOMETHING metal is in the ground. If it's a DEEP target, it might not give you an ID or belltone at ALL unless you scrape some topsoil off or remove a shallow plug above the target first...and then often you will get a good ID on a real deep one.
In a lot of GOOD hunting grounds...if the target is DEEP....and METAL...and small...DIG IT!!!
 

Attachments

  • 10-19obverse.jpg
    10-19obverse.jpg
    33.3 KB · Views: 457
  • 10-19obverse.jpg
    10-19obverse.jpg
    33.3 KB · Views: 461
Funkman, thanks for that info............it sounds like our 250's could use khouse's trigger mod! Seriously, I know exactly what you guys mean about the PP'er/Hum going away after a while. It always happens to me, I have to keep re-pressing to kick it back in. I can sort of tell when it's on its way out. I'm in accord with the performance descriptions you guys mention when in PP mode. It is such a useful tool.......it is more than a pin-pointer. The Pin pointer on the 250 is almost like a second opinion........like having a second detector to check the signal out. Object identification for me is at least 50% what the PP'er is telling me. The technique you guys describe sounds like another weapon for the 250 arsenal.
 

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Discussions

Back
Top