Ace 250 for Beach and land?

[$CUERVOJ]

I plan on getting an Ace 250 next month because its well within my price range of under $200.00 new. Can anyone please tell me if this detector works well onthe beach. Padre Island Texas is home for me and id love to see what the spring breakers are going to leave behind. I heard you can go several inches under water with it then Ive heard no salt water period. Thank you for all your help. Cuervo J

 

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[NC_Horn]

I think the Ace 250 should be fine in dry sand for you but don't think you will have success in the wet salt sand. Don't chance slipping in the surf and getting your detector wet, or getting the coil wet and lifting the coil above the controls and having water run down the shaft. Stick to the dry sand. Plenty of finds in the dry sand. Watch the beach to find the line that most people set up their chairs. Work that area digging everything. Good luck and HH.

 

[$CUERVOJ]

Thanks NC Horn. Good info.

 

[digger89]

I'm a relative newbie too, started with an ACE 250 that I bought about two years ago. It works great on land and in dry sand. It does not like wet sand -- meaning it just beeps non-stop when over the wet sand. Saltwater wet that is, I've never tried it near freshwater.

Like you, I live near the beach, and after only a handful of outings was dying to go down to the wet sand and in the water. Though the 250's coil is waterproof, the computer is not, nor are the coil:computer nor headphone:computer connections. The previous poster makes a good point about risking a drop or splash that could destroy the thing. And, again, it goes crazy anywhere near saltwater.

Anyway, my outings ended up fewer and farther in between since I couldn't go in the water. Recently though, my family chipped in and bought me a PI Pro as a birthday present. It works great in the wet sand -- recently dug out a dime and a penny that required knee deep holes to get to. As for underwater, I'm still anxiously waiting for some calm seas. The only drawback so far, is that I miss the discrimination and depth displays of the 250 -- the PI Pro just beeps... period. No separate sounds nor displays for metal type or estimated depth. But that's the trade off for the extra depth capability and the waterproofing.

So -- my advice, if you're primarily going to go to the beach, save up a little more money and get a machine specifically designed to deal with the wet sand and saltwater, because you're going to want one shortly anyway. You can probably find some used ones on line. Another way to go is to hook up with your local club and see if anybody there will give you some advice or even some stick time on their machines to see what's best for you.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

If your going to hunt the salt water beaches, look for a Minelab GT for the dry/wet sand and if your brave and careful midcalf in the water, or if you want to really go into the mine, a Minelab Excal for in the water (waterproof to 200 feet), no fear of getting it wet, AND it discriminates out the iron.

 

[geckokid]

I have use the ace 250 in wet sand and it does work! But you need to turn the sensitivity down or you will get ghost signals. If you have a solid signal and does not jump alot. Dig it.

I does work, I have hunted on Delaware and Maryland Beach with the ACE 250, but your better off with a water md. Like a Minelab Excalibur or Tesoro Sand-Shark, ect.

 

[Murph]

Works fine for coin shooting in the dry. For the wet its going to depend on how patient you can be with a vary unstable detector (falsing). Dropping the sensitivity will help but not eliminate it and then you have to be lucky enough to come across a fairly shallow target. I found that most of my time was spent double checking ghost signals and even digging down to repeatable signals only to have them vanish. For in the salt water don't even bother. The coil floats and the water under it will make it sound off constantly.

I used an ace on the beaches here in FL for about three months with little success. If you check back over the threads I believe you will find more than one post from me whining about my lack of success especially when it come to jewelry finds. The guys here kept telling me minelab and the info finely sunk in and I purchased a nearly new sovereign off the famous auction sight at a few hundred dollars savings. It quadrupled my jewelry finds in under six hours hunt time. Could I have found these targets with the ace? Probably; but sorting them out from all the falseing would have been difficult especially a few hours into the hunt when the frustration factor was getting higher from all the poor output from the ace.

Keep in mind if you do decided on a sov that for some reason it does not air test well or even test well on freshly planted targets or even new targets tossed out on the ground. I did this and was getting a bit disappointed with a dash of buyers remorse starting to set in.

Don't worry though. As soon as you get it out on the beach for a real field test you will be walking around with a stupid looking grin on your face for at least the first few hours. In the wet it is incredibly stable, deep and a joy to use. The best way to sum up the difference for me is when useing the ace at the end of the hunt my thought was "I wonder if I will even bother hunting the beach again". With the sov its "I cant wait to get back out there again". A big difference.

 

[mumszie]

Hey Curevo check out the videos on You Tube by Crackbadger.



He uses an ACE250 I think. He has several videos and one is about the ACE. A lot of people really like the ACE but for really serious beach hunting..... you might want to invest in a higher bracket machine. Just use the ACE for now and keep reading the posts on Tnet and I bet you will find a machine you would like to save for in the future. Good luck!

 

[KINGPULLTAB]

Go to youtube and type in kingpulltab or crackbadger and watch the videos---we have video 1 and 2--- then a video just for the ace 250.

JIM in sunny Florida aka KINGPULLTAB

 

[bootybay]

I gotta be drop dead honest here..the ace250 is great if you just want to hunt parks and lawns...but when I bought mine, at kellyco, I specifically told them I would be hunting nj beaches that are highly mineralized..the salesman was new ( I didnt know that at the time) Since having the ace for 2 months...I was not finding hardly anything..especially on the beaches..I was told it could go in wet sand and low salt water...NO IT CANNOT... I spoke directly to Margaret at kellyco, even she said the same thing...it is not for wet sand or salt water... however, I will say this much, Margaret has gone out of her way to help me..and I have a gtp1350 garrett comming... now how can I complain on that one...and that one I am told will work on the beaches and in wet sand and in low salt water, as soon as it arrives I will let you know...but be smart and get a good detector and make sure the sales person knows exactly what you want your detector to do...

hope this helps...rae

 

[possumheaded]

I took my ace 250 to the beach about a month ago and went out at night after the wife and kid went to bed. I spent several hours each night for 4 nights and found around $5.00 in clad and a bunch of junk(pull tabs,bottle caps,beercans,etc...). Mine also went wacky in wet sand but after reading Geckokid's post and watching Crackbadger and Kingpulltab's videos I am going to give it another try next time. Next time I will lower the sensitivity in wet sand and see what happens. Also I will dig up all the hits that show up as a pull tab. I started off doing this but got so tired of freakin pull tabs but to find the good stuff, I quess you gotta keep digging.

 

[Lores]

also try this video on ace 250 beach setup