My First Detecting Session

darrensiegel

Newbie
Jan 24, 2014
2
1
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I've been wanting to get into detecting as a hobby for awhile now. For my birthday three weeks ago my wife bought me a Garrett Ace 250 - but with the winter that we are having here in Pennsylvania I've had to put off going outside and starting to detect. The few days of 40+ degree weather that we had this past week was enough to clear the snow from our front yard so I grabbed the MD and headed outside. Our house is almost a hundred years old and is part of a larger and older piece of property that is a National Historic Home site - so I figure there is probably a decent chance of some goodies buried outside.

I spent about 2.5 hours in my front yard, playing with and learning to use the device. Unfortunately, all I found were three nails, a bolt, several pins that hold in the invisible dog fence that the previous owner of our home installed, and a glob of some type of metal that seemed to be melted onto a rock. Despite this, I had a lot of fun and I certainly learned a few things:

First, I think I need to get one of the handheld pro pointer devices. I spent an inordinate amount of time combing through the earth that I'd turn over trying to find whatever my MD had pinpointed. From what I understand of the pro pointer devices, they make it *much* easier to find the items once you've started to dig. I'm planning on getting serious about this as a hobby, so it seems like this is a must have.

Second, I need to learn more about how to actually use my Garrett 250! I could kinda figure out what the display was telling me, and how to use the various modes and the pinpointing. I didn't try to use "DISCRIM" or "ELIM" features. The device came with some instructional video - I definitely need to watch that.

Third, I've ready on here that many folks lay down a cloth or other type of material to place the dirt on that they dig out. I figured that this only served the purpose of leaving the yard neater after you return the dirt into the hole, but it also seems like this would be useful as a way to speed up searching as the material essentially is a barrier between the earth that you searching and the rest of the earth. A few times as I was rooting through clumps of dirt, it became hard to determine what was the dirt that was I searching and what was just the rest of my muddy yard. A nice thick cloth or piece of burlap would seem to work well for this.

I'm hoping to find some time tomorrow to get out again. Maybe try the backyard (hopefully it has less nails and more coins!)

-Darren
 

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norbyx

Hero Member
Jun 3, 2012
837
163
San Jose
Detector(s) used
Actual: Whites MXT All Pro, M6 and Tesoro Sand Shark

Ex: BH Platinum, Tesoro Lobo, ST & Tejon, Teknetics Delta, Whites MXT, V3i, Dual Field, MX5; DP Wader, Garrett At-PRO, Fisher Gold Bug 2, CZ-70Pro
Primary Interest:
Other
Hey Darren welcome to the hobby.
My suggestion to you is to get into YouTube and start searching for metal detecting techniques, there are a lot of videos on how to properly metal detect. A pinpointer is a good thing to have, but not essential, you just grab the dirt I your hands and swing it in front of the coil to see if there is any metal in it, if not than just place it back in the hole. Well it's a bit difficult to explain in a post. Go to YouTube to see how it's done.
Keep it up and read as much as you can...
 

BryanM362

Hero Member
Mar 22, 2013
870
426
Cincinnati, OH
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
E-Trac with Sun Ray probe, Garrett AT Pro, White's Classic SL, Garret Pro-pointer
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Welcome Darren!

You'll be hooked once you find your first silver! Also, the pinpointer is not mandatory, but it makes it a lot easier to find your target. Harbor Frieght has one for about $20. The Garrett Pinpointer is one of the better ones, but are about $125.
 

myfantasia1

Sr. Member
Oct 3, 2008
496
167
Colorado, Denver
Detector(s) used
Ace 350, and now AP Pro. and AP Pro Pointer
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Pinpointer cuts you search down, so you can go on to the next find faster, in my opinion. Good luck
 

Bridge End Farm

Gold Member
Dec 2, 2006
5,352
199
Florida
Detector(s) used
Library
Great start :) nice machine too I like my 250 :) light and easy to backpack with :)

Welcome to the hobby but be warned it can become addicting lol :)

Look forward to seeing and hearing more of your discoveries

:)
 

snokid

Full Member
Feb 2, 2013
108
26
Troy, MI
Detector(s) used
Fisher F5, Garrett GTA350, minelab e-trac, minelab Excalibur II, minelab Excalibur
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
welcome aboard
sounds like your hooked
 

treasurecoasteric

Sr. Member
Jan 6, 2014
276
144
Cool - Great hobby huh? I wouldn't get too caught up in "Elimination or discrimination at this point. The ACE is a feature packed machine at a reasonable price from a major manufacturer, but DIG EVERYTHING. I have 2 intermediate machines that combined cost about $1,500.00 and they can't tell a pull tab from Gold, so don't plan on the ACE doing it. What I can tell you is that if the ACE has metal under the coil it will make a noise and this is honestly much more important than anything. Listen to the tones and learn them ....sweep, sweep. sweep, dig, dig , dig. Try to guess what something is when you hear it...before you dig it. Soon you will know what's under your coil without having to9 thionk about it. Sweep it 20- 30 times if you want from every angle. Look at the display ..... it is a tool but not the gospel LOL. A GOOD pinpointer really helps. I use Whites machines but I have the Garrett Pro Pinpointer and love it. If you bought that one, you would never need another.....unless you lost it. remember, turn your sensitivity as high as you can while keeping the machine stable and try to discriminate as little as possible.
 

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