Newbie looking to have a couple questions answered.

[wyndsurfr]

Hey folks, I just got my first metal detector ace-250. I'm excited to start digging my property, pretty interesting thread explaining the two properties I'm going to be starting on over in the cache forum...

anyhow, I figured this would be the best place to post these specific questions, so please bear with me being a newbie and admittedly ignorant.

I see lots of "dig everything" statements from reading on here, now obviously these detectors have discrimination and I understand what it does and how it does it for the most part, but... Should I set my discrimination to ignore Iron? What is worst case scenario if I do set it to ignore Iron? I'm expecting LOTS of nails and bullet brass, but also expecting to dig LOTS of silver here (from large pieces down to coins). I know there are at least 2 high dollar gold/diamond rings lost during our annual bar-b-q's over the years (hope I can find those so I can surprise the owners with them).

 

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[buzzhead]

If you are looking to find gold your going to have to run in jewelry mode if your 250 has it. (My 350 does) and you will have to "dig it all" coins and silver usually hit higher on the scale.

 

[wyndsurfr]

I'm a little confused by your statement, please bear with me as I am completly ignorant... I think what you're saying is by "dig it all" you mean dig all the hits, but am perplexed by the jewelry mode statement. You're saying that gold will not show up if I have my discrimination set to show everything or are you saying that if I set it to jewelry mode I will find silver coins and dining peices as well as gold, but will help me to not hit on as much trash?

as you see, I'm still unsure about what "dig it all" translates to with the settings on my machine. To me, "dig it all" would mean turn everything on, including Iron and dig every single beep.

These places I'm going to be hitting over the next few weeks are going to turn out some money, I'm sure of it, but I'd like some guidance about these few questions if anyone can bear with me enough until I understand fully what is going on. What I do (or think I do) understand is the discrimination filters different disturbances in the magnetic field produced by the coil, what I'm not sure of is what I will miss by turning certain things off (namely Iron because there are tons of nails), but now it sounds like I have to turn certain things off in order to get a signal on other things?

I have resolved myself to the fact that I have to dig a bunch of bullet brass, that's my bad for not cleaning up after myself when I went out shooting, but if it is possible to skip the nails without skipping valuable things, that would be nice.

 

[littlewheaty]

If it was me i use all metal mode and dig the mid and high tones. Id just ignore the low tones for now. If you dont find what your looking for then i would start digging all of the low tones to make sure u dont have nails masking a good target. Its been a while since i used my ace tho. Im gonna have to get it out and see if i even know how to work it. Anyways good luck and hope ya find what your looking for

 

[Welgund]

Low conductors like gold can fall anywhere in the range on a detector with a TID from 19 for small thin 10k rings and earrings up to the 70s on large class rings etc. This is what they mean by pretty much have to dig everything including the junk. most aluminum, pop tabs, ring pulls and foil all fall within that range also which means if your going after gold you have to dig all that too. Coins and silver are high conductors which fall in the upper spectrum and ring high except for nickels which if your digging nickels signals your good for gold. Bullet casings are low conductors and if you have been shooting where you are going to detect for several years and leaving the brass laying all over the ground and now are going to be looking for gold rings in the middle of it you might be in for a long haul.lol Get you a bucket and start filling it with brass cause that is where your rings you want are going to be on your detector also.hehe Good luck and maybe you will get luck and pluck them out fast in the sea of brass.

 

[DiggerGal]

Pay attention to your digital display with the numbers. On lower conductivity items you will see it jump for example, it may hit at 65 then quickly drop to 38 and bounce back up to 65. When it bounces quickly like that and the audio corresponds you know that you have iron in the mix versus the solid tone of 65 with no bounce in numbers being a coin or better.
I don't think there is any way to really discriminate out the pull tops and foil to just leave the gold...if it were that easy everyone would do it.
Time learning your machine makes a world of difference...you will get to know the language, the tones and the numbers.
I would dig in All metal mode to learn the numbers along with the tones....dig everything and take your time.
HH

 

[wyndsurfr]

thanks, I appreciate it folks.

 

[cudamark]

I would start by discriminating out iron and dig everything else. If you want rusty relics, go back and dig the iron at a later date. If you're in an area that is producing some nice targets, dig the big and/or shallow iron just to get it out of the way and avoid a masking effect.

 

[wyndsurfr]

having fun so far, was only able to go out for maybe an hour today, found what turned out to be a big chunk of lead alloy... I wanted it to be silver haha I don't think I've mastered that alchemy yet, if I do, I'll be sure to let you folks know

I found a really nice trowel though, so that is something! I was kinda cursing the trowel I had not really being suitable for digging in undisturbed soil, so I'll count today as a win! Found a few other things, but nothing interesting really, just some odd brass contraptions, clad, and of course bullet casings... I'll be digging those up for the rest of my M.D. life haha

 

[Phantasman]

You cannot expect a metal detector to tell you that a gold ring lies await below the coil. The detector detects metal. All metal. What most I know of do, is to learn what is junk. Not what is gold. There are many more tabs and nails than gold and coins. After awhile you can almost peg a tab, a nail, a beer can, etc. With practice. Even though a ring may show up under the tab segment, you've heard so many tabs that it becomes questionable if it's a tab or not. Dig questionable targets. There is not a ring segment, but there is a tab segment. In other words, you will learn more what you decide NOT to dig, rather than what you choose to dig. Most rings I found seemed to travel the segments somewhat, and the machine is saying "it's not a tab, it's not a nickel, but it's something I don't have a segment to put it in".

Now this advice is for between iron and silver where gold lies.

Once above 60 (on my unit), silver becomes tighter as there's not as much junk and more coins in that range.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[BARKER]

HI Windsurfr; The main thing in all of this is PRACRTICE, PRACTICE,PRACTICE ok. EXPECT that for the first 6 - 12 months your machine is smarter than you are. It knows itself better than you. It will do it's job perfectly well. Thing is that you need to learn what job it is doing ok. Set your Disc a LOW as possible at about 2 - 3 max and learn what your machine is telling you. Over time you WILL definitely know what is saying to you ok.
YES, you will make mistakes. That is part of learning but soon enough you WILL begin to nail those gold rings ok. Good Luck. Don't forget to Post your Pictures of your finds ok. PEACE:RONB

 

[Tom_in_CA]

wyndsurfr: Whenever you read someone saying "dig it all", what they REALLY mean is: dig everything above iron. Gold jewelry is alloyed (10k, 14k, 18k, etc...), so it can read from foil (dainty small pieces), to square tabs or corroded zinc range (big fat men's rings). And larger gold items, like a $20 gold piece, are up at around IH to penny-ish. And ... I suppose, a gold brick would read at silver dollar, doh! So as you can see, size plays into it. Also if you were to ever find something 24k (rare), it is a very high conductor, such that even dainty 24k rings or amulets will read up in the penny range.

 

[CaptEsteban]

You can find an area in a yard where there are NO signals at all. Place some target coins across the ground a couple of feet apart & place a small gold ring there, too. PRACTICING with the detector, & its settings will give you a good idea what they are talking about. I have some different coins, gold ring, pull tabs , etc. stuck on the end of paint stirring sticks to help me. Listen very closely to the unique sound the 250 makes when passing over a coin.