wanted: great entry level machine for under $200 shipped to Canada

Treasure_Hunter

Administrator
Staff member
Jul 27, 2006
48,460
54,902
Florida
Detector(s) used
Minelab_Equinox_ 800 Minelab_CTX-3030 Minelab_Excal_1000 Minelab_Sovereign_GT Minelab_Safari Minelab_ETrac Whites_Beach_Hunter_ID Fisher_1235_X
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Looking for something that works like new and is a powerful machine, good for newbie and can discriminate out pull tabs easily. Will pay via paypal to ensure a working machine.

Anything that descriminates out pulltabs will also be decriminating out gold. Do you want to not find gold?

Please remember only charter members can offer a detector to sell, anyone not a charter member offering a detector to sell their post will be deleted....
 

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rmleider

Greenie
Jul 5, 2013
15
2
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Looking for something that works like new and is a powerful machine, good for newbie and can discriminate out pull tabs easily. Will pay via paypal to ensure a working machine.

So is there any reason to get a machine with discrimination? I was told to get an Ace 250 over the Compadre because it has better discrimination..but if you can't find gold maybe I should just get the compadre? Advice? I'll be in vancouver bc looking on the beach and over grassy parks that have been rained on a lot.
 

Treasure_Hunter

Administrator
Staff member
Jul 27, 2006
48,460
54,902
Florida
Detector(s) used
Minelab_Equinox_ 800 Minelab_CTX-3030 Minelab_Excal_1000 Minelab_Sovereign_GT Minelab_Safari Minelab_ETrac Whites_Beach_Hunter_ID Fisher_1235_X
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Pull tabs and Gold are very close together in conductivity, if you descriminate out pulltabs and aluminum foil, you are descriminating out lots of gold because of this... Also the Ace250 is not a saltwater beach detector.

You can hunt in the dry sand with the ace 250 above the high tide line with no problems, but in the sand that is below high tide mark it will give you trouble if you dont turn the sensitivity way down to get it to be stable, it thinks the salt minerals is metal everywhere so will constantly false, lower sentivity means less depth..... Hunting salt water beaches is a whole new ball game compared to hunting dry dirt..........
 

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rmleider

Greenie
Jul 5, 2013
15
2
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Pull tabs and Gold are very close together in conductivity, if you descriminate out pulltabs and aluminum foil, you are descriminating out lots of gold because of this... Also the Ace250 is not a saltwater beach detector.

You can hunt in the dry sand with the ace 250 above the high tide line with no problems, but in the sand that is below high tide mark it will give you trouble if you dont turn the sensitivity way down to get it to be stable, it thinks the salt minerals is metal everywhere so will constantly false, lower sentivity means less depth..... Hunting salt water beaches is a whole new ball game compared to hunting dry dirt..........

so if I want to look for gold, should I just get the cheaper Compadre? I've heard the only reason to get the ace 250 over the compadre is for discrimination...but if I want to include gold in my search I shouldn't use the discrimination from what you're saying. thanks.
 

LuckyLarry

Hero Member
Dec 16, 2005
750
390
Sweet Home, Oregon
Detector(s) used
I had to sideline for awhile, too much quarreling, brand defensiveness, and seeing certain people waging war on others. It got to be too silly for me after awhile..
Primary Interest:
Other
The Compadre discriminates/separates targets better than the Ace 250. I owned the Ace 250 and gave it to my daughter who used it as a door stop because of its ugly noise, and I still own the Compadre because it just plain works better and finds old wheat pennies and tiny gold jewelry better, by far. . The Ace 250 is old-school type delayed-response early 1980's technology, and after awhile its BOING, BOING, BOING drives a lot of people almost nuts, myself included. Neither machine is a dedicated gold or gold nugget hunter, so perish that idea ASAP. . Since you live in Vanc. BC you will need one better than either for our type of (very high) Fe soil, so a new EuroTek Pro (my preference) or Alfa 2000 will work much better for you. I own a EuroTek Pro, and if I were you I'd get the 11" DD coil, it's the best for your soil, period.. Hope this helps.
 

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rmleider

Greenie
Jul 5, 2013
15
2
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
The Compadre discriminates/separates targets better than the Ace 250. I owned the Ace 250 and gave it to my daughter who used it as a door stop because of its ugly noise, and I still own the Compadre because it just plain works better and find old wheat pennies better, by far. . The Ace 250 is old 1980's technology, and after awhile its BOING, BOING, BOING drives a lot of people almost nuts, myself included. Neither machine is a dedicated gold or gold nugget hunter, so perish that idea ASAP. . Since you live in Vanc. BC you will need one better than either for our type of (very high) Fe soil, so a new EuroTek Pro or Alfa 2000 will work much better for you. I own a EuroTek Pro, and if I were you I'd get the 11" DD coil, it's the best for your soil, period.. Hope this helps.

so you don't think the compadre will be good at all here in Vanc?
 

LuckyLarry

Hero Member
Dec 16, 2005
750
390
Sweet Home, Oregon
Detector(s) used
I had to sideline for awhile, too much quarreling, brand defensiveness, and seeing certain people waging war on others. It got to be too silly for me after awhile..
Primary Interest:
Other
I think it will become a doorstop. UNLESS, you never try a different detector. Sometimes ignorance is bliss...:icon_thumleft: I've seen people love a cheap BH that only goes 2" deep, and when they try a more powerful one, they stand there with a blank look on their face, bewildered. There is a way to test your soil too: Take a permanent magnet and rub it through and through a cup of normal and various soil(s) in your area. If you get only a little bit of iron filings on it, your soil is almost neutral like in most of Ohio. If you get a lot, it is heavily filled with magnetite, hematite, or other Fe's. But that still won't stop the BOING, BOING that the Aces put out. Fishers and Teknetics are notorious for good searching this side of the Northern Americas and Canada, they are made for it. So are Whites, but Garretts are not, neither are Nautiluses, Minelabs, or various European detectors, they really hurt over here in this part of the country.

I will add though, that the cheaper Tesoros don't do too bad here, but the high end ones do. The cheap guys use a tank circuit, it's very stable, and underpoweded tank circuits in metal detectors seem to handle salt and high iron better than some other cheap, more advanced circuitry types. The Tesoro Silver uMax is a prime example, it works pretty well almost anywhere, not ideally, but respectably.
 

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rmleider

Greenie
Jul 5, 2013
15
2
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I think it will become a doorstop. UNLESS, you never try a different detector. Sometimes ignorance is bliss...:icon_thumleft: I've seen people love a cheap BH that only goes 2" deep, and when they try a more powerful one, they stand there with a blank look on their face, bewildered. There is a way to test your soil too: Take a permanent magnet and rub it through and through a cup of normal and various soil(s) in your area. If you get only a little bit of iron filings on it, your soil is almost neutral like in most of Ohio. If you get a lot, it is heavily filled with magnetite, hematite, or other Fe's. But that still won't stop the BOING, BOING that the Aces put out. Fishers and Teknetics are notorious for good searching this side of the Northern Americas and Canada, they are made for it. So are Whites, but Garretts are not, neither are Nautiluses, Minelabs, or various European detectors, they really hurt over here in this part of the country.

I will add though, that the cheaper Tesoros don't do too bad here, but the high end ones do. The cheap guys use a tank circuit, it's very stable, and underpoweded tank circuits in metal detectors seem to handle salt and high iron better than some other cheap, more advanced circuitry types. The Tesoro Silver uMax is a prime example, it works pretty well almost anywhere, not ideally, but respectably.

well bummer, man. I'll still take it out and hope for the best.
 

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