A first today, and a realization

[fender346]

I'm pleased to report that I dug my first buffalo today at about 5 inches with my trusted 250!

I'm very happy with this find, however it led to the realization that:

1.) I love metal detecting almost as much as fishing.
2.) Its about time for me to move on to a "better" machine.

The Ace250 has treated me very well over the past couple of weeks,
but I just can't deal with the possibility that I missed some deeper coins that other machines would have heard.

Can anyone recommend a solid upgrade that won't exactly put too much strain on the wallet?
thanks

 

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[texjim]

nice job on your finds. i don't know what your price range is but i do like my xlt. it's my first machine been doing it since feb. i'm sure you will here some other good opinions on other machines... good luck

 

[fortbball9]

Very nice finds at five inches not to shabby.I use a Garrett 550 and I am very pleased with it.
It is very easy to use and does a decent job on depth.I use mine mostly on CW Relics.It won't
hurt your wallet to bad either.But,I am sure you will hear a lot of good about some other machines.

fortbball9

 

[ringfinder]

Congratulations on all your finds. As for a upgrade, there is nothing wrong with your ACE
250. I have many detectors and the ACE 250 is one of my top picks while hunting. The first year I had my ACE 250 I found over 4,000 clad coins with it, not counting over 100 silver coins, many rings and many tokens. I also found a 6 pound cannonball 10 inches down in the ground. If you want to upgrade, get the bigger coil and a SunRay probe for your detector. Also a good headset is a must, one that you can adjust the sound for each ear. I use a pair of SunRay headsets. They aren't cheap, but boy do they ever sound good.

I am including a picture of my finds,

HH, Ringfinder

 

[artzstuff1]

Congratulations on all your finds. As for a upgrade, there is nothing wrong with your ACE
250. I have many detectors and the ACE 250 is one of my top picks while hunting. The first year I had my ACE 250 I found over 4,000 clad coins with it, not counting over 100 silver coins, many rings and many tokens. I also found a 6 pound cannonball 10 inches down in the ground. If you want to upgrade, get the bigger coil and a SunRay probe for your detector. Also a good headset is a must, one that you can adjust the sound for each ear. I use a pair of SunRay headsets. They aren't cheap, but boy do they ever sound good.

I am including a picture of my finds,

HH, Ringfinder


ACE 250,,,,,,,,, WOW WHAT A PILE,,,,


ARTHUR

 

[Narthoniel]

Detecting is better than fishing. You dont stink afterwards, dont have to wash the boat, flush an engine, or clean any gear. You dont have to get yer hands grungy cleaning fish only to find fish scales in the darndest places for weeks to come. I dont think I have been fishing in the 10-11 months since I started detecting. Also, you always get somethin with a detector, whereas fishin has those no nibble days. Yep, fishin doesnt do it for me anymore, but man, diggin them old coins in the woods or gold rings on the beach is awesome!
Anthony

 

[ivan salis]

humm think carefully -- using a 9 x 12 coil on a ace 250 *in relic mode --- during recent testing done overseas the ace 250 beat the find depths of a standard coil xlt in mixed mode by about 1 inch on adverage * --- so don't be so quick to throw your old friend to the curb -- since the xlt cost twice what the $300 dollar ACE 250 package with standard and big coil run--- and for a few bucks more you can get the sniper coil as well. --- so at less than $400 its totally and fully outfitted for less than 2/3rd the cost of a "standard coil" only xlt -($600)-

 

[Moonshadow]

Congratulations on all your finds. As for a upgrade, there is nothing wrong with your ACE
250. I have many detectors and the ACE 250 is one of my top picks while hunting. The first year I had my ACE 250 I found over 4,000 clad coins with it, not counting over 100 silver coins, many rings and many tokens. I also found a 6 pound cannonball 10 inches down in the ground. If you want to upgrade, get the bigger coil and a SunRay probe for your detector. Also a good headset is a must, one that you can adjust the sound for each ear. I use a pair of SunRay headsets. They aren't cheap, but boy do they ever sound good.

Holy crap RF! That's why I love my Ace 250 also! Great job!

Good advice here......The ultimate decision is yours though. Dealers will only tell you what they want you to hear. Good luck!

HH,
Moon

 

[EpsilonMinus]

Congratulations on all your finds. As for a upgrade, there is nothing wrong with your ACE
250. I have many detectors and the ACE 250 is one of my top picks while hunting. The first year I had my ACE 250 I found over 4,000 clad coins with it, not counting over 100 silver coins, many rings and many tokens. I also found a 6 pound cannonball 10 inches down in the ground.

Wow, this is amazing. I bet you sell a few Aces every time you post this pic somewhere. You should get an affiliate-account with Garrett and post a link to their sales page so you can get a cut of the sales for each reference! Very inspiring, man, thanks for sharing this. I think you've probably made fender reconsider throwing his Ace under the bus!

 

[CowboyKolo]

I think the real thing is that you'll find as many "this one's better" opinions as you will people giving them. Stick with the 250 awhile longer. If you think your missing out, believe me, your not. I had a 250 I bought awhile back and only ever found pull tabs with it. The fact that people find stuff with it suggest it's the places you go, not what you use. If I remember right, you could always just upgrade the coil size to a bigger one, which might help.
Personally, I've been satisfied with my eagle spectrum, although I recently bought a viper so I could go into the water this summer. Good luck n happy hunting!

 

[allen]

I love my ace 250, ive dug coins as deep as 10 inches
and bigger relics as much as 14 inches, dont give up
on that good little machine called an ace 250.

 

[UTcoinshootR]

I suggest getting a the top of the line tector. Like a DFX, E-trac, or a Fisher F75. If you look really hard I bet you could find one online somewhere for as cheap as a mid grade. They might go a little bit deeper than the ace 250, but the best part is the ability to identify a target better. I love my ace, but with my DFX I can almost call what i dig every time. Almost. . I know you can find a DFX on ebay for 800 or less. My ace is the favorite for sandy beaches though.

 

[CRUSADER]

Trust me, your love it more than fishing soon. I hardly get time to cast a line

 

[gmanlight]

Nice work fender all done with the fishing except for a couple of surf casting nights with my brother
and a ballgame on the radio HH Mike

 

[fender346]

First of all let me say "welcome to the end of metal detecting."

now thats deep

Thanks for the valuable insights guys!

Its a known fact that the ace250 is a workhorse. It holds its own against many high end detectors and is a steeple in the TH community.

In fact, those were the very reasons I purchased my ace, as I was looking to match a par performing machine with a reasonable price.

Anyways, I'm still gonna be in the market for another detector, but I also realize that sticking with what I got is highly plausible option thats not to be underestimated.

...alright, enough of this...I'm goin fishin
thanks again

 

[Goes4ever]

if they could add an option on the ace to be able to ground balance it would be a winner, volume control would be nice too, that sucker is so loud.

But I too had the ace for a year before I upgraded, I was constantly thinking I was missing deeper coins because my hunting partner used a DFX and he constantly found coins at depths my ace could not even hit a signal. I upgraded to the minelab x-70 and went back and re-hunted several sites that I hunted with my ace. And I found a lot of deeper coins that my ace just did not reach. I do not blame you for wanting to upgrade.

 

[mountainplayer]

I experienced much the same thing when I got into detecting, and yes, I also started out with an Ace 250. I knew within a couple of months that I loved the hobby and wanted an eventual upgrade. Everyone has a different opinion on brands, performance, features that make the biggest difference and I'm not going to give mine here. Just tell you what I did.

I decided that my hobby wasn't going to use up any "paycheck" money, so whatever I ended up buying was going to be paid for by clad. With a withdrawal from my clad bucket for batteries and my wife and kids dipping into it for a soda now and then, it took me three summers to build up a clad total of almost $700. The entire time, I was researching my new purchase, but more importantly, learning my machine and metal detecting fundamentals. Turns out that the fundamentals (depth, separation, target masking, response to ground mineralization, confusing VDI) gradually started to make sense in actual field conditions on real hunts.

I'm really happy to say that when I did upgrade to a vastly more complex machine, I pretty much felt right at home with it and feel like I'm already getting a return on my investment. Did I find deeper coins that I'd missed before? Yes, in my grandmother small yard I found seven or eight more oldies. But I also found other coins that I'd missed that were definitely within depth range of most all machines, including a Barber dime, because they were next to trash and I could separate it more easily with my new machine.

Best of luck to you, and until you decide what and when for your next purchase, have a great time and know that you are hunting with a very good machine.

MP

 

[titan]

Whites MXT is a great machine for the $$. It sounds like you have made up your mind to "upgrade", instead of getting more accesseries for youp 250.

 

[time4me]

My son upgraded from his Ace250 to a Minelab X-Terra 70, and he loves it. The X-Terra 30, 50 and 70 are all on sale right now at a large, florida based distributor that shall remain unnamed. If you can't figure it out, then PM me.

 

[Gunny71]

Nice finds! I do not have a detector yet, Grandmas 30 year old detector was dead out of the case, so I have been thinking about getting the Ace 250. Thanks for all of the info and tips, and I hope to have one soon.

Speckled trout are biting like crazy at the coast right now, and I got a big red last weekend, so I do not think getting a detector will kill my fishing, but I bet it puts a dent in it. Everywhere I go, I think to myself, wow, thats an old homesite, or thats an old park....you guys gave me the bug, and I do not even have a detector yet.