A question for all of you Ace 250 users.

[doozis]

I think some of the differences in tone refered to are in
the pinpoint mode. There are certainly differences in tone
when pinpointing on my Ace.

Doozis

 

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[Murph]

Agreed. There has to be tone difference in pinpoint and there is. In search mode however you are limited to three tones. Not really a big deal but some would have you think otherwise as far as the tones are concerned. The problem with the PP on the 250 is the fixed ground balance. When not in an area that matches up to the aces GB the pinpointing can still be done but can also sound off two feet from the target also.

IMO the fixed GB garrett went with on this machine is the problem.

I purchased an ace 250 awhile back when I re entered the hobby. Of late I have had my hands on several machines in this price range. I would not purchase another machine with a fixed GB no matter how well hyped it is.

 

[mtntrekr2]

I am listening to a lot of people saying that if the machine is
jumping all over the place it is probable trash. As I stated before I
think my yard was a dump site because I have found a
refrigerator down 3' in the one spot. and a tire rim down 2' in
another. But when it starts to jump on me I turn down the sens.
one notch at a time to locate the stronger signal and dig it then
I turn it back up a little and try again. I have found several times
that it is not so much trash but multiple targets and many times
it is a coin next to a nail or something. Maybe I am digging to
much but as I see it the more I dig up the yard the less I have to
cut the grass.

Joe

 

[Old Dog]

Joe,
LOL
I just cut my grass and right now I am empathising very much

I have decided to just let one part die out and put gravel in to replace it.
I think a good two inch base of 3/8 crack should do really well.
It should stop the dogs from tracking in mud and give me a place to park the Jeep.

OD

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

I am still learning my Ace as well. I like it, rarely misses a dime, but it picks up every tiny piece of tinfoil. I am considering purchasing the sniper coil for trashy areas.

 

[SC_hunter]

Just to put my 2 cents worth in...if you get a coin like signal and it is rapidly beeping and moving around...This may mean the coin is lying on top the ground or very very close to the surface.

 

[bootybay]

Hi all..am new here,
I too have the ace250 and I have been going nuts.. I am not finding much of anything so I am going to tell you what kellyco told me..I mostly hunt the beaches here in south jersey.. I was told this is the one for the beach..that it can be put in low salt water ( what the heck am I doing wrong, as it totally goes haywire, every little tiny swish of a wave it goes bezerk) I have dropped the sensitivity way down to two bars then to no bars..and it still goes nuts.... what am I doing wrong.... I have been searching in the all metal mode...wrong move huh? I want coins n jewelry... do I stay in coins...will that also pick up jewelry? at this point I am so frustrated with this machine that I could just scream... Have I been told wrong by kellyco at this time, I feel like such a dang failure at this...I have more junk n tabs then I have coins..and all coins that I do have are just every day lost in the dry sand coins... the best find I found was a sterling toe ring, which is a new item anyways, not old... so would someone tell me what the heck I am doing wrong.... can this be put in the water... or rather salt water ( ankle deep I was) or would I do better in lake water.... at this point, I am just so aggravated with it I could toss it... HELP PLEASE...

rae aka bootybay

 

[Colorado Kidd]

Bootybay,

The Ace is a fixed ground balance VLF detector. Most VLF detectors have a real hard time in the wet sand and in the salt water. The detector is seeing the minerals in the salt water and giving a response. It would be the same over real mineral rich ground. You need a machine that is designed for salt water or one with an adjustable ground ballance. Even with adjustable ground balance you will probably still get falsing. I have'nt tried mine at the beach yet but I'm sure it would do just fine in the dry sand but have problems in the wet. A pulse induction like the Surfmaster PI or the Tesoro Sand shark would work perfectly in the salt water but you would have no discrimination. I do know that my Sovereign will go straight from the dry sand into the salt water without a peep. It is a multifrequency detector. I don't know if all multifrequency detectors will do this but the Sovereign will. I hope this helps. Happy hunting.

 

[mark43]

dont let the bouncing signals throw you off. if your getting signals going from coins to pulltabs or other low end targets, there is a possibility that there is a coin down there but might be near some trash as well. so i dig and if i find trash, i pull it out then rescan the hole to see if im getting the coin signal again.....i've done this before....trash was in the same hole as the coin or it was very close by...remember to scan from all sides and go slow.....if your using high sensitivity it will pick up anything in the area of your coil...i go to pp mode and pp from different angles also.....because if you pp a possible target from the right to left, you might get a can or other trash....however if you pp from left to right you might get a different target showing on your screen.....that tells you there is a few targets in the same area...you decide then if its worth the digging.....also get an handheld pinpointer....like everyone else states, it does save alot of guess work on where the target is in the hole....everytime i get a 2'' depth reading, before i dig i touch the grass with my hand pp...if it beeps then i know its less then 2'' because the pinpointers range is about an 1'' and a half...so i just pick away at the surface with my knife......thats how i got a silver ring last week.....no digging required.....which also means that someone just dropped it very recently.....hope this helps.....need more info, pm me......mark43

 

[Murph]

Hi all..am new here,
I too have the ace250 and I have been going nuts.. I am not finding much of anything so I am going to tell you what kellyco told me..I mostly hunt the beaches here in south jersey.. I was told this is the one for the beach..that it can be put in low salt water ( what the heck am I doing wrong, as it totally goes haywire, every little tiny swish of a wave it goes bezerk) I have dropped the sensitivity way down to two bars then to no bars..and it still goes nuts.... what am I doing wrong.... I have been searching in the all metal mode...wrong move huh? I want coins n jewelry... do I stay in coins...will that also pick up jewelry? at this point I am so frustrated with this machine that I could just scream... Have I been told wrong by kellyco at this time, I feel like such a dang failure at this...I have more junk n tabs then I have coins..and all coins that I do have are just every day lost in the dry sand coins... the best find I found was a sterling toe ring, which is a new item anyways, not old... so would someone tell me what the heck I am doing wrong.... can this be put in the water... or rather salt water ( ankle deep I was) or would I do better in lake water.... at this point, I am just so aggravated with it I could toss it... HELP PLEASE...

rae aka bootybay

Your not doing anything wrong but you have just discovered the limits of your ace especially when it comes to beach/wet sand hunting.

If beach hunting is your thing don't be discouraged. You have a great dry sand/back up machine to what ever you upgrade to that will work in the wet. In fact the ace will work better in dry sand where targets are more spread out than trying to work it in a trashy park for example.

Good news is if you don't want to use the ace as a back up the resale value on it is still pretty high. Maybe try any of the minelab sovereigns, even older ones for the beach work/knee deep work you want to do. Should be able to get at least 150 for your ace and watch the famous auction site for a sovereign or excal.

 

[re-tek]

Hi all..am new here,
I too have the ace250 and I have been going nuts.. I am not finding much of anything so I am going to tell you what kellyco told me..I mostly hunt the beaches here in south jersey.. I was told this is the one for the beach..that it can be put in low salt water ( what the heck am I doing wrong, as it totally goes haywire, every little tiny swish of a wave it goes bezerk) I have dropped the sensitivity way down to two bars then to no bars..and it still goes nuts.... what am I doing wrong.... I have been searching in the all metal mode...wrong move huh? I want coins n jewelry... do I stay in coins...will that also pick up jewelry? at this point I am so frustrated with this machine that I could just scream... Have I been told wrong by kellyco at this time, I feel like such a dang failure at this...I have more junk n tabs then I have coins..and all coins that I do have are just every day lost in the dry sand coins... the best find I found was a sterling toe ring, which is a new item anyways, not old... so would someone tell me what the heck I am doing wrong.... can this be put in the water... or rather salt water ( ankle deep I was) or would I do better in lake water.... at this point, I am just so aggravated with it I could toss it... HELP PLEASE...

rae aka bootybay

make sure your detector is working properly. test it out in a park or something and toss some coins on the ground to see how it acts. make sure you do this in a known metal free peice of ground. i've ordered 2 new detectors from kellyco, both came broken and had to be exchanged.

 

[doozis]

I'm not sure why Kelleyco could recommend that detector
for wet sand and salt water , the Garretts website clearly indicates
the 250 is not recommended for saltwater or wetsand. Must have a
newb salesman there

Doozis

 

[MD Dog]

Warning all ace 250 owners beware of the highend machine naysayers !
It still amazes me how often people who want to justify their expenditure of large sums of money on machines that will go 2 feet deep, will then refer to the ace as a low end detector or an entry level machine. Then there's those that will tell you how this machine is absolutely useless in a salt water environement. Watch this video and then see what the truth is.
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,101006.0.html

 

[robert roy]

When most people use the ACE 250 for the first time their response is almost always expressed as “WOW, this is a great machine!” No disagreement there. I have used the Ace 250 for quite some time and it does a wonderful job, especially in the local parks where it zeros in on coins and sometimes little knickknacks people have dropped. I have only found three rings in the past few months and those were two children’s rings from one of those little gum machines, and an adults ring with about 10 or 15% gold included with other alloys. I have found two medallions and a matchbox car broken pieces of jewelry. All the coins have been modern day clad found at the 2 to 3 inch mark. My only complaint is that the pinpoint mode is not accurate.

Some people say they have no problem pinpointing with the Ace 250, but that is not the case with other owners of the Ace. I have tried the various techniques provided for locating my target and they do work, sometimes. The complaints seem to be 50/50. For those having trouble and frustrated at pin pointing, they will have to perform a little stunt called detuning. This is a simple process of pinpointing as described in the DVD and manual then letting up on the pinpoint then pressing again until the target size seems to shrink. After centering the target you slowly pull the coil back toward you. It will usually be found at the very front between the first and second ring of the coil, sometimes. Or it may be off by an inch or two to the left or the right.

Another issue is that you are locked into only three coils: the standard 6.5x9 elliptical coil that comes with the Ace 250 and the 4.5 sniper concentric (round) coil which is far the best for hunting in trashy areas. The sniper coil is a bit expensive (as are most coils) but well worth the added expense. A new 9x12 Rhino coil has been added to the arsenal but it too is elliptical. Hopefully it will not have the same problems with pinpointing as the 6.5x9 coil.

Would I recommend this detector to the “newbie” just getting into metal detecting? Yes, but with some reservations. I would feel better giving an all thumbs up if Garrett would at least provide another option: an 8 inch concentric coil for us die hards.

Robert Roy

 

[SC_hunter]

My only complaint with the Ace 250 is that I don't get to hunt every darn day..lol

 

[Ricardo_NY1]

In response, if you have a doubt about a certain type of signal or behavior, dig it as many times as you need to in order to see the result of what it is. When learning a new machine, you're going to dig up the obvious good, but you're not going to know what the bad is until you dig it. If you have a signal that sounds a certain way or moves around a certain way in the display, take a mental note and dig it anyways. If you are rewarded with a coin, you have your answer. That signal could possibly be good. If you dig trash 9 out of 10 times you pursue that signal, then you know what you're in for and what that signal means. But you won't know unless you dig. I just started with a new machine after having the 250 for almost a year and have never dug so much garbage. Now, directly to the 250.........I have dug dimes on notches where it should not have been a dime. I've squeezed out a silver dime or two on signals that were only coming in one direction where I literally had to stand still and not change the way my wrist is holding the detector to get that signal again. My last confirmation that it was a coin was to pin point the area in order to hear that typical sound the detector makes when PP'ing a coin. Lesson? You'll have these tricks and more up your sleave the longer you use it. Regarding the target ID jumping around, it's either indicating junk........or...........it's giving you notice that there is something very close to a good coin/target. Take a look at your depth guage when that ID is jumping around. Is the depth doing it also? If it is, that is telling you the two targets may be at different depths. Suppose you have a nail an inch under a good coin. Lower your sensitivty a notch or two so that the detector is now only detecting the coin. That target ID & depth guage may become stable now that only the coin is being detected. I have put that technique to use many a time. It's cleaning up the signal by isolating the junk target, simply by making your detection field as large as necessary. As an example, if you knew that your location had all good coins laying no more than 1 inches in the ground, would you have the sens set to 4 or 5 bars? The answer would be no, because you can have it set at 3 bars and still detect them. Having it set at 4 or 5 bars would detect the good coins and whatever junk is in the 3 to 5 inch depths, and that would give you bouncy signals. Long post, just trying to give you a feeling or visual of this.

 

[Colorado Kidd]

thanks for all the great tips.

Richardo_ny1 and everyone else. These are some great tips. I've also read somewhere of someone hunting with the pinpoint button depressed and then centering the target and letting go the pinpoint to see what it is. They claimed the depth was better in pinpoint mode. I have tried it a few times and it does go deep.

 

[Ricardo_NY1]

CK, I believe the post about hunting in Pin Point mode was made by Danimal. It's around somewhere. One more tip on the 250 that I have wrote about here on the forums...........the Pin Pointer is an excellent tool for determining a coin from junk. Simply place the coil over where you think the target is........on a good coin, you will hear a smooth tone/whine..........on a cap or other junk, 98% of the time, you will instead hear a warbly/static like sound similar to a speaker that is blown. Try it in an air test and see for yourself. Take a few caps, hold the coil over one and press the PP'er........you'll see what I mean. Even junk that can fool the target ID normally will not fool the PP'er. The PP'er hates garbage and does not whine on it like it does on a coin. It hesitates and sounds low and warbly on junk caps and other crap.

 

[Copperhead]

As an Ace owner...I must say this thread has given me more tips than all the rest combined..Thanks for posting Colorado Kidd..

 

[Kilika]

Just a heads-up! Been using my Ace 250 since April. Lots of junk, plenty of clad. Getting to recognize a 'good' signal from a 'junk' one... I thought! That is, until I dug a heavy, man's, 18K gold bracelet at about 4" right along the water's edge in wet sand. (fresh water, not salt.) It was an ugly, scratchy signal. Someone described a blown speaker and that's a good example. Wouldn't have dug it now that I'm "learning my machine" and "know what to listen for."

Boy am I glad it was a slow morning and I decided What the Heck! Dig it anyway! My best jewelery so far and I almost didn't dig it cuz it was a scratchy signal! Go figure!