Ive got an ACE in my hand, and still not winning..

[A. Fitzpatrick]

Hey All, Andy here, I just wanted to throw a few things out there and see if anyone might have any input. I'm pretty new to metal detecting, but getting out as much as possible to really get used to it. Ive got an ACE 350 (Gift from the wife )and I just got permission from a farmer to walk about his 100 something acres of field. A few times I got some really good high tones and the cursor never moved off of the 1 cent or 10 cent mark, so I felt pretty good about them only to find some small chunks of scrap looking metal. However, on the beach, with those same tones, they are almost always coins. How does a detector recognize "coins"? even when I have it in coin mode, I'm digging up little scraps. I know its not going to work perfect, and there are things that can affect signals and such, but curious if anyone had some wisdom to share. Also sometimes while swinging the thing goes bonkers and bounces from Iron to foil to coin and everywhere in between and the signals move around and are hard to pinpoint. What can cause that? Anyway, thanks for reading, glad to be part of this forum now and look forward to talking with yall. Anything helps!

-AF

 

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[lairmo]

I haven't owned an ACE in a while, but first: While walking in the field and get that type of signal, raise your coil up about a foot or so above the ground. If it's an iron target it will still respond(bigger iron). If it's a coin it most likely will not. (Unless it's a huge chunk of change). I turn the sensitivity up on my machines in a field but always lower the iron unless it's a "known" CW or "something like that" area. Lots of farming equipment thru the years from hubs, to discs, bolts, nuts, etc. come loose. Walk around the target and check it from EVERY angle. It may sound like a silver dollar from one side but crap out from another angle. If it's bouncing around like that probably not a "good" target, but you NEVER know until you dig. A "GOOD" target usually has a definite sound, like a bell, a "BOING" from all directions. But that doesn't mean it will be good when you dig it. How many hours have you been using your machine? It usually take around a hundred hours to really learn you're machine and it's sounds. Are you hunting with headphones or just with the speaker on the machine? Targets will sound better to (IMO) with the headphones on. You can distinguish the sounds and learn the machine better (again IMO). You ARE going to find a lot of metal (FROM FARMING) in a field. People don't go frolicking in a field with their booze and loose their change and rings in a field. (Well, they do around here, lol). Pretty much to sum it up, DIG everything at first. LISTEN to your machine. And learn the noises it makes. Grab a handful of different coins and bury them a few inches in the ground or lay them on the ground and listen to the sound they make. Practice makes...almost perfect. Good Luck!!! Lairmo.

 

[A. Fitzpatrick]

Thanks for all the input! I've only got maybe 10-12 hours so far, most of which I haven't used the head phones cuz the wife is with me and she wants to hear it too lol. I will certainly try using them more and have patience with learning the tones. I've been doing some research, and part of that field used to have a structure of some sort on it up until maybe the 60's, going to go back and get some practicing on that site! Thanks again!

-AF

 

[lairmo]

Thanks for all the input! I've only got maybe 10-12 hours so far, most of which I haven't used the head phones cuz the wife is with me and she wants to hear it too lol. I will certainly try using them more and have patience with learning the tones. I've been doing some research, and part of that field used to have a structure of some sort on it up until maybe the 60's, going to go back and get some practicing on that site! Thanks again!

-AF

Check out Youtube for the 350. You can probably learn more there than you ever could with me. Have fun!!

 

[WaterScoop]

Welcome to our Forum AF,

I strongly suggest you start a small test area in your backyard to begin to understand your machine. Find a spot of grass that has no metals. Lay out a large beach towel(this will help you get your targets back faster later) ask someone else to lay some some targets on the towel spread apart and cover the towel with a large piece of cardboard. You go away and not see where they were placed and they will call you when ready.

Swing over and try to guess what they are. Place a post it note with your answer on the target and move on until you have “located all targets. Ask the helper to not tell you how many they placed or what they placed this will add a new level of mystery. Also bad targets like trash should be mixed in the target zone

Repeat the process. This will “help” you better understand your machine. Of course that buried targets have a different response etc. etc. but you have to start somewhere.

I’ve been detecting for 30+ years and still to this day I do this when I get a new machine for the very first time. The machine has to become an extension of you ...keep swinging that coil and put at least 100 hours into it and you will “see” a difference

 

[A. Fitzpatrick]

Thanks again Lairmo!

Waterscoop, Thanks for the Welcome! and that's a great idea, and will certainly do so, I guess ive just been really eager to get out and do some detecting, I haven't taken the time to run some blind test and get a feel for it. I appreciate the advice!

 

[IDXMonster]

Andy...as Waterscoop said,the machine has to become an extension of you. Regrettably,maybe,it’s not learned ANY OTHER WAY than to use the machine for a long time. 100 hours is probably the most agreed upon amount of time that it takes to really UNDERSTAND the machine,some more...some less. There is NOTHING that anyone can say or tell you that is akin to learning the machine on your own. You can use and confirm advice,yes. But for YOUR senses to become one with the machine,you have to use it. There are certain qualities to the tones,how the signal initially hits,how it “ramps up and down”...I will GUARANTEE you,if you put in the time,you will not only be rewarded with knowing what’s going on with the Ace and being able to find better targets,but much of that knowledge will carry over to another machine should you choose to upgrade. There are basics to detecting that apply across the board,no matter the machine. Use this time with the Ace to dial in the basics. Nothing worth doing is easy,and this is no exception. But when the 100 hours have passed,you will be well on your way to being an advanced user who can go out and find what you’re looking for AT WILL.

 

[pa-dirt_nc-sand]

Congrats on obtaining permission at this farm field. MDing old farm sites, in my opinion, is one of the most technically challenging areas to detect. Deep rusty farm equipment bits, old brass bits, bullets and modern cans, aluminum all plowed over and over again into the soil. These items in this condition will give signals all over the place. I am listening for a couple distinct tones and durations in these sites that distinguish good targets from the plethora of bad targets. Lots of hours, hundreds, to truly be effective in these sites. Also keep in mind that the cool things you see on Tnet at old farm fields are typically specific areas of the field where the poster has researched an old home once stood, now a field. Just randomly swinging an old field will rarely pay off. You've got a good machine. I would hit the old farm home front yard, back yard, along the driveway and nearby woods before hitting the field unless I had some research pointing me there. (Do some research, check historical maps of this site, old aerial photos, you'll be amazed what you can find) Good luck and hang in there, you never know what your next plug will have in store for you!

 

[sprailroad]

Andy, all really good advice above. All I might add is no machine is fool proof, meaning various alloys of metals are soooooo close in response, like say "pull tabs", no one WANTS to dig pull tabs, however, pull tabs, lead sinkers, nickel's AND gold rings will all most often come in sounding and reading about the same. Just the nature of the beast I'd say. Bits of iron can and it seems will give a "iffy signal", good enough though at times that I've dug my share of rusty stuff. I think many of us hunt by "sound", and use the number readout as perhaps a reference point, because they can and WILL jump around, depending on the ground or what else might be around the target. Just hang in there Andy, the more you detect, the more it will come to you. A lot of us have, and still will be digging a lot of junk, but every once in awhile, Bingo....................

 

[A. Fitzpatrick]

Can’t tell you all how much I appreciate all the advice and wisdom! I don’t think I’ve got this much positive feedback from any forum ever. You guys rock! I will certainly keep you all posted on my progress, and if the field produces any good stuff.

Thanks Again!

-AF

 

[cudamark]

All detectors just give you a guess as to what the item is. No machine is 100% accurate. With coins, they are a known alloy and a common find, so, most machines base their I.D. on them. There are other items that will mimic a coin signal. It's based mainly on conductivity. Size will also effect the audio signal and I.D. number. After you get a couple hundred hours on the detector, it will be a lot easier to tell trash from treasure. You'll never be able to tell for sure on some signals. You'll just have to dig them and hope for the best.

 

[releventchair]

When overwhelmed with targets ,you will be overwhelmed with signals.
Reduce sensitivity a couple notches and quit swinging. Wiggle coil over a potential target. Consider having multiple targets with it...now sort. Or dig.

You are standing on earth with at least one layer of debris . Often ,multiple layers of debris. Youngest is on top.

I run jewelry mode on the 350. Not due to hunting jewelry. Iron up to just below foil is usually discrimmed out ,but iron will still bonk ,then quit. Be aware if trying such ,that iron icon comes on even though being discrimmed ,and when it stays on you are not scanning again till it goes out.

High ,repeatable tones get dug till you are calling what they are before digging. Same with bouncy,or mixed. Sometimes you won' t know what they are.

Mixed are tricky. A sweet tone blipped among them means as usual ,dig.

Time and experience will help sort targets better. Still, you will get into targets that insist you must recover them only to scratch your head.
Then dig an iffy target and be surprised. Keep at it......

Your Ace will scream big money on a surface bottle cap. And deeper ones will get you excited a few times. A slow draw of your coil over one will give a different tone when dropping off the edge of the cap than a coin. I tend to just remove the cap. Not knowing what is below it means as with any recovery ,checking the spot with the coil after.
Cranked up sensitivity will hit on rust" ghost" or " halo" sometimes. A pin pointer helps sort many mysteries out .

 

[A. Fitzpatrick]

Thanks for the info! Nice to hear it from someone that has some experience with the 350. My plan is (in a Sensei voice) to become one with my machine. definitely noting all of yallz advice!

-AF

 

[Terry Soloman]

Hey All, Andy here, I just wanted to throw a few things out there and see if anyone might have any input. I'm pretty new to metal detecting, but getting out as much as possible to really get used to it. Ive got an ACE 350 (Gift from the wife )and I just got permission from a farmer to walk about his 100 something acres of field. A few times I got some really good high tones and the cursor never moved off of the 1 cent or 10 cent mark, so I felt pretty good about them only to find some small chunks of scrap looking metal. However, on the beach, with those same tones, they are almost always coins. How does a detector recognize "coins"? even when I have it in coin mode, I'm digging up little scraps. I know its not going to work perfect, and there are things that can affect signals and such, but curious if anyone had some wisdom to share. Also sometimes while swinging the thing goes bonkers and bounces from Iron to foil to coin and everywhere in between and the signals move around and are hard to pinpoint. What can cause that? Anyway, thanks for reading, glad to be part of this forum now and look forward to talking with yall. Anything helps!

-AF

OK Fitz, here is the awful truth. You need headphones. If your wife wants to learn as well, go to one of the T-Net sponsors, and get a headphone splitter so you can both hear what the machine is trying hard to tell you. Make a test garden. Nail at 6"; Pull tab at 7"; NEW Penny at 8"; Pre-1981 Penny at 8"; Nickel at 8"; Dime at 7"; Quarter at 8"; Steel Washer at 8"; Bottle cap at 7"; Aluminum Screw Cap at 8".

Most detectorist's require 25-50 hours on their headphones to learn each machines "language." You MUST learn to experiment with your machine and its modes, discrimination, and sensitivity (gain). You need to Ground Balance manually. Slow the freak down, and stop skipping from one area to another on "a hunch." Keep that coil as low as you can to the ground, because the higher you lift it, the more depth you lose. Grid the area you are searching East to West, North to South.

Have fun with your wife, and share the digging!

 

[WaterScoop]

...share the digging!

Don’t do it... You dig her hole as well...trust me on this one...lol you’ll thank me later ....LOL

 

[A. Fitzpatrick]

Thanks Terry! Great ideas for getting to learn the machine, going to try it for sure. More than likely going to try to leave the wife behind more often, love her to death, but I don’t know how many times I can hear “we better not dig up another stupid bottle cap” before my head explodes lol. Her patience is not good.. she wants to find rings and money and gold and jewelry right now!! blah blah blah.. I’m sure some of you guys can relate.. I do have headphones, and am going to use them from now on.
Thanks fellas!

-AF

 

[Xraywolf]

Understand that target ID on any detector is only an electronic best guess, sometimes they are surprisingly accurate and other times not.
If you have the Ace 400 you would have had VDI instead of the little coin guesser. Operates on the same principle but its range is alot larger and therefore more accurate on target ID.

Scrap metal is the bane of any detector and every operator, regardless of experience level. If you were not finding that stuff you would not be finding anything.
You will be able to minimize recovering junk targets in time, but never eliminated.

When machines flake out its most often caused by some sort of EMI.
Power lines, cell phones, pinpointers [any electronic device] can cause it, as can approaching storms.