Ok got my Ace 350 and pro pointer....went out today and need advice

[aldta]

Hey all, so I got my Ace 350 and Garrett pro pointer last night and I definitely see why it's important to have the pointer.

This detector seems great...BUT
having never done this before I am having a hard time.

I do understand finding much junk comes with the territory, but I think what I'm concerned with is - differentiating junk from good stuff.. and knowing something isn't junk.

I have a gold nugget and i tested it against junk ...and to me it sounded exactly the same, and on the LED the gold came up on the far right as silver

When I heard something I thought sounded like the nugget I have, I dig and it's a bottle cap...
Looking at the notches ....bottle cap...
I did however find 5 pennies - nothing special about them but definitely cool to find coin regardless

This issue is, where I am hunting ...a lot of people hang out to drink...there is also a little baseball field and football field... so my logic is someone might lose a ring/necklace/bracelet with all that activity... but with all the cans of beer and bottle caps...i feel like i'll be cleaning up the park...

 

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[Rawhide]

I seen the F75 mentioned for its discrimination capability's as you suggested a more expensive machine. I just bought a good used F75 and it made more head aches for me than it fixed. Learn the machine you have and you will be king. In trashy areas I adjust the sensitivity way down till it just barley picks up a signal. I can usually dislodge items with my foot or locate with a hand held pinpointer and pop the item with a pocket knife. The screen read out is iffy on most machines. A good digger is very important. Many good suggestions here. If you want gold, then settle on digging all signals in thepark. Or look to see where and how it is being found there. Till I get a area cleaned out, I only dig good solid signals. I also dig 3 inches or less to increase my finds to holes ratio. The guys making it look easy have the machine mastered and figured out what they are comfortable with in price.

 

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[aldta]

It's usually at least around 5 junk items to one decent find. It's kinda like playing the odds. The more stuff you dig the better chance if getting something really worth something.

I do feel that way but being in NYC area is very discouraging, in one respect, you have a lot more people -which increases the chances of all types of losses … but on that same note, most of the people here throw much…much waste on the ground.

...
What I do most of the time is dig every repeatable signal, either repeatable sound or vdi. On very jumpy sounds I pass on. I know I might have left stuff in the ground but also I am not willing to dig every single target.

What is VDI?
what do you mean by repeatable signal?
I am willing to dig…but as I states it's like digging in an aluminum recycle dump

As for your gold nugget reading as silver, I have heard that pure gold, either nugget or 24k worked gold, will read as silver. The 18k and below reads as your pulltabs/ nickel signal. Usually when I find a gold ring it's a screamer that I have to dig. But I also dig a ton of pulltabs. I actually dig so many that I've started collecting them and I figure I can send them to March of Dimes or whatever group it is that collects pulltabs.

I have an ACE 250 and have found that if the signal is jumping all over the place, it is likely crap. If it is a coin or other decent, non-foil, signal then it will be a fairly solid and repeatable signal. That being said, the bottlecaps read as a nice big quarter every time. Nothing you can do about that unless you want to notch out quarters!

What do you mean by it's a screamer? - they all sound the same to me
I do notice that coins and …bottle caps (ugh) have a very strong and steady signal

I have an ACE 250 and I am still learning. I am digging every repeatable signal. I think the person that mentioned the 5 to one ratio of junk to good finds is an optimist. Mine is more like 10 junk to one good find. However, until I learn better, I am not willing to let that one good find get away because I didn't dig.

The misconception of this sport for me is that I thought it was about metal detecting. It's not, it's about digging. I spend more time digging than swinging. Learn to get better at pin pointing and efficient digging and you won't feel so bad about digging up a bunch of junk.

Besides, think of it as volunteer work cleaning up parks and beaches.
Dave

I know just how you feel Dave…
I think my main frustration (the more I read I am realizing) is that NYC areas are so filthy…that it makes it almost impossible to walk more than 2 feet without hearing a strong signal (bottle caps)-- and that's just extremely frustrating

When I went to the beach (instead of a local park) while it wasn't perfect…It was much quieter as I scanned …which made me more enthusiastic about digging when I finally hear something

If the 350 is like the 250 you will here what I call an iron grunt when pinpointing a bottle cap. At the edge of said bottle cap they will drop off with an short iron sound. I have tested this theory many times. I still dig the occasional bottle cap but I dug them in disappointment for 6 months before I learned about the iron grunt and it only happens in pinpoint mode. Now when I dig them they are usually deep and flattened.

Oh please explain this to me …the "iron grunt" That sounds promising to actually hear a difference of sorts

I seen the F75 mentioned for its discrimination capability's as you suggested a more expensive machine. I just bought a good used F75 and it made more head aches for me than it fixed. Learn the machine you have and you will be king. In trashy areas I adjust the sensitivity way down till it just barley picks up a signal. I can usually dislodge items with my foot or locate with a hand held pinpointer and pop the item with a pocket knife. The screen read out is iffy on most machines. A good digger is very important. Many good suggestions here. If you want gold, then settle on digging all signals in thepark. Or look to see where and how it is being found there. Till I get a area cleaned out, I only dig good solid signals. I also dig 3 inches or less to increase my finds to holes ratio. The guys making it look easy have the machine mastered and figured out what they are comfortable with in price.

I'm curious how it was worse…considering it's so expensive --because usually "you get what you pay for" -- there are always exceptions, of course…

Thank you all for your input

 

[steveouke]

Throw some bottle caps, iron, pulltabs, and coins out on the ground. Put the MD on all metal mode and swing over them. Listen for subtle differences between them. Don't rely on the target ID. Then bury them a few inches and do the same thing!

Practice and patience help train the ears. I've been swinging a 250 for 8 months solid and I'm still learning!

 

[memphisbbq]

Hi -

I have been using the ACE 350 (w/ 11" DD coil) for about 5 months. Here is one way to discriminate, that I find to be about 96% accurate: 1) setting the Sensitivity to only 3 bars or notches - 2) set the preset to Coin mode and add the Gold notch back in - 3) Detect as normal until you get a hit - 4) Once you get a hit, use the Pin-pointer feature to find the "center" signal, next, with the Pin-pointer still pressed, slowly pull back (or push forward) the coil until the Pin-pointer goes silent; if you pull back more than the length of the coil before the Pin-pointer goes silent, it is almost always junk - a coin or ring will drop off immediately in my experience. 5) Step 90 degrees to the target and repeat the process. (This all takes less than 60 seconds to complete, much faster than digging a target.) 6) One you dig a clean hole, use a hand-held pin pointer to quickly locate your gold ring! - Seriously, try my technique and for fun dig everything. You will quickly see that this technique is about 96% accurate. (BTW - there is a video somewhere on YouTube that shows this technique, too.)

 

[spartacus53]

There is no great difference between the 250 & 350, except the price tag.. Yea, the coil is a bit different, perhaps larger, but that's about it.

There isn't a machine out there that is 100% accurate, otherwise every household would have one

Like everyone says, be patient, learn the machine with practice and most importantly....




Don't expect to get rich

 

[webatch]

Howdy All

I to recently got an ACE 350 (2 wks tomorrow). First thing I learned was that you don't just turn it on and take off running... boy how naive was I?

The videos were great being impatient I find it hard to set and read the whole instruction manual. But operating your new detector is a lot like learning a

new language. You really have to learn what those different sounds and inflections mean. The only way to pick it up is practice, practice, practice.

If you are in the hobby just to make money from your treasures then I can see it being frustrating. Its like playing the lottery you buy a ticket for the chance to win,
but if you think your going to win because you bought the ticket then you are setting yourself up for disappointment.

If you go at it like a game I think it is more fun. First there is the competition with your hunting buddies or your own previous outting and best outting records. Then I like to try and guess what I'm about to dig up.

But all that being said I just like being out in nature and cleaning up the environment a bit is a bonus. I am also a bit of a history buff so I find a lot of things being found interesting.

Another thought since bottles have plastic lids today those are historic bottle caps. lol

 

[Hawgwild]

I have the 250 and fairly new to this myself. I'm still learning but seems if when I swing over a target one way and it identifies something then swing back over the target the other way and get the same reading and dig then many times it is what my MD says it is. Not always but the good targets seem to have a nicer ring and sound when swinging over a good target. That is something you'll only learn by using your MD.

I found two 10K gold rings my first week with the 250 and if I remember right those targets were identified as a pull tab but would also jump to other readings after repeated swings. If I had discriminated and cancelled out those pull tab readings then I would likely have not found those rings.

The more time you spend with your MD the more you'll learn about the targets it is identifying. I know it's frustrating to dig and dig pull tabs but those are also the places you find more of the good stuff.

 

[EastHavenCT-ACE350]

Watching Youtube videos has helped me alot. I also noticed people post videos and they have 2k dollar machines still digging junk so dont get discouraged I know its easier said thendone, Memphisbbq's advice is great...