Recently bought metal detector, need help please!

adamd

Newbie
Jul 30, 2013
1
0
I bought a garrett ace 250 yesterday and I'm finding it hard to understand what's going on. I just need abit of tips to get me going and know what to do kinda thing. When Im out in the fields I'll be metal detecting on the "jewellery mode" and sometimes it'll detect a metal but it will be foil or something along those lines but foil has been discriminated and it shouldn't detect it, is there a way to know that it's foil? And another question, what sensitivity shall I use for wet/dry sand or hard/soft soil ground. I'm really interesting in metal detecting but I just don't like reading from a book, if anyone can help please let me know :) thankyou!
 

pong12211

Bronze Member
Jan 5, 2013
2,487
947
North central Pa.
Detector(s) used
Garrett at pro/Garrett pro pointer
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I also have an ace 250.. The best advice I can give you is to take coins, pop tabs and such out into the yard and run the detector over them to hear the different tones and get affiliated with the sounds each item makes.. Also swing this detector slow and steady to get the best results.. You can watch the dvd that come with it for more tips also you tube has some good videos.. But nothing takes the place of lots of practice and honing your skills.. Remember it's a tool the more practice the better you will be with it.. Good luck..
 

JunkShopFiddler

Bronze Member
Feb 15, 2013
1,053
1,059
SW Indiana
Detector(s) used
Garrett GTP 1350
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Hey Mr. Adamd...Good question about the foil. Gold jewelery usually comes in on detector displays from foil (small gold), to zinc pennies (big gold). There is no detector that can distinguish between gold and similarly conductive metals...in other words gold will always signal the same as something else in nature, including aluminum can pieces, pull tabs, and even nickles.

The main reason the unwanted things like foil are listed on the display is so you can notch discriminate them out. Say you are in a picnic area where lots of aluminum foil is present, once you figure out where the foil is reading you can notch that target out and you won't get that signal anymore, bad news is you won't hear any gold items that size either, you will hear other size gold targets but all the same size junk objects too...most gold jewelery hunters dig everything, or notch out only the most prevalent junk for each particular area. Some junk items are bigger than others so they will fool your detector's readings, Pong12211 is right on the money...(pun intended :laughing7:)

The better news is silver reads higher than most junk targets...you can notch out everything but coins and your detector will still signal you when silver coins and jewelery is there, without having to dig much junk...happy hunting!
 

bzbadger

Bronze Member
Jun 25, 2013
1,130
818
Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland
Detector(s) used
Bounty Hunter QD II, Garrett Ace 150 & 350, Fisher ID Excel, Fisher coinstrike, Fisher Cz6, Fisher Gemini II, Garrett AT Pro, Garrett GTI 1500,Teknetiks omega 8000, Nokta Fors Gold
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I use garretts from the 150-350 and I use an AT pro mostly now. If you notch out foil as said before me you can lose a possible fold target but there's a very easy trick. If you get a signal in that range, lift your coil at least 6-8" off the ground and of its still ringing in your ears its slaw(foil, can,etc) and it will save u a lot of time. If you use your pinpoint you can do same thing, if the sound stays strong well to the side of the bulls eye middle then its junk. Most of your fold jewelry have the same metal in them as what's in slaw example: a 10k ring basically has 10 parts gold and 14 parts of zinc etc..any non ferrous metal that has a similar melting point to that of gold. I wish I could give u the magical answer to help u rid yourself of bogus targets but I don't have it myself, we all get fooled but try raising your coil and use the PP to weed out the junk. That 250 is an awesome machine and a relic/coin magnet. Hope this helps some

Get your facts first, then distort them as you please-Mark Twain
 

Produce Guy

Bronze Member
Dec 17, 2008
2,131
519
austin,texas
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Garrett Ace250,garrett pro-pointer,AT/Pro,
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
watch as many videos on youtube about this detector an maybe make yourself a test bed in your yard.
 

Normsel

Bronze Member
Sep 10, 2012
1,191
813
D'Iberville MS
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
E-Trac
Equinox 800
Equinox 600
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
You will always ring on foil unless you discriminate everything between 55 and 79 and even then you will still get hits on tabs because they will ring like a nickle. there is no way to tell whether you ring on foil or not with any detector. Once you learn your detector you will get used to the sounds it make and for the most part you know before you dig by the sound. It will take from 100 hours to learn a 250 and 300 hours to master it
 

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