Ace 250 owners - you have the best low end detector

[bavarianminister]

I have been reading some of the negative posts about the Ace 250. So I had to purchase one and field test it to determin its value according to cost. I purchased one yesterday and detected with it today at a hard hunted site. I have pulled many civil war bullets from this site over the years including a number of buttons. My 76 year old father pulled a CSA buckle from that ground also.

About one minute into the hunt with this new ACE 250, I dug a silver christian cross from a necklace at 4 inches. Many clad finds were abundant during my 2 hour hunt. On my way back to my truck - I finally found what I was looking for - a 58 cal civil war bullet. The last dig yielded a silver bracelet that had at one time a coin in the center of it. Again - this site was hunted hard by me with much more expensive equipment. The Ace came through with flying colors. I found the pinpointing feature no different than the GTA lineup (very easy). Fit and finish is superb - and this detector operates on 4 AA batteries - cheaper than 2 - 9volts. It is light weight and easy to swing. Depth was superb - the bullet was recovered at about 6 inches deep - and I was swinging about 2 inches above the ground! I keep hearing about how the new F2 is an Ace killer. A little hard to believe at this point. I do believe that the Ace's capabilities could exceed much more expensive metal detectors.

An individual can purchase a $1000.00 dollar metal detector and never find anything. Buy an ACE 250 and FIND GOOD PLACES TO HUNT - equals success! I cannot stress that point enough. If you are not doing well with your finds, then it is time to find new ground. Get out of the parks and start talking with people and ask permission. They might say NO and then again, they might say Yes.

Bavarianminister

 

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[John-Edmonton]

The ACE 250 is a winner, and has proven itself time and time again. They have literally sent thousands of trainloads of these machines internationally, and even this past year, they just keep flying out the door. Every machine has some warts. Some more then others. Some people notice the warts, some notice the finds. And it is made in North America, in Garland Texas to be exact. It Was also featured in one of the "MADE IN AMERICA" episodes. Click below to see link.

http://www.garrett.com/hobby/news.asp?id=011220061​

 

[The-Bone]

Thanks BavarianM. I had debated for some time about either going with the 250 or the F2. Started reading alot of negative posts concerning the F2 so when the 250 showede up at Xmas i was happy. I have one 3 hour stint with it logged in the field and am still getting used to it. I DO miss the VDI and better tone ID of my old white's machine, But i can honestly say the 250 goes every bit as deep and is very quick on target response. Pinpointing is still giving me a little trouble but i set up a test bed in the house last night and now feel a great deal more confident.(i also just bought a cheap BH pinpointer). The only complaint i have would be that the balance of the unit, for me, feels off. Very coil heavy. All in all so far i am impressed. The fit/finish, as you've said, was perfect. I may try the sniper coil on it today.
TB

 

[Keppy]

​

I will say that i am real happy with my..Ace 250...for what i paid for it for what i got you can not beat it. now what is werid to me is...That my Ace 250 air test on a dime is 6 inches big coil....Air test on that old Whites Surfmaster II water detector standard coil 6 inches..............and on my GTI 1500 it will only air test at 5 inches standard coil...........==Jim==

 

[ikes4ever]

does anyone know if Garrett is planning a newer type of ace 250 for 2008 like a next generation or just keeping the same specs for this year

 

[mzilk40]

I bought my ace 250 on 1/12/07 to find my wedding band i lost hunting in Sept no luck on that yet but, after reading and looking at this forum decided to hunt, i have spent about 4hours so far at the local elementary school I live in farmersville TX the town dates to 1859, Ive started researching more. I have found 8 pennies nothing great, 4 nickels, 6 dimes, and 3 quarters, 1 ring, and lots of trash but i may be hooked
I'm having alot of fun researching places to go this is a great beginners tool.

 

[rayredditch]

I´ve said it before and I´ll say it again, the ACE 150/250 series is the biggest bang for the bucks you can get at the moment.
As far as I know, the used a circuit design fro one of the older top machines in their range, and updated it using new technology (probably smd chips), to get it to fit in the smaller housing and use less batteries.
It´s a winner, and I sometimes regret selling mine, but it just didn´t suit some of my sites (I,m after Roman, Celtic, and Medieval), but as an every day detector (The big coil wasn´t available when I had mine), there´s not much even at the top end that will beat it. I might even get round to getting one again for general use, and to loan out to newbies.

 

[robert roy]

Many people thought that Fisher was coming out with an Ace 250 KILLER. The F2 came out with less than spectacular results. The Ace still has the market share, and probably even more so as a result of the F2's
poor showing. That doesn't mean that the F2 is a bad detector. There are a lot of people out there that are happy with their machine, its just not the Ace killer they thought it was going to be. There HAVE been some very undersireable reports however, about the F2. I guess it just comes down to what you expect from the machine.

Will Garrett come out with a better Ace? It just depends on whether Garrett is keeping up on the forums and listening to what people want in a machine, and wether they can make those changes cost effective, and not actually end up spoiling the great machine that the Ace is. Sometimes if you tinker too much with a good machine you can make it worse!

Regards
RObert R

 

[khouse]

I just don't understand why the Ace 250 is still being called a cheap, starter, beginner, low end metal detector? If people would have paid $450 for the same detector these descriptions wouldn't be used. The Ace 250 can be a starter detector but in the right hands becomes a highly advanced detector. I've been detecting since 1984 and find the 250 to be very capable at a reasonable price!

 

[EasyMoney]

There is a Garrett 1350 detector with little time on it for sale in Bandon, Oregon (the southern coast) for $250.

Yep, that's not a typo, It's really $250

sale-547005004@craiglist.org

If Garretts worked ok here and especially on the coast beaches I'd buy it, but they don't, especially on Oregon's high iron/salt beaches.

Have fun

EasyMoney

 

[Jeffro]

Nashoba does quite well with his up on the coast. Wish I had his digs sometimes! Jeez, that guy pulls more rings than you can shake a stick at.

Probably not quite as many as Crackbadger, but he does pretty darn good!

He hasn't been on in quite awhile, probably not much at all since you've been on, but if you had been on here while he was, you might look at the Ace a little different. Especially about the beaches.

Some folks have it hard on the beaches, some don't. Nash is one who don't.

 

[robert roy]

Thereis a say, "if sounds to good to be true, it probably is."

However, maybe the owner of the 1350 is desperate for money. Thats a hell of a loss to take though!
$250.00 isn't a deal. Its a steal. Hummmmm. Maybe it IS stolen?

Regards
Robert R

 

[EasyMoney]

That's interesting Jeffro..

How in the world did he do that? I'm a bit confused.

Garrett makes a chart that shows the capabilities of the Ace 150 and Ace 250, and beach hunting is left blank there. Mine sucked on Oregon beaches. Here is one of the two charts put out by Garrett:

http://.turtlemarine.com/garrettace250.html

Another chart shows the disability of the Aces for beach hunting even more, but I don't currently store it on my computer. The Aces were not designed to be used on salt beaches.

Garrett had a lot of trouble with people complaining about hot rocks and high iron soil making their 1200 series through 2500's too noisey with poor depth, because of too much response to black sand soils, so they created an aftermarket chip to be installed to remedy this problem to some degree. Most people know about this by now. Lately they have been installing the new chip on their later models, but again, they have not completely eliminated the problems. This is a matter of record, not of personal opinion.

Still, Garret does realize that this has not completely rectified those problems. I know a man who bought one 2500 here and although he found a lot of things with it it was only mediocre in performance. He gave it away and bought another one just like it (he's a wealthy builder), and the second one he bought had the same problems with high magnetite/hematite soils so he gave it to his brother. His brother pawned it and bought a different brand detector. Not sure which one though.

I gave my Ace 250 away because it had poor depth, poor target separation, and liked hot rocks way too much. It was almost worthless on our beaches here too. It was very lightweight but I didn't like trying to figure out that the target was somewhere between two "bongs" instead of underneath one. That seemed wierd to me.

I gave the thing to my 40 year old daughter, but she had the same soil problems that I had and lives in Washington State, so she is going to get rid of it and get something that works better.

I told her to buy a Tesoro, something that works well in nearly every place she cared to try it. I think she will.

Is it possible that one Ace is vastly inferior or superior to another one? Of so, then that seems a bit odd too. There is no way to change the Ace's operation because it's all pushpad, so I'm wondering why one person's Ace would work well here and another person's would not.

Strange.

 

[Michigan Badger]

I have been reading some of the negative posts about the Ace 250. So I had to purchase one and field test it to determin its value according to cost. I purchased one yesterday and detected with it today at a hard hunted site. I have pulled many civil war bullets from this site over the years including a number of buttons. My 76 year old father pulled a CSA buckle from that ground also.

About one minute into the hunt with this new ACE 250, I dug a silver christian cross from a necklace at 4 inches. Many clad finds were abundant during my 2 hour hunt. On my way back to my truck - I finally found what I was looking for - a 58 cal civil war bullet. The last dig yielded a silver bracelet that had at one time a coin in the center of it. Again - this site was hunted hard by me with much more expensive equipment. The Ace came through with flying colors. I found the pinpointing feature no different than the GTA lineup (very easy). Fit and finish is superb - and this detector operates on 4 AA batteries - cheaper than 2 - 9volts. It is light weight and easy to swing. Depth was superb - the bullet was recovered at about 6 inches deep - and I was swinging about 2 inches above the ground! I keep hearing about how the new F2 is an Ace killer. A little hard to believe at this point. I do believe that the Ace's capabilities could exceed much more expensive metal detectors.

An individual can purchase a $1000.00 dollar metal detector and never find anything. Buy an ACE 250 and FIND GOOD PLACES TO HUNT - equals success! I cannot stress that point enough. If you are not doing well with your finds, then it is time to find new ground. Get out of the parks and start talking with people and ask permission. They might say NO and then again, they might say Yes.

Bavarianminister

Excellent post! The truth always has a certain "ring" to it. Well done.

An far as the F-2 being an Ace killer...that's a joke from way back. That F-2 couldn't kill the average dowsing rod in finds.

Ever wonder what the "F" really stands for in that "F" series?

Keep up the good work.

Badge

 

[Michigan Badger]

I just don't understand why the Ace 250 is still being called a cheap, starter, beginner, low end metal detector?

It's all very very simple. One word sums up the whole thing. The word is psychological.*

*Mental or emotional as opposed to physical in nature

If a detector (or anything for that matter) is a bargin price then in the mind of the masses it's of low quality or generally substandard.

This is one of the main reasons our "top of the line" machines are set at a retail price about 4-10 times higher than they should be. What one thinks, one sees.

I like to "share" about the various machines because I get a kick out of it. Especially when I tick off some brand worshiper or usually some dealer. But really I could care less.

The truth is those who pay the price of research and who actually go out and hunt are the ones really into this hobby. Probably 95% are dreamers with a good portion of dealers with an obvious agenda.

Many of us have written this so many times it almost hurts to type it again. But here it goes one more time: Most of our brand name VLF detectors can find the goodies if we swing that coil over them. It's research and, oh yes, location-location-location.

Amen! Let it be written, let it be done.

 

[Keppy]

I just don't understand why the Ace 250 is still being called a cheap, starter, beginner, low end metal detector?

It's all very very simple. One word sums up the whole thing. The word is psychological.*

*Mental or emotional as opposed to physical in nature

If a detector (or anything for that matter) is a bargin price then in the mind of the masses it's of low quality or generally substandard.

This is one of the main reasons our "top of the line" machines are set at a retail price about 4-10 times higher than they should be. What one thinks, one sees.

I like to "share" about the various machines because I get a kick out of it. Especially when I tick off some brand worshiper or usually some dealer. But really I could care less.

The truth is those who pay the price of research and who actually go out and hunt are the ones really into this hobby. Probably 95% are dreamers with a good portion of dealers with an obvious agenda.

Many of us have written this so many times it almost hurts to type it again. But here it goes one more time: Most of our brand name VLF detectors can find the goodies if we swing that coil over them. It's research and, oh yes, location-location-location.

Amen! Let it be written, let it be done.

...........AMEN...........AMEN..........AMEN.................................==Jim==

 

[The-Bone]

Check out the F2 reviews on http://metaldetectorreviews.net....most impressive

 

[rayredditch]

Salt water beaches, I loath to admit it, but you´re really into PI or MineLab, nothing else really works. For dry sand and fresh water beaches, pasture or arable, even forest, you´re much better served by other machines !!

 

[Jeffro]

That's interesting Jeffro..

How in the world did he do that? I'm a bit confused.

Strange.

I dunno- you'd have to ask him. I did go up and hunt with him and was quite impressed by the Ace. Check out his finds.

On the flip side, I do know some Ace users who say they can't pinpoint as well as they would like, and some who say the beaches down in Florida are harsh with it, too. But hunting with Nash, I was impressed with the capabilities of the machine and operator both, even on our tough beach sand.

I used a CZ-5 (my detector of choice).

On the wet beach, the CZ did perform better. I had the sens down low and picked up a few coins. The Ace was shakier, but did do it. We did not enter the water, just the wet and dry sand.

In the parks up above, which were thoroughly wet and iron rich sand under the grass, his machine at least kept up, if not outperformed the CZ.

He was in his element and I was the "newbie" up there.

One thing that was strange while we were hunting, I kept getting chatter on my CZ while hunting near some powerlines. Darned thing wouldn't shut up. The Ace was silent as a lamb. Different frequencies?

 

[treasureace14]

i have one.its my first i got it for chrstmas.first time out i was hooked!