Ace 400 Need Help

[Rock22]

Recently purchased the ace 400. Have it set for coins only and blocking out everything else. I will get a good hit with a high number of 75 or greater. Will then have trouble finding it again. What might be going on?
Could the coin be deeper or on its side? I live on old farmland so trash is around but I have it blocked out so I am assuming that something is good in the ground.
Machine has been finding coins in my backyard so I know it works but having a difficult time re-finding items after a good tone is heard.
Thanks for any advice!

 

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[releventchair]

Do you have the sensitivity cranked up?

Are you using a hand held pinpointer?

Running the detector model that yours replaced , with high sens. had me losing targets that turned out to be pieces of shot , an eyelet off a shoe ,fine small pieces of wire ,rust dust/halo effect ect..

Discriminating everything else but high numbers can inspire a detector to change it's mind on a hit too. We are asking a lot of the detector when trying to cherry pick.
More so in layers of targets.

Without locating and recovering your "lost" target it's hard for me to tell to tell what's going on for sure.

Swinging coil from a different direction/multiple directions can revisit a hit. So can a tight"wiggle" of the coil over lost items location. Sometimes.
IF you are fighting discrimination , moving away from the marked estimated site of target and changing settings before revisiting.

 

[bowwinkles]

If you have a friend with a machine that has ground balance, have them check the same area that you covered and see what happens. I had to give up on my 400 because of the need for ground balance. It could be that you have patches of bad soil in the area you are detecting and that alone will cause the machine to react strangely.

 

[Clad2Silver]

I have an Ace 400 and it will do the same thing that yours does. It will show a high number and then the number will either disappear or show lower than the original number. It's pretty much telling you that you've detected a piece of junk. One thing you can do is after you have this happen switch on the iron audio because many times it's the result of detecting a piece of iron. If you have a good target the Ace 400 will give off a repeatable signal.

 

[Calgarychef]

I have an Ace 400 and it will do the same thing that yours does. It will show a high number and then the number will either disappear or show lower than the original number. It's pretty much telling you that you've detected a piece of junk. One thing you can do is after you have this happen switch on the iron audio because many times it's the result of detecting a piece of iron. If you have a good target the Ace 400 will give off a repeatable signal.

Yup, because of the slow recovery speed of these machines you hear it loud and clear then the discrimination works and you can’t hear it anymore. Higher end machines do it so fast that the sound is more “seamless.”

 

[Rock22]

Yes the sensitivity is cranked all the way up. I think you are right when you say that I am cherry picking. That is what I am doing. I am expecting too much from this machine. If I crank sensitivity down will this make a difference? I also use a handheld pinpointer once I begin the search after the hole has been dug. I am amazed at how well this machine does find coins though. Last week I found my first coin from the 1800s in my backyard! It was an 1899 penny. For me it was a big moment and I know there have to be more coins here because the home was built in 1840. Thank you for the replies! I'm going back out today to turn the sensitivity down and continue to search.

 

[releventchair]

Yes the sensitivity is cranked all the way up. I think you are right when you say that I am cherry picking. That is what I am doing. I am expecting too much from this machine. If I crank sensitivity down will this make a difference? I also use a handheld pinpointer once I begin the search after the hole has been dug. I am amazed at how well this machine does find coins though. Last week I found my first coin from the 1800s in my backyard! It was an 1899 penny. For me it was a big moment and I know there have to be more coins here because the home was built in 1840. Thank you for the replies! I'm going back out today to turn the sensitivity down and continue to search.

Soil conditions matter and can differ each time out.

Folks in prior postings are describing the "nulling" effect of discriminated objects being noted by your detector and then ignored.
Take note of that...
And be sure that the nulling effect is not prolonged. IF it is then your detector is not "reading" the ground and you need to let it catch up away from whatever it is ignoring.

Sensitivity can be an each time out thing too. IF you are set high and finding a tiny bit of a recovery ,you can back it down. Or on a known sample , tinker with it..
High sensitivity in wet soil can even change perceived readings.
Yours is a different detector so cannot be compared the same , but my 350 read cents as iron in high iron water logged ground.
With iron notched out up to low foil ;that meant I'd get the iron signal (even though it was being discriminated against the detector tells you you hit iron before ignoring it) then it would drop off as I kept swinging.
When I dug a just below high iron iron signal (readings on enough of them was consistent enough to arouse curiosity) they were cents.
Water an inch and a half deep on average. Reddish soil. So, backtracking had cents turning up on what had been though to be iron.
With a quite low sensitivity setting too....
I'm guessing it was iron in the soil and more ,in the water foolin with me.


For now if you get a weak or run away signal just swing over it from a different direction. To cherry pic so to speak ,dig the repeatable ones. After trying the tiny left to right coil "wiggle".
Iffy , and one way "hits" can produce surprises now and then. But also a lot of learning about why your detector was not enthused about yelling/showing BINGO!

 

[YooperDaddy80]

I get that alot with my ace 400 since i run in coin mode almost exclusively, it will ding once really good , so i swing over the "object" in all directions to see if it will repeat the ding. If the vdi bounces around and only dings occasionally in one direction i will usually skip it, if you get the solid ding ding ding, its worth digging.
Size of ding area can filter out large layered junk also. If i get a lower number that doesnt quite register as coin, then i switch to jewelry and recheck for better ding signal. If it dings on jewelry solid, its worth digging usually..
Heres my reasoning, if you cant get a repeatable signal before you dig then how are you ever going to find the object once you start digging?
This has come from hr's and hr's of using the machine not just trying to cherry pick, i would use the same method if searching for iron relics. The ace 400 will pick up .22 shells from 10" deep so i dont mind skipping over a few "iffy" signals, i have enough shell casings already!
Try backing off on the sensitivity, i run two bars from max. A smaller coil would deffinately help in trashy areas where signals are close together, youll lose some depth using lower sensitivity or smaller coil.

You may try carrying plastic straws with you and swing over a whole area just sticking straws where you get the "good" signals, use two straws if its a better ding, 3 straws, well you should just dig those straight away!