First day of hunting!

[Nashvegas]

So I just got my detector a couple days ago. An Ace 250. And today I took my boys out to a friend's house in a historic part of Nashville. His house is over 100 years old. We hunted for 3 hours and found tons of old nails, a 1993 penny, a bottle cap, and finally this pretty cool item about 6-8" down beneath a big old tree in the backyard. It appears to be a Star of David hanging decoration that had little bells of different sizes hanging from it. I assume it hung from the tree. The primitive look of the bells makes me think this is prett old but don't have an educated guess as to age. It's about 15 inches in diameter.

Had such a fun time with my 13 and 15 year old boys. They didn't want to leave. Think this is gonna be a great hobby for us to do together. They took a used Compadre I got off Craigslist so they could hunt too.

Only question I have is about the fact that as time went on, I switched the Ace to coin only mode, and it would detect something, saying it was a coin of a particular sort, but was still just finding nails. Is coin only mode not really that what it says it is, still finding junk?

 

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[A2coins]

Great finds your detector measures signals by the ferrousness of the metal so coin mode would be the detector trying to signal when you hit a target that's is in the range {VDI} of a coin but a lot of other stuff will also be in that signal range. Watch the videos and learn your machine will help a lot. Welcome to tnet great start , The poor wife might not be to happy about what gets brought in the house so get her one also. I have two girls they and the wife pilfer my gold and silver rings ect!!!!! Have fun!!!!

 

[Icewing]

Hey congrats on finding a great hobby to enjoy with your kids. Worry not, there is no metal detector on the market that can eliminate all of the junk, it just cancels out the ones it thinks aren't coins and let's you figure out the rest.

 

[Silver Saver]

The "points" on nails and other rusted iron will like to give good signals sometimes, and even worse if the ground is wet. It's called iron falsing, iron giving a good false signal. Some ways to recognize whether it's a good signal or not is to sweep 1 direction then move 90 degrees to the right or left of your first sweep and see if it gives a signal from both directions like that, in the same spot both ways too. If so then its probably a good target. Also if the object pinpoints a little off from where you are getting the beeps then that could also be iron. Then just listening for consistency of the sound of the signal will help too. Also lowering your sensitivity could help quite a bit on false signals a digging nails, that's what helped me while learning. I also struggled with digging lots of nails while first learning my machine, but with time and experience I've defiantly come too learn the difference between the iron false and a good signal. And you should too! But anyways good job on digging that huge star out!

 

[Nashvegas]

That's super helpful, Divine! I will follow your advice.

 

[Mzjavert]

You have two fine machines. You'll probably want to give the Compadre a turn or two yourself.

One thing I discovered with the 250, if 9 swings over a target reads nickel and the 10th a pull tab, it will be a pull tab.

It takes a good 100+ hrs to really learn a machine. More when first starting out.

You will find on a home property most of the nails are on the sides of the house where the roof slants.

In especially trashy sites you simply have to get the junk out first b4 you can start finding the good stuff. This is especially true in trashy urban areas.

It may help to take notes during your first 100+ hours.

 

[pa-dirt_nc-sand]

Congrats on your finds. I would stick with coin mode as you learn your machine. Some rusty nails fool even the most experienced users, but if you are digging nail after nail try only digging signals that give the same coin reading when swinging in multiple directions. If it says dime in one direction and iron in another most likely it will be iron. Also sometimes just walking 10 feet in another direction will bring you to an area clear of nails and you can start focusing on non ferrous signals. Good luck and it's awesome your boys are having fun with it. Hit a playground or beach and they will have a blast.

 

[Kurios1]

Welcome and great to see a family unit bonding within this fine community of treasure hunters. Great start and now the learning begins. Great advice from experienced hunters here on T-net. Many have already chimed in. Don't be in a hurry as only time and experience will teach you the "language" any machine is trying to communicate to you. You have two capable machines that will find good targets but, as other's have stated the technology isn't "perfect" and the best machines and most experienced users still get fooled and dig trash. Most of all have fun and enjoy the possibilities of finding some very cool stuff amongst the trash.

 

[A2coins]

Exactly!!!!!!

 

[JeffInMass]

Welcome to a great hobby! Doing it with your kids makes it even better- I hunt with my son and grandson and it's priceless. The finds will come as you learn to master your machine- GL to you all!

-- Jeff --

 

[deedoubleyou]

Awesome finds! I have and ACE 250 and have dug enough nails to build a house haha, but plenty of coins too. I agree with all the great advise above. You get used to it. For me I like finding coins more than anything, and I got a little better at sizing the target and it helped to not dig so much junk. Like others have said, move around the target swinging in different directions and that could reveal a lot. I pass a lot more signals than I used to, and nails still trick me but not as bad. Well....now I have an AT Pro, and it has been a huge upgrade in terms of discrimination and in every way really. The ACE 250 is awesome tho and it got me hooked on this awesome hobby. My wife has since taken it over and I've been able to help her with the same stuff you're dealing with. Nails and pop tabs lol.

 

[trapperart]

Welcome congrats and good luck

 

[Nashvegas]

Thanks everyone! Hoping to go out today with the boys and find a bulldozed site somewhere.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Congratualtions on the nice finds!

Detecting with your children is priceless!

GL & HH

 

[ivan salis]

the six sided star of david --design makes me think its a jewish type of wind chime device ...but of course I could be wrong -- thinking maybe turn of the 1900's or so give or take 20 years ...due to the heavy European influx of people from 1880 to 1920 era

I had a ACE 250 and once I got used to it --my favorite mode was "custom" because you can dial in or out stuff -- of course you will still find trash ...but a bit less of it..you see its due to "comingling" with its limited number of sorting blocks -- nickles , pulltabs and gold all hit in the same "block"..which is why I like my delta 4000 it has a 0 to 99 number display instead of blocks .. 12 blocks vs 99 number in which to sort finds into ...thus a much finer degree of separation ..allowing for a better chance for proper ID BEFORE digging it up ...its still not 100% perfect nut I think its much much better and its only 279 bucks ...not that much more than a ACE 250

 

[Nashvegas]

Yes I was guessing about 90 years old or so for the Star of David so you're confirming my guess. Thanks!