Garrett Ace 250 vs Tesoro Compadre

[terrygt06]

Ok my budget has been cut so i have about $200 to spend and i have narrowed it down to these two detectors any advice will be greatly appreciated

 

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[Terry Soloman]

Flip a coin. Both are GREAT machines. Tesoro has a lifetime warranty, and costs less, leaving you enough to buy a Lesche hand digger. Good Luck

 

[Sandman]

Go with the beep and dig Tesoro as you'll never need to use the warranty anyway unlike the 250.

 

[LuckyLarry]

I'm with Sandman on this one. Get the Compadre, it's real good for old wheaties and brass, other copper too. Then the sound of the Ace won't drive you nutz after awhile like it did me.. I gave my Ace 250 to my daughter. It's now being used as a doorstop for her closet.

 

[Detector Wars]

No contest, go with Compadre.

 

[Pulltab Parson]

Go with the Compadre. . . . . compadre!

 

[olfacere]

I think we're seeing a pretty solid pattern here, but I'll add my two cents anyway. For your primary weapon, get the Compadre. If you're going to buy anything from Garrett, make it a Pro Pinpointer. Those two things together would push your budget up to about $280, but you'd be surprised how much more fun you'll have when you don't have to man-handle a big machine around a small hole while you're digging it.

I didn't get my pinpointer right away when I got my first machine (trying to save money), but I ordered it within about two weeks. It really does make that much of a difference in the swinging/digging experience. The time you spend on small, near-surface objects will be cut down to a small fraction of what it would be without the pinpointer, almost all of your holes will be smaller, almost all will take less time to dig and fill, and you'll do less damage to the ground. So, you would be spending notably more time swinging on new targets and feeling better about it. Don't underestimate the value of a pinpointer and don't waste time on less than the best!

Tesoro Compadre + Garrett Pro Pinpointer = Happy Digging

 

[LuckyLarry]

You won't need a pinpointer with the Compadre. It pinpoints the width down to 1 inch because of its lightning fast auto-retune. Trust me, I have one right here in the next room. And it is EXTREMELY good at discerning between two targets 1 inch apart, 2 good ones or good/bad target mixed. It's depth is slightly better than the Aces too, and the Ace has a real tough time with that because its circuitry dates similarly back to the old Bounty Hunter Red Baron days of delayed response, which often cancels one target and the coin right next to it too simultaneously. In other words, the Compadre can be swung fast OR slow, it doesn't make a difference. The Ace though MUST be swung slow - for reliabel use. I remember that well...

BTW, there are no "rubber stamp" answers to detector choices, every machine is different than each other, even within the same brand and the very same model. I have two Tesoros in the other room too, and they have a difference of 1" depth, same model, same brand, same age, and they came out of the factory that way too. I see that in every detector I've come across too, regardless of which brand or how much someone payed for it.

Larry

 

[olfacere]

I agree that the low cost MicroMax-based models are very good at pinpointing among full-sized detectors. I have a MicroMax Silver and, when there is no trash pulling the field sideways, I can sometimes push a wire straight down to touch the target. Most of the time, though, you can only trust the target to be under a few square inches that seem to make the detector happy. I like my Garrett Pro Pinpointer because it can locate down to 1/4 inch or better, and it's small enough to fit in a hole. You can do without one. I wouldn't, but you could.

 

[terrygt06]

Ok ill be going with the Tesoro Compadre i want to thank all of you for the posts and helping me pick my 1st metal detector

 

[terrygt06]

 

[liftloop]

the ace 2 fiddy operates at 6.5 kilohertz the com-padre 12 kilohertz

the ace will hammer coins and suck the life out of your batteries and drive you batie with the bell tone

the com-padre will like small stuff and gold but mite sound a little chessey

 

[LuckyLarry]

I (had) past tense, an Ace 250. Gave it to my Daughter, it's now a door stop. Gave my other Daughter an American Hawks Explorer (not the A.H. explorer II) w 6.5 coil, and she LOVES it! I own one too. There are EXACT lookalikes made, but they are different than the real AH ones, and get 1" less depth on a quarter. Barska make a lookalike, so does Winbest, and a couple of others too, but they aren't as good, TRUST ME, I have one of those too. This particular AH one weighs in at only 1.5 lbs, is excellent for kids, and it is the very best old wheatie finder I've ever seen or owned, and I've seen thousands of detectors where I worked in supervision at a detector mfg firm, and I now own about 30 detectors. Depth on a US quarter is 8 inches, and it cherry-picks as well as the Compadre. It runs at 5.6 to 8 Khz and has a nice wide scan. It is an absolute joy to use, although the arm cuff isn't the best for adults, and is a bit too short if you are 6' tall. Overall though I was surprised, it does better than the Compadre, weighs a half pound less, and I have both of them in this very room right behind me and my computer desk here at this very moment. .