Garrett Ace 300i Stock or DD vs 400i DD Air Test Comparisons Videos

[doggoneitdignit]

Can anyone share any air test comparisons videos on the Garrett Ace 300i, 7x10 PROformance stock and/or 8.5x11 DD vs 400i DD videos on these

two metal detectors. English only sites please.

Thanks.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Cry Of The Eagle: History And Legends Of The Cherokee Indians And Their Buried Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[John-Edmonton]

Not a video, but might be of interest:

ACE 300

About 10 years ago, I purchased an ACE 250, a new machine by Garrett Metal Detectors. It was a real winner! A machine at that price, with all the bells and whistles (notching, depth readout, target ID, various-programmed hunting modes) along with great depth turned a lot of heads. Even the accessory coils were moderately priced. Charles Garrett had often stated that he always wanted to build good metal detectors, affordable to all. The ACE Series was good example of this.






Fast forward to 2016. The ACE 300i (International version) has some new features not previously available on the first ACE Series generation. It still comes with a 3 piece attachable rod, a 18 x 25 cm (7" x 10") PROformance™ (concentric) submersible search-coil at a mere 2.8 pounds. However, that little yellow box is packed with new technologies:

New- higher frequency (8 kHz) provides better sensitivity on low and medium-conductivity targets (i.e. gold, lead)
New- Increased Iron Resolution: 3 x the iron resolution of an ACE 250, to help overcome target masking in iron-laden hunt sites
New- Adjustable Frequency to help eliminate interference
New- Cam-locks for increased stem stability
New- Includes Pulse-Width Modulation audio: sharper, more responsive Audio/Digital Target
New- ID: 0 to 99 scale offers target information


Before doing this writeup,I managed about 10 hunts, including relic hunting in the woods and many hours hunting parks and sports fields. This machine is so EASY to set up and hunt with. Just pick a hunting mode (jewelry, relics or coins) or hunt in zero discrimination. You can also create your own mode which the ACE stores as memory.






One of my favorite hunting modes is shown above. It was designed, by throwing various coins and silver rings on the ground, running my coil over them and copying down the ID number. Then, I made my own "CUSTOM" mode by removing all the notches from the ID range except for the ones which should sound off an audio signal on many of my preferred targets. So, hunting for coins and rings was sooooo easy! I just hunted trashy areas with those settings, and the ACE 300i easily picked out the coins/jewelry with those settings. In less trashy areas, I preferred to hunt in jewelry or relic mode.






This new detector is a coin vacuum! It sounds off on all my coinage. You have to practice going over planted coins to get comfortable with the designated ID numbers . For best results, keep the coil 2-3 inches above the ground and overlap each swing by about half. I found that the ACE 300i has too much power packed into it. Therefore, I could not run it with full sensitivity, even at great distances from power lines. I ran it at 6/8 snsitivity, which gave me excellent depth with good quality ID-ing. One thing to take note on, is that deeper copper coins past the 2-3 inch mark will read s few numbers high. For example, a shallow penny with read about 84. If it's down 3 inches, the number will increase to about 86. A good little piece to remember, as it is not in the manual.






The ACE 300i bangs real hard on rings. It sounds of with equal audio in all directions. I was really surprised to dig 6 of them. Pull-tabs read at about 78, often times with a double beep, making them quite easy to identify. And again...as previously mentioned, beyond 3 inches of depth with pull-tabs, expect a higher number value.









I was quite pleased, getting a signal in the low 60's, strong, yet soft. After trying to carefully pull up the unknown target, I saw a small glimmer of a gold chain. I carefully dug up the chain, and along with it came a gold heart! Made my day.....Some of the other unusual signals, strong, but not suggestive of coins or pull-tabs, came out of the ground as bling! I was rewarded with plenty of earrings and other odds and ends.






Having recently been overshadowed with a mosquito infestation in and around Edmonton, allowed for only one hunt in the woods searching for relics. Even 3 coats of mosquito repellent wouldn't keep those hungry blood sucking bugs off me. Recent stories about the Zika Virus didn't help either! However, I have no doubt in my mind, that the ACE 300i would have pulled out some great finds from the dirt in Edmonton.






I did perform an air test on the ACE 300i. Doing an air test on a single frequency metal detector with will show it's most maximal potential detection depth. Now, you will most likely not get these depths of similar targets in your soil or water. However, if a metal detector air tests 8 inches on a gold ring, it will NOT read any deeper then 8" in the ground. Mineralization, salinity, moisture all interfere with a metal detector's ability to detect a target deep.





Here is what each target's numerical target was during the air test. The exact same targets will read differently if covered with oxidation, are extremely deep or are found with different mineralizations in the soil.

If you are new to metal detecting, and are looking for your first metal detector, don't overlook the new Garrett ACE Series metal detectors. They pack a lot of performance, technology and can be purchased at a reasonable price. If you are looking for a coin shooter to hunt well manicured lawns, the ACE Series would also fill that need.

For more information, contact Garrett Metal Detectors or call your local metal detector dealer.

Garrett Metal Detectors® | Metal Detector Manufacturer

 

[John-Edmonton]

ACE 4ooi




Putting the new Garrett ACE 400i together was just like meeting an old friend. About 10 years ago, Garrett released the New ACE 150 & ACE 250 models. The new ACE Series at that time became an overnight success. It turned out to be one of the (if not the) best metal detectors sales of all time. It received cult status. It got nicknames the "Yeller Feller" and some converted it for water hunting, calling it the Aqua Ace." Most loved the new bright colored machine, as you could never ever really lose it. But some despised the color also. They went as far as to spray paint it a new color or cover it with camo tape

Well, fast forward it to 2016, and a new Garrett ACE Series has been released. The Top of the ACE line, the "Ace 400i" has even more improvements over it's earlier production models. The new ACE 400i now has cam-locks, a request many have made to Garrett and they listened. The front of the screen now has a large digital target ID, using numbers plus target probability numbers suggesting ferrous/non ferrous conductivity. Also new is the "iron Audio" feature, available only on higher, more expensive metal detectors. This helps eliminate junk targets by designating them with a distinguishable low tone in the iron range, which might be junk, depending on what type of targets you are searching for. To help eliminate EMI (electro-magnetic-interference) Garrett has given you the option of hunting with different frequencies. This will also allow you to hunt close to your buddy by elimination his metal detector interference. And....the coils off the older ACE's work fine on the new ACE Models. So hang on to your sniper coils!






Garrett still has maintained the notching system, which is also available in the higher end AT Pro/AT Gold Series. This allows you to selectively remove junk targets so you won't hear the audio, or set it up to just hear one particular target. This comes in handy when searching for a lost earring. You can remove all notches except the one(s) sounding off on the remaining earring, then search with ease for the other earring. And......you do NOT lose more depth removing notches for unwanted targets like on other metal detectors with knobs to add discrimination, where as you advance the knob to remove further targets, where you do in fact lose depth.

To those considering the New ACE 200, 300 or 400, it is simple to use. It's well balanced and only weighs 2.9 lbs. (1.32 kg.). The length of the rod can be adjusted, depending on a persons height. It comes pre-programmed for your choices of coin mode, relic mode, jewelry mode, a custom mode (you create it, it saves it) or a setting with no discrimination so you can hear all targets. It is so simple to operate or sequence through the different programs. It operates on 4 x "AA" Batteries and readily excepts rechargeable batteries. I managed about 27 hours on the set of batteries which came with the metal detector.
To maintain a high degree of reliability with consistent results, I used the unit for 10 hunts. Anyone can go to a site not previously hunted before with any detector and do well. I chose to put on about 50 hours on it, so as I can properly learn it, and learn it's strengths and weaknesses.






Here are the results of my 10 hunts. This machine is a Super coin magnet! I started hunting in relics mode, hunting a lot of schools and sports fields. As I learned where my (Canadian) coins were reading with the VDI, I began to remove some notches. I pretty well ended up using the coins mode, as it also maintains notches where most (but not all) gold rings will read. I used my old concentric 9" x 12" coil from my old ACE 250 mostly. Bottles caps often read as good copper/silver coins, so using the iron audio can help to eliminated them. I discovered that deeper bottle caps read higher compared to more shallow ones. So......bottle caps and aluminum pull tabs remain the "Curse" for metal detector users. The square pull tabs often tend to give a strong double beep, whereas nickels have a softer single beep sound. It got so I could guess a nickel would pop up with a good probability. Hey....these things happen when the hours accumulate on a detector. One thing for sure....the ace BANGS hard on coins. Because the weak signals on the ACE are amplified so you can easily hear them, (unlike the modulated volume on the AT Series) hunting without headphones becomes easy in a quiet environment. Wireless headsets not required!






I did manage to dig up 4 rings during my hunts. You can't miss them. They hit hard! The older ACE models were very good for hitting rings, including gold ones. I didn't find any gold rings, however, I did get a solid gold football charm in a sports field! That was a first!






Here are some pieces of jewelry I dug up. If the jewelry is there, the ACE will find it no doubt.






My last 3 hours metal detecting were done in a freshwater lake. Because only the coil is water proof, I hunted just the beginnings of the freshwater lake. I notched out nearly everything except where gold rings might show up. That left only 4, sometimes 5 notches left on the screen. I had built up my confidence with this machine that any old silver coins/rings or older copper coins would easily be hit on. I got pennies in the 40's on up, but no rings today.






My thoughts.......A great detector for coin/jewelry hunting. It also performs well hunting relics. It has too much power! I could not hunt with full sensitivity....a first for me. All my other detectors could operate with full sensitivity in the woods, but not the new ACE! It bangs hard on targets....even very tiny ones. This machine would do well on the beaches dry sand or shallow fresh water searching for micro jewelry. When hunting in shallow water, PLEASE remember to tether the machine so it can not accidentally fall in the water if you drop it.

The depth indicator id fairly accurate with coin sized targets. I did pull out an old tag at bout 8 inches. It performs well for depth in my soil. I wish I could try it on a wet salted beach in/out of the water, but the nearest beach is 14 hours away. I hunted an afternoon without using any headsets, and I could easily hear the audio and distinguish the soft signals from the loud double beeps. I didn't like detecting with the iron audio left on, rather, I used it to help identify a target. Running the iron audio on all the time and getting a good audio on a target added confusion as to dig or not. A little trick I learned was that trying to pinpoint a large target is very difficult. Pop cans were easy to ID because of this. This allowed me to just move on to a better target saving time.

It is an excellent entry level detector, with lots of bells & whistles seen on many higher priced detector. It's simple to use, easy to learn, and depending on your goals for metal detecting, may be the only machine you might ever need, yet, you can easily move up to a more elaborate expensive model in the Garrett line. For a metal detectorist with over 20 years of experience, the ACE 400 is an excellent machine for coin and jewelry hunting! And......it will not sit in the closet collecting dust. Every metal detector I own has it's strengths in certain niches.

Some Actual Field Hunt Videos To Compiment The Garrett ACE 400i

ACE 400i Water Hunt
How To Increase Your Finds
ACE 400i Relic Hunt

 

[EastCoastmetal]

Nice write up John!

I am looking at buying a new rig and the 400i was top of my list as it is within my comfort lvl price wise /performance etc.

Seeing that I don't really need a new one until spring, I am hoping to get the AT pro but the 400i is still not off the table.

 

[doggoneitdignit]

ACE 4ooi




Putting the new Garrett ACE 400i together was just like meeting an old friend. About 10 years ago, Garrett released the New ACE 150 & ACE 250 models. The new ACE Series at that time became an overnight success. It turned out to be one of the (if not the) best metal detectors sales of all time. It received cult status. It got nicknames the "Yeller Feller" and some converted it for water hunting, calling it the Aqua Ace." Most loved the new bright colored machine, as you could never ever really lose it. But some despised the color also. They went as far as to spray paint it a new color or cover it with camo tape

Well, fast forward it to 2016, and a new Garrett ACE Series has been released. The Top of the ACE line, the "Ace 400i" has even more improvements over it's earlier production models. The new ACE 400i now has cam-locks, a request many have made to Garrett and they listened. The front of the screen now has a large digital target ID, using numbers plus target probability numbers suggesting ferrous/non ferrous conductivity. Also new is the "iron Audio" feature, available only on higher, more expensive metal detectors. This helps eliminate junk targets by designating them with a distinguishable low tone in the iron range, which might be junk, depending on what type of targets you are searching for. To help eliminate EMI (electro-magnetic-interference) Garrett has given you the option of hunting with different frequencies. This will also allow you to hunt close to your buddy by elimination his metal detector interference. And....the coils off the older ACE's work fine on the new ACE Models. So hang on to your sniper coils!






Garrett still has maintained the notching system, which is also available in the higher end AT Pro/AT Gold Series. This allows you to selectively remove junk targets so you won't hear the audio, or set it up to just hear one particular target. This comes in handy when searching for a lost earring. You can remove all notches except the one(s) sounding off on the remaining earring, then search with ease for the other earring. And......you do NOT lose more depth removing notches for unwanted targets like on other metal detectors with knobs to add discrimination, where as you advance the knob to remove further targets, where you do in fact lose depth.

To those considering the New ACE 200, 300 or 400, it is simple to use. It's well balanced and only weighs 2.9 lbs. (1.32 kg.). The length of the rod can be adjusted, depending on a persons height. It comes pre-programmed for your choices of coin mode, relic mode, jewelry mode, a custom mode (you create it, it saves it) or a setting with no discrimination so you can hear all targets. It is so simple to operate or sequence through the different programs. It operates on 4 x "AA" Batteries and readily excepts rechargeable batteries. I managed about 27 hours on the set of batteries which came with the metal detector.
To maintain a high degree of reliability with consistent results, I used the unit for 10 hunts. Anyone can go to a site not previously hunted before with any detector and do well. I chose to put on about 50 hours on it, so as I can properly learn it, and learn it's strengths and weaknesses.






Here are the results of my 10 hunts. This machine is a Super coin magnet! I started hunting in relics mode, hunting a lot of schools and sports fields. As I learned where my (Canadian) coins were reading with the VDI, I began to remove some notches. I pretty well ended up using the coins mode, as it also maintains notches where most (but not all) gold rings will read. I used my old concentric 9" x 12" coil from my old ACE 250 mostly. Bottles caps often read as good copper/silver coins, so using the iron audio can help to eliminated them. I discovered that deeper bottle caps read higher compared to more shallow ones. So......bottle caps and aluminum pull tabs remain the "Curse" for metal detector users. The square pull tabs often tend to give a strong double beep, whereas nickels have a softer single beep sound. It got so I could guess a nickel would pop up with a good probability. Hey....these things happen when the hours accumulate on a detector. One thing for sure....the ace BANGS hard on coins. Because the weak signals on the ACE are amplified so you can easily hear them, (unlike the modulated volume on the AT Series) hunting without headphones becomes easy in a quiet environment. Wireless headsets not required!






I did manage to dig up 4 rings during my hunts. You can't miss them. They hit hard! The older ACE models were very good for hitting rings, including gold ones. I didn't find any gold rings, however, I did get a solid gold football charm in a sports field! That was a first!






Here are some pieces of jewelry I dug up. If the jewelry is there, the ACE will find it no doubt.






My last 3 hours metal detecting were done in a freshwater lake. Because only the coil is water proof, I hunted just the beginnings of the freshwater lake. I notched out nearly everything except where gold rings might show up. That left only 4, sometimes 5 notches left on the screen. I had built up my confidence with this machine that any old silver coins/rings or older copper coins would easily be hit on. I got pennies in the 40's on up, but no rings today.






My thoughts.......A great detector for coin/jewelry hunting. It also performs well hunting relics. It has too much power! I could not hunt with full sensitivity....a first for me. All my other detectors could operate with full sensitivity in the woods, but not the new ACE! It bangs hard on targets....even very tiny ones. This machine would do well on the beaches dry sand or shallow fresh water searching for micro jewelry. When hunting in shallow water, PLEASE remember to tether the machine so it can not accidentally fall in the water if you drop it.

The depth indicator id fairly accurate with coin sized targets. I did pull out an old tag at bout 8 inches. It performs well for depth in my soil. I wish I could try it on a wet salted beach in/out of the water, but the nearest beach is 14 hours away. I hunted an afternoon without using any headsets, and I could easily hear the audio and distinguish the soft signals from the loud double beeps. I didn't like detecting with the iron audio left on, rather, I used it to help identify a target. Running the iron audio on all the time and getting a good audio on a target added confusion as to dig or not. A little trick I learned was that trying to pinpoint a large target is very difficult. Pop cans were easy to ID because of this. This allowed me to just move on to a better target saving time.

It is an excellent entry level detector, with lots of bells & whistles seen on many higher priced detector. It's simple to use, easy to learn, and depending on your goals for metal detecting, may be the only machine you might ever need, yet, you can easily move up to a more elaborate expensive model in the Garrett line. For a metal detectorist with over 20 years of experience, the ACE 400 is an excellent machine for coin and jewelry hunting! And......it will not sit in the closet collecting dust. Every metal detector I own has it's strengths in certain niches.

Some Actual Field Hunt Videos To Compiment The Garrett ACE 400i

ACE 400i Water Hunt
How To Increase Your Finds
ACE 400i Relic Hunt

Dido that to what EastCoastmetal mentioned, I can't see why I would need to see anymore on whether a 300i with the DD would get more on the 400i DD then..reason is it is a lower kHz machine wouldn't the 300i warrant it to hit harder on silver for depth to boot if there were any comparison? Great fins by the way John!

 

[Andy Nunez]

Well, from my experience, the 400 is a better machine than my old 350, which I thought was a great coin hunter. The only downside for some people (not me) is that there is no ground balance. Where I live, the soil is pretty mild, so my depth is great. I get solid signals on coins at six inches and have gotten coin-sized items at 8 inches (screw on lids about 50 cent size). With the 350 I got large cents, a 1775 British penny, Indian Heads, a 2 cent piece (at six inches) and a silver 1 reale cob as top finds. I moved up to the 400 due to the new features and can claim a 1776 Irish penny, a 2 cent piece and a lovely silver 1830 capped bust dime as top items. I notice I am getting more nickels and rings, though the rings have all been junkers so far (with the 350 I got a 40s silver ring). So, I love the 400 (note, not the 400i) and I am upgrading it with an after-market coil to see if I can hit some supposedly worked out areas for deeper targets. It's light and easy to read now that I am getting a bit older, so it's a no brainer. If you can't afford a Pro, get the 400.

 

[doggoneitdignit]

No one can add to this so I will the old Garrett 300 concentric from what it shows punches further then the 400i stock as reviewed on Metal Detector Reviews...period. Just going with what the site shows until someone can prove otherwise.