New to MDing and discouraged

[Betoxyz68]

New to MD'ing and discouraged

I live in Houston and I just purchased an Ace 250 and was looking forward to go to Galveston to hit the beach and find lost treasures but I was informed by a Garrett rep. that this unit does not do well in wet sand due to the salt minerals. Any advise will be greatly appreciated.

BH

 

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[Emperor Findus Cladius]

Re: New to MD'ing and discouraged

Cant help you here. I bought one for my girlfriend and she does not have a problem on the beach around here, but it is a fresh water beach.

 

[warsawdaddy]

Re: New to MD'ing and discouraged

Standby! Several members here have the 250 and several do the beaches,so you should get some good input pretty quick.

 

[DANGLANGLEY]

Re: New to MD'ing and discouraged

Wow, my son in New Smyrna Beach, Fl. just bought an Ace 250 to hunt the beach. I hope there is a way to use it without losing sensitivity. I swear by mine that I got for Christmas and it works well along the lakes here in Tennessee. I will be watching this post to see any advice that you get. Good luck with yours.

 

[Dimeman]

Re: New to MD'ing and discouraged

I live in Houston and I just purchased an Ace 250 and was looking forward to go to Galveston to hit the beach and find lost treasures but I was informed by a Garrett rep. that this unit does not do well in wet sand due to the salt minerals. Any advise will be greatly appreciated.

BH

You might call Alexander Enterprises in South Houston on College Ave. and ask them, since they go to the beach and hunt quite often, they should be able to tell you if you can hunt the wet sand or just the dry sand, with the Ace 250. They sell Garrett detectors there and might also give you some good spots to hunt.

 

[N.J.THer]

Re: New to MD'ing and discouraged

I don't own an Ace 250 but I'm guessing there is not much you can do to change that or the engineers would have done it when they designed the unit. If you purchased the unit from a good dealer they should take unit back and give you a credit to use towards a different unit that would work better in your area. I own an old detector that works great in fresh water and on dry sand by the ocean but as soon as you hit the wet ocean sand it just sounds off everywhere.

Good luck and HH.

NJ

 

[TonyinCT]

Re: New to MD'ing and discouraged

Unfortunately the factory is correct. Conductive wet salt minerals will greatly affect the Ace250 since it has preset ground balance. You could try turning down the sensativity but that may only marginally help. I would have to say go ahead and try it and see what happens. You may be surprised. You can always hunt the dry sand with little to no problems at all.

 

[ghostrider1775]

Re: New to MD'ing and discouraged

WAY wrong, I used my buddies 250 down in Mexico this past weekend and the 250 was picking up better than my 2500!!! Don't listen to the rep, and try it for yourself 1st. Good Luck

 

[Stacylee926]

Re: New to MD'ing and discouraged

Honestly.... (I don't have a 250) aren't many, many finds in the dry sand where people sit and walk?
I have heard so many great things about the 250 that I will upgrading to that very soon. I have heard it is great for coins - in parks, tot lots everywhere that there are people. I know you have to be careful in salt water, but if you are looking in wet sand you should be fine, just keep it away from the water.

 

[Kas]

Re: New to MD'ing and discouraged

I'm sure it will work fine in the dry sand.

Anyway, what about all the parks and old sites.
Don't be discouraged about the beach, that's only one of a thousand places to hunt. If you've limited yourself to just beach hunting you may be disappointed.

 

[kevino1960]

Re: New to MD'ing and discouraged

Kas is right, don't limit yourself.. you have to think 'outside the box' to achieve success in this hobby. I have heard nothing but good things about the 250 and I am sure it will hunt the dry sand very well. But... if you want a really good detector for water and land, look at the Tesoro Tiger Shark, it's a really great machine. Good Luck and keep us posted with your finds.

 

[Eddy1H]

Re: New to MD'ing and discouraged

I have used a couple of Garrett's in the south Texas beaches they are confused when the water goes over the coil, I have never used the exact unit you have but that is my experience with Garrett's in salt water, I now use a Whites PI and CZ20, they have no problem with salt water, but like the fella before said , try it for your self but just in case be prepared to hunt the dry sand in case of the worse, I have come up with many finds in the dry sand, just watch where people lay their towls on the beach and later after they leave or the next day go to those spots, some people leave there valuables under their towls out of site when the go in the water and some times leave with out them. just my thoughts , good luck and happy hunting
Eddy

 

[Knipper]

Re: New to MD'ing and discouraged

I remember a technique from the old days that might work for you....

Since Ground balance is preset, use the DISCRIMINATION control similar to how you would use the Ground balance ( for the wet sand areas....)

Stand on the wet salt sand and try to make sure there is no target beneath the coil. Raise the coil to waist level, then lower it quickly to about an inch off the wet sand. If the threshold gets louder, increase the discriminate control and try lowering the coil to the wet sand again. Do this until you notice very little difference between the threshold at waist level and about an inch above the wet sand.

Usually, the tone will even out slightly below where a nickel tunes out. You will miss some fine chains and some very small gold, but at least you can hunt for coins and the larger mass rings.

I haven't used that particular machine, but if it has a manual, variable control for the discrimination, it should work. Lowering the sensitivity a bit might help stabilize it too.

The above works because wet salt beaches are, in effect, conductive and respond to the signal as if metal is present. So, increasing the discrimination setting to "equal things out" might make hunting possible for you in the wet sand area.

Knipper

 

[TonyinCT]

Re: New to MD'ing and discouraged

There is more junk in the dry sand than the water. Wet sand is a mix. Some good advice has been given here... even from the "rep". (I'm not a rep by the way but a dealer with no ties to garrett otherwise).

 

[4dcr]

Re: New to MD'ing and discouraged

I purchased my Ace 250 last spring and have used it successfully in wet sand at salt water beaches here in Massachusetts without any problems. I suggest you try hunting everywhere with it and I am sure you will enjoy the Ace 250.


HH,
DDos

 

[hollowpointred]

Re: New to MD'ing and discouraged

i have an ace, and i agree with the others that it will do fine in the dry sand. mine did ok even in the wet sand, just not in the really wet saturated sand. that still leaves lots of huntable spots on the beach! check out that ace on the beach. i have a feeling you wont be as dissapointed as you think.

 

[goldencoin]

Re: New to MD'ing and discouraged

don't worry, that just means it will tick once in a while. Just pay attention to the strong signals. If it us terrible, move to the dry sand

HH
-GC

 

[rsc]

Re: New to MD'ing and discouraged

You have to go and try and see for yourself. A lot of good stuff in the dry sand. Talk to the guys @ Alexander Ent. They are great guys. There are still a lot of areas to go , even without going to the saltwater. In the winter I use my Garrett 550, Summertime you will find me waist deep in the surf swinging me CZ20. HH Gayle

 

[doyboy]

Re: New to MD'ing and discouraged

Bud, don't get discouraged! We all get that way once in awhile. One member of "Money Mafia" kept threatening that he may take up bike riding; I insisted he should . Our "Founding Father", the original zoyboy, Wevvie Wevvie, literally took up the great sport of bicycle riding. He even goes to great lengths to beat Al.

 

[scotto]

Re: New to MD'ing and discouraged

WAY wrong, I used my buddies 250 down in Mexico this past weekend and the 250 was picking up better than my 2500!!! Don't listen to the rep, and try it for yourself 1st. Good Luck

Good advice, try it yourself.