Re: Newbie question. OK it's 6" deep, now what
Hey Texas trash, I've been using the Ace 150 for about 3 years and my new Ace 250 for almost a year now and I love them both. Let me give you the best advice I can, test dig, test dig & test dig some more. You will learn more by doing this and save yourself a lot of discouragement and time. Best way I learned was dig yourself several holes with diffrent depths, like 2, 4, 6, 8 10 & 12 inches deep, then get some items to check, like all your diffrent coins, silver and non-silver, watch, penney, rings real and costume jewelry type, then most important get some pull tabs, bottle caps, aluminum foil, lead, and cans. Then bury your items in the holes, one item in each, be sure to space between your holes or you will pick up two in one, don't want that, about a foot apart is ok. Put each item in each hole and listen for the type of tone you get and the strength of it. each item will sound some what diffrent and be strong sound to weak sound the deeper you go. I use all metal mode, once I hear a good target then I will switch to jewelry or coin and see if it still gives me a good signal or changes, this is how you will learn the junk from the good ones. The 250 is a great machine, but it's not perfect, I still dig pull tabs, cans, & aluminum from time to time. You will get better as you go, trust me. Another key thing to watch for is if your target cursor jumps around and doesn't stay on one target, most of the time it is something other than coin or jewelry, but still can be something good, you will have to dig, learn and decide for yourself. Most important is to find a good location to hunt, do some research if need bem real important.
Now for your concern of digging holes, hey it's just dirt, don't freak out over it. What I do is I take a piece of thick plastic, like an old see through car floor matt, dig hole, put dirt on it, that way you can put it all back. Never leave a hole open always re-fill back to normal. Plus it allows you to visually see things better by being on the matt.
Now for the tools: No better tools than your common sense and your machine, learn the pin point if your going to use it on your 250. If not buy a pin-pointer, I got one and its good. I'll post a couple of pictures of the two main tools I use, I haven't found anything better yet. It keeps the hands clean and the holes smaller, than using a big shovel. Cuts through the grass and weeds real well and breaks up the dirt easier than using your hands. Can buy them at most hardware stores or lawn & garden stores.
One called the "classic spade shovel" and the other is a combination "hoe/cultivator" hand tool. If you decide to go to the beach and dig sand or sand & water mix, find you a good strainer, I use two kinds the round basket like they use in a deepfrier, get at any store, and a grain scoop you buy at a feed store, drill holes in bottom of it about half way from bottom to center of scoop, works great.
Anyway, hope this info helps you in some way. Hey if someone approaches you about your digging in parks or schools, tell them your cleaning up the trash as you go and then show them one of your holes you dug and how good it looks, most of the time they will say ok.
Happy hunting in your quest for dirt fishing, hope you find a lot, Ken.
