Newbiest of all Newbie Ace 250 questions...

[philipjfry]

And I do mean Newbie. I decided to make the leap into this hobby tonight and purchased my first metal detector. I watched the corny, yet informative, dvd before I assembled it and started playing with it. One thing that's bothering me is that I can't seem to figure out how to keep the coil exactly parallel with the ground. The tip of the coil wants to angle down. I'm wondering if I'm somehow not holding it right or something. It's funny, I've been doing research for weeks now on what brand I wanted, where to go to hunt for items, what the limitations of the machine are etc...but never considered the suttle details like these.

Appreciate the help!
PJF

 

[favored papa]

tighten down the thumb screws and don't worry about it to much. as long as it is not pointing strait up. Just about every time i set mine down to recover a coin I have to flatten out the coil a little, when I restart hunting. a little angle on it wont mess you up. usely I just tap it lightly on the ground and it is fine. again LIGHTLY.

After a year the stick on washers that came with the ace did not seam to be doing much the coil was really flopping even though i tightened it every time out. So I made some washers out of a bike inner tube, pulled off the nuts and added them over the factory ones. It is tight now, but it still needs to be flattener out after digging a coin.

now get out there and dig it like a pirate.

 

[philipjfry]

Woke up this morning and decided to re-read my manual and this thread.

Knew immediately what I did wrong...Put the washer on the wrong side of the flange.

 

[spartacus53]

Woke up this morning and decided to re-read my manual and this thread.

Knew immediately what I did wrong...Put the washer on the wrong side of the flange.

OK, here is another tip.. Just make sure you put 4 AA batteries in it and then turn it on

All kidding aside I use the same machine and it has a very easy learning curve. Just remember a pull tab can be a pull tab, or gold for that matter. It will pay for itself in no time too. Happy hunting

 

[philipjfry]

Excellent advice. Makes you wonder why the icon isn't a gold nugget instead of a pull tab...that would certainly add to your excitement.

 

[relicswinger]

As a relative newcomer to swinging a beeper (that's aussie for metal detector, I'm not aussie) I made all of the mistakes that I have read about. The most expensive mistake, you have already avoided. I bought a "cheap" unit and did not learn how to use it before I got frustrated, sold it and bought a Garrett.
It is always frustrating to learn to trust an instrument to indicate a target that you can't see. After you have recovered enough items you will be comfortable that there is something under the coil. The detector won't lie to you, it is our job to learn what it is telling us. I really like the "double-tap" ding-ding when it finds a coin. Some signals will be soft (deeper or smaller), some will be hard edged (shallow and/or round). Keep at it. Clear all metal out of a space in your yard and bury some targets. Practice on them getting used to the sounds (it takes a while to be able to differentiate the differences). Another way to do it is to hot glue a target to a piece of cardboard and lay them out and ID the items.
Find someone in your area that is a seasoned detector or find a metal detecting club. Even if they use a different brand. (My buddy thinks that any detector is good as long as it is a White's.) It is good to have someone who can check your find with their detector and who can call you over to see what your detector says about their target. It is especially helpful to see how someone else recovers the target. Be sure to have a pinpointer, it helps to find the smaller items...

 

[TheRandyMan]

Dont take it to the beach you will go nutz like I did. Very unstable in the wet sand and when I dropped the sensitivity down to 2 to 3 bars to get stable, I lost a lot of my depth. Another thing that drove me crazy was the false signals in the wet sand. I would get a nice signal, dig a nice sized hole with my sand scoop, and then the target would be gone and not in my dug out sand pile. Recheck the hole and its ringing all around the hole but not in the hole... Dig out the hole twice as big...no target in the hole, ringing around the edges of the hole. Same thing when trying to pinpoint the target. I would get a huge area like 4 x 4 feet or no sound in the hole, big sound just around the hole....dig the hole bigger, same thing. Very frustrating day.

Time for a beach machine

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

You can hunt the beach with an ACE 250, Crackbadger does it quite well.....

You need to turn down the sensitivity, and do not hunt in the water.....It isn't a water machine, but can be used to get by till you can afford a water detector if you so choose...

Here's "The Man" to show you how it's done..........

CRACKBADGER AND THE ACE 250 QUICK TIP VIDEO!


NIGHT HUNTING WITH CRACKBADGER AND V4V!