Ace 250 , bought me a Sunray Probe,floods

[tvanwho]

I don't know how I ever found anything without this probe.Of course, 1st time i used it was at night in the moonlight with a buddy, after a severe thunderstorm. We had been gold mining earlier and then the skies let loose. My buddy told me to leave my highbanker and pump on the gravel bar.Good thing I decided NOT to listen to him as the creek water was up over his dredge trailer next morning and my expensive stuff would have disappeared for good off that gravel bar which was under water in a flood.He had 3 inches of water in a tub he had left on the bank, creek must have rose well over a foot.
So, anyway, where we parked was apparently an old picnic grounds and we got our detectors out after the rains quit. It took me awhile to figger out why the new Sunray probe was only getting 1/2 inch of depth or less! I forgot about the instructions saying to use the Ace 250's pinpoint and other controls with the probe.After I remembered that , I was then getting 3-4 inches on coins. I found a number of coin spills and just sat on the ground picking out coins with the Sunray probe even tho I could hardly see what I was doing. If it beeped even a little , I would dig in that direction until the beep came out of the hole or got real loud.Some holes yielded 3-5 coins each, nothing old tho. Sure is a major league timesaver, alright. Hopefully, no more crater digging now.
Anybody have any tips for hunting around playground equipment and tuning out the metal poles? I have been turning down Sens to 2-3 bars showing and using the stock coil.I know the Sniper coil is probably the one to be using but I hate to keep switching coils. Maybe I should get a 2nd lower rod to make the coil swapping easier?
--Tom

 

[Uncle Willy]

Use the probe to hunt around the metal poles and other equipment. You can get to within 4-5 inches of a metal pole with the probe as opposed to 12-16 with your coil. Since the probe is a motion detector, if you whip it rapidly over a suspected target you can get another couple of inches in depth. When I field tested it I got five inches using that method.

You can also use the probe to detect shallow coins in nests of pulltabs. It's a real handy gadget.


Bill

 

[806samuel]

I have a sniper coil and it comes in handy in those really trashy areas. It doesnt really go too deep but it narrows it down among trash. I found a 14kt gold ring at 2-3 inches. When i get enough money I plan to get a probe too. I use it in between metal bleachers
at the park. I dont regret buying it. I would buy another shaft and attach the sniper coil for easy swapping. Bounty Hunter users do this
to their detectors (not all of them ,mind you).Keep us posted with your finds. Happy HUNTING

 

[roceda]

Get the extra lower rod for your sniper. It makes swapping coils a breeze. Its quick and easy.

 

[FrankG]

Tom,

Don't forget... when you switch to that probe you can also crank the sensitivity all the way up to max if you like and get good depth and coverage with that little guy.

Example: Sometimes I might dig and when I put the probe down I don't get any tone for my target. Possibly it's because I missed the pinpoint OR the target moved as I was digging OR it's just to deep in the plug for the probe to see it. In these situations I just crank up the sensitivity and the coverage/performance of the probe will really increase.

It's easy to overlook but that probe is a very powerful little sniper tool at your disposal once you start using it in conjunction with built in features of the 250.

Much to my own surprise, I've been using the large coil and probe combo almost exclusively at playgrounds where I used to use the sniper. I still use the sniper coil mostly in trashy areas but is seems a lot less now that I have become more proficient with the probe.

I also seem to do most of my hunting with the sens at 4 bars (sometimes 5). That gives a little more sensitivity to the probe when I switch to it.

Happy hunting!

 

[tvanwho]

Hers a question for you guys I just thought of?

My Tesoro Lobo St gold detector needs a probe. Is it feasable to take my Garrett 250, remove the coil and lower rod and use the Garrett control box and Sunray Probe as my pinpointer and use the LST for hunting for gold nugget targets? I have other detectors that I need a good probe for as well but can't afford 180 bucks each for a pinpointer. I do have a Uniprobe headset model which gets several inches but I don't much like the put put Geiger counter sound of it and zero discrimination. The Sunray probe is 100% easier to figger out what its telling meplus it discrimates iron.
Guess I need to sell my Uniprobe and my Treasure mate probes eventually.
Also, I am still not finding any rings with the Ace yet or gold jewelry.I do dig a fair number of nickels tho that other people are leaving behind. Fact is , I dug 17 nickels at 1 park my 2nd time out, but zero gold. Am I doin something wrong? I was eliminating round pulltabs and foil at the time I think. I figgered if I was catching the nickels I should get at least some gold?
-Tom

 

[Uncle Willy]

You just ain't passing your coil over any rings. People don't lose rings and jewelry like they lose coins. You also need to hit areas where people are more prone to lose rings.

Bill

 

[Ralph Sun Ray]

Tom,

The Sun Ray probes are detector specific. They are not compatible with detector models not listed on our website for each probe model. If your search coil will not work on another detector model the probe from the same detector will not work either. The YF-1 is only compatible with the ACE 150, 250, GTP 1350 & GTAX 550, 750, 1250.

Ralph (Sun Ray)

 

[FrankG]

Tom Wrote:
"Is it feasable to take my Garrett 250, remove the coil and lower rod and use the Garrett control box and Sunray Probe as my pinpointer"

My $.02 worth
Yes, that is doable and it works just fine. With YF1 switch in probe mode and no coil attached you are simply doing the equivalent of running the 250 in probe mode 100% of the time.

The only "potential" issue (a question for Garrett) is: If you accidently switch the YF1 to Coil mode for an extended period with no coil connected is it a problem for the 250?

I personally can't believe Garrett would design the detector so that operating it without a coil would damage anything. There are lots of ways that can happen by accident. I've never heard of an "open coil failure" damaging the control box drivers or receivers. I wouldn't be surprised if you momentarily run the ACE in "open coil" mode every time you switch between the coil and probe anyway.

 

[tvanwho]

Thanks Ralph,

But my question was ,can I remove the Garrett Ace 250 searchcoil from the Sunray adapter and use the Ace 250 control box and Sunray Probe attached to it as a stand alone probe, basically, without damaging anything? If I accidentally bump the Sunray switch to Coil, and there is no coil attached, will it cause problems or no?
Thanks,ps,will there be Sunray probes for Tesoro machines in the near future,specifically the LoboST or Tejon models?
--Tom

 

[Ralph Sun Ray]

Tom,

If you accidentally flip the switch to coil without it connected, I believe you will here a lot of dinging and will realize it has been switched. As to damage I doubt it, but you should contact Garrett to be sure.

Ralph (Sun Ray)