Getting Frustrated. Could use some advice.

[MinerJohn]

Ok folks. I've lurked here and other forums, read all your tips and hints and practiced a bunch. I use the ACE250. I'm in NE Alabama. I know false and intermittent ghost tones are to be expected, but I get them all the time. I have the chord taped to the shaft so it doesn't bounce around. I usually hunt in coin mode with the sensitivity at 4. I do ok in yards and the park. When I head to the woods or near the mountains, I have to turn the sensitivity down to 3 or it chirps and beeps and than no signal. Just disappears. We have nasty red clay soil around here. What am I doing wrong???

**Note** I did a little test with my detector. In my backyard I through a silver dime in a small hole I dug 3" deep. With the coin lying flat it found it. I stuck the coin in the hole on edge with sensitivity at 5 in coin mode and it couldn't pick it up. I did the same thing hunting the base of the mountain, same settings and it couldn't pick up the dime either way. (w/h new batteries) Where do I go from here? I'm more confused every time I use it.

 

[Mick56]

There have been times I had to turn my sens down to two bars to stop the falsing.

 

[Adrian SS]

Very few fixed Ground balance VLF machines can handle high salt or iron mineralisation very well and so they will all chirp and chatter unless the Sensitivity is turned down which results in a loss of depth.
If you want to hunt really successfully in those areas then an Auto or Manual GB machine or Pulse Induction type is required.
To hunt salt water beaches then you need a dedicated salt machine with the GB setup to handle salt mineralisation and if you want to hunt Iron mineralised areas then you will need to be able to set the GB to cancel iron mineralisation.
Very few machines, if any ,can do both of these tasks equally well.

The ACE 250 has done OK here in some of our Australian gold fields so I guess the first thing to do is to find out if your machine is working correctly before you race off and buy something different?

 

[slingshot]

Watch the screen and see if the iron icon lights up a lot. You'll immediately have an answer to your question. In these conditions, If nothing is wrong with your machine, I would use the sniper coil.

 

[oldranger]

Im a newbie and i have an ACE250.. All i can say is keep using it.
Before i found this forum I called Garrett about once every 2 weeks.
Then one day it started to make sense ( that means i Started finding
stuff) and since then ive learend a lot but still have a long way to go

Happy Safe Fun Hunts

Ron

Rangers Lead The Way

 

[Leslie(nova scotia)]

From the land of the Bluenose.....sounds like heavy mineralization me bouy. I'm sure some one will help you on that issue. Good luck. Dig and they will come!

 

[metalhead]

Unfortunately, having a fixed(factory set)ground balance, the Ace 250 does not handle highly mineralized ground very well. However, I agree with Adrian SS, that you should have your machine checked out by Garrett's before you decide to get another detector. I know that northeast Alabama is gold country. For that you will need a dedicated gold machine. The Garrett Scorpion Gold Stinger will handle that mineralized ground very well. It's also the most affordable gold machine available. Best of luck to ya'!Happy Hunting!

 

[Uncle Willy]

If you can't solve the problem with Garrett's help Kellyco has a DD coil for the 250 that will take care of it. Heavy mineralization is a bugger for machines with a fixed ground balance. You can contact Melinda at Melinda.Harper@garrett.com and see what she can do for you. Good luck.

Bill

 

[dahut]

- There aren't many of these situations, but it sounds like you got one. Your region is notorious for its naturally mineralized clay and has been known to give static balance detectors like the Ace no end of problems. Most folks who detect in your area learn this pretty quick.

The only real solution is to get a detector that has auto track ground balance or a manual ground balance that you can tune yourself.
You can turn the SENS down but that is a losing situation at some point. When it is being run too HIGH, then turning it down helps. If it is already down and that doesn't help, then going lower only reduces depth... while doing nothing to solve the underlying problem.

Thanks to geography, it may already be time to step up to a new detector. You wither move, or accept it for what it is.

 

[Alan Applegate]

With some fear of highjacking the thread...

I often see suggestions about taping the coil cable to the shaft of the detector. This suggestion is always associated with reducing false signals. Not being one to take a anecdotal suggestion carte blanc, I decided to do a test. I unwound the coil cable on my Ace 250, and just let it hang, and swing. I did not notice any more or any less false signals. An argument could be presented wherein a poor solder joint or other loose connection might cause the problem, but save that, the suggestion appears to have little merit.

Alan Applegate

 

[stick]

the 250 will not give you much depth on a coin in a new hole. i tried the same thing with mine and was ready to send it back. after a coin has been in the ground a while, it will give a stronger signal. i now love this machine.

 

[jasper12]

I was about ready to send mine back after a couple of weeks of use but I kept on trying to understand what it was telling me.on the 3rd or 4th week it started to make sense.My problem was running sensitivity on 7 or 8 bars and going way to fast.I think the biggest problem was swinging to fast in trashy area's.Once I lowered the bars to 4 or 5 and slowed down my swing and took my time the ace started talking to me in a Language I could understand .If you're in a trashy area slow down or it will just chatter chatter and GONG you to death.Good luck & HH

 

[Uncle Willy]

Works a lot better when you set it up right don't it. ? One of the biggest and most common mistakes is cranking the sensitivity out of sight and scanning too fast.

Bill

 

[Uncle Willy]

You're missing the point. The movment has to be over the top of the coil and close to it. Pass a coin over the top of your coil and see what happens. The signal comes out of the top of the coil the same as it does out of the bottom and the same distance. When you're sifting dirt you have dug to locate a target you can pick up a handful at a time and pass it over the top of the coil to see if your target is in that handful.

Bill

 

[Uncle Willy]

Detecting freshly buried coins or coins dropped in a hole is often an exercise in futility due to an effect known as "Metallurgical Phenomenon" and throws many users for a loop. So bear this in mind for futire reference.

Bill

 

[Adrian SS]

HI Alan,
The coils that do not respond well from the back of the coil are the older Coaxial or Co planar type that were fitted to detectors like The old C&G Wildcat.and so a lose coil cable hanging near the coil did not affect the detector much.

Concentric (and more often DD) coils will produce a signal from the cable if there are several several turns of coil cable hanging loosly and moving close to the coil.
The only time I have noticed a false signal caused by the cable has been when the coil has tilted significantly caused by bumping the coil when scanning which has caused the cable hanging near to the coil to move enough to create a response from the detector.

 

[Uncle Willy]

Yeah the old C&G, Jack Gifford's old baby and I can't remember his partner's name off hand. They were pretty good machines.

Bill.

 

[Adrian SS]

G/Day Bill,
Jack Gifford's partner in C&G Technology was Ray Crum. The two met while working for Bounty Hunter
They formed C&G Technology in 1976. I do not remember how many detectors they designed but I know that the Bobcat, Lynx and Wildcat evolved from the partnership. By 1978 jack was working for Fisher where he was involved with the development of the 551 and 552. Then in 1979 jack moved back to Bounty Hunter where he designed the Rustler and the Raider and was involved with the updates to the Red Baron series. Then in 1980 he formed Tesoro Electronics and the rest is history with Tesoro detectors being among the very best available today.

 

[Uncle Willy]

Yeah I know Jack jumped around from BH and Fisher then went to Glendale, Arizona and started Tesoro, then moved to another address in Phoenix before finally settling in Prescott. BH and Fisher used to be here in Oregon and may have still been here when Jack worked for them. The first Tesoro I ever purchased was a Private Label one from Kellyco. It was blue in color with a different name but when I got it and looked at it I knew it was a Silver Sabre in disguise so I called Jack and asked him and sure enough it was. That deal hasn't existed for years now but he is still involved in private label. A few years back there was a detector called the Pillar Reale I think and that was a Tesoro in disguise. Then he made detectors for Troy Galloway for a spell before that went in the dumper.I haven't been in contact with Jack for some time so don't know what he or the boys have their fingers into these days.

Bill

 

[Sven]

That's why I sold all our Garretts after moving to Atlanta, Georgia area. Gti1500's wouldn't find a coin deeper than 3-4" and would not ID correctly. One reason no one sells Garretts there.........except Hobby Town.