Well, it was hinted that there was a hidden feature on the Ace in one post and immediately ears went up all over the place. This gave me a great idea for a post-let's just fill this post up while it's bad weather time of the best Ace tips or whatever you have found on your use of the Ace. I'll start out with a simple one-the elongated mid-tone sound on most nickels and rings as opposed to the short "bip" mid-tone sound on foil, etc. Helps keep you from looking at the meter all the time.
Find's Treasure Forums
Welcome to Find's Treasure Forums, Guests!
You are viewing this forums as a guest which limits you to read only status.
Only registered members may post stories, questions, classifieds, reply to other posts, contact other members using built in messaging and use many other features found on these forums.
Why not register and join us today? It's free! (We don't share your email addresses with anyone.) We keep email addresses of our users to protect them and others from bad people posting things they shouldn't.
Click here to register!
Need Support Help?
Cannot log in?, click here to have new password emailed to you
OK, guys, gals-let the Ace tips pour in...!!!
- Thread starter slingshot
- Start date
Here is some information that I accumulated last year, which helped me to learn the ACE 250. Please do not be offended if you see a post of yours here. All of this is on the net. I am not the author and do not take credit for the info. I hope that this helps a new ACE owner, as I know it did me.
I took 20 gold rings I had found water hunting and air tested them. I picked up all in the jewlery mode. By doing a custome mode and taking out the most common pulltab only (took 2 notches) I still picked up 18 of them. In coin mode I picked up 11. I hunt all tot-lots in jewlery and all real heavy trash areas in coin. Most of my time when I'm just on an average site I start with the custom setting if there is low trash I move to jewlery if there is high trash I drop to coin. Oh and when I get real tired and hot I will also drop to coin. This is when my hunting buddy finds a nice ring in the area I just hunted !@#$%^&**&^%$#@!
Guys, what mode should one use for rings AND coins on the 250?? Ring mode or Coin mode?? I saw an earlier post from John Edm. where he said rings may be all over the scale on the 250 so maybe set to Coin mode and dig all good sounding targets? Or maybe use the Custom mode and set it up for both??
Thanks!
Hi, Kebo
I've been most successful in the Custom Mode. I notch out the first two-three sections, an run the machine at three-four notches short of the max on sensitivity. And, yes, dig every signal that tones both ways!
Best of luck!
Jules
I would put it on jewelry mode..i ended up with a few gold rings last yr because of that mode BULL
Set it on the jewelry mode and dig all repeatable beeps. Gold rings will hit from low foil through pull tabs. Silver will be in the coin range. You need to go to places where jewelry is lost. Like tot lots, sand beaches, sand volleyball courts. You can still dig jewelry in the dirt but it takes longer. But to get it all you have to dig it all. After digging 200 pull tabs you'll see just how hard it is to find a ring. But then again it might be the 1st beep you dig? You'll never know if you don't dig.
Most of the rings I have found have been in the pulltab/nickel range.I have heard that the larger rings might beep as a screwcap.
I use the coin mode most of the time,except when I dig the tot lots. I put it on jewelry mode.
HH Arturo
From John-Edmonton:
Infinium and 2500 got most of the rings.
GTI 2500, ACE 250 & GTP 1350 got most of the coins
GTI 2500 + Infinium got most of the relics.....
I like to rotate my hunts from water to woods to sports fields to parks etc. It keeps me from getting too stagnant. Rings tend to show up in all of the above, but mostly at or in water.
General comments:
A few days ago, A friend of mine met up with me at a middle school that ive been fleecing like a democrat leaving office, ,, and as we were detecting, he wasnt digging his signals, and I asked him why and he said that they were all saying 4 and six inches on his Ace 250 he figured itwas large trash down deep. I asked him to trade machines for a little while as I handed over my prized 1350 to him with a gleam in my eye, (you know the kind, like when your father first let you hold his 12 gauge shotgun). We started detecting again and I started getting these deep signals too, so I started digging them,, well it turns out they were coins,, down deep. I was digging 5 and six inches in thick dry clay consistently with the standard coil that comes on the 250.. I dug some coins as deep as 7 inches. I am very impressed with the 250, and will never look at it like a starter detector again. Its a potent little rig. HH Steve
Now you know what the rest of us have known all along. I've never heard of someone dismissing deep targets as trash The 250 will go even deeper.
Bill
Thats why I haven't bothered to upgrade yet..
And it that attitude might bug Garrett a bit
being they would also like to sell their higher
end units.
But... So far, the 250 is good enough
for most all my practical detecting.
I have found dimes with just the sniper down to
5-6 inches. I get 7-8 inches on the stock coil,
and 10-11 inches using the 9x12. These are using a
quarter for the two larger coils when I tested them.
Of course, the ground quality will effect. It seems
to do fine both here in TX, and up in OK.
With the ace, many times deep coins will ring up
as one way hitters, and often a bit sporadic.
IE: it might ring on a fast swing, but not on a
slower swing. In general, the faster the swing, the
deeper it will go. And the machine is fast enough
responding to keep up with the faster swing.
Now, if I was on a real serious relic hunt or
something, sure, I'd rather have something like a
2500 in a second. It's gonna take quite a bit
more cash flow though, and I'm cheap.
The way I look at it, I made up a bit extra depth
by adding the 9x12 coil. The 250 with all three
coils is pretty deadly.. You are covered for nearly
any type of hunting.
BTW, did I mention the moral of the story..
Don't ignore "one way" and sporadic deep looking hits
on the ace machines. I've found a lot of deep coins
that way. At first I thought they were junk too, till
I started digging more of them. I never ignore one if
it's the sniper coil. My first coin found with the
sniper was a silver dime at 5-6 inches. And it was
a lil sporadic depending on the swing speed. Glad I
dug it. One way to define a possible coin on a one
way hitter is if it keeps repeating on a fast swing.
If it keeps dinging over and over, even if one way,
I dig it.
MK
What your describing is possibly some masking going on. If there is some iron near a good target it will do the same thing. In a trash infested place I wouldnt dig many one ringers, but in a place fairly clean I will. HH Steve
Many times you can turn thoes "one ringers" into "two ringers" by doing the "twitch" over the target. Since the 250 is a motion detector the faster you swing the deeper it goes and the better it discriminates.
Bill
GOLD- It is one of the easiest detectors which pick up a nickel conductivity target, yet the tone it gives off will tell you if it's a pull-tab or nickel/gold ring probable target. If you could scroll back on this forum for a couple of years, you would find a very high percentage of gold rings found.
DEPTH/DISCRIMINATION- It is one of the easiest machines to tell both the depth of a signal and whether it is probable junk or not. When sliding the coil backwards towards the target to pinpoint on the center of the inner toe, the audio of a shallow shollow target (1-2") will suddenly stop as you continue to pull the target toewards you. Also....The tone sound made for a shallow target also alerts you if it is a coin or ring using this same method. Using your ears, eyes and meteras a combo allows you to do some fairly probability assessments. Should the target not suddenly stop....means it is deep and maybe junk.
The higher karat will read around the pulltab mark and the lower karat will read somewhere around the coin icons. If you get a pulltab signal which has a smooth sound, and a steady sound no matter which way you swing the coil over it, "DIG IT" as that's what good gold sounds like.
So the simple answer is gold will show up anywhere on your ACE 250.........
I use a plastic 3 prong hand cultivator in the bark chips. It's less than $3.00 at Lowe's. I usually don't dig the soil unless it's moist. The best time do hunt and dig is after a nice rain. There's a lot of junk that shows up in the nickel range so keep digging nickel hits. Also a larger percentage of rings are in that same notch! You prize will come. If you start getting false signals just reduct the sensitivity until the unit runs smooth. If that's 3 bars then so be it. The 250 will pick up small targets like small fishing weights, tiny pieces of foil and tiny jewelry. You really need an electronic pinpointer to find those in the soil. I use a Sunray probe on those hard to see targets. But there are other probes out there. No matter what detector you use ALWAYS guess in you mind what the target is before you dig. This will get you in tune with your detector.----- In the chips center your target then use a screwdriver or a big spoon to flick the chips away until the coin is exposed. Sometimes you will flick the coin out and not see it so check the hole and then the pile. Simple as pie.
Bill
Don't get too wrapped up about a dime reading as a quarter and vis/versa. The machine will only read what it sees. It's only a probability. The coin reading will be affected by it's metallic composition, the amount and type of oxidation on the coin, the type of soil the coin is in, the positioning on the coin, the humidity....just to name some.
Remember...metal detecting is a hobby and hobbies are meant to be enjoyed!
You are doing great! Just remember....the more iffy signals you chose to dig....the more keepers you get!
I have had my Ace for 2 years now.
I've never hunted wood chips, but
as for pin pointing.
1. Go to the left or right of the target.
2.Move slowly towards the target. When the Edge of the coil
is over the target it will "Sound". Make note of where the edge of the coil was when you first heard the "P/P noise"
3.Move to the TOP of the target and drag the coil DOWN
over the target. It will "sound" again when the coil
starts over the target. Keep dragging DOWN until
it stop SOUNDING. The target will be directly under
the TOP/FRONT of the coil.
I've found the ACE to be GREAT on nickels.
If it dings on Nickel, increase you swing speed some. And if it stays there DIG it.
I've also found Dimes are not quite ass deep as the indicator says, but then again I never look at depth anymore.
I raise the coil, if it dings 10+" off the ground I pass by it.
Turn your sensitivity down to four bars and leave it there. That will eliminate a lot of your problems. I owned Tesoros for years and still have one. Once you learn the 250 you won't need the Tesoro.
Bill
your not getting a repeatable signal, its probably trash. Once you get a good signal, turn 90 degrees and pass the coil over it again a few times, you should get a beep every time you pass over the target, and the curser on your target Id should pretty much stay pointing at the same thing, whatever that may be. If not, move on to the next target. You may also be dealing with target seperation issues, if you are in a pile of trash, that detector will drive you nuts unless you turn the sensitivity down, and or get the little sniper coil. In an open field, where there isnt alot of trash, you can run the sensitivity up. When I first got my 1350, I wanted to beat it up against a tree until there was nothing left to it, thats how frustrated I was with it, but now that I understand how it works, and what I need to do to get the most out of what it can do, I love it. I will be honest though and say this, in a very trashy area, and in some tight places, I sometimes prefer to use my little Tesoro Sidewinder, different detectors do better in different situations, I think with the Ace 250, people just dont realize or expect it to be as sensitive or powerful as it really is.
Sounds like you are experiencing falsing from running too high of a sensitivity. First thing, lower that Sens. down to 4 bars and see if that settles it down. Only time I run my Sens. any higher is if I get an iffy signal, I'll bump it up and see if I can get a better lock on it. Make sure the coil wire is wrapped tight. I run mine straight up for about 6" and tape it to the rod. The coil will pick up the coil wire if it is flopping around a little and signal back on it. Why are you detecting 3 feet up in the air???You have a battery strength indicator on the right side of the display. Change them when it gets to one bar.
I doubt the calibration is off. That can be
easily tested though in an air test. Stick
the various coins on a cardboard box and see
if the ID's jive. I bet they do for the most
part. Pennies will vary to type.
Soil and moisture can skew the ID, as you have
"halos" and leeching into the soil which can
make the coin look bigger. When you pinpoint,
you should notice an ID bleep right after you
lock the pinpointer on a certain coin. Usually
that ID will be fairly correct as far as the
coin you are seeing. Within reason anyway.
IE: say you have a quarter and a penny fairly
close together. If you can pinpoint each one
separately, usually the quick ID you get will
pertain to the coin you are pinpointing.
If you don't get an ID after releasing the pinpoint
button, give the coil a little twitch. It should
ID the coin you are pinpointing.
One thing...In general, the sniper coil will give
depth readings appx half what the bigger coils do.
IE: if it reads 4 inches, it's really probably
about 2 inches.. The depth scale is not perfect,
and can easily be fooled by other objects.
In a case like that it's a good idea to raise the
coil a bit and check again. This can weed out junk
like cans, etc.. IE: if you get a hot hit that looks
silver, raise the coil a couple of inches and try
again. If it fades down and looks deeper, it may well
be a coin. But if it's still real hot even raised up,
it can be a can or other trash.
Pennies usually read hot in soil..Not much you can
do about it, except get used to the usual notches
they hit on. Usually right around the dime notch.
Quarters, etc will really read hot in comparison.
Almost always on the quarter or half dollar notch.
If you hit on coins, see how many you can pinpoint
in the area before digging. If you only pick up
only one, dig it up, and then pinpoint again to see if
anything else is there. Quite often there will be.
Finding more than one coin close together is very
common..
Another point.. Any iron that has rust will hit hot
like a silver coin.. But... it will usually bounce
around the ID scale, not steady like a real coin.
Anyway, I've been fooled plenty of times by rust and
rust pockets. Not much you can do, unless you want to
risk missing something. Rust is very conductive.
Sometimes you dig a rust pocket thinking it's a coin,
then after you get the rust out of the hole, "often
missing, or ignoring it, the coin hit vanishes...
Anyway, maybe some of this will help a little..
It's never perfect.. BTW, you have a good machine.
No worries there. Just need to practice more, and
like some say , maybe try raising the coil a bit
on some of those. Also try from various angles, etc..
MK
OK Dog, I see you got a case of the newbie "WTF's going on with this thing" blues!! Here's what I suggest: First, put the 250 in Coins mode and leave it there for at least the first 10-20 hrs. of hunt time. In parks, there are just too many junk targets and you will waste a lot of precious 'tectin time chasing them around. Coins mode will still get you silver rings and some of the gold ones, so don't worry about missing something. I still hunt in Coins mode most of the time. You can always go back over the area again after you get more proficient. Second, lower that Sensitivity down to 4 bars, maybe 3. The factory setting is way too high in most areas for stable operation, especially for a newbie. I bought one of the first 250's and thought it was messed up. Signals all over the place and nothing under the coil. Third, make sure you keep that coil flat and about an inch off the top of the grass during your swings. Tipping it up at the end of your swings make it false sometimes and you will be chasing ghosts. Fourth, use that Sniper in heavy trash sites. It will get right in amongst the junk and ferrett out the treasures. Fifth, you can't swing the 250 too fast. It's recovery time is among the best of any machine out there. If you get a faint, deep signal, whip the coil fast over it and it will give you a solid signal.
Now...... pinpointing!! The concensus here is that on shallow stuff, you pinpoint to the center tip of the inside coil by finding your target, moving off 6", press pinpoint, move back over your target, center the signal, and then slide the coil back till the signal drops off. The target should then be right at the front tip of your inside coil. Clear as mud, right?? Deep targets should pinpoint right in the notch at the center of the coil. Personally, that's where I pinpoint everything, by raising the coil a little on shallow stuff. Always make sure to move off the target BEFORE pressing Pinpoint!!!
Well gotta go get ready to hunt!! Good luck, Dog!!
Managed to find abotu 47 cents. I had a wail of a time figuring out how it read and such. My buddy's g/f Bobbi (gotta love that woman!) wanted to try, and she found the first quarter and nickel. (I got dibs on the first dime found though) I found that if I moved REAL slow, like an inch a second, it would pick up better. I switched over from teh sniper coil back to the standard coil and got better results it seemed. Strange thing is, it was reading as $1 and all I managed to find was a penny just under a layer of dust?
ALSO, I have a ? I need answered. Does the PINPOINT setting on those coils refer to DEAD CENTER of the coil, END of the coil, or ANYWHERE UNDER the coil? Anyone out there who can answer that would bea hero to me! LOL
First step is PRACTICE
I keep a small plastic tray with a silver dime in the center under 2 in of dirt for this reason. I don't need the practice now but a new coil or machine it will be handy till then it just sets out by the barn. After half hour of pin pointing you will know by the way the ace sounds the coin is under the sweet spot of your coil & 9 out of 10 times want need the pin point. Shallow coins give a double bell tone sound again try it in your yard just lay a dime on the ground. The meter is the machines best GUESS its right more than its wrong. If you get a tone both ways dig it. Shoot dig some of the ones you can't get a lock on and see whats making it do what its doing.I can't pass up steel bottle cap (on old sites) that only hit one direction because a coin on edge or near big iron junk will sometimes just hit one way.
Step two is PRACTICE
In Response To: Question on Batteries (Jack NJ)
Those batteries should work fine. I suggest you get recharge-ables. The cost so little and should give you a couple of years worth of detecting if you detect a fair amount. more if you detect less. I just threw out some recharge-ables that I have been using for about 3 years, and I charged them up after or before each hunt.
Ace 250 Info
Ace 250
1. The Ace 250 is very sensitive to small objects like foil. A little piece of foil will make it ring solid like a nickel. In that respect it reminds me of a Tesoro.
2. I found a target and changed my sweep speed from slow to fast and it didn't seem to affect the way the 250 sounded on the target. I am going to try this out some more so I find the correct sweep speed.
3. On targets that read only one way every one I dug so far was junk.
4. One thing I like about the Ace 250 is the custom program as in some junky areas I notched out the nickel area and only went after pennies and up. This helped me in one area where it was beeping all over the place because of foil and iron. It is a very sensitive detector and works great on small jewelry items.
If you are in the coins mode & hit "-" it will take you to all metal.
Air Test Ace 250
I got about 7" on a Quarter & 6" on a Nickel with the Factory Settings.
Posted by Coinist (OH) May 9,2005 on Coinist's MD Forum
I dug a few "silent" pinpoint mode targets and they were iron every time.
1. foil will wander and also read a lot deeper than it is
2. fast adds a bit of depth actually. A trick with the 1200 series of fishers is to park above the target detuned and sweep out quickly, if it rings out it is probably a good target. I have to try this with this unit.
3.Yup, if it doesn't hit consistently walk away. even a small blip that is repeatable is worth the effort, usually. 1913 1/2 penny with a square nail up against it in the latest case.
Posted by sa1ka May 9,2005 on Coinist's MD Forum
My views on the 250:
1. A really good machine for trashy areas.
2. Loves to eliminate iron
3. Lets you know if the target is big
4. Pinpoints like a laser, except big targets
5. Light as a feather
6. Great notching
7. Strange behavior in pinpoint mode sometimes?
8. No volume gradient on deep targets
9. Stem wobble, fixed with O rings
10. Seems to max out at 8", silver quarter
11. will miss deep dimes
12. loves nickels
13. cannot let a piece of copper go by
So all in all a great machine for the park and school yard, I haven't hunted the beach with it yet. The depth gauge is spot on for coin sized items and rings. The id works quite well, good enough to let you know when it is iron or 99% sure that it is a tab and not a coin. I would welcome a larger coil for it also to see if this can get it over the depth hump. but hey for 3c Canadian no complaints what-so-ever.
This leaves me knowing that I will get a second unit that is more suited to deep soil conditions and that either has auto track or manual GB.
Ace 250 Trick:
If you are getting an intermittent high tone, set the coil down on the ground as close to the area as you can, and let it rest for a second or two, sweep slowly and see if it goes away, if it does so should you....junk 100% of the time from my experience.
Posted by sa1ka May 18,2005 on Coinist's MD Forum
Ace 250
Three distinct tones... the low tone for iron, the mid tone for nickels, etc, and the the higher bell tone for the coins. What I mean be bell tone is that instead of a "Ding" that ends abruptly, you get a resonating "Diiiiiiiing". Very noticeable difference.
As far as sounding off so much in this set up... I've noticed that if a target initially id's as one thing, it might id again as another (junk target), but it will sound both tones. Maybe it's a feature to let you know that you don't have a repeatable tone, and they fail to mention it in the book??? Don't know, but that has been my experience.
Good luck! Let me tell you... if the Ace 250 marks a stable, steady target, you got something nice to dig!
Posted by beetle662(KY) May 23,2005 on Coinist's MD Forum
The Yeller Feller..
Took my Garrett ace 250 for a run in my local park. Got several dollars in change from recent drops to 4 inches. Meter ID'd coins accurately and of course in the nickel range picked up some trash which I would with more expensive units also. Pinpointing was right on and depth accurate.
12 ID facets was adequate as heck my expensive CZ only has 6 facets. If I tried to run the sensitivity near max. did get some bongs as I call them which was sort of like a half belltone.
On the way home stopped by a river bank where you sort of need one leg longer than the other and the lightweight came in handy. Pulled a wheatie and a silver roosie both at 5-6 inches..
Unit is well made and is long enough for my 6'2" frame or could easily be handled by a youngster. I found the unit user friendly with my experience, but perhaps a newbie may take a bit to get the hang of it by reading the manual, but shouldn't take long as its all in front of you with the press of a button. Had a slight wobble and would like to see locks on the connectors, but a piece of tape quickly made it solid. At its low price is easily most bang for the buck and has many facets found on expensive detectors. Everyone worries about depth and took it to my test plot and got a dime and nickel at 6 inches and quarter at 8 so it had adequate depth.
I know I jumped around a bit as not used to writing product reports. In conclusion its a low priced, well made, light, user friendly unit with moderate depth and would serve an old timer or newbie very well. Yep kind of liked the bright yellow color and the new designed coil as well.
Posted by Dan-Pa. May 23,2005 on Coinist's MD Forum
GOLD- It is one of the easiest detectors which pick up a nickel conductivity target, yet the tone it gives off will tell you if it's a pull-tab or nickel/gold ring probable target. If you could scroll back on this forum for a couple of years, you would find a very high percentage of gold rings found.
DEPTH/DISCRIMINATION- It is one of the easiest machines to tell both the depth of a signal and whether it is probable junk or not. When sliding the coil backwards towards the target to pinpoint on the center of the inner toe, the audio of a shallow shollow target (1-2") will suddenly stop as you continue to pull the target toewards you. Also....The tone sound made for a shallow target also alerts you if it is a coin or ring using this same method. Using your ears, eyes and meteras a combo allows you to do some fairly probability assessments. Should the target not suddenly stop....means it is deep and maybe junk.
In Response To: I think I'm outgrowing my 250--need advice (morglan)
When you get a signal that's tricky or just one-way don't leave it. Do the "twitch" over the target and it may turn out to be a good signal. And always scan it from different directions. And don't depend entirely on the display to determine what the target is. THese readings are probable not 100% accurate. Your detector can't see the target anymore than you can.
A 100 hours is not enough time to be swapping detectors. You still have some learning to do on the 250.
Bill
In Response To: I think I'm outgrowing my 250--need advice (morglan)
I doubt your missing out on very much because the machine is incapable of detecting the coins your after. Alot of it has to do with your confidence in the equiptment (and you should be very confident with the 250}, and how thorough your working the sites. Do you have the little sniper coil in your arsenal,, to nit pick the heck out of old foundations and sidewalks? Do you slow down to almost an agonzing pace in likely areas.? Do you believe in your abilities to find stuff? I would venture to say, that about 80 percent of metal detecting is just believing you can and will find something. I started off with a early 70s model Garrett coin hunter. They called them lunchbox detectors, because they are large and heavy. I will tell you though, I believed (and still do), that that old detector could find plenty of coins and jewelry, and it defintely did. I only upgraded to the 1350, because the old coin hunter is so heavy. HH Steve
Good amount coins you found Mark. One thing to note about using the Ace in sand is use it in All Metal Mode and dig every signal. Some of the nickels, dimes and quarters don't register in the Coin range. It's totally different in the sand compared to the dirt.
DJ
In Response To: newbie needs help with pennies and 250??? (ace250mn)
Where were you hunting? Tot lots are a great place for pennies. New pennies (made after 1982, made of zinc) will register under the penny icon. Older pennies (pre 1982, and made out of copper) will register under the dime icon. Give it a chance, you will soon be finding other coins. I have been using an ACE 250 for a year now. Enjoy!!!
In Response To: Discriminating for Gold rings (Scott - Burnaby,BC)
Depending on composition rings hit all over the place but rings with high gold content will hit in the nickel/foil range. To guarantee success I would hunt in all metal and dig it all and unless you have a really large area to cover I would use the stock coil or better yet the Sniper if you have one. The 250 hits hard on rings or any small object.
In Response To: Discriminating for Gold rings (Scott - Burnaby,BC)
That ring will likely hit in the "foil" range, maybe nickel. I've found quite a few lady's rings by digging foil. The foil you do dig will be shallow and easily recovered.
In Response To: Re: Discriminating for Gold rings (Scott - Burnaby,BC)
I don't own a 250, but have 6 other machines (including the 150 and 2500). One responder was correct, in that gold can read 'all over the place', depending on content and size. Generally, small, fine gold will read in the foil-range. But I'd go quite a bit higher than the 'nickel' icon - I've had a few gold rings read in the 'low-penny' area. Dig the shallow targets first. Good luck!
I took 20 gold rings I had found water hunting and air tested them. I picked up all in the jewlery mode. By doing a custome mode and taking out the most common pulltab only (took 2 notches) I still picked up 18 of them. In coin mode I picked up 11. I hunt all tot-lots in jewlery and all real heavy trash areas in coin. Most of my time when I'm just on an average site I start with the custom setting if there is low trash I move to jewlery if there is high trash I drop to coin. Oh and when I get real tired and hot I will also drop to coin. This is when my hunting buddy finds a nice ring in the area I just hunted !@#$%^&**&^%$#@!
Guys, what mode should one use for rings AND coins on the 250?? Ring mode or Coin mode?? I saw an earlier post from John Edm. where he said rings may be all over the scale on the 250 so maybe set to Coin mode and dig all good sounding targets? Or maybe use the Custom mode and set it up for both??
Thanks!
Hi, Kebo
I've been most successful in the Custom Mode. I notch out the first two-three sections, an run the machine at three-four notches short of the max on sensitivity. And, yes, dig every signal that tones both ways!
Best of luck!
Jules
I would put it on jewelry mode..i ended up with a few gold rings last yr because of that mode BULL
Set it on the jewelry mode and dig all repeatable beeps. Gold rings will hit from low foil through pull tabs. Silver will be in the coin range. You need to go to places where jewelry is lost. Like tot lots, sand beaches, sand volleyball courts. You can still dig jewelry in the dirt but it takes longer. But to get it all you have to dig it all. After digging 200 pull tabs you'll see just how hard it is to find a ring. But then again it might be the 1st beep you dig? You'll never know if you don't dig.
Most of the rings I have found have been in the pulltab/nickel range.I have heard that the larger rings might beep as a screwcap.
I use the coin mode most of the time,except when I dig the tot lots. I put it on jewelry mode.
HH Arturo
From John-Edmonton:
Infinium and 2500 got most of the rings.
GTI 2500, ACE 250 & GTP 1350 got most of the coins
GTI 2500 + Infinium got most of the relics.....
I like to rotate my hunts from water to woods to sports fields to parks etc. It keeps me from getting too stagnant. Rings tend to show up in all of the above, but mostly at or in water.
General comments:
A few days ago, A friend of mine met up with me at a middle school that ive been fleecing like a democrat leaving office, ,, and as we were detecting, he wasnt digging his signals, and I asked him why and he said that they were all saying 4 and six inches on his Ace 250 he figured itwas large trash down deep. I asked him to trade machines for a little while as I handed over my prized 1350 to him with a gleam in my eye, (you know the kind, like when your father first let you hold his 12 gauge shotgun). We started detecting again and I started getting these deep signals too, so I started digging them,, well it turns out they were coins,, down deep. I was digging 5 and six inches in thick dry clay consistently with the standard coil that comes on the 250.. I dug some coins as deep as 7 inches. I am very impressed with the 250, and will never look at it like a starter detector again. Its a potent little rig. HH Steve
Now you know what the rest of us have known all along. I've never heard of someone dismissing deep targets as trash The 250 will go even deeper.
Bill
Thats why I haven't bothered to upgrade yet..
And it that attitude might bug Garrett a bit
being they would also like to sell their higher
end units.
But... So far, the 250 is good enough
for most all my practical detecting.
I have found dimes with just the sniper down to
5-6 inches. I get 7-8 inches on the stock coil,
and 10-11 inches using the 9x12. These are using a
quarter for the two larger coils when I tested them.
Of course, the ground quality will effect. It seems
to do fine both here in TX, and up in OK.
With the ace, many times deep coins will ring up
as one way hitters, and often a bit sporadic.
IE: it might ring on a fast swing, but not on a
slower swing. In general, the faster the swing, the
deeper it will go. And the machine is fast enough
responding to keep up with the faster swing.
Now, if I was on a real serious relic hunt or
something, sure, I'd rather have something like a
2500 in a second. It's gonna take quite a bit
more cash flow though, and I'm cheap.
The way I look at it, I made up a bit extra depth
by adding the 9x12 coil. The 250 with all three
coils is pretty deadly.. You are covered for nearly
any type of hunting.
BTW, did I mention the moral of the story..
Don't ignore "one way" and sporadic deep looking hits
on the ace machines. I've found a lot of deep coins
that way. At first I thought they were junk too, till
I started digging more of them. I never ignore one if
it's the sniper coil. My first coin found with the
sniper was a silver dime at 5-6 inches. And it was
a lil sporadic depending on the swing speed. Glad I
dug it. One way to define a possible coin on a one
way hitter is if it keeps repeating on a fast swing.
If it keeps dinging over and over, even if one way,
I dig it.
MK
What your describing is possibly some masking going on. If there is some iron near a good target it will do the same thing. In a trash infested place I wouldnt dig many one ringers, but in a place fairly clean I will. HH Steve
Many times you can turn thoes "one ringers" into "two ringers" by doing the "twitch" over the target. Since the 250 is a motion detector the faster you swing the deeper it goes and the better it discriminates.
Bill
GOLD- It is one of the easiest detectors which pick up a nickel conductivity target, yet the tone it gives off will tell you if it's a pull-tab or nickel/gold ring probable target. If you could scroll back on this forum for a couple of years, you would find a very high percentage of gold rings found.
DEPTH/DISCRIMINATION- It is one of the easiest machines to tell both the depth of a signal and whether it is probable junk or not. When sliding the coil backwards towards the target to pinpoint on the center of the inner toe, the audio of a shallow shollow target (1-2") will suddenly stop as you continue to pull the target toewards you. Also....The tone sound made for a shallow target also alerts you if it is a coin or ring using this same method. Using your ears, eyes and meteras a combo allows you to do some fairly probability assessments. Should the target not suddenly stop....means it is deep and maybe junk.
The higher karat will read around the pulltab mark and the lower karat will read somewhere around the coin icons. If you get a pulltab signal which has a smooth sound, and a steady sound no matter which way you swing the coil over it, "DIG IT" as that's what good gold sounds like.
So the simple answer is gold will show up anywhere on your ACE 250.........
I use a plastic 3 prong hand cultivator in the bark chips. It's less than $3.00 at Lowe's. I usually don't dig the soil unless it's moist. The best time do hunt and dig is after a nice rain. There's a lot of junk that shows up in the nickel range so keep digging nickel hits. Also a larger percentage of rings are in that same notch! You prize will come. If you start getting false signals just reduct the sensitivity until the unit runs smooth. If that's 3 bars then so be it. The 250 will pick up small targets like small fishing weights, tiny pieces of foil and tiny jewelry. You really need an electronic pinpointer to find those in the soil. I use a Sunray probe on those hard to see targets. But there are other probes out there. No matter what detector you use ALWAYS guess in you mind what the target is before you dig. This will get you in tune with your detector.----- In the chips center your target then use a screwdriver or a big spoon to flick the chips away until the coin is exposed. Sometimes you will flick the coin out and not see it so check the hole and then the pile. Simple as pie.
Bill
Don't get too wrapped up about a dime reading as a quarter and vis/versa. The machine will only read what it sees. It's only a probability. The coin reading will be affected by it's metallic composition, the amount and type of oxidation on the coin, the type of soil the coin is in, the positioning on the coin, the humidity....just to name some.
Remember...metal detecting is a hobby and hobbies are meant to be enjoyed!
You are doing great! Just remember....the more iffy signals you chose to dig....the more keepers you get!
I have had my Ace for 2 years now.
I've never hunted wood chips, but
as for pin pointing.
1. Go to the left or right of the target.
2.Move slowly towards the target. When the Edge of the coil
is over the target it will "Sound". Make note of where the edge of the coil was when you first heard the "P/P noise"
3.Move to the TOP of the target and drag the coil DOWN
over the target. It will "sound" again when the coil
starts over the target. Keep dragging DOWN until
it stop SOUNDING. The target will be directly under
the TOP/FRONT of the coil.
I've found the ACE to be GREAT on nickels.
If it dings on Nickel, increase you swing speed some. And if it stays there DIG it.
I've also found Dimes are not quite ass deep as the indicator says, but then again I never look at depth anymore.
I raise the coil, if it dings 10+" off the ground I pass by it.
Turn your sensitivity down to four bars and leave it there. That will eliminate a lot of your problems. I owned Tesoros for years and still have one. Once you learn the 250 you won't need the Tesoro.
Bill
your not getting a repeatable signal, its probably trash. Once you get a good signal, turn 90 degrees and pass the coil over it again a few times, you should get a beep every time you pass over the target, and the curser on your target Id should pretty much stay pointing at the same thing, whatever that may be. If not, move on to the next target. You may also be dealing with target seperation issues, if you are in a pile of trash, that detector will drive you nuts unless you turn the sensitivity down, and or get the little sniper coil. In an open field, where there isnt alot of trash, you can run the sensitivity up. When I first got my 1350, I wanted to beat it up against a tree until there was nothing left to it, thats how frustrated I was with it, but now that I understand how it works, and what I need to do to get the most out of what it can do, I love it. I will be honest though and say this, in a very trashy area, and in some tight places, I sometimes prefer to use my little Tesoro Sidewinder, different detectors do better in different situations, I think with the Ace 250, people just dont realize or expect it to be as sensitive or powerful as it really is.
Sounds like you are experiencing falsing from running too high of a sensitivity. First thing, lower that Sens. down to 4 bars and see if that settles it down. Only time I run my Sens. any higher is if I get an iffy signal, I'll bump it up and see if I can get a better lock on it. Make sure the coil wire is wrapped tight. I run mine straight up for about 6" and tape it to the rod. The coil will pick up the coil wire if it is flopping around a little and signal back on it. Why are you detecting 3 feet up in the air???You have a battery strength indicator on the right side of the display. Change them when it gets to one bar.
I doubt the calibration is off. That can be
easily tested though in an air test. Stick
the various coins on a cardboard box and see
if the ID's jive. I bet they do for the most
part. Pennies will vary to type.
Soil and moisture can skew the ID, as you have
"halos" and leeching into the soil which can
make the coin look bigger. When you pinpoint,
you should notice an ID bleep right after you
lock the pinpointer on a certain coin. Usually
that ID will be fairly correct as far as the
coin you are seeing. Within reason anyway.
IE: say you have a quarter and a penny fairly
close together. If you can pinpoint each one
separately, usually the quick ID you get will
pertain to the coin you are pinpointing.
If you don't get an ID after releasing the pinpoint
button, give the coil a little twitch. It should
ID the coin you are pinpointing.
One thing...In general, the sniper coil will give
depth readings appx half what the bigger coils do.
IE: if it reads 4 inches, it's really probably
about 2 inches.. The depth scale is not perfect,
and can easily be fooled by other objects.
In a case like that it's a good idea to raise the
coil a bit and check again. This can weed out junk
like cans, etc.. IE: if you get a hot hit that looks
silver, raise the coil a couple of inches and try
again. If it fades down and looks deeper, it may well
be a coin. But if it's still real hot even raised up,
it can be a can or other trash.
Pennies usually read hot in soil..Not much you can
do about it, except get used to the usual notches
they hit on. Usually right around the dime notch.
Quarters, etc will really read hot in comparison.
Almost always on the quarter or half dollar notch.
If you hit on coins, see how many you can pinpoint
in the area before digging. If you only pick up
only one, dig it up, and then pinpoint again to see if
anything else is there. Quite often there will be.
Finding more than one coin close together is very
common..
Another point.. Any iron that has rust will hit hot
like a silver coin.. But... it will usually bounce
around the ID scale, not steady like a real coin.
Anyway, I've been fooled plenty of times by rust and
rust pockets. Not much you can do, unless you want to
risk missing something. Rust is very conductive.
Sometimes you dig a rust pocket thinking it's a coin,
then after you get the rust out of the hole, "often
missing, or ignoring it, the coin hit vanishes...
Anyway, maybe some of this will help a little..
It's never perfect.. BTW, you have a good machine.
No worries there. Just need to practice more, and
like some say , maybe try raising the coil a bit
on some of those. Also try from various angles, etc..
MK
OK Dog, I see you got a case of the newbie "WTF's going on with this thing" blues!! Here's what I suggest: First, put the 250 in Coins mode and leave it there for at least the first 10-20 hrs. of hunt time. In parks, there are just too many junk targets and you will waste a lot of precious 'tectin time chasing them around. Coins mode will still get you silver rings and some of the gold ones, so don't worry about missing something. I still hunt in Coins mode most of the time. You can always go back over the area again after you get more proficient. Second, lower that Sensitivity down to 4 bars, maybe 3. The factory setting is way too high in most areas for stable operation, especially for a newbie. I bought one of the first 250's and thought it was messed up. Signals all over the place and nothing under the coil. Third, make sure you keep that coil flat and about an inch off the top of the grass during your swings. Tipping it up at the end of your swings make it false sometimes and you will be chasing ghosts. Fourth, use that Sniper in heavy trash sites. It will get right in amongst the junk and ferrett out the treasures. Fifth, you can't swing the 250 too fast. It's recovery time is among the best of any machine out there. If you get a faint, deep signal, whip the coil fast over it and it will give you a solid signal.
Now...... pinpointing!! The concensus here is that on shallow stuff, you pinpoint to the center tip of the inside coil by finding your target, moving off 6", press pinpoint, move back over your target, center the signal, and then slide the coil back till the signal drops off. The target should then be right at the front tip of your inside coil. Clear as mud, right?? Deep targets should pinpoint right in the notch at the center of the coil. Personally, that's where I pinpoint everything, by raising the coil a little on shallow stuff. Always make sure to move off the target BEFORE pressing Pinpoint!!!
Well gotta go get ready to hunt!! Good luck, Dog!!
Managed to find abotu 47 cents. I had a wail of a time figuring out how it read and such. My buddy's g/f Bobbi (gotta love that woman!) wanted to try, and she found the first quarter and nickel. (I got dibs on the first dime found though) I found that if I moved REAL slow, like an inch a second, it would pick up better. I switched over from teh sniper coil back to the standard coil and got better results it seemed. Strange thing is, it was reading as $1 and all I managed to find was a penny just under a layer of dust?
ALSO, I have a ? I need answered. Does the PINPOINT setting on those coils refer to DEAD CENTER of the coil, END of the coil, or ANYWHERE UNDER the coil? Anyone out there who can answer that would bea hero to me! LOL
First step is PRACTICE
I keep a small plastic tray with a silver dime in the center under 2 in of dirt for this reason. I don't need the practice now but a new coil or machine it will be handy till then it just sets out by the barn. After half hour of pin pointing you will know by the way the ace sounds the coin is under the sweet spot of your coil & 9 out of 10 times want need the pin point. Shallow coins give a double bell tone sound again try it in your yard just lay a dime on the ground. The meter is the machines best GUESS its right more than its wrong. If you get a tone both ways dig it. Shoot dig some of the ones you can't get a lock on and see whats making it do what its doing.I can't pass up steel bottle cap (on old sites) that only hit one direction because a coin on edge or near big iron junk will sometimes just hit one way.
Step two is PRACTICE
In Response To: Question on Batteries (Jack NJ)
Those batteries should work fine. I suggest you get recharge-ables. The cost so little and should give you a couple of years worth of detecting if you detect a fair amount. more if you detect less. I just threw out some recharge-ables that I have been using for about 3 years, and I charged them up after or before each hunt.
Ace 250 Info
Ace 250
1. The Ace 250 is very sensitive to small objects like foil. A little piece of foil will make it ring solid like a nickel. In that respect it reminds me of a Tesoro.
2. I found a target and changed my sweep speed from slow to fast and it didn't seem to affect the way the 250 sounded on the target. I am going to try this out some more so I find the correct sweep speed.
3. On targets that read only one way every one I dug so far was junk.
4. One thing I like about the Ace 250 is the custom program as in some junky areas I notched out the nickel area and only went after pennies and up. This helped me in one area where it was beeping all over the place because of foil and iron. It is a very sensitive detector and works great on small jewelry items.
If you are in the coins mode & hit "-" it will take you to all metal.
Air Test Ace 250
I got about 7" on a Quarter & 6" on a Nickel with the Factory Settings.
Posted by Coinist (OH) May 9,2005 on Coinist's MD Forum
I dug a few "silent" pinpoint mode targets and they were iron every time.
1. foil will wander and also read a lot deeper than it is
2. fast adds a bit of depth actually. A trick with the 1200 series of fishers is to park above the target detuned and sweep out quickly, if it rings out it is probably a good target. I have to try this with this unit.
3.Yup, if it doesn't hit consistently walk away. even a small blip that is repeatable is worth the effort, usually. 1913 1/2 penny with a square nail up against it in the latest case.
Posted by sa1ka May 9,2005 on Coinist's MD Forum
My views on the 250:
1. A really good machine for trashy areas.
2. Loves to eliminate iron
3. Lets you know if the target is big
4. Pinpoints like a laser, except big targets
5. Light as a feather
6. Great notching
7. Strange behavior in pinpoint mode sometimes?
8. No volume gradient on deep targets
9. Stem wobble, fixed with O rings
10. Seems to max out at 8", silver quarter
11. will miss deep dimes
12. loves nickels
13. cannot let a piece of copper go by
So all in all a great machine for the park and school yard, I haven't hunted the beach with it yet. The depth gauge is spot on for coin sized items and rings. The id works quite well, good enough to let you know when it is iron or 99% sure that it is a tab and not a coin. I would welcome a larger coil for it also to see if this can get it over the depth hump. but hey for 3c Canadian no complaints what-so-ever.
This leaves me knowing that I will get a second unit that is more suited to deep soil conditions and that either has auto track or manual GB.
Ace 250 Trick:
If you are getting an intermittent high tone, set the coil down on the ground as close to the area as you can, and let it rest for a second or two, sweep slowly and see if it goes away, if it does so should you....junk 100% of the time from my experience.
Posted by sa1ka May 18,2005 on Coinist's MD Forum
Ace 250
Three distinct tones... the low tone for iron, the mid tone for nickels, etc, and the the higher bell tone for the coins. What I mean be bell tone is that instead of a "Ding" that ends abruptly, you get a resonating "Diiiiiiiing". Very noticeable difference.
As far as sounding off so much in this set up... I've noticed that if a target initially id's as one thing, it might id again as another (junk target), but it will sound both tones. Maybe it's a feature to let you know that you don't have a repeatable tone, and they fail to mention it in the book??? Don't know, but that has been my experience.
Good luck! Let me tell you... if the Ace 250 marks a stable, steady target, you got something nice to dig!
Posted by beetle662(KY) May 23,2005 on Coinist's MD Forum
The Yeller Feller..
Took my Garrett ace 250 for a run in my local park. Got several dollars in change from recent drops to 4 inches. Meter ID'd coins accurately and of course in the nickel range picked up some trash which I would with more expensive units also. Pinpointing was right on and depth accurate.
12 ID facets was adequate as heck my expensive CZ only has 6 facets. If I tried to run the sensitivity near max. did get some bongs as I call them which was sort of like a half belltone.
On the way home stopped by a river bank where you sort of need one leg longer than the other and the lightweight came in handy. Pulled a wheatie and a silver roosie both at 5-6 inches..
Unit is well made and is long enough for my 6'2" frame or could easily be handled by a youngster. I found the unit user friendly with my experience, but perhaps a newbie may take a bit to get the hang of it by reading the manual, but shouldn't take long as its all in front of you with the press of a button. Had a slight wobble and would like to see locks on the connectors, but a piece of tape quickly made it solid. At its low price is easily most bang for the buck and has many facets found on expensive detectors. Everyone worries about depth and took it to my test plot and got a dime and nickel at 6 inches and quarter at 8 so it had adequate depth.
I know I jumped around a bit as not used to writing product reports. In conclusion its a low priced, well made, light, user friendly unit with moderate depth and would serve an old timer or newbie very well. Yep kind of liked the bright yellow color and the new designed coil as well.
Posted by Dan-Pa. May 23,2005 on Coinist's MD Forum
GOLD- It is one of the easiest detectors which pick up a nickel conductivity target, yet the tone it gives off will tell you if it's a pull-tab or nickel/gold ring probable target. If you could scroll back on this forum for a couple of years, you would find a very high percentage of gold rings found.
DEPTH/DISCRIMINATION- It is one of the easiest machines to tell both the depth of a signal and whether it is probable junk or not. When sliding the coil backwards towards the target to pinpoint on the center of the inner toe, the audio of a shallow shollow target (1-2") will suddenly stop as you continue to pull the target toewards you. Also....The tone sound made for a shallow target also alerts you if it is a coin or ring using this same method. Using your ears, eyes and meteras a combo allows you to do some fairly probability assessments. Should the target not suddenly stop....means it is deep and maybe junk.
In Response To: I think I'm outgrowing my 250--need advice (morglan)
When you get a signal that's tricky or just one-way don't leave it. Do the "twitch" over the target and it may turn out to be a good signal. And always scan it from different directions. And don't depend entirely on the display to determine what the target is. THese readings are probable not 100% accurate. Your detector can't see the target anymore than you can.
A 100 hours is not enough time to be swapping detectors. You still have some learning to do on the 250.
Bill
In Response To: I think I'm outgrowing my 250--need advice (morglan)
I doubt your missing out on very much because the machine is incapable of detecting the coins your after. Alot of it has to do with your confidence in the equiptment (and you should be very confident with the 250}, and how thorough your working the sites. Do you have the little sniper coil in your arsenal,, to nit pick the heck out of old foundations and sidewalks? Do you slow down to almost an agonzing pace in likely areas.? Do you believe in your abilities to find stuff? I would venture to say, that about 80 percent of metal detecting is just believing you can and will find something. I started off with a early 70s model Garrett coin hunter. They called them lunchbox detectors, because they are large and heavy. I will tell you though, I believed (and still do), that that old detector could find plenty of coins and jewelry, and it defintely did. I only upgraded to the 1350, because the old coin hunter is so heavy. HH Steve
Good amount coins you found Mark. One thing to note about using the Ace in sand is use it in All Metal Mode and dig every signal. Some of the nickels, dimes and quarters don't register in the Coin range. It's totally different in the sand compared to the dirt.
DJ
In Response To: newbie needs help with pennies and 250??? (ace250mn)
Where were you hunting? Tot lots are a great place for pennies. New pennies (made after 1982, made of zinc) will register under the penny icon. Older pennies (pre 1982, and made out of copper) will register under the dime icon. Give it a chance, you will soon be finding other coins. I have been using an ACE 250 for a year now. Enjoy!!!
In Response To: Discriminating for Gold rings (Scott - Burnaby,BC)
Depending on composition rings hit all over the place but rings with high gold content will hit in the nickel/foil range. To guarantee success I would hunt in all metal and dig it all and unless you have a really large area to cover I would use the stock coil or better yet the Sniper if you have one. The 250 hits hard on rings or any small object.
In Response To: Discriminating for Gold rings (Scott - Burnaby,BC)
That ring will likely hit in the "foil" range, maybe nickel. I've found quite a few lady's rings by digging foil. The foil you do dig will be shallow and easily recovered.
In Response To: Re: Discriminating for Gold rings (Scott - Burnaby,BC)
I don't own a 250, but have 6 other machines (including the 150 and 2500). One responder was correct, in that gold can read 'all over the place', depending on content and size. Generally, small, fine gold will read in the foil-range. But I'd go quite a bit higher than the 'nickel' icon - I've had a few gold rings read in the 'low-penny' area. Dig the shallow targets first. Good luck!
JOHNMARKHAM
New member
wow now thats some info...great job...
thanks for the tid bits...
thanks for the tid bits...
When swinging over target watch depth meter if it jumps from say 2 inches to 6 inches it is probably a can or a elongated object coins will jump like 2 inches to 3 inches as you pass over depending on depth.If using large coil and you get a coin deep it will bell sound and then a break and the bell sound probably deep coin also pinpoint and the stomp ground to kind of break it loose like sending small earthquake down it disturb the soil around object then take another reading should help.When in a lot of junk and you hear bell tone walk round object and swing if you are hearing short bell tone there is probably a coin keep swinging over area until you start to pull signal out remember the bell tone response is about a 2 second delay so when you hear it you already passed over the object need to look back a inch or two on ground to see where the signal really is.Remember signal strength is coming out of coil going down is sort of like a v as you draw coil back to you to pinpoint the deeper the coin the sooner it leaves the coils filed so as you draw back a coin 2 to 4 inches would be under the tip the deeper the coin the farther back from coil tip toward you we are only talking inch or two.The sniper coil when pinpointing is usually in middle of coil.Have all the coils for ace 250 like the sniper best and then 9x12 and the 10x14 ex coil they all work well the stock coil is OK.To reset back to factory setting when turning it on keep button pressed till it beeps or reset it self.Also you can shrink target when you swing over it by pinpointing and re pinpointing have to ask some one else to explain that.Hope this helps