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Should I upgrade or not?

J

jtomln

New member
I bought a Garrett Ace 250 about 2 months ago. I've done well with it in playgrounds and parks. I'm really after the old coins, not clad.
I have been searching 2 parks that date to the 1700's and 1868. I also have access to a farmhouse from 1800. Will my Ace 250 get down deep enough to find good stuff? Should I buy the larger coil for the 250 or should I step up to something else.

I've been looking at the GTI 1500 and the GTP 1350. Would it be worth the cost or should I spend a summer getting good with the Ace 250 and then consider a upgrade? Just wanted some advice from you more experienced coin shooters. Thanks
Jack
 
This is only my opinion. I would get used to the Ace first. Don't rush to upgrade. See how the Ace does at your locations and go from there. Hope to see some picts of your finds. HH Joe:super:
 
It depends? Are you getting the most out of the 250? Meaning : are you maximizing the sensitivity at all sites and areas? Or do you set the sens at 3 or 4 and forget it? Are you reducing your disc? Meaning : Are you using coin mode all the time? I believe until you run your detector's sens right at the edge of being unstable and hunting in relic or all metal mode your not getting the absolute performance of your 250. Plus the 9x12 coil will get you up to 2 more inches in depth. Are you digging iffy targets? You should. At least some every once in a while to see what they are.
Little story about depth of the 250 with the big coil. Me and my brother were hunting a fresh water sand beach last Sunday. He was running his Fisher CZ5. This machine is known for it's depth. I also had one myself and can say it may be the best land detector Fisher ever made. Well he was running his stock 8 inch coil at maximum sensitivity. I was using the 250 with the big coil. I was running my sens at 5 bars. I was scooping targets 8 inches deep easy. I had him check some of my targets with his CZ5. Lot's of my targets the Fisher wouldn't beep on. So I can tell you the 250 with the 9x12 in the right places is as deep as any.
 
I would hold off. Getting a larger or smaller coil will open up a whole new whelm of possibilities. two months isn't very long at all. When you get to the point where you can tell the machine what's under the coil, not the other way around, indicates that you have mastered your detector.

Good luck with whatever you do :thumbup:
 
Good advice John. I know that some people buy detectors dreaming of gold coins, silver bars and hidden treasure chests. Heck in 1984 I did too! But after 1000 pull tabs, 200 deep rusty nails and 500 wads of chewing gum foil the dream fades. Then you start thinking "must be my detector?" If I buy a better detector I WILL be successful! Then after buying a higher priced detector you find it beeps on pull tabs just as good! It's a hobby. When I can pay for my batteries with my clad then I'm happy! Any more is just a bonus!
 
jtomln said:
I bought a Garrett Ace 250 about 2 months ago. I've done well with it in playgrounds and parks. I'm really after the old coins, not clad.
I have been searching 2 parks that date to the 1700's and 1868. I also have access to a farmhouse from 1800. Will my Ace 250 get down deep enough to find good stuff? Should I buy the larger coil for the 250 or should I step up to something else.

I've been looking at the GTI 1500 and the GTP 1350. Would it be worth the cost or should I spend a summer getting good with the Ace 250 and then consider a upgrade? Just wanted some advice from you more experienced coin shooters. Thanks
Jack
Click to expand...

I did order a pinpointer because I've dug some deeper holes and seem to never find what it tells me is "still there". I'll dig more "iffy targets" once I have the pinpointer too. I'm already hooked on this hobby and once (or should say WHEN) I find a nice old coin I'll be hooked forever :) Here's some of my finds so far. The necklace is sterling, but the ring and bracelet aren't marked. By the way, 3 of those pennies are wheaties.
 
I think your doing great! If you get your coil over an old silver coin it WILL beep! You don't fish for trophy size Bass in a fresh dug pond. Then when you do find an old lake known to have huge Bass in them you don't fish the middle of the lake. You fish next to trees, rocks, Lilly Pads and Cat tails. This is where the big ones live and eat. It's the same with dirt fishing. Could it be your lake is fished out? Maybe some? You just may have to venture out from the obvious places and snag a BIG ONE!
 
I have four Garrett's at home and two on loan. The ones at home are 250, 1350, 1500, and 2500. Guess which one I use the most. The ACE is the one that stays in the car with me at almost all times. The rest are 'special' trip hunters that get packed and taken when I'm after something specific rather than just 'hunting'. Stick with it. You will eventually want something else, but I'd suggest you don't even then want to get rid of the 250. It's just a fun machine to use. After you've paid for the ACE with your finds, including the clad. Then you've 'earned' the right, and probably had the knowledge to upgrade and select the right machine for the type of hunting you enjoy most. BTW, my 250 does not get loaned.....
 
i started with a garret gtax 550 since then have had a 250,750,and a 1500 now i like to hunt the older stuff too.i guess i just got to know my 550 best because its the only one i still have.i have hunted with people who hunt with higher dollar machines and found just as good or better finds.
 
Let's say you are getting 6 inches of depth with your Ace 250. I seem to recall reading in some Garrett literature that you'll probably get around 20 percent more depth with the GTI series detectors. That's 1.2 extra inches. The actual depth you get will vary widely between sites and at different times of year (ground moisture) and with about a dozen or more other factors. I used an ACE 250 and upgraded to a GTI 2500. If I had to estimate I would say I found targets with the 250 down to around 6 inches (sometimes deeper in perfect conditions) and now down to around 8 inches (same comment) with the GTI 2500 in discriminate mode. Where the GTI 2500 really excels is with imaging and with depth in the True All-Metal Mode with which I have found coins at a foot and even deeper. It takes a pretty long time to recover coins that deep. Not my favorite type of hunting but many enjoy it.

As our friendly Uncle often says, deeper does not mean older. He has written that he has found clad at 8 inches and silver at an inch within a few feet of each other. So have I. So has most everybody probably. That said. good technique is the key to finding deep coins. Dig iffy signals that deep silver and coppers sometimes give. Search areas other detectorists might have overlooked at heavily hit sites. Find sites that others might have overlooked.

Go out some day to you favorite site and measure the depth you are actually recovering coins at. Be precise. You might be surprised.

I don't find all that many silver coins. I do find a lot of everything else including silver and gold jewelry. I think in the past 17 months I've dug around 40 silver and one gold coin. In that time I've dug around 17000 clad coins. FWIW I would have a difficult time using an Ace 250 now after using a 2500 for the past 14 months.

Chris
 
You seem to do well enought with the ACE.:detecting:
They suggest at lease 100 hours to get the starting benefits at what the detctor is telling you.
Don,t forget that people have been detecting for 60 years or more which would translate in less older coins to be found.
 
In my humble and professional opinion based on 44 years behind beepers of all kinds get the big coil for the 250 and it will go as deep as you want to dig. Like others you're caught up in the myth that all old coins are buried halfway to China. They ain't. The age of a coin has absolutely nothing to do with the depth at which it will be found. The 250 will go as deep as the other machines and with the big coil you'll add another 2-3 inches or more. What you're buying on the upper end detectors is more bells and whistles not mind boggling depth ( with the exception of the 2500 ). You have to realize that much of the popularity and addiction to the 250 and it's sizzling sales is due to the fact that Garrett sneaked a lot of their goodies from their expensive detectors into the lowly little 250 and offered it at an affordable price..

Bill
 
Yeah I field tested the 550 when it first came out and it will find just as much as all the other tectors and it likes rings. Detecting is 90% operator and 10% machine. Learn your machine well until you know it inside and out and you can take on anybody regardless of their choice of machines. When you and your machine become one you automatically have the edge on everyone else who hasn't done so. Too much emphasis is placed on detectors as if they are some magic wand that will open up the doors to the treaures of the world. They are just an electronic tool - nothing else. Learn how to use them properly and they will reward you. Use them improperly and you will be left frustrated at the starting gate.

Bill
 
Yeah the CZ5 is a depth demon for sure but the 250 will jump right in there with it. One of the unexpected surprises that Charles Garrett and crew slipped into the little Yeller Feller. When Garrett sent me the proto to test some years back they said be prepared to be surprised and they weren't wrong. I couldn't fathom that they had put so much in a $200 detector.

Bill
 
The name of the game is not updating so much as learning to do good research. After you have learned your detector then you should learn to do research. Old coins are still there. Just not as many. I used to think if only I had that high dollar detector I would find older coins. Thirty one years later and about fifty detectors later I am doing much better with my Ace 250 than all the other detectors I have had. A detector is only a tool. Finding where no one else has hunted is the key.....Jack
 
Yeah some time ago I recovered three Barber coins in the same hole under a big tree root at a measured 14 plus inches with the 2500 and stock coil. .Had a helluva time getting them out and wouldn't want to do it on a daily basis. With the right kind of conditions the 250 will get coins at ten inches I've dug many quarters at that depth in bark chips. Garrett coils seem to do better on depth than other brands. It's like the 4.5 inch Sniper. The rule of thumb is that a coil's depth equals its diameter but the lowly little Sniper will get nearly double that or about seven inches. The coil is the heart of any detecor and designed right it will perform wonders.

Bill
 
Yeah and passing your coil over the right spot. Most common coins will fit into an area of one square inch and if you are just hunting a plot 10' x 10' there are 14,400 square inches in that 10' x 10' area and it is impossible to cover them all with a detector because the standard concentric coil is only covering an area about one-inch square at peak depth, so in order to even come remotely close one would have to scan then move the coil one inch forward and scan again, etc., etc.

Bill
 
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