greenhorn on the beach

Welcome to the forum , and good luck with the hobby.

There are better detectors than the Ace for use on the beach. Although I
think you will be hard pressed to get better value for your money, for an all
round machine anyway.

bluefin said:

im a newbie so i dont wanna blow a bunch o cash on a machine. i was looking @ the ace 250 from garret. ill be canvassing the orange county coastline in california . i know the garret will do parks, creek beds,dry sand, etc.... and apparently if i dial the sensitivity down it can do wet sand but not deep. any suggestions for a better all around machine with better wet/salt characteristics
and if you live in the orange county area and have a machine for sale lemme know

Click to expand...

Hello from N.J. For a little more $$$ I would look for a different machine for
the wet sand.The 250 works great on dry land I have seen them in action on
land .Good bang for the buck.Check out the sponsors on this form.Get some info on the AT PRO. Good luck and happy hunting in what ever machine you go with.

Wet sand are most detectors nightmare. Very hard to detect in. Look for one with a manual ground balance to help you get around all the minerals in saltwater.

Ace 250 was my 1st MD and I used it quite a bit in wet salt sand, did pretty well too considering. It didnt get down 6 inches but I found plenty of coins and whatt not. I live in the northeast

bluefin said:

im a newbie so i dont wanna blow a bunch o cash on a machine. i was looking @ the ace 250 from garret. ill be canvassing the orange county coastline in california . i know the garret will do parks, creek beds,dry sand, etc.... and apparently if i dial the sensitivity down it can do wet sand but not deep. any suggestions for a better all around machine with better wet/salt characteristics
and if you live in the orange county area and have a machine for sale lemme know

Click to expand...

The Ace 250 is a good value. A machine that works well for not a lot of money. That said, using it in wet sand is asking it to do something it wasn't designed to do. If you are serious about beach hunting you need to step up to a machine that is designed for that purpose. That means a detector utilizing either PI or FBS technology. They cost $$$.

As for the Ace 250 working in the wet salt sand, yes it will work, kinda. You will find shallow targets. You will also get false targets. You will never know what you've missed. And mostly you will miss the deeper targets in the wet sand.

This was demonstrated this week on a beach in NJ. Reports of big finds attracted many non beach hunters to that beach this past weekend. Everyone went home with something. The non beach hunters went home with a few old coins apiece, not that a few guys didn't do better. The beach hunters, with their Sov Gts and Excals, went home with too many coins to count. They also got most of the rings found this weekend. Same beach, same conditions, multiple more finds. So, Ace 250 versus getting a machine built for the job, depends on which group you want to be part of.

The 250, like a lot of decent detectors in that price range, will do fine in the dry sand and probably give you a few inches in wet sand if you really crank the sensitivity down.

But when you're seeing all those people with beach detectors in the wet sand and the surf, don't be surprised if you come down with a serious case of "detector envy".