Chris Crawford
New Member
I've been researching metal detectors for a while, and one of my co-workers told me that he an ACE 350. He said that he hadn't used it for a couple of years and that I was welcome to borrow it.
It was a beautiful day here in NE Mississippi this past weekend, so on Saturday afternoon my 14 year old son and I took the detector out to my in-laws old home place. On our way, we stopped by Harbor Freight and picked up a cheep pinpointer. (Yea, I know...)
We had no idea how to use the detector other than some instructional YouTube videos that I'm guessing probably came with the unit on a DVD or something when it was new. Needless to say, we didn't really know what we were doing.
At first we were getting all kinds of beeps and tried to dig up whatever might have been making it go off. However, we weren't finding anything. But then we finally found our first object. It was a can tab, but you would think we had found gold. We were so glad and encouraged just to find something!
As we got more familiar with the unit we started having better results. After hitting on what appeared to be a target, we would turn the sensitivity as far down as we could and still get a response. This helped us better pinpoint the target before digging, and it greatly increased our finds.
One of our goals was to find a coin, and we ended up finding a 1984 penny. Nothing special at all, but it was a victory because it was a coin found. I also considered all of the other findings a victory as well, even the trash.
I don't know how many times after I said that we needed to be going that my son would say "just one more", and I would easily give in. I believe we are both hooked. The best find of all was hanging out with my boy and doing something exciting together.
So with all of that said, here are some of the things we found.
- A few can tabs
- An old garden hose connector made of brass
- Something with a small knob that looks like part of a latch
- Something small and shiny that looks like part of a watch clasp
- The 1984 penny
- A piece of a car emblem that has "Ford" on the back
- An old ring that looks like it was part of a horse or mule rig
- And an old band that might have come off an old wooden bucket or barrel
The interesting thing about the old band is that it's circumference is greater on one edge than the other. This is what makes me think it went around something that was tapered like a bucket or barrel.
It was a beautiful day here in NE Mississippi this past weekend, so on Saturday afternoon my 14 year old son and I took the detector out to my in-laws old home place. On our way, we stopped by Harbor Freight and picked up a cheep pinpointer. (Yea, I know...)
We had no idea how to use the detector other than some instructional YouTube videos that I'm guessing probably came with the unit on a DVD or something when it was new. Needless to say, we didn't really know what we were doing.
At first we were getting all kinds of beeps and tried to dig up whatever might have been making it go off. However, we weren't finding anything. But then we finally found our first object. It was a can tab, but you would think we had found gold. We were so glad and encouraged just to find something!
As we got more familiar with the unit we started having better results. After hitting on what appeared to be a target, we would turn the sensitivity as far down as we could and still get a response. This helped us better pinpoint the target before digging, and it greatly increased our finds.
One of our goals was to find a coin, and we ended up finding a 1984 penny. Nothing special at all, but it was a victory because it was a coin found. I also considered all of the other findings a victory as well, even the trash.
I don't know how many times after I said that we needed to be going that my son would say "just one more", and I would easily give in. I believe we are both hooked. The best find of all was hanging out with my boy and doing something exciting together.
So with all of that said, here are some of the things we found.
- A few can tabs
- An old garden hose connector made of brass
- Something with a small knob that looks like part of a latch
- Something small and shiny that looks like part of a watch clasp
- The 1984 penny
- A piece of a car emblem that has "Ford" on the back
- An old ring that looks like it was part of a horse or mule rig
- And an old band that might have come off an old wooden bucket or barrel
The interesting thing about the old band is that it's circumference is greater on one edge than the other. This is what makes me think it went around something that was tapered like a bucket or barrel.
First dug target: can tab. Somehow, that is hilarious. Reminds me of the time a buddy of mine went ice fishing in Canada. When the fishing guides asked him what he caught, and he said he caught "a perch", they just roared laughing! He never did figure out what was so funny, though. 
