A Little Disappointed

[simonthesearcher]

All the advice has been given here,time is on your side and thats what it takes

[ual10]

Be patient, practice with some coins,etc. in the yard. The Ace is a good pinpointer, just put some hours into it and you'll find the stuff. Everyone digs up trash no matter what kind of detector you own. I found enough to pay for My Ace 250 in first season of detecting. Also, a hand-held pinpointer speeds up recoveries in holes. Just put some time in the machine. Happy hunting...

[amxfred]

I bought the Ace 150 to pack in my suitcase when I take short business trips and it is a big waste of time. I dug up my father-in-laws front yard and found nothing but nails when it beeped eight times as a coin. It is never accurate in dirt but it is awesome in tot lots with mulch. So that is where I use it. I called Garrett and they told me to send it back but I didn't. I know it is a cheap machine but $150 is still $150. I have christened my Ace 150 as my official tot-lot detector. This is how I justify my spending the money and it gives the Ace 150 a purpose.

[dogpound]

the best advice is practice and time on your machine. and also don't think that silver and gold coins are just scattered all over the country side, do some research, get some old topo maps and find out where people gathered back in the day. many people get discouraged when they don't find old coins right away. keep searching and you'll start finding the good stuff

[don716]

Don't give up. It does take some time to understand your machine. When I first bought my GTA500 back in 95 I thought I was going to go out and get rich after reading all the magazines. I went out and hunted and dug everything it hit on. I found Junk, Junk, and more Junk. It took me a while and I even gave up a few times but finally I figured the sounds out and started finding more good hits. I started finding rings,coins everywhere. It was alot more fun then. I moved up to the GTI 2000 which was a much better machine. I found more and wanted more. I got in the mood for a new machine so now I have the MXT Pro. I think it's going to be a great machine. I will have to learn the sounds,bells,whistles all over again but it will be worth it. I'm wanting GOLD now. So the more time you spend hunting the better you will become. Good Luck and Happy Hunting.
Donny

[Blueonceagain]

Originally Posted by amxfred

I bought the Ace 150 to pack in my suitcase when I take short business trips and it is a big waste of time. I dug up my father-in-laws front yard and found nothing but nails when it beeped eight times as a coin. It is never accurate in dirt but it is awesome in tot lots with mulch. So that is where I use it. I called Garrett and they told me to send it back but I didn't. I know it is a cheap machine but $150 is still $150. I have christened my Ace 150 as my official tot-lot detector. This is how I justify my spending the money and it gives the Ace 150 a purpose.

I had an ace 250 and never dug a single nail with it and found plenty of good stuff in fields.Dont know whats wrong with yours.

[Rob479]

Originally Posted by Blueonceagain

I had an ace 250 and never dug a single nail with it and found plenty of good stuff in fields.Dont know whats wrong with yours.

You were hunting fields, he was hunting a front yard of a house with construction nails lying around ...

[Blueonceagain]

Originally Posted by Rob479

You were hunting fields, he was hunting a front yard of a house with construction nails lying around ...

I was hunting fields with nails everywhere.I couldnt move for signals in all metal.

[Rob479]

Originally Posted by Blueonceagain

I was hunting fields with nails everywhere.I couldnt move for signals in all metal.

He said he had an ace 150...you had the 250

So then you discriminated the nails? Or, just went by sounds and luckily never dug a nail?

[Blueonceagain]

Heres me thinking they were the same machine as far as eliminating nails go.Maybe Ive been misinformed.Do you have no idea of what is in an area you hunt?I always like to see whats there and then set the discrimination accordingly.1000 years of farming produces a lot of nails.Of course Im talking about rusty ones.A modern construction site would probably have different types so that may be his problem.

[Rob479]

Originally Posted by Blueonceagain

Heres me thinking they were the same machine as far as eliminating nails go.Maybe Ive been misinformed.Do you have no idea of what is in an area you hunt?I always like to see whats there and then set the discrimination accordingly.1000 years of farming produces a lot of nails.Of course Im talking about rusty ones.A modern construction site would probably have different types so that may be his problem.

Sounds like he just needs more time with his detector apparently, not sure if he knows how to DISC.

[Boatnut]

Hey All, I was able to get out for an hour on Sunday, I went to a "tot lot" and spent more time learning than hunting, I think that I now have an idea what sounds I am listening for. I did play with the sensitiviy a little, and low and behold it said DIME, and I dug the dime,,FIRST COIN, then two pieces of what apeared to be parts of ear rings. So much better, will keep trying and learning. I am starting to believe that the first area i went to was just an extremly target rich inviroment. A little over whelming for a newbie.

[DIGGER27]

There you go, patience is a virtue and we all have to go through this stage.
You will get better with each signal you hear and each hole you dig.

Something to think about...
I read this a long time ago and it stuck.

Let's say you don't know how to swim so you go to the library and study...hard!
You learn about flotation, water displacement and several strokes, how to breath and everything else you can find on the subject.
You now know all the mechanics of swimming, confidence is high, so you jump in a pool to try out your new-found knowledge.
You will most likely sink right to the bottom and drown.
Oh, you will know why you are drowning, thanks to all the book learning, but all that knowledge you learned won't help you at all in that situation.

The only way to learn to swim is to get in the water and practice.

Same with this hobby...same with most other things, too.

Keep going, you're doing fine!

HH

[Hoze513]

Iam a newbie too. And when I started to use my detector the same thing happen. I had my stem as far out as it goes. That was causing my detector to give out false signals. So I adjusted the stem not so far out. That help me out. Make sure to keep any kind of metal out of pockets.

[Silverfishin]

Or after you target something dig a little then use a pin pointer to see what your metal detector was screamin about : )

[Rob479]

Originally Posted by DIGGER27

Also, when you are new, it might be hard to recognize small pieces of metal that are dirt colored.
You might have gotten it out of the hole and never knew it on a lot of those empty holes.

[diggerTmole]

Dunno if this has been covered yet but make sure your cable isnt loose. if my 250 has any slack in the cable it goes wild falsing EVERY swing.

[NHKeith]

Originally Posted by seizetheday

alright, i know i'm a newbie too but i just got an ace 350 which i understand is quite comparable and 2 days ago i was ready to wrap it around a pole for the same reason. I did 5 things that helped me start pinpointing better and locating about 8 out of 10 of my targets (maybe not that good, but again, i'm new to this). 1) i extended the stem as long as it would go so the metal in my shoes did not interfere. 2) i reduced the sensitivity to only 3-4 bars. 3) i switched to jewelry mode. 4) i put a penny on the ground and followed the directions in the user manual on pinpointing and made sure it was working the way it should (it was spot on). 5) i made sure the cable was wrapped snug around the stem. After doing these i went to the local tot lot, where the unofficial metal detecting club has unscheduled meetings, and found a coin there. Then to my yard and found 2 coins, and a lot of odd and end things. Needless to say i am feeling a lot better and i'm sure you will also if you just give it time and get to know that magnificent machine.

P.s. As soon as i can get the funds together i'm investing in a pro pointer. I understang these really help pinpoint those hard to find items.

propointer. Best accessory!

[GMG]

Sounds defective to me, ive made some great finds with my Ace. If it says something is down there - it always is.

[Silversmith45]

I would save the larger coil until you learn your machine. They are harder to pinpoint than a smaller coil and can cover more targets at the same time. after digging a target, always check your hole again.