expert ace 250 advice

[Kseps1983]

Hi everyone,
New to the site and have appreciated reading everyone's stories, info and suggestions. To make this short and sweet...I bought an Ace 250 and have read everything I possibly could to learn the machine. Decided it was a good idea to buy a garrett pro pointer (which I highly recommend to anyone who doesn't have one).

I am looking for advice on using the Ace 250 by MD'ers who have figured their machine out. Like how to identify a good tone? What settings work best for you (mainly searching for gold/silver/coins)? What does a jumpy signal mean? And any more advice on distinguishing trash from treasure would be appreciated.

Thank you in advance for the advice and knowledge, have a good week.

[Bonesquat]

Solid repeatable tones at any depth are a good indicator that you may have a good target. Bouncy deep non ferrous targets should be dug. You'll be surprised at the thing 4+ inches in the ground even if they read nickel or penny or some other junk target. Best way to learn is to dig everything foil and up until you learn the machine.

[acon4433]

It all depends on where you hunt, and what you're looking for. What works for one person in their area, may not exactly work for you in your area. Glad to hear you got a machine, and can't wait to see the finds! That ace will find you some cool stuff!

[sllingshot47]

I have found 2 things that greatly affect the results of using an Ace: Adjusting the sensitiviy to the search area, and getting a sniper coil. Then get out and spend time with it.

[dogpound]

set up a test garden and practice,practice,practice. along with coins also bury some common junk targets like pulltabs, bottlecaps and nails, this way you'll know where they will pop up on the screen and sound like. this is also a big help while learning to pinpoint. also practice diggin plugs in your yard then go to a local park and apply what ya learned there.

[metaladdict]

I found that silver coins register at 10 cents on up. I have found a 1944 merc.(my first silver) Silver quarters register as quarter.
I find Gold jewelry (modern) from alum foil range up to nickels. I have found a gold 18k ring (newer) that rang a solid nonwavering nickel signal.(It was by itself,no trash metal nearby) Hope this helps,Happy Hunting!

[Spm673 (The Jersey Digger)]

Originally Posted by Kseps1983

Hi everyone,
New to the site and have appreciated reading everyone's stories, info and suggestions. To make this short and sweet...I bought an Ace 250 and have read everything I possibly could to learn the machine. Decided it was a good idea to buy a garrett pro pointer (which I highly recommend to anyone who doesn't have one).

I am looking for advice on using the Ace 250 by MD'ers who have figured their machine out. Like how to identify a good tone? What settings work best for you (mainly searching for gold/silver/coins)? What does a jumpy signal mean? And any more advice on distinguishing trash from treasure would be appreciated.

Thank you in advance for the advice and knowledge, have a good week.

The 250 was the first machine I used. Then went to the 350 and now waiting for an ATPro. Any solid signal you hit, just like Bonesquat said, you need to dig it. If you are looking in coin mode, you will still constantly dig bottle caps galore. There is no machine out there that will discriminate them. If you are in jewelry mode you will constantly dig pulltabs. Maybe even 500 of them to every one piece of gold jewelry. The tones that bounce around can be very hard to dig because they are so hard to pinpoint. If you have alot of time that day, dig everything. Me? I didnt dig everything. If it was somewhat bouncing around but somewhat solid I would dig it. But so many of the bouncy signals are hard to get a repeat on. Unless you are on a beach dont dig all metal. Unless you are looking for iron relics. The machine is very accurate though, if its foil it usually foil, if its a pulltab its usually just that. But to find the gold jewelry you have to dig all of those. Some bottle caps give a solid nickel signal. Aluminum siding pieces give solid coins as well. But very often if it says penny, nickel, dime or quarter thats what shows up. Burying coins is tough. I say just learn the sounds and what you dig from them. The more I used it, the less trash I dug. Dig every signal that has the high pitched ping noise and dont dig the low tones...My two cents for ya. Hope this helps!!

[donnyjaguar]

Too true on the aluminum registering as a silver coin. I dug a 12" pit following a solid silver signal. Then I found what I thought was the top of a metal box full of booty. It was a 6"x8" piece of aluminum.

[Jae.999]

I notice the high pitch solid tones (rings) always seem to be coins or jewelry when I set it to all metal. It seems every time I dig up a low tones I find junk. But I dig it all cause you never know what could be under that junk and besides....were cleaning the earth. when I get a radical read where the bars jump from nickel to dollar....it's seems to be junk. That great you got a pro pointer. I got one too and it save allot of time for me. HH
For more advice on the ACE250? look up daddydigger. I think this guy sleeps with his detector cause this cat finds so much with his ACE250. He'll hook you up.

[Midknight]

I have noticed that anything silver always tends to be above the 10c range. Also, targets that ring from quarter to dime to 50c and even a nickel tend to be a coin spill or a silver piece of jewlery.

One final tip: for whatever reason corroded zinc pennies always tend to jump from the penny signal to the signal to the left of it.

[TR Mook]

This could be just me, but one of the complaints I have about the ACE is that there is NO distinguishing tones. They are all beeps. I mean the belltone for anything higher than a dime is the same. The nickel tone is flat and the iron is like a deep grunt. I never understood how someone could have to "listen" very hard to there machine when it only makes three or four sounds. Am I wrong on this? I would love to be because then I would have a better idea of what my machine is saying. Someone please explain this!

[DirtyRob]

When I'm using the ace and I get that high pitched tone....like a bell going off, I know I got at least a coin, pull tab, or a piece of jewelry. It's like the dinner bell ringing...."Come and get it!". When I get those lower tones...I dig just to see what it is...most of the time...it's junk...but you never know! Dig any repeatable signal. And yes, lots of solid dime signals might end up being pennies. All the jewelry that I've found with the ace came up as a solid repeatable nickel signal. And, I also air tested a bunch of different size gold rings....all rang out as a solid repeatable nickel. So, dig all solid nickel signals. That means lots of pull tabs...but how many pull tabs would you dig for one gold ring? Get out there and hunt...there's a learning curve...you'll get better each time you get out!

[Kseps1983]

For all the advice so far, I greatly appreciate it. Thank you everyone.

[stick]

i started out in coin mode and to this day i still hunt 90% of the time with it. the trash that is in the ground down here in texas is unbelievable. i have dug thousands of pull tabs in coin mode. so i guess it's just what you are willing to tolerate. if the area i am hunting seems to have less trash, then i will start to add notchs in the gold settings. here is a picture of the trash i dug up in coin mode at a high school.

[beerdoodle]

Originally Posted by stick

i started out in coin mode and to this day i still hunt 90% of the time with it. the trash that is in the ground down here in texas is unbelievable. i have dug thousands of pull tabs in coin mode. so i guess it's just what you are willing to tolerate. if the area i am hunting seems to have less trash, then i will start to add notchs in the gold settings. here is a picture of the trash i dug up in coin mode at a high school.

Holy Ben-Gay..............................

[Rammjäger]

Originally Posted by DirtyRob

When I'm using the ace and I get that high pitched tone....like a bell going off, I know I got at least a coin, pull tab, or a piece of jewelry. It's like the dinner bell ringing...."Come and get it!". When I get those lower tones...I dig just to see what it is...most of the time...it's junk...but you never know! Dig any repeatable signal. And yes, lots of solid dime signals might end up being pennies. All the jewelry that I've found with the ace came up as a solid repeatable nickel signal. And, I also air tested a bunch of different size gold rings....all rang out as a solid repeatable nickel. So, dig all solid nickel signals. That means lots of pull tabs...but how many pull tabs would you dig for one gold ring? Get out there and hunt...there's a learning curve...you'll get better each time you get out!

Hey Rob,
I have also an ACE 250 ,I was not happy somehow with it.Because
I always had dug holes with dissapearing /ghost signals.
But now i tested the ACE in a different place and I am very happy.
The ACE worked very smooth and signals were all very precise in
All Metal Mode.
Even at a place where there was an iffy signal,I dug it and there
was iron but also copper at the same hole.
Discrimination much was better than I thought !

[stick]

ben gay is right. i dug for 8 straight hrs. 232 coins. 3/4 of which was pennies. i finally convinced myself that it just wasn't worth it. went back a few weeks later after i recovered from all that digging and notched out the pennies. made for a much more pleasant day of digging. i was really surprised to find that the high school had never been hunted before. it was virgin territory.

[scout23]

I would suggest running at 4 bars of sensitivity and hunt in all metal mode. The reason I hunt in all metal mode is, if you disc. out iron and the detector picks up iron it won't pick up anything else till it resets. If a good target is near iron you will never hear it because the iron masked the good target. When I get a iron signal I move coil away till it clears them detect around the iron object, once cleared I move on. Just because your in the "all metal" mode doesn't mean you have to dig it, but at least you'll know where it's at. Also your detector will have greater depth when in all metal. PS I've dug gold down in the foil range to almost penny range, and check possible targets from several angles to get repeatable sigs.

[Rammjäger]

As the ACE has only 3 tones,it is easy to ID these tones .
So you don't have to look down every time into the Display.
I say , All Metall mode is the best while relic hunting too.
Sometimes this iron signal comes together with a high signal,
after you do the big "X" over the target and the high
signal is repeteable enough,I will dig it. Most probaby a coin
or something similar good among iron targets a the same hole

[GoldenEagle]

This is a really good video on using the pinpoint mode for the Ace250. I found out I was doing it wrong all of this time, and now I'm much better at it.
Video Here