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Ace 250 + beach?

M

Majorgeek

New member
Just when I thought I was getting the hang of this thing (I can detect when to skip bottles caps and foil, know when I found change and so on) and the tide came in higher then usual and now this detector is unusable on the wet sand. I read somewhere here to set the sensitivity down to 4? Will that allow for more accurate beach combing if it is wet? Set it to coins first?

Also, I bought this last year and I am still learning since I was waiting for my chance to hit the beaches in Florida with a strainer for faster digging. So, what detector might be better for next time around or should the Ace hold me over for years to come?

Would love any beach combing tips, both general and relating to tuning the Ace 250 for the beach. Thanks in advance!
 
You should have your sensitivity at four no matter where you hunt. In wet sand you'll need to go lower until your machine settles down enough to hunt with. Remember, wet sand contains salt and salt is a mineral.

Bill
 
4 worked well on the wet sand, however I can use 5-7 no problem on soft sand. Where waves end, I was able to reach 5-6 in some not so wet spots.

Uncle, you mentioned 4 all the time, could you explain further for me?

Oh, only searched an hour, got a couple of pennies and some junk :) Made the mistake of trying a less populated area near condos, should have stuck to restaurant and hotel areas.
 
When I field tested the prototype and the production model I found that four worked best for all around hunting due to Garrett's overly sensitive coils. Most of the guys that use 250's run at four bars. When you crank the sensitivity up you make the coil more sensitive to the target you hope to find but you also make it more sensitive to every piece of junk that was ever lost plus all the mineralization in the ground, and these elements can actually mask good targets. Cranking the sensitivity up doesn't drive the signal deeper into the ground as many think. It just makes it more sensitive to everything in the ground.

Some years back one of my members ran his 2500 at high sensitivity and thought he had cleaned a particular park out. I told him to drop his sensitivity down to 6 and go back over that same park. He was amazed to find a slew of old coins he had missed before. Just give it a try. If it works, fine. If it doesn't - go back to your original settings.

Bill
 
Excellent, I suspect you are dead on and will take that approach tommorow in an area I am more familiar with and is more crowded. Thanks for your time.
 
O.k, I took your advice and ran my 250 at a 4 setting today. In the past two days I literally netted TWO pennies one day and a quarter and a penny the next. Today, I spent 1 hour again and got 5 pennies, 1 dime, 1 nickel, a flask top (not pictured), a button or pin, a room key and a matchbox. I mistakenly dug up a tin soda can (which I threw away) a Starbucks top and once found nothing. While it is certainly not a jackpot, it is a sign of things to come. I stuck to the edge of the beach looking for easy marks today. I found a spot off the beach near a playground that was pinging like mad on even the 3 setting, but needed more time to dig to see what might be under it :)Thanks again Uncle Willy, without your help I might have given up frustrated at some point, but now I am ready to go :)
 
Hey you're doing okay. Detecting ain't as easy as it sounds. It require patience, practice, and perseverance. Try that four setting for awhile and see how you do. Hit some schools, playgrounds, tot lots, soccer fields and such and see what you come up with. It gets better as you go along. Just keep plugging away.

Bill
 
I found that to get the best out of the Ace at the beach in wet sand, you can run your sensitivity at 5 bars. As reducing the sensitivity alone will not help stabilise the Ace, if you knock out the bottom 3 notches of discrimination as well, then you will have a fairly stable detector. The coil doesn't like waves crashing over it.
Mick Evans.
 
Hi i recently had a big disappointment with my new bh lone star i had purchased as what i thought was going to be my first half descent detector.It went crazy on every sweep in all metal mode even with senc backed right off.I just could not stabilize it no matter what i did i tried new batteries. made sure cable was secure to bottom stem even took it to a new site but still the same so i sent it back for refund:sadwalk:.I have now purchased my ace 250 this weekend should be with me Tuesday or Wednesday i hope its as good as its rated by most:wiggle:.I live on the English east Kent coast here in the UK :ukflag:and will be using mainly on my local salt water beaches. At first i was not sure as i have read that it does play up on wet sand.But after doing more research on this forum it appears that you can have success with a few adjustments mainly keeping the sence way down so i went ahead and purchased it if i have made a mistake and it is no good i guess i will have to stay on the dry.I also found crackbadgers u tube vid very reassuring anyhow i have made a note off all your helpful beach settings and will be putting them to the test and hopefully my disappointment will be no longer with me and i have found a detector that i will enjoy for years to come:crazy:.
 
It is my first detector as well, be sure to read the manual so you recognize beeping sounds and can work the buttons. As Uncle Willy said, I am using 4 bars 90% of the time. Its unbelieveable the wasted time at anything higher. I swear, I find my first coin now within a minute of starting up. If I go to 5 on the beach, I can get away with it where dry, but it is worth it to stay at 4 and sweep slower, then go faster sweeps at 5 with so many false positives. Let us know how you make out!
 
Most VLF machines without ground balancing don't do well in saltwater or wet salt sand as salt is a mineral. But some folks have good luck with the 250. Hope it works out for you. Keep us posted.

Bill
 
Even VLF machines WITH manual Ground Balance don't do very well in the wet salt sand. Try a Tiger Shark sometimes...yikes!! I had to back the Sens. WAY down and then it was still very unstable. And if a wave hit the coil...ugggghhh!! Good freshwater machine though!!
 
Just a little tip to tell when you have a soda can under your coil.When you pinpoint it; as you slide the coil towards yourself,listen to the way the target fades. Coins fade fairly quickly. A can will hang onto the signal for ages.Anything within 2 inches of the coil, will fade fast, so for those ones, you'd need to raise the coil.
Mick Evans.
 
I received my ace 250 Tuesday morning had a go in my back yard and i had to have senc set on 3 any higher and it was unstable. I found only trash and had difficulty using the pin pointer but i am sure this will get better with practice.I have just got back from a couple of hours down the beach and found a 5p and a 1p on dry sand at about five inches also a few items of trash. I was able to have senc on 8 without any false signals in all metal mode .I went down to the wet and am pleased to say i was able to have senc at 5 with first 2 bars notched out on disc and the ace was nice and stable. I dug out a cheap belt buckle which was a good 6 inches down even though the hole had filled with water i was still getting a good strong signal . A lead fishing weight and several ring pulls all came from the wet sand at several inches.Although i was a bit disappointed with the performance in my yard i am over the moon with the performance down the beach as this will be my main hunting ground.After reading several posts saying how poor it performed in the wet sand i was more than pleased with the way it handled the wet sand for me here in the uk.Hope to find more than trash on my next hunt though 6p was not a lot for a couple of hours of sweeping.
 
I am glad I am seeing some positive usage of the ACE in saltwater. I am waiting for my opportunity to detect my little island. Too many honey do's lately.

Those Gold & Silver coins are calling me

Don
 
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