newbie, sort of

[milesperhr]

About 5 years ago I bought a cheap Bounty Hunter from a pawn shop and had quite a bit of fun for about 2 months. My son left it outside by the garage, my neighbor was having a garage sale and the bounty hunter disappeared. Last year I bought A Tesoro Cibola, thinking I would take up the hobby again. After about 3 weeks I sold it, because I wasn't having fun trying to figure out the sounds and what was in the ground and digging so much junk.
Yesterday I bought an Ace 250 from my local guy (same price as Kelly co, but without the extras) and decided to give it a try 1 last time. The first hour, I dug everything and found out that when it shows foil - it is foil, when it shows bottle cap - it was a bottle cap. In the last 2 days I have found about $4.25 in clad and 2 sterling silver items (chain and ring). After reading 100's of posts over the past year, I'm not saying the 250 is the best detector. What I did find out is that it works perfect for how I want to detect. I find it more enjoyable to find 25 clad coins in the local park, than try and sift through a trashy old park to find a silver dime or 2 or 3. I also found out that Target ID is something I don't want to detect without. Now I know I could by a much better Target ID machine, but it would not give me more enjoyment. Also, the posts you all have made here have given me good direction and enjoyment as well.
Thank you all. Miles

 

[tab-nabit]

If the area is loaded with trash, the 4.5 sniper coil works well.

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

Welcome to the forum milesperhr. I know where you are coming from as I started the same way. My first detector was a Bounty Hunter tracker4. While I cut my teeth on it, I found it hard to find a target with it, which lead to me being disheartened with it. I bought a Sovereign after that, and still struggled to understand it. 6 weeks later, the X-Terra's came out, and I bought one. This was the first time that I owned a detector with a TID and pinpoint feature that showed depth and wow, what a difference it made to my confidence. 9 months ago, after reading this forum plus some other info on the Ace, I bought one and after I'd mastered it, I find it hard to put down. The pinpoint feature is what I like most about it, as it makes recovering targets Sooooo much easier, which will only boost your confidence. I bought a second hand Explorer a few months back, but find that I keep reaching for the Ace. Manly for it's ease of use and pinpointing ability. It will take you time to get to know it and it's going to lead to frustrations at times ( something that you wan't read about in the posts generally) but as you put a few hours into it, you will become proficient and your confidence will soar. I'm finding that after putting 175 hours on the Ace now, my confidence and knowledge is still growing. It seems that although this is a basic detector (and one of the easiest to learn) once you figure out the basics, then there is still plenty that you can learn from it.
Enjoy the adventure and ask lot's of questions.
Mick Evans.

 

[draaiorgel]

Hey milesperhr,
The important thing is to enjoy and have fun.
Goodies will come to you with practice.

 

[Uncle Willy]

WElcome to the club bud. We all take a hankering to the 250. I've got six Garretts right up to the most expensive one and I walk out the door 95% of the time with the 250. It ain't fancy or technologically exotic but it works and that's all that counts. Enjoy.

Bill

 

[awhitster]

Good luck, I think the Ace is a move in the right direction.