Puzzeled about the Ace 250 vs. Sea Hunter Mark II

[Salida]

I decided to check out the YouTuvbe videos watching the Sea Hunter
vs the Ace 250 on the beach. I have never done any beach hunting on
the East or West coast

The footage shows you can select out pull tabs and bottle caps and a lot of
other junk. While the Sea Hunter found most targets it was not able to find a 10K small gold ring.

The Ace 250 on the other hand did not notch out anything but DUG EVERYTHING, it
did find a few rings and impressive amout of pull tabs and bottle caps.

I guess I am left wondering if I am better off just using my Ace 250 when I DO get to
the West coast and forget about buying the the Sea Hunter. To me that seems
logical.

I could really use your experience here:
Question 1....
Why should I use the Sea HUnter Mark II and
not the Ace on the beaches. I do not swim so diving is out. The Ace 250 seemed to preform ok
in wet water by turning the sensitivity down.

Question 2....SInce it is good on dry sand wnat about the Sea Hunter on dry land as well, like
an ocassional park or two, say if Imy Ace was in for repair.

Question 3....What ever happened to DIG EVERYTHING? If I'm digging everything whats the pont of the Sea HUnter?

Thanks

 

[Hank68]

I have not used th SH2 but if they notch out pull tabs and bottle caps you'll miss a lot of jewelry, but it is a pulse induction detector so minerals is the sand doesn't bother it, so I would dig everything since your in the sand, and with a long handled scoop is to easy to dig, all VLF has there limits on the sand more so in the wet sand, As for the 250. , digging everything on the beach is what you want to do,but the PI unit is at home in the sand, I wouldn't notch anything out, dig it all , hank

 

[Salida]

It sounds to me that the olny reason to buy the PI is if you dive, or if you want more depth on the sand. Am
I right about that. How much good stuff am I going to miss with the Ace 250 as compared with the Sea Hunter
open full throttle? If I use my 9x12 coil I can get more depth in all metal mode.
Salida

 

[JimCVA]

If your only detecting the sand there is no reason to have a water detector the Ace 250 work very well on the sand I use mind all the time I also have a Tiger shark I use from time to time. The Ace will out do the Tiger Shark. I detect mostly salt water beachs. JimCVA

 

[jimmy jam]

You are asking to compare two totally different worlds. 700.00 sea hunter or 200.00 dollar ACE . With the SEA Hunter, you will have to dig everything. Its a PI and really dose not discriminate iron, I spend a lot of time digging bobby pins but all the rings i have dug up makes up the difference. it will find stuff deeper then the ACE and has no problem with wet sand. The ACE is not any good in wet sand ( SALT WATER) but for what you are doing, the ACE is a good on dry sand. if you are looking to spend the money for the Sea Hunter, you should get the AT pro, it gives you the choice of both worlds.

 

[old lobo]

1. What state do you live in now, and what part of the state, and are you coming out here just for vacation or are you moving out here? If you are just coming on vacation, do you have either fresh or salt water that you want to detect in when you get back home?
2. What part of the west coast are you coming to? West coast could mean southern or northern California, Oregon, or Washington. Different soil conditions all along the coast.
3. What price range do you want to stay within for another detector?
All the above questions make a difference in what to suggest. If you are just coming on vacation and you don't do water hunting back home, then just stay with the Ace 250 and do the dry sand and parks here. Unlike Florida, which has no mineralization in their sand, southern California has very thick black sand, which is iron particles mixed with the sand. No single frequency detector works well in our wet sand. Most people use a multifrequency detector or a pi for the wet. I used an Ace 250 for 3 1/2 years and I loved it. I'm an old guy that just detects on occasion, yet during that time, doing mostly dry sand, I found over $1,260 in change, 6 gold rings, 20 silver rings, and a lot of toys and other neat things. When I had over $800 I decided to buy a detector that would be good for our wet sand. I spent months watching what other people were using out there in the wet, and by far most people were using the Minelab Sovereign or Excaliber. They are basically the same machine, but the Excaliber is waterproof to 200 feet, and the Sovereign isn't waterproof at all. The disadvantage of the Excaliber is it is much more expensive to buy, most people don't like the stock shaft and where the control housing is, so end up spending another $100 for an aftermarket shaft, the coil and earphones are hardwired in so it is hard to change them, and whenever you send it in for repair it is much more expensive than the Sovereign because the factory has to test it to its 200 foot depth rating. Don't get me wrong, if you're going to go out in the water deeper than your waist, then that (or a pi) are the machine to get. Here in southern California, we have decent size waves and a lot of undertow, and I don't swim well, so I wait for 2 hours before low tide until 2 hours after low tide and just do the wet, and sometimes I go out in the water up to my thighs, so the Sovereign GT was my choice. Both those machines are 17 frequency and have unlimited multitone response so you have some idea of what you found by the sound, also both machines ignore iron, even if you use no discrimination. The advantage of the multitones is if you are looking for gold you can ignore the coin signals which around my area are mostly pennies (and foil packet signals, which make a unique sound like nothing else on my machine), and just concentrate on the mid tones where can tabs and nickles fall.It works for me. I'm 70 years old, extremely hard of hearing, don't detect that often, yet in a little over a year, with the Sovereign, I've found 5 gold and 1 platinum ring, and big container full of change that I haven't counted. If you're going to live out here, having both a Sovereign and a pi machine is the way to go. The Sovereign when there other detectorists (let those pi guys dig all those zinc pennies while you concentrate on the gold signals), or when there is a lot of iron from pier struts, ship. etc. Use the pi during the late fall, winter, and spring, when there is much less competition, and you want the extra depth and its ability to find the smaller gold chains the vlf machines miss.I'm not in any way saying what is right for me is going to be right for you, I'm just giving you additional food for thought. By the way, even though the Sovereign GT sells for $1049, you can usually find them used for around $700, and the models before the GT are just as good and sell for less. .

 

[old lobo]

Sorry about the not Garrett post above. Salida had asked a question in another spot, and to get a feel of the guys expereince, I typed in show all posts, and when I saw his post about detecting out west, I answered without even looking to see if it was on a different forum. I don't see a delete key, so if the moderator wants to take the above and this post off I will certainly understand. The problam is today is Sunday, and I was watching the U,S, Open tennis on channel 2, and golf on channel 4, and reading this forum during commercials all at the same time, and as you can see, it didn't work out.

 

[old lobo]

I see what happened. He asked this same question in the same way on the beach and water detecting forum and I didn't realize it was in 2 places when I answered.

 

[Salida]

No problem. I've gotten some valuable responses from everyone.
I'm an old guy too.
Salida

 

[Tony]

No problem. I've gotten some valuable responses from everyone.
I'm an old guy too.
Salida

You're never old when swinging a metal detector......

Tony.

 

[Leslie(nova scotia)]

n/t