Goldpick
Chris Johnson
harlem said:
Thanks for the compliment Harlem, biggest problem with the Ace 250 is the slow recovery speed after passing over a multitude of tartets, and the fact that it still reads junk targets even when discriminating, it just mutes the various notched out junk targets. It can get hung up trying to process too many targets at once, most of which seem to be small or deep junk targets, think foil/bottle & can pull tabs, and iron targets. Get 3 or 4 junk target under the coil in one hit, and you'll either get a muted response or a multitude of signals, depending on how close together they are. These are especially prevalent in park grassed areas, and oval perimeters where there has been a lot of traffic and subequent depositing of layers of junk over the years.
It is best to keep it simple with the Ace in these areas, and run in all-metal with first two iron segments notched out (as you have), or even leave the iron in, as it makes the Ace run a lot smoother with regards to audio response. The next issue is seperating out those targets, to do this, if you get multiple targets, use the pinpoint button to run in true all metal, and scan over the same area. You should be able to hear the seperate signals from each target, then go back to normal discrimination mode and do very short swings over the isolated targets to see if you can identifiy them. Also when in pinpoint, you can tell by the repsonse on how big or what he target is. Very small and sharp target are likely to be small bits of foil, broader targets can be iron, bottle caps, bottle ring pulls etc, whilst coins and buttons tend to have a distinct, but smoother more rounded response than foil or pull tabs. Bottle caps can be the worse, as they have the shape and response of a lot of coins, so sometimes it is inevetiable you will dig lots of them.
A coin target is usually only a few cms a across, less if lying on its side. If the target is broad in pinpoint mode, say 20-30cms, I'd leave it in the ground, especially if you have already dug a plug down to 5-6 inches, it is most likely a large piece of aluminium, foil or iron (don't you love buried cans). The reason why I dug the belt buckle, was that it was a high conductivity target falling in the coin range, and it was a distinct, not broad target.
Slow your swing speeds down, this will allow the detector to have more of a chance to process signals properly.
To make things easier with the Ace, the use of the stock coil, larger concentric coil, and the large DD coil are a pain to use in junky areas, you really need a coil with a smaller footprint to seperate out targets and gives the chance for the Ace to process each separate target properly. This is where the Sniper coil comes into play, you can run this small coil at near full sensitivity for scanning parks and grassed aress, and it get pretty good depth for such a small coil. It is also great for tot lots, you can turn the sensitivity way down, and get hard up against play equipment to fi d those goldies that everyone misses. It is also great for working along fence lines and concrete pathways and edging that has steel mesh reinforcement, I recently found that silver bracelet with the sniper, my other coils would have missed it, and simply overloaded from the steel in the pathway.
The stock concentric coil on the Ace, plus the larger coils are fine for large open areas with low junk to area ratio, but anything beyond that, I'd leave them home. The same goes for s lot of detectors fitted with concentric coils as standard, they really are a compromise, get multiple targets under the coil of a multi-tone detector, and it will drive you nuts, I much prefer the separation on DD coils. The large concentric coil hasn't really impressed me, I reckon the large DD coil actually achieves better depth, seperation, and repsonse in mineralised ground.
Another coil thay might be a good compromise is the small DD coil, it is larger enough to scan a decent area, but small enough to not get too many targets under the coil at the one time. I am a big fan of the DD coils, I have the large DD, and since the signal area of the coil acts like a blade running over the ground vs a large cone shape on the concentric coil, it is can be easier to pick out targets with. I also find them easier to pinpoint with, and the large DD is very light vs the largest concentric coil.
Parks can be a bit daunting on knowing where to detect, start with know areas of current activity, pathways, under trees, around playground equipment etc, and work you way out from there, this gives you a start point to go from, before wandering out into the void. Digging big holes with the sniper or DD coils is not necessary, as they pinpoint accurately. If you dig a massive hole chasing a target with the Ace, then it is likely you will find a large junk target. The Ace is limited to around 3 to 8 inches in depth to accurately discriminate and indentify targets, depending on target size, ground mineralisation, and coil used. Lots of iron in the ground can mask out good targets underneath, so that can limit its performance. Using the Ace pinpoint button to run in true all metal can give you the best depth and seperation on targets, but is not intended to be used that way. If you have the pin point mode on too long, the threshold will continually rise, requiring a release of the button to rest the threshold.
Some parks are simlly trash havens, and are simply better to be avoided. I have a park near me that is confined to a very small area, but is very well frequented, sounds good for coins, but even more so for the amount of junk buried there. After a few hunts there, I am sure the grass is held together with millions of tiny pieces of foil, it is simly the worse place I have ever detected, so best avoided.
Just remember the Ace is only a $375 detector, so work within its limitations and with the correct coil for the site detected, and you should have success. Another thing to do is to bury various coins and junk targets at home, and get a better understanding of what response they give off in discriminate mode, and especially in pinpoint mode, this should give you more confidence in knowing what to listen for. As a hint, I never use the screen info, as accuracy is up the creek several inches down, I go purely by the sounds.
