Night park detecting with the Ace 250

[Heatho]

Sort of true there Paul, getting out bush is fun but yeah I have gotten more Gold from parks and beaches than the bush so far, 2 1/2 hours to the start of the Goldfields for me. I'll keep having a crack at it though.

Going to start combining my gem hunting and Gold trips together, coming home with a jar of Sapphires is always a good feeling, if I get a few nuggets it will be a bonus.

 

[Goldpick]

A quick trip into town tonight before the heavens decide to open again, not much in the way of decimal coins, but got a good high tone on the edge of an oval, about 5 inches down. Dug it up and thought, oh no, not another10c coin. Had a closer look but was bit hard to make out with the corrosion on the coin, but the pattern certainly looked different, got back to the car and had a closer look, and bonza, my first shilling (about flamin time thank you mr Ace 250). Looks like it had a fight with a mower at one time, so has a slight bend in it unfortunately.

Not a key date being 1946, so gave it a bit of a clean, now just need to find a florin!

 

[Paulmarr]

Nice Goldpick - a long time between drinks for the silver coins!

 

[Goldpick]

Certainly has Paul, at least I now know of a good location to scout out for pre-decs, and one that you don't waste too much time digging junk targets, and with a detector with limited capabilities. Team Bogan has really been producing the goods lately, you guys should cleanup on the silvers by the end of the year at this rate.

 

[ANGRE7]

Congrats on the silver mate!

 

[snail]

Great finds Goldpick. I have just started getting back into MDing myself; i have an at pro and am currently eyeing off a couple of nel coils that i've heard great things about. the ace 250 seems to do an amazing job for its price. do you reckon it'd be ok for a nine year old to handle? im keeping an eye out on a suitable MD for my son.

 

[Goldpick]

Great finds Goldpick. I have just started getting back into MDing myself; i have an at pro and am currently eyeing off a couple of nel coils that i've heard great things about. the ace 250 seems to do an amazing job for its price. do you reckon it'd be ok for a nine year old to handle? im keeping an eye out on a suitable MD for my son.

Should be fine for your son, run the stock coil (lightweight), shorten the shaft, and if you don't want him digging holes all over the place, drop the sensitivity back to only get near surface targets, and hopefully less buried junk. When he gets more confident on picking out good from bad targets, you can wack the sensitivity back up.

 

[Goldpick]

Pretty crappy night tonight for coins, but to make up for it I found a 925 silver ring at the base of a tree, plus an old enamel badge labelled Gladstone Systems, and a modern dog tag (poor fido!). Tried to research the badge, but only came up with a pristine one on ebay, and not much else - anyone have a clue what it is from?

 

[Goldpick]

Sigh, another night of poor finds at the beach with the infinium, more bobby pins, a nice stainless jag, and some crusty decimals to go with it. Pulled the Ace out later on for a few more coins on shore, but still not much around.

Although I did notice the cuts in the sand hills from some of the recent high tides started to produce a few coins (the crusty ones), might be worth trying a few other beaches to see what has dropped out recently.

Most of the large mounds of sand recently deposited at the top end of the beaches have now been eroded away, but unfortunately in the process it has also filled in a lot of the gutters and low areas of the beach as well.

 

[Guest]

I see the Ace runs on a low khz.

Whats the deepest you found a $2 or $1 coin?

Thank You

 

[Goldpick]

5-6" is probably the limit on getting a reliable bell tone with the Ace, you can get deeper coins, but it won't be a confident bell tone. Also depends where I detect, in dry sand I could probably get deeper, but some parks with mineralised ground can also reduce the depth considerably.

Most tot lots you can always pretty much get through all the bark and into the soil, literally found 100's of 10/5c coins that had worked their way through into the soil. Most $1 & $2 coins get cleaned up before they ever get that far, so if chasing those coins, depth won't be a too bigger issue.

Using the pinpoint button to run in all-metal will pick out deeper targets that won't reliably set off the bell tones, you can usually tell by the response and "shape" of the target whether it is a coin type target or not, but bottle caps and some aluminum will always be dug in the process. Foil and pull tabs are nearly always quite distinctive, very sharp response with a small footprint, and in the case of modern pull tabs, double signals on each swing, depending o orientation.

The Excelerator 10x14 coil, and NEL Tornado should reliably extend depth capabilities by another 2-3 inches, but that might be the time to look at upgrading to a more powerful detector - at least those coils are cheap enough to buy without breaking the bank, they are very popular upgrades for the Ace in both the US and EU.

Best two garrett coils by far are the large DD and sniper coils, with the best depth and stability in mineralised ground from the large DD.

 

[Guest]

thank you Goldpick

 

[the duck]

The DD gives a better coverage to you can cover more ground

 

[Goldpick]

....and since the DD has blade type coverage vs the cone of the concentric, you tend to get better target separation. Get too many targets at once under the concentric, and the Ace has trouble sorting out the tones for each target.

 

[slipped disc]

I found that around Adelaide and the burbs, most guys seem to cherry pick the $1-2's. found a few tho, near the metal equipment/bars, they must have been in a hurry. heheheh. seems heaps of peeps have got onto detecting in the last 18-24 months. finds sure dropped off.

 

[Goldpick]

The finds certainly have dropped as of late, but that is expected this time of year with ****** weather the norm.

 

[Goldpick]

I hung up the Ace for the night, and reverted back to the Infinium for a detect of my local beach. I decided to try at low tide around the exposed rocks and sand flats, the bedrock is literally inches below the surface (rock decomposed to clay under thin sand layer), and will probably warrant a few more trips in the future.

Whilst I didn't get many coins, a few interesting items popped up including a gold plated copper ring (most plating gone), a peacock coin or token?? ( has a peacock on both sides, no writing at all), a small whistle which looks pretty old, and what appears to be a copper/gold alloyed tooth crown. The crown still have some bits of tooth in it, but seems to be alloyed with a high percentage of copper, but am pretty sure it has gold in it. It weighs about 1.26 grams, and is pretty heavy for such a small piece of metal.

Also a few sinkers, small army type torch, and the usual intact condom!

 

[Sandta]

Aahhhh ... there it is , feel much better now , thanks Goldpick

 

[Guest]

I found that around Adelaide and the burbs, most guys seem to cherry pick the $1-2's. found a few tho, near the metal equipment/bars, they must have been in a hurry. heheheh. seems heaps of peeps have got onto detecting in the last 18-24 months. finds sure dropped off.

Just wonder how much of this has to do with shops
Selling cheap detectors that can be purchased part
of your grocery shopping..

 

[Goldpick]

Nothing spectacular from the Ace tonight, was feeling a bit tired from the previous nights hunt, so I stayed close to home and worked a couple of well trodden areas. Only $4.07, but better than a kick in the teeth. The only notable coin found was a Will & Kate 20c, pretty common, but haven't come across one so far for my collection.