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Had a frustrating time Saturday.

Swepty

Junior Member
Joined
May 17, 2006
Messages
44
Do you see the two large piece of metal in the center of the plate? Those two pieces upset me pretty good. My first time getting frustrated while detecting.

I was outside the kiddy park area i just finished detecting and went over to a low hanging limb I've detected before with my old detector. Figured, I'd hit it with my Ace250 and see what it sees.

I got a SOLID hit on a quarter 6 inches in the dirt. I was very excited! I was telling myself, it has to be pretty old to be 6 inches down!

Nope, both times different areas i got the solid quarter hit, but dug those pieces of metal.

I guess what really upset me was the time and effort it took me to dig a 6 inch hole in this hard dried Texas black dirt with a small spade.... I was worn out and very frustrated.

Any ideas why it read like this?
 

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I get a lot of that digging old farmland around here - lots of nails
& twisty bits of wire & rubbish. But it all teaches me a little more
how to read the Ace250. It never makes promises - just best
guesses.

My favorite is when any sort of beeps disappear once you've dug
the hole. sweep the hole? no beeps. sweep the pile of dirt? no beeps!
:?: :roll: :?:


I figure it's worth however many calories I burned anyhow,
but you may or may not have that as a concern!
 
Looks like some form of canslaw, thats stuff is the worst for fooling .. I won't say detectors in general, but at least the 250.
And we got some pretty hard baked soil here in Michigan, I don't even want to think what its like 1,000 miles south.
Things you can try to avoid similar situations as much as possible - Well, the obvious. Pinpoint. If those two peices were together, the pinpoint profile should have been at least 200% longer than a quarter. Of course thats assuming it was laying more or less flat, and uncrumpled.
For that matter, a quarter at 6 inches would not pinpoint all that well, it would be pretty weak, and much shorter than that of one an inch or two under.
If the display reads quarter at 6 inches and you get a nice crisp pinpoint, regardless of pinpoint size this is an almost sure indication that what you have underneath is not a solitary coin.
The other thing I can say to keep in mind is that, if it reads a quarter at 6 inches, you are right at the very edge of the 250's depth capabilities, if not a bit past it.
Use this to your advantage. Knowing that, if it really is a quarter, if it was another inch or so deeper it wouldn't have even alerted you, raise the coil a bit and sweep.
If you still get a loud and clear ding with the coil inches off the ground, it is safe to assume that the target is not a coin sized object. Might it still be something good ?
Sure. But you can be nearly certain that it is not a single coin.
 
I think the key to avoiding old rusted junk is determining the size of the object you are checking and this takes practice,checking from more than one angle and pinpointing to retrieve this item in as little time as possible.
    If you want to learn from the best,check out Tom Dankowski on Fishers website.I have his book,his dvd and read it every chance I get.This guy will learn you all you will ever need or want in training as far as digging goodtargets goes.
 
its like playing cards, do you feel lucky.to dig or not to dig, yes you can profile a target with the pinpoint but that is still not 100%. about 3 weeks ago while at the beach, got a a hit coming in at a quarter,went to pinpoint an the target was to big for that, even raised the coil a little, so took the chance an gave it a quick dig an there in the scoop 2 1$ coins, I was almost 99% sure it was going to be another al can... you will always get fooled 1 way or another,part of the beast
 
I get that every now and then with the MXT. Funky target so I dig, get half way down and the target changes. Been fooled by soda cans or pieces of them a many times. You never know unless you dig it. Just comes with the hobby I guess.

Bri-
 
The only foolproof target ID is to dig it up and look at it.  Bear in mind that it works the other way too, a good target may read as junk if it is deep or partially masked by another item. Gold can be ID'd as foil , pulltab , or other junk too.
 
My rule of thumb is if the pinpoint profile is greater than 10-12", I'll leave it alone. I have got profiles that were just under this, and when I dug the target, it turned out to be several coins in a row. ;)
 
ONe thing to add. The Ace250 is still a "starter" detector with limited capabilities. It as good as many older ID detectors but with digital "chip" technology. An advantage over the old resistor diode PC boards for sure but still has the older detectors limitations. The eliptical shaped coil does provide a bit more depth but when trying to process the target ID , because the Ace's "brain" is limited , it can only guess on targets that are not coinsized or shaped. :yes:
 
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