Garrett ACE 250 - a Metal Detector I Successfully Used Once
Exceptionally Outstanding Performance at Nomadic Camp Site - My Short Story and Review
by Sergei UpstateNY, proficiency level: Beginner, last time modified:
Garrett Ace 250 was once lent to me by my relic hunting buddy during our outing at the nomadic camp site. That was the only time I used the Ace 250, and that was an interesting experience for me.
The site was not littered with modern iron junk, and all targets, whether they were iron or non-ferrous, dated back to the 8th century. The mineral content of soil was low. So the metal detecting conditions were 'one click down' from ideal even though there were four other relic hunters - rivals, besides my female companion Galina and I at the site!
Hunting for Medieval Relics
The only inconvenience was thick grass of a medium height which would not allow a detectorist to position a search coil close to the ground; thus, making it more difficult for the detector to reach deep targets. But this difficulty was partially compensated by a large search coil I used with my buddy's Ace 250. It took Galina less than five minutes to learn how to use this simple-to-use junior-detector. As with any metal detector designed for kids, figuring it out could not be difficult. My assistance was required only for teaching Galina how to swing a search coil during the search and when examining a target signal while maintaining the searchcoil discipline.
Detecting targets with the Ace-250 metal detector was also a 'no-brainer' for Galina because of the 2-tone audio identification: low-pitched tone for iron, and high-pitched tone for everything else. Such a simple audio Target ID was also sufficient enough for this hunt site!
As soon as Galina learned the basics of metal detecting, off she went. I was just following her and carrying her shovel (yes, I can do it for a nice lady any time! :)) If she asked me to carry HER while she was metal detecting, I would be more than happy to do so! C'mon guys, you know that real nice, single ladies are as scarce as silver 'Pieces of Eight' nowadays!
Surprisingly shallow targets were in abundance, and every detected target was a valuable 'keeper', so Galina and I did not have to waste time on figuring out what level of Discrimination or Sensitivity to use. I do not think the detector had more controls than just those two anyway. We used a reasonable minimum of Discrimination and set the Sensitivity level just a little below a 'stability point'.
Upon detecting a target that had produced a high-tone signal, we did not spend more than a second for deciding whether or not to dig it up as every signal represented a nice artifact. So we would just dig it up and quickly move on to the next target. Our time efficiency in the field was remarkable! We also recovered all iron targets that produced iron-falsing signals because they were cool iron relics such as Medieval stirrups and arrowheads. Nothing could be easier than that! For a change, following a ground rule of metal detecting - "Dig 'em all!", was enjoyable!
Unfortunately we had only a few hours of daylight for our metal detecting fun at this site. I am not sure if it was for my competitive mood, or eagerness and a high wish of Galina to beat other hunters including me in number of finds on her first time of metal detecting, or the Garrett Ace 250's simplicity, or presence of the only 'hot' spot at the hunt site, which my companion and I hit right away, or all the above, but we scored the highest number of finds and left our four 'colleagues' way behind.
I was particularly surprised by Galina's metal detecting results. Having never metal detected before, with Garrett Ace 250, she managed to recover more finds than the experienced guys with the Minelab E-Trac multi-frequency detectors! Just as she wanted! And her finds were made of iron, silver, copper alloys with tin and gold-plated bronze; thus, representing five (!) metals in total. And what made Galina's collection of finds exclusive was that all of them originated in the same historical time period and culture!
I was really happy for her! If only she realized what she had accomplished, and what level, in terms of crossing a time-barrier, she achieved within just two hours of relic hunting. Galina had no chance to realize that because she had not previously dug up a zillion of pull tabs, bottle caps and clad coins. She simply could not compare this experience with anything! And I felt being a little envious of her while remembering myself being a beginner and learning how to metal detect through digging up tons of rubbish for days. :)
Recovered with Garrett Ace 250
Detecting conditions at the site were certainly favorable for the Ace 250. Yes, it beat the FBS metal detectors in number of finds, but I cannot say that the Ace 250 would perform the same way under less friendly metal detecting conditions.
Nowadays, while driving on countryside roads to or from any hunt site, I regularly see people detecting with the Garrett Ace-250 detectors in the fields. But I am always sure that if I search the spots they have just detected, I will make times more finds with an advanced metal detector than any of them using the junior-detectors. This has already happened on many occasions before. And, of course, there is no sense in comparing the beginner-level detector with any expert-level machine.
This joint outing with Galina was in fact such a rare case of IDEAL conditions for metal detecting that we could "hunt with a plastic broom" and would still find a few nice artifacts, so to speak! :) However, I can say for sure that the Garrett Ace 250 is what a metal detector for a beginner must be! And also, having an ambitious female companion/detectorist always brings joyous results! :)
I also should mention one long-time user of the Ace 250 who swears by this detector, and sometimes his finds-rate is higher than that of users of the most advanced machines. Is it a great luck or a pay-off for using only one machine for many years and therefore knowing it very well? Probably the latter. Or both!
If you would like to see the Garrett Ace-250's Features and Specifications and read other users' reviews, please visit the Garrett Ace-250 Review page
