I am beyond frustration here.

[Bubbalew]

So yesterday My wife and I made almost a WHOLE day of metal detecting (She's as hooked as I am I think). We went to an old school house and open site for camping after we got permission as well as a local fresh water beach about 35 minutes away. I found a old bullet, a shotgun shell and a few coins that were fairly new. I just cant understand why or how it seems like 9 times out of 10 what I am digging up is a FREAKING pull tab or bottle top! I am beyond the point of frustration. It actually makes me angry to think that people are so careless and unthoughtful to throw trash on the ground to be buried like this.

I did end up throwing away all trash and have found a new appreciation for keeping things clean and not littering. I was VERY disappointed in the beach. I found nothing but pull tabs and bottle tops. It got to the point I just gave up and turned the detector off and drove home.

On a positive note, I am getting a little better at pin pointing and finding the target a little quicker. I do have a question for you more experienced people out there before I get to discouraged.
Anyone have any suggestions on sites to detect or settings on the ACE 350 that will maybe turn my luck around and give me a boost in finding something ? Possibly maybe a way to find actual coins and not so many pull tabs and caps?

I dunno maybe I am just being like a impatient little kid, but I sure would like to find SOMETHING to not walk away every day after hours of detecting with nothing to show.
Any advice would be appreciated, be it criticism or what not. :groovy:

 

[Epi-hunter]

I understand the frustration. But if you go to a campground and dig mid-tones, 9 times out of 10 (no... more like 999 times out of 1000 -- literally) you are going to dig trash. The same is pretty much true for beaches. Most of the jewelry (mid-tone) at beaches is found in the water.

Why are you digging mid-tones if you are looking for silver? My recommendation would be to focus on old sites but find some that do not have as much modern trash. Then dig only high tones and ignore the mid-tones for now. Remember that after about 5 inches or so, the ACE isn't going to target ID as well as it would more shallow targets (and the deeper coins are probably what you want to dig) so your targets may not sound beautiful. In other words, they may not scream a high tone without bouncing down. A good deep silver coin (or large copper) sized target will bounce all over but it should primarily be in the high tone range. You will have to dig those bouncy targets.

The first thing you need to do is get away from the shallow modern trash if you want to dig old silver. Later on, when you are more experienced and probably with a different detector, you can focus on hearing silver coins that might be among the trash.

One of the limitations of your detector is that if a deep target does not reach a certain threshold level in terms of the signal it gives, the ACE will not give a whisper - it will instead not give any signal at all. One of the ways that members find old, deep silver is to listen to the very faint whispers that other (higher end) detectors will give off. That is a limitation you're just going to have to live with. It does not mean that there are not old silver coins in the depth range that your detector can process, because there are.

 

[CODY]

Bubbalew. I know you probably have, but I must ask. Have you read the manual that came with your detector. Reading your post it sounds like you just took it out of the box and started swinging. I really do not know anything about the ace350. But, I know there must be a way to adjust discimination and sensitivity. To me it sounds like your hunting in all metal with no discrimination. Which means your going to hit every single target. If you can use the disc. mode I would suggest to discriminate out iron, and pull tabs to begin with. Once you get use to it you can go back and search it again. IMHO
One other suggestion is to find someone close to you who has a similar detector to learn from. You could do this probably through the forums or a hobby shop. There are a lot of great finds awaiting you. HH

 

[Bell-Two]

Try this tip, I know it works with the Ace250 and I think they are similar machines major difference is in the coil. When you pin point draw the detector slowly back towards you if you get a quick dropoff of the signal chances are it is a good target, if it continues longer chances are its junk...key word chances! Using this technique my nickel finds jumped dramatically. Paitence Patience Patience! Very few who have ever started detecting for the first time have found great things at first. Memory is important in detecting, remember what junk sounds like and what good targets sound like. Watch videos of people using the Ace350. Believe it will come just give it time and even if you only learn something then every hunt will be productive.

 

[Epi-hunter]

It would help to know what mode you are hunting in. I know from your last post that (at that time anyway) you were hunting in Jewelry mode. I would switch to coin mode (if you haven't already) and try that.

I am guessing, too, that you are digging trash because you aren't getting any solid high-tone signals (is that correct)? That is because the trash is masking any silver coins that might be there. So even a silver coin won't give a good solid tone and will (at best) bounce to a high tone from a mid-tone in such a trashy area. Target separation is these areas is key, so make sure you are swinging slowly (how many seconds pass before your coil moves from one side to the other and then back to starting point?)

Your machine (the 350) has a DD coil, which is different than the concentric coil found on the 250. So pinpointing is a whole different ballgame by comparison (generally pinpointing is trickier with a DD coil). In general, a DD coil will handle mineralized soil a bit better and thereby get you a little more depth, and target separation should be better compared to a concentric coil too. But you have to move slowly if you are going to work trashy areas.

As the other said, keep at it. Very trashy areas are a challenge for any detectorist and detector, so for a relative beginner it would be better to find less trashy areas to focus on at first.

 

[Bubbalew]

OK, This all has been very good advice and help. I have read the manual and I think I do somewhat think I understand whats going on. I have mostly used coin mode, and have notched out all iron, the areas on the display with the pull tab, and have it to signal on nickels, and the four notches at the end of the display that includes dimes, pennies, half dollars and dollars.
The problem I am having, (and I don't know if maybe I am just tone deaf or what) but it seems to me that EVERY tone I get, be it a nickel, or dime etc, sounds no different to me that a pull tab or cap. Matter of fact AFTER notching out the nickels, all iron and pull tabs and just leaving the last four notches on the display I get a tone that's consistent and pin point and dig and it's STILL a bottle cap or pull tab.
The only difference I am finding in the tones is that a bottle cap has a longer tone while a coin has a shorter tone. I am beginning to wonder if the ACE has a defect, or if I myself have a defect. I do think maybe I am swinging to fast and will try to slow that down. Also I am going to take coins and junk tonight and try to listen to and try to distinguish the sounds.
It's not that I'm not finding coins, it just really stinks to dig holes over and over and find more junk than coins and if I can find a better way to save time digging for a coin than a cap I'd be a lot happier!
I guess my next question is the tones . I have yet to hear a clearly higher tone than any tone other than the same tone a cap and pull tab gives me and a coin gives me. Am I supposed to hear a true difference and if I don't is my Ace defective ?
Thanks all for the help. :groovy:

 

[Bubbalew]

Ok people, I did a little experiment. Both me and my wife worked together on this. I took a nickel, a dime, a quarter and a beer bottle cap. I covered each one with a sheet of paper and labeled each one accordingly. The ONLY difference both me and my wife can tell as far as tones is the nickel has a very short beep, the quarters, dimes and pennies all have the same long tone but the pitch and sound are almost the same as the nickel. The bottle top sounds EXACTLY like a quarter and shows up even when notched out, bouncing between a nickel and quarter. I cant differentiate a higher tone, lower tone, or any difference at all from a cap and a quarter or dime etc. Both me and my wife agree they all sound almost the same except the length in the beeps from a nickel (which is longer) than the other coins. Is the Ace defective or am I missing something here? It's very frustrating to think I'm supposed to be hearing a higher tone and not hear anything at all. >:# >{

 

[Bell-Two]

Typically in the Ace series you should hear what is called a &quot:beerbuddy:ell tone even with hearing problems, which I have I could distinguish it from just a regular tone. Here is a link to a guy who uses the Ace 350 he is in England but he invariably records the tones of his digs, listen to them and compare to what you are hearing.
This video he does not dig a coin but different things he has many other videos on his channell check a couple others out as well.

Metal Detecting First 'Treasure' Find in Cumbria.wmv

 

[Bubbalew]

Thank you! I am getting the exact same tones, but with caps, tabs and coins. I was under the impression that I should get a different tone if its a coin compared to a tab or cap.... the only thing that gives me a different sound is iron (which is a low tone) and a nickel which is a bell tone but short. A dime, penny, quarter, is a bell tone with a longer bong if you will. Whats frustrating me is that I am getting this long bell tone thinking its a quarter, dime, or penny, but it ends up being a cap or pull tab. But as far as the video goes it helped,I get the same tones but its never a coin, just a cap or tab. I dont know, maybe I was just expecting more from the ace 350 as far as giving me a definite sound for a coin and a distinguished sound for a cap. :dontknow:

 

[POKIE73]

this may not help you but i have a ace 250 and it is useed by my son and grandson more than me they have always dug a lot of trash to me it seems the ace 25o and possibly the 350 are able to pick up some terash and still register it as a good target remenber the detector can only tell what it seems to be no detector is without flaws i have had several models and all of them will give a good signal on junk at times just be patient and it will come to you i know a guy on this forum that does great with the 250 his name is silverstar maybe he could help you with some of your questions just remember we all have days like that dennis

 

[Fire Fighter 43]

I do not know much about the 350 so I can not help with settings. I can say that testing different targets is moving in the right direction. There is nothing that beats in the field use. Just keep digging and eventually you will understand what your machines is telling you. Many things can effect how a target sounds and the VDI # so just keep digging and you will figure it out. I know it is frustrating but look at it like your going to school to get that great job. There is no payday until you do your studies and graduate. Good Luck.

 

[Epi-hunter]

The extra information is very helpful.

When you are in coin mode you WILL only hear the high bell tone. That is because the coin mode notches out all mid-tones. But keep in mind that in notching them out the machine is still signaling the target; the difference is that an audio signal is not sent for the mid-tones. But you will still see the signal appear on your meter. Watch the meter while going over these targets. Watch for bounce to lower (notched-out) areas even if you are just hearing the high tone.

In jewelry mode you should hear the distinct difference between the mid-tone and the higher bell tone that signals a higher conductive target.

Bottle caps are hard on all machines - they tend to come in at the high range. They fool most of us. There are tricks to use on various machines to tell the difference. Try this, in jewelry mode, over the bottle cap: wiggle the coil in short back and forth motions and then slowly pull the coil towards you. You should hear a low tone (after still hearing the bell tone) if it's a bottle cap. Now try the same thing with the coin. You should not hear the low tone. You can do the same experiment in coin mode but you will have to look at your display to see the jump to the lower ranges with the bottle cap, as the mid-range audio is blocked.

Hope this helps.