Entering back into a hobby I pursued as a young man, I became completely dumb founded at the myriad of choices facing me when choosing a metal detector.

Books and articles everywhere telling me about systems on how to hunt and expert hunters like Stan Grist offering their advice on how to succeed.

My first problem: "Which detector do I buy ???"

Could I part with $600 to $1,000 for a machine with out winning the lottery ???

Then I became completely confused when I discovered there is no one machine that will cover all of my metal detecting desires.

So, two questions need to be truthfully answer before buying a metal detector:

1. Where will I be hunting ?

and

2. What do I intend hunt ?

I planned on hunting local parks / lake shores and detecting for modern / recently dropped coins. You may have an ocean beach close by or retired and traveling the country side in your RV.

Garrett's Ace250 addressed all of my requirements. The Ace250 does have limitations. (it doesn't work well on salt water beaches)

However, after many hours of research I discovered that this detector draws rave reviews from hobbyist as an excellent starter machine, a "coin magnet" if you will and the cost of the Garrett Ace250 was in my price range / budget of $200 to $250.

I do recommend that everyone does their own research before buying a metal detector. There are other many other starter machines available from many manufactures. The detector you eventually end up purchasing will come down to your own personal needs and taste.

Amazing really, you can read reviews all over the internet and find all the information you want on how well the Ace250 works in the field, see the finds people are making, hear the old timers brag about how this machine is a coin magnet. You buy the Ace250, hit the field, hear those bell tones, pinpoint and start digging only to find nothing, re-pinpoint and end up digging a 6" hole and spending 15 minutes to find a penny. Frustrating ....................

Frustrating to the point of buying a pin-pointer to help find that target.

The first thing you should do after buying after buying Ace250 is read the manual and watch the included dvd.

The second thing you need to know about the Ace250 is that the SWEET SPOT on the stock coil for the Ace250 is probably NOT in the center of your coil.

How do you pinpoint with the Ace250 ?

1. Look at your stock coil. It has what appears to be a larger coil around a smaller "inner" coil.

2. The sweet spot on my coil is at the TOP of the inner coil, not in the center of the coil as I had assumed when I purchased the detector.

3. To pinpoint a target, hold your pinpoint button down and make an "X" pattern over your target and attempt to find the center. A quick note here about pinpointing: move your coil off the target and inch or two before hitting the pinpoint button.

4. Now while still holding the pinpoint button down and centered over your target, slowly begin to pull the coil across the ground and back towards you.

5. When your signal begins to fade, STOP, your target should be right at the top of the "inner" coil.

Give this technique a try with a coin on top of the ground and practice pinpointing before your next hunt. This pinpointing technique works very well for me.

Side Note: I have found is if your target is below a couple of inches of dirt, your target may be under or just behind the top of the coil. If I don't locate a target within a minute or so of probing, I re-pinpoint and usually find I am off a bit left or right.

When I though about it more, I realized that I never mentioned what settings I use on my Ace250, your settings may be different depending on the area ...................

If I just want to make a quick search over an area deep in trash, and all I am looking for here is recently dropped clad, I run strictly in the coin mode. You will still dig some trash in this mode, the Ace250 loves aluminum screw tops and large sinkers.

As far as sensitivity, I usually run at the max, if I start getting some false signals or my metal detector seems unstable, I will drop the sensitivity back a bit, but I rarely have that problem around the lakes.

Other odds, ends and observations about my Ace250:

1. The only indicator of a coin I really trust is when I get that double bell tone and the meter reads a solid dime, dig that puppy, 9 times out of 10 it has been a dime for me. The quarter read out tends to be close as well, but at times I end up with a screw top lid or sinker ..........

2. The silver ring I dug rang up as a penny with the double bell tone, not sure why, but oh well ...............

3. If you get the double bell tone and are digging deep, chances are you have found a aluminum beer or soda can.

4. If you get a single bell tone in one direction and nothing on the return sweep, you have probably found a beer cap.

5. If you are using a fairly fast sweep speed and come across a couple of bottle caps together, you will get what sounds like a double bell tone.

6. I have recently had some zinc pennies bounce between the pull tab and penny mark on the indicator. Not sure why, but I have been digging everything lately and I may have missed this in the past .......

A pocket spill with the Ace250 can be challenging.

The reason a pocket spill can be tough is once in the pinpoint mode you are in the "all metal" mode and the Ace250 will show a large target area at a very shallow depth. This type of signal is also very indicative of a buried aluminum can with the Ace250.

When I first came across my last pocket spill, I was getting a double bell tone at times and at other times the broken signal of a pull tab.

So how did I work this spot ?

I worked into the spot from the outside edge of the spill area. In the pinpoint mode I isolated the 1st coin on the edge of the pocket spill, dug it, then slowly but surely I cleaned the spot out.