First time Out!

Well, I unwrapped the Ace 250, threw it together and headed for the door, Then the bubble burst... The wife shot me the "not right now your not" look and then looked towards my 2 sugar inebriated toddlers. After a heavy sigh, I resigned myself to wait. 6:00pm rolled around and I'm pretty sure the kids are tired and want to go to bed. I start gettin em ready and this time the wife grins at me with the go ahead look. I grab my Ace and shoot out the door and then it hits me...It's 20 degrees out and the winds blowin lawn chairs across the yard..Hmm, more clothes! Run back in and change, run back out. I figure I have about 15-20 minutes of daylight left. Press the power button and hear that wonderful chatter I've been hearing so much about on here and You-tube! I've already read the manual enough to have it memorized...notch the sensitivity back 2 bits, put in coin mode and roll! Well, it took me about 30 seconds to realize that even having read everything ever written on MDing, I'm still an absolute nube! The darn thing was ding ding ding like a vegas slot everywhere I went. I turned down the sensitivity yet more...ding ding ding...Grrr still more.... I took it down under half and that calmed it down but I'm still hitting targets every 2 or 3 feet and getting overwhelmed. It's getting dark, I'm turning into the human Popsicle. Either I found a lost Mayan treasure or an old junkyard! I figure I better pick a lone target and figure it out. Here's where I could use help..these targets are sounding off loud and clear and showing quarter or half on the screen. The thing is they will only sound off going side to side and not in the x pattern. Anyhow, I decide to pinpoint one the best I can and just dig it up. It says it's 6" deep and put it in pinpoint mode and find the area of strongest signal and start to dig. Wow! Frozen ground feels kinda like diggin through steel with a plastic spoon! now my nose is running uncontrollably, my hands are frozen stumps, I don't think I have feeling in my face or ears anymore but dagnabit I'm gonna dig! I threw the trowel to the side and grabbed my spade..Bite this tundra! I punch through and rip an enormous hole in my lawn..Uhhh I'll figure something out before she see's it. I grab the 250 and go over the canyon...no signal, good, it's somewhere in the enormous clot of dirt on my shovel then.. that's good because the hole is now completely full of water, guess the grounds a bit saturated. Ok I run the 250 over the clump...ding ding ding...Good! Confirmation! Well I spend the next 30 minutes tearing that frozen clump of earth to pieces and no coin! I literally couldn't take it anymore...my hands were in horrible pain, my face I was sure had completely fallen off into the hole somewhere and if I didn't go in soon I'm sure I would have broke into tears and that would be unforgivable! I admit defeat but vow to return in the morning once I defrost. My wife is grinning from ear to ear when I get in with that look that says "after you recover from frostbite and we get back from the hospital, I'm going to laugh very hard at this" Then she says "what ya find?" I could see she was fighting back the giggles.. "3 million dollars in old Spanish coins but the ground is too frozen to dig them tonight, you'll just have to wait to congratulate me tomorrow!" Well, morning comes and it's still just as cold but I'm defrosted and fresh and what did I find? A hunk of scrap metal, it was on top of the pile the whole time wrapped in grass root! It's gotta get better than this! Lol! Why it told me a quarter at 6" I'll never know and I still have a zillion of these dings to dig but I'm gonna wait till it gets at least 45 before I head out again. I hope you all get as big a laugh as my wife! When you all quit laughin I'll find them millions in gold! ;]

Sweeper

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  Sweeper


Welcome aboard and best wishes for the next

Good luck from Luc 

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Hi sweeper

 I like it in fact I really had a good laugh I was just imagining what you looked like by the time that you got in see I don?t have that problem over here in south Africa sure it gets cold but snow ice hell no way not here but then let me tell you that this heat gets to me sometimes you can fry an egg on the car bonnet (hood) any way I?m sure that you will find some coins in your yard perhaps even a silver Dollar.

Regards Xavier 


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Xavier

  nice one BA 

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Xavier

		Quote:			Posted by xavier
	Hi sweeper  I like it in fact I really had a good laugh I was just imagining what you looked like by the time that you got in see I don?t have that problem over here in south Africa sure it gets cold but snow ice hell no way not here but then let me tell you that this heat gets to me sometimes you can fry an egg on the car bonnet (hood) any way I?m sure that you will find some coins in your yard perhaps even a silver Dollar. Regards Xavier

Probably looked just about how you imagined Xavier! Lol! I know all about the heat, lived in Phoenix for 15 years... It hit 122 one summer and I called it quits and moved to WA state. Well, no silver dollar but I got my first find today!! Unfortunately it's not a coin and to be honest I don't know what it is but I'll post that elsewhere in the appropriate area. Thanks for the encouragement.

		Quote:			Posted by CANI
	Welcome to the wonderful world of metal detecting, lol, seriously it gets better and easier to disern all the tones and signals with practice. I still (and she does too) remember the look in my wifes eyes when she came home to a yard full of holes and nothing to show but a pile of nails and little pieces of aluminum siding scrap, and now the yards cleaned up that spanish treasure is closer than ever.

Oh...you should have seen the look on her face when I made our lawn look like a gopher convention today and then after hours of digging came in with my prize... the look of "you poor thing, is that it?" LOL! Hey I don't care I made my first find, now I just have to find out what the heck it is..
Hey, that should have said "Thanks" not your welcome...noob on the detector and nube on the forum..LOL

		Quote:			Posted by BitburgAggie_7377
	Hi Sweeper, at least you didn't cut the cable or bust the water pipe  BA

Says who?? LOL! Actually did find an old sprinkler line but they aren't connected thank God. By the end of the day I learned to plug a nice hole...the other 40 or so, well, I'll blame those on gophers..javascript:void(0);
"On the pinpointing and digging technique. I use a golf tee to mark the location of the target before I dig. I place the tee at the head or toe of the coil and dig in the center. Place your diggings on a piece of cloth so you can spread them out without losing the coin in the grass. I use a fork to spread them out. You might try a sieve at first. A plastic collander with the holes drilled to 3/8 in works well and the plastic doesn't interfer with the detector.  I have a garrett pro-pointer for finding those black dimes in black soil. It cuts digging time in half.

Look at it this way, When those toddlers are teenagers you can show them a hobby that will stay with them for life. gambol"


Hey thanks for the wise advice! Pinpointing and digging were giving me fits. I pretty much dug anything that chirped or squaked...all metal, no disc, sens 2 bars from the top. I didnt mind digging the junk, but i was digging alot of empty holes. Either my pinpointing was Waaaay off or I wasn't going deep enough? It seemed that every target I was getting was reading 8" I finally got frustrated and went to coin mode and only dug strong repeatable signals and got a find. I was placing my tee in the center of the large opening on the front of the coil after using pinpoint mode to locate. I then cut a "V" with my knife with the Tee in the center of the V.. Didn't work too well. I used the cloth and it seems the target was always "Still in the hole"!!! I thought I was gonna dig to china. I was about to just call it quits but thought, nah, one last hole..got a dime size bite with a pretty strong repeatable at 4" I almost danced a jig cause it was the 1st of the day that didnt read 8" and I thought just maybe I have a chance. Sure enough, dug up my first find but I have no idea if it was 4" or 12" I dug deep, throwin dirt on the towel..nope still in the hole, more dirt, nope still in the hole. I got pretty deep and tried the sides..it was a couple inches off to the right. So my pinpointing stinks, I bet i was missing quite a few off to the right or left. I gotta get me one of those probes..can't afford it so I need to find some coins LOL! Thank Bro for the tips and advice. Oh and I'm starting the 4 year old next week, he followed me all day today excited about diggin up pirate treasure.. He loved the 1st one much more than me and I was pretty excited! :]

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