Metal Detecting

Hi all,

I've just joined the forum and am looking to buy my first detector. I've got permission for a local farm and been out a few times with my brother and his Minelab E-Trac. He suggested I get a Garrett, so my question is which is the best buy?

We've turned up some George III, V and Victoria coins this week, and also got a rather nice lead bale seal and a spindle whorl so it looks to be a promising site. Most of it hasn't been done before, so I'd like to have a fighting chance of finding what lies beneath and not be missing loads.

Many thanks

If your going for an ace series I would go for the 400i,at not much more than the 250.It pin points well and has iron audio option.

Neil

Weaslet wrote: Tue Jan 09, 2018 7:38 pm Hi all,

I've just joined the forum and am looking to buy my first detector. I've got permission for a local farm and been out a few times with my brother and his Minelab E-Trac. He suggested I get a Garrett, so my question is which is the best buy?

We've turned up some George III, V and Victoria coins this week, and also got a rather nice lead bale seal and a spindle whorl so it looks to be a promising site. Most of it hasn't been done before, so I'd like to have a fighting chance of finding what lies beneath and not be missing loads.

Many thanks

Welcome to the forum.
If the field has not been done before then you'll be fine with the 250,but if you can afford the AT then get that as it's a better machine that runs at a higher khz,cd

The 250 is a good machine and fantastic value for money, and like may on here I made good finds with mine, so if money is tight I would go for that.

However as CD said the AT Pro is a superior machine (as you would expect at roughly 3 times the cost!) so if money is not a problem go for that. Realistically in most conditions it will not find much more than the 250, but its mainly the extra flexibility it offers in difficult conditions where the advantages will be more obvious.

Evan

Hello and welcome to the forum.

I bought a Euroace as my first machine and I love it and once I mastered the iron discrimination it got even better!!

I've had a quarter hammered out at a decent depth and loads of other stuff.

In conclusion my experience with Garrett has been excellent (only with the Euroace admittedly) and I added a Garrett pro pointer at a later date which is also great.

Happy hunting & finding with whatever machine you choose.

The AT Pro is waterproof to 10 feet, so no problem detecting there in rainy Britain. The Ace 250 and 400i are not. Just one aspect to consider-
Good hunting whichever machine you buy.

Boandtia wrote: Tue Jan 09, 2018 11:15 pm The AT Pro is waterproof to 10 feet, so no problem detecting there in rainy Britain. The Ace 250 and 400i are not. Just one aspect to consider-
Good hunting whichever machine you buy.

For clarification as said the "AT Pro is waterproof to 10 feet" so the whole machine can be submerged.
With the Ace 250, EuroAce, and 400i (and rest of the Ace series) the coils are waterproof so can be submerged safely. While the control box is only water resitant so can not be submerged but is ok for the odd spot of light drizle - waterproof covers are available and only a few quid.

So unless you are planning on mainly beach detecting I would not let this detail on its own swing your decision. But if doing mainly beach detecting the AT Pro is a much better option than the Ace series.

Evan

I have owned all 3 over the past few years. I started out with the Euroace which I found was a good detector,but soon found it unstable on certain beaches and wet sand due to it not ground balancing
I got a 250 for my son who hardly uses it.
I looked around and felt the best one for me next was the AT pro as said above waterproof so rain is not a problem or dropping it into shallow water. It will ground balance well on the wet sand, and has more settings in the pro mode. The good thing is in standard mode its like a Ace 250 supercharged.

Besides all that the key difference between the Ace range and the AT Pro in pro mode you open up the range. what I mean by that is lay the machine down take a coin, from say 20" wave the coin side to side moving towards the coil. at a point it will pick up and registrar the coin but quietly as you move towards the coil the sound gets louder. If I recall right, its called proportional audio. Now do the same same with the Ace Euro/250 it will sound the bell tone once it is in full range. Using headphones with the AT pro I have had some deep targets that sounded very quite at first.

Some say its not very good on wet sand and questioned its ability ? here is a video I shot a few year ago from Cornwall.



I have a few videos on you tube one here from a week while on holiday.



Hope this all helps

Can only speak for the EuroAce as it's the one I use now - it's a great machine for me on pasture and has picked up a good size range of targets at various depths. I'm still slightly paranoid about it in heavy rain, even with the control box cover - but touch wood have not had any problems. Can't really say anything bad about it as I've got nothing to compare to.

The 400i is available at a good discount via the MDF shop; I think it's a great beginners machine. The iron audio is really useful and the pinpointing is spot on. Depth is no problem, the only thing that I wish it had is proportional audio as the depth readout isn't very accurate if there's a large deep object. [12" plus ]

Many thanks all. At the moment I can't afford the AT Pro I don't think but will save up a bit and keep my eye out for a good deal on either that or the 400i maybe.

Weaslet wrote: Thu Jan 11, 2018 6:32 pm Many thanks all. At the moment I can't afford the AT Pro I don't think but will save up a bit and keep my eye out for a good deal on either that or the 400i maybe.

If funds are an issue then the 250 is a fantastic machine for the money and I doubt it the 400i would find any more in the vast bulk of situations. Its got a great reputation because time and time again it out performs its price.

Evan