In Praise Of The Ace 400

[F350Platinum]

I'll start off by letting everyone know I am a total noob at metal detecting. Started back in August looking for nails after a roof replacement. The entire story is in my Meet and Greet entry. I retired in October, and have been outside every day I can with my Garrett ACE 400.

Honestly I didn't have high expectations of what I would find. I read lots of pro advice and decided to start in my yard with the ACE, the AT Pro pinpointer that came with it, and a Lesche Samson shovel. I bought the Samson as it seemed to have the most favorable reviews. I read up a lot on the best ways to use the ACE. I also watched a lot of Hoover Boys videos, and marveled at what they dug up. I had no real expectation of finding the sort of things they do, much less coins.

In the first few passes I found some old colonial buttons, and a WW1 Army jacket button. Just about every day I dug up something that was relevant to the area, mostly colonial artifacts some possibly related to the War of 1812. My county is very old, and still mostly rural farming. I have about 150 acres of farm in front of my house. There was a lot of trash from the construction of my house. Most annoying were little triangles of gutter and flashing aluminum that I found everywhere. For just a yard my results were astonishing! On the coin side of things, not so much, I only found 27 cents, all from about the time my house was built. My yard was entirely "Harley Raked" before we moved in.

Just as I finished my yard, the next day the farmer came to pick up his crop. I was excited as it is much easier to search farmland after a soybean crop than a corn crop. I asked him if I could search the farm, and offered him any finds that he liked. He told me he was in no way sentimentally connected, and I could "have at it" and keep everything I found. He also directed me to 200 other acres they own near me That I could search.

I set up a grid search scheme using 6 6-foot driveway markers from Lowe's that I began using about a quarter of the way through my yard when I decided that trying to figure out where I last was wasn't enough. What I did was place 3 on each side of the field, and moved two on each pass. I always have something to line up on. The later addition of the Tect o Trak app shows me how effective this is. This farm overlooks a river where a Steamboat landing was in the 1800s.

Right away colonial buttons, some copper, some pewter, and some lead started turning up, and about the 10th pass I dug a sun pendant with stones for eyes. Soon I dug a 1/4 cut 2 Real coin, and then another. I also dug a 1890 half cent, and an 1879 Indian head penny. The Indian Head was in excellent shape. I also think I found a very old British copper coin that gives no details, but rings when dropped on a table. Every day it has been something, a silver plated button, a gilt one, and even one that was oval and I think solid silver. After covering about an acre and a half the finds cut off, being more iron bits (there were plenty of them everywhere along with shotgun shells and shot), and beer cans and pull tabs. I pressed on regardless and today found another decorated button which I can only assume is very old.

I really like my ACE. I'm impressed by how many relics I have found. I don't see many articles here about the ACE 400, and am kinda surprised. It is not an AT Pro or Max but it sure does find things, even 10" + deep. Check out my photos, everything was found with this detector. I found the Indian head penny when checking the hole after I found the buckshot I was originally seeing, it was 10" down.  Always check the hole again! One of the quirks the machine has I appreciate is the high tone you get if you pass over a low tone item too fast. I t keeps me in check. I always dig items with mixed signals.

I confess that next week I will be going back over my yard with a Minelab Equinox 600. I'm hooked for sure. I will continue to post finds with the Garrett, as I plan to use it in the farm, the Equinox in the river, or whenever I think I should search an area in the farm again. I have no special settings; Zero discrimination, one bar short of full sensitivity on the farm, two in the yard. I want to hear it all. I think I am doing rather well!

Any comments and suggestions are welcome. I have updated my finds cases, shown below. Merry Christmas and Happy new Year!

[GB_Amateur]

You're off to a great start.  Just like real estate, the 3 most important aspects of detecting are location, location, location and you've shown that once again.  That's a nice collection and displays.  Thanks for showing the photos.

You will be best off if you can find old maps and newspaper/book articles that show the locations of long gone hot spots (churches, schools, gathering places in general, homesites,...).  Local libraries (and the associated helpful librarians) should have plenty of reference material to lead you to those juicy hunting grounds.  You mentioned 200 acres the farmer has given you permission to detect.  That sounds like a gold mine but you won't be able to search it all properly.  That's where research pays divdends.

 

[F350Platinum]

Thanks! One of the first things I did was buy "American Military Button Makers and Dealers; Their Backmarks & Dates" and "Discovering Virginia's Colonial Artifacts". The latter stresses how important it is, especially in Colonial areas, to research land grants and patents and find old USGS topo maps of your area. The oldest one I could find is from 1917, and it shows at least 5 house locations that do not exist anymore. I have found one of them so far, where the remains of the house were pushed into the woods. It is a very trashy site so I may explore it with the Minelab, but the ACE 400 did find a couple of coins from the 1940s along the edge of the field on a test hunt. I am also using my county land records database to find out who owns what to contact them for permission. Unfortunately a lot of the farms are rented to out of state people here, who either inherited the land or purchased it for retirement. 

I'm using an app called Tect o Trak, which shows where I've been and allows me to record find photos and GPS information. for $4.99 it is really powerful. It allows for map overlays, a function I haven't tried yet.

I also signed up for the Library of Virginia, which has a lot of information about land patents and grants. Seems to have a lot of stuff but it's a bit tricky to search.

Does anyone have a reference for Colonial buttons? I have found over 30 of them in the last few weeks. the one I found yesterday was right in the middle of a "dead zone", which proved persistence pays off.

[F350Platinum]

Here is a screenshot of the Tect o Trak app showing the locations of some of my finds, I bought it after I searched the first area which yielded a lot of what is in my photos. The red dots are the tracking, and the stars are find locations. Useful!

[GB_Amateur]

1 hour ago, F350Platinum said:

The oldest (USGS map) I could find is from 1917, and it shows at least 5 house locations that do not exist anymore.

...

I am also using my county land records database to find out who owns what to contact them for permission.

Plat maps (which show property ownership at the time of issue plus other landmarks) have been produced for well over a century.  I have a digital copy of one for my area from the late 19th century.  Those can be really good at showing old roads, schoolhouses, etc.  Again, your library probably has them and your county records office might also have old ones.  A detecting friend has a book of them which someone compiled and published.  It covers many counties.

You seem to be going at this the right way.  Old coins are there awaiting your detection.

[F350Platinum]

I do think the "consumer" models of major brands will produce good results, as long as the user is willing to start with low expectations, and learns to "feel" the machine. I have no regrets about my first detector, and intend to use it in the less trashy areas. About all I ignore is low Iron signals, I have dug enough of them to know what they are - usually horse hoof nails, plow/tractor parts and the like. It makes me laugh when I find beer cans and pull tabs. I dig every shotgun shell because that signal is the same as many buttons.

I now know what I am missing, however ... took the new Equinox 600 out today, using the settings Chase recommended. In two passes of the yard I had searched with the ACE, I found another button and a tiny bronze stud that rang up like gold. At first I was getting a lot of deep 15's, which would indicate my yard has a lot of gold, but after finding nothing at 10" once or twice a quick ground balance fixed things. It got too cold for my hands, I have Reynaud's syndrome in my hands and feet, so I had to quit. Can't take temps under 40 for long.

I am curious as to why my yard and the adjacent farm would have so many old buttons in it. My guess regarding the farm is that originally it was an area people gathered waiting for the steamboats, and/or working loading them up. Could be my yard is involved in that as well. According to the 1917 USGS map my road was in a place further west. I'm hoping the pattern of finds will bear that out. The county plat for my area shows it today along with the new road.

Guess I'll be bouncing back and forth between Minelab and Garrett threads for a while! 

[GB_Amateur]

14 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

I do think the "consumer" models of major brands will produce good results, as long as the user is willing to start with low expectations, and learns to "feel" the machine.

IMO, that last part "...as long as..." is true of all detecting, not just that with entry-level detectors.  I still am of the opinion (apparently not shared by many) that learning detecting with a high-powered multi-featued detector is counter-productive.  Digging everything (regardless of what the discrimination system tells you) is quite valuable.  Experienced detectorists know this and do just that when they get new detectors.  Yeh, a person can drive his/her Corvette ZR-1 at 30 mph for the first few thousand miles.  How many do that??!!

This reminds me (here we go again) of a non-detecting story which I think is related.  I picked this up from a documentary movie (can't remember the title).  The accomplished actor Paul Newman had a passion for auto racing but didn't get involved in that until about age 40.  He was a smart guy and recognized that he knew next to nothing about how to race.  He sought out a good teacher/mentor who (wisely, as you will now see) put him in an underpowered car.  For at least the first year (maybe two) Newman drove against experienced drivers with faster cars while he learned how to make the most out of what was underneath him.  To even stay on the track he had to use finesse -- valuable skills which would carry over to his future endeavors.  It takes a person with a lot of self-confidence but also humility to be able to consistently take a beating like he did and stick with it.  And the techniques he learned in that under-powered car paid off in spades when he finally moved up to the more powerful racing machines that his competitors were driving.  (They subsequently found that out, too.  😁)