Best Metal Detector

Have you ever heard the saying, you don't know what you've got until it's gone. Well, that's kind of how I feel about the Garrett Ace 250. Metal detecting is an addictive hobby. I'm addicted to metal detecting and I haven't even found anything that good or valuable. If you are lucky enough to find something excellent then I think it's safe to say you will probably be hooked for life! I have found a few decent items and the high I got when finding something pretty neat was like an adrenaline rush that made me want to keep searching and searching until I found the gold at the end of the rainbow. I can only imagine the feeling I would get if I found something really historic or valuable. The best metal detector for beginners on a budget is without doubt the Garrett Ace 250.

I read a story once about a guy in the UK that I believe was fairly new to metal detecting. He had permission from a land owner to metal detect some of his land. So off he went, metal detecting the day away finding a few bits and pieces here and there. He came across a good signal, he dug the signal and found a fully intact, mind condition Roman War Mask! Can you imagine the excitement the person felt finding such a rare item. It's an incredibly rare item to find in perfect condition. I believe only a few have ever been found in the UK in such pristine condition.

The finder and the land owner done the right thing and reported the find to the proper authorities etc. The kicker to this story is that these Roman War Masks were not made from precious metals. They were actually made from Iron and Tin I believe. This meant that the find did not need to be declared under the UK treasure act. The land owner and finder were free to do whatever they wanted with their find. It was decided by the land owner and finder of the Roman War Mask that the item would be sold at auction. At auction the Roman War Mask sold for over £2 Million GBP!. What a find. The land owner and finder split the money 50/50. I'm not sure what make the metal detector was that found the item but I think that most detectors would have found it because it's not a small item. An Ace 250, a CS1MX, both would have found it if you would have been lucky enough to swing the coil in the right location over the treasure.

Anyway, that's enough talk from me fantasising about finds of a lifetime. My purpose for this post was to praise the Garrett Ace 250 for being such a great all round metal detector. Definitely the best within the price range. Recently I have been wishing that I hadn't sold my Ace 250. I now own a C-Scope CS1MX, and from using it quite a lot since I bought it I have noticed differences. Differences that make me prefer the Ace 250 over the 1MX. When I owned the Ace 250 I ended up hating it. But now when I look back I think I just needed to learn the machine better. The C-Scope detectors are meant to be better suited to UK soils but I have found no difference between the Ace 250 and the 1MX.

Also the Khz of the machines. A higher Khz is said to be able to detect smaller items deeper, and I don't dispute that fact, but in my experience the Garrett has been able to detect items of similar size just as deep as the C-Scope, if not deeper. And the C-scope 1MX's accuracy isn't that great and when you take into consideration that it has no built-in pin pointer you can imagine how hard it is without a pin pointer to find a small item that's giving you the signal. Needless to say, the Garrett 250 does have a built in pin pointer and it is very accurate and easy to use. Then you have the discrimination. The 1MX can not eliminate foil. Not without the discrimination being set really high, and that means missing potentially good finds. The same goes for depth. The Ace seems to find items deeper then the 1MX. Both machines were similar in depth when it came to an air test but once I hit the "out in the field" reality I think the Ace 250 is the deeper machine in most soil conditions.

It's not only metal detecting that's addictive but buying metal detectors can be addictive too. Some people go through so many metal detectors considered as the next best thing only to discover that they should have just stuck with one decent metal detector and learnt the machine inside out. I know a guy that has 8 metal detectors! He always wants the latest and greatest new metal detector that's hit the market. But no matter how many different metal detectors you own or what the newest best metal detector out there offers you, you will always want another one. None are perfect for all conditions.

Take the new BlissTool metal detectors. They are the deepest I have ever seen. One comparison video I seen put the new BlissTool up against an XP Deus. Both tried to find a hoard of copper coins that had been buried two weeks earlier. This hoard was buried very deep. Both machines went over the hoard and the BlissTool picked up the hoard with a nice clear two way signal, where as the XP Deus didn't make a sound. However, as deep as the Blisstool is, and it is quite possibly the deepest detector on the market, it is said to really struggle amongst trashy / junky sites. So you can't have everything no matter which detector you have, no matter how deep it goes or how much it costs. Best thing to do is buy a decent detector and learn it inside out. I want my Garrett back!