When not to dig? (with Ace 250)

[Yukon Cornelius]

I just got my first metal detector and it's a Garret Ace 250.

I need to know when not to dig. I was only able to play around with it for about 2 hours last night and I only found junk and 3 pennies.

The display often will say a dime & I dig to find aluminum.

Also, when I'm pinpointing with the Ace 250, if I hold it close to the ground almost touching, it acts like its pinpointing no matter where I put it.

I keep ending up digging up everything.

I have the opportunity to check out a 100 year old building that had its parking lot ripped up, on Saturday, and I don't have time to practice before then. I have to work tomorrow.

Where should I put the sensitivity & discrimination settings?

I don't even understand the discrimination button. I push it and a little arrow moves from left screen to right as I keep pushing. Is it a scale? Or is it pointing at the suggested item above?

Thanks in advance. I'm asking Pappy, because I know you use one and successfully.

Try hunting with the sensitivity set at about 4 or 5 bars. Hunt in the jewelery mode or coin mode until you get a little more used to the machine. When you push the discriminate button and the cursor moves like you have seen. Position it over a bar and push the elim button. You will see that the bar under the cursor disappears. This means that you have discriminated that out. Push the elim button again and the bar will reappear. If you do this in any mode but the custom you can turn the machine off and back on and it will go back to factory settings. The custom mode will stay there until you change it. Be careful not to discriminate out too much or you will be missing a lot of finds. I have found that if the cursor jumps all around over a target it is usually junk, but until you get to know the machine I would dig most signals. This way you won't miss any good finds and you get to know what the machine is trying to tell you. You might try working around play grounds where they have wood chips, sand or pea gravel around the swings and slides etc. It is easy to dig and you will learn fast. You have a good detector, it doesn't take long to figure it out and start finding goodies.
Good luck checking out the parking lot. Sounds like a great place to hunt!

[PAPPY]

YUKON, HUGHS is RIGHT ON THE MONEY! Try his suggestions and you will have a good day hunting....PAPPY

[Yukon Cornelius]

Thanks guys. I'll post any finds. I hope it hasn't been hit yet.