Garys Detecting
The Garrett ace 150 independent field test I am amazed how easy it is to operate even for a complete novice.
Garrett 150 ace field test
By a complete novice
Having watched another re run of Hidden Treasures on sky Andrew my son asked if we could have a go at metal detecting, this was not the first time he had shown interest, in fact with so many repeats of Time Team on the telly who could not resist a chance of finding lost treasure. With a little internet research we decided to go for the Garrett treasure ace 150.

The Garrett Ace 150 controls

First impressions looking at the Garrett Ace 150

For complete novices like Andrew and myself the Ace 150 looked a little complicated, once explained the functions are quite simple.
Assembling the machine was really quite easy, my only advice would be to watch out for the coil connector it can only fit into the control box one way so take care not to force it.

Gently pressing the power button awakens the machine from it's slumber, it quickly runs through a check sequence and settles down. During the check sequence a battery symbol appears with a cross in it then disappears, we automatically assumed the battery's were flat, so installed another set, but still got the same symbol.
 I called Gary in a panic, he said don't worry explaining, the Ace 150 has no battery condition meter, this feature was only for the Ace 250, the icon is in the software.

Returning back to the machine we investigated the Mode button, there are 3 different search options available, all metal,jewelry,and coins, by pressing the button once it switched to the next mode, it worked on a continuous rota so if I pressed the button 3 times it would scroll through the other 2 search options and return to the original position.
Testing at home with some old pennies, modern coinage and a ring pull we soon got a feel to what the different search modes offered.

Position 1 All metal : This picked up every target including Iron, however the Iron gave a much lower tone than any other target. Small coins gave a short clear tone and large coins gave a bell tone. I guess this is what's known as tone ID.

Position 2 Jewellery : The Iron was now rejected, it gave no signal at all, even when a large pair of pliers was passed over the search head. All coinage and large pieces of foil were still detectable.

Position 3 Coins : Ring pulls, Iron, foil, and some modern coins like a 20p, 10p, and 50p's were now rejected. In the coin search mode the Ace 150 easily picked up most pre-decimal coinage, sixpences, pennies, half crowns and modern £1, £2,1p's,and 2p's.

Our first trip was to a local riverbank where we had seen an old chap metal detecting whilst walking our dogs, we assumed it was a suitable place to start, feeling confident about the new machine and hoping to find something interesting. Andrew had the first go while I walked along side with the spade, I kept commenting on his side to side sweep, it appeared to be a long way above the grass and it raised even higher at the end of each pass, I didn't realise until I had a go myself that how difficult it was to make an even sweep with no upward movement, with a little more concentration and a slower walking pace our technique started to improve.

The first signal we heard was a low tone, very strong and precise, when we dug the sound it was large square nail. In fact there were quite a few low sounds some we investigated but all turned out to be Iron. We agreed to try the machine in the jewellery setting, the machine became quieter and the low tone had disappeared altogether. We were suddenly alerted to a sound we had recognised from our testing at home, it could only be described as bell type sound, a dding-dding every time the machine swept over the area.

The depth indicator had illuminated the 6" sector so we dug approx 6 inches down and recovered a Victorian penny the date was visible 1868, our first real metal detecting find fantastic!. This penny was not to be the only one as we had a further 6 in the space of half hour. Ring pulls were a pain we dug a handful just for the experience ,they gave a different sound, it was a much shorter tone, plus the indicator block on the bar graph fell directly under the pull tab marker at the same time the machine gave a bleep.

 Another way of checking to see if the target was a ring pull was to press the  mode button once, switching the machine from jewellery to the coin setting and checking again, if it was a ring pull the target would be eliminated, however would I be ignoring a gold ring as the graph indicates some gold will also fall under the ring pull category.
One particular signal gave a short tone, the bar graph could not make it's mind up, it bounced between the pull tab and the ring marker. The depth indicator displayed the full 6 inches, we dug down to find a near perfect sixpence.
We were to busy admiring our first silver coin and didn't notice the stranger closing up on us until the last minute, we looked up as he raised a spade to say it's ok I'm friendly, in his other hand was a metal detector, it was the old chap we had seen here in the past, he looked at Andrews machine and commented how important it looked, then started to tell us about the old days and how they used broom sticks with transistor radio's strapped to them, which I'm sure is quite interesting in the pub, but not when you have just unearthed your first silver coin and eager to find the other 50 buried next to it.

Eventually we parted company and started detecting again, then we heard a shout "oiy", it was the old boy again," come and try this one" he said sweeping his coil on the grass. Politely we obliged, there was a dent in the grass where he had dug his heel in to mark the spot, I tried our machine over it and got no reaction ,"nothing there sorry" I replied, and tried again "that's it, no back a bit,no,yes,there" the old boy was wittering on, "try it in all metal" he said, its deeper. Ok so I tried it in all metal and the ace gave a low tone with the bar graph pointing to Iron. "I think it's Iron" I said to the man, he shook his head saying something like if that's iron he would eat his underpants and proceeded to dig, he finally unearthed his trophy half a plough shear, silence fell, only to be broken by the sound of rain falling on the water, we parted company for the second time and headed for the trees, while our friend turned on his heels and marched towards the car parking area.

We waited for a while for the rain to stop and searched a little longer even more confident with the Garrett, our search technique had without a doubt improved, this was reflecting in the amount of targets located on the way back to the car, almost re-tracing our original footsteps.
Here are the best finds in one afternoon (our first outing) on the riverbank.

A big thanks to Malcolm and Andrew I will send you a pin point probe G
Readers  feel free to send in your stories and articles, please please please

Hi gary i  got an ace150 from mike longfield 4 my young son i am not new to the game i have 4 detectors my self ie a gold max a cortes and two fishers well right back to the ace 150 i got my lad it as it was  nice and light 4 him  well we got home and went out with it we went to a field  i have been doing 4 15yrs now it as well been done but the odd thing comes up now and then  well we had a play with its modes and found the best mode was the jewellery and sensitivity on 3  this setting looked and sounded like the best with the tests we did with it  well we played so we set off 4 real looking we got some lead bits can pulls but nothing much in the line we wanted so we went home  after my tea i went out on my own with it i put it in the same setting as b 4 and off i went in the same field after about 35 min i got a ding i looked at the meter it was on p/tab as i did not get a ding 4 a long time i dug it up to find a hammered coin looking at me in the dirt that was the first one i ever had on that field  i was thinking all the times i done it with what i thought was good detectors and i got what i thought was a toy and got this hammered coin in  my hand well i was on a high now so off i went back to my job in hand i only walked 6 feet and got a another ping this time it was showing it was a coin so i dug down and what a shock i had it was a another hammered coin and in good nick at that i looked at it and i could see james 1 head on it it was a james 1 shilling by the time i could get my head round it all it was going dark so i went home when i got in i looked at the first coin it was a Elizabeth well if anyone says  a ace 150 is up to the job i say yes i think it dos the job in hand well i will not say its a toy again as its not  one its performance fooled me i  even put ace 150 in my name as you can see and proud thanks hope it helps you out.

Hi Gary,
love the website so i thought i'd send you a review of my latest purchase, the Garrett ace 150
i have been using an old c scope for a while now and after watching some video clips of finds on you tube decided that I would invest in a newer machine. I considered buying one from ebay for a while but in the end the reassurance of being able to have contact with the dealer if i had any problems proved to much and i eventually went to leisure promotions in Newbury. looking around the shop I wished i had more money! I settled on the Garrett ace 150 as it fell into my price range and appeared to be versatile and lightweight.

rushing home I couldn't wait to get it out of the box, assembly was easy and when complete the unit felt robust. I quick viewing of the included dvd gave me an overview of the basic functionality of the 150. then out to the fields!

I usually detect beaches and sports fields in the UK coinshooting as they say, I've never found anything old so i just look for modern coins. cycling through the Garrett's modes I found all metal far to noisy, with lots of iron in the ground down here i couldn't walk two steps without it going off with a deep tone. I switched to jewellery and that setting worked much better, I considered the coins mode but who wants to miss that elusive first bit of gold! well how did it perform I hear you ask, for modern British coinage 10's 20's £1 it usually jumps between pull tab and ring settings with a medium tone, for bronze coins like pennies and 2p it responds with a nice bell twin tone. the ace 150 really loves 2ps by the way, they are by far the most common coin I find.

Other finds with this model have included lots of bullets, pieces of lead, musket balls, two bronze rings, a nice 1963 half crown, a couple of shillings, a three penny bit and best of all a William III half penny dated 1699 found 4 inches down and a William III penny found at 6 inches.

Issues with the Garrett 150
This model doesn't have a pinpoint feature which makes identifying the exact place of the find difficult. even following the instructional videos method of sweeping an X still left me digging quite a large hole, with the target often being off centre from where the centre of the x fell. another issue is the volume of the unit, damn its loud lol, with headphones its really loud a volume pot would be nice.
All in all its a good starter model, I wish I would have waited though and bought the 250 as the pinpoint feature would be worth its weight in earth extracted  lol.
keep up the good work you have a great web site Gary
regards
Darren