Not finding enough gold jewelry to quench your gold fever? Or worse, you haven’t found any gold at all with your Garrett Ace 250 metal detector? Finding gold jewelry with a metal detector is something that we all look forward to. That glimpse of gold protruding from the freshly dug soil is truly amazing.
If you have not experienced this thrill or just don’t experience it enough, then there are two likely culprits, either one of which can lead to “no gold” frustration. The first possible explanation is one for which you have limited control. In order to find a piece of gold jewelry, you must first swing your metal detector coil over a piece of gold jewelry.
Unless you are enlightened by the owner, you really have no idea where any piece of gold jewelry lay buried. You can make sure you are in an area that is visited by people and that the demographic for that area actually has gold to lose, but you won’t find gold if it isn’t there. Perhaps you are doing everything right but merely have unrealistic expectations of what you should be able to find with a metal detector.
The other likely culprit is that you are relying too heavily on the Ace 250′s discrimination capabilities. Yeah that notch feature sure is great for ignoring all that junk foil and the insane amount of pulltabs, but all too often new metal detectorists do not realize that most gold falls into the foil nickel range. Even if you accept the nickel range, most gold rings are worn by women and being smaller, they tend to fall into the foil range. How will you ever find gold if you set your metal detector to ignore it?
For those of you who patient and willing to give up the easy coin pickings, there metal detecting strategy that can help turn your Garrett Ace 250 into a “Gold Jewelry Magnet”. I am warning you though, this method is not for everyone as it takes a lot of patience and most of you probably want quick results with minimal effort–it’s in our nature.
First off, you will want to run your sensitivity as high as possible while maintaining stability. Set your search mode to custom and make sure that every notch is black like you would see in all metal mode. Now gray out the iron notch closest to the left side of the display in order to eliminate much of the pesky iron targets. Now gray out everything from the 10 cent notch to the $1 notch.
Yes, you ARE going to eliminate all coins but the pennies. Here is why, finding gold jewelry is really a numbers game. The more area you cover and the more targets that you dig, the more likely you are to find a gold ring, chain or earring. Every coin that you dig adds a little to your poke but costs you time and consequently gold.
By focusing only on the gold range, you are giving yourself the best chance at finding the most gold in any given amount of time metal detecting. I would suggest eliminating pennies, but some of the larger class rings and such can show up as a penny. By following this approach, you are going to dig a ton of trash, but at the end of the day what is more valuable, a 14k gold wedding band with a 1 carat diamond or $100 dollars in change, some of which even the coin counter machines won’t accept?
This strategy works especially well at the beach, where more gold rings tend to be lost. At locations with an insane amount of trash, this may not be the right approach. In ultra trashy locations I like to spend the first half of my time using this “Gold Jewelry Magnet” strategy and then spend the last half picking up coins just to switch things up. It really is customizable.
Everything about metal detecting should be fun to you so don’t feel like you have to do anything. Switching things up and experimenting is part of the fun. As I mentioned earlier, this approach is not for everyone, but it can definitely bring home the gold and quickly pay off your Ace 250! One good find is all it takes!
Related Garrett Ace 250 Articles:
Ace 250 Discrimination & Target ID (TID)
Metal Detecting Ballfields with an Ace 250
Beach Metal Detecting with a Garrett Ace 250
Gold Nugget Hunting with the Garrett Ace 250
Relic Hunting with an Ace 250 Metal Detector
Water Hunting with a Garrett Ace 250
Garrett Ace 250 Silver Coins & Jewelry Tips