Overall, Garrett’s ACE 250 is an excellent starter model for adult beginners and there’s enough tech to keep more experienced detectorists on a budget happy too. Having target ID makes it easier to anticipate what the find may be. If the target ID is shown clearly on the screen, it is also easier for children to interpret rather than requiring them to understand the different beeps of the detector. Pinpointers One of the best features is Garrett’s top-of-the-range 6.5 x 9-inch PROformance coil that’s powerful enough to detect 15-20 cm into soil and waterproof for shallow freshwater searches too. You won’t need to upgrade this coil in a rush.

The most common adjustable settings to find on a metal detector are ‘sensitivity’ and ‘metal discrimination’. When you’ve got more experience the sensitivity button can really help enhance the search because it eliminates trash and focuses more on precious metals. If you want to search in shallow rivers or beach shorelines, look for metal detectors with a waterproof search coil . These can be used on wet days and in shallow water. Using metal discrimination, the metal detector can ‘discriminate’ between different types of metal. It will either use a variety of ‘beeps’ to alert you to which type of metal you have found, or actively ignore certain types of metal on request. This is useful, for example, if searching in an area with high iron-content in the ground, as the detector can ignore any iron findings.

DR. OTEK Lightweight Metal Detector for Adults

Many metal detectors will determine how much iron is present in a potential find, even whilst it’s still in the ground. This is a useful feature to look out for, since items with high iron content are more likely to be nails than ancient coins. It can save you a lot of time in your search if you don’t have to excavate every iron nail you find. The pinpoint mode allows you to determine the exact location of the object very precisely after detecting it with your metal detector. Furthermore, with the pinpoint mode, you can get an indication of the size of the object.

Metal detectors should also include a pinpointer and establish the depth of detected objects, as I did, of course, perform the usual air tests which were impressive but pretty meaningless. Most detectors will hit targets without much trouble when there is no dirt or sand in the equation. What we want to know is how it performs in a real-world situation. To find out I took the MTXE down to Brighton beach on the south coast.The MT6-PRO has now been released to the market but we had the opportunity to test one over the past few months. The design is quite interesting. From a distance, it reminds me of the XP Mi6/Mi4. I am not sure if that was deliberate but suffice it to say it looks good.