TCosbyJr
Jr. Member
- Jun 3, 2012
- 95
- 24
- Detector(s) used
-
Current: Tesoro Outlaw, BH Tracker IV, HF MD6008
Ex: White's Coinmaster Pro, BH Discovery 3300, Tesoro Cibola
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
Bounty Hunter Discovery 3300 Review...
As many of you may know I bought a new Bounty Hunter Discovery 3300 almost 30 days ago, well it has been a love-hate relationship. I never did a review of it, as I only went on 7 hunts with it and never really learned it; however, here is my experience with it.
I originally liked the VDI numbers, probability of the find, depth reading, etc. but found it was only accurate in the 1" to 4" depth range. If a coin was found less than a inch it would detect a area about the size of a car's licences plate, digging in the middle of the area would yield a coin usually 1/4" from the surface most commonly a penny.
My deepest find would have been in the 6" to 7" depth. At this depth though the depth/probability finds was all over the place (down to a nickel and all the way to a $1 coin and VDI numbers of 199 down to the 30s), it seems the more it jumped around the more it was worth digging. The VDI numbers seemed to jump around even more than the other data so I simply ignored it.
Indeed it does find deeper targets, but in the end it just wasn't for me. The last straw for me was a recent find. Detecting a area told me there was a penny or dime about 4" down, so I switch angles/sides to verify the target. It quickly jumped down to a nickel, then a quarter, then was disc'ed out (I used the default disc to only disc out iron). I dug the find anyway and it turned out to be a wheat penny about 2" down.
I have to say if you are looking for more depth than a Tracker IV, it does do it, but the information provided only is correct some of the time in the 1" to 4" depth area - deeper targets sound like trash or can even be discriminated out altogether. If you spend some time with the detector it may be great, but it wasn't for me. The only other thing to point out is it is a 9v battery eater - it eats two 9v batteries in about 10 hours or less even with headphones.
If interested I will be selling my Discovery 3300 on eBay in the box starting sometime tomorrow.
The swap...
Originally I was a fan of the Tesoro detectors beep and dig style, as this was like my original detectors from the 90's, and more recently my Tracker IV. But like many others I thought a LCD with plenty of details would be a great upgrade, but it just guesses and seems to hurt finds more than helping.
As the guess was always changing, the VDI number, and other information was nearly worthless. Even if the coin is shallow it seemed the info was never really stable/stayed on a ID. The biggest problem was it would change the tone id as it changed it's guess, so it was always changing and sounding like trash was always found. It seemed I had nothing more than a beep and dig MD that had poor discrimination and target separation, as the LCD screen wasn't usually worth looking at.
After reading more about LCD type detectors, the majority of the lower/mid-range detectors all seemed to be plagued with the problems I was having and I did not want to swap to any of them.
Calling around all the pawn shops in a 30+ mile radius turned up nothing lately as usual (not a single one to be found) so I decided to look again at Craigslist. Turns out I found a listing for a Tesoro Cibola about 72 miles away from me. I contacted the guy, turns out I responded the first day he listed it and it was still available.
He said he would meet me halfway (a 32 mile trip for me) and only charge me $200 cash to buy it, I felt bad not giving him more so I gave him $220 to help cover gas at least. He was happy he found the ring and said it paid for the MD, so he just wanted to get about half his money back without having to list it on eBay.
As you can see in the ad he used it once to find his wife's lost wedding band and detected around his yard for about 30 minutes and decided MDing wasn't for him. It looks like new, the only downside is there is no box/manual/paperwork as he tossed it once he opened it - like many others do.
He never registered the MD so I'm hoping I can with Tesoro (I contacted them about it). Either way, a Cibola that looks brand new and used only 30 minutes for $220 I couldn't pass it up. I will be selling my Discovery 3300 on eBay in the box to help pay for my Cibola, so that is my swap.
I'm hoping to get in some good detecting tomorrow, can't wait to try it out! Here are some photos of it with my headphones on it, a light cleaning with a rag and it would shine like a new one.
As many of you may know I bought a new Bounty Hunter Discovery 3300 almost 30 days ago, well it has been a love-hate relationship. I never did a review of it, as I only went on 7 hunts with it and never really learned it; however, here is my experience with it.
I originally liked the VDI numbers, probability of the find, depth reading, etc. but found it was only accurate in the 1" to 4" depth range. If a coin was found less than a inch it would detect a area about the size of a car's licences plate, digging in the middle of the area would yield a coin usually 1/4" from the surface most commonly a penny.
My deepest find would have been in the 6" to 7" depth. At this depth though the depth/probability finds was all over the place (down to a nickel and all the way to a $1 coin and VDI numbers of 199 down to the 30s), it seems the more it jumped around the more it was worth digging. The VDI numbers seemed to jump around even more than the other data so I simply ignored it.
Indeed it does find deeper targets, but in the end it just wasn't for me. The last straw for me was a recent find. Detecting a area told me there was a penny or dime about 4" down, so I switch angles/sides to verify the target. It quickly jumped down to a nickel, then a quarter, then was disc'ed out (I used the default disc to only disc out iron). I dug the find anyway and it turned out to be a wheat penny about 2" down.
I have to say if you are looking for more depth than a Tracker IV, it does do it, but the information provided only is correct some of the time in the 1" to 4" depth area - deeper targets sound like trash or can even be discriminated out altogether. If you spend some time with the detector it may be great, but it wasn't for me. The only other thing to point out is it is a 9v battery eater - it eats two 9v batteries in about 10 hours or less even with headphones.
If interested I will be selling my Discovery 3300 on eBay in the box starting sometime tomorrow.
The swap...
Originally I was a fan of the Tesoro detectors beep and dig style, as this was like my original detectors from the 90's, and more recently my Tracker IV. But like many others I thought a LCD with plenty of details would be a great upgrade, but it just guesses and seems to hurt finds more than helping.
As the guess was always changing, the VDI number, and other information was nearly worthless. Even if the coin is shallow it seemed the info was never really stable/stayed on a ID. The biggest problem was it would change the tone id as it changed it's guess, so it was always changing and sounding like trash was always found. It seemed I had nothing more than a beep and dig MD that had poor discrimination and target separation, as the LCD screen wasn't usually worth looking at.
After reading more about LCD type detectors, the majority of the lower/mid-range detectors all seemed to be plagued with the problems I was having and I did not want to swap to any of them.
Calling around all the pawn shops in a 30+ mile radius turned up nothing lately as usual (not a single one to be found) so I decided to look again at Craigslist. Turns out I found a listing for a Tesoro Cibola about 72 miles away from me. I contacted the guy, turns out I responded the first day he listed it and it was still available.
He said he would meet me halfway (a 32 mile trip for me) and only charge me $200 cash to buy it, I felt bad not giving him more so I gave him $220 to help cover gas at least. He was happy he found the ring and said it paid for the MD, so he just wanted to get about half his money back without having to list it on eBay.
As you can see in the ad he used it once to find his wife's lost wedding band and detected around his yard for about 30 minutes and decided MDing wasn't for him. It looks like new, the only downside is there is no box/manual/paperwork as he tossed it once he opened it - like many others do.
He never registered the MD so I'm hoping I can with Tesoro (I contacted them about it). Either way, a Cibola that looks brand new and used only 30 minutes for $220 I couldn't pass it up. I will be selling my Discovery 3300 on eBay in the box to help pay for my Cibola, so that is my swap.
I'm hoping to get in some good detecting tomorrow, can't wait to try it out! Here are some photos of it with my headphones on it, a light cleaning with a rag and it would shine like a new one.
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