Bounty Hunter Platinum Users Thread

[relicmeister]

Hi all. I have been using my Platinum for two years now. The first year with the stock coil, and last year with the Fisher F5 DD coil. I read through this thread, and may be able to shed some light on some questions.
The Fisher coil upgrade made a noticeable difference on both depth, and identification. The thing that sold me on the upgrade was watching some air test comparison videos on you tube. The ones I watched were done well, and made sense to me. With the original coil, I got good identifiable coin hits to about 6". after that readings were all over the place, but you still could tell if it was a good hit.(with some practice with the machine) Pinpointing was better with the 8" stock coil. With the 11" dd coil, I have to "x" pattern my coil while pinpointing. No big deal, just takes some getting used to. My deepest find with the dd coil for a copper penny is around 8-9", and that's not bad for any machine.
I live in NH, and the soil can change as the rocks change. I find myself ground balancing often, and it does make a big difference. The moment I think my machine is chattering, I balance out the machine. Same thing if it starts doing nothing. Learn how to do it right, it's easy and fast.
As for the going crazy thing, mine does that, and did it with both coils. Right now it is in for repair. At the end of last year, it started to lock up on me, and did so again this spring on a trip down south. After about 15 minutes, it just stops picking things up. All controls work, I can go back and forth from all metals to discriminate, but no signal. I had to ware shoes with metal grommets, and go over them every so often. When they did not pick up, I had to turn the machine off , and restart, and then it would be fine for about another 15 minutes. Should be back any day now. Still got too much snow to do anything anyway.
Overall I really like the machine. I go out with people that have better, and worse machines, and for the money you cannot do better then the platinum. You have to spend quite a bit more money to get a noticeably better machine. Too those of you that just got one of the platinum's, give yourself time to learn the machine.
Hope this helps a bit..... HAPPY HUNTING ALL
RON C

I have had the Plat for 3 years, and am glad I started detecting with it as opposed to say a Garrett ace 250, like my friend got and gave up on.I've since upgraded to
a Teknetics Omega and I modded my Plat for extreme portability ( fits in a backpack) and went back to the stock coil (from the 11"dd) for that reason, and cause altho
it does perform better with the 11"dd, Its a lot harder to pinpoint. I'd go back to the DD coil if I could develop a technique for faster pinpointing. What is this
"X-pattern" you refer to? Can you explain it to me? Maybe there are videos that show pinpointing techniques with DD coils?

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A History of Mining on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska - Grab it through Amazon!

[relicmeister]

Hello I have the platinum.the only thing different that I do is when in all metal mode I point detector in the air hold down pinpointer button then point detector at the ground at about an inch from the ground and wait for it to beep 5 times.I tried the pumping thing wouldn't work right for me.I have not tried it on frozen ground so dont know if frozen ground will balance or not .hope this helps happy hunting

I don't think I ever groundbalanced this way, so I have to give it a try. Maybe I've been doing it wrong . Frozen outside so sommething to do in the house.
The Platinum is a great machine -I found so much with it before upgrading to a Teknetics Omega, and now also a Minelab X-Terra 705. I minimized my Platinum so I
could store it in a backpack to use on hikes or river trips where I would'nt usually have a dtetector.

 

[Phantasman]

I have had the Plat for 3 years, and am glad I started detecting with it as opposed to say a Garrett ace 250, like my friend got and gave up on.I've since upgraded to
a Teknetics Omega and I modded my Plat for extreme portability ( fits in a backpack) and went back to the stock coil (from the 11"dd) for that reason, and cause altho
it does perform better with the 11"dd, Its a lot harder to pinpoint. I'd go back to the DD coil if I could develop a technique for faster pinpointing. What is this
"X-pattern" you refer to? Can you explain it to me? Maybe there are videos that show pinpointing techniques with DD coils?

With the no motion PP features now (which is just like no motion AM mode), you can get an idea of where the target is by swing it from side to side, then while holding the PP button, move it to and fro and you get a tone as long as your acting like your slicing it with the DD coil. Watch detectingMO as he PP with the LRp. The first one he forgets to mark, but the rest he is spot on using this technique.

 

[relicmeister]

Thanks, Phantasman very helpful. I plan on practicing in the house later. I'll keep the 11"dd if I can be confident with PP, I was trying to sell it.
My Omega stock coil is 10x5 elliptical concentric, and when I got the 10x5 elliptical DD for it I didn't notice any change in pinpointing accuracy. Speed in target recovery
is very important top me but the big increase in ground coverage with a dd coil can't be discounted either.
BTW, that LRP is pretty sharp and reminds me of my Omega( which he mentions in his video)

 

[Phantasman]

Thanks, Phantasman very helpful. I plan on practicing in the house later. I'll keep the 11"dd if I can be confident with PP, I was trying to sell it.
My Omega stock coil is 10x5 elliptical concentric, and when I got the 10x5 elliptical DD for it I didn't notice any change in pinpointing accuracy. Speed in target recovery
is very important top me but the big increase in ground coverage with a dd coil can't be discounted either.
BTW, that LRP is pretty sharp and reminds me of my Omega( which he mentions in his video)

Glad you found it useful, relicmeister. The Omega and LRP are both FTP Fratbros processors operating at the same frequency. I have said that the LRP is a big brother of the Euroteks. The Omega is a better built and even deeper machine. More like my F5 I had. But my F5 had no memory. I consider myself a "mid" range detectorist, not one to spend an extra thousand to get 6" more in depth. I'm happy with the 10" the LRP gets, with it's bells and whistles at under $300.

 

[relicmeister]

I just posted a new thread in metal detector modifications about wanting to modify my Platinum for extreme portability.( sorry don't know how to link to it)
I got the idea after seeing the new Minelab Gofind detectors. The goal is to be able to slide the lower and upper rods into a middle double barrel, fold in the coil
and fold down the control box so the whole thing is a 18"-20" package that could fit in a backpack with breakdown and setup being fast and simple.
I won't do an actual mod until I have it all worked out and know it will work as planned, and will post pics when it is done. Till then I'll be using it this
season along with my X-Terra and Omega.

 

[relicmeister]

I think I'd like to get a 5" coil but if they do cost $120 I won't ( I'm saving for a coil for my X-Terra) Seems too pricy.

 

[woodknack]

I think I'd like to get a 5" coil but if they do cost $120 I won't ( I'm saving for a coil for my X-Terra) Seems too pricy.

I agree. Im just going to use it with my 8" coil. If I need something to get in tighter I've got my compadre. If you don't have a compadre for $40 more then the cost of the 5" coil you can get one.

 

[woodknack]

Well here in Maine the ground is still covered in snow. I snow blow a path around my house and now that it is starting to warm up,that path is all grass. I decide I want to try out my metal detectors. Been a long winter thinking about using them. So i grab my compadre first. put the discrimination on foil. Swing it a few times and get a nice signal. I don't even turn the dial up to see if it fades away. I just go get a spade to dig the plug,because I don't even care if it's trash. I just want to dig something. I stick the spade in the ground,make a U shaped plug (can only go 3" down before I hit solid frost). I flip the plug over,scan the hole,nothing,scan the plug and get the hit. I drop down and dig through the muddy plug with my hand and a quarter falls right out! Sweet! First dig and find for me in 2015.

So then I go grab my bounty hunter platinum. I ground balance it and start scanning the only bare grass strip I have. Keep hearing the iron tone (I like the 4 tone) which I ignore. Then BAM nice high tone. I x it out. looks small. I look at the vdi and it's ringing up as a dime or quarter. But I'm getting a double beep when I go over the target. Telling me it's close to the top. I make a small shallow plug flip it over and fish around a bit and there I find I dime.! Not a bad start for me in 2015. .35 cents closer to paying my machines off.lol

Can't wait to really run these machines through there paces.

Bounty hunter platinum -dime


Tesoro compadre -quarter

 

[Phantasman]

Nice job, two coins no junk. My first day out this year will be Monday. Supposed to be in the 60s for the first time this year, and sunny. I'll try to send some your way.

 

[woodknack]

Nice job, two coins no junk. My first day out this year will be Monday. Supposed to be in the 60s for the first time this year, and sunny. I'll try to send some your way.

Thanks I'll be waiting for it. Lol
suppose to snow again here this weekend...aaaahhhhh

 

[MD-Mainiac]

Hi all, new to the forum..
I have a BH Platinum with both the stock 8" and 11" DD coils.
I have been doing a lot of wet and dry beach hunting (brackish water).
So far I have found a 10k gold&diamond earring. Silver coins and clad coins. with the 11" coil, I have dug dimes on the beach as deep as 11". Have found all the metals, silver, gold, clad and pennies.
I like this detector, it works very well for me. It is my first detector and I am very happy.

I think my next purchase will be all-the-way.. a Excal II or a CZ-21. Maybe next year.

Thanks.

 

[cowtipping1]

grateful for this thread. Just picked up a used bounty hunter platinum for $170. Found a couple of things on my couple of hunts. I feel like I will target something and dig, and then the item will move. I'm probably just getting used to the machine.

I need to learn how to correctly ground balance as I was just turning it on and pumping it to the ground like a friend told me, but I guess I should follow the manual directions.

happy hunting!

 

[Phantasman]

Yeah. On the Platinum, after you turn it on, make sure there is no metal in the ground using disc mode, then hit the mode button till "All Metal" is highlighted, then hold the PinPoint button down as you pump the coil. When the signal is silent while pumping, release the PP button and you're balanced. Don't touch the PP button again if you stay in All Metal. Best to hit the mode button again until Discrimination is highlighted. Then the PP is used for pinpointing and GB is locked. Don't swing too fast, about 3-4 feet per second for best results. Make sure you X the target while pinpointing. You'll eventually find the sweet spot of the coil like second nature.

 

[cowtipping1]

I think I got it balance, I didn't hear any beeping while doing it though, but it locks into a number when it's near the ground and then I let it go.

What sensitivity to you guys use to hunt with it? I've been keeping mine on 7, but wonder if I'm missing things because of it.

 

[Phantasman]

If 8 or 9 works without false sounds, go for it. I never max mine out (10). If you swing and get a signal, then it disappears as you rescan it, then lower by one. Nothing wrong with 7 as it's the default FTP has set for "most" hunting. Some areas, less prone to EMI will allow a bit higher than 7. Some difficult areas may need a lower setting. You should still get 8" on a quarter at 7.

 

[cowtipping1]

great help Phantasman thanks so much. Looks like we both live in the same state! happy hunting!

 

[Phantasman]

Tri-Cities area.

 

[sssmiller]

I'm not just new to the site, I'm new to detecting.
Ordered a Garrett 250 and at pro pointer (should be here in a day or two) but I found a BH Platinum on a classified site this evening. It was used 3 times in the guys yard and looked like he wasn't lying about that. So I got to turn on a detector tonight. Cant wait until tomorrow. We have a stream in our backyard that will be dried up for another month. Should be exciting.

David

 

[Sandman]

Good luck on the new toy.