newbe

[jeffavatech]

Hello, my name is jeff and I live in the Netherlands. I picked up a Bounty Hunter IV. Can anyone tell me if this is any good for just poking around old battle sites here or should I look at something more $$ Thanks

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Agony and Death on a Gold Rush Steamer: The Disastrous Sinking of the Side-Wheeler Yankee Blade - Grab it through Amazon!

[Night Stalker]

You have a great machine, learn to use it properly and listen to what it's telling you and you should find many relics, coins and such. Much of the success in metal detecting is the operator, not the machine. In the right hands, one of those 49.00 specials from radio shack can be a performer. On the other hand, give a noobie a whites xlt or other top end machine and he'll be lost.

Learn your machine and it will take care of your hunting needs.

 

[Born2Dtect]

That is a good place to start. However your type of hunting would be most closely classified as relic hunting. Most relic hunters used the deepest detecting detector they can afford and usually run a larger coil to get as much coverage as possible. Don,t be surprised if you want to upgrade after a while to see if you can find more, it is just natural. I don,t know many detectorist who hunt regularly who own only one detector. Good luck and make that Bounty Hunter sing.

Ed D.

 

[Sandman]

Don't worry, even the best detector is no match for experience. Instead of wanting to upgrade to a more $$$ detector, learn as much as you can from the web sites of the manufactures and relic sites. You should be learning in all metal mode since it is the deepest. Over lap your sweeps at least by half and pack out all trash you dig up. You don't want to dig it up twice.

Good Luck,
Sandman

 

[Blind.In.Texas]

Hello, and welcome to the forum. Always nice to see new folks out there.

Bounty Hunters are famous for the 4 tone range. Read your manual and piece together the the fragments it gives. Example, the Bounty Hunter Discovery 3300 is a really good machine. The depth range for it is 0" - 10". That is plenty of depth in certain states.

Unfortunately this machine is a "looker" machine. This is because the 3300 has 13 discrimination settings and ONLY 4 tones. If you were to do the math it wouldn't come out to such a great audio range for "no look" identification. This is a machine you must watch constantly OR dig everything if you are not going to watch the screen. Believe me when I say that the 3300 has rarely lied to me about an object I dug up. I can not, however, state the same about things I left in the ground. Sometimes I hunt at night, with no flash light, and in cases like that everything must be dug. '

Your machine will be a good starter. Later if you get serious you can switch to something more complex. I would think you could find a few gold coins or jewelry there to pay for the new machine!!]

GL and HH!

 

[Blind.In.Texas]

Don't worry, even the best detector is no match for experience. Instead of wanting to upgrade to a more $$$ detector, learn as much as you can from the web sites of the manufactures and relic sites. You should be learning in all metal mode since it is the deepest. Over lap your sweeps at least by half and pack out all trash you dig up. You don't want to dig it up twice.

Good Luck,
Sandman

Amen to that. Jeez, I wish I had carried out some of my earlier trash. Not much of a litter factor since it is under ground, but, dang it sure is a pain when you recognize your neighbor's water faucet handle that's been lost for 6.5 years....

 

[Postalrevnant]

Welcome to the forum and hobby Jeff (Avtec). I have been metal detecting for about 3 months now. I have a BH 505 and I am reasonably happy with it. Over these last 3 months I have learned alot about my machine and its limitations. Mostly learned about its limitations by comparing to other friends detectors and scanning thier deeper finds. My Bounty Hunter will probably only pick up coins up to about 5" deep. It might do better on larger coins just haven't found one yet. I have managed to find some jewelry though so it does very well up to those 5". I now know its little quarks and usually know what type of target I am going to be digging up. However, keep in mind that a detector can fool you from time to time or the metal in the ground. My last ring .925 silver dolphin ring IDed as a penny on a schoolground in woodchips.

Anyways the prior posts are dead on. The more I use the detector the better I have become with it.

One more important thing is research. Talking to elder folks about thier areas and putting in a little time in the library looking at older maps and newspapers has given me a few tips.

Either way I am happy with the BH as so far as the amount of money I payed for it. I am saving up my money to possibly buy a exp 2. The exp 2 certainly does seem to go deeper than my BH. And it operates in many frequencies. I would not pay that large pricetag to upgrade if I didn't love MDing. It was important for me to MD quite a bit before I decided it was worth it to start saving for the new detector.

I have had some good days so far, but more often I have days with a small amount of modern money or just trash finds. I guess the single best thing I can MDing is pretty fun to me. Even the bad days brings the excitement of possibilities. I am in this for the hobby and enjoyment. Sure I would love to find some $$$$ that would be awesome, but if that was the sole reason I was in this I would be giving up probably. There is a chance that I can find some serious $$$ from an item or items someday. But for now its probably costing me more in gas than I am getting. But as I said I truly enjoy doing this. Some peps do seem to find some great items right off. Some are even lucky enough to find gold rings or other items early in the hobby that pay for the detector right off.

I hope you find something right off that pays for it. Your country is very old and rich in history so the possibility is there. But more than that I hope you find this hobby enjoyable.

Good luck,

Postalrevnant

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I enjoy the thrill of the hunt more then anything else, the possibility is always there to find something worth big $$$ , but it's the thrill of the hunt I enjoy and that alone is what keeps me going back to hunt again and again.

I wish time at work went as fast as a 5 hour hunt.