I can't give you much of a suggestion on what to actually buy- but I can tell you my experience with the bounty hunters detector I picked up in March- I picked up a BH quick draw 2 from a local sporting goods store. it worked ok at first - I took it out about 5 times to the local parks between snow storms here in NorthEastern Pa. I'm still not sure if it fell over in the car, or my last time out backpacking with the rig disassembled, something happened to it. the plug from the coil that goes in to the CPU (AT connector if your in to computers) had a two screw- plastic gasket around it- and that plastic cracked - like I figured either in the car or from being in the backpack - I'm thinking that only using it 5 times it should not have failed so soon.
I didn't abuse it or beat it up being rough handling/using it. Once that little plug holder deal was cracked the coil plug would wiggle around, and it caused it to have some really bad side effects like missing targets on the kitchen floor...figure it would find 1 out of 3 pennies on the floor...bad odds...so it got returned and a Garret ACE 350 got ordered to replace it. in my research the 350 has a metal screw in connector for the coil. visually from what I've seen online it's very much like the military uses for it's radio connectors (similar but I can't confirm what it looks like from internet just yet)- but it looks solid, like it will hold up in a backpack- (having a 2 hour hike to a local ghost town I want something that will survive, but again I don't abuse my tools. so I can't say I'm giving it to hell test it once I get it- I'm in no way running stuff over with a car, or doing anything crazy with it like cliff diving.) just regular use, not abuse. I want to still have this detector 20 years from now if I hopefully can.
one other note: I called Bounty Hunter's 800 number in Texas and could only leave them a message about the issues I had with their product. I wanted to ask why it failed so soon, and if I could have replacement parts or an RMA, however I wasn't able to talk to a live person, and it's going on a week - no one from their company has bothered to returned my call.
your mileage may vary if you buy a bounty hunter, and I'm telling you what I had happen so you don't buy a cheap detector and have to trade up or return it after it stops working properly. Glad I kept the box and receipt! (I'd suggest you keep a file some place safe, as this is an expensive purchase!) It would seem that the local sporting goods store stocks the cheapest - (cheap at $240?!?!?) of the lower price detectors, and only carries them in the spring. I would have been better off searching online and picking a brand name - MineLab (never saw one for $300), Garret, Whites -are all good names with good tools, and varying price ranges also..
I'm still new and waiting on my Garret Ace 350 to arrive via UPS this week- so maybe I'm not the best guy to give advice- but I've learned the hard way, with the BH- you by cheap and you'll likely not be really happy with the purchase- at least that was my recent experience with what happened to me recently....other advice is learn to listen to what ever detector you get -get familiar with what sounds your detector makes (test bed!) and know what it's trying to tell you, keep reading what people here are doing right... I've enjoyed this forum and the people here, learning from other people's mistakes is smart...
? thats what the grankids are for lmao
