Any teachers out there?

a retort to big bad john. just because first Texas instruments may manufacture detectors for both bounty hunter and radio shack, and just because the outward appearance of these detectors appears to be similar, does not mean that they are made of the same quality components. i have been in manufacturing for 15 years and can tell you from experience that just because a major manufacturer makes a product for someone else,doesn't mean that that product is of the same quality.
radio shack has not exactly been synonymous with quality over the years. the reason that their products are so much less expensive than their competitors is because of the fact that they use cheaper electronic components in their products and they are usually assembled in countries that can make them for the least amount of $$. unfortunately quality controll is usually an issue in situations such as these.
which brings us to the situation of what to do when a problem arises. radio shack employs people that for the most part don't know the difference between a metal detector and a smoke detector.not exactly the kind of service that i personally look for after the sale.
i stand behind what i said about it being a mistake to buy from radio shack for these reasons.you are entitled to your opinion,and i am entitled to mine.this tread was written with the aim of getting advise and that is what i gave. have a nice day. :)
 

one other thing john, don't assume that my responses are illogical just because i don't elaborate on all of them. sometimes i just don't have the time to make a lengthy post. i didnt realise that i had to prepare a compelling argument! ;)
 

hollowpointred said:
eurus......RADIO SHACK specializes in "CHEAP" electronics! you are making a mistake by getting a detector from them. listen to the advice you got about the garrett ace and the whites prism.these guys know what they are talking about.
Could some members post finds they made with these models so i can judge for myself the capabilities of the detector.
 

also i wanted to add that it appears the majority of the cost of something is the brand name. an example is i went to two different stores and bought a can of green beans at each. one a major brand the other a generic brand, upon opening them up, you guess it they both had green beans in them. Did i get more for paying higher cost for the brand name?
 

Boy, I'll tell you what, for the difference in money you would be so much happier with a model like the Garrett ACE 250. I don't know what the WalMart detectors do, but if you're gonna spend any amount of money, you'll have more fun and enjoyment by getting something right off the bat that will tell you depth, pinpoint, metal type, different tones, etc. etc.....I've had models that merely give you a beep with no clue about anything else. Check them out thoroughly before laying down your hard earned cash. I got my 250 from KellyCo.......It was cheaper than buying it directly from Garrett.....It was 199 bucks. They threw in some extra goodies to sweeten the pot, too. Shop and buy wisely the first time and you won't later say, "man, I sure wish I had spent a little extra money and got alot more".......Good luck, and Welcome to the fold!!! Goadster
 

EURUS said:
also i wanted to add that it appears the majority of the cost of something is the brand name. an example is i went to two different stores and bought a can of green beans at each. one a major brand the other a generic brand, upon opening them up, you guess it they both had green beans in them. Did i get more for paying higher cost for the brand name?


LOL :D Eurus, sorry but that "green beans" example is a bit shaky I'm afraid. I can give you maybe an 80-90% on it but it's not true in ALL generic brands. Check the contents a few times. Some have more water and fewer beans and some have more stems than others. There isn't a BIG difference but they do have to save somewhere to stay competitive. It's the same in metal detectors. Maybe Walmart, Radio Shack and others sell you the EXACT same model with a different name but I would never bet the farm on it. ;)

I once worked for Motorola in a TV assembly plant (back when they actually made TV's in this country). We made the very first transistorized, modular, console TV, called the Quasar. It was a dandy!! Once it proved itself and everyone was happy the engineering dept started removing and/or replace parts with cheaper parts until it almost died and then backed up on notch and said, "Okay, it still works and we saved another penny." That's business . . .

As I said before, buy what you want, where you want but do not make your complete decision on cost alone. Sooner or later support or the lack of it will bite you in the butt. There's a LOT of experience on this site and no one is trying to sell you a top line unit, just giving you honest views usually (not always) based on personal experience.

One last thought, based on your last post requesting results on units used. An experienced user will get more from a lesser metal detector than a newbie ever will from a top line detector. All results depend HEAVILY on the users knowledge and his ability to understand his detector. What I am saying is . . . . just because I may have found a ton of coins and relics from King Aurthur's court using a $99 dollar detector is not an endorsement for that particular detector. Results come from patience and time and MORE time in the field. Some people have gone a year or longer using a mid line or better detector and still haven't found an Indianhead or a merc dime yet. I lucked out and found my first IH my first week. Luck of the draw is all . . .

Good luck in your decision and good hunting in the field. I'll be looking for your posts . . .

Hobo
 

This may NOT be a Fair Comparison, but I worked at a Couple Companies,

One was KINNEY SHOES, the Other a Chicken Factory.

We Produced & Packaged, for Generic Sale & Brand Name Sales.

When we were doing an order for a Brand Name,

We were Advised that Morning, & it was QUALITY more then QUANITY.

and Believe me, when we were doing for Generic Sales, it was QUANITY not QUALITY
 

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I know I said I was going to back out of the discussion but it has taken a direction in the last day or so that has freshened some of the issues. ?Lets see if I can put some thoughts down . ?

As for the detectors being built by BH for RS or WM. ? There may be a couple possibilities here. A manufacturer might be looking to expand their sales. Say Bounty Hunter. ?Their marketing people say, Lets sell detectors through large mass market chains. ?But, their regular detectors might be too expensive to sell to the average buyer at Target, Walmart, Radio Shack.... ? So, they go to their engineers and say, these are the features that we want. ?We need simplicity in operation for the mass markets and we need to keep the per unit cost down to ???. ? Design us a line of detectors to fill that market. ? So, they set out to build a line of detectors, marketed to a mass retailers market. ?That might mean changing some items, retaining the function but saving, as one other writer said here about Quasar... ?Save a penny here and a nickle there. ?In the end, if it adds up to about $20 or $30 per unit in savings, or actually considering the costs of manufacturing, $5 might be enough to effect a bottom line. ?That might be what they need to make a marketable machine. ?Or, ?A chain, say Radio Shack, ?will decide that they need a manufacturer for their merchandise. ?They don't build it themselves and their current supplier isn't able to produce the product anymore. ?Or, as I suspect with RS, they decide, we need some supplier for this product. ?We don't want a no name, or annonomous, manufacturer or sell under TANDY or RADIO SHACK. ?We need a name brand and a manufacturer who is known and respected and whos brand we can ride on. ?So, they go to other manufacturers and, as mentioned above, say this is what we want, these are the features and this is what we are willing to pay, per unit, so we can sell at ??? and make a profit. ?

There was a point, several years ago, don't recall how long, that Radio Shack was in severe trouble. ?They were closing stores all over, talking about stopping the sale of parts and such. Going to all catalog business... ? A lot of the Tandy or Radio Shack Branded produtcts weren't selling well. ?I guess, many of those products seemed to be a big problem. ?At least that is what the big difference I see today is. ?There isn't as much stuff sold as TANDY or RADIO SHACK, brands. They might have been paying a lot to produce this stuff. ?Even though the products were being made by top manufacturers they didn't have a great reputation for quality. ?Perhaps it was due to such short cutting as is being suggested. ?To keep the per unit costs down and profits up. ? Compared to then, they now are selling a lot from established manufacturers and selling branded merchandise like Sony, Motorola, Apple IPOD, RCA ... ?and other name brand items in their stores. ?Most of the stuff that they sell no name, is actually built by other manufacturers to design specs made by Radio Shack. ?They still do sell some of the best scanners out there. ? I have a Pro-95(???) made by a company called GRE, I think it is. One of the more popular, of it's time (now discontinued), among the amature radio and scanning groups I read. ? ? In the case of the Bounty Hunters, it could be that Radio Shack was looking for a new supplier for their metal detectors. One with a positive reputation and brand name. ? Talking with people at BH, Radio Shack buyers and designers, rather than buying an off the shelf, existing model, or Bounty Hunter, due to contracts with their regular dealers, ?that might prohibit the sale of such models, might have decided to have the manufacturer make some models that Radio Shack could sell, EXCLUSIVELY, in their stores. They might model after an existing model but have to change it enough to make it different from what is sold by regular Bounty Hunter dealers, or to lower the per unit cost to maintain a price level and profit fitting Radio Shacks market. ? So, the prices of the regular models might not represent a big enough profit margin for RS ?or might be too expensive for the average Radio Shack customer. ?So,as is often the case on stuff like electronics.... ?they work with designers to take a product and modify or customize it for their needs or market. ? Maybe, using some cheaper parts or ?materials, here or there, ?or cheaper designs. Saving a penny or nickel or dime on this part and that.... ?Thus, while the machine might be nearly identical to one of the off the shelf models, there could be subtle differences that could mean a lot in long term performance. ? Or, maybe the quality of some of the parts inside could be compromised. When they are working they might be just as functional as the regular products. ?However, they might not have the longevity or durability. ? As I recall, and it has been some time since I took an electronics course in college, resistors, capacitors and transistors, etc. have different quality or tolerance ratings. ?Some might be cheaper than others. ?Some might overload more quickly than others or hold up to more, or less, internal heat... Dropping a grade or two in quality, multiplied by the numbers of the parts used, could add up significantly in the bottom line. ? Some parts might be less expensive and more fragile or even parishable (wear out quicker over time). ?Circuit boards can be built to take a lot of shock and abuse, say dropping on pavement or banging around in the back of your car, ?and some may be brittle as a ginger snap. ?Also, the metal that the circuit tracks are made of can be thick and durable to hold up to oxidation from being near a beach, Or, like an old Canon camera I had, the slightest moisture and amount of salt in the air would cause oxidation on the electrically charged circuit connections causing shorts and corrosion that would eat the tracks off the board. In the case of the camera, the tracks were gold for conductivity reasons. ?Due to expense, they were thin. ?Gold being soft, meant that the slightest effort to remove the oxidation would result in removing, tearing or breaking the tracks or circuits. ?Thus, entire boards needed to be replaced and could not be cleaned. ? I took my camera to FLA a couple times and twice had to pay, nearly the cost of the camera, to have entire boards replaced. ? ?I am not saying this is the case with the Radio Shack Bounty Hunters but just suggesting that what appears to be identical, produced by a reputable manufacturer, could be redesigned for a retailer, (Radio Shack or Walmart) to add more profit or lower priceing and could be quite different under the skin.

Do as had been suggested. ?Go to boards that specialize in Bounty Hunter, ?I think someone posted a couple. ?Read some reviews there and ask some questions of people who might have the machines. ? Look not only for the success people are having with them but also how long they have been using the machines and if they are using them in a similar climate as where you live. ?If you live, as I do, up north like near Chicago, you don't have the same issues as if you live in, say South Florida and are going to be going down to salt water beaches where more salt in the air and moisture could cause a deminishing in the life of a machine due to oxidation and corrosion on internal circuits and in switches. ?A machine built with some short cuts like moisture seals might require different care and precautions. ?

You don't mention what model you are looking at. ?What is your budget. ? I think, as others have been trying to suggest, if you are in the $200 or $300 range, you simply might be happier, in the long term, spending that money on a more known and reputable machine like a White's Prizm III or a Garrett Ace 250. ?If you are lower, say around $100 or so, maybe waiting a short bit to put a little more money asside will be better in the long run. ? But, if you have compared the machines and are completely satisfied, then seeing if anyone has any pictures of recent finds might be a way of confirming or not, your decisions. ?I would say, if Walmart or Radio Shack was my only sources of equipment, I would do all the research I can, on my own. ?Knowing, as I and others have said, those retailers are not going to be your best source of customer service. ?All that service is going to need to be done on your own. ?Also, it occours to me, without knowing what model you are leaning to, anyone who has one and might post some pictures can't help you till they know what model you are looking at. ?

Happy Hunting to All,
 

wmas i think you have hit the nail on the head! that was the point i was trying to convey.nicely said!
 

Reading your reply, again, the one I think you were referring to here, I would like to make one small point.

I, personally, don't know that the Bounty Hunter, detectors here are, in fact, low quality. I pointed out that Radio Shack has been commisioning the design and building of some good radios lately. They have seemed to have tried to address that issue of low quality cheap stuff by going with more name brand merchandise and using higher end manufacturers to build their merchandise. It could be that, using cheaper labor or packaging or whatever, that they are able to build a good detector cheaper. However, I intended to only point out the possiblility that these detectors are Bounty Hunter, only in name.

That the design could possibly have included some short cuts or compromise in overall quality, in order to save in price. For a casual user, or someone just getting started who doesn't want to spend a lot of money right off, these machines might be just fine. However, if you are serious about your interest in detecting and intend to be with it for a while, I would check the experiences of others, like I said, not just on function and ability to find things, but overall durability and life span. You could be buying a fair detector that will die on you in a year, after the warrantee is up, or you could buy one of the other recommended machines and get a machine that will last you 5 years and have a better warrantee and customer service.

It comes down to, in the end, You do get what you pay for. Whether it is durability, quality, service or warrantee....
 

agreed. i dont know for sure that radio shack detectors will be problematic,they may not.you will probably make your share of finds with one,but for my money,if i were the one looking to buy a first detector,i would not go to radio shack for the reasons stated above.why take the chance to save $50 !
 

Okay . . . . bottom line here . . . . we have all written essays on this subject.

Apples to apples . . . . RS Bounty Hunter Model X to Bounty Hunter Model X (Many have said that there IS a direct comparason). What is the price difference between the (as close as anyone knows) the RS Bounty Hunter and the Bounty Hunter Bounty Hunter?? I can not believe it's over $25 and by the length and number of the posts and time spent on this I can't believe that anyone is fretting over that small a difference. Yes, "money is money" but I come back to support, warranty and reputation. Those three items just HAVE to be worth the difference and "No, I do not waste my money either." If the price difference was say $50 or $100 then I might look and think twice but I can only suspect model to model the price is very close. After all, inexpensive MD's don't leave a lot of room for price cutting!!

And now, I for sure am done cause there is nothing more that can be said, explained, described, discussed, evaluated, or debated as far as I can see.

Of course all of this is JMHO . . . . .

Hobo
 

DO NOT buy that P.O.S. Discovery 1100 from radio shack. Do a Froogle search and you can find the Ace 250 for $149.00. it's up to you to find a reputable seller. I have the discovery 1100. ALL my targets travel. Wet or dry and intermediate i end up with a Big hole and wasted effort. Sometimes it's right on most times its 2-6 inches off horizontally. Depthwise, it's pretty close on quarters and dimes.
Thanks,
HH
RainDog
 

Not meaning to sound like a Garrett salesman or anything.... BUT.... The Garrett Ace250 costs anywhere from $149 (no freebies) to $199 (with lots of freebies) . Personally, I'm a Whites XLT user, but I went to Garrett recently and checked out the Ace250 based on all the compliments posted on the board. (I live in the same town that they're made in) Anyway, for what the 250 costs, and for what you get, if you were to purchase any other detector with the SAME or SIMILAR features as the Ace250, it would literally cost you $500+. Common sense dictates, that with Garretts reputation in the business for standing behind their products, AND supporting them for newbies, Garrett is the only logical decision for a entry level detector...


Legal Disclaimer: The opinions listed above by me are in no way an endorsement for any particular product, manufacturer, maker builder, handyman or inventor of any kind. These comments are void and uninsurable in the act of moderation by Jeff or Marc, Hurrricane, Natural Disasters, Nuclear War, Fires, Tornados, Floods or Terrorist attack. These claims are based solely on my witnessing of the comments posted herewith on T-net and several other TH'ing boards and are in now way to be misconstrued, copied, reprinted, plagarized, or otherwise misquoted. Without first receiving written permission from me and paying my royalty fees, of 72?% or the current going rate for something similar... ;)? ;D? ;)

Seriously though... Good luck in your purchase and remember, Metal Detectors are one of the few items that you USUALLY get what you pay for...
 

I really didn't mean to stir the pot here. EURUS asked for general detecting advice and when it was learned he was looking at a RS or WM branded BH detector, here came a mountain of advice advising him to steer clear of BH products. Most of those giving advice prefaced their comments with a statement about not knowing anything about the units he was looking at or not having direct experience. I do, and my personal experience has been positive.

If you'll reread my posts, I didn't steer him to BH products. I simply gave the man the information he was seeking and ADVISED him to go to a DEALER and look at as many different makes and models as he can. I gave him the BH forum link to ask quesitons specific to the BH models he's interested in and maybe, he could hookup with someone to try those out too.

As far as BH being toys...guess what? They're ALL toys! I'll wager that no one on this thread makes their sole living with the detector they use. Me neither...it's a hobby. Chill dudes! BBJ
 

BIG BAD JOHN, I want to thank you so much for your help. I would also like it if the topic question i posted about could be given an answer. ARE THERE ANY TEACHERS OUT THERE? There have been around 37 posts to this question, no one has suggested a person who can give me advice on detecting. Thanks in advance!
 

We are all teachers ;) We all have experience in different fields, i for instance know alot about relics and bottles, someone else might know alot about coinshooting, privy digging, beach detecting, water detecting, etc... So just ask around and we can give you some pointers, cause not one person knows it all ;D, although some people here know alot ;)
 

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