cryptodave
Hero Member
As most of you know, I bought a 3300 recently for a coin shooter. I had not got a chance to go out and play with it until yesterday, and I had to take it close. I went to the elementry school I found the diamond engagement ring at.
This school yard is really bad for trash, tons of tin foil everywhere, and tons of EMI that screws with all my detectors, so its usually not a place I go unless I need a quick fix.
After ground balancing and adjusting the sensitivity, I discriminated out all iron, p/ts (pull tabs) and s/g (silver and gold). Remember, I bought this for one thing only, and I wanted to test that out. Plus I've hit this area hard on several occasions, so I wasn't too worried about silver and gold coins. I think there are alot there, just under 6 inches of sandy dirt and under that a layer of gravel.
So, anyway I immediately went to the sand area around the jungle gym and swings. Within 1 hour I had found 6 dimes, one canadian dime, 4 pennies all pre '82, and a little tiny button snap.
Every one of those minus the canadian were at 4~6 inches.
The button snap is extremely tiny, and was 6 inches down. I dug a monster of a hole because it read as a dime, I was looking for a dime. After digging, I ran the detector over in pinpoint and got a signal in the sand pile, shifted through it and found the button snap.
That brings up the pinpoint function of the 3300. Obviously it does not discriminate. In an area such as this playground, it can sometimes be quite worthless. Don't get me wrong, if the area I was working didn't have tin foil, it was dead on, and I mean dead on. I would lower the coil and make an impression in the sand of the holes, and it was always smack in the middle.
The negatives I found:
The pole is cheap and wobbles, which can cause false signals. Duck tape or a new pole will help.
Battery seating. It seems a major problem with the 3300s is the way the 2 nine volts sit in the casing. If they are not tight, then it causes fale tones. A small piece of cardboard behind each battery stops that.
EMI is a super problem with this detector for some reason. It effects all detectors I have ever owned, but this one will go on the fritz. Stay out from underneath powerlines, and based on my experience yesterday you need to stay away from large industry sized air conditioners. For some reason whenever it would kick on, the 3300 would go crazy. Never had that problem before. The manual also states that other detectors need to be a minimum of 20 feet away, and I can believe that.
The arm cup is not very big, and because of this is not very comfortable.
All in all an awesome bargain at $112. Right now I would say that I would never have paid $299 for it, but the jury is still out until I take it out for a real test.
I hope this helps any of you thinking about picking one of these up while they are still out, or if you are thinking about purchasing the Titan 3000. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.
HH!
This school yard is really bad for trash, tons of tin foil everywhere, and tons of EMI that screws with all my detectors, so its usually not a place I go unless I need a quick fix.
After ground balancing and adjusting the sensitivity, I discriminated out all iron, p/ts (pull tabs) and s/g (silver and gold). Remember, I bought this for one thing only, and I wanted to test that out. Plus I've hit this area hard on several occasions, so I wasn't too worried about silver and gold coins. I think there are alot there, just under 6 inches of sandy dirt and under that a layer of gravel.
So, anyway I immediately went to the sand area around the jungle gym and swings. Within 1 hour I had found 6 dimes, one canadian dime, 4 pennies all pre '82, and a little tiny button snap.
Every one of those minus the canadian were at 4~6 inches.
The button snap is extremely tiny, and was 6 inches down. I dug a monster of a hole because it read as a dime, I was looking for a dime. After digging, I ran the detector over in pinpoint and got a signal in the sand pile, shifted through it and found the button snap.
That brings up the pinpoint function of the 3300. Obviously it does not discriminate. In an area such as this playground, it can sometimes be quite worthless. Don't get me wrong, if the area I was working didn't have tin foil, it was dead on, and I mean dead on. I would lower the coil and make an impression in the sand of the holes, and it was always smack in the middle.
The negatives I found:
The pole is cheap and wobbles, which can cause false signals. Duck tape or a new pole will help.
Battery seating. It seems a major problem with the 3300s is the way the 2 nine volts sit in the casing. If they are not tight, then it causes fale tones. A small piece of cardboard behind each battery stops that.
EMI is a super problem with this detector for some reason. It effects all detectors I have ever owned, but this one will go on the fritz. Stay out from underneath powerlines, and based on my experience yesterday you need to stay away from large industry sized air conditioners. For some reason whenever it would kick on, the 3300 would go crazy. Never had that problem before. The manual also states that other detectors need to be a minimum of 20 feet away, and I can believe that.
The arm cup is not very big, and because of this is not very comfortable.
All in all an awesome bargain at $112. Right now I would say that I would never have paid $299 for it, but the jury is still out until I take it out for a real test.
I hope this helps any of you thinking about picking one of these up while they are still out, or if you are thinking about purchasing the Titan 3000. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.
HH!
Guess it's something we just have to live with, but no great disadvantage as long as you realize the problem and allow for it. Oh, the BH "Gold Nugget" coil works great on the 3300 without any calibration. Just strap it on and go. The BH reps told me it would work just fine ( it's off my Land Ranger) but I had to test it anyway since there was so much talk about sending them in and having them calibrated. I think having them calibrated is just a myth. As far as I can discern all they do is hook the coil up and see if it works ok and check them for flaws and if OK they send them back. I honestly don't think there is much tweaking that can be done....or not? Monty
