Shamus
Jr. Member
Bounty Hunter Tracker IV & Accessories
A week ago today I ordered a Tracker IV from Belda's in Bend, Oregon. It just arrived yesterday afternoon. I played with it a bit last night and today, just in my own front yard. I've only used it for about an hour or so total, but here's what I think of it so far.
I've used a detector before, just a few times back in the 1970s, but other than that I'm a rank newbie. I wanted a cheaper detector for my first one. I couldn't justify spending $700ish on a new hobby that I might not even like once I tried it. I chose the Tracker IV because it had some pretty good user reviews, and because I liked the idea of having an analog meter as opposed to a digital display. I don't know why, but the digital displays that I saw, even on the higher-end detectors (White's, Garrett) seemed a bit cheesy to me, like they were meant to add an "Oh, shiny!" aspect to the detector to make it sell. They just turned me off. Besides, I have an electronics background and have found that an analog volt-ohm-milliamp meter can tell me more than a digital meter by the movement of the needle. I thought that the same might apply on metal detectors.
The detector shipped with no instruction manual, but I'd already downloaded it in .pdf (Adobe Acrobat reader) format from BH's website and looked it over. All that came in the box was the detector, a warranty registration card, a "free subscription" offer from lost Treasure magazine (which, after reading the fine print, turned out to be one free issue if you signed up for a pay-for subscription, but after looking over the free issue you could cancel the subscription at no charge when you got the bill). Mark Belda also managed to fit the soft case, coil cover, headphones, digging tool and a free billed-style Bounty Hunter cap into the detector's box. (Nice cap!)
The BH brand headphones have a 1/8" stereo plug whereas the Tracker IV has a 1/4" jack. I have an adaptor around here somewhere if I can find it, otherwise any Radio Shack has them. BH should have included one with the phones, though, like most stereo (music) headphones do. The phones are lightweight, well padded and comfortable, with an in-line volume control on the cord. The volume control has a belt clip. They lack individual right and left volume controls but that shouldn't really matter. Meanwhile I've been using the detector's speaker until I come up with that adaptor.
The Tracker IV supposedly comes stock with an 8 inch coil, but the BH brand 8" coil cover doesn't fit over the coil- it's too small. Guess I'll have to ask Mark about that. Maybe I ordered the wrong one?
It took all of five minutes to assemble the detector. The cord for the coil terminates in a 6-pin (I think) DIN plug which plugs into the back of the control box in one corner. Be careful you orient the plug and jack properly before shoving it in lest you bend the pins. This connector is similar to that used on radio microphones (CB radios). Overall, the construction is very lightweight though it seems sturdy enough, though maybe not as much as the more expensive detectors. I'm used to the older 70's technology such as the White's Coinmaster, with the blue metal box containing the control circuitry. The Tracker's light weight makes it comfortable to use, and the modern style of bent tube with handgrip and wrist rest is a lot more comfortable than the old detectors. It has a "stand" on the underside of the control box so when you lay the detector down it keeps the control box off of the (potentially damp or wet) ground. In practise I've found that the stand doesn't support the detector all that well on uneven ground- it still tends to want to lay on its side. The stand is better than nothing, though, and works OK most of the time if you're careful when you set the unit down.
It takes two 9-volt transistor radio-type batteries, alkaline only. I hate these type of batteries. It's always hard to get the connectors to snap onto them properly. The manual says to place the batteries so that one has the connector facing you and the other has it on the other side, away from you. I was kind of leery about smashing the wires that led to the battery connectors, but I got them in and the cover on.
I haven't done the recommended test/demo where you lay the detector on a table and do an air test with a quarter, nickle, penny, bit of aluminum foil and a nail to check the different tones. I need to do that. I just took it out into my yard and started using it.
In all-metal mode I located a 60-penny (6 inch long) double-headed nail about 5 or 6 inches down. In discriminator mode it did not detect the nail. Also in discriminator mode I found three Lincoln pennies, varying in depth from in the sod to 5 inches down, as well as a scrap of aluminum foil at about that same depth. With the sensitivity turned over halfway up it even detected the copper water pipe running through my yard between the meter and my house. I had this pipe replaced a few years ago and (per local code) it's buried at least two feet deep. I suppose I could have been detecting coins or something, but I was getting so many signals along the line-of-sight between the water meter cover and where I knew the connection to my house was located that I decided "Hey, I'm not even digging there".
The meter doesn't do a whole lot of good. It usually just pegs on any signal. I may have the sensitivity up too high. I'll have to play with it and get more used to it before I decide whether or not the meter is worthless. So far I've just relied on the tone to tell me there's something there.
The Tracker IV is a motion-style detector. It only detects metal when the coil is in motion. With the stock 8" coil I've had a bit of difficulty pinpointing the spot accurately. This may be a matter of getting to know the detector and getting used to it, so I may get better at this with practice.
There are three modes: all metal, tone and discriminate. All metal detects everything. Tone gives a low tone for some metals (aluminum and gold) and a high tone for others (copper, nickle, silver). Discriminate causes the detector to ignore iron and steel. The discriminate control knob allows you to set the threshhold of this rejection. In tone mode it can give a broken tone to indicate pull-tabs (or rings/necklaces) as opposed to a solid tone to indicate coins.
Pros:
Automatic ground balancing (or whatever it's called) to compensate for mineral- or salt-rich soil
Light weight
Low price.
Easy to use. Turn it on and go.
5 year factory warranty.
Good performance considering its price. It "just works".
Reported to have pretty good battery life when using headphones (it takes more "juice" to power the audio amplifier needed to drive the speaker), something on the order of 24 or more hours. That works out to several days of detecting in typical useage.
Cons:
Doesn't detect when held still, making it harder to pinpoint locations.
Doesn't indicate the depth of the object well (again, this may be a matter of reducing sensitivity and learning how to use the analog meter)
Doesn't reject aluminum (I don't think any metal detectors do this. It would sure be nice if they did!)
9 volt batteries are a bit of a pain to connect.
No user manual- you have to download it on the Internet.
Manual doesn't explain how to use the meter.
No option for using rechargeable batteries.
Conclusion:
I'm already thinking of buying a better detector, one that detects when held still. But I figure I'll wait about a year or so, and meantime get to know the one I have as well as I can. Meanwhile I'm having fun with the Tracker IV, which is the main thing. Considering its $129 (US) price tag I'm pretty happy with it so far. I'm still not sure how much I'll end up using it: I have a bad habit of diving into new hobbies and then losing interest after a while. It's like would-be musicians tend to buy cheap instruments then become dissatisfied with the music they make and give up, blaming themselves, rather than buying a quality instrument that sounds good to start with. I think the Tracker IV is an adequate instrument, performing well enough to hold my interest in the hobby and is keepable enough as a spare or loaner detector should I really get into it and buy a better model later. I don't fancy myself selling it on eBay any time soon, at any rate.
By the way, Belda's is pretty cool to do business with. If you can make it to Bend. Oregon Mark will take you out and show you how to use your detector, either when you buy it or anytime afterwards. And you get to keep what you find (think gold nuggets)!
A week ago today I ordered a Tracker IV from Belda's in Bend, Oregon. It just arrived yesterday afternoon. I played with it a bit last night and today, just in my own front yard. I've only used it for about an hour or so total, but here's what I think of it so far.
I've used a detector before, just a few times back in the 1970s, but other than that I'm a rank newbie. I wanted a cheaper detector for my first one. I couldn't justify spending $700ish on a new hobby that I might not even like once I tried it. I chose the Tracker IV because it had some pretty good user reviews, and because I liked the idea of having an analog meter as opposed to a digital display. I don't know why, but the digital displays that I saw, even on the higher-end detectors (White's, Garrett) seemed a bit cheesy to me, like they were meant to add an "Oh, shiny!" aspect to the detector to make it sell. They just turned me off. Besides, I have an electronics background and have found that an analog volt-ohm-milliamp meter can tell me more than a digital meter by the movement of the needle. I thought that the same might apply on metal detectors.
The detector shipped with no instruction manual, but I'd already downloaded it in .pdf (Adobe Acrobat reader) format from BH's website and looked it over. All that came in the box was the detector, a warranty registration card, a "free subscription" offer from lost Treasure magazine (which, after reading the fine print, turned out to be one free issue if you signed up for a pay-for subscription, but after looking over the free issue you could cancel the subscription at no charge when you got the bill). Mark Belda also managed to fit the soft case, coil cover, headphones, digging tool and a free billed-style Bounty Hunter cap into the detector's box. (Nice cap!)
The BH brand headphones have a 1/8" stereo plug whereas the Tracker IV has a 1/4" jack. I have an adaptor around here somewhere if I can find it, otherwise any Radio Shack has them. BH should have included one with the phones, though, like most stereo (music) headphones do. The phones are lightweight, well padded and comfortable, with an in-line volume control on the cord. The volume control has a belt clip. They lack individual right and left volume controls but that shouldn't really matter. Meanwhile I've been using the detector's speaker until I come up with that adaptor.
The Tracker IV supposedly comes stock with an 8 inch coil, but the BH brand 8" coil cover doesn't fit over the coil- it's too small. Guess I'll have to ask Mark about that. Maybe I ordered the wrong one?
It took all of five minutes to assemble the detector. The cord for the coil terminates in a 6-pin (I think) DIN plug which plugs into the back of the control box in one corner. Be careful you orient the plug and jack properly before shoving it in lest you bend the pins. This connector is similar to that used on radio microphones (CB radios). Overall, the construction is very lightweight though it seems sturdy enough, though maybe not as much as the more expensive detectors. I'm used to the older 70's technology such as the White's Coinmaster, with the blue metal box containing the control circuitry. The Tracker's light weight makes it comfortable to use, and the modern style of bent tube with handgrip and wrist rest is a lot more comfortable than the old detectors. It has a "stand" on the underside of the control box so when you lay the detector down it keeps the control box off of the (potentially damp or wet) ground. In practise I've found that the stand doesn't support the detector all that well on uneven ground- it still tends to want to lay on its side. The stand is better than nothing, though, and works OK most of the time if you're careful when you set the unit down.
It takes two 9-volt transistor radio-type batteries, alkaline only. I hate these type of batteries. It's always hard to get the connectors to snap onto them properly. The manual says to place the batteries so that one has the connector facing you and the other has it on the other side, away from you. I was kind of leery about smashing the wires that led to the battery connectors, but I got them in and the cover on.
I haven't done the recommended test/demo where you lay the detector on a table and do an air test with a quarter, nickle, penny, bit of aluminum foil and a nail to check the different tones. I need to do that. I just took it out into my yard and started using it.
In all-metal mode I located a 60-penny (6 inch long) double-headed nail about 5 or 6 inches down. In discriminator mode it did not detect the nail. Also in discriminator mode I found three Lincoln pennies, varying in depth from in the sod to 5 inches down, as well as a scrap of aluminum foil at about that same depth. With the sensitivity turned over halfway up it even detected the copper water pipe running through my yard between the meter and my house. I had this pipe replaced a few years ago and (per local code) it's buried at least two feet deep. I suppose I could have been detecting coins or something, but I was getting so many signals along the line-of-sight between the water meter cover and where I knew the connection to my house was located that I decided "Hey, I'm not even digging there".
The meter doesn't do a whole lot of good. It usually just pegs on any signal. I may have the sensitivity up too high. I'll have to play with it and get more used to it before I decide whether or not the meter is worthless. So far I've just relied on the tone to tell me there's something there.
The Tracker IV is a motion-style detector. It only detects metal when the coil is in motion. With the stock 8" coil I've had a bit of difficulty pinpointing the spot accurately. This may be a matter of getting to know the detector and getting used to it, so I may get better at this with practice.
There are three modes: all metal, tone and discriminate. All metal detects everything. Tone gives a low tone for some metals (aluminum and gold) and a high tone for others (copper, nickle, silver). Discriminate causes the detector to ignore iron and steel. The discriminate control knob allows you to set the threshhold of this rejection. In tone mode it can give a broken tone to indicate pull-tabs (or rings/necklaces) as opposed to a solid tone to indicate coins.
Pros:
Automatic ground balancing (or whatever it's called) to compensate for mineral- or salt-rich soil
Light weight
Low price.
Easy to use. Turn it on and go.
5 year factory warranty.
Good performance considering its price. It "just works".
Reported to have pretty good battery life when using headphones (it takes more "juice" to power the audio amplifier needed to drive the speaker), something on the order of 24 or more hours. That works out to several days of detecting in typical useage.
Cons:
Doesn't detect when held still, making it harder to pinpoint locations.
Doesn't indicate the depth of the object well (again, this may be a matter of reducing sensitivity and learning how to use the analog meter)
Doesn't reject aluminum (I don't think any metal detectors do this. It would sure be nice if they did!)
9 volt batteries are a bit of a pain to connect.
No user manual- you have to download it on the Internet.
Manual doesn't explain how to use the meter.
No option for using rechargeable batteries.
Conclusion:
I'm already thinking of buying a better detector, one that detects when held still. But I figure I'll wait about a year or so, and meantime get to know the one I have as well as I can. Meanwhile I'm having fun with the Tracker IV, which is the main thing. Considering its $129 (US) price tag I'm pretty happy with it so far. I'm still not sure how much I'll end up using it: I have a bad habit of diving into new hobbies and then losing interest after a while. It's like would-be musicians tend to buy cheap instruments then become dissatisfied with the music they make and give up, blaming themselves, rather than buying a quality instrument that sounds good to start with. I think the Tracker IV is an adequate instrument, performing well enough to hold my interest in the hobby and is keepable enough as a spare or loaner detector should I really get into it and buy a better model later. I don't fancy myself selling it on eBay any time soon, at any rate.
By the way, Belda's is pretty cool to do business with. If you can make it to Bend. Oregon Mark will take you out and show you how to use your detector, either when you buy it or anytime afterwards. And you get to keep what you find (think gold nuggets)!
