hits and misses

[frieguy]

I am using a bounty hunter IV, and I was wondering if anyone would have any advice on what to set the settings to being that I am a beginner. would it be best to have discriminator all the way on low and sensitivity on high until I get the hang of things? today I sent out and had the sensitivity about half and the discriminator was as low as it could go. I got allot of what I am referring to as "hit and misses" it would sound off like there was something there so I would move around the area to pin point where I thought it was ( motion detector ). the holes that I dug where about 4-6 inches deep and probably about as big around as a soft ball. nothing turned up most of the time. I would smooth out the sand that I had dug and run my detector over it to see if I had missed anything and I hadn't. then I would move over the hole and it wouldn't detect anything. I think that is because of the actual hole though. the manual said to have the coil about 2 inches above the ground while swinging. if anyone has any suggestions I wouldn't take them lightly. thank you for taking the time to read my paragraph

 

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[kermit]

Sometime you can have a small target like a old nail that is all rusted up I mean so rusted it's just a dark spot in the soil.. I'm not sure what does it but sometimes my ACE 250 spikes. That means it will give a tone for a target and even pinpoint but once you dig or turn the dirt it want tone out anymore. I found this out by changing to all metal mode after digging a few ghost holes. Also ground mineralization can sometimes give off false readings. Something else that can cause hardship is Electro Magnetic Energy. That's means you are too close to power lines or something with a lot of power. One time my cell phone rang while hunting and my ace almost jumped out of my hand. You can run the sens in the mid range until you get the feel for it and as long as it runs smooth. I think you should turn your Disc up a little that will help to pick up only stronger targets like coins and should take some of the spikes out. But keep in mind the more Disc you add the the less jewelry finds you will have. Try to scan the target from all sides. A good target will have the same reading from each side. Most of the time that means the coin is flat in the ground. If the coin is standing on edge it can cause it to tone out from one side and not the other. It's all about learning the machine. I think you should dig about everything the first little while that's the only way to learn what the unit is telling you.

 

[mvSWAT]

I've found that my pinpointer helps me a lot in these situations.
Kermit's scenario happens quite often also. Happy Hunting, Dan

 

[bmanofnbc]

I'm not sure about your settings because I've never used that model.
Did you get a beep while swinging from both directions?
If there is a coin or other target in the sand/ground you should get the same response no matter which direction you swing your coil from. If you only get a beep one time it's just a false signal. Sometimes you will get false signals if you raise your coil at the ends of your swing or simply have the sensetivity up too high. Also beach sand can cause false signals due to high mineral content.

You might also check on the Bounty Hunter forum for tips on your machine:
http://www.detecting.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=1
Michael Hillis is one of the members and he knows that machine inside & out.

 

[cybercop106]

Sorry for the late reply, been busy. I live in MO, so no beaches and very rocky, red clay soil in many places.
One of the MDs I swing is a BH Tracker II, and I use it mostly for coin shooting and jewelry hunting, not for relic TH. I switch it to 'disc', keep it an inch off the ground and set the sensitivity at about 3 o'clock and the discrimination at about 2 o'clock, and it screens out a lot of trash (pull tabs, small aluminum, etc...) but hits on silver, gold and clad. Listen to the tone, you can hear the distortion in a crap reading. For clad (other than some pennies and nickels) and silver or gold, the tone is very clear by comparison. When you get a good hit, square the target area and then pat up and down to pinpoint. It tends to detect at the back of coil center.
I've pulled small items out at 10" in sandy soil and 8" in clay-based soil, so it can pick up fairly deep for a beginner model.
If you're relic hunting, you may as well be prepared to set it on 'all metal' and dig everything..............unless you want to spend a few hundred for a serious MD.
JMHO............

 

[JakePhelps]

The bounty hunter tracker 4 will NOT find nails on disc mode, so just turn it to disc, but dont turn it up any. That way you will only get non-ferrous metals