things newbies need to know / tips to make a bounty hunter usible on the beach

[gargamel]

Thanks Ivan for even bringing up the BH topic. I have had my BH Time Ranger for just over a year, and I like it...alot. It has a lot of bells and whistles: auto GB or manual if you prefer (in self tuning all metal mode), 3 preset program modes, blanker (zap), disc., sniff, target accept/reject, target depth, ground monitor and so on. It was cheap ($540) but it is a very good learning tool and has given me much to look forward when I do upgrade to a $1200 model range. This Time Ranger does very well on salt water beaches, wet or dry, as long as you ground balance when going from wet to dry and dry to wet. The cheap stuff has caught up with the exspensive stuff, technologically, but aren't built near as solid. Once one learns how to use it properly, it is great, and lots of fun. I am new to this site and enjoy most all the topics I have seen over the past 2 days.

Thanks all

 

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[wormwhisperer]

Took my tracker IV to the beach today and heres what I saw. Worked very well on dry and wet sand as long you dont bump anthing with the coil. I was able to keep the sensitivity very high all day, about 3/4 where I ususally run it on dry land. Any bump will make it give out a yell. But thats no big deal as you can obviously tell what caused the tone. Next took it in the water and worked just great. Same bumping issue but again no big deal. However when it first went in the water it started falsing all over but soon settled down and worked just as reliably as ever. Perhaps a little water got in the control box or maybe it was just trying to balance itself. But whatever the problem as I said it didnt last long. Too bad the rain started coming in. I only got to dig a few signals before I had to leave. Good luck and HH.

 

[whitt459]

ive been useing a landstar for 5 years and never had a problem, works great, i have hunted the beaches of tx. and la. the deserts of new mexico with a 4 in coil for nuggets, and tx. hill co. for gold and relics. it is hard to beat for the money, just my 2 cents worth . whitt459

 

[jocap]

Thanks for the tips Ivan.

HH

 

[spurloo]

Thanks for the tips. Appreciate your honest approach

My hubby & I are going to the OBX in mid-October. Always wanted to start MDing- just purchased a BH on-line since we couldn't afford a fancier one. We knew going in it wasn't meant to be a great beach machine, but appreciate your tips. Hopefully if we apply what you shared we will have a great time. We'll be excited if we find something besides bottle caps!

 

[SGVALLEYMAN]

Thank you for the great advice and clearing up the stigma associated with the BH, I have a tracker IV and have had many fun hours of metal detecting at a very limited cost( since it was a gift from my wife) I find it truly a wonderful gift that gives me much pleasure.
Granted...Being a newbie, I've had my share of mistakes being made, like any newbie would..but thanks to the great advice i've received here I'll use this modestly priced unit while I continue to hone my MD skills until I can afford a better detector...(Maybe with all the treasures I hope to find, I can fund that buy sooner..lol)
This next week I am attempting my first beach trip with the BH Tracker IV..and will heed the great advice here.

Thank you everyone for all the valuable info.

Scott~Sgvalleyman

 

[JohnnieWalker]

Go at low tide. most of the finds will be a mid beach, look for the small stones and cut away areas.

There is also a lot to find in the towel line area but will find a lot of trash there as well.

The key to success is going to be the speed of your recoverys.

The more you dig the more you find. Pull tabs signal just like gold rings, if you want them you need to dig them.

 

[FarmerChick]

HI everyone

new to the forum and I must say the info on this forum is just fab!

I just bought a LoneStar and use it at the beach on vacations....a total of 4 times so far lol

never tried it anywhere else but now I am getting that addiction and yes I am trying it tomorrow on dirt and will see what I get.

yes my LoneStar went insane over the wet sand and I did adjust the manuals....but could never get it to really stop the chatter......so I went further up the line til I hit the drier sand and it was back to normal.

don't have alot of walking time detecting yet cause on vacation the family seems to want to do everything but go with me detecting....so all I have found is coins (just ordinary pocket money, nothing great ---and yes 50 million pull tabs in this short amt of time. I am trying to truly learn the talk of this thing.



Question on the LoneStar----what mode to you normally run this unit? I have been using the All Metal mostly but keep reading the manual and it seems to use the Auto Notch mode would be better cause it elminiates more trash? just wondering lol trying to learn this detector and get the best use out of it.....thanks for any replies.

also what depth will it hit basically? no where in manual or on the machine does it give any depth info....again, just wondering....thanks Karen

 

[ivan salis]

with most detectors --all metals is just that all metals * single tone --so you can not tell one metal ftom another *

notch mode allows you to cut out a lot of trashy type signals , true but aluminum pulltabs are quite close in the electrical conduvtivity range to small gold rings -( metal detectors sort the metal they "find" based upon their electrical conductivity and display what they think it is (the machines "best guess")- due to the fact that some metals / items are quite close together on the scale they "notch" out together (you would not wabt to cut pilltabs / gold rings out if looking at the beach would you? )

so the better "fix" is to use discrimate mode * -- use a polltab and a gold iten ( like a ring) and slowly manually adjust it by upping your disc level till the pulltab falls out of detection range --once that occurs check that the ring still comes in --if so great ---if not very very slowly drop the disc level until the ring does come in --stop!!!! now check both items listening carefully --the ring should come in clearly with a solid sound -- the pulltabs should sound less clear -sorty scratchy and poppy broken up sounding --not clear like the ring -- now you can tell rings from pulltabs -- while this might not work on all pulltab, it will work on cutting out many of them without the risk of losing rings ,

 

[FarmerChick]

thanks Ivan
that is great information for me

yes it would be better to get a gold ring and put it next to a pull tab and adjust my disc. like you said---never thought of doing that lol great tip

I will get a bunch of things and put them on the floor and do some detecting and eliminating...thanks so much

 

[ivan salis]

just make sure the floor area is "metal free" before setting up the test--- and the place items a few feet apart too.==

 

[FarmerChick]

yes a controlled test would be ideal and I will set one up.


I went out swinging with my friend Barb. Nothing but heavy iron from tractor equipment, tons of downed barb wire fences in the woods, etc...nothing in the creekbed.

But I was so confused.....my detector in Auto notch mode was beeping on almost everything and Barb's Radio Shack thing almost never beeped.

I think I got more confused on this dig trying to understand this stupid detector LOL

but I will master this puppy, some how