I re-entered metal detecting with the Bounty Hunter IV for a number of reasons:
#1. Cost: The IV can be had at Hobby Lobby for about $60 + tax with their 40% off coupon (on main web page) if you go pick it up.
#2. It had decent reviews; not pro-grade reviews, but a lot of seasoned veterans seemed to think it a capable machine, given all its limitations, so for the price, I thought it a good risk.
#3. Time and energy I could devote to the hobby. Not much, a tad on weekdays and a few hours on the weekend, so investing in a +$600 machine didn't seem to make sense for me at this moment in time.
#4. Limited access to hunting sites; the area I live in is notoriously difficult to get permission to hunt, so I had to weigh cost VS access.
#5. A lower-end, but reasonable machine makes you work harder at IDing the targets, so I thought if I could become fairly well versed in interpreting the signals of a lower-end machine, it would make using a higher-end machine all that much better, provided I do upgrade sometime in the future.
I will say that the meter on this machine is useless; it pegs on every signal, so its only marginally useful as a locating device, but tells you nothing about depth. You're better off listening to the tone to try to determine depth and target composition.
I am still having issues pinpointing targets depending upon the make-up of the target, but that should minimize with more use. Seems the ferrous targets that have been in the ground for a long time tend to throw me off and the location tends to wander around when I dig, but the non-ferrous targets can be located fairly accurate.
It took me a while to understand how swinging velocity could make you misinterpret ferrous as non-ferrous, but now understand that (for the most part) a slower, steady sweep will allow you to hear a ringing tone vs a broken tone. Of course, some targets will fool you if they are large enough and have been in the ground long enough, but as a general rule, if you sweep slow and steady AND the signal appears in both the horizontal and vertical axis of the sweep, it's generally a target worth digging. I have found that tones that only appear in one direction are heavily rusted iron or steel, but that is not 100% true.
I also started out digging way too deep to find most targets; now I only dig shallow or probe to try to find the object before I dig on down. Saves time and effort...
Anyway, the Bounty Hunter IV probably won't stand a chance against any mid to upper class metal detector, but it is a reasonable machine to start or re-start the hobby of metal detecting, and the price is right.