Tracker IV settings

mlitty

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Jul 20, 2008
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Scotland County, North Carolin, USA
Greetings.
It's raining tonight, so I brought the Tracker IV in, cracked open my box of coins and started playing.

I'm trying to learn my discrimination settings better on this two tone machine. I learned a long time ago that the identification gauge/meter is worthless on this machine. If anyone has any tips on how to mod this box to make the meter useful in some way, I'm all ears.

Using an old penny, nickel, quarter, $0.50 piece, a square nail, a large stainless pocket knife and a set of keys, I tried several discrimination settings on my Tracker IV. Here's what I found.

Using the clock metaphor, at 9:00, I lose most of the steel, but still get a crackle on large items.
12:00, I lose most of the steel and the nickel, but gold still registers if it's in a ring shape. the flat side of my ring does not register ( a thick wedding band).
3:00, only silver and copper seem to show up.

How does this set with the other Tracker IV users out there? Any more wisdom to share on how to squeeze as much out of this meager box as possible?

Thanks.
 
I usually have mine set up with the disc/notch nob at about 12 o'clock. Nickels and gold (ha ha) will give a low tone and pennies, dimes, quarters, and silver will give a high tone BUT some rings and corroded pennies will give a high tone with broken notes. Tabs and most junk will give a more broken tone, if that makes sense. I don't really adjust the disc/notch nob too much; except to turn it to one o'clock sometimes to ensure that nickels give a clean low tone. Sensitivity I always turn up as high as I can without the machine going wonky, usually about 3 o'clock. Oh yeah, and I always hunt in tone, NEVER discriminate. I'm not sure why anyone would use discriminate since the tone mode knocks out iron anyway. To discriminate any higher would just be giving stuff away.

The meter is just for decoration as far as I know. I'm not sure what the heck it's supposed to tell you. I never looked at it once.

Don't sell that Tracker IV short, it gets the job done in my opinion. Mine paid for itself many times over, and I still use it in the tot lots where I would take it over my Minelab Sovereign any day of the week. The Tracker is easy to swing, easy to use, pinpoints beautifully, and goes forever on a pair of 9 volts.
 
I usually have mine set up with the disc/notch nob at about 12 o'clock.

That's usually how I run mine as well. Lately though I've been hunting a lot of really trashy areas that seem to push the steel through the iron discriminate on the tone setting. large or clusters get through.

I also use the discriminate set at 3:00 if I only have a few minutes to hunt. This seems to eliminate everything but pennies, but they sound true and clear with very little else getting through. I usually do this at a tot-lot near my kids' school. I have about 15-20 minutes before I pick them up to grab a little MD time. Since school's started, that's all I've had time for.

Digging a penny or two keeps my appetite going while I wait for the next chunk of time I can spend on more serious MDing.

I do wish there was a hack to make that gague more useful. It seems to be such a waste.

How much more discrimination information does the average detector provide? I'm really only getting two tones and it seems to be only good for discriminating nickels and foil from everything else. How much better is a more expensive detector at discriminating before I dig? Is it really possible to cancel out more of the trash with a better detector?

These may seem like silly questions, but I really have no basis for comparison. I guess what I'm really asking is how much would I have to spend to see a significant improvement on discrimination performance? Is the ACE 250 really that much better than my $90 Tracker IV? Or should I save up more for a significantly better machine, and what would that be?
 
The best thing to do with the meter is take a big piece of black, non-reflective tape and place over it. Alternatively, for the ambitious do-it-yourselfer, you can open the box and neatly clip the two wires leading to it, being sure to carefully tape them up so they do not cross and short out. It serves no useful purpose other than to make the unit appear more "advanced" (like an analog needle style meter is going to accomplish that!). I found mine an annoying distraction, which is why it's covered with gaffer tape.


ETA: Some notes about discrimination.

Discing things out isn't always a great idea, especially when coinshooting in tot lots. Yes, you dig lots of pull tabs, foil, drink box pieces, go-gurt tubes, etc. However, the bad news is that by eliminating pull tabs and foil, you also unfortunately lose gold, which is of course.....bad. Lots of folks like me pull just enough disc to eliminate small iron/steel and dig pretty much everything else. We wind up with extensive collections of pull tabs, pencils, pieces of wire, hot wheels, happy meal toys, chuck e. cheese tokens and the other assorted stuff kids haul around in their pockets. We also (well, not me, not yet anyway) sometimes wind up with big sisters' gold chain, mommies nice gold ring, the nice gold charm off her bracelet, etc.

The tracker IV has it's place, and coinshooting is certainly it. It's my machine of choice for tot lots. It's just deep enough for coins and jewelry.

You need to decide what you want to hunt, then make a decision for more advanced detector type. Asking about brands is like asking "Ford or Chevy?", sure to start a friendly argument.

All of the big manufacturers , Garrett, Whites, Fisher, Minelab and Tesoro make lower to high end machines, and they all find stuff. Some do better than others, and some machine designs work fantastic for, say, water hunting but suck for relics. Some are simple and some you need some serious study to get the most out of.
 
I'm wondering if I'd have better luck in the trashier areas with a smaler coil? I've a 8" stock coil now. I'm just not sure if I'd be better of saving up for the better machine, whatever that may be, or investing in a smaller coil for this one.

There's a 4" "Gold nugget" coil on ebay for about $40 with shipping. Just not sure it's worth it.
Anyone have experience with the smaller coil on the Tracker IV?

I'm itchy for new gear but I realize that what I really need is more practice and more patience. Unfortunately I can't find those one eBay.
 
That's usually how I run mine as well. Lately though I've been hunting a lot of really trashy areas that seem to push the steel through the iron discriminate on the tone setting. large or clusters get through.

I also use the discriminate set at 3:00 if I only have a few minutes to hunt. This seems to eliminate everything but pennies, but they sound true and clear with very little else getting through. I usually do this at a tot-lot near my kids' school. I have about 15-20 minutes before I pick them up to grab a little MD time. Since school's started, that's all I've had time for.

Yeah, giant iron targets will push through in tone mode, but it's pretty easy to ID them as giant iron targets. Again, I NEVER hunt with the Tracker in Discriminate mode - only Tone mode. Discriminating out anything other than iron is in my opinion the same as willfully leaving good stuff in the ground.


How much more discrimination information does the average detector provide? I'm really only getting two tones and it seems to be only good for discriminating nickels and foil from everything else. How much better is a more expensive detector at discriminating before I dig? Is it really possible to cancel out more of the trash with a better detector?

Don't forget the Tracker really has 3 tones, high, low, and broken. And if you pay enough attention you can get a lot of info from the quality of a broken tone.

I upgraded from the Tracker IV to the Minelab Sovereign GT, which has a variable tone based on the conductivity of the target. I also added a digital meter, which displays a corresponding number based on the conductivity of the target. Both are very good at indicating when a target is a pull tab, dime, quarter, nickel, penny, etc. But you know what? Even with these great tools I dig more trash with the Sov then I ever did with the Tracker. Because the Sov quickly taught me that digging just about everything is the way to go. 95% of the time I dig trash, I know it's trash beforehand. But that other 5% of the time is where I make all my best finds. In general, I make more good finds with the Sov, mostly because I did more targets overall.
 
I'm itchy for new gear but I realize that what I really need is more practice and more patience. Unfortunately I can't find those one eBay.

I was going to try to say the same thing, but obviously you know already. Patience and skill with the machine you have are worth far more than a better machine, and will make it easier when you do get around to upgrading. Why not buy a new detector when you find enough clad with the Tracker to pay for it?

You can check out how good the Tracker was to me in one year at:

http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=12926

It is possible!
 
Looking for Pull tabs.

Thank you for the link. It is great to see your year of finds. It gives me more hope. I think that my frustration has come from beginning in some really trashy areas. I'm backing down now to some less demanding sites and having better luck and more fun. I'm still discriminating out the iron and digging a lot of aluminum, but I found a solution for that too. I go out looking for aluminum.

As of this morning, I'm looking for pull tabs. It's a bit of a mental shift, but there's a logic to it. Disappointment comes from a failure to meet expectation. Misjudging targets or getting worked up about what I might be digging set up an unrealistic expectation, leading to frequent disappointment. By looking for pull tabs, I'm more frequently satisfied with my digs, am more comfortable digging more targets, and am happily surprised when I turn up a higher value target. Looking for pull tabs also reminds me that it's the looking that I enjoy. The target is less significant.

Yes, I'm saving them. In another thread I was reminded that there are organizations that collect the tabs and exchange them for medical treatments and equipment. When I have a few hundred, I'll donate them somewhere.

Thanks for your encouragement.
 
There is certainly something to be said for seeking out not-so-trashy sites. I've had great luck in school yards, which around here tend to be less trash riddled than parks. If you can find a nice field at a school that hasn't been hit by anyone before you, you're golden.

Good luck!
 
I'm wondering if I'd have better luck in the trashier areas with a smaler coil? I've a 8" stock coil now. I'm just not sure if I'd be better of saving up for the better machine, whatever that may be, or investing in a smaller coil for this one.

There's a 4" "Gold nugget" coil on ebay for about $40 with shipping. Just not sure it's worth it.
Anyone have experience with the smaller coil on the Tracker IV?

I'm itchy for new gear but I realize that what I really need is more practice and more patience. Unfortunately I can't find those one eBay.

The smaller coil will definitely help in the trashy areas and it will allow you to hunt closer to the metal equipment without all the false signals. It is always a good option, no matter what detector you are using. Also, many of the Bounty Hunter coils are interchaingable with other models.:yes:
 
Coil swapping: Yet another inquiry

The smaller coil will definitely help in the trashy areas and it will allow you to hunt closer to the metal equipment without all the false signals. It is always a good option, no matter what detector you are using. Also, many of the Bounty Hunter coils are interchaingable with other models.:yes:

By "other models" do you mean other Bounty Hunter detectors, or other makes such as Garrett, Tesoro or Whites? I was under the impression that each make has their own plug, making them non-interchangeable.

I don't plan on buying another Bounty Hunter, but I'd be more inclined to buy a coil for the Bounty Hunter I have if it might fit a Tesoro or Garrett in the future. Is it possible to make adapters to fit coils between models?
 
z118-

Very impressive year of searching. With that sort of action, i don't think i would've upgraded! If your finding that amount of coin with a $100 detector...thats just telling you that you know what to do... I was going to jump up to an MXT, but i just ordered a small coil for my Umax and i'm going to continue to use that until i hit the bigger stuff. With gas prices the way they are, i've just got to stay above what i'm sticking in the tank!
 
My buddy has used a BH pioneer 101 for quite some time and he has found some awesome stuff including a roman coin and a spanish reale :shock: Its all the luck of the draw sometimes!
 
A buddy of mine hunts with a tracker IV and has it set up in a very nice way. He has it set up so that there is a fight betweent the two "good" tones. He has it set to just break on an average sized ladies gold ring. He has done fairly well with it with this set up. He gets most coins, nickles are a bit of a bear however and always will be unless you have a good notching system on your machine.

As for better machines, yes they can be better. The big thing really is the notch feature. However the very, very "luckiest" jewellry hunter I have ever known dug everything from the foil range up unless he could determine that it was iron. With non-motion all metal pinpointing this is easy to do, but is also easily done with disc pinpointing with a bit of practice. If the pinpoint spot moves around, you most likely have iron.
 
I've been looking for a way to discern gold from other things. I like the idea of setting the notch to break at an average ring. I'll give that a shot.

I've been hitting some tot-lots lately. It's been helping me to learn the signals better. I'm getting pretty good at identifying foil before I dig it, though a small chain bracelet sounded a lot like foil. It was junk jewelry, but still fun to find.

I need to burry one of my gold rings and see what it sounds like. I've been told they sound like pull tabs, but I still want to hear it at different angles and depths.

I wish there was some way to discern bottle tops from coins and rings, but that might be asking a bit much. Do other detectors do a better job of discerning bottle tops and pull tabs from more desireable targets?
 
I've been looking for a way to discern gold from other things. I like the idea of setting the notch to break at an average ring. I'll give that a shot.

I went out with my buddy yesterday and we spent some time playing with his TIV. He set it to chatter on pulltabs. He was really just focusing on coins. By the end of the afternoon he was starting to get a real feel for coins vs junk. A one dollar coin was giving him a certain "quality" to the tone and foil caps and screw tops a slightly different sound.
I've been hitting some tot-lots lately. It's been helping me to learn the signals better. I'm getting pretty good at identifying foil before I dig it, though a small chain bracelet sounded a lot like foil. It was junk jewelry, but still fun to find.

That is a great way to practice. Bring your own targets and spend some time. Small gold will usually hit in the foil and sometimes down into the iron range....a nasty truth that prospectors know all about. I have been trying to figure out a way for a few years now to prospect hunt the parks and treat them like a gold field, no short cuts just lots of junk digging. Some machines will just not hit on a small chain or ear stud.
I need to burry one of my gold rings and see what it sounds like. I've been told they sound like pull tabs, but I still want to hear it at different angles and depths.

That is why so many machines have a notch in their discriminator settings, nickels and rings share a spot right below tabs. Some rings do sit in the pulltab range. I have found that tabs tend to bark a littel more than rings and their signal will stay stronger longer than a rings will as you lift the coil higher and higher.
I wish there was some way to discern bottle tops from coins and rings, but that might be asking a bit much. Do other detectors do a better job of discerning bottle tops and pull tabs from more desireable targets?

There is a 100% way to do that dig them up :) . Some machines just do better on some pieces of junk then others and vice versa, the Garrett 250 does an amazing job on those foil covers from sport drinks it sounds like nothing else. I have been really impressed with how the TIV sounds off on targets. There is a lot of information in the sounds it just takes practice. I have a Teknetics Mark1, it produces over 100 tones, the deepest note being iron and the highest being silver. It also has an analogue meter which I find much easier to read than a bunch of scrolling/jumping numerical values. The way the meter bounces can tell you a lot about the target. Between the audio and needle I get information that I can use easily. My other machine is a Bandido II, not the micromax model. It has a really rich audio feedback for a single tone machine.

Just keep working with the unit and you will start to understand its language. YMMV!
 
I went out with my buddy yesterday and we spent some time playing with his TIV. He set it to chatter on pulltabs. He was really just focusing on coins. By the end of the afternoon he was starting to get a real feel for coins vs junk. A one dollar coin was giving him a certain "quality" to the tone and foil caps and screw tops a slightly different sound.

. . . snip . . .

Just keep working with the unit and you will start to understand its language. YMMV!

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm getting a pretty good feel for coins vs. foil now, thanks to the tot-lot experience. I need to do some tests to see how coins sound on edge. I'm wondering what I'm passing up when I hear those crackly "foil" targets. I know I've dug one junk bracelet that sounded like foil. I did pick a small earing out of the mulch the other night. The detector's doing fine. I just need to keep honing those skills.

When I've cherry picked the coins from the lot, I'll go back for the trashy sounding targets.
 
Tracker IV, not just a toy!

I had a chance to detect with a few great guys from the forums this weekend. They generously allowed me to try out their rigs during our hunt. Seeing how their detectors work gave me a few ideas about how to further take advantage of the capabilities of the BH Tracker IV. I have a new respect and appreciation for what it can do.

My expectations were exceeded when I pulled a copper salt shaker top about the size of a quarter from the ground at a depth of 8 inches.

It's also been teaching me how to listen and understand what it's telling me. The Tracker IV may have a small vocabulary, but it can say a lot if you know how to listen.

No matter what mode I choose to start in, switching modes over a target can greatly increase the amount of information I have before I dig.

I hunt some trashy areas, so lately I've been using either tone or disc mode (jewelry or coin respectively), to start with. This weekend I was in coin mode for the hunt. If I had a solid hit in coin mode, it might be a good hit, or it might be large iron.

So I quickly switch to all metal mode. If the signal gets stronger then I know it's probably large iron pushing through the discrimination. If sweeping over the target shows the target to be larger in amm than in disc, then I'm pretty sure it's large iron. If the signal is the same in disc and amm, then the likelyhood of a good target increases.

I'll also run tone mode over it quickly to see if it might be a chunk of aluminum. A low tone will suggest that it's likely aluminum or nickel. A broken tone suggests it's most likely junk.

amm also helps me pinpoint exactly where it is before I dig.

If I'm really curious, I can roll the disc up while in disc mode to see where the signal drops out. This will suggest more about what metal I'm looking at.

It's not perfect, but it gives me the information I need to make an educated guess, the same kind of guess high end detectors make for you.

Why take the time? Well, I had a target under a 2" root that I wanted to get a better picture of before I decide whether to chop through or not. At that time, I asked Dig_up with is M6 to scan the target for me. If he had not been there, now I could use my various modes to flesh out the sound picture of the target.

It's not that much different from flipping the trigger back and forth on the M6 to get more info.

In short, the Tracker IV has three different modes and each gives a different perspective on the target. Using them all gives a fuller picture prior to the dig.

I'm much more satisfied with my rig now that I've had some experience with other machines. It's not that I found mine to be better or worse, just that seeing how other machines function gave me greater insight into how to better take advantage of the features in the Tracker IV.

Maybe I'll take that clad I've been saving for a new detector and buy 4" and 10" coils for different applications.

To anyone with a Tracker IV thinking it's junk or just a toy, think again.
 
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