Bounty Hunter Tracker IV VS The Beach

CTKidd

Elite Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2010
Messages
644
Location
Colchester, CT
First let me start off by saying thank you to everyone who participated in this thread: http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?p=600470#post600470 You guys have been a huge help in getting the BHTiv working for me.

I also want to say thanks to everyone on the forum for all their input, knowledge, and patience in regards to my on going cycle of questions..so with out further ado...

Bounty Hunter Tracker IV VS. The Beach....(insert nafarious intro music here)

I recieved my BHTiv as a birthday present 8/23/10. It has excellent reviews 4.6 stars, beating out the Ace 250 which has 4.3 stars. http://metaldetectorreviews.net/detectors/65-1-tracker4.html I used this link as my main information tool for deciding on the purchase. That was before joining the forum.

I recieved it, opened it up, read the small manual, and ran outside and starting digging up.....beer cans...nails...aluminum siding....nails...screws....beer cans....and more beer cans. This is when I came back in the house and started looking for information on how to use the detector, and thats how I stumbled on to this forum, and taking peoples advice, hit some tot-lots...and BAM I was hooked...big time. I did some dirt digging and even went to the beach. I found that my BHTiv did excellent in all conditions, except for wet salt sand. It would false signal as soon as I got to the wet sand. I did great on the dry sand, and had a blast at the beach.

Sept. 3 I went in for surgery on my dominate hand due to an injury at work and as a result, I haven't been able to really metal detect since. So I started to do some research. I contacted First Texas Products and they gave me some advice and told me what I needed to do, and I also started the above thread asking for advice from people who had successfully hunted the beach with the BHTiv.

Today I decided to head out and get some fresh air, try out the wrist and see if it could hold up, and try out some of the techniques I had been told or read about.

Here was the test area:
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And here were my tools:
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I started out checking the dry sand area down to the beach, it wasn't much of a distance, but I wanted to test my wrist. The bad news...couldn't do it with my dominate hand. So I did the entire day using my left hand for everything. I swung the detector with my left hand...when I found a target..I would pinpoint, put the detector in my right hand..and then dig with my left..I am WORE out!!

When I got down to the wet sand, my detector started falsing all over the place...so I did what I had been told to do..and I waited about a minute...(up to 5 minutes). I turned the sensitivity up to max..and then slowly lowered it until no more falsing. I walked down to the waters edge to test it in the water..and it falsed when it entered the water, and when it exited the water, but not while remaining submerged. I had been told this directly from First Texas Products. OK, so I was happy so far, so I went about searching the wet sand...and it did incredibly well. Here are some pictures:

In the immortal words of the Tic, "Spoooooon!"
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I know what your thinking..six inches in wet sand for a large target....wooohoo!! How bout this?

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Look on the handle of the scoop, see the tab...that was about 7"..

This little guy was pulled out of 4" water filled hole:
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Lead shot maybe..don't know for sure..

Penny was at maybe 4" ..you can see how close to the surf..
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All in all not a bad day...maybe 2-3 hours..I kept stopping to take a break because my wrist was sore, and bothering me..Here is everything from the hunt:

The Good:
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The Bad:
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Close ups of the more interesting finds:
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So what I learned was that the BHTiv can do wet salt sand. I found that if it started to act up a bit, that dipping the coil in the water calmed it down. I stayed in all metal mode most of the time, sensitivity between 12 and 3 o clock...no discrimination. I had very little to no falsing most of the time, and like I said, when it started to false I found that taking it over to the water, and dipping the coil in the surf would cause it to stop.

I am still planning on purchasing a waterproof machine..and a better land machine...but in the meantime..I like my BHTiv...its a great little all around starting metal detector. It can sniff out coins like crazy. When I can finally afford the other machines, I will probably try to put a smaller coil on my BHTiv and keep it for totlots and such.

This is not a post putting down other detectors, and how do I know there are better made detectors than this one. All I am trying to show is that the BHTiv can do this, with some trial and error, I think it will work great for a beginner in the wet sand. Now...what should we take on next? BHTiv VS GODZILLA!!!!!!!!!!! stay tuned.

CTKidd
 
Wow, beautiful beach! Great post CTKidd.

I'm impressed! Running any single frequency vlf on a saltwater beach can be challenging and running it in the wet can be extremely frustrating although with practice and knowledge they can run decently as you found out.

You did a great job in researching and learning how to run your machine in adverse conditions, most new hunters would have given up. Way to go!

Hope your wrist recovers fully soon and you get out there reaping some great finds.
:)
 
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I also discovered that my homemade scoop works great in dry sand, but as soon as I started using it in the wet sand...it started to break..To many rocks. There were a couple targets that I couldn't recover because they were to close to the water, and the water was filling in faster than I could scoop. Part of the issue was because of my wrist. Trying to balance the detector, and scoop with my off hand, then switch to try to see if the target was still in the hole.

Guess I need to invest in a good scoop.

Thanks for taking a look,
CTKidd
 
Nice going on the stuff! My BH I think does pretty well in the wet sand. As you will learn some beaches react differently with the detector and are better to do. Good luck - now you need a better scoop! If you like home made stuff PM me and I'll send you pics of my sifting box & scoop. Which I will not trade for anything in the world.
 
Your post definitely shows the excitement and dedication to learning your equipment that will make you successful.:D You are proving that it is not the cost of the detector that makes a hunter find "treasure". Given all the difficulties you are dealing with, you did great. Congratulations and hope you have many more successful hunts when you are fully healed.:yes:
 
I have the exact same machine, the bounty hunter trackerv works well when there isn't alot of trash around.
Some tips that i have learned is that the discriminator is the key to identifying what is buried without spending alot of time digging beer cans and junk! try making a test garden by marking out a piece of ground free of targets and then bury a few different items in a small area and then messing around with it the different modes.
I find it great to be in all metal mode to find targets and get the most ground penetration and once a target is found, switch modes to find out what it is and whether to bother digging it up or not.
I hope that this helps, good luck and happy hunting!
 
CT - I couldn't figure out sending the picture through the PM but here it is. It's a very large aluminum feed scoop with a homemade box. It's quick and works great on the dry sand. If you have any questions PM me or ask here it's your thread anyway!:yes:
 

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If you look at the catanary wires on the railroad tracks in back of you, they can raise havoc with RF interference with some machines, especially when a train is approaching or when the atmospheric conditions are right. The falsing is unbearable. There are a few beaches in CT where that presents a problem.
 
If you look at the catanary wires on the railroad tracks in back of you, they can raise havoc with RF interference with some machines, especially when a train is approaching or when the atmospheric conditions are right. The falsing is unbearable. There are a few beaches in CT where that presents a problem.

I knew when a train was coming, but I was able to get rid of the falsing by lowering my sensitivity until it had passed. The first time it happened I thought my metal detector had broke..and I started looking around and figured it was interference.

Thanks for the advice, I will keep an eye out for that. Does that mean all along that Niantic boardwalk and Railroad beach will have the same interference?

Thanks,
CTKidd
 
Yes, any place that you see those electric wires for the trains you will have interference. Radio transmission towers will do the same along with airports.
You can eliminate it by lowering your sensitivity but you loose your detecting depth too. I used to hunt a state beach that had the train tracks next to it and even way out in neck deep water sometimes I would get interference depending on the train and atmospheric conditions.
 
CTKidd, It's refreshing to see the passion that you have for detecting. You are going to tear it up when you get healthy! Looking forward to some more reports. HH!
 
Awesome!!

I don't care what anyone says about Bounty Hunter. The machines are absolutely amazing. And affordable.

I just got the Pioneer 505 Pro and am happy as pie. It was going so deep with a super strong signal it was great.

As far as trash that someone mentioned, your going to find trash with any machine, it's learning to use the sensitivity and different modes. Notch and Auto Notch on these machines works great!!

Quote from Bounty Hunter user manual. "The Pioneer 505 is a very sensitive and deep-seeking detector. it will respond loudly to many targets that other detectors would only detect with a weak signal. Because of this, trash-induced signals and other sources of interference may cause signals that seem confusing. The key to managing these false signals is to dig only those targets that emit a strong repeatable signal. As you sweep the searchcoil back and forth over the ground, learn to recognize the difference between the signal that occur at random and signals that are stable."

It also tells you not to dig signals that don't repeat as they will most likely be trash, and from my experience have always been trash when it does that.

Adjusting the sensitivity is key. I'm glad you mentioned turning it up to max first, and waiting, I haven't been doing that. Thanks for your post bro.

The 4" coil works a treat too, for trashy area's and gold hunting.

Happy Power Hunting!! :cool:
 
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