Myers Depot Metal Detectors

Newb in Okinawa

TK-421

TK-421

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2017
Messages
363
Location
Japan
Hi there! I'm a new to metal detecting and I live in Okinawa Japan (yep- be jealous).

I actually owe knowledge of this hobby to a member of this forum-- 'onthespot.' He was my husband's co-worker and friend when he lived here and would often show off his latest finds to us. As a long-time geocacher I was very interested in a treasure hunting hobby that could actually be profitable, but I figured it would be pretty underhanded to take what I'd learned from him and then compete with him.

But he's been gone for a couple years and Chinese tourism is booming, so I think my time has come!

I'm starting out with a Bounty Hunter TK4 (hence the username) which will hopefully get upgraded if it does a good job and pays for itself. I know- it's a pretty low-end machine, but money is tight so hopefully with patience and luck I'll get it to hunt some shinies for me.

I'm also sticking pretty much to tourist beaches here (cause UXOs freak me out), so I'll be posting mostly in the "Beach and Water Hunting" side of the forums with finds (I hope!) and questions.

Y'all seem to have quite a lot of experience and good advice to offer! Yoroshiku!
 
Welcome from South Carolina !!!!

Here is a youtube video I found online that someone made -

Bounty Hunter Tracker IV Review and Demonstration

 
I was stationed at camp foster and camp Hansen in 2004-2007 welcome to the hobby

Sent from my Pixel XL
 
GKL said:
Welcome from South Carolina !!!!

Here is a youtube video I found online that someone made -

Bounty Hunter Tracker IV Review and Demonstration

Click to expand...

Arigato yo! This is a good video. I did lots of investigating before buying a detector and this was one of the most informative ones i found.

I've based my settings on this guy's advice and I've been able to find some clad, bullets, sinkers, a little junk jewelry, random hardwear (nuts and bolts) and loads of pull-tabs in the couple test runs I've done at local beaches.

I'm definitely learning to read the tones a bit.

Curiously, the stainless steel hardwear consistently shows up as a low tone in a similar range to nickel-based clad and some of the chunkier aluminum. I wasn't sure what it would sound like at all.

I've also just done a midnight negative-tide hunt at a resort beach with some interesting results, but I'll have to post those in the Beach and Water section. They deserve their own thread. :D

NavyDT said:
I was stationed at camp foster and camp Hansen in 2004-2007 welcome to the hobby

Sent from my Pixel XL
Click to expand...

Oh cool! I moved here in 2006, so just a little overlap, ne.

I'm American but not military, so I know a lot of military folks of course. I'm actually going for permanent residency (fingers crossed). No plans to leave any time soon.

I hope you were detecting while you were here! Pretty rich waters!
 
Glad you already saw that video before, I also thought that guy did a good job of explaining things clearly.

I guess you know to be careful not to get the TK4 in water as I don't think it can be submerged.

Being on a budget I had done research before buying also, and the TK4 had a lot of positive reviews for being a budget model detector, maybe even the best for that low price.

I hope your location is not affected by the fallout from Fukushima.

TK-421 said:
Arigato yo! This is a good video. I did lots of investigating before buying a detector and this was one of the most informative ones i found.

I've based my settings on this guy's advice and I've been able to find some clad, bullets, sinkers, a little junk jewelry, random hardwear (nuts and bolts) and loads of pull-tabs in the couple test runs I've done at local beaches.

I'm definitely learning to read the tones a bit.

Curiously, the stainless steel hardwear consistently shows up as a low tone in a similar range to nickel-based clad and some of the chunkier aluminum. I wasn't sure what it would sound like at all.

I've also just done a midnight negative-tide hunt at a resort beach with some interesting results, but I'll have to post those in the Beach and Water section. They deserve their own thread. :D



Oh cool! I moved here in 2006, so just a little overlap, ne.

I'm American but not military, so I know a lot of military folks of course. I'm actually going for permanent residency (fingers crossed). No plans to leave any time soon.

I hope you were detecting while you were here! Pretty rich waters!
Click to expand...
 
GKL said:
Glad you already saw that video before, I also thought that guy did a good job of explaining things clearly.

I guess you know to be careful not to get the TK4 in water as I don't think it can be submerged.

Being on a budget I had done research before buying also, and the TK4 had a lot of positive reviews for being a budget model detector, maybe even the best for that low price.

I hope your location is not affected by the fallout from Fukushima.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the coil and shaft are theoretically waterproof, but I've read/seen stories that contradict that, so i'm being careful.

This type also doesn't do well with salt-water in general-- lots of falsing near pools of salt water and whenever it touches a rock in bump in salty wet sand. Makes for some slow going at low tide, but not impossible. It's just fine on dry sand, of course, but since it's still the low season there aren't many fresh drops on the dry sand just yet.

Luckily Okinawa is about the farthest point in Japan from Fukushima, and thanks to the Pacific currents there's very little radiation headed our way from there (possibly less what the US Pacific coast is getting).
 
Welcome from Indiana. My wife and I live in the Philippines during the winter. I hope your beaches are not as trashey as ours in the Philippines. They are very bad. People there don't have money to loose. Not much jewelry. But a lot of trash. They just toss their junk right on the beach.
So, I hope you do good. We do like pictures.. KEN
 
dirtykneese said:
Welcome from Indiana. My wife and I live in the Philippines during the winter. I hope your beaches are not as trashey as ours in the Philippines. They are very bad. People there don't have money to loose. Not much jewelry. But a lot of trash. They just toss their junk right on the beach.
So, I hope you do good. We do like pictures.. KEN
Click to expand...

Thanks! Yeah, we have our share of trashy beaches for sure. Anywhere that's a public but non-swimming beach (so many venomous critters in the water that people mostly swim at clean beaches) has quite an impressive amount of trash. You can still rack up the clad count though, since Japan uses the equivalent of $1 and $5 coins (the smallest bill is equivalent to $10).

The upside is that it's a sub-tropical island with a strong tourism trade (kind of Japan's Hawaii). Rich mainlanders come to the big resort hotels that are all up and down the coasts of the island. And in just the last few years China has changed some if it's policies regarding tourism for it's citizens, resulting in a huge influx of Chinese tourists. Of course, only the richest can afford international travel, and they also have a well-known fondness for gold. So hotel beaches here are very rich hunting ground!

Yep- I'll be sure to post pics of my good/interesting finds. I have a pretty bad camera, but i'll do my best. Yoroshiku ne!
 
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