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Bounty Hunter 3300 settings

mdavidthomas

New Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2006
Messages
3
I just purchased a clearanced BH 3300 from Radio Shack on Sunday, June 18, 2006 for $111.97. I have never used a metal detector before and by reading some input from this sight I figured this might not be a bad detector to get my feet wet.

I have a question about manual ground balancing in the pinpoint mode on the BH 3300. It says to find and area that does not have any metal and raise the coil into the air with the ground balance knob set on preset (fully counter clockwise) and the machine in the pinpoint mode and bring the coil back to the ground. When I do this I get a fairly loud humming sound within 1" of the ground. Then when I raise the coil back into the air and turn the preset knob clockwise 1/16 of a turn and return the coil towards the ground the humming noise seems to start when the coil is 1.5-2" off the ground than the previous setting and it seems to get louder and louder with each change in ground balance setting.

Also, I am having problems when scanning the ground in all metal mode, when I hear a high pitch tone that indicates an item towards the $1 (right side of the scale) and I rescan the area where I received the first sounding, I can not find the place that emits the same tone in a lot of instances.

Any suggestion greatly welcomed.

mdavidthomas
 
You are looking in a place with a lot of trash in it. As for the ground balance you are doing it correctly. There must be a lot of minerials in that ground. What i do is turn your machine on with the coil being at waist level. Turn your ground balance to the preset position then hit pinpoint. Bring your coil down to the ground. If it buzzes then take it back up to waist level and turn it back to all metal and turn your ground balance 1/16th of a turn. Then back to pinpoint and coil back to the ground. If it still buzzes then repeat these steps until it doesnt buzz any more. It takes a little practice but you will get it.
 
The "ping" to the 199 number or dollar is the detector falsing on the ground minerals. This happens a lot with this detector. Go to auto ground balance and it should diminish.
 
Great info here, thanks mdavidthomas for asking the question, I am having similar problems but was not sure on how to word it.
 
When I get those high numbers, and I have dug in the tot lots, usually its been something big & deep underground like galvanized/copper plumbing lines for sprinklers. Sometimes its been deep & thick galvanized piping thats been cut. From the top its circular and does it make a perfect tone! I feel I have learned my detector pretty well, but I will still dig those readings since I am usually doing sand just to make sure. I highly recommend learning your machine on those sand lots where you concentrate on the detector and not on digging. Just practice, practice, practice! :yes:
 
I know it has a ground balance knob but I have only had to use it at a beach with wet sand. I would tell you to set it all the way to the left on preset. If you still get a lot of 199s at sensititivy 3 then it is time to ground balance it. If your picking up a lot of iron 1 at depth 10 that is the ground minerals or little bits of iron junk I would say use the notch button or disc button. The playgrounds are a great place to start since it is easy to dig, you really shouldn't get very many false signals there.
 
Update: I found my manual yesterday and with what tater explained, I didn't remember the step to return the metal detector to All Metal before turning the ground balance adjustment.  So, I returned to my manual and low and behold they don't specifically say to change the setting to All Metal before turning the knob but they do infer this by stating" Lift the search coil waist high", Rotate the ground balance knob clockwise 1/16 of a turn, PRESS PINPOINT, Lower the search coil to the ground again.  So I guess you have to read between the lines sometimes.

Now for the next issue, after ground balancing I went to a local school playground that is covered in 6 - 8" of mulch and started searching for metal.  I found $0.25 and a Chick-Fil-A wrapper but that's it.  The problem I am having is that when I get a tone, I normally keep going over the area to locate the metal, I usually turn 45 degrees and then 90 degrees to locate the metal.  However, when I dig I can't seem to find the metal and then I loose the signal.  I've tried to look in the mulch that I had dug out of the hole but to no avail.



Thanks for the help,

mdavidthomas
 
This is like deja vu, I'm doing the same thing. I pull sand from the hole and start searching what I pulled to no avail. Something will say 4 inches, I dig what seems like a ditch and it still says 4 inches. I think I need to talk to TonyinCT about a pointer and a scoop :!:
 
What numbers are you getting on targets and what depth reading? I would say move the coil about 3-4 inches from the target and about 1 inch from the ground and press pinpoint mode. The detector kinda of auto ground balances everytime you hit pinpoint so you don't want to be right over any target when you hit pinpoint. I then raise the coil up to about 2-3 inches and sweep the coil back and forth and up and down a bit. If it is a coin target it will get loud and fade as you sweep to pinpoint it. After you dig 3-4 inches sweep it over the pile you dug and the hole. All newer coins are hard to see even after a few years in the ground or even mulch. I have a bunch of the state quarters that are in bad shape. Pinpoint is all metal mode so it will sometimes pinpoint iron trash.
 
Big targets have been doing that to me!
 
I got to hunt for about 30 minutes tonight and I was able to pickup some experience that I didn't have before.  I was under the misunderstanding that the metal would always  be located beneath the coil but I found out that there is a radius around the coil that will cause the detector to sound.  Even though it may only be clad that you pull from the ground there is still a since of success and excitement.  But what a downer to pull out a  bobby pin, paper clip, or nail.

Good luck hunting,

mdavidthomas
 
I also bought a 3300 for my son and it came threw today.

We hit a local beach not expecting much because of all the rain here in new england. I brought my Explorer II but forgot the battery on the charger GRRR. So we just used the 3300 and it actually works well for 111.00! We found a gold pulltab down near 7"'s loud and clear. found some pocket change and one junk ring. It does feel like a down grade from the expensive units but it came threw today and can really find the small things like little pieces of foil.
I also thought About some of the Ghost signals and started checking everything. The detector actually sounds off on small pieces of foil which is a good thing. I almost gave up on the tab thinking the detector couldn't go that deep but it was there @ 7" inches. I had to use pinpoint a couple of times to find what the detector was telling me what was there. I did notice that sometimes when I would dig on a good target the target would disapear but when I would go into pinpoint I could find it and it was usually junk/foil.
 
I never though about pinpointing after a ghost signal, good idea. Ran into that a few times on the beach yesterday and just moved on. I was out there to walk with my wife, detecting was secondary. I found 2 quarters, 1 PT, 1 beer cap and 2 beer cans. Those damn cans trick me everytime.
 
I have picked up lots of pieces, tiny, of foil with my 3300. Now, why is that a good thing? :lol:
 
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