Okay, I am fairly new to the hobby and mostly have been hitting the nearby parks. The detector that I use is a Bounty Hunter 3300 I purchased at Clearance through Radio Shack. I seem to do good finding clad. The detector is ususally right on when it comes to the coinage. I have found dimes up to 8 inches down. The detector has all the features like notch, all metal, discriminate, pinpoint, depth, manual ground balance, 4 tone audio target ident, and 3 digit target ident.
Now the question, How much better would I do with a high priced detector like a white, garrett or minelab. How do they justify such a high price? Are they really that much better or do people just say they are to rationalize the high price??? I would love to put my detector up against some of the $400-$800 ones.

What do you think??

mikeb

Dude, if you're reasonably consistent in pulling coinage at up to 8 inches with what you've got, stick with it until you save up enough clad to upgrade to a Whites DFX or a Minelab Explorer SE. Both of them will beat it, but the difference isn't going to really shine through for you with them until you cover the learning curve and you might get one off the bat, ditch what you've got, and then get discouraged.

I've got both now, and while the Minelab (which I'm nowhere near mastering yet) hunts deeper, the Whites seems to have a slight edge in trash. I'm sold on them, particularly the Minelab at the moment, but the setups run about $1300 and $1500 respectively...

The 3300 is actually a pretty competant detector. I would venture to say it's as potent as any Whites machine or Garrett. It doesn't have the build quality of some of them, but for pure detecting performance, it holds it's own. Quite a decent buy actually, as you've found out.

As Ax said, if you're finding dimes at 8", then you're doing better than a Whites could do in most cases. Someone that's competant with an XLT or DFX is going to be struggling to get a dime at 8" in all but the best circumstances.

Garrett GTI2500, Minelab Explorer, and maybe a few others might get you 1-2" more depth. With the Explorer, there's a learning curve, and what you gain in that learning curve is pretty significant in terms of having the ability to hear more about the targets you will be passing over. You also would have a machine that would work much better on a saltwater beach.

All in all though, I'd say you're doing well with the 3300. If you want to hit saltwater beaches, or get more depth, then that would be the time to consider another detector.

Welcome to the forum!

I have been looking at the whites m6 and xlt, my bounty hunter is not very good at the jewelry end, mostly my fault I think, it picks up as trash and I just move along too lazy to dig the pulltabs etc. That time I hit the dime at 8 inches was the exception I have to say the ground was real wet and my machine had trouble picking it up again after the initial hit. On average I would have to say 4-6 inches more realistic.
But looking at all the detectors I would have to say the future is in the multi-frequency setups. But the ones I like are crazy expensive.

It might be better to by a used one than to spend the big bucks on a new. You lose the warranty and have scratches and dings but hey they work good.

I think you can get a used explorer XS for about 400+. Explorer II for around 650 to 700. I am not sure about used whites but someone else can chime in.

Honestly, Whites are good, Minelabs are better (IMO), I used to use a CL IDX that I purchased at EBay used for $200 plus Shipping (BTW CL IDX's go from $150-210 used and IDX PRO's go for $250-$300), it was a good detector and can find coins, jewelry and other stuff easily, however its target ID isn't very good and it doesn't have tone ID nor depth readout which are necessary so I sold the CL IDX, I had great fun with that detector but when I upgraded to a Minelab Explorer II it has been amazing, the detector's ID is exceptional as well as its audio ID which has a learning curve but its easy to understand, it's great for everyday hunting and it goes DEEP, pinpointing with its Double D 10.5" coil was tricky at 1st but then I learned to pinpoint perfectly :). My suggestion is... buy a Minelab an Explorer if possible (XS, II or SE) since they are the best you can buy and they go for less than $800 (XS & II) on eBay with accessories.

I suggest you save your money. You already have a good detector. What you find depends more on where you detect than the brand of detector you use.

In my humble opinion it looks to me like youre having LOTS of fun....stay with it...save your clad...build an nest egg and buy that arm breaker called EXP SE....
LIke i already stated, for a while longer stay with a machine youre comfortable with.... if it aint broken , dont fix it!! As i asked before (no one replied) HOW DEEP IS DEEP ENOUGH??? :o

I agree with most of the opinions above. I used a Bounty Hunter LoneStar for a long time before I "upgraded" to a White's MXT. I found literally pounds of clad and my share of jewelry. The MXT goes a bit deeper, but it's main shining point, in my opinion, is it's target ID and pinpointing ability. It also does well in trashy areas. I also use a Lobo and it's much deeper than the MXT, but the noise in trashy sites will drive you NUTS!!!

I like the Bounty Hunter's notch feature and tone ID and it will surely find most anything the expensive machines will.....just not as deep. And no matter what machine you use, if you're looking for gold jewelry trash is a way of life!! :D I know of no machine that can reliably and consistently distinguish gold from pull tabs and foil candy wrappers. With your machine silver is easy to find within your depth limits, but to find gold you gotta work for it!!

I suggest you stick with what you have until it is so familiar it's like another arm. By that time you'll have found lots of good stuff and will know if you really want to go for the depth thing. When you finally do get a deep-seeking machine and go over your "worked out" sites, you will be shocked! :blink:

Marc

Tip of fingers to armpit. ;)