Hi, I just ordered myself Sov GT, when this happened my 2 daughters wants detectors for themselves also so they can hunt with thier dad , my wife found a radio shake in Mississippi the other day when they were visiting for thanksgiving, she bought a discovery 1100 for $29.00, the store only had one of them and I couldn't find another but they also had a 3300 so she bought it also for $99.00, the question is can my 14 year old use this 3300 or will it be to tough for her to learn and does it work on wet beaches, they say the 1100 will but I haven't seen anything on the 3300, I seen the 3300 has manual ground balance and I hope she will learn it fast and not get bored messing with it while her little sister is just walking away with the auto GB on the 1100.... just would like to hear what you all think???

Take the cheap ones back and get them Garret ACE 250's. If they have an interest, the quality of the ACE will ignite it. I believe they run around $179-$249 and if they don't take to the hobby, they'll retain quite a bit of that value should you decide to eBay them or sell them locally. While I don't own, and haven't used an ACE, I've only heard good things about the machine for it's price range (I wave a DFX and an Explorer SE).

Manual ground balance was a feature that aided me in introducing my 1980's BH to the closet for the next 20 years. Granted, had I known that the proceeding 20 years would be essentially the heyday of finding mass quantities of silver coinage, I'd have gutted out mastering the machine, but todays good machines down to the ~$150 range do it, and it's worth it.

I'm with Axenolith, buy an Ace 250 since it's the proper detector for begginers. Remember, always buy from a known manufacturer.

Howdy TwT, My son bought an Ace 250, right from the factory a few months ago for $200 and its easy to use turn on and go. I couldn't beleive how well he did on his first outting. Your kids will love it, they may find more coins or rings than yourself. HH
Cowboy

Thanks for the replies, I was wanting to know what to expect from these detectors. see my wife has already bought them and they seem like good detectors for kids, guest the money had something to do with it also not knowing if they will stick with it or not but for the price it was hard to pass up, the Bounty Hunter 1100 cost $129.00 and I got it for $29.00 (I said in the first post $39 but I was wrong it was $29), the Bounty Hunter 3300 cost $299.00 and I got it for $99.00 so I didn't spend a whole lot seeing if they will stick with it or not,,,,,, I see the 1100 going on ebay for about $65 and the 3300 going for about $170 so I should atlest get my money back if they dont like them..... Thanks again for the replies!!!!!

FWIW, the 3300 is a pretty well-liked machine by many that have used it.

I recently bought the BH3300 and it does work on the beach and in the grass for that matter. It seems like I have to toggle the sensitivity down to get rid of the false reading of $1/199. When she starts swinging it and she gets the false readings of $1 then just have her decrease the sensitivity and she should be good to go. In the manual towards the back it tells you how to ground balance starting in all metal and switching to pinpoint mode and I still don't know if this effects it in all metal because the manual is not specific on this. It did make a difference in pinpoint though. She should be ok.
The other concern is having too many detectors in the same area although I have not experienced this.

It was pretty cool to see how good this BH3300 worked although I have never used a top of the line detector for her it should be great.

Tom