bounty hunter 101 sensitivity?

[hillbilly]

Hi all
Ive got a BH 101 I picked up for a back-up machine
it works great, I get good depth, but when I took it to the beach I had a bit of a problem
in wet sand every time the coil bumped the sand it would false and if the coil touches the salt water it just goes nutz
tried to dial it out but no luck
Is there any internal adjustment or do I just need to keep it off the beach?
Thanks
David

[bbsailor]

Hi all
Ive got a BH 101 I picked up for a back-up machine
it works great, I get good depth, but when I took it to the beach I had a bit of a problem
in wet sand every time the coil bumped the sand it would false and if the coil touches the salt water it just goes nutz
tried to dial it out but no luck
Is there any internal adjustment or do I just need to keep it off the beach?
Thanks
David

David,

Most detectors of the VLF (very low frequency) type, like yours, have problems on damp or wet salt water beaches. The wet salt sand looks like one giant target that cannot be balanced out. Most VLF ground balance controls are designed for land use and do not have enough range to balance out wet salt sand. If you have a discriminate control, you can try to use that to see if it can tune out the wet salt, but I doubt it.

One of the best salt water beach machine is the Minelab Sovereign (not waterproof). It has great depth in dry as well as wet sand and is available on the used metal detector market for a resoanable price. Check it out. The models to look for are the Sovereign XS or XS2. Best of all, the audio tones tell you if the target is ferrous or non ferrous like coins or jewlery.

bbsailor

[UWLocator]

Hi and Happy New Year David,

The problem with bumping is typical for many of the BH machines. I don't know about an internal adjustment for sensitivity so can not comment on that. But, I have used many BH machines including the 101 and they almost all false when the coil is bumped. You learn to live with it and to recheck the area. In spite of that, I do like some of their machines because of the sensitivity. My current collection only includes one BH, a Time Ranger, but it is almost always one of the machines that goes with me when I am going somewhere that I expect targets to be more than 6" deep.


HH,
Rip

[Eugene52]

Bounty Hunter 101

Happy New Year Hillbilly , All the answers so far are accurate . Here is one more , Try your pioneer 101 with the bounty hunter 4 inch gold-nugget coil back at the beach . If it works , Great then your problem can be corrected with using a different search coil . If not then the circuit board might have to be modified .........This reminds me of a salt-water problem and modification discussed on this forum a while back about the old vlf "Tesoro Bandido".............Regards........Eugene52

[hillbilly]

thanks

thanks for all the replies and happy new year to all
Ive got some small coils( 1 is 5" 1 is 6") from junk chinese machines can these be rewired for my BH? if so how do I figure wich wire goes where? I can probably get a 5 pin plug at radioshack
this is the pattern on my BH

X
X X
X X
the wires are blue,red, green,yellow,and bare
Thanks
David

[UWLocator]

I don't remember the exact wiring for the BH machines. But I can tell you how I find out which wires go to which coil in general.

Start with an ohm meter and find the pairs that go to each coil.
Put a tone, from something like a fox and hound toner and inductive pickup, on one of the pairs. The coil that gives the best signal, when the inductive pickup is touching it, is the one that goes to that pair.
On all the BH machines I have worked with, the outside coil has been transmit and the inside receive, if I remember correctly.

Note that not all coils are equal, you should try to match the resistance of the coils as well as the inductance of them. Even then, you may not get a good signal due to capacitance issues. But, it is worth trying.

If the sensitivity seems bad, try reversing the leads from one coil at a time and see if it improves. On my Time Ranger, the phasing does make a difference of several inches.

HH,
Rip

[Eugene52]

bounty hunter 101 sensitivity?

On many metal detectors especially Bounty Hunter and a few Tesoros , the salt has a negative effect so your Ground Balance and sensitivity will be messed up . If the Tesoro and Bounty Hunter factory was located on the beach , the detectors would work perfect on the Beach , but not in the desert . There are some salt water mods posted on this forum . But using the smallest possible coil or the 4 inch B.H. nugget finder might be the easy way to solve your problem....Also , I read today that the Bounty Hunter / Discovery 3000/3300 has a very similar salt water beach problem also.....................Take care...........Bye..............Eugene52