Wanted - A basic Detector

Hi everyone,

I am a very newbie to metal detecting. I did a little bit about 20 years ago- I found a lot of ring pulls from soft drink cans.

Anyway I am looking at getting a very basic detector. Funds are really tight (in fact I am selling a couple of things to be able to purchase one). Unfortunately I have had a couple of bad experiences to start with. Firstly I did what everyone tells you to do- I spoke to an 'expert'. As I am on the Sunshine Coast, & there is no sellers here, I called the closest metal detector shop. I told them my situation- but stepping back it took me 2-3 weeks to get a reply from them- I left messages & emailed but no reply. Anyway their advice- buy a Minelab GPX 5000 @ $6500+. I was told if I am going to learn I had to learn with the best machine available. I reminded him of what we had just spoken about with my budget & his reply was to go away & save for it & come back when I have money to spend. Needless to say when I do have that kind of money to spend I will not be going there.

Then there was an advertisement on gumtree- someone had a 2nd hand bounty hunter tracker iv that they wanted to swap for something useful. Anyway a few months ago I won a lucky door prize; a collectible $400 bottle of great grandfather limited edition Penfold's port so I offered this & a bottle of Bundy rum someone gave me for my birthday (they didn't realise I can't stand rum). He was happy I was happy- I drove to Brisbane to meet at the designated time/place- after an hour of waiting & many phone calls I realised he wasn't showing. I emailed him when I got home & the reply was that he changed his mind- nice of him to tell me. I lost interest for awhile after that.

Anyway I am back looking around- I obviously want to get something as cheap as possible- seems you can get BH tracker iv's for $160-$200 delivered off ebay. I noticed Walmart in the US sell them for $60-$90.

So as I am just looking at getting it to play with for 12 months (we do a bit of camping) & do a bit of bonding with my young fella is this my best option?

We all want to have the best machine available but as someone said on another topic on this site- the best machine is the one you can afford. I understand I am only going to find coins, cans & washers but for someone like me with budgetry constraints what does everyone recommend?

G'day Suncoastscott & welcome to the forum

If you want to detect on the beach and parks etc then what your talking about will work with a low budget, who knows there may be a member here that has a budget coin machine there willing to sell.

Not everyone needs an expensive $6000 machine to have fun, there's plenty of coins that can be found with other machines.

I hope you find what your after and most of all have fun.

cheers dave

Thanks Dave, I think having fun with it is the main aim

Hi ScS,
After many months of research I bought a Bounty Hunter iv and used it on the beach for about six months.
It was a good little detector that found enough coins for me to really get the detecting bug, I then moved up to a Minelab Sovereign, which I have used for the past few years.

As you have said enjoy what you can afford, the Bounty Hunter is a good little entry machine and will find lots of targets on the beach.

Is it any good away from the beach? Parks, back yard, scrub?