Tracker IV

I picked up the Bounty Hunter TK4 Metal Detector to help locate arrows I’d lost during target shooting and hunting, and it has delivered. It’s been a game-changer for tracking down arrows in brush, grass, and even soft ground where I normally would have just given up. The waterproof coil is a nice bonus for pond-side or wet terrain use. Beyond arrows, I’ve started using it just for fun to find interesting metal objects around the yard and nearby trails. It spots coins, old nails, and other surprises I never expected to find, and that added hobby element is surprisingly enjoyable. What stands out: It’s intuitive to use—turn it on, sweep the coil, and when you get the signal you know something’s there. The sensitivity is good enough for shallow arrowheads or aluminum vanes, so I’m not missing much in my usual hunting spots. Durable build and waterproofing give me the confidence to use it in less-ideal terrain (muddy ground, wet grass, etc). My only caveat: If the target arrow is buried pretty deep or in super dense cover, I still sometimes struggle—so it’s not perfect in every scenario. As with any detector, you’ll still need to dig or clear the area once it signals. Bottom line: For the money, this detector is a smart investment if you’re tired of losing arrows or just want a fun side hobby digging up hidden metal. I’d highly recommend it.

As a low cost metal detector I give this thing five stars. I bought this Detector several months back and enjoy it's relative ease of use, and it DOES find what you are searching for (coins, rings, earings, necklaces, etc). The other reviews here pretty much wrap it up as a good (affordable!) unit, but I wanted to make a few comments from an amateur's point of view: - This detector has, of course, the discrimination circuitry used to tell the difference between the various metals helping you to avoid digging up junk like soda can pull tabs which are everywhere. It does work pretty good, BUT - I have found that by using the Tracker IV discriminator, you will most likely be missing some good stuff. I have gone back over "Discriminated" areas again in "All Metal" mode and found some nice stuff that Discriminate didn't catch. Granted I am no pro, but the fact is if you want to get every coin, every ring, or every cool item of various metals, you may want to consider just using "All Metal" mode. I almost exclusively use it now and although I sift through some absolute junk. I have found a bunch of coins, necklaces, pendants, etc that I would have otherwise missed. Use the Discriminate mode when looking for that gold wedding ring your wife through at you in the back yard... - Invest in the 4 inch "Gold Nugget Coil" which is far superior at pinpointing metal. The stock coil works fine but is a tad ambiguous as to precisely where your coin, ring, (or pull tab) is. The smaller coil reduces search time and I am glad I have one. - I bought the recommended Bounty Hunter Headphones (to save battery power), but have found them to be a bit more trouble than help. When I detect something I squat or sit down and dig. I set the detector down so the coil is near the dig zone so I can waive clumps of dirt (or sand) in front of the coil as I search. The problem is the headphone's wire tends to be always in the way when I perform this move. I get tired of "untangling" so I don't use them anymore. Maybe I'm just getting old. - The meter is of no value for anyone who can hear the audible report. It has no "range" to judge metals you are passing over. It simply swings hard to the right no matter what from what I can tell. I have tried different modes and different metals to test it, but it seems to merely swing hard to the right as you pass over any type of metal / alloy. I can see how this would still be useful to a deaf person, but it just as easily could have been a bright light bulb instead of a meter. I won't ding this low cost detector for that though because I'd still dig if it was half scale or pegged. - And lastly a warning. If you go into a park, or any area attended by kids, you will be spotted. Within a short amount of time you will be surrounded by kids "helping you" to dig up buried treasure. At that point you have to decide whether to be a meanie and bark at them, or write the rest of the hunt off and let them shred the area every time the detector beeps. I generally tell them how it's been a long day and "see ya" since they will invariably have their hands in there digging away no matter what you say...

I have had little experience with metal detectors, except for having built one once about 40 years ago as a project I found in an electronics magazine. I still understand in principle how these devices work from that experience and from a general background in electronics. Basically a balanced circuit is produced in the two coils at the end of the unit. When the flux lines in the coils are changed by induced eddy currents (by passing near a metal object), a difference signal is generated from the unbalanced conditions which lets the operator know that something has changed in the field of the detector coil. BTW, this is why one must move the coil in order to induce a signal. A static coil does not experience any changes. Different metal groups produce different phase responses, which allow for some rough discrimination of the type of metal producing the response. My point is that these things can finicky as most anything that changes the reluctance of a tuned circuit will generate a difference signal. So the trick is to just generate a signal when an object of interest is passed over. All of that said, I am favorably impressed with the operation of this moderately priced unit. It is rugged. It is very stable. It is sensitive without being too sensitive so that too many false signals are generated. The notch filter function seems to work well. It does not seem to be much affected by soil mineralization (at least in my yard) or soil moisture levels. I purchased the unit to find nails in the yard. I had my roof replaced a couple of months ago and even though the crew did an excellent job and ran magnetic nail sweeps over and over the yard, I could still go out with a powerful hand held magnet mounted on a short wooden handle and find nails. After several weeks of this sporadic activity, I realized that if I were to have a shot at finding 99.9% of the extant nails, I would need a better way to detect them. Hence this detector. I use the detector in the non-discrimiating mode and have found nails that were obviously left over from when the house was built almost 20 years ago! For this purpose it has worked and worked well. I have even done a small amount of digging to get the long buried metal up and out of the yard for no other reason than I can locate it and then retrieve it. No treasure, so far. Learning to narrow down the source of a signal by making "X" sweeps takes a bit of practice. After only a few minutes, however, even a novice such as I can quickly get an idea of whether the object is on or under the surface and if it is iron/steel or not. The grand daughters, 6 going on 7, and 9 going on 14, have taken to this device in a big way. Let me explain. I salted two areas of my rather large yard with 1- $1 coin, 5 quarters, 5 dimes, five nickels, and five pennies each. These areas were well removed from one another. I made sure that the coins were not very visible, but otherwise were dropped randomly. When the grand daughters last came to visit, I asked them to help me find treasure in my yard. I produced two wadded up "treasure maps" and let them select which one they wanted. Then I showed them the metal detector and explained how it worked. I had a minute timer along with two baggies labeled with their names in my pocket. The timer was to keep the peace as each girl got ten minutes alternately. The baggies were to keep the loot separate and separated. I believe the 6.5 year old would still be out there looking, if we had not forced her to come in that evening. All in all the youngest found all but 6¢ but oddly enough, she ended up with 4¢ more than I had planted. You see, she found a dime that I had not put there! The older one came up 11¢ short and was most disappointed that her sister had found more than she! As a bonus, they did find 7 nails that I had not expected to find as these were in areas well removed from the perimeter of the house. I also had an opportunity to explain to the older one that this was an application of science, where she could use a device to sense things that she could not see, hear, or feel. This made an impression on her, I could tell. They want to come back and do this again! Suits me fine. So what does this have to do with a review of a purchase? This unit has worked well in not only my hands but in the little, inexperienced, and often clumsy hands of two children (after shortening the pole). It is light enough in weight that neither I nor the children had any difficulty using it. The smaller did have to use two hands, however. I am pleased with it in general, but I have yet to test it for unsalted "coin shooting" (I love that term), relic hunting, prospecting, or general treasure hunting as in finding objects of value say at a public beach, park, etc. I would recommend it as a good, affordable, general purpose metal detector, with the caveat that I have few benchmarks such as how a higher end unit would perform for comparison, such as a unit that worked by pulse induction, for example.

This is not the best metal detector out there but it may very well be the best entry level metal detector on the market. It's tough and simple enough for kids to use, but also sophisticated enough for adults wanting to explore the hobby. This is my first metal detector and I have used it for about 20 hours now (only over soil). It excels at finding coins and I have also found jewelry and relics (old iron or metal). When I first began using it, I was a bit frustrated because I did not take the time to learn how to use it. It literally beeped at everything. Then I took the time to go online and read about how to use it properly. After that, I really started to score. I highly recommend searching online for "recommended Bounty Hunter Tracker IV settings" before you go hunting so you can learn a bit about that. Bounty Hunter also has a nice online guide that describes how to use the detector in a variety of situations (gold, beach, coins, etc). This unit has three modes, all metal, tone, and discrimination. I use it on tone most of the time because I am looking for coins. To use the tone mode properly, you must learn the recommended settings (Sensitivity around 4 and Discrimination at 11) and then complete an "air test," which means that before you ever go digging, you take the unit and pass different items (gold, silver, foil, pull tabs, nickel) across the coil to learn how they sound. I have found many, many coins after learning the importance of this. If you want, you can even bury different items in the ground so you can learn how they sound in soil. Practice makes perfect as they say. I have read that people have had trouble with the lack of pin point function but I have found that it's pretty easy if you sweep and listen. Listen for the strongest signal as you sweep and note that the sound occurs when the coin passes the center of the coil. If you want to go coin hunting, you will also need to buy a decent pinpointer. A pinpointer helps you determine where the coin is in the ground or in the dirt you just removed. I first bought a Bounty Hunter pinpointer that worked fine. I later upgraded to a Garrett Propointer (that costs more than the detector itself) and like it a lot better. If you're just into this to explore the hobby, you can either do without the pinpointer or buy the Bounty Hunter one. My only real complaint is that this unit lacks a depth function that would help me determine how deep a target is. All in all, this is a very functional metal detector. I plan on keeping mine even if I eventually buy a more sophisticated detector.

This is my first metal detector (though I've used other people's before), so, to figure out what to buy, I read many product reviews on amazon and on metal detector websites. I main hope to find old coins. I came to the conclusion that I should buy this detector along with the Garrett Pro-Pointer . Considering this product's relatively low price, I thought it might have trouble finding anything, but this detector is very good at finding coins as well as trash. (Note that I use this detector in conjunction with the aforementioned Garrett Pro-Pointer, which speeds up the recovery speed perhaps 10x and is amazing to see/hear in action. You really need both, or the recovery process will be excruciatingly slow.) After a few days' practice, I am starting to be able to discern the size and depth of an object even before digging, which helps me decide whether to even bother digging. (I realize I may be passing up some treasure, but digging up lots of trash is so discouraging!). So, now I am pulling up mostly coins and trash that's the same size as a coin. I still haven't found anything the least bit rare, and I figure my hourly "wages" have averaged about 40 cents (from the coins I find), but it's fun, and I'm still hopeful I'll find something worth talking about some day. In practice, I generally leave the sensitivity setting all the way up, the mode set to TONE (which beeps nicely to indicate treasure and beeps harshly to indicate trash), and the discrimination level set to about half way. However, if I am in an area that has hardly any metal and am struggling to find anything, I set the mode to ALL, and turn the discriminator down all the way (because that maximizes the machine's overall sensitivity). Once I get a beep, I switch to TONE and 50% discrimination to get an idea of what's buried. Later, I try to remember to switch the settings back to maximize sensitivity. There are lots of ways to successfully use the controls. The worst thing to do is to not bother learning how they work because they are essential to your success. The length of the stem of the detector is adjustable (just like on exercise equipment), so I shorten it to the shortest setting to fit it in my car's tiny trunk, and I lengthen it to the longest setting when I'm using the detector. To preserve battery life, I turn the detector off when It's located something. Then, I use the Garrett Pro-Pointer to narrow it down even closer, digging as needed. I turn the Pro-Pointer off ASAP to preserve its battery too. On the other hand, If I'm in an area that's chock full of coins, I don't bother turning either device off because doing so would slow me down too much and not save much battery life. Speaking of batteries: both devices take standard 9-volt batteries. I haven't had to replace the batteries during perhaps 20 hours of use! Aspects that surprised me: * It beeps if it bumps into something hard, such as a rock. At first, I thought it had found metal, but re-sweeping the area indicated no metal. * It is more sensitive when sweeping left and right than forward and backward. * It doesn't discriminate (between trash and non-trash) as well when sweeping fast as when sweeping slow. * Normally, it has to be moving to detect anything, but if the signal is very strong (such as when the treasure is on the surface or is large), it can basically be motionless and still beep. I haven't used it with a headset yet, so I can't comment on that aspect, but the built-in speaker is plenty loud for most of the places I've taken it. They say the battery lasts longer if you use a headset. I was debating whether to give this product 4 stars or 5. I decided to give it 5 stars because, for the price, I can conceive of no way at the present that anyone could improve upon it. Still, wouldn't it be cool to have a device that could definitively tell you what's buried down there?

I have been doing this for 35 years and this is my 4th detector. My last one was a top of the line and had to part with it to raise money when I was out of work. I decided it was time to once again buy one and the price seemed right. Of course I cannot compare it to a $300 detector ( at the time ), you do really get what you pay for. Here is my take so far. The bad : No volumn control, one level fits all sound. Also, it was hard as heck to pinpoint the target. With my last detector, when I dug the hole, you simply placed the coil over the hole and found the object. With this unit, it only works when moving so you have to wave it back and forth while digging to locate the target. The good: It is super light weight, made almost 100% from plastic. You won't get tired as fast. Takes 2 9v batteries.( Batteries while wearing headphones last about 15-20 hours ) Probably ok for a beginner, however if you are an avid hunter and you can afford, spend at least $200.Once I find enough to pay this one off, I am going back to a better model. This model will NOT go deeper than about 6" on a quarter and to find older silver coins, this model won't work. I have challenged Bounty Hunter manufacturing to prove me wrong but they actually agreed with my test. They said they sell a more expensive model if you want more depth. UPDATE 2: OK have used for 1 month now and have found a total of $200.00 in gold jewelry. I know that because a reputable dealer paid me that amount for what I have found so far. I have now paid off the detector in just a months time. I am more impressed now, however, if you are wanting to find old deep silver coins you have two choices, buy a better machine, or use this one on all metal mode, go real slow and dig about 1000 lbs of trash for every coin found then still no guarantee.Also, with my old detector, you just held the detector over your hole and it beeped if item was still there. This detector is a motion detector so you have to swing it for it to work so pinpointing is litteraly a pain. By the end of the first day my shoulders were sore. * If you want a decent detector to just find recently lost coins around playground equipment, this detector is awesome with its three mode detection. If you want to do some serious silver hunting or looking for old deep buried coins,forget it. It is however great at finding old soda cans up to 12" deep. Maybe you can dig them all day and cash in the aluminum, you should be able to pay off the detector in maybe 75 years. Overall, like I said, Bounty hunter is one of the 5 oldest detector companies around but most of their equipment is geared towards beginners. UPDATE: 2013. Even though I kept the Bounty Hunter for a back up detector, Once I got back on my feet and was hooked again in metal detector, I did some research and ended up going mad and paying $1,800.00 for a metal detector. I have found more with the new one in 16 months than all 4 other detectors over 35 years. I am still glad I bought the Bounty Hunter and keep it as a back up cause it is so darn easy to use. Plus it triple paid for itself in less then 5 months.

This is great hobby. Easy to handle not heavy. Works great so far.

Takes practice, but it has good depth and sensitivity. It’s a great first metal detector. Very easy to put together, not so easy to travel with due to its size