Bounty Hunter Discovery 3300

Street Price N/A - Coin, relic
Number of Reviews: 21
on 3 pages.
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Also in this price range:
Minelab Sovereign XS-2a Pro
Bounty Hunter Discovery 3300
Super Star For The Money!
James in Ohio -
This detector has been super for the money. I bought it new from Radio Shack to see how I would like detecting. The descrimination, pin-pointing and target identification are all very good. It does eat batteries if you don't use head-phones and the depth reading tends to be off by a little but overall it is a nice detector. So far, with it I have found an 1854 large cent, an 1897 barber dime (in great shape), a 38th infantry civil war button, a revolutionary war artillary button, an 1866 shield nickel, an 1867 shield nickel, an 1868 indian cent, an 1886 indian cent, an 1890 indian cent, an 1893 indian cent, (2) 1907 indian cents, an 1894 V Nickel, a 1920-D Mercury Dime, a 1962 dime, many wheat cents, musket balls,several "good for tokens", 14 rings, several bracelets and several thousand clad and common coins. This has been over 5 years of searching with this detector. The results that I have had with this detector have been better than the results I have had with more expensive machines. If you want a great machine to start out detecting, this one is a good choice.
Mar 13, 2008
42 Yes
1 No
Nice features but lacking some in performance...
Skillet in Texas -
I bought mine some years back for about $100 when Radio-Shack was closing them out.
I was excited about getting a new machine with so many features for so little coin!
Quickly found some shortcomings that prompted me to sell:
Depth - Mediocre, used it side-by-side with an old Garrett Freedom Ace Plus (not a depth demon by any stretch) in the bark-chips... the FA+, an average at best depth machine, hit harder on every target.
Missed alot of test-plot targets that most of my other 11 machines hit just fine.
Target Separation: Poor. Testing with a nickel among nails and a dime/pulltabs showed inferior target separation to pretty much every other machine I tested it against... The Garretts beat it in aluminum junk and my Tesoros smoked it in iron.
This was the main reason I decided not to keep it. I can live with average depth, but I GOTS to have decent target separation. I don't want to be using a machine and worrying about what I've left behind! (When I tested the 3300 for target separation against other machines, I compared the machines with similar-sized coils).
Also, I found the TID numbers to bounce around too much... difficult to get a solid lock-in on targets. Felt like I was wasting alot of time on this.
Good-looking machine, decent balance/ergonomics, just not for me.
Jan 30, 2008
12 Yes
3 No
Same as titan 3000XD
Bobby in Bristol,Tn. -
The 3300 is the same detector as the titan 3000xd. Both of them operate at the same 6.8 frequency and use the same coils. I use the bounty hunter 3300 in local parks with very good results. I can pick out clad all day up to 7-9 inch range depending on soil conditions and sometimes some silver but no gold yet. The manual ground balance helps alot in mineralized soil which has the advantage over the garrett 250. The 3300 is a good detector for 212.00 on ebay that is half the cost of the titan 3000xd at over 400.00. The only thing that seperates them is the color,changed decal where the arrows point at what target might be, and they added a stand. I used to repair metal detectors and have examined both with the same results. Do not pay double for the 3000xd when you can have the same performance for way less $$$. The only reason I rated it a 4 star instead of 5 only that it will eat batteries in no time. You will get more use out of your batteries with a set of headphones. HH Bobby
Oct 11, 2007
18 Yes
1 No
Well worth it !!!
John in MARYLAND -
Needed a cheap detector to keep in my car all the time. I have 2 Minelab Detectors (Explorer and Excaliber) for serious detecting, but bought the 3300 so I would have one if I saw a good site while driving. Found alot of Clad coins but my best find was with my cheapest detector the 3300. (a womans ROLEX watch I found on the beach. Appraised at ($5,700.00)
Jun 03, 2007
8 Yes
1 No
I've found alot with this detector
frank in kentucky -
I bought this at radio shack for $70. It was the last detector they had at this store. I've used it in the field next to my county home and have found bullets, horseshoes, and old farm equipment. I'm going to take it to the beaches of florida next month and use it on some local civil war sites.
May 29, 2007
4 Yes
1 No
STINKS!!!!
John in Delaware -
These are very cheap detectors that false alot and I mean alot. Save your money and buy a whites, Tesoro ect..
Mar 31, 2007
8 Yes
18 No
A great Detector
Kerry Page in Rehoboth Beach, DE -
I received my BH3300 as a father's day gift and I love it. It has found "bobbie pins" in the beach sand 14 inches deep and I found a buried soda can 27" deep in the sand. It picks up coins like there is no tomorrow. I recommend the 3300 to anyone looking to metal detect without going into debt for the detector because it works great.
Sep 27, 2006
21 Yes
1 No
Must have the only one
Stan B in New England -
I muast have the only 3300 in the world that doesn't do what others are saying it does. Not only is it fairly difficult to set up to perfrom adiquately , it also does NOT ground balmace well. I had to use the preset all the time. The detector does not keep its settings when switching to the pinpoint mode and the battery drain is terrible. (for me under 7 hours then dead). In my 15 to 16 year old test garden i could not find any coins under 8" and this was a quarter that I barely got a signal on. From what I also read online ; for every posative comment I read 3 to 4 that are negative with most being about how they had to have their detector repaired after a short ownership time.
The box is of less quality and is mounted pretty loosely. When compared to the Ace250 : the Ace will outperform it in all conditions I encounteres after extensive testing side by side. As far as the previous test against a Prizm V , The Prizm V was far and above the better detector for ease of use ,performance and depth. Also it was mis-stated that the V has no ground balance adjustment. It does but most don't know where it is.
If I had a choice and I do ; I would never recommend or buy another one of these detectors. The reason the price was so low at 112.00 was the fact that RS was discontinuing the detector line because of poor sales.
Sep 25, 2006
11 Yes
10 No
Stomps the competition
David R. Stone in Arizona -
I got sucked into thinking that BH detectors were bad by reading articles online. So I thought I would up grade to a tesoro vaguero.When it arrived I started comparing the two, both with air tests and inground tests (test garden). The 3300 blew the socks off the "V" plus you get multi tone feed back and visual feed back, notch control, Zap control, selectable discrimination, plus many other features. With the "V" you get a squawk when your over something and a dial discriminator thats gets you close. DON'T WALK BUT RUN OUT TO RADIO SHACK AND GET ONE.note: The Titan 3000 is the 3300's twin
Sep 12, 2006
24 Yes
1 No
BEST FOR THE MONEY!
Felix in Miami -
I was looking for an entry level detector about 6 months ago for about $250 and was deciding deciding between the 3300 and the ACE 250. When I saw the BHD 3300 go on sale at Radio Shack for $112 - the decision was a no brainer! Since then, as of today, I have collected over 1400 clad coins, over $105 basically doing park playgrounds. So the detector has paid for itself. I have found wheat & silver coins, lots of gold & silver jewelry. The detector is easy to learn, has excellent pinpointing, and target id is right on for the most part. When it says its a quater, dime or penny - 90% of the time it is. The only troubles I've had are with the usual pull tabs and foil masquerading as other signals. But from what I've read, expensive detectors can have these problems too. It is light and I can swing it all day. I find that the two 9v batteries don't last long, but since I use NiMh rechargeables it's not an issue. There may be more expensive detectors out there that can go deeper, but for my kind of hunting it's all the depth I need. If you can find one for the $112 (or mayble less I've heard) get it.
Aug 29, 2006
21 Yes
1 No