Bounty Hunter Fast Tracker

The good and the Bad

Jack in Florida -
I have been metal detecting for over 35 years and this is my 5th detector. It is not the best nor the worse one I have owned. First the good.
I have had the Bounty Hunter fast tracker IV for about 2 months now and made almost $200.00 with it. About $30 in change and the rest from gold rings I found and sold. So it does work.
Now the bad.
This is a beginners detector no ifs ands or buts. The old silver coins are NOT going to be found with this detector. I did 3 different tests to see what was wrong and the problem is, even with a quarter, max depth is 5-6". Most older coins are going to be in your 6-9" range. You get what you pay for and I will keep this one, however going to splurge for something better for the deeper silver.

Nov 30, 2011

17 Yes
1 No

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The Best Beer Can Locator ever made.

Jeremiah in MD -
I purchased my fast tracker at Radio Shack. For a bit under $100. I found a toy die cast car under some pebbles in an abandoned park. Not much else. It doesn't seem to register coins unless they are right on the surface. However, the impressive (and annoying) talent of this machine is to be able to detect an old beer can up to 12" below ground! Man, it was frustrating to dig a foot down with a little hand trowel to find a beer can. This happened 3 times in an hour. Anything else it can only detect about an inch below surface. I am convinced though, that I could find a beer can from China with this contraption.

Aug 31, 2011

10 Yes
1 No

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We found gold

Robyn in Westport, IN -
Our first treasure was finding our Bounty Hunter Fast Tracker for 3 bucks at a local Goodwill store. We found a few things right off the bat in our yard - nails, pop-tabs etc. After playing with it a few times out we found $2.25 cents in one hole in our yard all at different depths, from a couple of inches to 8 or ten inches. We found a toy car a foot down, and a key about 6 inches. Yesterday we found a 14K mens ring at a 30 + years abandoned house several inches down. We love our Bounty Hunter!!

Jul 05, 2010

15 Yes
3 No

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Great Little Relic Machine

Doug in The Ozarks -
I see a lot written about many different models of Bounty Hunter machines out there but I haven't seen much about the one that I purchased. I bought a Fast Tracker new a little over a month ago and have been putting it to work on weekends as time allows. So far, I am impressed with this machine. I am surprised that some national dealers market it as a "kids detector"

I bought it for relic hunting mostly. I know that it does not have notch disc. or a digital read out to tell you how deep your target is, but that is ok for me.

Here is what I found impressive. It has great depth and is good with target seperation. With the stock 7" coil, I found a horseshoe at approximately 9". I also found a U nail (fence staple) used for tacking up barbed wire at 4". What was neat about the U nail was that I got two solid signals when I swung the coil over it slowly. I got a hit for each side of the U nail.

I bought the optional 10" coil and was blown away with the depth! I recovered the top of an old Sinclair oil can at over 18"! I had a SOLID signal from the very beginning. Please note, I use this machine with maximum sensitivity and no discrimination. I have also found smaller items with the larger coil including a Civil War era round lead ball at around 5"

I was a bit worried that I was not getting any hits from coins with it, so I took it to a tot lot to test it out and found two pennies in the first two minutes (one copper and one zinc). I ended up with four pennies, one dime a quarter in under 30 minutes.

There are not a lot of bells and whistles on this machine but in my opinion, they are not needed for what I do. Do not be afraid of this machine just because it is inexpensive or is marketed as a kids machine.

I'm not trying to push one machine over another but I am trying to let people know one person's experiences with this machine.

Sep 12, 2009

40 Yes
2 No

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Very Good . Inexpensive,.......But Not Cheap

Christopher in NY -
Found mine at the flea market. Like new, with headphones and batteries for only $20.
Works fantastic! I found some coins in my yard before going to work this morning.I should have called in sick and took it to the park.
I think the real treasure was finding this detector for only $20. What a steal! I can't wait until things dry up a bit(It's been raining here), so I can get out there again and find some more $$$$$$.

Mar 25, 2009

6 Yes
0 No

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Dont waste your money

Benny v in Fernie B.C. Canada -
I am very disappointed with this detector. I buried a quarter under about 3" of sand and it wouldn't pick it up. The discrimination doesn't work either. I took it back 2 hours after I bought it. Save your money because the only thing you will find with this detector is the feeling of being ripped off.

May 07, 2008

9 Yes
14 No

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Great budget detector

Rob O. in Camas, WA -
Well, I don't have a bunch of experience with more expensive detectors, but this little detector seems great value for money (purchased on Amazon for $80). The first thing I did after putting in the batteries was head out into my back yard with two dimes to see if I could detect them easily when buried. Buried one around 4" deep, left the other on the surface in the grass and found both easily. I also found another dime a few feet away.
Taking it to the beach I found its weak spot...black sand. Even with the sensitivity turned way down and discrimination turned up it still gave a lot of false bleeps and pops.
It worked well in sand a little way in from the beach black sand deposits though, at our campsite we found a bunch of rusty tent pegs, bolts, a couple of coins, an old rusty iron stake and a lot of melted aluminum.
The kids enjoyed using this detector and it seems fairly robust so we will be taking it on all our family outings.

Aug 07, 2007

14 Yes
0 No

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Not impressed

Allen McB in Starkville, MS USA -
I've been MDing for nearly 40 years, and yesterday borrowed a Fast Tracker so my son could have a machine to swing while I was hunting a beach. I spent half an hour trying to get the machine useable. New batteries didn't help. In dry sand near fresh water (no black sand), it generated little more than pops, clicks, and false targets. Frustrated, he finally turned it off and quit trying to use it. He shared mine the rest of the trip.

It could be this particular unit was defective, though it was less than three months old, and had seen little use. The other reviews are very positive on this machine, but after yesterday's experience, I wouldn't buy one.

Dec 27, 2005

10 Yes
10 No

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Surprising Performance and Simplicity

Brad in North Carolina -
I originally bought the Fast Tracker for my son, but the discrimination is so good I can see myself using it also. The discrimination is as about as good as any thing out there.
The Fast Tracker is simple to use. There are only two controls to think about - Sensitivity and Discrimination. I was able to turn the sensitivity to maximum without any falsing. The discrimination can be set so that pull tabs give kind of broken tone and most everything else of value gives a high or low tone. Iron will only give a short pop or no sound at all if you set it that way. The depth is only about 5 inches, but I attribute this to the smaller 7" coil. A larger 8" coil will probably give better depth. The discrimination can be turned off to put the Fast Tracker in ALL METAL mode. There is no toggle switch for all metals so you will need to mark the dial setting to return to your favorite discrimination setting.
Pros -
*Excellent discrimination - as good as anything else out there
*Easy to use
*Very lightweight and comfortable
*Low Price - anyone can get into the hobby
*5 Year Warranty
Cons -
*The shaft is a little wobbly, but I could see no effect on the performance.
*The depth was not as good as advertised 5" vs. 7"
*There is no low battery indicator - I have heard that the newest Fast Trackers have an audible low battery warning.
For the money, this model has surprising performance. It is worth what I paid for it. The Fast Tracker is a good beginner model or an extra detector to have around to let a friend or family use when you want to take them hunting.

Jan 14, 2005

318 Yes
0 No

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Fast Tracker

coinsweeper in USA -
top class machine loaned one from lockdales was so impressed bought one from joan allen i also have minelab 2 which is to complicated for me
coinsweeper

Oct 19, 2004

41 Yes
7 No

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