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Bounty Hunter Pioneer 505

Price: $280
Avg. Score: 4 stars 4.42
Based on 38 reviews

Avg. Durability: 5 stars!4.67
Avg. Ease of use: 5 stars!5.00
Maximum detection depth
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All the features that an enthusiastic beginner could want

February 03, 2006
I purchased my 505 at my local Wal-Mart for $278. It took a while to get used to it, but I ended up finding a gold chain worth more than the detector my first time out. I would highly recommend walking through the demo and watching the video before using the unit.

The price is right and it has all the features that an enthusiastic beginner could want.

So far I am very satisfied. The 4" coil and the no-motion mode are very useful.

Overall Rating 5 stars!

304

WalMarts Pioneer 505

November 23, 2005
The Pioneer 505 is the "top-of-the-line" in the Pioneer series made by Bounty Hunter and marketed by WalMart. It is a deep detector but makes a lot of chatter as you use it, even with the sensitivity turned down. The notch and auto notch features were a great idea, but few people know how to use them. This detector is probably equal to the Sharpshooter II in the Bounty Hunter line. Good detector but not worth the 300 dollar price tag.

Overall Rating 5 stars!

4610

Power

November 09, 2005
Great power. Finding coins 8-9 inches. Pin pointing made much easier with no-motion mode-very helpful. Makes a little more noise(chatter) than others but it also finds more. Great on silver.

Overall Rating 5 stars!

231

Beach search

July 11, 2005
I bought a pioneer 505 2 days ago and am having a rough time trying to detect gold on the beach without a lot of erratic beeping. im mostly after gold and it seems that the closer that i get to the wetter sand on the beach, the more it beeps erratically. if i turn down the sensitive knob, then i could miss chains and some small items. I hope I bought the right detector for the job.it seems to work great except at the beach when trying to find gold and not pick up a lot of false signals.Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. thanks, Barry

Overall Rating 4 stars

3911

Bounty Hunter pioneer 505 aka sharpshooter II

April 07, 2005
I got this machine brand new from ebay for only $170 and let me tell you it works like a champ. The 4" coil is good for a lot of things not just trashy areas but it also makes the depth more precise as well as making pinpointing easy. I also like the ground balance button and the all metal mode. I think the deepest thing I found was about 1 1/2 feet but it was huge so that is probably why. Other than that I have found pennies at about 10" So for lower end units this one is the top. An Ace 250 has most of the same features for $200 on ebay but the sniper coil is $70 extra... Even when I get a new Metal Detector I will still keep this one for a backup unit. THE BOUNTY HUNTER 505 IS THE EXACT SAME AS THE BOUNTY HUNTER SHARP SHOOTER II THAT RETAILS FOR $350!!!

Overall Rating 4 stars

861

Bounty Hunter Pioneer 505

December 16, 2004
I purchased the detector at walmart for around $300
It was a great deal. I Have used the Red Baron for many years of enjoyment . Its a great machine the only thing I miss is being able to tune the audio on it to the threshold. I wonder if I am missing some deepies? But so far so good found a lot of coins with this in a few outings 4" coil is great for trash areas. I bought one for my son he usually finds more than me. Oh Well! A lot of bang for the buck. Great Machine. Good for nugget hunting also in all metal mode with 4" coil

Overall Rating 5 stars!

502

Bounty Hunter Pioneer 505.

October 19, 2004
I purchased a Pioneer 505 about a month ago and have used it every weekend
since, primarily for coin shooting. So far I am very pleased with the price/performance
of this machine. For about $280. (at Walmart), you get a deep seeking, sensitive,
accurate, target ID/Depth, VLF descriminator that has all the features of the
BH Quickdraw II (also a good machine), with the addition of a No-Motion All-Metal
mode and retunable ground balance for mineralized ground and better target pinpointing.
Also you get both 8" and 4" search coils.

This machine compares very favorably in features/performance with machines
costing hundreds of dollars more. Yes, you can get heavier, more solidly built
machines for the extra cost, but if light weight matters to you when swinging
a coil all day, then you just might learn to live with the plastic case, stem,
armrest of the Pioneer 505. Anyway, if you're careful with your detector, you
should be fine, and think of all the money you'll save.

Overall Rating 4 stars

662

Pioneer 505

September 21, 2004
Easy to purchase and set up can be found at Walmart for about $300.00.

The features offered in this model compare to the more expesive high priced detectors with bigger names. At first it took me a little while to get the detector to work well on minerialzed beach sands and hot rocks. In all metal mode it does manage to detect gas lines and water lines as well as electric lines.

In discrimination mode you can tune out iron and most foils. In notch mode you can also tune out most unwanted metals also. In my tests with auto notch mode you can crank the sensitivity to the max and still get reliable data and excellant depth.

Mostly I have found a lot of coins with this machine but I have tested it for gold ring detection and it works well. Frankly I have been amazed at what the 505 can find. Manual is quite brief and could use more in depth explanations but the video tape helps a great deal. I would not mind testing out other detectors but the prices on the big name models is just too high for me to test them all. I do plan to get a vibrapro pin pointer and a 10 inch magnum coil for my bounty hunter 505. The 5 year warranty is also nice. I have also detected under water at a river and found the unit to work fine. As a ID detector the BH505 seems reliable and accurate even on a trashy beach.

This is a VLF ID detector with many features to offer. I would like to try a PI detector but most of them are pretty expensive but I think it would be worth a comparison to see if a PI can discriminate at all like the VLF ID detectors can. I would think any end user with a little practice, should be able to find quite a bit with a Bounty Hunter 505 or similar BH model. I like having just 2 nine volt batteries to deal with and with 2 months of testing the unit has performed very well. Its really hard to find reviews on this model so now you have one to read.

Overall Rating 4 stars

2077

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