Discovery 3300 w/ 10 1/4" coil-Can it find gold??You betcha!!

[Darkflight]

I figured this beauty deserved it's own thread. Just got home from a short hunt at a local school play area. Hunted it before-it's trashy in the play area as typical & I was running my normal disc pattern accepting nickles & tabs with screw caps & zincs disc'd out. I got a nice solid nickle signal & out popped this 585 gold ring. The stone is very stylish & I have no clue as to what it is.I will take it to a jewler.

I also got a junk ring & some change. I did find an painted quarter-strange but nicely done. Also a small silver dinosaur charm about 5" down& it rang in high tone-A nice score considering how small it is & how deep.

So yep the 3300 can find gold in trash!

 

[shovelfull]

Great find

 

[MinemanCPO]

Awesome ring!! Congrats.

 

[Karl]

Congrats, nice Ring !!

 

[DiggerDug]

Grats on the ring. I have been looking at the 3300 for a while. I use Tesoro's but was thinking of getting a machine for strickly coin hunting. I like manual GB and the tones. Just wondering if you could give any info on the 3300 such as likes or dislikes? Air test numbers if you could. Not much info around on the 3300. More or less the Fisher F4 but cheaper and a few extra features. Thanks for any help.

 

[Darkflight]

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?60,1575953,1576376#msg-1576376
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?60,1604676,1604676#msg-1604676

I did some rambling in these threads for what it is worth. The thing is detectors are a very personal choice for me. And the Tesoro is still my favored tool for fast hunting & in Iron it wins hands down.

But as I mentioned in the threads I needed a machine for when I didn't feel like digging a lot of trash but still do a decent job. And the 3300 fits that role nicely for me.It also has very low EMI issues-rarely if ever in fact

But it is slower recovery,and can be overwhelmed in trashy spots with larger coils.

Air tests 8-10" range with the large coil on most coins. But I have a good test garden in tough soil-with a fair amount of EMI-and a mix of hot rocks what with this being Oregon.

On all 6" targets(zinc,copper pennies,nickle dime quarter) I get a good repeatable response. It is the only machine I have used wich ID's my 6" nickle correctly-most of the time.Then I have a nickle at 9" on edge & a fake class ring I figured was better off burried @9" . Only my Troy with 10x12 in perfect conditions-low EMI/spot on GB etc...can hit those targets in disc mode. The 3300 will hit the ring 90% with a poor ID & the nickle gets a repeatable but poor signal. Still impressive if you knew the conditions. In Pinpoint-a true all metal the 9"signals are nice & crisp. The 6" targets in pinpoint are very loud & how you say-obvious. The deep ones are just starting to come to life with the new 10 1/4" coil. Of course your mileage may vary.

8" stock coil hits all 6" targets & only gets the 9" in all metal but not well.The suprise in the 4" coil will hit most 6" coins-the quarter responds & ID'snicely @ 6" with hot rocky soil above it-amazing!.

Sadly that 4" covers so little ground I only use it on fenclines & ultra trashy spots.But the depth is nothing short of mamazing for a hockey puck sized coil & it is spot on in the trashy stuff.

Get 'em both-They both blend very well in function for me!

Carl.

 

[DiggerDug]

Thanks, I appreciate your time in compilling that info on the 3300. My Tesoro's are great but sometimes I just want to coin shoot an area. And even so with the discrimination on a Tesoro being good I would like to cherry pick some coins with tone id. I think the 3300 will good for this purpose.

 

[HeavyIron]

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?60,1575953,1576376#msg-1576376
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?60,1604676,1604676#msg-1604676

I did some rambling in these threads for what it is worth. The thing is detectors are a very personal choice for me. And the Tesoro is still my favored tool for fast hunting & in Iron it wins hands down.

But as I mentioned in the threads I needed a machine for when I didn't feel like digging a lot of trash but still do a decent job. And the 3300 fits that role nicely for me.It also has very low EMI issues-rarely if ever in fact

But it is slower recovery,and can be overwhelmed in trashy spots with larger coils.

Air tests 8-10" range with the large coil on most coins. But I have a good test garden in tough soil-with a fair amount of EMI-and a mix of hot rocks what with this being Oregon.

On all 6" targets(zinc,copper pennies,nickle dime quarter) I get a good repeatable response. It is the only machine I have used wich ID's my 6" nickle correctly-most of the time.Then I have a nickle at 9" on edge & a fake class ring I figured was better off burried @9" . Only my Troy with 10x12 in perfect conditions-low EMI/spot on GB etc...can hit those targets in disc mode. The 3300 will hit the ring 90% with a poor ID & the nickle gets a repeatable but poor signal. Still impressive if you knew the conditions. In Pinpoint-a true all metal the 9"signals are nice & crisp. The 6" targets in pinpoint are very loud & how you say-obvious. The deep ones are just starting to come to life with the new 10 1/4" coil. Of course your mileage may vary.

8" stock coil hits all 6" targets & only gets the 9" in all metal but not well.The suprise in the 4" coil will hit most 6" coins-the quarter responds & ID'snicely @ 6" with hot rocky soil above it-amazing!.

Sadly that 4" covers so little ground I only use it on fenclines & ultra trashy spots.But the depth is nothing short of mamazing for a hockey puck sized coil & it is spot on in the trashy stuff.

Get 'em both-They both blend very well in function for me!

Carl.

So Darkflight, apparently the 4" coil is working good for you with the 3300. That's good news. I'm up here in the Northwest also and I am trying to decide on an entry level detector. This will be my first detector as I am new to this hobby. I have looked at the Bounty Hunter Landstar, Pioneer 505, Time Ranger, and the 3300. I called First Texas today and ask the customer service rep if the 4, 8, and 10" bounty hunter coils being sold by kellyco will fit any of these models. She assured they will. However I read a user review by someone who said that he had to send his 3300, along with two different sized coils, in to be calibrated to his 3300. The customer service rep told me today that, no, recalibration for optional coils is not necessary as long as the optional coils are made for the Bouty Hunter models. So my question is: did you have to any kind of service on your 3300 for the optional 4" or did it work straight out of the box. Have you heard of anyone else having to do this? Thanks for your insight. If anyone else can shed some understanding on this it would be much appreciated. Thnks.

 

[Darkflight]

The 3300 does have a manual GB so it is adjustable for coil variance if any. But I just do a GB adjustment at the sight I'm detecting & your good to go.

I had a 2200 with fixed GB & the 4" worked really well on that unit also.I can only guess they use a minimal setting for the GB on the fixed GB units so coil swapping idoes not seem to be an issue on the BH product line.

Cheers!

 

[DiggerDug]

Normaly if a detector has a manual ground balance (3300) then the coil will tune to the unit through the GB. Usually coils have to be properly tuned to a detector if it has a preset gb.

 

[HeavyIron]

Thank you both for the great info. Darkflight have you had a chance to use your 3300 on the banks of the Columbia river or the oregon/washington beaches, and if so, how did the machine behave? I've read in more than one post that the Columbia has plenty of black sand. I did read one post where the user was saying that the 3300 did pretty good even in wet sand at a saltwater beach with certain settings. Also I have read a couple of complaints concerning the Landstar falsing when skimming dry grass or pumping against weeds with the coil. I want to be able to brush against the grass while swinging the detector without it falsing. I'm not talking deep grass here, just grass that is mildly overgrown. I have seen people brushing the top of mildly overgrown grass with the timeranger without it falsing, but I don't know about the Landstar, 505, or the 3300. Thanks again.

 

[scratchinaround]

hi all, good to read your posts on our 3300,s. still new at it all, so i mainly use all-metal mode.i don,t know if our pull tabs, bottle tops are the same composition, i spose so.used three R,S descrim. and still find coins etc, but even on full descrim, bottle tops are still picked up, huh? i find with the 4 inch coil, lowest sensitivity, 3 r,s descrim. it is ok on wet sandy beaches here, tho, what may i be missing.? tracker 4,s have done well on general coin / relic hunting on our AMDTR forum, mbe more the right time, and place. dunno. no agent here as far as i can find out. a guy on ebay here asks $499 for these- 3300,s - huh? overall, in my limited experience, they are a good unit, tho not greatly thought of here in OZ. GOOD HUNTING, CHEERS .

 

[scotrod]

heavyiron i use a land star and i find that falsing accrues not by brushing grass but swinging to fast for some reason un like my tracker witch prefers a faster swing with better depth i might add it also falsies w sudden stops iv had the machine a year now and still have a lot t learn about it i have the 4 8 and 10" coils and use them all and get different results in different soils i hope this helps good luck and h/h scott

 

[HeavyIron]

Thanks for the info.