Bounty Hunter Tracker IV vs Garrett ACE 200: Is a Screen Worth It?

It gives you something to be wrong about. On an analog machine you hear a tone, you dig, and you find a bottle cap, and the only thing you have learned is that this particular tone was a bottle cap. On a machine with a 0 to 99 scale you hear a tone, you read 62, you dig, you find a bottle cap, and you write down that 62 in your soil can be a bottle cap. Fifty holes later you have a personal chart, which is the thing that actually makes people better.

Target ID is a conductivity ordering rather than a lookup table. Iron sits at the bottom, foil and small gold low, nickels and pull tabs in the middle, copper and silver near the top, and a large silver coin reads high. That ordering is physics and holds on every machine that publishes a scale. The exact number is machine-specific and shifts with soil chemistry, moisture, depth, target orientation, corrosion and firmware, which is why the number you must trust is the one your own machine gives your own buried samples.

Two listings that are unusually complete for this price bracket, so there is little guesswork here.

Not much money, and one large capability. That is an unusually good trade at this end of the market.

The absolute lowest cost is the point, or you are buying a second machine to lend out. There is a real argument for it: with no screen to stare at, you are forced to learn the audio, and audio is where the information actually lives on any detector. Some very experienced detectorists run screens off on purpose for exactly that reason.

Choose it too if you want everything in one box for the least money, since Bounty Hunter includes a digger and a carry pouch, and publishes up to 25 hours of runtime, which is generous. Just go in knowing you are choosing a harder path. The Tracker IV settings chart is the page that makes it workable, and how to read a signal matters far more on this machine than on one with a screen.

This is a first detector for anybody who wants to improve rather than just try the hobby once. The 0 to 99 scale, the larger 6.5 by 9 coil, the three year warranty and USA manufacture together justify the small difference in price several times over, and the ACE platform gives you somewhere to go next.

Choose it too if you are buying for a teenager or an adult beginner who will be discouraged by digging thirty pieces of scrap in a row. Seeing a number that says iron before you cut turf is what keeps people out swinging. Start with the ACE 200 target ID chart, then compare it against the rest of the entry level in the budget target ID comparison.

A digger and a pinpointer. The Tracker IV includes a basic digger; the ACE 200 does not, and CKG Double Serrated Hand Digger at $29.99 or Lesche Digging Tool and Sod Cutter with sheath at $59.95 are the two worth owning. A serrated digger cuts a clean plug that can be replaced invisibly, which is the difference between keeping a permission and losing it.

The pinpointer comes next, and Garrett Pro-Pointer II at $99.99 is the sensible first one. Between them those two accessories cost more than either detector on this page, which tells you something true about the hobby: the machine is not the expensive part or the important part. The beginner setup lists the whole outfit, and how to fill a hole properly is what keeps you invited back.