BHID 300- First Impressions...

[cabochris]

I just received a 1 year old BHID 300. In Washington State my ground is highly mineralized and I was not impressed with the 300 set to presets! My Tesoro Compadre hits harder on a nickel! The machine recovers so fast it seemed difficult to GB. I did my best, so perhaps my hot ground or other interference is to blame, but the ID lights would not even light up in disc until I got within 5 inches of the 5 cent piece! This is what happened the last time I tried a 300, which was returned to the dealer because I thought there was something wrong with it. But in my ground at preset, the BHID performs poorly! What's going on with that? I will test again and see if better at a different location. Perhaps the machine will work better in low mineralized Caribbean sand? Advice appreciated.

Next I tried to Super Tune as described on the forum. I was able to but ended up with a very choppy threshold in AM. Also there was some random falsing of lights. Again my hot ground may have something to do with that and also some radio interference now and then. But with that said the BHID came to life! It was so sensitive I had to hold my hand digger behind me! Despite a choppy threshold, gold rings responded sharp and loud at some 12 to 16 inches above the ground! So, does a Super Tuned BHID run choppy? Or will it smooth out at the beach? Even with a rough audio trash targets came in poorly and drawn out. I could almost discriminate by ear in AM! When Super Tuned the BHID seems like a whole different ball game! While my Excaliburs may go as deep on gold, the deep gold response is very small and the sweep speed slow. Not so with the BHID! Even with a faster swing the BHID hits deep gold loudly, and would easily get my attention.

There is more... I took the 300 over to 2 iron trash targets in my yard that I know of. The BHID easily picked them up with a red light. But between the iron I also got a solid audio with blue/green light and dug a black penny. What is really amazing about this is, that over the years I have tested many machines on those 2 iron pieces and none ever reported the penny! Even Excaliburs! I thought that large BHID 12 inch coil was prone to target masking? Thinking this was a fluke, I set gold rings directly over iron trash in the ground and each time the BHID 300 correctly ID ed the gold ring- loud and clear. How is this possible? Even my Excalibur needed several passes to get a good response from the ring... and that with iron mask!

So I'm very excited about the BHID Super Tuned and will have to test further. The BHID just might be the answer for short Caribbean treasure vacations. Fast responding, covers the ground and hits deep gold with target ID lights to optimize target recovery/selection. I'm hoping the BHID will smooth out at the beach, but so far it's looking very promising. I also have another used BHID 9.5 inch on the way to compare results. Again all BHID advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks, CC.

 

[crazyman]

Have you tried the BHID on our salt water beaches yet? My Sovereign GT has worked excellent on the beaches here in Puget sound. I was a Whites user for 25 years but never tried the BHID.

 

[diggindirt]

I only use mine in fresh and salt water beaches and it runs like a demon for me in its designed environment.

On the 300, yes the ultra fast recovery will let you sort through iron and gold with decent results.
Running the machine hot "super tuned" will give you a less stable threshold but the targets will still blast through clearly.
The speed will also let you hunt much more area which equates to more finds!

I believe it will work well for you at the beach!

Thanks!

 

[diggindirt]

As per your noted experience, not that long ago while hunting I picked up a red flash on the lights with a fast yellow to green depending on the direction of sweep. Now I normally don't dig any red flashes because the machine is pretty dead on about that type of signal, but I was surprised one time when I decided to dig those signals onto a sifter.

What I mean is, I was working a trashy lake waist deep and using a sifter. This area was loaded with trash, gravel, heavy rock, sand and mud plus was very difficult to hunt in.
Well, I just decided to see what was really there and started digging it all and throwing it all on the sifter until I had no more signals of any sort. It turns out that as I
started washing away the mud and rocks, I stood there staring at three pieces of rusty junk metal along with a silver coin and gold ring! This was all in a small area of the sweep and the Beach Hunter 300 was able to read ALL the signals in close proximity of each other! I was also astounded that the 12" coil could read all that information so closely together.

Thanks!

 

[therover]

I had tried using my BHID300 in discriminate mode on several occasions and found that is was no where near as deep as in the all metal mode, and the target sound was not as crisp ( the only good thing about discriminate mode on the BHID300 in my opinion is the tone ID). It also, at least for me, did not seem to recover as quickly as in all metal. So from then on, I only ran in all metal and that was fine with me.

I always wondered why, if in all metal the lights still work, why Whites could not have the same tone ID feature in all metal. I would think if a different light can be triggered based on the type of target in all metal mode, then a different sound can also be triggered,

Anyway, the ONLY reason I sold it is because of the big coil and the fact that with my bum shoulder and arm, it would fatigue me quickly and I could not control it. Other than that, I liked the machine a lot.

Glad so far it's working out for you. You will find that you will hunt in all metal most if not all the time.

JC

 

[diggindirt]

As per your noted experience, not that long ago while hunting I picked up a red flash on the lights with a fast yellow to green depending on the direction of sweep. Now I normally don't dig any red flashes because the machine is pretty dead on about that type of signal, but I was surprised one time when I decided to dig those signals onto a sifter.

What I mean is, I was working a trashy lake waist deep and using a sifter. This area was loaded with trash, gravel, heavy rock, sand and mud plus was very difficult to hunt in.
Well, I just decided to see what was really there and started digging it all and throwing it all on the sifter until I had no more signals of any sort. It turns out that as I
started washing away the mud and rocks, I stood there staring at three pieces of rusty junk metal along with a silver coin and gold ring! This was all in a small area of the sweep and the Beach Hunter 300 was able to read ALL the signals in close proximity of each other! I was also astounded that the 12" coil could read all that information so closely together.

Thanks!

I was running the machine in all metal (gold definitely has a smoother response in that mode). If a deep signal is questionable, I'll remove some sand to get a
stronger tone and toggle into the disc mode to further check it out.

Thanks!

 

[therover]

Deep and small targets may not 'sound off' in all metal, but give a slight change in the threshold sound and should be investigate. I found a few small gold targets, one being an actual tooth with a gold filling in it, that was only a threshold change and not a solid hit.

You may dig more junk this way, but may end up with some thin gold rings with stones or earrings.

JC

 

[R-n-R Magnolia SpringsAla]

Solid unit. I wish I had gotten it 10 years ago, I tried em all VLF/Pulse. In supertuned mode it works great sounds are very "descriptive". Also something I like is if the machine does not know what a target is it will sound off but no led. / ID. and I'd rather have NO ID on an iffy target than have the machine tell me it's something else. Hat's off to Whites!!

I think this thing is the "Phantom Punch" of the waterhunting world.


*** BUT my only gripe with the unit is the ^%#%^&**!%!%!!! floating 9.5 crosshair coil. *** Somebody @ White's needs a talkin to about that........It's a water machine guys drop the floating coil..

 

[Willee - Texas]

When you are in water up to your chest ... how can you see the lights?
To me the tones are everything ... the lights are useless in the water most of the time.

The BHID is a good detector ... get it out to the beach and use it for about an hour in the dry sand.
Get to know what you are hearing before you take it into the water.

Oh Yeah ... take an old sock to fill with sand to weight the coil down so it will stay on the bottom and not float up.

Willee

 

[diggindirt]

When you are in water up to your chest ... how can you see the lights?
To me the tones are everything ... the lights are useless in the water most of the time.

The BHID is a good detector ... get it out to the beach and use it for about an hour in the dry sand.
Get to know what you are hearing before you take it into the water.

Oh Yeah ... take an old sock to fill with sand to weight the coil down so it will stay on the bottom and not float up.

Willee

I have no issues seeing the lights in the water if you adjust the straps at the highest chest setting.

If you do go deeper just toggle into the disc mode and listen to the tones.
Also, good targets sound better in all metal (smooth) compared to iron junk, just listen carefully.

The Beach Hunter 300 coil is almost neutrally buoyant and for me requires very little effort to keep down.
Now, speaking about the older BHID 9.5 coil, that's a floater and needs something to keep it down if hunting extended periods of time in the water!

 

[Gerry]

Cabo Chris and Crazyman, you have both mentioned Pacific NW, I live just North of Seattle, where are you guys located.

Gerry

 

[Frank in NH]

Can someone discribe how to super tune the BHID please. I was on the Whites forum and ever expert there tought i was crazy asking how to do it. Thanks

 

[crazyman]

Gerry, I live in Indianola just south of Kingston.

 

[Gerry]

I am in Birch Bay near the Canadian border.

Gerry

 

[MANDAD76]

Frank - try doing a search for "super tuned" or "bhid" or "beach hunter" - may have to search other boards until you can find it - print it and have it forever. Good luck - hope you find it.

 

[BEACH HUNTER]

n/t