Back 24 years ago when the original Bandido was introduced, it quickly became my primary-use detector for ghost towns, homesteads, other rural old sites and urban renovation. I kept a 7" Concentric coil mounted full-time and it was great in the iron trash. As Hombre mentioned, with the Disc. at the minimum setting it was enough to knock out iron nails and pluck keepers in the worst scenarios back then. Can do a downright fine job today, too.
One little note about the Bandido [size=small](as well as the Bandido II and Silver Sabre II and a few others)[/size] regarding battery power. I urge anyone to use a pair of quality alkaline batteries in them, and always keep some back-up batteries with you when you travel and plan to hunt a good deal where a store isn't handy. Here's the little note that might help in a pinch.
I was out hunting my all-time favorite, and very productive, ghost town when my batteries finally died. I sensed they were getting weak and was working my way back to my vehicle to replace them only to find my son and I had loaded the rig up and one of us [size=small](I'll claim innocence)[/size] forgot to grab the lunch sack with extra batteries. The closest town with batteries at the Flying J truck stop was about a 40-45 minute drive. Fortunately, my young son had a hand-held gaming device that took one (1) 9-Volt battery.
That saved the day as it was a hardly used alkaline and I borrowed it to finish out my day of detecting. The Bandido, and most of the other models Tesoro put out that use 2 9-V batteries have them in parallel. The two batteries help provide longer run time. You can use a single full-charge 9-Volt battery and the Bandido will work okay. It won't have a long run-time, but in a pinch, as I was that hot summer day, a single 9-V was all it took to keep my Bandido working and,
more important, finding good stuff for me.
Monte
