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I had a Cortez years ago when it first came out and never had any success with the "SUM" mode in finding gold rings. Ive been wondering if anyone is using that machine with any success. I seldom see the Cortez mentioned here and it's still one of Tesoros flagships.
The SUM mode won't help find gold rings. It averages the meter readout mostly and gives tones. Not quite as deep as regular Disc mode, too much info to process in SUM mode. I had one and liked it. Found me lots of gold, but stilll gotta dig tabs.
I too have often wondered why the Cortes is not mentioned here very much. I would like to hear opinions of other users who have or had a Cortez in the past. Other than the ID screen being too small for some people,...I really don't see anything else wrong about this detector. I am seriously thinking about getting one.
I am a Cortez user myself look up a few of my posts. To me Cortez is great. It would be much better if Tesoro would put the Deleon screen with the Cortez features, Notch ect.
In fact I plan to head out in a couple hours hunting an old Church used in the 20s to this day. I know it has been hunted many times and I must be very careful not to leave any mess at this site. For this reason I will only dig coins. I went there a few days ago and I only missed a couple fugure 8 tabs that I thought could have been nickels.
My Cortez loses a big amount of depth on Nickels if you run the discrimination anything over iron. You must combine the ID with the TID number to get a good accurate guess.
Nickel reading with a TID number of 14- 20 usually is a gold Ring.
Nickel reading with a TID number of 23-25 is a Nickel
Nickel reading with a TID number of 30 to 35 is a Figure 8 Tab usually 31
1 cent reading with a TID number of 68 to 80 is a Zinc Penny usually 78
Usaully any reading of 95 TID is a Coin or a Copper Pipe fitting
Raise Coil is usually a shallow buried Aluminum can
The key to a Cortez is repeatable signals. As much as I like Tesoro as well as my Cortez, the Sum mode is useless. There is really no pinpoint mode on the Cortez either. You must be careful and read the bouncing number really close. 78 to 95 is usually a small pocket spill netting more than one coin. Although I have not posted lately, I went to a vacant lot where I got 24 coins out of one hole. I have had several this summer that had over 10 in the same hole. Don't be fooled into thinking your Detector is crazy and unreliable. One thing that does kind of bug me is that Quarters on end are hard for my Cortez to pin point. I will often miss them as much as several inches. Dimes not so much, but Quarters can be a pain.
I had a Deleon as well as other Detectors from Tesoro and other brands. I liked the Deleon best but I can not listen to all that chirping going on from the pull tabs. With the Deleon you can figure out that they are trash, but the Notch on the Cortez knocks most of them out, allowing a more pleasurable hunt.
Like I said earlier the Cortez with a Deleon screen would be ideal. Get the Cortez and watch the numbers on any repeatable signal. I have found 3 or 4 rings this summer with mine, but my Nickel finds have went way up.
Battery useage on the Cortez is nothing. I even run the lighted screen on high most of the time. I bought Low discharge rechargeable Eneloop batteries with a good charger and I recharge my batteries maybe once per month.
The Vaquero will spank both the Deleon and the Cortes easily for less money. I tried both detectors and didn't care for them. Didn't like the jumping meter readings. No manual ground balance was another turn off.
The best bang for the buck in Tesoro's lineup is the Vaquero......HH
I've picked up a fairly complete selection of Tesoros over the past few years, including the Deleon and the Cortes. I enjoy using both, but like others have mentioned, I'd like the Cortes to have a bit larger screen. I've found the tid on both machines to be fairly accurate down to 6 inches or so which seems to be comparable to other TID detectors as well. In my average soil, I get good depth with either machine and have made numerous good finds with both. I like TID because it adds an extra bit of info when deciding to dig (or not) which is especially useful IMO when detecting well kept lawns etc. All that said, I've become fairly proficient at identifying good targets versus trash by thumbing the discrimination knob on the beep and dig models although it takes a tad longer. Either type of machine will find the goodies in the hands of an experienced detectorist.
BB
The Vaquero will spank both the Deleon and the Cortes easily for less money. I tried both detectors and didn't care for them. Didn't like the jumping meter readings. No manual ground balance was another turn off.
The best bang for the buck in Tesoro's lineup is the Vaquero......HH
No way I could have hunted where I did today without being pretty sure of my target before I dug. There are way too many tabs and the grounds would have looked like Gophers invaded the place.
If I bought anything else it would have to be a Tejon. That dual Discrimination could reliaby knock out most of those tabs. Only thing that would take time to hunt these trashy old houses where I like to hunt.
No way a Vaquuero could beat my Cortez hunting shallow buried coins in a trashy area. You would be digging trash all the time or trying to figure out what was there while I was digging coin after coin.
My first Tesoro was the Deleon. I liked it so much I then got a Cortes. I love them both and the Cortes Quickly became my Main MD. I realized right off, That in the Tesoro community that being TID MDs, made them like the Red Headed Stepchildren of the Tesoro Model Line! This I think is why you don't see as many posts about them! You Don't need to to be a rocket scientist, If the TID Number locks in and matches the Target ID Segment, Dig the target! My first attempt at a beep and dig is an Outlaw I bought a little over a month ago, My sites are so trashy that I quickly tire of digging trash and switch to the Cortes! 10-15 (last Monday) I got 2 Tejon's and a Vaquero I had bought, Delivered. I put together the Vaquero and a Tejon but haven't even tried either of them yet! I had a fourth MD delivered the same day as the 3 Tesoro's and have been using it since. I won't mention it in the Tesoro Forum. I guess I should mention that I wear Bi Focal's that are a year past replacement, and I don't have a bit of trouble seeing the Cortes screen info? GL & HH.........Pat/Vans
I went back to my Church yesterday afternoon. Found a lot of clad coins but discovered I was screwing up pretty quick. I was running my Notch on wide to keep from digging Zinc pennies. I got out away from the building where I could dig a little more and switched to Narrow Notch that allowed Zincs. A while later a hit a signal that registered 69 TID. I went ahead and dug it to find what I believe was a 1928 Wheat Penny. I also found a Canadian coin that was dated in the 20s. Of course this means I will have to rehunt this area and dig all those Zinc signals.
This area is real clean and the Tejon would work good here to get more depth and knock out those tabs. In my other areas there would simply be too much trash to hunt without notch.
I too have often wondered why the Cortes is not mentioned here very much. I would like to hear opinions of other users who have or had a Cortez in the past. Other than the ID screen being too small for some people,...I really don't see anything else wrong about this detector. I am seriously thinking about getting one. 
