For the Tesoro experts

[digitrich]

Which Tesoro would you use with these following requirements:

1. Fastest recovery for dense iron as that is my primary purpose for the machine.

2. Tone ID, including in all metal mode. I have a F-75, but it is monotone in all metal mode.

3. Backlight is a must as I hunt mostly at night.

4. Frequency: I am mostly silver, copper, bronze and nickel coin hunting, so it doesn't have to be sensitive to gold.

5. Accurate ID with collocated targets.

6. Adjustable manual ground balance.

7. Money is not a concern, so don't factor that part in.

8. Which coils would you get for it to hunt dense trash?

I am just trying to decide which Tesoro to buy, not if they are better or worse than any other brand. Does Sun Ray make a probe for them?

Thanks for your help.

 

[MatthewS]

You don't need an expert, you just need to look at the models sir. The Cortes is the only one with all the features you want. The 'tone id' is actually VCO modulated in all metal mode. So the tone is constantly varible, not an X amount of predetermined tones. An excellent detector from what I understand and priced to sell.

Someone else will be along shortly to recomend coils.. If the trash is REALLY dense, I would go with the 4" coil, but it will take you the rest of your life to do a ballfield with it. Considering an overlaping swing covers 2" at a time

- Matt

 

[digitrich]

Matt, thanks for your response. I have looked at the models descriptions, but that doesn't tell you which one is the faster responder in dense iron. Only a user could tell me that.

 

[BarberBill]

I haven't tried them all, but I've used 5 different models and they all respond/retune very quickly. So much so that I tripped a green machine I had won due to it's slow retune in trashy areas and one of the black machines for the same reason. Just too slow, made pinpointing very difficult.
My two cents,
BB

 

[MatthewS]

Understood, but you list 6 qualifiers. Only one model gives you all 6. Now I understand the 1st qualifier was a matter of 'fastest'. But will you trade fastest for the other 5? It is my understanding that every model they make has lightning fast recovery. So scratch that one and look at the last 5 qualifiers.. your only left with the Cortes. Thus my suggestion. Hope this helps..

- Matt

 

[digitrich]

Sorry Matt, I had the Vaquero and the Cortes mixed up. That's why I didn't understand your post mate. Christian Davis's book digging it mentions the Vaquero and the Cibola vaguely but doesn't touch on the Cortes. He says the Cibola can hunt with "0" discrimination and still not pick up the iron or something to that confusing statement. I had no idea what he meant by it, and he doesn't expand on it.

 

[digitrich]

n/t

 

[MatthewS]

It's no biggie, I wasn't being defensive and theres no need to apologize. I'm just trying to be clear. There are three of the 6 key features you mention that lead you to the cortes.

1: The TID... only two tesoro models have a visual display, the Cortes and the Deleon.
2: The visual display lighting for night hunts. Only one of the above models has that, the Cortes and it has two intensity settings too.
3: The manual GB. Again of the top two the Cortes has it, the Deleon does not.

The remainder of Tesoros ground machines have no visual displays. One of the non-visual models has manual GB, the rest do not. They are all fast recovery VLF detectors and all do VCO audio in AM mode. You will hear that the Cibola and Vaq go extra deep, but thats because they offer HOT technology, which is basically overdriving the coil amplifiers. But then you will also hear that people go way deeper then they ever expected with any of the models, Cortes included.

So your essentially left with one option, and it's a good option and a great price! I'm not a Tesoro expert, I just know my technology and did an AWEFUL lot of research on the product line before I decided on mine. I wanted the visual display so I could use the TID and VDI readings along with the VCO audio. Kinda like having three things to consider before you dig. If I can master the behaviour of all three I should be set for life. I would have bought the Cortes myself, but had a hard enough time swallowing the money on the Deleon. Price is a bit of an object to me at this point in my life

Read the reviews on the Cortes. The only major complaint is the display size so how are your eyes? Most experienced Tesoro users say it doesn't go as deep as the HOT output detectors Tesoro makes, but it still goes DEEP. And the HOT models don't touch what your list asks for. They all have killer discrimination and recovery. How killer?

Yesterday I put a rusty iron nail 4-5" from a nickle. It ignored the iron and hit the nickle! let me tell you that 4-5" is not a lot of space when your swinging a 8x9 coil! So then I picked up the nail, swung and got the nickle. dropped the nail and picked up the nickle and it ignored the nail. Then I put the nail ON the damn nickle.. it picked up the nickle!!

Seriousley.. If you go wrong with this detector, you just plain suck and need a new hobby

Good luck to ya, hope I was of some help.

- Matt

 

[digitrich]

Thanks a bunch Matt, for taking the time to explain the differences so clearly. That's just what I needed. I am going to order a Cortes tomorrow, wish me luck!

 

[marcomo]

I'm not a Tesoro expert, or an expert on any brand...

But I do know from experience the smaller the coil the better in dense trash.

The experts say that a concentric coil gives better depth than a DD, but a DD has a smaller "footprint" so it can pick the good targets out of the heavy trash better.

 

[bayoukid]

As for so-called "tones" I'd suggest learning the lanuage of the Tejon.

The best target all-metal and discrimination mode ID machine ever made was the Ground Hawk but is' now out of production. It had no ID meter nor did it have "tones" but the sounds it made told you everything. It was a full wave detector and I own one.

But again, the very best all-round VLF ever made is the Tejon (in my opinion).

--kid

 

[digitrich]

Funny, I just ordered the Tejon for that reason. My purpose is dense trash, and it seems to be the "maxed out" of the Tesoro line and able to manually ground balance in both modes, was the closer. I just wish the frequency was a little lower for silver though. I should have it in two days

 

[Monte]

I see you've ordered a Tej

 

[jabbo]

Try putting the nail (even a tiny one) 2 inches above the coin - - - none of my detectors will detect that coin.

 

[padiggin]

I began relic hunting with Tesoros about 12 years ago, I started out with a Stingray II. I loved that detector because it was only one tone, the ED 180 was great, and it gave me a manual GB. Once I learned that "sound", my success rate doubled.

Then , a few years ago I was talked into trying out the MXT. I'm not here to bash the MXT as I believe it's a great detector and it has a lot of options with coil selection. However, the one thing I can say with that MXT is that it gives out way too much information for me to process when deciding on whether to dig or not to dig. Between the muliple tones in Relic Mode and the additional information coming from the TID, it was getting to the point of information overload - at least for ME it was. I have relied on the MXT now for the past two years in an attempt to "learn" the sounds and information it gives to a user, however, in my humble opinion, all that information just serves to confuse me. I end up just digging everything anyway because some times I just can't really tell whether to dig or not dig.

Now, I could be wrong as I'm by no means an expert in this field, however I like the fact that with the Tesoros, most of the time I know when to dig or not to dig. I may be missing a lot of goodies by that, who knows. Some would argue that I do miss a lot, some would say not so. The simplicity of the Tesoros, without that TID is a nice feature, again, in my opinion.

I just picked up a Tejon and personally, I'd rather use that than the MXT anytime. With all the sounds that MXT makes, it's refreshing to have a one tone detector that locks on to goodies - without having to interpret multiple sounds and information from a TID that is not consistently accurate in all ground conditions. Again all my humble and inexperienced opinion.

Don

 

[digitrich]

Monte, thanks for the info. I currently have two Explorer SE's, F75, DFX, ETrac, and Excalibur.
Of all of them my regular everyday detector is my SE's. ETrac doesn't get the same depth as my SE's and it is criminal what ML did to the tones and ID on that machine:you can no longer hunt in all metal with ferrous tones....The Etrac 2 or Explorer 3 will be the bomb, not this unit..
My F75 has been to the shop twice for intermittent shorting on the audio and they still can't get it right, the few times it wasn't shorting I got some really nice hunts out of it. The DFX, well can't seem to figure out how to get Explorer depth out of it and it's slower than the F75 so I am trading towards a Vision purchase.
The only two holes in my stable are deeper than Explorer machines, such as the GPX4500 and faster than F75 machines, which lead me to the Tejon.

The only consistency that I have found is that each machine excels in one way another doesn't, but only if you can set it up and understand it. Those settings change every hunt and every coil change.

My biggest problem isn't with which machine to get, it's whether I get lucky enough to have a perfectly working machine. Someone could make a good living just being a third party tester of people's machines and coils to see if they are working properly. That's something I would truly be interested in. I think allot of people don't even realize it when they have a bad machine or coil, especially if they have nothing to compare it to.

 

[jhettel]

I didn't think the Tejon fell in the VLF line with its frequency of something like 17.5?

Am I wrong?

 

[Monte]

If you search inn the Coin & Jewelry mode you'll hear a single tone (no tone ID) on a detected target above the discriminate setting. In the Relic mode, you can hear both the All Metal signal as well as the audio from the motion Discriminate mode. You can toggle the trigger forward and set the Disc. at minimum and most iron will give you the lower audio grunting and most non-ferrous targets the higher pitched 'dig me' audio response.

As for the display, just grab a sausage biscuit on the way to a site, then fold the sack a few times and put it over the display. That, or just don't fuss over it. Just because a TID model has that doesn't mean you can't just hunt like you would with a non-display Tesoro.

Now, I'm not saying the MXT is the greatest detector out there, but it is a decent unit, to be sure. I just wish Tesoro would get some engineering help and figure out how to be more competitive in ways such as depth in bad ground, ground tracking, target ID, and even a non-metered model that could compete and give us decent audio Tone ID. The 4'ish tone Golden

 

[Hombre]

digitrich, you most have some deep pockets, so I will vote for you as the 'official metal detector tester'.......................Hombre

 

[digitrich]

Believe it or not, the cash value of my finds have out weighed the expense of all my equipment twice over. Most of that has been my SE's though, they took up the slack for the some-timey F-75, shallow DFX, and "It's not an Explorer"... Etrac. I do need to get rid of some of these detectors before newer models come out and kill their value.