Has Anyone Here Ever Compared Depths of Tesoro Models?

[Tfor2]

Just curious.

In ground not just air test.

How about for a dime? whatever.

I know most people hate to discuss depth and I know there's a lot more to it than just depth but I'm wondering if anyone has accually tested the different Tesoro models side-by-side?

Has anyone done a careful depth check on any one model?

 

[petersv]

http://www.staffsmetaldetectors.co.uk/depth_test.htm

Try this site out.

 

[Denar]

There is no realiable method of testing any detector in the ground, unless you have a testing bed with items buried there for several years. Otherwiese you have to rely on air tests, which in my opinion give pretty good idea about depth, if you take into consideration loss of some 20 - 25% in the ground.

 

[JHM]

I've got a test bed but it no way imitates a naturally buried target. The Tejon is the deepest in my ground with the Vaquero/Cibola ranking second.

 

[Tfor2]

http://www.staffsmetaldetectors.co.uk/depth_test.htm

Try this site out.

Hi,

I've known about this depth site since it came out and originally is was quite different than it is now. This author has really faced a storm of bad words ever since he posted this.

Originally I really liked this site and wrote and told him so a couple of times. But then he started changing his results and that's when I lost interest in it.

There was a time when he had a Tesoro Silver uMax fitted with web coil getting depths up there with the Sovereign GT.

I don't know if he corrected a mistake or gave into pressure.

But myself I've owned several Explorers and none got anywhere near the depths he shows on his charts. The Sovereign GT is very close as are several others.

 

[Hombre]

I have a collection of older Tesoros that I have aquired thru the years, and they all go deep on coins and relics. It is up to the operator to get the best out of the machine and know what the strengths and weakness's are........... then adjust as necessary to ground conditions. All of my Tesoros have ground balance and threshold controls, and that is what make these detectors so great. Also depth is'nt all that important in a trashy iron nail infested piece of ground, but the superior seperation and iron rejection and recovery speed is what sold me on the Tesoros. I like the deep sound of modulation that my Tesoros make on deep coins, you know, those tight little faint signals( repeatable) that stop you in your tracks, those are the no brainers that tell you to dig. Who needs a meter anyway?

Randy

 

[Tfor2]

I have a collection of older Tesoros that I have aquired thru the years, and they all go deep on coins and relics. It is up to the operator to get the best out of the machine and know what the strengths and weakness's are........... then adjust as necessary to ground conditions. All of my Tesoros have ground balance and threshold controls, and that is what make these detectors so great. Also depth is'nt all that important in a trashy iron nail infested piece of ground, but the superior seperation and iron rejection and recovery speed is what sold me on the Tesoros. I like the deep sound of modulation that my Tesoros make on deep coins, you know, those tight little faint signals( repeatable) that stop you in your tracks, those are the no brainers that tell you to dig. Who needs a meter anyway?

Randy

Great post and I agree, Randy.

I've been into this hobby since the days we made machines out of wood. I still have one even today in my collection. Those old BFO units were all one could find until a nice fellow by the name of Ken came along.

Over the decades I've purchased lots of brands and models and I agree, when it comes to finding the good stuff Tesoro has the major edge.

Right now I'm testing a model I missed about a decade ago...the Cutlass II uMax. I must say I'm very impressed and already I've seen it's different from the Silver. This week I begin the actual tests and they will be a lot of fun. But, I'm pretty sure I know what I'll find. All Tesoros fitted with similar coils get close to the same depth. Some models come with extra features that can be useful if one learns how to use them. However, they're all potentially the same great machines.

I've owned several Tejons and found them very exciting but the little "beginner" Silver uMax can find what the Tejon finds if one knows how to use it.

 

[Hombre]

You're right Tfor2

Quote:" I've owned several Tejons and found them very exciting but the "beginner" Silver

 

[tab-nabit]

I use my Silver uMax more than I use my Tejon. Some of it is because I use the Tejon for relic and I don't do relic as much as local turn-on-n-go local jaunts which I prefer the Silver then.
Right now I have the Silver & Compadre broken down still in the motorcycle pack from earlier today - guess it's already ready for the next ride & hunt. They are swell motorcycle detectors - hit & ride missions for testing out new areas to detect. It gets addicting - and if I have a boo-boo, they are affordability replaced. I'm also always a little worried when I'm detecting with one and the other is at the bike. The Tesoro's are tough, so maybe I'll just take one from now on. Yeah - I think I'll do that for local hunts and take two for the longer excursions.

 

[Tfor2]

I use my Silver uMax more than I use my Tejon. Some of it is because I use the Tejon for relic and I don't do relic as much as local turn-on-n-go local jaunts which I prefer the Silver then.
Right now I have the Silver & Compadre broken down still in the motorcycle pack from earlier today - guess it's already ready for the next ride & hunt. They are swell motorcycle detectors - hit & ride missions for testing out new areas to detect. It gets addicting - and if I have a boo-boo, they are affordability replaced. I'm also always a little worried when I'm detecting with one and the other is at the bike. The Tesoro's are tough, so maybe I'll just take one from now on. Yeah - I think I'll do that for local hunts and take two for the longer excursions.

I envy you having a cycle. So many times I wish I had one or at least a moped. It would sure come in handy at many hunting sites to be able to get back out of sight to a remote location without a pickup truck sitting along side the road for all to see. I know someone who had his van ripped off and he lost a lot of his equipment.

Probably the most interesting approach I've ever seen was using a small farm tractor. For local hunting wooded areas and fields it's not all that dumb. Get any small tractor like an old cub that can legally travel the roads as farm equipment. One can dive 10 miles and take it back into the woods were there's a very poor two-track road. Since tractors don't require a plate or insurance they're cheap to keep going and some of them really move along too. And who's going to rip off a tractor?

 

[jeffpa]

This is a question thats really hard to answer because their are so many variables to consider. For what demos I've seen personally there is no difference in depth between the cebola,vaquero or tejon. In normal ground circumstances. But in bad ground their is a difference. The cebola has a loss in depth because no self adjusting ground balance is present. As for the vaquaro and the tejon I saw no difference at all. One is named a relic machine the other 2 are not. But the vaquero is just as good as the tejon when it comes to relics. This is a marketing ploy. Remember the whites 5900 di pro sl Then they came out with a blue and grey relic machine. No it was the same 5900 circut board it just had a different $5.00 faceplate and a different paint scheme. I used both and there was no difference in depth ect. So as for these three tesoros in good conditions the difference in performance wold most likley be none.

 

[Tfor2]

This is a question thats really hard to answer because their are so many variables to consider. For what demos I've seen personally there is no difference in depth between the cebola,vaquero or tejon. In normal ground circumstances. But in bad ground their is a difference. The cebola has a loss in depth because no self adjusting ground balance is present. As for the vaquaro and the tejon I saw no difference at all. One is named a relic machine the other 2 are not. But the vaquero is just as good as the tejon when it comes to relics. This is a marketing ploy. Remember the whites 5900 di pro sl Then they came out with a blue and grey relic machine. No it was the same 5900 circut board it just had a different $5.00 faceplate and a different paint scheme. I used both and there was no difference in depth ect. So as for these three tesoros in good conditions the difference in performance wold most likley be none.

Good post.

The real difference to me seems to be in the size and types of coils.

The Silver uMax comes with a stock 8" coil while the Cibola has the 9x8 and the hots. Put a 9x8 on the Silver and I'll bet you'd have the same productive depth as the Cibola. In fact, they're probably the same even without the exact same coils.

I once called Tesoro and asked if I could wire a 9x8 web coil into a Compadre. The answer was "Just get a Silver uMax and add any coil you want" (words to that affect).

The way I see it, basically all our modern VLF machine are the same today. What makes the big difference in coin depths is the coil used and possibly ground balance in the case of mineralized soil.

 

[petersv]

Tfor2

There was a good Polish site that had a huge database of depth comparisons. I don't know where to find it, maybe someone can remember.

 

[Tfor2]

Tfor2

There was a good Polish site that had a huge database of depth comparisons. I don't know where to find it, maybe someone can remember.

Hi,

I've seen several depth charts over the past couple years. I think I know the one you're referring to. It puts the Explorer at the top, etc.

The fellow who made that chart really got blasted for doing it. The thing I didn't like was he kept changing his results with an obvious bias toward Minelab.

That was the chart that first got me thinking seriously about Tesoro. In the first version he showed that the Tesoro Silver uMax with 9x8 web coil got like 10 inches on a quarter. I said NO WAY! I ordered a Silver plus the 12x10 concentric coil and found it was as he said. This blew me away because until then I thought cheap machines got poor depth and the most expensive got the good depth. In other words I bought into the big myth.

At the time I used the Silver uMax with 12x10 coil I also was using the Minelab Explorer II and Sovereign GT. Many times the Silver uMax found deep 100+ years old coins the Minelab machines couldn't see.

Even some Chinese units (which are US designs ripped off) are just as deep as anything we make but their production quality is still in bad shape. Once they get it together their products will eventually take the market. Right now I own the 1023 I bought for like $60 and it can match or exceed a Silver uMax. The Gold Century 1023 has automatic ground balance, tones, and is as fast as a F-75. It will hit dimes and quarters hard down to 6-7 inches. Not bad for the price of a good digging tool or decent pinpointer.

I've tried other Chinese units and most would make good door stops (absolute junk). Importers order the cheapest machines they can get so they can make a killing in markup. So, the Chinese make what the importers want.

Some companies are buying the better machines and partly assembling them here. Nuff said.

 

[jeffpa]

You are right about cheap machines getting great depth. On youtube there were some clips of a fellow hunting in the woods but he spoke what was I believe french. Now he had an garrett ace 250 with one of those butterfly like coils and was digging dime size silver coins at a depth of a foot! He also hunted ww2 relics . I wish I could find it again on youtube. I was all up for spending $212 bucks for the detector but the coil I believe was around $200. so I decided just to go with the vaquero instead of taking chances because the french soil may be another ball of wax.

 

[jeffpa]

You are so right! I forgot about the coil that makes a difference also. But alot of these machines you have out here are overpriced with gadgets thats not really needed, Also the more gadgets the more headaches when something goes wrong! Why is a whites V3 and a teknetics so much? A teknetics is a fisher f75 as far as I'm concerned but their fetching up too $1500 on ebay used! And a tesoro can detect rings around that machine. all thats on some of these detectors are gadgets that you well never need. Most of the internals more than likley come from japan or china and are assembled here. So that extra button that costs them hardly anything could cost you a couple hundred dollars. Tesoro is the only company that builds a killer detector and the price is fair. Whites, fisher and minelab are a grand or more for their top of the line.Remember the whites commercial '' IT SHOWS YOU WHATS IN THE GROUND BEFORE YOU DIG IT'' Sure it does. lol I have a whole bucket of aluminum I just couldn't wait too dig! :clsoedeyes:

 

[Tfor2]

You are right about cheap machines getting great depth. On youtube there were some clips of a fellow hunting in the woods but he spoke what was I believe french. Now he had an garrett ace 250 with one of those butterfly like coils and was digging dime size silver coins at a depth of a foot! He also hunted ww2 relics . I wish I could find it again on youtube. I was all up for spending $212 bucks for the detector but the coil I believe was around $200. so I decided just to go with the vaquero instead of taking chances because the french soil may be another ball of wax.

Thanks for the info on the YouTube video. If I can find it I'll post a link here.

You mention the "butterfly" shaped coils. Here's a quote from Georgi's Nexus site in regard to his "butterfly" coil design:

"This shape was chosen for one reason only: EFFICIENCY. After years of experimentation we came to a practical conclusion also well confirmed by the laws of physics that there can be no more efficient search coil assembly than one made out of circular loops. The result of overlapping two circular loops was the figure of 8 shape."

Did you catch the part about the "circular loops?" Funny so many of our coils are egg shaped today.

Nexus has shown that the ultimate in hobby detector depth is known by round coils "tuned in total or as
close as possible to total electro-magnetic resonance."

It's funny how even Nexus only claims a max. of about 14 inches deep on a quarter. Personally even coming from Nexus I'd have to see it to believe it. 14 inches is deep enough to mount a fence post!

Anyway, the whole Nexus story with the "butterfly" dual coil shape is filled with controversy and rather interesting reading. Some claim Georgi borrowed the design that he says he invented. Others say it was around when Georgi was "still in kinder garden."

Some curious and stimulating reading may be found here:
http://www.geotech1.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12617