I have given up trying to air test my Vaquero

[KVM2]

I went to a site, 1832 house, and found nothing over four inches. Came home set a target (dime ) in the ground, and ,at 4 inches, had trouble finding it with my Vaquero.The Compadre did better.AIR test, said 5.5 inches, on both the Compadre and Vaquero..Now, I get the sensitivity at ten and threshold maxed and golly gee whiz, am up to 7 / almost 8 inches in air..I max out sensitivity tonight and NINE to TEN inches on a silver dime.I was popping those cigar tokens out of the ground at six inches or better...I actually think the "V" is messing with me because it sat too long this Summer..I would like to send it in for a check up..Modified.Am third owner, so I don't care about paying to make sure it is close to detecting specs...Problem is Winter coming on.I have what may be some great old lawns,big open common yard surrounded by houses from the 1830's((great soil, sinks everything,) a corn field that may be packed with little yellow objects..Thinking seriously about another Vaquero as a back up..But, do detectors get mad like when you bring another one in the house? Can't do it with women, figure machines may be the same way? Buy a "V", and you keep it for me? Yupper....Rain is going to soak the ground tonight. Trying to see if I can upload some pictures of the cigar tokens.Will cut the grass Friday and spend the weekend seeing what's in the ground..Who knows, the tokens may be it?

 

[The Magician]

Any sort of air test is useless, even when you drop the target on the ground you're detecting and swing over it. Sounds like your Vaquero is working as it should, I was getting 4-5 inches on coins in my test garden when I had the Vaquero. It's called a reality check. Some quiet areas you should get more depth though, perhaps much more. The stock coil isn't very good either... who am I kidding, it's horrible!

If you're thinking of getting another Tesoro, why not a uMax?

 

[BarberBill]

IMHO air test are good for comparing performance between machines or different coils or to earlier perfomance by a given detector to see if it's still performing as usual. Once ground enters the picture, mineralization, ground balance settings, moisture levels and possibly several other variables enter the picture so results in one area may be considerably different from another. As to another Vaquero as a backup you'd have compatibility coil wise and be familiar with the detector from the get go. On the other hand, if you're considering new, the new Outlaw with the extras coils in the package is pretty tempting and the learning curve from the Vaq should be minimal. Other good used options are the Bandito II umax and the Eldorado umax. My two bits.
BB

 

[KVM2]

Magician, Hoo Wee, did you just open a bag of worms..Stock coil is "horrible"...I am sitting here ALL EARS...RE Mr Bill. I use a 3 by 18 clean sweep, so staying within the HOT family is a given. For extra depth and woods hunting, a RG-750..And, I just bought another stock coil.. In the immortal words of "Big Al", "What me worry?"

 

[allcav]

If the air test is with the 3x18, then after you turned your sensitivity up and threshold, that sounds about right with that coil. However, if it is the stock coil, it should fair better than that.
An air test with an VLF machine should result in the best the machine COULD do in the very best of conditions.

 

[KVM2]

Not wishing to be rude,but when it comes to distances that targets can be located at, numbers don't lie, people do...I am only interested in what my Vaquero can punch out..The signal distance is based on a solid hit, wap, wap wap! Not, "I tink I can kinda hear it"??If I get a nine inch reading in air, and you get 15, that's your detector..I'll have no comments, except to make a mental note not to buy a used machine or car from you....The truest statement you can make is that," you don't know what you don't know".That applies to me and my Vaquero...So, I want to know the good, bad, and ugly..I've been skunked by Mine labs.Even missed a target that one dug up.....The coil I purchased is to compare coil distances. A lot of people talk about performance variations,ie "hot Machines". With a ten turn ground balance, I doubt if I will see anything meaningful between the stock coils. Could be the electronics are old and need tweaking..So,I'll send it to Tesoro,let them grumble about how I took such a good looking detector and made it into such an ugly one..Who knows, they may make it look younger....The Vaquero is an excellent machine, Tesoro a good company, and, I'm lucky I discovered them

 

[mike5853]

Based on your results, I'm pretty confident that your Vaquero is working just fine. I had similar results. My "V" gets 7 - 7.5 inches air testing a dime. I also buried a dime at 7 inches and could not sense it either. I also tried with an F75, a Ace 250, MXT, and an Etrac and none of these could sense it. It wasn't until I moved it to 4 inches that all detectors were able to read it. The reason was simply putting a coin in the ground, in my yard any way, was not the same as a coin buried for a few years. I'm probably one of the few who feel air test do have their place. They're an excellent way to check the functions of your detector, now, are they absolute, of course not but again, they can be used to check functions. I'd be willing to bet 99% of us who get a new detector do an air test. Also, most of the targets I find are within 4 - 5 inches. What I've done is I took out one of my detectors that has a readout and found a penny or dime, 6 - 7 inches down, and marked the spot. Now, when I want to thoroughly check a new detectors functionality I simply go to that spot. I found the Vaquero is an excellent detector. Nothing wrong with the coil at all. I've used it now for 2 years and have found targets to 8 inches in disc mode and up to 12 inches in All Metal, with out a problem and I'm not running Super Tune mode. All of the comments above are based on 2 years of use, testing and comparing to other detectors. PM me if you want to talk further.

 

[Shenandoah Digger]

I air test all my machines to see what they're capable of and to see what a target sounds like at the very edge of cutting out. An air test is the absolute best a detector will do. No machine will perform in the ground like it will in an air test. I've heard people say that their detector performs better in the ground than in air. Not possible because ground balancing is a form of discrimination, and when you add disc you're reducing depth.

 

[wheatymike]

[I air test all my machines to see what they're capable of and to see what a target sounds like at the very edge of cutting out. An air test is the absolute best a detector will do. No machine will perform in the ground like it will in an air test. I've heard people say that their detector performs better in the ground than in air. Not possible because ground balancing is a form of discrimination, and when you add disc you're reducing depth.
/quote]

This is not nessecarly so. The longer a coin is in the ground the better it will pick up. I burried a dime at six inches and my v would not pick it up. However, about three months later it would pick it up loud and clear.

 

[Shenandoah Digger]

Yep your Vaquero picked up a six inch dime loud and clear in the ground. But will it detect it at 10 inches? Nope, but it'll air test that distance. A real simple test. Air test any detector to max, measure the distance, then bury the item at the exact same depth of your measurement. Keep the settings the same. Scrub the ground and you won't hear it. Not today, not three months later. Maybe with iron you would, because it leaches into the soil. Silver doesn't. Elementary physics.

 

[wheatymike]

Silver is a relatively stable metal. However, the clad coins that tested did oxidize quite a bit. Maybe I will test a silver coin. Only thing is It would have to be left in the ground quite a while before it would leach into the soil enough to make a difference possibly? My V will air test a dime at ten inches so maybe I will bury some coins at that depth and wait awhile.

 

[KVM2]

First of all, the coin in the ground is not a better target due to leaching (chemical action involving pH and the metal)...I can take a pound of copper sulfate, dissolve it over a cent and , guess what?, no increase in signal distance...I think it is more a magnetic lines of force type action as the soil settles, and assumes a neutral or relaxed state.I did a copper cent, detector running off a power supply.....to eliminate weakening of the battery..Put HCl and dissolved the coin, blotter carried the copper salts out almost four inches.. As the coin decreased in size, the meter showed a decrease in value, until the coin was gone....Then the meter read ZERO.. The "fact" that iron gives a stronger signal, was and has been carried over to include almost any other metal...Karl Von Mueller used this idea to sell detectors, and it has been a mainstay ever since.. We ALL WANT OLD COINS TO GIVE STRONGER SIGNALS, don't we.????Best soil to detect in is rain washed Florida sand.No iron, just silica...Forgot what we were talking about,,,,senility,,,, will wander off and let them look for me...........PS hydrochloric acid and copper make a gas that has the potential to lower your high blood pressure to zero, so leave well enough alone.

 

[wheatymike]

Interesting, Somthing makes them pick up better after I bury them and leave them awhile. I just don't know what.