Just got another Compadre in my hands:tesoro:

[Habanero]

My second one as the previous one I had owned is long gone; it was the old 7" coil version with this one being the 5.75". I was just not interested in the newer 8" model as I have the AT Pro with it's larger coil for coverage and needed something with a smaller coil for the trashier areas. Already been air testing and while it's not a depth demon; it is very respectable for air tests with a small coil so I am happy with that. As Tabman and other suggested, I was prepared to adjust the discrimination knob to just knock out a nickel at the nickel setting but found it to be right on; when it is right dead on nickel then it is gone. I did note, however, that I had a new zinc penny that would not drop out until it was between 1 cent/zinc and the max setting so that is a bit off for some reason. It could change with different zinc pennies and my nickel setting may be off on different nickels as well. I think it was Rainyday who suggested cranking up the discrimination to begin with so that I dig coins to begin with to learn what good targets sound like. I think I will go that route to start off with as its been awhile since I have had the Tesoro tones through my ears. After a bit of that I can dial down and start trying to see if I can tell some good from the bad on my targets. Anyway, hope to get out for a little bit tomorrow afternoon to give it a go. I want to be careful and not scratch the coil as my dealer was not kind enough to throw in a coil cover so I need to pick up one of those too. No biggie but I would have been pleased had he done so.

Also picked up a new pair of Killer B Camo headphones. Man I tell ya, I must be losing my hearing already in my 30's as I have to have them near maximum volume to be satisfied with the tone. I tried flipping the switch on there and it was all silent, so nothing more I can do. It could just be the tone as well; maybe I could hear a higher tone better. Makes me wonder if I will be able to hear at all in another 10 years or so! I also posted something similar on the AT forum about having to have the volume maxxed out on my AT Pro headphones to hear well enough.

 

[deliveryboy]

Cool, I opted for the 5.75" as well and sold my 7". I am a firm believer little or nothing will be left behind if discrimination is on iron, this is how I hunt and dig all signals. I realize not everyone wants to dig so much but it is a great setting. I do think your approach is great too good luck and share your finds with us.

 

[richbat]

Congrats. on the new Compadre.I guess i'm a little different when it comes to my settings because i run mine just a little past the "L" in foil that way i'm disc. most unwanted items and still in the ballpark to pickup most gold and still pickup nickles.There's alot of info. in those tones the Compadre gives off,it's been my main machine for going on 2 years now and though i have thought about using my boys F2 quite a few times to get maybe just a little more depth i'm quite satisfied with the Compadres performance.It's a darn fine machine and quite the work horse for what they cost.HH

 

[Hombre]

Cool, I opted for the 5.75" as well and sold my 7". I am a firm believer little or nothing will be left behind if discrimination is on iron, this is how I hunt and dig all signals. I realize not everyone wants to dig so much but it is a great setting. I do think your approach is great too good luck and share your finds with us.

I agree with deliveryboy,

I have found out that using the Compadre with discrimination set much above iron, it will lose some depth. It is pretty much useless to thumb the disc. knob to identify deep targets at the very fringe of detection. That is because "good deep" targets will disc. out sooner than you think they would. One time I was jewelry hunting in a tot lot with lose wood chips, got a deep (weak) signal and thumbed the disc.up towards the nickel range and the signal dropped out. I then turned disc. knob back towards the foil setting and signal came back in, I dug the target and it was a zinc

 

[GunnarMN]

I am thinking of getting a 7" concentric coal for the outlaw , congrats on that purchase

 

[Habanero]

Thanks for your replies everyone. I hunted almost two hours today at a trashy picnic area in one of our parks here. I did not find a whole lot running the discrimination high but when it did hit, it was a coin each time. I hit the pea gravel around the play equipment and swings and found I was able to get much closer to the equipment than the AT Pro allowed. Running discrimination at iron, I think I may have found a small gold hoop earring as well as all the little tiny bits of foil you can imagine, but it was not too loaded. Just for fun I gridded a 4' by 4' spot next to the picnic pavillion and dug everything above foil. I managed only a couple of pennies, several round pull tabs and a modern pull tab but I could almost begin to tell a difference between the good and bad targets, almost anyway.

This was also my first experience in a very long time using a small coil and while the coverage was not spectacular, I could sure get busy with it as it was super light. My swing speed did not seem to diminish ability to hit on targets, whether fast or slow but I did slow down when I hit the heavy trash areas so as not to miss anything. I found myself thumbing the discrimination know quite a bit to get a feel for where targets were going to drop out and noticed something. If it was a coin then it stayed solid up to max and would not drop out unless a nickel or zinc penny. Now trash on the other hand, such as the old ring pull tabs would begin to break up over a longer range of the discrimination knob before dropping out about at the zinc mark so they would not just disappear right away but would break up for awhile before the drop. I'm not sure if that is right or wrong but was an interesting observation. I'm anxious to get out to some other areas to see what else I can turn up and learn the language of the machine. I may also test some more nickels to make sure they are falling out where I want them to see if I need to adjust the knob some as I'm still not losing zinc's until I'm almost to max discrimination. I also wonder if I can do better just setting the machine at foil and digging rather than check each target with the discrimination knob. It seems that time spent could be used digging rather than fooling with the knob. I suppose it will depend on fatigue level as well.

 

[deliveryboy]

Cool that you are learning it already. I tend to agree with ID'ing time vs just digging. I prefer to just dig all above IRON since most targets are usually less than 6" deep more than likely 3-4" I have found. I may just be too cautious but I fear I may miss something on FOIL setting.

The small coil is wonderful for getting close to those playsets though. Hope you find some great treasures with your new machine!

 

[Idxpro]

I don't think you will get more depth from the F2 than the Compadre. Don't get me wrong, I love my F2 for so many reasons, but depth isn't one of them. The 8" is ok, the 6x11 is better, and the 10" is deepest. With that said, depth is still not it's greatest asset. Just my 2 cents..

 

[ken ward]

Now you are a member of the CHURCH OF THE COMPADRE.... KEN

 

[BarberBill]

Response to Gunnar - IMHO the 7" concentric is a great coil. Pretty decent coverage, yet separates quite well and doesn't give up much depth compared to the 8"
BB

 

[Rainyday101]

Habenero, yep it was me that suggested starting out with disc past pulltab and just short of zinc. Yea you will loose a little depth, but not much. Check out this link that shows depth at different disc. levels for the Compadre. Depth Test

This was on the forum a few weeks ago. Now bear in mind the guy that did this did so in a fresh test garden so actual depth will probably be a little deeper. Anyway that test was an excellent test. I run my Silver uMax at high disc. because some of the areas I hunt are just trashy as heck and I don't want to dig them all up. Yep, I know I might be missing a ring, but if I want rings I grab the Tiger Shark and hit the water. Another good point you made was slow way down when you hit the trashy areas and let the super fast target seperation of the tesoro pick the coins from the trash. The Silver amazes me and I am sure the Compadre is the same. I just want to get one more deep land detector and I am thinking Vaquero.

 

[Habanero]

Thanks for referring the depth chart that Mojo put together; yes it does not seem to lose much if anything to dialing up the discrimination or when comparing to the Outlaw and Silver