my Tejon got stomped by a DFX

[jhettel]

A few years ago I had both a Tejon and a DFX. One day while out making a comparison of both detectors, with both of my detectors and a friend along who also had a DFX I made a comparison. I had found a minnie ball and it was deep, it fell into the bottom of the hole which was at least twelve inches deep. My friend said, "hold on let me go over that hole with my DFX and see what it sounds like", he did and nothing. I then took my DFX and went over the hole and again nothing. My Tejon was making a nice smooth tone at twelve inches...Within a month my DFX was sold.

Yesterday while out my friend found fourteen nice minnie balls with his DFX, all .69's, I found three and had to struggle to find them. My detector was really erratic. It does not seem to like very cold and partially frozen soil. I had the same problem this past Sunday in Arkansas when it started to sleet a bit and the detector again acted up. On one target I could not even get a tone.

I have used the Tejon for three years and thoroughly know how to set this detector up and ground balance. I also quickly changed batteries with new copper tops and that seemed to help a bit. I have detected minnie balls very deep with this machine, and have found out that in very wet soil, almost muddy, this detector really goes deep. I was ground balanced just a tad on the positive side and used low discrimination with VCO.

I think I have seen this happen before in very cold and partially frozen soil. Anyone else noticed this with their Tejon, or should I just send it in for a tune up.

There is no doubt in my mind that the Tejon is just as deep as the DFX with the large searchcoil, so something is up?

 

[Monkeywrangler22]

My Cibola does not seem to like the cold either. IIRC, the operating range ends in the mid 30's, so winter it's gonna be iffy, even in TX.

 

[jhettel]

that's what I am thinking also.

thanks

 

[tvr]

I've noticed that I have to retune threshold and ground balance as the Tejon's temperature stabilizes; sometimes discriminator seems to drift a little too. All seems to settle down once it all reaches the ambient temperature. When going from the car to the hunt, about ten to fifteen minutes into the hunt I have to retune. Happens both when it is hot outside or if is cold; as long as the Tejon had been sitting at a different temperature than it gets to when hunting.

Have hunts where nothing deep comes up. I have not really correlated those times to temperature; but very well could be.
tvr

 

[gmanlight]

If you think it is effected by the cold try a cover with a hand warmer in it .Good Luck

 

[jhettel]

thanks for the reply. Most of the time I dig really deep stuff, but all of a sudden I am having a problem finding anything.

May need to send it in for a tune-up.

 

[Scully]

I have noticed this with my Tejon. I dont think its the air temp, but rather frozen ground that causes the problem.

 

[John (Ma)]

As Scully said, I find my Tejon a little irratic in frozen ground. I have hunted in cold weather with unfrozen ground and had no issues.