Should I try a Cortes or keep mt BandidoII uMax?

[Anonymous]

Hi All:
I know this is a loaded question... they're completely different machines, etc, etc. But I was wondering if anyone on the list has experience with both the Cortes and the Bandido II uMax?
Don't get me wrong, I really like my Bandido, but I can't have both.
Here's the deal. I never have a lot of time to hunt... a few hours at a time, 2 or 3 times a month at most. I hunt the usual... public parks, ballfields, parking strips, an occasional construction site when I can find it. Only rarely can I get to a private yard. I'm not after relics, just coinshooting. Many of these spots can be really quite trashy.
I often run a fairly high discrimination because my time is so short. The Bandido does a great job, (I even found a 10k man's ring with it once... one of only two in five years) but I'm wondering if I would do better with a Cortes? I do have the 4" head and the Cleansweep... I use these two coils almost exclusively.
I know, you're supposed to "dig every signal," but I just can't do that in real life. I'd still be working Spot #1, with the biggest collection of bottlecaps and pulltabs you've ever seen. (I still dig quite a few each time I go out. I keep my trash collection in the toolbox of my truck, so I can show people how much trash guys with detectors remove from the playgrounds and ballfields... places where YOUR kid can get cut, Mrs. I-Think-They-Should-Ban-Metal-Detectors..." Never had to use my collection yet. Save your trash, send it to your Mayor with a note that says "Trash removed from your parks, courtesy a metal detector user!" ) But I digress...
So more to the point, do you think the additional information that the Cortes gives you is worth the extra cost that you paid? And is it fairly consistent? The other TID detector I've used (BH Landstar) was pretty inaccurate, but that may just be the nature of TID detectors in general.
I don't think it'll be possible for me to come up with $500 to try the Cortes for awhile, then sell whichever I like less. I'm really not considering a Deleon, since I really want ground balance.
As always, your thoughts are appreciated.
BG

 

[Anonymous]

If you don't coin hunt all that oftyen, and if you mainly go after higher-conductive coins, ther DeLe

 

[Anonymous]

Now that ya found it,
Dance like nobody's lookin'

 

[Anonymous]

[No message]

 

[Anonymous]

Are you saying that if you had a metered machine that you'd begin hunting in lower disc because you'd be able to get a visual lock on whether the target's more likely to be trash or something good? Or would you still continue to hunt in high disc with a metered machine?
Either way, it *may* end up being a wash going to a metered detector and leaving you no better off since you really don't spend a lot of time hunting as it is. For me, the beauty of metered machines is the ability to hunt deeper and better at virtually no disc, and get more ID info courtesy of the meter. However, you do end up spending a lot more time on the ground you do cover because you're having to stop and digest a lot more info.
So basically, I think for you it comes down to a decision of quality vs. quantity. It's a choice of whether you'd rather spend the little time you do have covering a lot of ground at low efficiency or a little ground at high efficiency. There are pros and cons either way. Personally, I think given the same amount of hunting time, you're more likely to rack up better-quality finds covering a smaller area more thoroughly in low/no disc with a metered machine (or even an unmetered one) than you would covering a lot of ground rushing thru it at high disc.
People hunting quickly (and at high disc) is probably the main reason why there's still a lot of old stuff in the ground still waiting to be found.
Scott

 

[Anonymous]

Gentlemen:
Thanks very much for your advice. Your comments give me a lot to think about.
I think that what I may have to do is stick with my trusty Bandido until I can come up with a large amount of cash, then buy a Cortes and keep the Bandido until I can decide which machine works best for me. The trouble is that I really LIKE my Bandido, it's the best detector I've had so far (out of five) so I hesitate to sell it... but I really feel like I'm passing up too many potentially good targets for three reasons: I don't have as much time to detect as I'd like, I'm not as good as I should be at interpreting its signals, and it's not giving me as much info as a Cortes MIGHT give me. One and a half out of three reasons to buy the Cortes.
In the meantime, I guess I'd better beef up my pulltab collection. Plus this might give me some time to soften up my wife a bit... she's gonna KILL me when I show up with a THIRD detector. (The second detector doesn't count... I bought a Bounty Hunter QDII to convert to a water detector... it was really cheap, and I don't care if it drowns... plus I'm building a PI detector in the basement and need the pole... no, wait, that would make a Cortes a FOURTH detector... oh, yeah, I'm toast.)
Thanks again
BG
BG

 

[Anonymous]

Good call in deciding to keep what you know best for now. There are a gajillion guys out there with unmetered machines who by virtue of experience can process with their ears what a gajillion more guys process with their eyes. And all for several hundred bucks less.
But when you find yourself in the position to afford a Cortez without having to pawn something and then sell the Bandido to get whatever you've pawned out of hock, it would be to your lasting benefit to keep them both because, well, there are just instances where the Bandido will come in a lot handier than the Cortes. Like in freezing cold when your meter turns to molasses and spazzes out. Or when it starts unexpectedly raining and you don't want to go crazy with worry over whether your meter's going to suffer for it. Myself, I have a Silver Sabre II that I know like the back of my hand, and even tho I've owned two other more-advanced detectors, I'd never part with it simply because it's just such a ##### good detector that even in its somewhat primitiveness, is able to do things faster and sometimes better in certain circumstances than the more "superior" (and more costly) detectors I've had sitting next to it waiting for the next patch of dirt.
Nah, you're not toast. You're burnt toast <img src="/metal/html/wink.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt="">
Scott

 

[Anonymous]

I hunted the past year with an Eldorado uMax and really like the machine.
Was going to buy an DeLeon, but got a good deal on a Cortes.
The past 4 days have been extremely unusual for Feb in Iowa so I got out a couple hours 4 days in a row.
While I got no silver I dug6 1- 63 pennies and several 65 quarters. I am knocking on that Silver Door.
Useing the 7" Concentric I dug more coins over 7" deep than I did all last season.
My opinion is the Cortes is a Winner! Things can only get better. Since the DeLeon has just a few less Bells & Whistles it should be every bit as good.

 

[Anonymous]

You know BG, If you're just after coin count, the way you're running now is probably the maximum count per hour on the field. On the other hand, if you are certain you're in a spot that has some very good coins in it, if you just could find them, work that area in consecutive visits with your Bandito.
Of all the machines I"ve owned, the one that paid for itself the quickest was my orginal Eldorado by Tesoro. I remember taking it to a Chinese Christian church that they were going to take down and replace with a much larger church. It was a short distance from where I worked, so during lunch I would go over there and eat my lunch while detecting under the trees where I figured people loitered after their services. The first few times over that field I was just skimming the top, but as soon as I found a Mecury head dime, things changed. I decided this area was worth really working hard. So I went to all metal and cleared the area out of trash, which is generally almost always reasonably shallow. If it's deeper, it's from the 20s and 30s, and there is little from back then I consider trash. In subsequent visits I went as deep as possible with the standard coil then put on the big mama and dug every little whisper. I have never done as well on a site as I did on that one, with a couple of exceptions, those being a virgin beach, and an irrigation canal that people went tubing on which was drained to do repairs.
Now to bring the target ID gods down on my head, I have also owned a few of those and certainly find coins with them, butI've never kept one for too long. In fact, I just sold two Banditos, my Goldmaster 4, a Pantera, and a 1266 and went looking for a new coin machine. I kept my Lobo Super Trac. I think I looked at everything out there and the final list came down to a Whites XL PRO, A Whites XLT, A Minelab Sovereign Elite,a Fisher 1236 X2, a Fisher CZ5, a Tesoro Cortez, and a Tesoro Tejon. No Garrets. Last Garrett I had I spent most of my time detercting the parts that had fallen off the machine, though technolgically they are nice. The first off the list was the XL PRO. There is little diference in price between it and the XLT, yet much difference in features. Then a friend took me out to use his XLT. He first intruced me to his manual and, after thumbing through it, asked him if he had a degree in computer programming. As it turned out, he doesn't use any of the programmable features and seems intimidated by the complexity of the machine. In fact, I think computer programming needs to be a second hobby if you buy one of those. But the clincher was tht he spent more time studying the readouts than actually moving along. I brought my Lobo and we did a few tests. In my humble opinion, and here's where the firestorm will start, if this is typical of the lastest generation of traget ID machines, we still have a lot of work ahead of us. The analysis performed by this machine, and I think it is probably one of the more sophisitcated machines on the market right now, while interesting, is quite inconclusive and caused my friend to pass by some targets that gave me the kind of pop on my Lobo that I dig. Low and behold, he had passed up a good target. I realize there are interpretive skills involved in using these readouts and others may not have passed on these targets, but my point is the information given on the display, in my opinion, leads to occasionally still digging basd targets, but more importantly, passing on good targets. As well, this particular machine seemed to fall victim to masking fairly easily. Lastly, you really take it in the shorts on depth.
To make a long story short, I bought a Tejon. I intend to buy an ID machine as well, but, frankly, it will be to play with and understand more fully how the info on the screen might be better used to make the correct decision. I suspect like any machine, a great time at the handle will make one a better detectorist. Ever been out-hunted by a guy with some delapidated, out-dated piece of equipment because he knows the audio so well, he can tell you wha's under the coil more time than not? That's what I like about a Tesoro. The tonal quality is such that, as you pass over a target from different directions and with different levels of discrimination, the amount of information that reaches your ears is startling. I"m a tone guy, I guess, but intend to get good with a target machine to know more fully it's limitations.
One comment that is probalby true, at least base on my afternoon with that XLT, oyu are probably going to dig fewer holes in parks with one of theses types of machines.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm no Luddite, and I see the value in TIDs -- especially for hunting houses with fine lawns. I seem to like doing things the hard way, which makes me a fine example of those of us who actually enjoy tone-only machines and find a lot of value and satisfaction in eventually mastering a tone-only machine. But really, I still can't see what's entirely wrong with analog (needle) meters. Yes, they're inherently "inferior" to modern digital TIDs because analog meters aren't able to display more than one piece of info, but IMO they still get the job done for those of us who want a way to simply get the job done without needing to be a programmer to do it. Plus, analog meters don't turn into molasses and spaz out when it gets really cold out.
I'm not one of those guys who'd rather be back hand-cranking my car like the guys back in the day of the Model T, but it would have been nice if Tesoro had found a way to reserve a place in its line for an analog TID machine like the Toltecs while bringing the Toltec's circuitry and such in line with their general brain box improvements.
Scott

 

[Anonymous]

<FONT COLOR="#ff0000"><STRONG>#1</FONT>.. </STRONG>I kept my initial reply brief because the main thing I wanted to stress was that if you really felt a need for Target ID, the DeLe