Silver U Max on the way!!!

[cabochris]

Last week I reluctantly bought a like new Compadre from a friend in need of money. Having owned many detectors over the years I was shocked how well the Compadre performs! It just nails targets and I hit more targets in just 15 minutes than using any other machine! All this with the small 5.75 coil! I once had a MM Bandido II years ago and recall how much I liked it and have always regretted selling it! Every time I went out with the Bandido I found treasure. But I got all caught up in the top dollar machines.

Plus since water hunting has become a passion I have lost focus on land machines. But using the Compadre brought back a sense of detecting joy I have not felt in years! So much so I wanted another 1, 9 Volt Wonder and decided to get a Silver U Max. Picked it because of good reviews and I wanted an easy grab and go land detector with an all-metal switch and interchangeable coils. I would rather spend my time detecting than fiddling with bell and whistle adjustments. Over the years I have found- at least for me, that I tend to find more with simple machines. This sure sounds strange to me now... the Silver U Max will be my main land detector and the Compadre my back-up machine! CC.

 

[digitaltim]

that's exactly how I felt after using the compadre and about the Tesoros in general.......and last year I too bought the Silver Umax immediately following the compadre. 2 awesome detectors. I'm finding so much more now.. they just work

 

[Jay Evans]

Good Luck with the Silver, I just found one of the older 10 kHz units and have it on the way too. The Silver's reputation can't be beat, new or old school.

 

[LittleJohn]

Here is me and my sons take with our Silver. This is $12.88 in clad from yesterday and todays hunts. Also have to plug the garrett pro-pointer.....top notch and speeds up finding your target!

He will be taking over the silver soon and I am getting a golden Umax. I sure like these machines!

 

[Jay Evans]

Here is me and my sons take with our Silver. This is $12.88 in clad from yesterday and todays hunts. Also have to plug the garrett pro-pointer.....top notch and speeds up finding your target!

He will be taking over the silver soon and I am getting a golden Umax. I sure like these machines!

Nice Haul! I had a Golden a few years back and sure miss it now. Take the time to learn the notch feature, and if your hearing is pretty good the tones will be good to you.
I'm considering trying to get another Golden one day soon myself .

 

[Jay Evans]

I love it when that jewelry pops up....

 

[cabochris]

One thing I found amazing with the Compadre is how hard it hits on an average 14K men's gold band. As an air test the Compadre I acquired, clearly beeps on the gold ring further away than on a nickel! I know dirt changes things, but I never expected this from a 1 knob detector with smaller coil! In The Pacific NW our soil is fairly mineralized. The MXT I had told me so and I have played with some Big Dog detectors from Explorers to Infiniums. The Compadre hit every target in my test garden- just like the Big Boys did! Furthermore after years of playing with machines in my yard, I know where many junk signals lie and the Compadre hit them all and just as hard as the others! As a matter of fact the Compadre seems to work better in my hot rock bed then my Excalibur and about as good as MXT and Fisher Gold Bug on ring size targets! Plus there is no chatter from the Compadre and the iron discrimination is spot on! It is like the Compadre is talking to me!

Again being impressed with the simplistic Compadre in my mineralized ground is why I ordered the Silver. I am hoping the Silver will be as hot on gold rings as the Compadre. I swing my Excaliburs slow in the water, but I really like the speed of the Compadre while still nailing targets. Perhaps I'm a bit impatient land hunting, but the Compadre fits my style. With the Silver I like not having to ground balance. On other machines with manual GB, seemed like I was always checking that and not concentrating on the hunt. OK, there will be some performance loss with a fixed machine. But that is a trade-off I'll live with. I just want to hunt and dig targets. I do enjoy hunting in AM then checking targets in Disc. I know from water hunting one has to dig lots of trash to get the gold and do not mind doing so. The Silver has the mode switch so one does not have to move Disc. knob once set. I will work with the stock Silver coil at first, but am wondering if there will be a performance loss with other coils? If that is not an issue then I would be interested in most of the accessory coils. HH, CC.

 

[Jay Evans]

Use the 4" coil in very trashy areas and slow down your sweeps....... you'll be amazed even more how well the Silver picks through the trash and finds that coin or piece of jewelry.

 

[Jay Evans]

The 8 x9 , for working open fields, for trashy or brush laden areas the 7" & 4" work very well. The 4" will try your patience at times..... but be consistent and slow down & shorten your sweeps... the 4" is a sleeper coil that some people never do really get the full advantage of because they sweep it long and wide like the bigger coils. Heck I alternate my sweep length and speed for all my coils when I hunt. it gives you more ideas of what a target might be if you do this.

 

[joe dirt_1]

You will love the Silver uMax. It's hot on gold and nickels, and being able to change coils on the Silver makes it more versatile than the Compadre. Although the Compadre is a fixed coil detector I still want to add one to my detector stable sometime. I have the 5.75", stock 8", 9x8, and 12x10 coils for my Silver

 

[digitaltim]

You will love the Silver Umax........ I take my Silver Umax with me every time I go out and it gets used every 3rd hunt or a friend uses it.

 

[David]

cabochris, you live in the Pacific N.W. I heard from Monte(from Oregon who is an expert on Tesoros) that the Compadre and Lobo ST are THE best Tesoros, now presently available new, in handling iron trash, meaning will knock iron out the best without undue signals(false or good signals). The Silver uMax is not as good as the other 2 detectors(Compadre & Lobo) for knocking out trash iron according to Monte. This can probably be assciated with the ability to handle hot iron mineralization and hot rocks also.

I would buy a Compadre or especially a Lobo rather than a Silver uMax for coin hunting in Discriminate Mode in high iron trash and/or high iron mineralized area, with some hot rocks. You can hipmount the Lobo and also use it for gold prospecting, it has optional coils too, up to the 10x12", but it is more expensive and heavier are the only draw backs.

Contact Monte on this Forum and find out more...I do not want to discourage you but rather tell what I found out. Yes the Silver uMax works good at rejecting small iron nails, etc. being a great machine but may be not as good as the Compadre and Lobo for larger-rusty iron rejection capabilities comparing all 3 machines working in the Discrimination Mode. Hope this helps.

 

[cabochris]

David, thanks for the good info. My Silver is on the way, so I guess I'll find out. But I also want to take a land machine along on my Caribbean water hunting treasure vacations and the Silver would be easy to pack along with 2 Excaliburs. The places I go in the Caribbean, the mineralization is low- for the most part. I mostly hunt in the water, but recently I found a $50,000 plus ring in the dry sand for a woman in near shock! They were a 2 rings set she had taken off- Platinum and nothing but big diamonds. She shook off her towel and the rings were lost in the sand. Her and her group did not even try to find the rings by hand/sight! I happened to come along and found the rings in 5 minutes with an 800. It made me think just what else might be in the dry sand where tourists lie? The Silver should be just right for some dry sand scanning. CC.

 

[David]

Yes I did the same, as I found a wedding ring in the sand for a woman also, she hugged me, but not that valuable. Thanks for sharing, that is quite a story! You should be perfectly fine with the Silver as it will work very well for you, do not worry, you did make a great choice in getting it. I would like to own a Silver myself. Enjoy your vacation and detectors!

 

[slingshot]

Love mine-I don't have hardly any (that I know of) iron-infested sites that I hunt. In tot lots where the gravel or wood bark chips, and even rubber shavings are and the diggin's easy I sometimes use a/m mode 'cause there could be the small gold earrings. In low-trash areas I'm either in a/m or minimum discrimination for the small gold rings and it STILL hits on the tiniest of charms, even teeny aluminum brads. At schools, I'm in either minimum disc or just where the foil breaks up, as at this setting I can hear the Tesoro "trash talk" better. In high tabs area, I set the disc where the tabs "crackle" and can find coins under tabs and some rings in the square tab area and literally walk thru an area like this while others are checking all the "nickel" signals, which are usually the square ones. For a notch detector, find the point where the tabs break up-not a "click" or "pop"-but where they plainly break up and mark or memorize this setting. Now, hunt just below nickels and when you get a signal, either dig as you get used to the sounds or with one move rotate the disc knob to this point. If the signal now goes silent, you're in the nickel range. If it breaks up, you're in the tab range. If it still sounds, you're in the coin range-ALL in ONE move. Most of my areas have been cleaned out by me and now that gold has skyrocketed, I'm usually in min. disc. and looking for the gold. Sorry for the long post and I hope to add a Compadre some day.

 

[David]

Good very explaination from alot of experience, slingshot, you should really write a pamphlet on how the Silver can be set-up.

cabochris and slingshot, remember the Clean Sweep coil. Might be the ticket for covering larger areas, including beaches for you cabochris and tot lots--farmers fields for you slingshot. I have heard a report it goes much deeper than the width of 3.6", and it also pinpoints on the tip easily being a DD Widescan which also handles mineralization better than a Concentric:
http://www.tesoro.com/product/coils/cleansweep/
Genuine Tesoro coil measures 18" long, 3.6" wide (with scuff-coil cover) and weighs 1.3 pounds (Sand Shark version weighs 1.8 pounds). The CleanSweep's sensitivity is consistent from the toe to heel and is designed to cover large areas quickly. Depth figures range between a 4" coil and 7" coil.

Full coils length sensitivity
Widescan design resist changes in mineralization
Easy for pinpointing
Comes with the scuff cover-coil cover and lower pole
Two models available---one for