A lucky few!!!

[christian_99]

I have been reviewing the forums and happened to notice someone trashing the Tejon and Tesoro's, with some individuals saying that they dug too much iron and needless to say, had to post a long experiment for those individuals using other machines to try. And that experiment was the same one that is posted in the instruction manual for both the Cibola and the Vaquero- you all know how they picture the man, holding both an iron nail as well as a coin, and how they show as well as instruct the user to swing the iron nail and coin across the coil with the disc set to iron, and the iron nail is rejected and the nickel sounds off with that "sweet" nice signal.

I tried this same experiment with a higher priced, machine and no matter what settings I tried with this machine and in fact here is a secret...(I tried this with other machines as well, costing hundreds of dollars more!!!!) ended up with the same results! The Tesoro machines were the only machines that could detect the coin right next to the iron nail. Think of that potential in all of those worked out sites, where others couldn't detect the area due to iron masking.

So if you want to humor yourself, just review the other postings for each of the newer detectors and just think of how lucky you are if you own a Tesoro!

 

[jsamsky]

You hit the iron nail on the head with that statement.

 

[Kelley (Texas)]

n/t

 

[JB(MS)]

If you want to be truly impressed by a detector separating targets in ferrous trash and having the ability to see coins under inground nails try a detector that costs hundreds less than the Tejon. The "lowly" Compadre doesn't have the depth of the Tejon, Cibola or Vaquaro but for hunting where the ground is full of rusty nails and other ferrous trash it's the Tesoro to beat. The older Compadre with the 7 inch coil was great in trash but the new one with the 5.75 coil is better. Saturday we did a few tests with one at an old 1800's homesite and other than the 16 year old GMT 1650 it's the only vlf detector we've checked that could see a nickel under two rusty square nails the same size as those in the photo. That was with both nails lying on the ground as shown in the photo, setting the Compadre to reject them and then placing the nickel under them. The other Tesoros are darn good in ferrous trash, the Compadre with 5.75 coil is bordering on amazing.<center><img src="http://jb-ms.com/Stuff/nickelnails.jpg"></center>

 

[christian_99]

So maybe we should all just linger in the Shadows, while others are paying $1000.00's of dollars for machines that can't get into the iron, and for all of us to use are machines and dig more in less time. So as mentioned we are the lucky ones! One thing important at the house sites, try keeping disk at iron or immediately just above. You might just find some gold...as it breaks up right at about the iron level, that is small gold.

 

[John in Florida]

n/t

 

[christian_99]

Yes they were. They were also seperated at first by .5 than by 1". The results will amaze you.

 

[Pap]

For the heck of it get a small cardboard box about 4 or 5 inches high scatter 5 or 6 paper staples that you have discriminated out on top of the the box , take a dime and center it under the box making certain the detector is set up to read the dime and see what type of signal you are getting.

 

[John in Florida]

There are many other characteristics I want a machine to have besides passing that test. Down here in Florida you need DEPTH! Everything seems to be deep here.

I agree that if someone is digging lots of iron with any Tesoro they need to go back to school.

 

[John in Florida]

I just tested my detector with the 5"X10" DD coil. I get a repeatable and diggable 'click' on that test.

 

[Pap]

is your detector a TID unit? I think I know the answer and this test is where the TID units fail even with Tone ID. Two of my detectors will give me a good signal in this test as well. And no, neither one is a TID detector. In this test depth isn't any help if the detector is a TID unit. What do you think?

 

[John in Florida]

No, I don't have a TID unit right now. Heck, I don't get out enough as it is....

This is a Tesoro Forum so I won't mention the brand I have.

 

[JB(MS)]

christian_99 is evidently talking about a test he did, I don't know him or how he did it. In my case the nails were touching the nickel but that isn't relative since they were also touching the nickel when other detectors were checked. I know, as you do, that doing the test with the coin and nails on top of the ground isn't the same as using buried targets, but if a detector can't separate ferrous and nonferrous targets or see coins under nails on top of the ground they darn sure can't do it when they're buried. You should know from reading my posts for years that I have done, and still do, a lot of target separation and masking tests with a lot of different detectors, the reason being we have literally hundreds of old abandoned homesites and several abandoned townsites in this area because most of the roads in this area are in different places from where they were 80-90 years ago and the towns and people moved to be on or near the roads. Ferrous/nonferrous target separation is more important for those sites than depth as there's usually no modern nonferrous trash except fired shotgun shells and rifle catridge hulls at most of them. The Compadre can't compete in depth with The Tejons, Barons, Minelabs, Fishers, Shadows and most Garretts but it does really well in ferrous trash.

The Compadre I checked at the old homesite Saturday was a newbies first detector, he asked me a few day earlier what would be a good detector to hunt old homesites and I recommended the Compadre based on past experience at those type sites with them. That was the first time he's used any detector and he was on his first hunt. I used the two nails to set the discrimination for him and while he only found one good target he did dig a lot of nonferrous items and didn't dig any more iron than I did using the 1650. I started with the Cointrax II Treasure Baron, for depth it can compete with the deepest detectors, but there was so much iron in the ground it was totally useless even at it's lowest sensitivity settings. I'm a hard sell on detectors and it takes more than hype to impress me but I was impressed with how well the Compadre handled the iron, especially in the hands of a first time detector user.

I posted the following about the Compadre on another forum Sunday: <i><b>About the Compadre. I knew they worked well in ferrous trash since Jim's been using one for a couple of years. I've used his, and played with two others that had the 7 inch coil like Jim's, but the current Compadre's come with a 5.75 inch coil and I wasn't sure if they would do as well or have enough depth. No problems with either, James dug a couple of pieces of nickel size brass and copper in the 6 inch range and a half dollar size piece of aluminum looking stuff at about 8 inches. I put two rusty nails on the ground, one 16 penny size and the other about half that size, and set the Compadre to reject them with a slight click. I then put a penny under them and the Compadre gave a solid signal on it, took the penny out and put a nickel under them and also got a solid signal. That's getting close to what the 1650 can do and the Compadre depth in disc mode with the small coil seems to be about equal to the 1650 in disc mode. I was impressed, but the kicker is there's always been hot and cold Tesoros, including Compadres. Jim's Compadre is hot, his airtested a nickel two inches farther than the two others I checked, and judging from the few quick tests we did yesterday the new one James got seems to be the equal of Jim's.</b></i>

 

[JB(MS)]

There's nothing wrong with mentioning the Shadow or any other brand, I mentioned most of them in the post above. I'll say the same thing I said on the Shadow forum, if a manufacturer doesn't have enough confidence in his product to allow comparisons with other brands why should consumers have confidence in it? The X detectors are excellent detectors, I caught a lot of flak because of some things I posted about the one I had but it was one of the better performing detectors I've had. I liked it a lot, except for the high tone audio and it's susceptability to interference from power lines, just not as well as I did a couple of other detectors I had, and still have. Actually, I've pretty much liked every detector I've had in the last 36 years except the two Sovereigns.

 

[Mike Bearden]

Hope you don't mind my quoting you ?

>christian_99 is evidently talking about a test he did, I don't know him or how he did it. In my case the nails were touching the nickel but that isn't relative since they were also touching the nickel when other detectors were checked. I know, as you do, that doing the test with the coin and nails on top of the ground isn't the same as using buried targets, but if a detector can't separate ferrous and nonferrous targets or see coins under nails on top of the ground they darn sure can't do it when they're buried.


You're last sentence is what has me baffled !
All I can say is that I've known many folks (including myself) who post finds with actual iron stains on non ferrous targets where the iron was literally laying on top of the non ferrous target, being coins, bullets, buttons or whatever.
The finds were made with various detectors that would NOT see the non ferrous target on top of the ground when touching iron but WILL see them in real time hunt situations. I've done it myself many times and witnessed others dug on several occasions.
Minelab, Whites, Tesoro, Garretts, they all have a few in their line-up that are capable of doing this.
So what gives here, since you've been detecting all these years and have never seen it first hand, do you think we're all a bit crazy ? Hell, maybe we are, but if that's the case we should have tenure in the nut house by now.
Now I'm not trying to start a Who's Right or Wrong thread here because I know what I've seen over the years too, so we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one. However, I do agree that if a detector can't see a coin mixed in with iron, then it's leaving a lot of goodies in the ground and I won't keep it long either
Best Regards
Mike

 

[John in Florida]

Great post !

 

[christian_99]

In a heavily mineralized camp site, as I mentioned I was able to dig a coat button at about 8 to 9", with one large square nail above the button, and one laying next to it. So it appears, that the air test- was replicated under similar and yet more extreme conditions in the field. After that moment, I decided to buy another Tesoro machine as this both the earlier experiment, as well as this test proved that the machine was worth any money spent. In fact, if you want to put a nail or two into a whole with a nickle or any other coin and conduct the test, please do so and you will have the same results. Make sure you have mineralized soil, and that you place one nail next to the coin. Then put some soil over those targets, then place the other nail on top of that pile then cover over your hole. Make sure the depth of the hole is between 8 to 10". If your soil is sandy, add on another couple of inch's to be fair. And see the results for yourself.

 

[christian_99]

John, to be honest with you - I used to think the same thing, however with finding many good "shallow" targets in iron, I am beginning to think more targets are masked in iron then "deep". Unless you are talking about area's that were farmers fields where the ground has been turned year after year.

 

[JB(MS)]

In detecting, as with everything else, there are always exceptions to the rule. Heck, I once dug a silver quarter directly under and two inches deeper than a rusted steel can and on another occasion an indian head penny stuck to the side of a rusty railroad spike. I'd rather use a detector I have confidence in though than get a rare exception so I'll stick with what the simple tests I done for so long has proven to me to do well on a regular basis. The Compadre does well here.

 

[Mike Bearden]

And YES .... the Compadre does well here in my area too, it's a helluva lot of bang for the buck and a hard act to follow no matter what
H.H.
Mike