A Tesoro or an E-trac?

[Hombre]

All of my Tesoros and my grandson's detector will pick up the coins in the nails. Go figure.

Go figure. My Tesoro's are like toys compared to my E-Trac in my test garden.

Ok Southwind

I only live a couple of hours east of you and I go on vacation next month(sept16 thru sept 29)........I would say put your money where your mouth is.........come over and show me!

This is a freindly invite, and we'll see how the big guns from a famous western cow town fare aginst me and my grandson's popguns. I'd really like to see how your big guns shoot the coins in the dirt.

I live south of Wichita Ks.......a short drive to cow town, and I could drive over and bring my popguns over to your test garden, either way we would find out the truth.

The only rules are.........there are no stinking rules! PM me if you're interested

 

[birdman]

Synthnut, Thanks much for the kind words. I have talked with many people who hunt all over the outer banks an as far as I know it is pretty much a go on public beaches and what not. The main problem is hunting any area that the government has deemed a historical land mark such as kitty hawk and places like that.
There are a ton of people from New York living in the water front areas of NC . They all say the same thing.They sold there home up north and made a mint and came down south to NC to soak up the goodness of low taxes and housing. There is one area where the whole peninsula seems to be transplants from up north and they all retired young.
One guy in his mid 50s told me he knows a place to go by boat where there are old bottles and china under water all over the place and he will take me there. Have not been able to take him up on that one yet but plan on it this spring.

 

[Southwind]

I apologize for my poor choice of words. It was not meant to insinuate that Tesoros were toys. I have the utmost respect for Tesoro and don't hesitate to say I spent my first 10 years of detecting on Tesoro, and my best finds were with those Tesoros. Now, that being said.....

My reference to MY TESOROS being toys compared to my E-Trac was a reference to trying to compare a $150 detector to a $1,500 detector. I tried the Compadre and the Silver uMax in my test garden and saw just what I would have expected when comparing the two. I'm a full featured type guy. I love the simplicity and lightness of the Tesoro when it comes to tot lots where you dig anything that makes a noise, but I personally would rather use a detector with a few more features when hunting parks and schools.

Hombre I'd love nothing better than to get together. I am a person who believes what he sees, and not what others see. Personally I do feel I have the perfect testing site. I think the best head-to-head is done in a live environment. Generally this is a problem because you never know if you are going to be at a site with goodies. I have the cure. Our city park has coins far deeper than any detector I've ever tested. YET! Finding coins at 6-8" can be done with my DFX, but finding coins beyond 8" is not a simple task for any detector. I know the coins are there for the detector that can get that deep. Just let me know an we can get together. I think we both stand to learn something. And that is always a good thing.

 

[Hombre]

Sounds good Southwind

I'll PM you with a time & date, I have allways wanted to detect in your town. I would like to hunt where there are lots if iron nails in the ground as I feel Tesoros have Allways excelled in the iron.

Randy

 

[Southwind]

I also have a nice, pretty much virgin, old motorcycle track used from 1914 to the 1920's for the National 300 & 500 mile races between Harley Davidson and Indian Motorcycles. Local news paper of some of the races state that in 1916 there was an estimated 35,000 spectators. Now it is nothing but an open field. A lot of old timers talked about it but never knew for sure where it was at. I found it last year, got permission from the land owner, and in a month and a half(the time before he planted) we pulled many Indian Heads, some 12 barbers, 5 V-Nickles 1 ring and 3 Indian Motorcycles lapel pins. Nothing found has been newer than a 1920 wheat. The field has been cut but the wheat stubble is a bit of a problem. He should be plowing any time now.

West of town less than 5 miles is the site of 2 old forts. Fort Mann(1845-1847) and Fort Atkinson(1850-1857), just open fields. East of town less than 5 miles is Fort Dodge(1864-188.

And then there is our 125 year old city park. Wright Park has flooded on average every 30-40 years since 1883 when it was built to host one of only two known authentic Mexican Bullfights ever held in North America. It happened in 1884 at this park and needless to say thousands of spectators came from all over the country. Each flood has deposited from 3-6" of mud in the park burying the coins extremely deep. I can prove one area has coins at 24" deep. Not that I've dug them, but that you can see that the area has been filled with dirt from past floods to 24" deep. Sooooo, I've taken every detector I've ever owned for the last 30 years and hunted this park. New technology got me deeper each time. For the last 5 years it seemed my DFX had cleaned to it ability only giving up the occasional keeper. The E-Trac put me back to virgin territory. Just as my White's Eagle Spectrum did in the early 90's and the DFX did in the early 2000's. Since that time I've tried many detectors with just the occasional goodies which I attribute more to being a simple missed goodies rather that a really great detector.

I have some great place to hunt when you come down. And I even have a video camera

Terry

 

[synthnut]

Terry
The area's and spots that you hunt sound GREAT !!!....That motorcycle track really sounds GREAT wtih all the pins and everything else you can pull from there ...Id LOVE to see a video of that ......Keep us posted on the mission .....ENjoy !!....Sincerely, Jim

 

[Biofilmz]

If you want deep old coins then the E-trac is outstanding for this approach. The etrac is easy to use - I have played around extensively with settings and have found none that can mess up the machine. The DD coils may take a bit longer to learn, but they are much better than cocentric coils in trash. I LUV Tesoros a lot, and am currently reading through this forum to decide which one to buy as a gold/tot lot detector - having given away my Compadre to my nephew. For light gold chains - forget it - the etrac is horrible, but for deep coins - you want the etrac.

 

[dmgadway]

Ive, been detecting for 6 yrs now, not along time, but long enough to learn some rather expensive lessons. My first metal Detector was a Tesoro Cibola, This was the detector the dealer strongly recommended as a great first machine. I put many hours on it, found lots interesting items, and learned the basics of detecting with it. I then bought a fisher CZ-3D. Wow! I loved the tone ID, found alot of valuable silver coins and military buttons with it, learned how to ground balance with it. I thought target id was the way to go until one day my 6 yr old was following me around a park with the cibola( he loves to dig everything!) I had just passed up an iron tone with the CZ-3D, He said the cibola said it was a coin! I laughed, gave him the shovel, and sure enough, it was a rather deep half dollar! Lesson1 learned, don't trust the target ID! They are not always accurate. I wonder how many of those deeper iron tones I passed up were coins? My next machine was a minelab explorer se pro. Again i thought this was the ultimate detector! I found many coins with it, it never pinpointed as accurately as the cibola, and just like the fisher, gave mixed messages on the deeper targets. I cleaned out my driveway of any and all coin signals with the explorer. I was confidant i had gotten them all, until i was playing around with the cibola, and found 9 more coins the minelab had missed!! Lesson 2 learned: recovery speed, The Target id detectors are just too darn slow to reset after discriminating out a target, The Tesoros are in my opinion the best at this. They seem simple and basic, but once you learn how to use and understand them, they will tell you everything you need to know about a target and you wont waste half the day sweeping slowly enough for the "Super Detectors" to reset. I am hoping in the next few weeks to get another tesoro, The Tejon! I cant wait! Just alittle on the lessons Ive learned, maybe this will help someone else avoid the expensive lessons i had to learn. I'm not knocking the minelabs or the fishers, im sure with the right size coils and the right sweep speed they would perform well, I'm just not willing to pay for another "Super Detector" plus all the extra for the coils! You can buy 3 or more Tesoros for the price of an ETrac with extra coils! And you will have a much longer learning curve with the ETrac.

 

[Canewrap]

Yep, I went through a vey similiar journey over the last 3 years and I'm back to using Tesoro. Just for giggles I went to a recently discovered volley ball court that is behind a church and was pulling coins out left and right with the Tejon and then I went back with an X-terra 70. Now, there are still a lot of pennies in the sand as I'm finding out, so I tried to disc them out with the X-terra and that's when I found out its recovery speed isn't as good as that of the Tejon. With pennies notched out I almost missed a nickel and a quarter in close proximity, but because I thought something wasn't right with how it was behaving in the disc mode I switched back to all metal and that's when I found out I had missed the other coins. I still like the X-terra for this kind of hunting, but when its a trashy area (this volleyball court really isn't), even a smaller coil can only help so much if the recovery time isn't sufficient. Explains why I was having trouble in heavy iron with the X-terra. Don't get me wrong, different machines for different purposes.

 

[Diggler]

I have been hesitant to post this but this thread won't die so here goes...
I sold my Cortes to help finance the purchase of an Etrac. I really like the Etrac a lot but...
I have a couple areas that I consider cleaned out by the Cortes. These are spots I have gridded hard.
Deepest coin in these spots about 9". I have gone back over these spots with the Etrac to clean up what I missed with other detectors.
I mean that is what you read time after time about the Etrac right? Well so far not 1 single coin from these spots.
Maybe coins aren't 12" down here? Maybe there is no nearby iron masking coins? Maybe I don't have the Etrac mastered?
Mastered no, but I am finding deep coins with it at new places. Maybe the Cortes is just a great machine? Other than the limited
notching capability there is little else to wish for. I usually hunt pretty wide open with all detectors anyway so...
Going to hold onto the Etrac until someone comes out with GPR. It is a great machine. But I keep a Tesoro behind the seat of my
truck ready to go!

 

[jbow]

If you can afford an E-TRAC you can affoed and E-TRAC and a Tesro. Get a Tejon or Vaquero to compliment the ET. Get the 5.75 coil, stick it on the Tejon or Vaq and leave it there.
There are a few iron beds where the Tejon/Vaquero will shine. You can pick up a used Tejon with the 5.75 for around 350 bucks if you watch for one. Keep an eye out on the d3pot (3=e) classifieds for the Tesoro.

The E-TRAC is in a class by itself... I can say that because I have had an E-TRAC since it came out and have had a Tejon longer than that, have had a Cortes, have a Compadre, and just bought another vintage Tesoro... I love Tesoro detectors but the E-TRAC is the mac-daddy.

J

 

[keppy]

Ive, been detecting for 6 yrs now, not along time, but long enough to learn some rather expensive lessons. My first metal Detector was a Tesoro Cibola, This was the detector the dealer strongly recommended as a great first machine. I put many hours on it, found lots interesting items, and learned the basics of detecting with it. I then bought a fisher CZ-3D. Wow! I loved the tone ID, found alot of valuable silver coins and military buttons with it, learned how to ground balance with it. I thought target id was the way to go until one day my 6 yr old was following me around a park with the cibola( he loves to dig everything!) I had just passed up an iron tone with the CZ-3D, He said the cibola said it was a coin! I laughed, gave him the shovel, and sure enough, it was a rather deep half dollar! Lesson1 learned, don't trust the target ID! They are not always accurate. I wonder how many of those deeper iron tones I passed up were coins? My next machine was a minelab explorer se pro. Again i thought this was the ultimate detector! I found many coins with it, it never pinpointed as accurately as the cibola, and just like the fisher, gave mixed messages on the deeper targets. I cleaned out my driveway of any and all coin signals with the explorer. I was confidant i had gotten them all, until i was playing around with the cibola, and found 9 more coins the minelab had missed!! Lesson 2 learned: recovery speed, The Target id detectors are just too darn slow to reset after discriminating out a target, The Tesoros are in my opinion the best at this. They seem simple and basic, but once you learn how to use and understand them, they will tell you everything you need to know about a target and you wont waste half the day sweeping slowly enough for the "Super Detectors" to reset. I am hoping in the next few weeks to get another tesoro, The Tejon! I cant wait! Just alittle on the lessons Ive learned, maybe this will help someone else avoid the expensive lessons i had to learn. I'm not knocking the minelabs or the fishers, im sure with the right size coils and the right sweep speed they would perform well, I'm just not willing to pay for another "Super Detector" plus all the extra for the coils! You can buy 3 or more Tesoros for the price of an ETrac with extra coils! And you will have a much longer learning curve with the ETrac.

The E Trac is a good detector but no better than a Tesoro or any mid cost detector made...... You pay twice as much but you can hook it up to your computer.....I don't need to hook my detector up to my computer.............. I don't need to pay $1500.00 for a detector that won't find any more than a $400,00 t0 $600.00 detector will find........ But then i don't fool myself like some do...........

 

[stasys]

its very hard to compare etrac-explorer to Tesoro they are different. i have Cibola and explorer which I consider close or similar to etrac because FBS technologi and my speed tests show this, but last two years i use just explorer, you can ask why? because is better, Why is better; first sound quality, I can hunt all the day without any problem with hearing, secondly is much more deeper,and more precise info if I need and all the rest, but if i feel explorer,etrac is better its still have minuses. first explorer-etrac is very slow, but still with this slowness you can find targets in iron and very succesiful-but its slow and time consuming process. with faster detector you can do in iron quicker and better job. But you have to know place before go with faster like tesoro detector--only my opinion. so my advise buy etrac and learn it after year if you like this hobby buy tesoro. good luck in metal detecting. Stasys

 

[Southwind]

The E Trac is a good detector but no better than a Tesoro or any mid cost detector made

Obviously nothing more than personal opinion.

I've owned several Tesoro's and many "mid cost" detectors, and without a doubt the E-Trac excels above 98% of the detectors available right now when it comes to depth. Now depth isn't everything. As Diggler posted the extreme depth of the E-Trac isn't always needed to clean a site out. I've hunted all my sites to death with my DFX over the years and many other detectors. I bought the E-Trac and took it to our city park, where coins are extremely deep, and the E-Trac did what it does better than the rest. It pulled handfuls of old coins at depths none of my other detectors, including the Tesoro's, could touch. I took the same E-Trac to all my other sites and it found nothing I had missed.

 

[blowfly1967]

i have an e trac.i also have a vaquero,golden u max,a compadre and at this stage a dead silver sabre.with the e trac i have found a lot of coins both old and new,plus silver rings,but no gold anything.however with my tesoro's find it all.fbs might be great on the e trac,but i think that the single frequency finds more.and when it's raining, or at night,i wouldn't take the e trac out,even with it's back light.it attracts to much attention from passerbye's.these are my thoughts.yesterday at the local grass topped bus stops,in the rain,with a plastic bag over it's head,in 3.5 hours,using the compadre,$26.90.not great,but i ain't complaining.this is aust.of course,spendable.what do you do with all that silver in yankee lan?.beats me ! my thoughts,bye for now,blowfly.

 

[Willee - Texas]

It would help a lot if we knew what type of detecting you like to do and where you plan on doing it.

Why buy an E-Trac right off the bat?
Instead get a used Explorer XS or II and use it for a while.
Get used to the way it works because the E-Trac works just like it.
If you dont like it you can sell it for what you paid for it.

I have and use Tesoro detectors but they are years behind the others as far as visual displays go.
However, I prefer to use the BBS and FBS technology of the Minelabs and use my ears and brain to discriminate.
If you dont know what those technology's are you need to do some more research before you buy.

If you just want the most expensive hobby detector (and some call it the best)
Go with a White's V3i ... Color Screen ... Wireless Headphones ... Unlimited Configuration.

 

[Willee - Texas]

The E Trac is a good detector but no better than a Tesoro or any mid cost detector made...... You pay twice as much but you can hook it up to your computer.....I don't need to hook my detector up to my computer.............. I don't need to pay $1500.00 for a detector that won't find any more than a $400,00 t0 $600.00 detector will find........ But then i don't fool myself like some do...........

Keppy, if that is what you really think then you have fooled yourself.

There is a world of difference between the Tesoro detectors and the E-Trac.

Most people that buy the E-trac never hook it to a computer.
What happens when you hook the E-trac to a computer ... do you know?
Have you ever even used an E-trac?

True ... a Kia will get you there ... so why do people pay more for a Cadillac ... cause they are fools?

 

[Dan-Pa.]

From an Olbie to a Newbie can't beat a tesoro as being user friendly, light and above all the service after the sale is second to none..

Many start this hobby but few stay in it as they get discouraged with complicated units.

Being an ardent hunter for many years and trying many units I learned the Explorer series quickly and no doubt you would be lost from day one being a newbie as certainly a learning period
even with seasoned detectorists not alone a newbie.

My advice is go to a Tesoro dealer and try a few of the units on for size and he can guide you in the right direction...certainly going to be easier on the wallet and give you a better chance
for survival in this hobby as many start but only a fraction become ardent hunters.

Last but not least Minelab makes good products but they are heavy with poor ergonomics( E-trac) and a learning period which varies from individual to individual whether newbie or oldbie and since they moved their service after the sale is questionable in many cases..not so with Tesoro...everyone has a belly button and opinion and you asked so I gave you mine and hope it helps..