Best Tesoro for tot lotting?

[Southwind]

I'm looking for the best tot lot detector Tesoro makes. I prefer it to be light, simple and cheap, but I need it to be able to pick up smaller gold chains. Does Tesoro make such a unit?

 

[Onus]

The SilverUmax is my preferred tot lot machine. I put on the 5" coil and turn down the discrimination and can bet fairly close to the big iron posts. Ease of operation and reliablility can't be beat.Onus

 

[SkiWhiz]

I find the older 12kHz Tesoro models do really well at finding jewelry. Steve.

 

[trueblue]

ya must not'a hear of the Tabdog


its gotta be the Compadre , simple - cheap & picksup small gold

 

[tvr]

"Best" I think is subjective and depends on user and site conditions.

All of the "beep and dig" Tesoros I have used are very sensitive to small pieces of low conductive material, whether it is foil or gold, including chains. The ones I've used are Cibola, Tejon and Compadre.

I do like to have adjustments for sensitivity and ground balance, but some times, I'll just grab the Compadre and go. Can't get simpler and less expensive than a Compadre and still have a real good tot lot detector.

I do spend more time in the tot lots with a detector that has more adjustments than the Compadre. Depends on the day and what I know of the tot lot. A couple of tot lots I frequent have hot rocks that I can ground balance out, one has a yellow clay layer under the chips that causes a lot of falsing if not ground balanced to it, so the Compadre does not go to those lots very often.

Depends on conditions and how simple and light you want and what you want to spend.
tvr

 

[Southwind]

Depends on conditions and how simple and light you want and what you want to spend.

The tot lots I hunt are pretty mild as far as trash/hot rocks. I want it as light as possible and as cheap as possible. LOL Of course.

Price isn't so much a factor. I have a DFX and a E-Trac so I've got the heavy stuff covered. While both of these can be used in a tot lot, Neither are great gold chain machines, and I prefer to hunt tot lots in a nice simple manor. Light and simple makes the best tot lot detector in my opinion.

 

[dahut]

Im one of those tone-heads, so I like the Golden.

 

[BarberBill]

I've used most of the umax Tesoros on tot lots and they all handled that use very well. They're all light, have quick response and good discrimination. If I were buying new one, I'd look hard at the silver and add a small coil to go with it. JMHO
HH
BB

 

[tvr]

Southwind,
Agree ... I should have more carefully bounded the statement.

My thoughts were within the Tesoro range, Compadre, Silver uMax, Cibola, Vaquero or older series used. That puts street price range of $150 to $420 new and keeps them all light.

I have Fisher CZ's that don't go to the tot lot often since I've found they don't see small chains very well even in autoTune (all metal) and are a little heavy too. The Tesoros I have (Compadre, Cibola, and Tejon) see the small chains pretty well. Discrimination needs to be set not higher than iron or go all metal to really hit the finer link small chains.

I mostly take the Cibola that is modified to put the ground balance on the front panel to the tot lot. Compadre is second choice for the tot lots. Often I'll take two detectors, the Compadre and either the modified Cibola or Tejon so I have ground balance adjustment if needed.

There is one school yard near me that has a wood chipped area that has equipment poles from previous swing sets cut off about 4 to 6 inches down that the Cibola and Tejon sound off on way too well but the Compadre discriminates them out cleanly at the iron mark and then it just flat finds stuff.

For the price the Compadre is pretty impressive. It does not get the most tot lot time for me, but it is close and I'm not planning on selling it.
tvr

 

[AUDuke]

If all I were going to hunt were Tot lots I would choose the Compadre. It has the best disc of all current Tesoros and is sensitive to small gold.