Comparisons between Cibola, Tejon, and Silver uMax - any comments on differences?

[drillem42]

I am thinking of buying one of these three machines, but I honestly don't see any major differences between them - barring differences in
controls - dual discriminate vs single discriminate, and availability of manual ground balance adjust. But in terms of performance, i.e. depth, iron discrimination, recovery time, are there any major differences I should know about? I have heard a couple mention that the Tejon is a little too hot for park hunting with lots of trash - and that the Cibola may be a better choice. I mostly coin/jewelry hunt, searching parks and schools with lots of trash, in unmineralized south Florida sandy/rocky ground. I don't have any really old, i.e relic type hunting spots, even though I do a have some older yards (1930's on up).

I've used several Tesoro machine in the past. Golden Sabre, Golden Sabre Plus, Golden Sabre II, and most recently the Golden uMax. I was not happy with the Golden uMax because i think the discriminate circuit and tone id were not what I had hoped for - it picked up iron (nails, bottlecaps) all the way up to the nickel range, which i was not happy about. Plus, the machine was too darn sensitive to small junk targets (iron and small aluminum pieces) for the type of trashy spots i have around to hunt. The older tesoro machines were not that hot, and did not get iron very much at all. Could this be the downside of the ED180 discrimination that Tesoro now uses? The older machines were either ED120 or ED90 I think. My favorite Tesoros are still the Golden Sabre and Golden Sabre Plus for their iron handling features and rock-solid target id's. But the fact remains that these machines are over 20 years old now, and very tough to keep working and to get replacement parts for, so I am stuck with finding a new Tesoro that I will like, since i have found so many great finds with Tesoros that I would not part with the technology they offer.

I have heard some great things about the Vaquero, Cibola, and Tejon by many hunters on this and other sites, so that's why I am considering these a little more than the silver uMax. The Tejon seems to be better in sites with not too much trash, like relic areas, or ghost towns, etc, even though i do like the idea of the dual discriminate feature - much like the Fisher 1265 has. Do any of you hunt trashy parks with the Tejon? Or would you lean more toward a Cibola, Vaquero or silver umax for this?

Any help (information, pros/cons) about these machines might help me decide which one is best for me.

Thanks a lot.

Mark

 

[Monkeywrangler22]

I have a Cib, and am getting a Deleon. The Cib is sensitive to small silver, and a good coin shooter. It is fairly deep in mild ground for me. It discs out small iron well, but will still give a good sound on larger iron. I don't find a lot of nickles, even though I run well below nickle on disc. Balled up canslaw or foil, or chunks of the ubquitous grey metal all sound like a coin--they hit hard and clean.

 

[HOWDY]

I have a Cibola, a Deleon, and a Tejon on the way. the Deleon is great for newer parks and tot lots where things aren't real deep. the numbers and the graph are usually right on when it comes to targets. old rusty bottle caps and can slaw register as good targets alot but you're gonna have that. Iron disc is good but not as good as the Cibola. Cibola discriminates small iron and junk real well. it's a deep hitter on coins and extremely deep on relics. Cibola is pretty much a " use it anywhere " detector. can't wait to see what the Tejon will be like. I have sold all my other detectors, I run Tesoros only now.

 

[joe dirt_1]

I have never owned a tejon, but have owned a cibola and presently own a silver umax. the cibola didn't impress me much. many times after digging a plug it wouldn't pick a coin up in the bottom of the plug. otherwise it worked ok with decent depth. the silver umax is really the best bang for the buck of the 3 you mentioned. add a couple coils to the silver and it does a great job coinhunting. my silver umax runs stable at high sensitivity settings and the discrimination works well. i'm sure the tejon is going to be deeper than the cibola and silver umax but most coins are in the 5 to 6 inch range and the cibola and silver will get those easily. good luck with your choice.............roger

 

[slingshot]

I love my Silver. I've read that the sensitivity on the Tejon can be turned down enough to get rid of it's touchiness and the dual discrimination can be used to decide on digging a target. I'm afraid I'd depend too much on that though. Of course I only hunt parks, schools, tot lots because of time limitations and lack of time to research old sites. My next detector is the Compadre, which I think will be my choice for my sites.

 

[tvr]

I have a Cibola and a Tejon. I learned a lot with the Cibola, it's a good detector and has paid for itself several times over. I now spend more time with the Tejon. It is a little deeper and a little more sensitive to small mid conductive range (gold and foil). It seems to retune a bit quicker; helping to unmask targets.

If the trash gets too thick, just go with the 5.75 inch coil and the target separation gets much better.

My thoughts are that the hitting iron is not an ED-180 vs ED-120 issue ... it's a higher gain more sensitive design issue. You can still tell larger iron most of the time (the beep has a sharp click on the edge) but the high gain designs do not discriminate iron out as cleanly as some of the older designs.

I hunt sometimes with a Compadre (ED-180 but not the high gain circuit design). VERY clean iron discrimination.

I prefer to have sensitivity and ground balance controls, like the Tejon, and have learned to tell iron by sound with it (most of the time). That said, sometimes the Compadre is just plain fun because it is so basic, so light and detects well to reasonable depths, although the Cibola and Tejon are deeper.

My two cents is: Go with the Tejon and get a 5.75 inch coil (I like the concentric). Spend time listening to it with a discerning ear as you play with the settings. And pick up an older series as a back up / fun time detector when you want to just eliminate the iron but don't care to go quite as deep; nothing wrong with a 20 year old detector that just does the job it is supposed to do!
Cheers,
tvr

PS If you lean towards a Cibola, I'd recommend spending the money for high tone. My Cibola isn't and every time I go back to it I need to spend some time readjusting to the very subtle voices of the low tone. I run the Tejon in vco most of the time and when not in vco mode, I run the tone a lot higher in pitch than the Cibola is; and it is more expressive there.

 

[fenian13]

Not an expert here. The Tejon is my first detector. I learned how to use it in trashy parks and schoolgrounds. The 5.75" widescan coil is very good at sorting through the trash. The stock coil is much more difficult to use in the trashy areas. The 5.75 makes a huge difference in my limited experience. No bull, on my birthday lasy year I went crazy all day until dark and pulled 327 coins. Not a silver among them, all clad. But it shows what the little coil can produce in a trashy schoolground. The Tejon was not easy to learn, but I had no previous experience and no one to advise me. This july will be my third year with the tejon and I am quite happy with it's abilities. Hope this helps some.

 

[BarberBill]

In my opinion, if all else is equal (or at least pretty comparable) and the difference in price isn't budget breaking, always go the to machine with either manual or true auto ground balance. Sooner or later you're likely to hit an area where the preset ground balance will be a handicap. (Silver, Cibola, Golden, DeLeon and Cortes (in disc. mode) To be fair I have several Tesoros that have preset ground balance and they've worked quite well at the areas I usually hunt, but I also have one with manual ground balance I can go to for tougher mineralization. If I could only have one, that'd be it, for that reason. My two cents.
BB

 

[HOWDY]

I agree. i tried a guys Cibola before i bought mine to see what i thought of it and his was a low tone. I ordered a high tone and to me it's a world of difference, much better for me and my hearing. most places charge 30-40 dollars more for the high tone option, i got lucky, the place I got mine from only had high tones in stock and sold it to me for the price of the low tone. ( I didn't tell them thats what i wanted in the first place)

 

[Mr January]

Just a quick note to say that I bought a silver U Max last fall and it is my first detector. I love this machine. I spent the month of February in Pensacola Beach Florida and detected every day for approximately 4-5 hours a day. I found a little over $40.00 in coins of various denominations as well as beer cans, tabs, pieces of iron bar, even a radial tire buried a few feet from the Gulf edge at a depth of 2'. I had to dig for half an hour to free it from the sand.
I was shocked that I had detected it that deep into the sand. I guess the size of it made it detectable. Anyway, the prize of my stay in Florida was a mans diamond ring. It's a 10k ring with a band of 12 diamonds across the face of it. I have been home in Ontario Canada since March 6th but have yet to take it to a Jeweller for an appraisal. The ring is in perfect shape and the stones appear to be full diamonds not chips. It'll be interesting to see what the thing is worth once I get around to taking it to a jeweller. I also found a large 2" x 1" crucifix in gold and when I went over the same hole I found a 24" chain and even the little round clasp that had broken off the chain. I'm not sure if the chain is gold because it's a little worn and is probably plated. The crucifix seems to be gold but it's not stamped with a hallmark. I don't care if it's not gold it was still a thrill to find it in the sand. Speaking of Pensacola Beach, what a shame it is to have that beautiful white sand beach covered in oil by the disastrous leak of the BP well in the Gulf. I wish they'd get off their greedy corporate asses and cap the damned pipe. It seems all they are interested in is finding a way to cap it so they can still take the oil out of the well too. I'm sure they could have easily capped it permanently within the first few days but they don't want to do that if it means they can't take the oil to line their pockets as well. Oh well, I just hope they get the job done soon before the whole Gulf is dead!

Sorry for getting off on a tangent there but like the rest of you, I'm heart broken over the mess!

My purpose for writing was to say that the Silver UMax is incredibly simple and accurate to use. I kept my setting low and high on the sensitivity dial and dug loads of interesting stuff and had no problem locating the ring and the chain etc. The ring was approximately 8" down in the sand and the other chain etc was about a foot deep in the sand. My Silver UMax was used about 5 hours a day every day for over a month and the same battery (9Volt) is still working today! It's incredibly easy on batteries. Good luck with your choice and I don't think you can go wrong with the Silver U Max.

 

[skippers]

I am thinking of buying one of these three machines, but I honestly don't see any major differences between them - barring differences in
controls - dual discriminate vs single discriminate, and availability of manual ground balance adjust. But in terms of performance, i.e. depth, iron discrimination, recovery time, are there any major differences I should know about? I have heard a couple mention that the Tejon is a little too hot for park hunting with lots of trash - and that the Cibola may be a better choice. I mostly coin/jewelry hunt, searching parks and schools with lots of trash, in unmineralized south Florida sandy/rocky ground. I don't have any really old, i.e relic type hunting spots, even though I do a have some older yards (1930's on up).

I've used several Tesoro machine in the past. Golden Sabre, Golden Sabre Plus, Golden Sabre II, and most recently the Golden uMax. I was not happy with the Golden uMax because i think the discriminate circuit and tone id were not what I had hoped for - it picked up iron (nails, bottlecaps) all the way up to the nickel range, which i was not happy about. Plus, the machine was too darn sensitive to small junk targets (iron and small aluminum pieces) for the type of trashy spots i have around to hunt. The older tesoro machines were not that hot, and did not get iron very much at all. Could this be the downside of the ED180 discrimination that Tesoro now uses? The older machines were either ED120 or ED90 I think. My favorite Tesoros are still the Golden Sabre and Golden Sabre Plus for their iron handling features and rock-solid target id's. But the fact remains that these machines are over 20 years old now, and very tough to keep working and to get replacement parts for, so I am stuck with finding a new Tesoro that I will like, since i have found so many great finds with Tesoros that I would not part with the technology they offer.

I have heard some great things about the Vaquero, Cibola, and Tejon by many hunters on this and other sites, so that's why I am considering these a little more than the silver uMax. The Tejon seems to be better in sites with not too much trash, like relic areas, or ghost towns, etc, even though i do like the idea of the dual discriminate feature - much like the Fisher 1265 has. Do any of you hunt trashy parks with the Tejon? Or would you lean more toward a Cibola, Vaquero or silver umax for this?

Any help (information, pros/cons) about these machines might help me decide which one is best for me.

Thanks a lot.

Mark

Hi, I have a Cibola that I used in 2007 to find a 2000 year old Celtic gold coin and many old buttons, silver coins and other goodies. The next year I took a Whites DFX 300 thinking it would help me get deeper and with all the bells and whistles, find more. It didn't, I was skunked, and found very little. I sold it. In 2009, I took the Cibola back and found a 2" lead Papal Seal from Pope Clement IV 1265 - 1268, and 13 hammered silver coins or cut pieces. The last coin I found was a trimmed hammered silver coin about 3/8" in diameter. I haven't had the oportunity to try any of the newer Tesoro's, but am going to get a Tiger Shark when they fix the leaking problem. (By the way: I wrote Tesoro this month, and they said thay don't have a projected time for the release, but it should be soon.) I think the Cibola is a great machine. I agree with one of the other posts about getting the one with the higher tone. Skip

 

[digitaltim]

I'm hunting iron filled areas and find I can discriminate very well with the vaquero... I think it's due to ground balance.

In clean lawns the silver umax is great, but while it does blip and sound rougher over Iron I find I'm fooled a little more with it. This is more evident while hunting side by side with the vaquero... My friend gets a good signal... Sometimes I listen and say it's iron and sometimes I go over it with the vaquero to confirm and it's blatently obvious it's trash with the vaquero. Another example: I was using a compadre and my friend got a good signal with the silver. The compadre nulled / no signal. Both detectors set just above Iron, It was a horse shoe about 5" down.

I used a cibola with 5.75" coil for some time and was pulling good targets out of the same pile as iron nails. I think the cibola is my favorite all around detector. I don't own one now though.

The cibola I last had I added ground balance to. It was rediculous in the sense that it really has a language of it's own. It talked. Consistent and very accurate. What Im trying to say is, it's awesome!!! A nonmodified cibola runs fairly quiet (like most Tesoros), but when you fine tune a ten turn GB pot on it, it comes alive.
I Sold it to try the vaquero again. Honestly, the vaquero seems tame compared to the modified cibola, but I bought it new and it's a life partner now ;-).

I briefly tried the Tejon and felt it was too sensitive for hunting coin size targets. Personal preference there. Might be losing deepcoins on edge, but oh well. I hunt around rivers often too and it kind if went nuts with chatter. It's noticably heavier, but still light compared to many other brands. I also didn't feel the need for the extra controls, as I usually dig everything above iron. Another personal preference.

So I think you're right, the silver umax is great and I'll take it out in the sand or random lawn, but I'm not as confident with it in the iron trash.

The new "hot" detectors love aluminum... This doesn't bother me, because I dig foil and up. It'll sound louder and sizing the target always helps. the Silver umax wins in this category.

If you're in need of multiple tones... None of them may be for you, but I honestly think the vaquero has enough of that 'language' to make good educated decisions... To dig or not to dig? You may get just as much from a cibola though, depending on the soil you're hunting.

 

[GRAY GHOST]

n/t

 

[Monkeywrangler22]

The Golden Umax is a 4 tone machine I think, and the Cortes has a bunch of tones (9?) in all metal I think.

 

[Dirt Poor]

Never hunted with a Tejon, but I've had a Cibola and a Vaquero. My first Tesoro was a Silver uMax. Still have it, and it's been my favorite of the bunch.