Garrett ? Tesoro ? Which Technology is Best for Newbie?

[Cuts]

Had my heart set on Garrett's Ace 350
Now reading forums, Tesoro's look nifty
Both appear good shooters but using different technology,
If this has been asked before, please accept my apology.

Plan to search dry beaches, tot lots and trees
Roots, that is, a lot of time on the knees
A graph would be nice, to see how it works
But then there's the sound, beep vs. chirps

So I ask of you all - WHAT DO I DO?
Just buy the one or should I buy two?
Laughing and crying at the same time
I do hope you like my lame little rhyme.

Seriously though.......

 

[Orion42]

If you're going mostly for coins, you might be better off with the 250 and use the saved money on a Pro-Pointer.

John

 

[slingshot]

I have both "technologies" and am happy with my Ace 250. The ID and tone additions make it more versatile, as well as several other features. I don't know about "better", but I do know more versatile. I can run it like at beep-dig machine or use the ID features. I DO know the sniper coil really kicks it up to another level=it's all I use.

 

[Dancer]

The 250 with stock coil should pay for itself in Treasure and fun in good time. Add the sniper coil like sling said and your ready to go. Hunt during times when few are around and leave no trace you were there. Read everything on the subject you can. The Ace is real, but it's up to the Hunter to put the coil on the loot.

 

[Cuts]

-- moved topic --

 

[Elton]

If it were me..( It's Not) I would drive to a dealer if within a couple hours .. You will be well served looking at all detectors before buying..


http://www.garrett.com/hobbysite/hbby_ace_350_library_videos.aspx

 

[Neil]

What do you mean by different technologies? They are both gonna find coins or whatever you pass the coil over and since your new at this, your gonna really get to see what kinda crap is actually in the ground.
You would do yourself a favor by using the tech you have in front of you, meaning your computer, and doing a lot more reading and then following up as Elton says, visiting a dealer.
In the same price range your looking at the Eurotek pro gets a lot of good reviews,as does the minelab 305, theres a lot of selections out there. Spend some time on youtube, you can hear the detectors as well as see them.

 

[Steve O]

I'd get a unit you can grow into, not one you will quickly grow out of.....think about it.

 

[smokey63]

Check out the Eurotek Pro before you make the decision.

 

[digginLa]

I'll throw in another vote for the Eurotek Pro or possibly the Xterra 305. Lots of people love the Compardre and have many good finds with in especially in tot lots and I've read where others have said that you should get a beep and dig to learn the hobby, my opinion is to get a TID/VID machine you can grow into then later on if you like the concept get a beep and dig. It may be just me but I've found that I can id a coin in the trash much faster by number and tone than I can by a single tone and thumbing the disc. However if I set my Cibola just to cherry pick coins it does extremely well in the trash withe either the stock coil or the 5.75. The main thing is decide on how you want to hunt and get a machine that matches that, you should have a more enjoyable time that way which will give you the incentive to stick with the hobby that much longer. One last thing tho, if you intend on doing a lot of hunting for gold something like the Compardre would probably be a very good choice as it does well on small gold and your going to have to dig every target since gold has no number of tone all of its on.

 

[slingshot]

If it were me..( It's Not) I would drive to a dealer if within a couple hours .. You will be well served looking at all detectors before buying..


http://www.garrett.com/hobbysite/hbby_ace_350_library_videos.aspx

If you're fortunate enough to have one within a couple of hours drive-this is definitely the way to go. It's worth the trip.

 

[dan b]

I'm going to ruffle some feathers here, but I had an Ace 250 before I discovered Tesoro. I went with a Garrett because years ago I had a Freedom Ace 2 and it was a great machine. Sad to say, the Ace 250 was a big disappointment. I sold it and bought a Tesoro and have never regretted dumping that yellow machine.

As others have mentioned, you need to think seriously about how you plan to detect, and where. Being in Canada, TID machines tagged with US coinage are of very little use up here, at least that's my experience and opinion. Even new highly praised machines like the Euro Tek are not going to work very well with our ferrous coins. There is a video out there showing Canadian coins and the Euro Tek and it's not pretty. The various Tesoro models work great however, where coins don't fall into the US designations.

 

[Neil]

I'm going to ruffle some feathers here, but I had an Ace 250 before I discovered Tesoro. I went with a Garrett because years ago I had a Freedom Ace 2 and it was a great machine. Sad to say, the Ace 250 was a big disappointment. I sold it and bought a Tesoro and have never regretted dumping that yellow machine.

As others have mentioned, you need to think seriously about how you plan to detect, and where. Being in Canada, TID machines tagged with US coinage are of very little use up here, at least that's my experience and opinion. Even new highly praised machines like the Euro Tek are not going to work very well with our ferrous coins. There is a video out there showing Canadian coins and the Euro Tek and it's not pretty. The various Tesoro models work great however, where coins don't fall into the US designations.

So if your coins are ferrous how do your tesoros excel there? Most tesoros at 0 disc have a bias towards iron. I see a deleon and a vaquero in your signature. Do you mostly all metal hunt?

 

[PostalTwo]

My bh discovery 2200 does awsome with canadian steel coins. Dont know how but it does. Ive heard that about as well.

 

[Sven]

The Canadian clad coins bounce in numbers on various ID machines. And different year mintings again confuse the detectors due to different compositions. So the coins are all over the VDI range. Some semi-lock then bounce a few numbers. The only coins that were half way discernible are the $1 and $2 coins, fairly close lock-on, until the 2012 coins came out. They ID as junk iron. Coins on edge fall into the lower iron range.

Now take a Tesoro Deleon, I believe that many of the coins still fall into the 95 range. Tesoros ID lumps coin targets to those numbers, the circuit can't break them down further in smaller number groups from what my friend told me. I have owned many Tesoros here in Canada over the years. If you don't need a TID VID machine, they accel, as long as you don't set your disc above iron too far, you'll get every CA clad coin, lying flat or on edge, even next to nails. You can crank disc up to cherry pick the $1 & $2 coins eliminating most trash.

Canadians for the most part love Minelabs, White's and Garretts. A handful have known the Tesoro detectors are fantastic up here. Canadians are now taking a second look at the detectors once considered toys. Tesoro should wake up and get on the ball and promote them more up here, they don't or can't comprehend how well they work up here. The Deleon is the sleeper machine for CA coins. Usual price is around $300, so they are a good buy.

You have people up here in Canada who bought and use an ACE and think its great, some hype it up on other forums. But, give that person a Tesoro to try.....................

Even the 1980-90's older Tesoros work great up here.

Don't overlook the Bounty Hunters, another machine everyone tends to look down upon, they work excellent on Ca clad.

 

[dan b]

With my Vaquero I keep the disc fairly low and I listen for round targets. I can tell because of the way the audio ramps up and down smoothly. If it does that in one direction only it's usually a coin on edge. If it does it in 2 directions it's a coin laying flat. Sometimes I get tricked by flattened beer caps. But rather that take a minute and scan back and forth looking at bouncing numbers and changing tones, if I hear that smooth audio I dig. Last hunt with the Vaquero before winter arrived (so long ago it seems) I dug 93 coins in 3 hours.

As for the Deleon, I can only relate to my experience with the Cortes, as I haven't had the Deleon out yet. As Sven mentioned, the key is seeing that 95. If I sweep over a target and I see 95 show up even once, I dig. I keep the disc very low (might even try all metal with the Deleon because of it's awesome depth in all metal). When I had the Cortes back in 2008, I worked an older school yard for the summer, and the Cortes pulled out a little over 1000 coins from just the back of the school. For Canadian coins, they could change the display from saying "95" to "dig" and it would do the same thing.

As Sven mentioned, Canada could be a cash cow for Tesoro if they marketed here, and if people saw real world results. But personally, I'm happy they don't. I can hunt were others have already been with their VID machines and I still do very well.

Dan

 

[Minas man]

I will chime in being Canadian and having a bought a used Tesoro Vaquero as my very first detector and I think it is an awesome detector and it took me 6 months of research before I made my decision as I did not want to get on the detector treadmill, of always trading for another machine.( we have been together for 5 years)
The 6 month time period was a valuable learning time that gave me the knowledge of the hobby to choose the correct detector for my unique needs. One lesson that I learned is that success in this hobby was not based solely on the detector but like others have said on taking the time to learn the detector that you choose.
Do not over look the pinpointer! The Vaquero was so deep that as a newbie I would get frustrated and just fill the hole in without recovering the target.
Your list of where you want to hunt is very generic so any land detector can do what you list. Here is a list of other criteria.
Screen or beep and dig technology.
Weight of detector. can I swing this all day?
Ability to change coil in field to suit situation
Manual or automatic ground balance
Battery cost
Budget wise...... new vs used

All the best in your research

Minas man

 

[cladcanada]

My first detector was an ace 250 , it has no I'd numbers at all just a poor guess bar at what it might be . And that bell tone.....please . Sold ace250.

I have also read that the ace 250 is a very slow machine, so you can miss targets if you swing to fast


I would get a # vid , with multi tones if possible , then dig everything to learn the machine. Get a good pinpointer too.

Just remember that the numbers are what the machine thinks it sees , you gotta dig to know for sure

 

[cladcanada]

With my Vaquero I keep the disc fairly low and I listen for round targets. I can tell because of the way the audio ramps up and down smoothly. If it does that in one direction only it's usually a coin on edge. If it does it in 2 directions it's a coin laying flat. Sometimes I get tricked by flattened beer caps. But rather that take a minute and scan back and forth looking at bouncing numbers and changing tones, if I hear that smooth audio I dig. Last hunt with the Vaquero before winter arrived (so long ago it seems) I dug 93 coins in 3 hours.

As for the Deleon, I can only relate to my experience with the Cortes, as I haven't had the Deleon out yet. As Sven mentioned, the key is seeing that 95. If I sweep over a target and I see 95 show up even once, I dig. I keep the disc very low (might even try all metal with the Deleon because of it's awesome depth in all metal). When I had the Cortes back in 2008, I worked an older school yard for the summer, and the Cortes pulled out a little over 1000 coins from just the back of the school. For Canadian coins, they could change the display from saying "95" to "dig" and it would do the same thing.

As Sven mentioned, Canada could be a cash cow for Tesoro if they marketed here, and if people saw real world results. But personally, I'm happy they don't. I can hunt were others have already been with their VID machines and I still do very well.

Dan

thanks Dan , now I want a Deleon. Excellent post

My local dealer pushes the ace, I don,t shop there anymore . I can,t even get a Tesoro here in western Canada unless I order one from the east coast??? Yes Tesoro should set up shop up here . They would dominate the market

 

[PostalTwo]

With my Vaquero I keep the disc fairly low and I listen for round targets. I can tell because of the way the audio ramps up and down smoothly. If it does that in one direction only it's usually a coin on edge. If it does it in 2 directions it's a coin laying flat. Sometimes I get tricked by flattened beer caps. But rather that take a minute and scan back and forth looking at bouncing numbers and changing tones, if I hear that smooth audio I dig. Last hunt with the Vaquero before winter arrived (so long ago it seems) I dug 93 coins in 3 hours.

As for the Deleon, I can only relate to my experience with the Cortes, as I haven't had the Deleon out yet. As Sven mentioned, the key is seeing that 95. If I sweep over a target and I see 95 show up even once, I dig. I keep the disc very low (might even try all metal with the Deleon because of it's awesome depth in all metal). When I had the Cortes back in 2008, I worked an older school yard for the summer, and the Cortes pulled out a little over 1000 coins from just the back of the school. For Canadian coins, they could change the display from saying "95" to "dig" and it would do the same thing.


As Sven mentioned, Canada could be a cash cow for Tesoro if they marketed here, and if people saw real world results. But personally, I'm happy they don't. I can hunt were others have already been with their VID machines and I still do very well.

Dan

thanks Dan , now I want a Deleon. Excellent post

My local dealer pushes the ace, I don,t shop there anymore . I can,t even get a Tesoro here in western Canada unless I order one from the east coast??? Yes Tesoro should set up shop up here . They would dominate the market

I have a dealer here I alberta that can hook u up with any brand u seek for the best price I canada.touchwood detectors give neil a call he is a great guy and can get u whatever u need