Give me some TigerShark chatter!

[mudpuppy]

Teeboy fan Rainyday, has me looking hard at a Tiger Shark..

.I read Gene Scullions field test on the Tesoro website...that was a great write up...what jumped out at me was his mention of finding gold chains!

How about some chatter about this rig and your experiences with it? I need to know what you like about it, why you chose it, or any 'unique strength' it may have over some of the others...If I get one, I will be using it scuba diving pretty hard primarily in fresh water, and perhaps some salt if the situation arises...any youtube videos you can think of that were especially helpful? Watching some now...

I know 'Sandtick' up here has one and loves it for beach/wading...I run into him all the time in season, so I have somebody close that I respect that can walk me through it...

This rig could become my Diver, and if it does, I will finally become an official Teeboy!
Mud

 

[Hombre]

Hey Mud....

I've had the original Tiger since 2001, it has been real dependable and has found lots of silver and gold rings including 2 class rings that have been returned. I have over a thousand hours on it and never had to return it to the factory, mine is the interchangeable coil model. I have only picked up one chain and it was silver all by itself without the medallion. It will find the thin gold rings real well and deep too, mine wears the 8" coil. The new TS have a hardwired coil, so you have to make a choice of coil size, I like the 8". The thing is, around here with the few lakes that are around me within driving distance have been pounded so hard it is hard to find even a pulltab, last year I only found one gold ring and a silver medallion that was in chest deep water and had dig holes all around them. They were the only targets left on this particular hunt beside some modern change. I'm getting along in age (62) and think I will hang up my Tiger Shark, If interested, I can make yo a heck of a deal on mine.

 

[mudpuppy]

Thank you for your offer and input Randy! I'm thinking if I do go Teeboy, I would want to do my part to help the Co., pay my 'entrance fee' to this fine forum group so to speak.. buy a new rig straight from the factory and have Rusty autograph it...!

Like you said, we have a problem, or challenge to be dealt with strategically... heres mine:

Lake Mich water level quickly dropped 2' just a few years ago, as you can imagine, everyone with a coil including myself was finding old gold in waist deep water...then, just last year, all of a sudden, the Lake came back up 2'...completely unheard of depth change this fast!...anyway, what was once waist deep is now chin deep, and what was once chin deep is over the head...everything shallow has been severely picked by a lot of guys with top shelf gear, Excal 2's, CZ's etc. you name it, you see it out here...so no gold ring had a chance, but the gold chains were missed...So I was hunting chains with a bit of success...then the AtPros showed up en mass and all the gold chains as well as rings had no chance!....

So now I gotta dive I'm thinking....

We beat the beach pretty hard, lots of waders and beachsweepers...I kept track of miles in 2013, figured I walked over 100 miles on the sand in July alone swinging coil, barefoot, before sun-up!...its just a massive race up early and out....its a 'great day' if a guy finds a dollar in clad, a pair of matching flipflops, a towel, and a half dozen empty beer cans...

Plus, a lot of times the Big Lake is very rough and a guy cant wade, and last Summer in July the temps never broke 90 degrees, so the beach traffic was poor... I'm looking at adding another skillset to this Sport by scuba diving...and I really need it to be a profitable endeavor, which means a lot of gold and silver in as short a time as possible, with no primary gear breakdowns...it will be a huge commitment in time, effort and expense...so Its gotta pay, I need to find big chains or a lot of gold rings really fast...thats the plan and dream anyway! I need one massive $20k value ring to make it pay, or 100 mid size, or a bag of gold coins...none of which will be found on the beach I dont think...
Mud.

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[Hombre]

Hey Mud,

What about water clarity in lake Michigan? I though about diving with my TS but get claustrophobic if I can't see my hand in front of my face and all of the freshwater lakes in my area are murky and dark at depth. Oh what a joy it would be to treasure hunt in the Caribbean sea, I snorkeled there in the Bahamas and it was like diving into an aquarium.

 

[Rainyday101]

When I was ready for a water detector I spent a lot of time on Tnet reading and asking. I had very seriously considered an AT Pro (forgive me guys). I took the advice of Sandman on the Tnet forum which was to get a dedicated water detector and a dedicated land detector. This is a guy that has been scuba detecting for a long time, has tons of experience, and could have recommended any water detector (which he owns most of them) and he convinced me the Tiger was what I needed for the type of hunting I was going to be doing. I had read his post for a long time and trusted him because he has used and/or owns most of the water detectors made. In his opinion for freshwater hunting the Tiger performed better, was simple to operate, was cost effective, but most of all well built and durable. I jumped in and bought a Tiger and am glad I did. My friend tried mine one time and bought one the next week.

I have found that the AT Pro was a game changer for us water guys. By that I mean all these gold and coin rich beaches were suddenly being hunted out by every Yahoo and his brother with AT Pro's. Well not totally hunted out, more or less cherry picked. For some reason the AT guys seem to miss or leave nickels, which means they left the rings too. When I get to these hunted out spots all I seem to find is nickels. My guess is that they are display watching and think they are tabs. The Tiger Shark is a nickel magnet, and guess where them gold rings are?

When water hunting you have to have a different mindset and leave the land hunting mind set behind. The land hunting mind set would tell us we want a small coil for better separation. In the water you are in a dig all situation. That is dig all good signals above your disc. setting. That is why we have them big long handled scoops. If it sounds good, scoop and see. With that said I never set my disc any higher than about 2.5 on the setting scale. Now knowing you are after all the goodies and in a scoop all situation, the larger 10" coil give you more coverage and depth. To me this is part of leaving the land hunting mindset behind. The target separation on the 10" coil is still amazing. Again you are scooping a 8-10" swath of sand off the bottom so you are going to scoop anything that was below the coil. Now that's what I call target separation- you separate the targets in the scoop! While land hunting it is easy to overlap your passes and cover all the area you are hunting. In the water things change, there are waves, current, visibility and other things that make that overlapping of passes harder. Here a 10" coil gives you move coverage. And lets face it, who doesn't want a little more depth? This is why I choose the 10" coil. We all have different reasons and techniques but for me, I prefer the 10". The larger coil slices thru the water just fine with no real resistance and is not buoyant. I haven't had waves flop it around either. My wife once told me bigger is better.

The water truly is a beep/dig situation if you want to find the good stuff. If my target sounds clean from two directions I scoop. I also size the target up by sweeping over it to look for that small sweet spot that produces ear pleasing audio. If that sweet spot isn't coin size the target is bigger and usually larger junk. I usually scoop to have a look. Doing so I have found license plates, frying pans, and all other sorts of odd goodies. Sweeping from two directions to find the sweet spot is also how you pinpoint your target. When you have it so that you can barely move the coil right, left, front, or back about a half inch without gaining and loosing audio the target is dead center in the coil.

Okay so if you have been following what I said, so far the AT Pro can do everything our Tiger can (not as well in my opinion), but for some reason they leave the nickels behind, at least that has been my experience and I understand it could be newbies without much detecting experience. All of the rings I found last year were at belly button to nipple deep, which means the untouched golden goodies are a little deeper where people swim and the rings slide off. So now we need to go deeper and suddenly we find ourselves in a snorkel or scuba situation. This is where the game starts to really change. The AT can go under water, just don't go a little to far. What is too far? I don't know and the answer is probably gonna be one expensive lab test. With the Tiger there is no worry. The Tiger Shark has the average recreational diver covered depth wise.

Then there is the question of depth. How deep is that Tiger? First off I find that you can't really compare the disc settings on a Tiger to land Tesoro's. It seems that the disc is working more at say the first half to two thirds of the land detectors. To a land hunter this may be a disadvantage, but to us water hunters it is an advantage because we have finer control of the disc in the range that really matters for gold rings and chains. In my opinion when hunting with Tiger in all metal mode with slight background threshold, the Tiger is the deepest Tesoro made. It' actually more than an opinion for me. In my test garden I have pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters at 4,6,8,10, and 12 inches. In all metal mode the Tiger is the only detector that can get all the coins at 12". Not even my Tejon or friends F75 can do that. My friend is experienced with his F75 and has tried every setup he could to hit the coins. To make matters worse, this is a relatively fresh test garden (about 2.5 years old) where the soil was put back in the holes with the black dirt and clay all mixed together. That disturbed mix makes it hard on all the detectors for depth. My Tejon and buddies F75 can barely, and I mean barely hit the 8" coins in this mixed up soil mess. My friends AT struggles at the 6" coins. Bare in mind that in undisturbed soil all these detectors can and will hit deeper.

One thing I have head the Fisher guys say is that the Fisher has a separate compartment for the batteries keeping them isolated from the circuit board in case of water entering where as the Tiger does not. They are correct in that statement. The batteries if properly changed on the Tiger are no problem. It is simply a mater of cleaning and lubing the o-ring AND closing both latches evenly at the same time. Don't close one latch and then the other. It is simple to do and if done leaves no leakage problems. I have a friend who scuba dives with a 1280X. He has owned if for 12 years and finally last year sent it in to be tuned up. He does well with it and knows it's audio and settings inside out. It would be hard to say anything bad about a detector that has been that reliable. The 1280 and Tiger are comparable in price. My nod would go to the Tiger though because it has ground balance.

Sorry to ramble on. So I guess by now you know I like the Tiger Shark. Is it the best? In my situation for freshwater only I would say yes. I say this because in its price range for the features and performance it offers it would be hard to beat. The Excal has multi frequencies but that will cost you some cash to get them, and quite a bit more cash at that. The CZ21 is multi freak bullet proof detector that has been around for a while too, but again it will cost you quite a bit more cash. The At Pro works on land and water but has depth limitations and in my opinion is decent, but not as good as a dedicated water detector. The 1280 again is another bullet proof detector that has been around forever. If I didn't have a Tiger, the 1280 would be my second choice. I still think the Tiger has better depth (in all metal mode) and has ground balance, so the nod goes to the Tiger. Then there is also the Beach Hunter 300. This is also a multi freq for more dollars. I don't know anybody that uses this but have read it's drawbacks are that the coil is too buoyant and to adjust controls you have open the housing. On the Tiger all the needed controls are on the front face and can be adjusted while hunting in the water. I don't know enough about the Detector Pro products to comment good or bad. Bear in mind that these are my opinions only and for freshwater hunting. Not trying to start a detector war.

BOTTOM LINE- Mud it's time you tee up and buy a Tesoro! If you try a Tiger and don't like it, I will buy it from you at a fair price. No I am not kidding, I need a second Tiger!

 

[metalfun]

Good luck on your water venture Mudd.I picked up a used Tesoro Stingray at the end of last summer and I'm looking forward to using it this year.I just bought a new Vaquero from Rusty and he is super to deal with.And you will find great guys on this forum to give you lots of help.HH

 

[mudpuppy]

Hey Randy,!
The water clarity in the Big Lake has greatly improved in the past 20yrs by the introduction of zebra mussels!...Gin clear like the Carib sometimes, except about 50 degrees colder!.....Also, most large inland lakes with boat ramps got a good dose of zebra mussels that hitchhiked in on boat trailers and whatnot....crystal clear thanks to them!....

As far as detecting, I generally hunt blind, in the dark before sunup, with no light...I have never trusted my eyes anyway, they have had a propensity for getting me into trouble, especially when it comes to wimmen! So I figure even in zero vis, geezling around in heavy mud/weeds like a walrus rooting for clams in the cold utter darkness hunting by tones will not be a problem for me..I'm a long time old school trapper from the early 70's and I'm comfortable and feel safe in the dark with no light...

What might be one minor bummer to my whole 2015 strategy is, my Doctor told me I cannot 'dive' anymore on account of something to do with my ears, he did some surgery and all...says I may 'pass out' from the pressure change..but that was back in the early 2000's when he said that, I'm sure I'm healed up and fine by now, and feel strongly compelled to give it a go..starting shallow just to see if he was bullcrapping me or not....I had another doctor back in the mid 70's tell me I would 'never walk again' on account of I broke my neck pretty damnably my senior year of Highschool football back in 1976... (C4,5,6.. smashed them all up pretty good, and all those fragments grew back together as one solid bone) so I take what Doctors say with a grain or two of salt.

I know they mean well, but damn, how many years does a brother have to enjoy the fruits of this Planet with a bit of spryness and health? Time and gold wait for nobody!..Lots of folks never get any time, and a whole lot never get any gold, so I am thankful for the time and gold allotted to me thus far, but want to find just a bit more!..
Mud

 

[Hombre]

You sound like a youngster, what with all your playfulness and joy at clad stabbin in dangerous neighborHOODs, hunting in the dark and what not.

I'm 62 yrs old and work out at the gym three times a week so I will be able to do the things I like to do well up into my Eighties...LOL

 

[mudpuppy]

Thats a great write up Rainy! Thanks for the info also Metalfun!

A few years back, I bought a well worn CZ20, found a few gold rings, then, as the Big Lake warmed up and I took it just a tiny bit deeper, wading up to my chest/neck, it took a mighty crap, so I bit the bullet and sent it in and had it repaired/converted at some expense, then I sold it on the Forum and nearly broke even....It was a great rig, but I did not like the 4 9v's it consumed, and was of course sort of pist off about the whole deal with hunting time lost and all... The guy that bought it really scored though, basically a new CZ21 at half the retail price and with the chest mount gear...!

The 8 AA's the TigerShark eats is an issue...not a deal breaker though, I'm sure I can stuff the 'half deads' in my 70 and get a bit more mileage, that F70 runs on fumes!...Makes me all sorts of dirt money! Same as what I do now with the half deads from the AtPro....I stuff them in my F70 dirt broom and get another 10-15hrs easy out of them, racking up stinky amounts of clad and inland jewelry as you all know...I would like to keep everything simple with all my gear using the same batteries if possible, I know when it comes to gold hunting, 'batteries' are a minor thing, but still...I'm all about the ROI calculations...
Mud.

 

[JHM]

I just bought a tiger shark about a month ago. Built a straight shaft for it. Now its balanced. Looks like good depth and will knock out nails at 2.5 on the disc. It appears to be a good detector. I haven't had it in the water yet. I hope to have a good summer.

 

[2wheeldevil]

I have a question about the volume on the Tiger Shark. My ears aren't what they used to be. It doesn't look like there is a volume control on the Tiger.

Found my own answer. There are 3 settings on the Tiger that are inside the control box.
Vol. Control
Sens. Control
Threshold Control

 

[Rainyday101]

I have a question about the volume on the Tiger Shark. My ears aren't what they used to be. It doesn't look like there is a volume control on the Tiger.

Found my own answer. There are 3 settings on the Tiger that are inside the control box.
Vol. Control
Sens. Control
Threshold Control

I do not recommend messing with the sens. and threshold pots unless you know what you are doing. That is advice I have followed from an expert user. The volume though, crank it up if need be.

 

[Rainyday101]

I just bought a tiger shark about a month ago. Built a straight shaft for it. Now its balanced. Looks like good depth and will knock out nails at 2.5 on the disc. It appears to be a good detector. I haven't had it in the water yet. I hope to have a good summer.

Your gonna love that Tiger in the water. I am assuming we are talking freshwater. 2.5 on the disc is about as high as I ever go. There are a couple of areas I hunt with lots of small nails and 2.5 on the disc. knocks them right out.

 

[pulltaber]

Hey mud, I think gold chains is one the Tigers strongest points.In disc it will find any thing the ATP will find in disc.But when you hunt in al metal thats when things change in the Tigers favor, a thin gold chain may just have a slight rise in the threshold,its may not be enough gold to beeb but you will no that some thing is there.I had a ATP for two years found a lot of rings and chains but my Tiger and my old Stingray has found a lot more.I like hunting in the al metal with threshold if the water about half way up my thigh or deeper.If I hunt in disc I set it where a bobby pin starts to crackle no higher I have found a lot of chains that disc out at the bobby-pin setting.Good luck and happy hunting.

 

[JHM]

Yea, Im a long way from the coast. I'll post a pic of the shaft I make in a day or so. It really makes a difference. Plugger sells them that are good also. I think Tesoro would be wise to design a straight shaft for this detector. It would actually be cheaper that the one that comes with it but would be harder to ship.

 

[doc holiday]

Mud,don't tempt fate. Call the Dr. that told you NOT to dive and ask him his opinion of your planning to dive. Seriously we don't want any"for he WAS a jolly good fellow". Dig??