I need to buy a lighter detector and I am looking at the X-terra 50 and the Tejon...

[jbow]

I am in N. GA and I hunt mostly for relics. I only have one detector now it is a Soverign GT with a SR inline probe mounted to the side atop a Digimeter... it is a little heavy when I use the 10" coil and at my age it don't take long to start hurting me. So I want a lighter machine.

Does anyone know how the X-terra 50 stacks up against the Tesoro Tejon? A LOT of people around here use the Tejon for relic hunting but I am used to the Minelab. One the other hand I don't want to make a 600 dollar mistake.

Has anyone here used both the Tejon and the X-terra 50?

Thanks,

Julien

 

[BarnacleBill]

read my previous reviews of the Tejon:

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?17,64465,64465#msg-64465
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?17,64466,64466#msg-64466
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?17,64466,64487#msg-64487

If you would like the executive summary, put the 18.75 KHz coil on the X50 and you'll have the "modern version" of the Tejon.

1. You're not going to have to worry about putting O-rings under knobs.

2. You have tone and visual ID.

3. A vastly superior ground balance system.

4. The disc filtering, especially in iron, will mop the floor with the Tejon.

5. Between iron reject and nickel the disc range is terribly compressed on the Tejon, with very touchy resolution. I've said it once and I'll say it again,"Disc 1 on the Tejon should have been iron thru nickel over the full travel of the knob, and Disc 2 from nickel up thru silver over full travel of the knob". OK Tesoro you can send me a check now!

6. Both have an autotune Pinpoint system which I dislike to no end, but I do like the trigger switch on the Tejon better.

7. If you visit a saltwater beach on occasion, the X50 can adjusted to be much more stable.

Sad to say but this is like comparing a Sopwith Camel to an F-16. They both may be "fly by wire", but in the former's case it's bailing wire.

HH
BarnacleBill
Curmudgeon in Residence

 

[jbow]

So... you think the X-T is better, overall, than the Tejon?

J/K...

Thanks for your opinion. I was trying to find a reason to lean toward the X-T. You have helped me!

I'll go look now,

J

 

[jsamsky]

J-I reluctantly have to agree with Bill. Having been a Tesoro man for years, I purchased an X-50 last week and am very impressed. I pretty much hunt relics only. If the meter says 30, it is a bullet, period. Maybe not Civil War, but a bullet none the less. I really like the tones. I hunt in all-metal, and just listen to the tones before looking at the meter. With no experience on the machine, I ignore the iron tones, but some tell me I shouldn't. I think it's about as deep as the Tejon. The GB is great, and I re-GB often. Takes about 5 seconds. I like the pinpoint, even though I don't think you really need it. The depth meter is nice, and seems to be very accurate. The balance is good, but so is the Tejon. Hunted for about 20 hours over the weekend, and the battery indicator still reads full. Pretty good. The Tejon would be dead. Only 4 AA's, I like that. Only negative, I don't think the volume is great. Fine for me, but if I were hard of hearing, it might be difficult to hear. Now maybe if I had good headphones, not the Calrad $29 ones I'm using, I may be able to increase the volume. I considered getting another Tesoro, and a T-2, and having researched it for two weeks, I made a good decision with the X-Terra 50. Hope this helps a bit. John S.

 

[jbow]

Well... yes and no, as far as the help. Almost everyone say's to go with the Tejon. Frankly I have been hoping for more people to recommend the XT-50 over the Tejon because it's really the one I want but since I have not used either one I am trying to get all the input I can. I'll probably get the X-Terra 50. Does the XT-50 have the nice tones like the Quattro or the annoying tones like the Soverign?

Thanks,
J

 

[Rick(ND)]

The X-Terras have a tone all to its own, to me the Sovereign is music to my ears and the Quattro gives me a headache with so many tones, but that is me. With the X-Terra 50 you can have 4 completely different tones if you run with no disc, 3 if you reject iron. Some targets you may get 2 different tones depending on what the target is. With these tones you can swing the coil faster as when you go over a target you will know it.

 

[jsamsky]

You probably won't get more people to go with the X-Terra because the X-Terra has been out for a couple of months and the Tejon has been out for a couple of years. More Tejons on the market by far. Best advice-do your research, go with your gut, and don't look back.

 

[jbow]

n/t

 

[Daniel Tn]

I've owned 3 Tejons and currently have the X-Terra 50.

I live in Southeast Tenn and we hunt alot of the same kinda dirt as you guys in N GA and alot of times I do venture down to GA to dig. Here is the deal though.

Machines in the 14-19 khz level do really really good in sandy soils and in ground with not a lot of iron in them. The 15khz really adds more resolution to the lower conductive items. That is why you see alot of the guys being able to find the super small brass, and why they get excellant depth on nickels and such. BUT the trade off is that the higher conductive stuff...like coins and some bullets and buttons, you get less resolution to those items.

Machines with the lower khz levels, like 3-10 khz, really do well in mineralized sites and in sites with lots of iron. They are better at handling the iron by nature of the discrimination scale. They add more resolution to those mid-high conductive items but usually aren't as hot on items like gold, foil, aluminum, and small brass.

The trade off for us happens to be the bad dirt around here. All the machines will work here but it's a matter of which works the best that is the question. No doubt the Tejon works great or it wouldn't be on the market still. BUT the only people you ever hear of getting 12-15 inch bullets/buttons are in sandy soils. You don't and wont ever hear of anybody doing that in red clay with the same machines. As a matter of fact, I've owned several of the super detectors over the last few years and what I've found is what I have written about above.

Soooo all of that to say this.

Of the Tejon's I have owned, I had one really good one. I could get bullets and buttons down to 6-8 inches with it. And to get those you had to be right on the money on the ground balance and dig every pop and click it made or you'd walk right over the deeper stuff. It's just the nature of the operating frequency in the dirt here. But I'll say this. I've not had this X-Terra long and as a matter of fact, I got it for a backup for myself and a primary for my wife. BUT I have no doubt in my mind from what I have seen and personally dug, that here, that X-Terra is the better one.

That isn't going to hold true with everywhere you go but if you are dealing with the clay and rocky mountain dirt....in and around iron, the X-Terra is going to be a keeper to you. I went hunting today and my primary is a Whites DFX on 3khz single frequency. I hunted with it an hour or so and went to see how the X-Terra handled there and I never picked the DFX back up. I didn't find anything significant but I went right behind my buddy where he'd hunted last week and you could still see some evidence of his dig holes, and I dug several good hits that turned out to be brass 12 GA shells that were down there pretty good. Coulda been Cast I's ya know.

 

[Mike Bearden]

And that pretty much sums it up for me too.
See ya Saturday morning, maybe we'll get on some good ones
Mike

 

[RBnGA]

n/t

 

[John(Tx)]

The good thing about the XT50 is that if you want to go after the deep brass item or buttons, just get the 18.75khz coil and that should get them deeper than the 7.5khz will. HH John

 

[Daniel Tn]

Because I'm not really sure, I'll ask and see if anybody can confirm.

I'm speaking of the higher resolution per operating frequency.

On my DFX, when you run it in 15khz mode for jewelry hunting, it actually will give you a wider seperation of target ID numbers over the lower conductive scale. For example...in 3khz mode, the detector is overall less sensitive to those type objects. So it has a tendency to compress that part of the scale and the aluminum tabs, foil, rings, and nickels will be within a few ID numbers of one another. BUT when you go to the 15khz mode, it spaces out that part of the conductive scale. That means the detector allows you to ID foil from rings, nickels, and tabs that would normally be lumped together, but at this setting the tabs would read further up the scale than the foil and small rings. So you can get a more detailed "gold range" to start digging.

I was wondering if the same would hold true with the X-Terra and the two coils available for it. On lower conductive items, does the X-Terra seem to ID the small gold and tabs further apart in numbers than they do with the 7khz? Or does the circuitry compress that raw data and makes it read the same by "normalizing" it?

 

[Mike Bearden]

It will actually just the bump scale up a digit or two for the most part in my ground Daniel. However, the sens will need to be bumped down just a little for good stability but it's HOT on small lead and brass ... that's for sure
Mike

 

[jbow]

I tried out a Tejon for a few minutes today. I had several different targets to listen to and to me... they all sounded the same. I'm not sure I would like that. I am used to having some idea of what I am going to dig before I set the detector down since I am using a Soverign Gt with the 180 digimeter. I have the multi-tones and the digital ID and it is fairly accurate, very accurate actually. So... I am thinking more seriously about the X-Terra again. Dangit... I hate having to spend nearly 800 bucks for one though. Plus whatever I will spend on coils. If I buy an X-Terra what coil should I get for relics in our soil? Which coil for coins? Which for a Florida beach?
This too. How much do the X-Terra coils weigh? I know the detector is light but if most of the weight is in the coil it is still going to pull on you.
I appreciate your input and it helps me a lot.

Julien