Need some opinions from those who know!

[darrenb]

Guys, I'm looking at buying a compadre, and am looking for some opinions on the unit. I am relatively new to metal detecting, and my main interest is coin shooting. I have several bounty hunter detectors, but have heard lots of good things about the little compadre. Are there different tones with the unit, or is it just beep and dig? I'm kinda spoiled by my landstar's readout, which tells me with fairly good accuracy what I'm about to dig, and roughly how much digging I am about to do. I hear that the compadre is a much deeper machine though, and provided that I'm not going to be digging up soup cans, I think I'm ready to go deeper. Also, would it be worth the extra money to step on up to the bandito II?
Thanks in advance for any information.

 

[digitaltim]

I've had a couple compadres.......it is a single tone, but the tone will sound different on various metals....ie. smoother on aluminum etc.
Just mentioning that, because I don;t think people realize a single tone can give a ton of info.
I think for the price its the best bang for the buck out there.
It was my favorite detector for all metal mode, because its super light and fast,,,,,
won;t be surprised if I pick up another some day....sold my last one to finance a cibola + mods and coils, which I believe to be a stronger machine, but its not nearly as light to swing........the cibola is light, but the compadre is a feather.
I wouldn;t expect much more depth with a compadre over your boutny Hunters.....compadre only has a 5" coil, or 7" for an older model.....I think the depth is adequate for most hunting, but if you find a good area, I'd go back with a deeper machine.

I haven't tried the bandito......no comment there, but your next step up in a new model would prob be the silver umax......which would give you more depth and coil options.

i'm sure others will chime in...

Seriously.you can;t go wrong with a Tesoro.... you;re stepping up

 

[tvr]

The Compadre is not known for being very deep but it does OK. I've found quarters in the wood chipped tot lots as deep as about 7 inches with the Compadre that I have.

It is a single beep, but the edges of the tone, smoothness or chirpiness all express information that you learn to read as you get familiar with it.

Instead of the display telling you what the detector thinks a target might be (like on the landstar) with the Compadre, you can use your thumb to gradually turn the discriminator knob to see where the target starts to be discriminated out. It is very repeatable on coins and, with practice, you can tell zinc pennies from copper ones and what other targets are likely to be coins. Once you know the depth range you are getting in the ground you are working you can get a good feeling of how deep a target is by slowly raising the coil as you sweep and see where the target disappears. Raising the coil also helps pin point more accurately as you see the target location narrow to the center of the coil. Don't really need an ID or depth meter if you use some different techniques with the Compadre.

One day I was a bit under the weather but wanted to get out, so I grabbed the Compadre (since it is so easy to swing) and went to the local play ground. Started walking, dug an unfired .22 bullet, a little junk, then hit that zinc penny reading. Dug it anyway and was pleased to be holding a pretty nice looking Indian Head Penny.

The discrimination on the Compadre is very clean. Once set to ignore iron, even very big iron is gone from detection. The same is not true with many higher performance detectors. It is a little gem of a detector; even though I would not say it is deep.

Since you are also asking about the Bandido II, while I like and am keeping the Compadre, I also have other detectors that have ground balance, sensitivity, threshold and discrimination adjustments that get most of the detecting time because they can be set to get the best use of the detector for the ground conditions. The Bandido II has those adjustments. There are a lot of detectors on the market that do. From Tesoro, the later Bandido's the Eldorado, the Vaquero, the Tejon all have the adjustabilty that I like to have available. None of those have a meter like the landstar.

While I do agree that it is hard to go wrong with one of the Tesoros, you also need to consider how much you will spend and what features are really important to you. I am kind of fond of the single tone "beep and dig" type of detector, but I do have a couple with meters too.
Cheers,
tvr

Oh; the Compadre Indian:

 

[darrenb]

It's starting to sound like I just need to order one, and put it to use. Most guys have a gold coin as their main goal. Mine is an indian head penny! (so much for aim high!) I had my best day hunting today, and did it by eliminating the iron signals, and let everything else through. I dug some trash, but of the 10 coins I dug, 4 were wheat. I'm sure location had more to do with it than anything else, but I dug signals that were supposed to be nickels or pull tabs, and came up with wheat. Starting to think I'm depending on the ID too much. No telling how many good coins I have passed up because the detector said it was trash. I have noticed that you don't see many used compadres on the market either... I guess for $150, it wouldn't matter anyway.
Thanks for the advice, guys! I'm joining the tesoro club.

 

[tab-nabit]

Many do not rely on the screen display - myself it's the audio, and I may use a display as secondary information but my decision to dig is by audio. I have both TID and non-TID machines, and it's always audio first for me. On some detectors, a deep target may get a decent audio response while the display may not. Look at it as two separate circuits.
As far as the Compadre, I find it a fun, effective, simplistic detector. It's hard not to like it. It is a beep and dig that just doesn't get much simpler. Although I have some high end detectors with the bells and whistles, I find I grab the Compadre more than I would have ever though. The same goes for the Silver uMax.
I can't see how one can go wrong on the Compare for it's price, and for a little more the Silver uMax is sweet also.
I use the 5.75 coil most times - the Compadre (new) comes hardwired with 5.75
In most places I detect, the Compadre's depth is plenty adequate.
Today I used the Silver uMax, and last hunt was the Compadre. They get as much if not more use than detectors costing over a grand. The single tone audio quality and simplistic operation makes such a fun little detector.

 

[digitaltim]

An old road....barely covered by debris...

Food for thought....Could have found them with any detector at that depth...
I also found my first silver about 1/4 mile away at the same site 6 inches down in the asphalt...with a sov elite.

 

[tvr]

Sounds like you are learning a couple of things now with the Landstar; discrimination eliminates good targets too and target ID is only and estimate.

Once you dig your first piece of gold, you will be realizing that gold is scattered from the low end of the foil range up through zinc penny range.

Around school yards, I will frequently dig a much bigger pile of trash than what I have for keepers. But that is how the gold charms, pendants and rings turn up too.

Better watch it or you too will soon have many detectors to choose from for a hunt. I'm now up to 8.
Cheers,
tvr

 

[silversmith]

Boy, you guys sure have low goals set. Mine is a Gold Nugget I CAN'T pick up, Yes sir. And do it with my "lil Compadre. Compadre's main problem is a hard wired coil. If you're handy with a solder iron, that's no problem. I used cheap C.B. mic plug parts on mine so I'd have a changeable coil. You need to go read Tabdog's Compadre finds. Compadre is a winner! Next post I'll give a url you can follow.

 

[silversmith]

Ok. Here's the url. You need to go there and thumb through "tabdog" 's old postings. He has great finds, super pics, and is very informative of his finds and mainly uses his Compadre.

http://www.treasurehunterforum.com/forum10/

Hope this helps. Good luck.

 

[darrenb]

Silversmith, I think you stumbled upon that top secret code that is blacked out by the forum! The link came through as just characters. I'm certainly interested in seeing the posts though.

 

[jabbo]

Try altering the link with a space or leave out dot com.

 

[tvr]

Can also search this Tesoro forum for author tabdog for all dates or just the last year. There are a lot of his posts in the history and a lot of where he is using the Compadre.

And if you do a web search with your favorite search engine, he is not hard to find.
tvr

 

[silversmith]

Try this:

treasurehunterforum(dot com)/forum10/

you'll have to change dot com to you know then look up tabdog's old postings.

 

[foiled again tab hunter]

n/t

 

[digitaltim]

n/t