New Cibola user notes and questions

[muttandjeeps]

My son (13) and I have been Minelab X Terra (705/70) users for about three years, with very good results. I am "used to" the multiple tones, searching in all metal, and I think we have the machine pretty well figured out. I wanted a faster sweep, good depth machine for some larger areas we have planned for the spring. After a bunch of reading, I choose the high tone Cibola ( very mild ground here in central Mass)., this is my first Tesoro (thanks Larry at NWI). I opened the box and thought " wheres the rest of it?" Assembly was a snap, I read the manual and figured I'd get to some air testing this weekend, as we got another 6 inches of snow last night, today was the day. I printed up Sven's air test page and got to work. I did the test indoors, on a wooden table, took all types of objects ( coins,buttons, musket balls etc...) taped to plastic paint paddles and took notes. My results were the same as Svens at just audible TH, sen at 10, then again at MAX TH and MAX sens. All is well so far, but then it gets kinda weird: with the TH at audible, sens at MAX, my numbers went UP, 1-3 inches per item! Just a note: these results were based on items that I would dig with a consistant response, not just a faint beep. Can any of the Tesoro experts on the forum tell me what just happened? After spending the last week reading posts on this and other Tesoro forums, it seems like you are a nice bunch of folks who love their machines. As this is my first Tesoro, any input or advice would be welcome.
Thanks,
Kevin

 

[akille68]

Hello,
Greetings for Your purchase. Cibola is a real deep hunter.
Do not do indoor tests, cause sometimes results can be weird and uneralistic.
Good hunt!

 

[muttandjeeps]

Thanks for the reply, I understand that testing indoors is not optimal. I was more curious why I got the "benchmark" results at the stated settings, and better results with the settings I listed above,thanks.

 

[tvr]

Both on this forum and in the Modifications forum, there have been discussions about loss of iron discrimination while super tuned and that there may be a point of partial super tuning that gives good iron discrimination and a peak of depth. It kind of points to reaching a point where super tuning may saturate part of a circuit in ways that are not always beneficial.

Part of the discussions indicated that there may be a bit of variance detector to detector. You may have found your optimal setting with your Cibola but won't be able to check it out until you can try it hunting.

I found super tuning did give me better depth but that I got better overall hunting results when using a just audible threshold and running in discriminate mode. Probably due to two things, the loss of good discrimination on big iron when fully super tuned and that I like to size and get depth information with the pinpoint on most every target as well as getting that dead on dig point.

I run sensitivity as high as possible without obvious falsing. That usually puts me about 10 on sensitivity most places I hunt. I am mostly mild ground too. If you can run max sensitivity that would be terrific.

Run discrimination low, and over a target, thumb the discriminator to get an indication of what the target is; just remember to turn the discriminator back low before going for the next target.

Fun and light weight good performers. Going from multi-tone to a single tone may take a while to get an ear for what the single beep can tell you. It is expressive in a subtle way.
Enjoy your Cibola!
tvr

Edited to add P.S. You mention better speed; the Tesoro's in general do have pretty quick recovery speed, but I would not recommend trying to go too fast. Keep at a nice comfortable sweep.

 

[muttandjeeps]

tvr,
That's exactly what I was looking for, your explanation clears it up in my little brain !
I look forward to using the Cibola once the snow and cold is gone. The weight, balance and fast recovery, not to mention what looks like great depth, have me bummed that I have to wait at all. Thanks again for a spot on reply.

 

[Monkeywrangler22]

They're a nice machine. I love mine, and find fair bit of stuff with it. If I had better locations to hunt I would find more, but around here a lot of the old spots are thoroughly hunted out, and that leaves tot lots. It will take some time to get used to the single tone, but you can learn it's "voice" if you persist. I've had mine for about 2-3mo, and am getting a lot better at understanding what it is saying.