New Detector

[Barry C from mass]

I've been out of metal detecting for quite a few years now but looking to get back into it. Always liked Tesoro's and was thinking about getting a vaquero.Some reviews rate this as a great depth machine but others say it wont go below 5". Toss up between this and a AT pro. I'm looking for opinions that are honest about good and bad, not brand bashing. Still have a compadre but thinking I might make a water unit out of it. I'll mostly be doing coin hunting with some relic hunting since I live in the N.E.

 

[tabman]

I have a freshly buried dime and quarter. Each are buried at 5 inches and I can still get a good signal on both of them with the coil being swung 5 inches above the ground.

I can do that with the eight inch doughnut coil, the 9 x 8 inch concentric coil and the 9.5 x 5.5 inch Sharpshooter DD coil. The 5.75 concentric coil gets around 3 to 4 inches above the ground. I have very mild ground to detect in.

tabman

 

[jld66]

im up here in maine and i use a vaquero. being it is my first detector, i cant really actually compare it to another. i do hunt with a few others. one has a ace 350, the other, a bounty hunter 505 with a large coil on it. the discrimination seems to be more accurate on the vaq than either of those in a trashy spot. depth, seems that 505 and vaq is better than the ace 350. i did get a 1857 half dime at every bit of 7 inches with solid hits on it in hard dry soil. as you know, that is a small thin coin. most what i find is 6 inches or less. i have got horseshoes and an axehead that were really deep. anyhow, the vaq can go deeper than 5 inches on coins. some claims on depth i think are a bit carried away though. who knows. ive never got a quarter at 11-12 inches with it.

 

[Barry C from mass]

Thanks for the input. As we all know how finding depth is like how big the fish you caught stories go.

 

[RicS]

I've dug some really deep stuff with the Vaq, especially coins and buttons out of areas we thought were long 'dug out'. It's impressive and simple to use. I have others, even an analog VDI, but I prefer the Vaq even in areas that start getting a little trashy. For those areas, I switch to the 5.75" coil. Loose a little depth over the 9X8" concentric (about 1-2") but, pick up better disc between targets.

 

[tabman]

Thanks for the input. As we all know how finding depth is like how big the fish you caught stories go.

On one fishing trip a few years back me and a fishing buddy caught a little over 1200 hundred pounds of blue cats in just 3 days on the TN River in NE Alabama. One day we caught so many that we had strung on a 15 foot long rope stringer that we couldn't lift them into the boat, so when had to slowly drag them back to the dock and get help to get them out of the water. Honestly.

tabman

 

[Barry C from mass]

lol

 

[metalfun]

I've only had my Vaq since march of this year and only have 32 hours on it but it is the deepest machine I've ever used.Who ever said it would only go 5 inches on a dime lied to you.Its also the quietest machine I ever owned and the only machine I can run disc.in the red in most areas without chatter.Good luck on what ever you choose.HH

 

[Hightone]

I don't own a Vaq. But I have been looking into the differences between the Vaq and the Outlaw, watching video's, reading posts on another forum and here, and talking with a few friends that own one or the other. I kind of miss my Bandido II.

I have seen Vaq video's where coins can be heard at 10-11". When I tell my friend who has a Vaq, he says that some are sensitive and others aren't. He can't air test beyond 8-9". I have read others use that same depth as approximate deepest on coins. But the AT Pro isn't going to be any deeper. It has tones and visual ID though.

In the end, I decided to just get a Silver uMax soon. ID gets unreliable after 8" on any detector. It's a quantity/quality thing with me. Rather than spending time digging the deeper iffy's, I like digging the up to 8" good signals, leaving the deeper ones to the $1500 machines. I only do coins and jewelry. Relics are different, I'm sure.

 

[Barry C from mass]

Thanks alot!!! Now I have to toss the Outlaw into the mix. It reminds me alot of my old BanditoII. Any big differences beteen the Outlaw and Vaq? Do like I can get the outlaw with 3 coil option.

 

[jld66]

you have probably have already read and so have i that the vaq is deeper and the outlaw is better in iron nail trash. some love it, some do not. i just read better things about the vaq. that is made up my mind about it.

 

[amberjack]

i would say the V would be deeper than the O but they have both found gold for me and I don't want depth I want Tesoros ability to hit modern coins and gold/silver jewellery and they both do that well the V is a bit more sparkey than the O but they both work for what I want them for

I would guess the O would be better on old silver but that's a guess I use other machines for old stuff.

AJ

 

[Dirtdigger33]

Whatever you choose vaq or outlaw I think you are going to like it. I really enjoy my Bandido II Umax. Wish I had the means to try out the vaq. I have heard a lot of good things about it. The 3 coils option with the outlaw would be tempting except for the fact that I already have quite a few coils and two really nice Umax style detectors. If the outlaw is anything like the Bandido II Umax I can vouch for its abilities. I don't plan to ever part with mine if I can help it. If you look at Monte's list of detectors and tabman's list of detectors in their signatures (yes it takes a while to get through how many they have listed, lol), you will see they both own Bandido II Umax detectors. My point is people will get rid of other detectors, but you rarely see the Bandido II up for sale. If the outlaw is anything like the Bandido and you are not worried about digging deep go for the outlaw. I dig consistently targets at 5 inches or less, but mainly use a 7" wide scan or 7" concentric on the the Bandido II in mineralized soil. If you want greater depth. The vaq would be your choice. HH

 

[Barry C from mass]

Thanks for all the input. I had a Bandido II Umax detector with a wide sweep plus a couple of other coils and i'm sorry i got rid of them. Also sorry I got rid of my tiger shark. All I have left is a Compadre I had bought for my dad but since he passed last year I brought that home with me. Well going to beat my head against a wall and try to decide between a Vaq and the Outlaw

 

[Hightone]

The coil options are the big thing. Epsilon or Delta. If you hunt a lot with others or have a lot of EMI, the Vaq has different freq variations. The Outlaw has a flip switch to enter AM mode and retune. I'd rather have that myself, to enter AM from disc to check a target. To enter AM mode on the Vaq, you have to turn the disc knob to AM. The Vaq is 4 khz higher, but that doesn't really matter on the grand scale of things.

My choice between both is the Outlaw because of the AM/Disc switch to quickly check the size of a target rather than fiddling with turning the knob back and forth. If the Vaq is deeper than the Outlaw, it wouldn't be by much. And they both come stock with different coils, meaning if they both came stock with the same coil, they both could have the same depth.

 

[coinhunterseth]

Thanks for all the input. I had a Bandido II Umax detector with a wide sweep plus a couple of other coils and i'm sorry i got rid of them. Also sorry I got rid of my tiger shark. All I have left is a Compadre I had bought for my dad but since he passed last year I brought that home with me. Well going to beat my head against a wall and try to decide between a Vaq and the Outlaw

What!? no more AT Pro?

 

[Sven]

Thanks for all the input. I had a Bandido II Umax detector with a wide sweep plus a couple of other coils and i'm sorry i got rid of them. Also sorry I got rid of my tiger shark. All I have left is a Compadre I had bought for my dad but since he passed last year I brought that home with me. Well going to beat my head against a wall and try to decide between a Vaq and the Outlaw

What!? no more AT Pro?

Like most of us we suckered into trying other brand machines because of the forum hype etc.............but, always seem to come back and get another Tesoro.

 

[Barry C from mass]

I went and tried one and it's a nice detector but it also reminded me why I sold my Cortez I found that i relied on the screen more than I should

 

[Barry C from mass]

Thanks for all the help. I decided on the Outlaw. Reminds me of my old Bandido II µMAX which I loved.

 

[amberjack]

good choice

AJ