old coins in trashy but mild soil = Outlaw/Tejon/Vaq?

[mojotrout]

What machine and what coil would you prefer to hunt old coins in trashy urban areas with fairly mild soil?

I did some research on this but didnt really find a lot of educated opinions or explanations of why one over the other. There's the H.O.T vs. Umax thing, the differences in Discs, operating freqs, and the coil choices, etc. I would like some help sorting it all out before deciding on my next detector purchase.

I own an Outlaw but have read many accounts of the other two machines going much deeper (3+ inches in some cases). But do they separate better? recovery speed? Effects of EMI? how about ease of use and ease of learning their "language"? Would either of the other two be a good compliment or would they be better as a replacement?

Any thoughts on the matter would be welcomed!

 

[Rainyday101]

Good question mojotrout. I would also like to here some opinions on those questions so I can eventually figure out my next land detector also. Depth is important to me as I find 60's coins plenty deep and the older are probably deeper yet. Most important though is target separation and recovery speed for trashy areas. Depth is good but without fast target recovery and good seperation depth will do me no good. My silver umax excels at separation and recovery, but I want antother detector with depth. My hunch is all the umax series are great on recovery and separation. The Outlaw is tempting, but I wonder if I would be spending a lot of money and not make decent gains in depth. The Tejon is appealing but I wonder about the higher freq. on silver coins. The Vaquero is an option with a little lower freq. And then there is the Cibola that I could always do the ground balance mod on down the road. I hear the modded Cibola is unreal. I know about the warranty being void so I would buy one used. My soil is really mild and on land my main target is coins with silver being the preference.

 

[mojotrout]

Hey Rainy, when I tested the Outlaw and Silver uMax on a freshly buried dime, both hit it at about 5 inches (Interstingly, I just checked the Outlaw again just yesterday and it picked it up a 7 inches. Thats after only a few months in the often-watered lawn). So Im thinking the Outlaw wont give you too much more depth in your mild soil (mine is quite mild too). I should start considering the Cibola too...

Im hoping Tejon/Vaq users can give us a sense of how those recover and deal with masking. I, like you, think I need to get deeper in my grounds. My relatively small community/area has been hit very hard for a very long time and methinks only the deep and masked silver remains.

 

[joe dirt_1]

I can vouch for the Vaquero and Tejon as being kick ass detectors. In a trashy area the 5.75" coil would be my choice of coils for both detectors, and they are as deep as the stock coil.
You have to slow down and overlap your sweeps with the small coil, but that makes you more thorough in your search for good targets hiding in the trash.

The stock coil on both detectors gives great depth and separates targets close to trash very well with excellent recovery speed.
It seems the Vaquero super tuned is more prone to rusty iron giving a good signal, but the Tejon gets fooled sometimes also.

I have more experience with my Vaquero and it works very well in the farm fields that had old home sites on them. It is very sensitive to tiny targets down deep and hits them hard.
My experience with the Tejon is about 4 hours hunting time since I just recently got it. I hunted an old picnic grounds this afternoon that I have hunted hard for over 25 years and the
Tejon found a 1912 V nickel and a 1925 wheat cent in an area I have pounded hard with several Fisher 1200 series detectors, my V, and at least 4 Fisher CZ's. both coins were close to 8 inches deep and the Tejon had no trouble at all finding them.
You won't go wrong with either machine, they will do great on relics and coins both. If I have to pick one detector over the other it would be the Tejon for sure. The variable tone control and twin disc on the Tejon are nice features and it feels like it
balances better with the battery packs in the arm cuff..............HH

Roger

 

[Rainyday101]

Mojotrout, I have read several places that the Cibola has been deeper than the Vaq., and modded with ground balance is really deep. Of course in the unmodded stock version, the right mild soil conditions would need to exist for this happen. When I read these reports I have no idea how well the tester ground balanced the Vaq. or if both machines were set the same. With my Silver I gave up on my big test garden for now. I have pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters at 4,6,8,10, and 12 inches. The garden has been in since last november and I can get all 4 inch targets but 6 inch is iffy at best, yet out in the parks I have dug 6-7 inch wheaties. I know it will take some time for the ground matrix to re-establish. From what I have read when dug up you mix up the plus and minus linearity of the particles and in undisterbed ground that particle alignment makes the dirt a much better medium to transmit and recieve a VLF signal through. With particle linearity all mixed up from fresh digging the dirt is serveral different mediums that are not optimum for transmitting and recieving a signal through, hence the lack of depth in fresh test gardens. You are right on the outlaw, if I spend the money I still want the excellent separation and recovery but want enough depth gain to justify the expense. I like the umax's sweet tone that speaks volumes to me.

Joe Dirt 1, thanks for the excellent input on both the Vaq and Tejon. Great input like that just makes the decision process harder! It has become quite clear there is no one perfect detector!

Mojotrout, I aplologize as I do not mean to hijack your great thread. I am just pondering the same questions you are.

 

[mojotrout]

Hijack away Rainy, we're both seeking the same info! Thx for the input Joe_dirt. I was under the impression that the Tejon got fooled by iron more often than the Vaq, but perhaps that is not the case.

Rainy, it was my undrestanding the the Cibola is a Vaq in all ways other than a manual GB and different color stickers. If so, i wonder why the moded Cibola would be deeper. It sure would save some money getting a Cibola! Im pretty sure I still want maunal GB, even wth my mild soil. Im looking for added depth, so it makes no sense to go to a pre-set GB no matter what the soil conidtions. The Mod option is appealing...

The fact is that my Outlaw does not go noticably deeper than my Silver in most cases (http://www.findmall.com/read.php?17,1909491,page=1). I also dont notice any difference in their Disc sensitivity (although I might just be too green to notice this). If the Vaq or Tejon (or moded Cibola) can go deeper, without losing the separation/recovery of the Outlaw/Silver, Id like to hear about it!

 

[joe dirt_1]

The Vaquero and Tejon are the deepest Tesoro detectors period. I also owned a Cibola a few years ago and it is an ok detector.
But if you want depth, then get the Tejon. When you see what it is capable of doing you will wonder why you didn't get one sooner.
It is a very impressive detector with much more adjustment capabilities then the Vaquero. I'm keeping my Vaquero also, but don't expect it is going to be used very often after using my Tejon.
Ask some other Tejon owners how they like their machines....I think they will agree it's a beast of a detector............good luck and HH

Roger

 

[Rainyday101]

Mojotrout, I have heard the Cibola is a Vaq without ground balance but also has a different micro-processor program.

I understand the Tejon is a depth monster, but how does it hit on deep silver with the higher frequency? That is my biggest concern.

 

[JJdigs]

I have had the compadre,silver,cibola,vaquero,and tejon......I loved the cibola and found it to be pretty deep, and has a very nice tone. I found that the vaquero was much deeper then the cibola but It did not have as nice of a tone as the cibola, the vaquero had a sharper bite in the tone. I must of had a weak tejon because I was not getting very good depth out of it.....I may buy another tejon down the road. But the vaquero Is my favorite, Its deep and only takes one 9 volt, unlike the tejon with takes a bunch of AA. The higher freq of the tejon with still hit hard on silver from what I have read so I would not worry about it not be able to hit deep silver

 

[mojotrout]

Thanks JJDigs, great info! I did see there was a bit of a weight difference too--likely due to those batteries.