Pre Vaquero Purchase Questions...HELP!

[brevity]

Hello all. I'm looking for users of the Vaquero or those who can suggest other Tesoro products or other machines that would be considered intermediate to advanced machines for civil war relic/coin hunting. The two machines I'm looking at are the Nautilus DMC 2b and the Vaquero. I'm new to this whole thing, so your help is truly appreciated!

A local guy near my home is selling his Nautilus 2b for $300 and it's 9 years old. I can get the Vaquero new for $420 I believe. Anyone out there have any comments about this dilema? If the Nautilus is at a great price, is it worth buying the used one or are we talking about 2 different things here?

I don't want to be dissappointed with my purchase and am pretty keen on buying new. It would be great if some experienced users of the Vaquero could provide some feedback or suggest and alternate machine by Tesoro or another brand. I'd like to keep it less than $600, which is why the $300 offer for the used Nautilus is creating a dilema for me! Also, I'm new to this whole thing...as if you couldn't tell! Thanks guys!
Chris

 

[wolfchief@direcway.com]

Chris,

I have used just about all brands of detectors during the past 30 years (really some great machines out there now), and I primarily relic hunt. Relics are scarcer now but I chose to use the Tejon, Vaquero and Cibola. I am very pleased at what these machines do in this era of scarce relics. I found four eagle buttons and one Reb kepi button (average 7" deep) the first two hours with the Vaquero in a "hunted out" pasture behind my house...found three .69 Prussian minies and a .55 CS Shul minie during the next hour. The Vaquero will do for me what I want it to do...and that is find buttons at 8"+ easily and bullets at 15"+ easily. I get horseshoes at 24"+ with it. I prefer new detectors especially after the first 10 hours of operation. The three brothers (T,V,and C) will hold their own...look at what some of the boys in Texas are doing with the brothers.