I've never tried a DeLeon so I can't make specific comparisons to the Tejon, but I have, for the past year and a half, used a Fisher CZ and have a couple of thoughts regarding the Tejon vs. TID detectors in general.
I think that it boils down to how deep you need to go and how much pre-digging analysis you want to do. I originally chose a CZ because of its reputation for depth; it has its warts, I knew, but in my unstable soil depth is crucial.
I'm mostly a coinshooter and mostly detect newer sites such school yards, ball fields, parks, etc. These areas are generally pretty trash laden and even though the CZ has notch discrimination I still find myself digging a lot of trash due to mis-IDs. Predominant among the ID errors are pull-tabs that ID as nickels, and screw caps and iron that ID as "high coin." This is even true at shallower depths (i.e., <8") and only gets worse the deeper the target. Enter the Tejon...
About nine months ago, I bought a Tejon and it has served as my back up to the CZ until recently. During the nine months of ownership, I would periodically dig out the Tejon and use it, slowly learning its optimal settings and something about its acoustical language. Just recently, I had to send in my CZ for a tune-up and for the past six weeks have used my Tejon exclusively. And during this intense usage period, I have come to more fully learn the Tejon's language and to truly appreciate its capabilities.
I have found that although the CZ is an inch or two deeper in the all-metal mode compared to the Tejon, I am now more able to accurately ID a target and at a greater depth than I can with the CZ. This has resulted from careful field testing and thoughtful analysis of the auditory signals from the Tejon. Whereas it would be too lengthy to go into extreme detail, I can say that the Tejon, as is the case with Tesoros in general, has an exceedingly rich language. The most crucial aspects of its language are contained in the "b" and "p" of the "beep" that it produces. By careful analysis of these on/off transients (equivalent to the consonants in human speech), I can with greater confidence and accuracy ID targets than I can with my TID detector, especially those at the greater depths where errors begin increasing with most TID detectors.
Another huge advantage in my case is that screwcaps, the bane of coin shooters in this area because they tend to get lumped with high coins with many detectors, can be easily discrim'd out with the Tejon and still permit the clad, silver, and copper coins to come through...this is huge around here; I don't know if screwcaps signal "95" on the DeLeon or not but if they do, it's something to consider if your sites are newly trashy. Similarly, it is possible with the Tejon to set discrimination to sound different on nickels compared to pull-tabs; with my CZ confusion between the two is very common.
This post is getting long so I'll cut it here by saying that, in my case, if I'm a little on the mentally lazy side or am in a low-trash area, I generally grab the CZ because it's as deep as the Tejon and I don't really have to think much or dig much trash. On the other hand, if I'm mentally refreshed and hitting my usual fairly trashy sites, I'll now grab the Tejon and let my ears and brain do the "TID"...I dig far, far fewer holes and tend to come home with more good stuff.
One more thing to consider...if you do any beach hunting, the Tejon is "da bomb" on small gold in the dry sand, easily outperforming my CZ (which outperforms the Tejon in the wet sand).
Just my experiences, yours may differ...
HH...Thomas
