Sven
Well-known member
Today was my first hunt with the all new Tesoro Mojave. Finally Tesoro is starting to give us a black color scheme for their detectors. Much better than the usual cowboy brown dirt colors.
Had to satisfy my curiosity regarding the Mojave, all the forums are alive with all sorts of wild reports about its performance. In my previous post after bench testing and my box-o-dirt testing, I came away being unimpressed. To me it seemed more or less just another regular Tesoro model with different colors and features. If your used to a higher end detector with bells and whistles, target ID etc., you probably won't be impressed either. I had to step back away from comparing to my other detectors such as those bells and whistle models. Realized this Mojave was meant to be more or less an entry level detector with two main control functions, sensitivity and discrimination. Then base my findings in that regard, do a real world hunt.
Started out late today about 2PM, had about 3 hours to hunt, wife said we have dinner plans with her folks. Did give me enough time to dig like a mad man, towards the end, started to feel a slight pain in my lower back. Sucks to get older..... Ended up going to a big schoolyard that usually has some neighborhood activity within the park portion. Hunted there many times. With all the rain we had, in many areas the water table was just an inch below the surface. My feet and knees were getting wet, pretty sloppy digging. Moved off to some higher ground that was nice to dig in.
Right off will let you know I had the Deteknix wireless headphones hooked into the Mojave. Had wired ones in the car in case....
The controls were set, sensitivity, varied between 5 and full. Disc was set at midway beween foil and lowest iron setting so I could find any Canadian clad on edge, which Tesoros are good at.
To help identify a target, I used the thumbing technique, raising the disc control to see where the target was disc'd out. Never used this technique before, with the control position where it is, it just seems natural to do.
Away I went swinging the coil back and forth across the schoolyard meandering about like a lost person. Dug just about every signal to get an idea what the Mojave was telling me. For the most part, was able to determine coins would give a nice solid tight target audio signal. Found about 5 coins that were right on edge, that's what I like. One thing that drove me nuts was the inability to pinpoint very well like you normally can with a concentric coil, this mostly happens went you located some other target than a coin. What happens is lag, you pass the coil over the target, you know where it is, pass the coil over again, it may see it or maybe see it with an audio report after you pass by it. Very similar to wireless headphones having lag. I bet this is similar to those who use a Garrett Ace 250. Wanted to say, it was headphone wireless lag. The Deteknix never had any lag on any other detector in my arsenal. Switching to the wired headphones confirmed it was the wireless with lag. Switched back to the wireless to be cable free. Bet this lag thing is also similar to the Minelab Quattro that folks disliked and complained about. The Mojave is a motion detector, it retunes a surface target faster than a target that is deeper, found I had to play with the sweep speed to get a good pinpoint. Would have been nice to have a non-motion pinpoint button, pinpointing would have been very precise. Kept looking for the pinpoint button, just wasn't there. That's my biggest gripe... using a concentric coil, then would want the precision pinpointing for which they are known for. It's totally possible the filters they use to keep this detector almost dead silent (sometimes didn't even think it was turned on), motioned based detector might be the cause. Don't know.
The Mojave did very well on Canadian clad coins, deepest coin was about 5" on edge, a penny. The dimes were iffy, you sensed they were something worth digging. Like some others said, it does like US nickels, likes the older and newer Canuck ones as well. The $1 and $2 coins, you just really disc out thumbing the disc control. If they were there, you got them.
Towards the end of my hunt, sort of noticed the Mojave is not a Compadre, not a Silver but something in between those two with something from the Cibola ( in disc mode) mixed in. Just can't put my finger on it. Allan Cannon at Tesoro said it was different.
Do I like the Mojave, yes and no. For $251US street price, only two basic control functions, it does make for a good general purpose clad hunter. Haven't found any gold or silver jewelry, can't comment on that aspect. Do I have the urgency to sell off the Mojave after using it a short time, like many? Nope. Going to hang on to it, think it has potential once you learn the single tone language. Have to put more time on it. It was peacefully quiet in operation, which did make it fun learning how to use it.
Had to satisfy my curiosity regarding the Mojave, all the forums are alive with all sorts of wild reports about its performance. In my previous post after bench testing and my box-o-dirt testing, I came away being unimpressed. To me it seemed more or less just another regular Tesoro model with different colors and features. If your used to a higher end detector with bells and whistles, target ID etc., you probably won't be impressed either. I had to step back away from comparing to my other detectors such as those bells and whistle models. Realized this Mojave was meant to be more or less an entry level detector with two main control functions, sensitivity and discrimination. Then base my findings in that regard, do a real world hunt.
Started out late today about 2PM, had about 3 hours to hunt, wife said we have dinner plans with her folks. Did give me enough time to dig like a mad man, towards the end, started to feel a slight pain in my lower back. Sucks to get older..... Ended up going to a big schoolyard that usually has some neighborhood activity within the park portion. Hunted there many times. With all the rain we had, in many areas the water table was just an inch below the surface. My feet and knees were getting wet, pretty sloppy digging. Moved off to some higher ground that was nice to dig in.
Right off will let you know I had the Deteknix wireless headphones hooked into the Mojave. Had wired ones in the car in case....
The controls were set, sensitivity, varied between 5 and full. Disc was set at midway beween foil and lowest iron setting so I could find any Canadian clad on edge, which Tesoros are good at.
To help identify a target, I used the thumbing technique, raising the disc control to see where the target was disc'd out. Never used this technique before, with the control position where it is, it just seems natural to do.
Away I went swinging the coil back and forth across the schoolyard meandering about like a lost person. Dug just about every signal to get an idea what the Mojave was telling me. For the most part, was able to determine coins would give a nice solid tight target audio signal. Found about 5 coins that were right on edge, that's what I like. One thing that drove me nuts was the inability to pinpoint very well like you normally can with a concentric coil, this mostly happens went you located some other target than a coin. What happens is lag, you pass the coil over the target, you know where it is, pass the coil over again, it may see it or maybe see it with an audio report after you pass by it. Very similar to wireless headphones having lag. I bet this is similar to those who use a Garrett Ace 250. Wanted to say, it was headphone wireless lag. The Deteknix never had any lag on any other detector in my arsenal. Switching to the wired headphones confirmed it was the wireless with lag. Switched back to the wireless to be cable free. Bet this lag thing is also similar to the Minelab Quattro that folks disliked and complained about. The Mojave is a motion detector, it retunes a surface target faster than a target that is deeper, found I had to play with the sweep speed to get a good pinpoint. Would have been nice to have a non-motion pinpoint button, pinpointing would have been very precise. Kept looking for the pinpoint button, just wasn't there. That's my biggest gripe... using a concentric coil, then would want the precision pinpointing for which they are known for. It's totally possible the filters they use to keep this detector almost dead silent (sometimes didn't even think it was turned on), motioned based detector might be the cause. Don't know.
The Mojave did very well on Canadian clad coins, deepest coin was about 5" on edge, a penny. The dimes were iffy, you sensed they were something worth digging. Like some others said, it does like US nickels, likes the older and newer Canuck ones as well. The $1 and $2 coins, you just really disc out thumbing the disc control. If they were there, you got them.
Towards the end of my hunt, sort of noticed the Mojave is not a Compadre, not a Silver but something in between those two with something from the Cibola ( in disc mode) mixed in. Just can't put my finger on it. Allan Cannon at Tesoro said it was different.
Do I like the Mojave, yes and no. For $251US street price, only two basic control functions, it does make for a good general purpose clad hunter. Haven't found any gold or silver jewelry, can't comment on that aspect. Do I have the urgency to sell off the Mojave after using it a short time, like many? Nope. Going to hang on to it, think it has potential once you learn the single tone language. Have to put more time on it. It was peacefully quiet in operation, which did make it fun learning how to use it.
and then we will await your next custom project which will also happen as well 
and thanks!
I have no idea why people want to run in to so much noise if the detector is not coping back it off a bit the boys at the club wont know if you don't tell them you weren't in the red zone 
