Thinking of an upgrade (?)

[homebre]

I thought I would opinions on a possible upgrade to my Vaquero. I like the Vaquero a lot, been using it for about 3 or 4 years, but I am getting older (66 years old) and do not like digging so much junk and I want a light machines. If I turn the DISC up past iron and below nickel, I still get a lot of large iron, large aluminium, and other junk. I use the 5 3/4 coil and the 8x9 stock coil. mostly the latter. I hunt for jewelry, coins, and relics in fields, woods, parks, schools, and churches. I live in central NC where the soil isn't heavily mineralized, but has a lot of red iron clay along with neutral black sandy areas, and loam, so it can be highly variable. I do not hunt nuggets or go under water for detecting. Some of the friends I hunt with do much better than I do with $1000 plus machines (Etrac, CTX 3030, XP Deux). ( I do not want to spend that much.. I was hoping the Calzador would come out and be a tonal machine with a decent ID screen, but my patience is wearing thin. I definitely want a tonal machine though. Given the above information, I wonder if the racer would be a significant upgrade from the VAQ but be tonal and in my price range. Thanks for any input.

Andy from Hillsborough

 

[undrpar]

Ive had the deus and the etrac and sold both..i prefer the racer..it's super fast,light,great tones and accurate id..the deus was nice but id was not good, etrac was very accurate and deep. , but heavy and slow!! Jmho.the racers audio is very telling,if it's a solid tone and repeatable it's usually a good target,if you hear a nice hightone with a little buzz it's almost always junk..after using mine for a while i dig hardly any junk at all...i too hunt parks and schools mostly..i also avoid 82 vdi because it's almost always junk or a zinc penny..if i'm at an old homesite than i'll dig 82 and everything else..

 

[TabWhisperer]

If you like to use notch filtering and want real deep accurate TID the Racer isn't for you. It's TID is real good but not as deep as a CTX. On targets down to about 5-6 inches it is pretty acurate and locks on very well. The blended audio in my opinion is just superb. I use my ears for discrimination like never before. I can set the disc at about 23 to knock out the nails. I like to use the 3 tone mode. That is about it for my setup. Super simple, lightweight, extremely fast resposne. The small coil has the potential to open hunted trashy areas. It does not save settings on power off but it's no big deal to me. You may hear about the overload tones. They are weird but I rarely hear them and it is simple to deal with it just by lifting the coil a few inches. If you get serious about buying one consider the Pro Pack since it is such a great deal. Remember to get an extra rod. I wish all companies would put the extra rods in kits with multiple coils. Also if you get a used unit the warranty is transferrable. The Nokta Fors CoRe is almost the same machine in a different package so you even get a choice of ergonomics. Not too shabby. Search for posts by Monte. He has some real in depth analysis of the features and operations and he tells it like it is. No sugar coating.

 

[Bryan V]

Once you get to know your Racer you will be able to detect without digging hardly any trash.
You have to put your time in digging all the different IDs at first to learn it, but once you learn it you can really
Cherry Pick if you want.
I don't know if the Racer is any deeper than your Vaquero. I'm actually thinking about buying one.
Not to replace the Racer but to just have a simple detector to leave in the truck with no worries.

The 2 tone is noticeably deeper than the 3 tone and it locks on coins hard.
It's also real sensitive to gold.
Like TabWhisperer said its not as accurate on deep coins like the CTX But from the short time I have owned my CTX I think
the Racer is better at handling iron and Its a great detector to complement the CTX.
It's real fast and does not false on nails like the Fishers and CTX.
I have dug a lot of coins with nails in the hole with them.

Some sites with lots of aluminum can be a pain for the Racer.
Flat screw caps and tight wads of aluminum tend to fool it.

 

[homebre]

Thanks. That is a problem in that there is a lot of aluminium slaw and caps in many areas. Would you have any idea how deep it would go on a minnieball?
Thanks

 

[Bryan V]

Thanks. That is a problem in that there is a lot of aluminium slaw and caps in many areas. Would you have any idea how deep it would go on a minnieball?
Thanks

Im not a relic hunter so I'm not sure. I hunt coins and jewelry.

 

[TabWhisperer]

For help with can slaw and foil I use the edge pass rejection method that Monte figured out years ago. It works with every detector I've owned. On an iffy target just swing the coil and walk it forward or backward off the target to where it just can't be detected. You should see and hear a difference where good targets will hold pretty steady and junk will jump all over around the first inch or so of the coil edge.