Vaquero or Eldorado Best for Mineralized Soil?

[StvS]

I thought I'd ask a previous question I posted a bit differently, in hopes of helping me make a decision. Firsthand experience with both units is greatly appreciated.

I have the opportunity to get a used Vaquero or Eldorado, each at roughly the same price(!). Assuming both units have 9x8 concentric coils on them, which unit tends to work better in wet sand (saltwater) or black sand (Colombia River beaches)?

Does one unit work markedly better over a wider range of mineralization than the other?

Most of my MDing with these units will be for hunting coins and jewelry.
In the real world, does the Vaq's 14 kHz vs. Eldorado 10 kHz make a difference?
Does the HOT circuit provide a real-world advantage over uMax in highly mineralized soil?

Finally do either the Vaq or the Eldorado stand above the other when using widescan search coils?


Lots of specific questions...thanks in advance!

 

[Minas man]

All great questions and I wish I could answer all of them as I have had a Vaquero for a year now and am looking to expand my hunting grounds. Nova Scotia is surrounded by mineralized soil, salted reclaimed dike lands and salt water beaches that send the Vaquero into fits unless I stay strictly on the dry sand or neutral soil. I like the Vaquaro and would sooner buy a widescan DD coil than get a new detector so what is the best DD widescan coil for me to bring detector into ground balance. Lots of good reports on the 5.75 widescan but what about the 8.5 widescan which is closest in size to the stock coil but in a DD widescan, anybody out there using 8.5 on Vaquero for soil conditions and wet salt.
I can hunt dry white sand beaches with stock coil.

The only answer that I can give you StvS is that Vaquero requires a change of the stock concentric coil to hunt in wet salt conditions, but to what size widescan DD coil that is the question I am searching for.

Minas man

 

[trueblue]

the Eldorado has true ED180 the Vaq doesnt , search the forum Monte has some posts that would suggest the Eldorado will handle Minerlization especialy black sand better than the V

 

[trueblue]

Heres a post from Monte that may help you decide

Del, I have personally owned three Vaqueros and probably 4 or 5 Eldorado's (

 

[StvS]

Ah, thanks - I saw this post but missed the "quoted" questions at the end and the response about the Eldorado excelling in nasty ground conditions over Tejons and Vaqs.

 

[johnnywayne]

I would take anything Monte says with a grain of salt. This guy does his best to trash the AT and then tries to make Teknetics seem like the greatest gift to mankind, anyone who makes it seem waterproof is a minor feature FAILS in my book.

Read his comical review on the AT and then look up some of his comments about how he would only take a Garrett if he had too, then notice how he will always make it seem like all companies (except Teknetics of course) use to make better machines but now they don't. Uuuh Huhh

His input is about useless in my opinion, ooh and watch how he changes his text font on his posts like his comments are soooooo important and a must read. UUhh huhh.

Too your question I get great depth with my El Dorado, but have also seen great depth with a Vaq. as well, with a hunting partner using one, soo either way your honestly going to come out ok, its not like your getting 10 inches with one and 2 inches with the other. Both are excellent detectors.

 

[davef99]

Vaquero because of its manual ground balance..

 

[Bobbylikesgold]

I would take anything Monte says with a grain of salt. This guy does his best to trash the AT and then tries to make Teknetics seem like the greatest gift to mankind, anyone who makes it seem waterproof is a minor feature FAILS in my book.

Read his comical review on the AT and then look up some of his comments about how he would only take a Garrett if he had too, then notice how he will always make it seem like all companies (except Teknetics of course) use to make better machines but now they don't. Uuuh Huhh

His input is about useless in my opinion, ooh and watch how he changes his text font on his posts like his comments are soooooo important and a must read. UUhh huhh.

Too your question I get great depth with my El Dorado, but have also seen great depth with a Vaq. as well, with a hunting partner using one, soo either way your honestly going to come out ok, its not like your getting 10 inches with one and 2 inches with the other. Both are excellent detectors.

Before you start bagging Monte , tell us your expertise background first ?

 

[Dang]

I would take anything Monte says with a grain of salt. This guy does his best to trash the AT and then tries to make Teknetics seem like the greatest gift to mankind, anyone who makes it seem waterproof is a minor feature FAILS in my book.

Read his comical review on the AT and then look up some of his comments about how he would only take a Garrett if he had too, then notice how he will always make it seem like all companies (except Teknetics of course) use to make better machines but now they don't. Uuuh Huhh

His input is about useless in my opinion, ooh and watch how he changes his text font on his posts like his comments are soooooo important and a must read. UUhh huhh.

Too your question I get great depth with my El Dorado, but have also seen great depth with a Vaq. as well, with a hunting partner using one, soo either way your honestly going to come out ok, its not like your getting 10 inches with one and 2 inches with the other. Both are excellent detectors.

Before you start bagging Monte , tell us your expertise background first ?

Monte knows his stuff johnnywayne. For a guy who's only been on the forum a few weeks you should keep your opinions about other members to yourself for awhile.
STVs!! Get yourself a Bandido 2

 

[comcat]

hiya guys,,i had a cibola which i did a g.b. conversion on ,,thanks to Sven Stau in Canada,,and that was a better 10 turn ground balance,,(can get the info from puddle pirate site),but the coil i used was the 12x10 d.d. a very sensitive coil indeed,,a couple of inches difference in performance depth from the stock 9x8,but extra stable on salt wet sand,,my machine was totally quiet,,only thing is it was slightly heavier than the stock coil,so me arm got tired quicker,but not much,,i suppose you can get the weight differences from tesoro .com,,but i totally loved it,,in fact am about to buy another,,brilliant machine with attitude,,,

 

[StvS]

HI All - thanks for your help - I settled on the Eldorado with 9x8 coil. I had a Vaq with 9x8 coil to do a side-by-side comparison. I tried both in my test garden (has crushed gravel surface with lots of magnetic particles in it, with a bed of red clay underneath it). The Eldorado seemed to have an edge over the Vaq in these conditions (Eldo reliably detected a clad dime at 6" deep; Vaq only did, if I swept the coil at a certain speed and from a certain direction). The Vaq came close to matching the Eldo when the Vaq was supertuned. Both were close to equal in All Metal, Eldo seemed to have a slight edge here too though. Mayve the Vaq is not calibrated optimally?

My Compadre with 5.75" coail and preset ground, struggled to detect the clad dime at 4" deep in the same test garden. I really like the 5.75" coil though. So, I realize for whatever MD's I have, I need have at least an adjustable ground balance - so I just got a second Eldo!

Now I can have different coils mounted on each - the 3x18 if fantastic for fields and beaches, and I love the discrimination of the 5.75" conc head for trashy areas.