Vaquero Question

[Brandon74]

I just got a Vaquero and have been hunting in my yard which is a 1918 California Bungalo. I've found tons of clad but just one older coin, a 1925 buffalo nickel. I've dug all the strong signals and am wondering if all the weak choppy signals are going to be the older coins. I have to believe there is some old stuff there I'm just not finding it. If anyone has any advice on what signals to dig and what to disregard please let me know. I'm using the 5.75" concentric coil and have the stock coil but haven't used it yet. Soil has a lot of minerals. Thanks

 

[joe dirt_1]

Brandon, best advice I can give you is to dig some of the iffy signals and see what they are. I got a new Vaquero a little over a month ago. I run my disc right around iron and when I get a good hit I turn my disc up until the target discs out to get some idea what type of target it is.
Make sure you get the ground balance set close and overlap your sweeps by 50 percent and hunt slow. The Vaquero will find coins if they are there. Try swinging the coil 90 degrees to the target and see if it sounds better. You have an excellent detector....just practice with it and the finds will come....HH.


Roger

 

[Ism]

Yes the iffy signals could be deep coins on the edge of detection.
One option is to super-tune over the target by turning up the threshold. Iffy signals will become clearer.
The other thing depending on the soil you are hunting is to crank up your sensitivity.into the red on a particular target to see if the signal gets clearer.
But the best way is to dig iffy signals, I have had deep silver and IH pennies behave in the way you describe.
In addition a coin with a nearby bad target can become an iffy signal.

 

[amcjavelin]

it like everyone is telling you you might be getting some deep but maybe on edge too and that would make it choppy also, i know with the stock coil 10" qaurters easy unless you got some nasty ground mineralization and that would limit your depth, but i know deep indian head pennies will give choppy signals and usually will disc out after the zinc range if its deep, good luck on your hunts and show us what you find!

 

[BJ in Okla.]

After you hunt the yard and get it cleaned out good with that 5.75" coil,, change over to the stock coil, being as you have never used it....
Also, don't sweep to fast....
HH...BJ

 

[locusman]

Brandon, yes, unfortunately, some of the choppy hits can easily be coins. The super tuning method does help to amplify target signals, but really cuts down your battery life by about 50% - at least in my experience. A lot of times, I will check a choppy hit by "thumbing" the disc control upward while checking the target to see where the target gets discriminated out. If the target goes out before the nickel range starts - often it's light foil, small can slaw or a pencil eraser. Of course, gold falls in this range too, so it's a trade off. Coins (other than nickels) usually will not be discriminated out even if you put the disc control up beyond pulltab or even into the alum screwcap range. If the target goes out right at nickel, most of the time it is a nickel. However, nickels sometimes can pick up as really choppy hits if they are deep and the "thumbing" technique sometimes will not give you a definite answer.

If a site has a lot of targets, often i will hunt it first with my disc set just below nickel and dig everything. After I feel I have exhausted all the targets and if the site seems like it is "worth it" in terms of finds, I will rehunt the same areas but now with the disc set down to about the iron level - this way I get the stuff I missed before. It's true, this technique is twice the amount of work, but seems to work quite well for me in terms of finds with the Vaquero. Make sure you hunt very slowly and overlap your sweeps quite a bit with the 5.75" coil - as you can easily miss a good target even if you are only an inch or two off of it.

As for the stock coil, I don't much care for it. The only place I like to use it is at the beach. Even though it gets better depth than the 5.75", I just have too much trouble separating targets and pinpointing with it, even if I use the pinpoint button. Without a handheld pinpointer, I end up digging much bigger holes whenever I use this coil to hunt land - and this really ticks me off. I personally prefer a concentric coil and am in the process of trying to buy either a 7" or 8" concentric coil (used) for the Vaquero, but so far have not seen any for sale on the forum.


Anyway, I hope this info helps you out.

Take care and happy hunting,

Mark

 

[Brandon74]

Thanks for all the info. I think I'll go over the yard again and start digging the weak signals. I also noticed a few big signals that seem to discriminate in the mid silver range that once dug seem to disappear. Has anyone else experienced this. I'm also in the market for a pinpointer so if anyone has an opinion on the best value pinpointer I'd be grateful. Thanks

 

[DetectorOCD]

Best value meaning "cheapest"? or best value meaning "best for the money"?

Cheapest: Harbor Freight pinpointer

Best for the money (and possibly best PERIOD): Garrett Pro Pointer.

I love my GPP and won't hunt without it. Good luck with that Vaq! It's next on my list

 

[cactusjack]

If you have not already seen them. 53silver has some good videos on using the Vaquero on You tube. just search on "Tesor Vaquero".
Enjoy! I have one and I have no desire to change.
regards