Vaquero technique and settings help Please!

[Dtektor]

Hello All You Tesoro Freaks!!

I have been hunting with my Tesoro Vaquero since October 2012 and have loved every minute of my time in the field with it. Now I want to take my Vaq to the next step so to speak. I started using the Vaq with the video teachings of 53silver as I am sure many of us have. Great videos and they helped me get my feet wet (and muddy sometimes!). Now I want to hear from some more veteran Vaq users about their techniques and settings.

Basically I have been setting the Sens at about 8-9, hunt in Disc mode with setting on mark closest to Nickel, and of course ground balancing at each new site or when I think the machine is getting a bit jumpy. I have found many coins and tons of iron junk even though I thought I had it disc'd out. I have learned however what iron sounds like so I dig it because I'm becoming more interested in relics and such. When I get a decent signal I "thumb" the disc knob upward until the signal stops then back it down again until I can hear it again.

So, I would like to hear from other Vaq users what their favorite settings are and why. I hunt in eastern NC and I have developed a good relationship with my farmer neighbors and other land owners so I have a backlog of sites to get to this season.

Thanks All!

 

[REVIER]

I used to hunt with that knob just below nickel because I read that is where gold rings come in.
One day I read a post from someone that stated the best thing he ever found was at foil and that affected me deeply so I changed and lowered that knob down to just below the foil line and found more trash, but also started to find more great treasure.
Since that time I have found probably at least 6 smaller gold rings and some silver chains at or near that foil setting among other great targets.

About 6 months after that I bought a Compadre and hunted with that knob a little below iron, sometimes in all metal, found more trash, (like a million tiny fricken pieces of foil and can slaw), but also ran across a few more great targets like more foil gold rings and a tiny, thin silver bracelet.
At the R in iron that chain, (or the clasp), it was there...at the O it was gone.
That changed me again and I started to hunt with my Vaq pretty much the same way.

I also found out for me that by going past the target till it fades out and then back down is a better way to figure out trash from treasure as I listen to how that target comes in.
Objects that come in clean with no crackles, spits, pops scratches or clicks I always dig.
Most good targets have come in this way for me, while most trash will not come in so clean with sometimes a lot of noise before that signal firms up, sometimes a little noise, sometimes just a few clicks.
Usually if the tone still sounds good and solid with some clicks I turn 180 degrees and hit it from another angle.
If the signal is not the same or comes in lower or different I might don't dig these, but sometimes I do dig the ones with the same signal and even a few clicks that hit from the other angle if the tone is loud, clear and full..

These rules are not in stone,
Some trash will come in clean like most coins, a few good targets might come in a little dirty, nickels seem to be this way, sometimes, but for the most part I have checked so many signals out and dug them including trash that I have confidence this is the way it is most of the time.

Big iron will usually have a very smooth sound and could be large but you can tell if you paint the areas with the pinpoint button or you keep getting the same tone in disc swinging over a large area.

The Compadre has a true 180ED circuit, it will find ALL metal including all the way down to all iron with the disc knob at the lowest level.
The Vaq is supposed to be the same but it is not in disc.
There is a section at the low end of iron that will not show up on the VAQ with the knob at the lowest area in disc, (it is more like 165ED), but it will pick up everything in all metal and you can hear the change in the threshold tone small as it might be on something small or deep.

My settings are usually at 10 on the sense or more if I don't get any chatter at even higher levels, the threshold is usually at 3:00 to supertune.
Lately I have been turning that thresh knob past that 3:00 position and signals do seem to be a bit louder, but I am still not sure if this is just a waste of power and that 3:00 position might be as far as I need to go.
The disc knob never goes above the mark at foil, usually it is set just below that mark or lower into mid iron if there is not a ton of iron at the site I am hunting.

I have played around with Monte's power balancing technique and in heavy mineralization it does seem to pick up some deeper targets in disc, or at least make some deeper targets a little clearer, but in good dirt this does not seem to have much impact.
Tesoro believes these settings are incorrect and won't work and you will miss deep silver because the unit will be still too negative, but others seem to have the opposite opinion that have experimented with these settings.

I love hunting with the Vaq and my 10X12 DD coil when I am trying to cover large, wide open areas.
I HATE the fact that high end pop tops no longer disc out using this coil most of the time...something that you can usually do with the concentrics.

I just recently started using a 5.75" concentric coil and I am absolutely in love with this thing.
Not only can it snake in between trash and find and identify targets next to each other at some extremely trashy sites that I tend to hunt, but the depth is amazing.
I am finding targets at a good 8" and sometimes a little more in the field, I believe it can find coin sized objects a few inches deeper and I am looking forward to experiencing that.
Some targets I have found recently were so deep, (probably iron), that I was already super deep like 10-12" and still had way more to go, but on those I just gave up.

 

[REVIER]

By the way...
I also have an F2 with a screen and got pretty good hunting with that.
I also have an itch to get into a high end detector with a screen like an F75 because I have learned so much of the Fisher language using that F2 and have found some fantastic treasure with it even though it is only supposed to be a "starter" unit.
However, I also love hunting with my Compadre and that Vaq and I definitely do consider myself a dyed-in-the-wool, card carrying absolute Tesoro freak.

 

[Dtektor]

Thanks Reiver! It seems that I definitely need to get out more often with my Vaq!! I need to get out more often... period. The 5.75 coil is my next purchase and they have them for $110 at Kellyco.

 

[REVIER]

I don't think you will regret it...I never will.
After mounting this I am using my Vaq much more now, a little because I am experimenting with it vs my F2 and sniper coil, and also because this thing seems to go so deep and that is fun digging deeper holes than I usually do and actually finding targets down there.
Some like the small DD sniper coil on their Tesoros instead, but that bottle cap thing really bugs me, and I can't imagine how much better that one can possibly be at target separation than my concentric which is just remarkable in this area.

My new coil also seems to be extremely sensitive and very lucky.
In the last 2 weeks since I got mine it found me a very small gold ring in a huge field area so large that I had no business hunting it with that small coil, and just a few days ago a I had a loud and clear signal on a tiny silver ring at a site that I had hunted previously by gridding and using 3 different detectors and a couple of different coils and missed every time.

 

[TabMagnet]

Great info... thanks for posting, REVIER. Will remember this for sure.

 

[hatpin]

I have my Vaq for a year and a half. Its an easy machine to adjust and experiment with. This has become my default setting. Sensitivity at 10. Disc first mark past iron.Threshold at about the two oclock position. Then I make adjustments from there as needed. For instance , if Im in an area with rusty cans I turn the threshold down till where it barely hums in all metal. That way I can push the pinpoint button and here those cans high piercing scream.

 

[atomicscott]

Hello All You Tesoro Freaks!!

I have been hunting with my Tesoro Vaquero since October 2012 and have loved every minute of my time in the field with it. Now I want to take my Vaq to the next step so to speak. I started using the Vaq with the video teachings of 53silver as I am sure many of us have. Great videos and they helped me get my feet wet (and muddy sometimes!). Now I want to hear from some more veteran Vaq users about their techniques and settings.

Basically I have been setting the Sens at about 8-9, hunt in Disc mode with setting on mark closest to Nickel, and of course ground balancing at each new site or when I think the machine is getting a bit jumpy. I have found many coins and tons of iron junk even though I thought I had it disc'd out. I have learned however what iron sounds like so I dig it because I'm becoming more interested in relics and such. When I get a decent signal I "thumb" the disc knob upward until the signal stops then back it down again until I can hear it again.

So, I would like to hear from other Vaq users what their favorite settings are and why. I hunt in eastern NC and I have developed a good relationship with my farmer neighbors and other land owners so I have a backlog of sites to get to this season.

Thanks All!

Why do people not believe me when I tell them this? I had the same problem with not disc'ing out iron. Nice solid hit, thumb the disc, it's a quarter! Not! Just a rusty bolt. Wait...here's a dime. Nope, just some rusty iron junk! My disc was so inaccurate, that I never really knew what was under the coil unless dug it! This became very annoying to me and made detecting frustrating instead of fun. I sent it back to Tesoro, and Rusty re-tuned the coil and said the machine was working fine. I will never purchase another Vaquero for this reason. My Minelab Xterra very rarely fools me with iron, and I can run all metal and still have ID#s and 19 ID tones. The Compadre disc was MUCH better at disc'ing iron and more accurate as well. .

 

[ken ward]

The only other thing that I would do is try the 5 3/4 " concentric coil. I tried it about 2 years ago and haven't taken it off yet. It is about as deep as the stock coil. A little lighter in weight. Great in trashy spots. Makes it like a new detector. ... KEN

 

[tabman]

Revier is right. Keep the discrimination set low on the Vaquero if you're looking for small gold jewelry and silver chains. I keep mine set just a hair above the first mark that's is directly above 'iron'.

tabman

 

[Arkansas]

Revier, thanks for the very useable advise.