Vaquero vs. AT PRO

[ken ward]

In the last two days a friend of mine and I hunted a site where they took out five homes. It floods in this area. He was using his AT PRO.. I used my Tesoro Vaquero. WE both used stock coils.
We walked close to each other so we could compare what we found. When I got what I think is a good signal, I would have him check it to. Deepht wise we both done very good. The deepest coin was only around 8" .. WE both had no trouble hitting it. We did find a lot of trash. We would each check the signal. We would both say it was not a coin. I would try to rase my coil to get an idea on the deepth. He would check with his pro to see how deep it was. My guess was close.. He did have one signal that was deep. He said coin.. I could get a beep, but not the best signal. I tried different directions. I said that I would have went on. IT was a 1901 Indian. He thinks it was a little iffy too. I am glad he dug it. WE hunt together a lot. We have tried this kind of testing many times. He only has one year on his PRO. I have many years on my Tesoros. I still think that if your coil goes over the target it will beep. I dont think I will sell my Tesoros and get a PRO.. He will not sell his PRO and get a Tesoro.. WE also try recovery speeds. I use a nail and a silver dime.. My Tesoro will beet his Pro .. THe dime and nail are about one inch apart.. Either way,, We both have fun and find coins... KEN. IND

 

[dan b]

Not me. I don't waste time thumbing the knob. If the signal is smooth I just get to digging right away. The best target ID is my eyes. While the AT user is looking at his numbers and trying to make a call on whether to dig or not, I will have my target in my hand and on to the next. I regularily dig close to 100 coins in a 3 hour outing.

Dan

 

[John (Ma)]

I like Ken's comparison, the only way to really know is hit the same target and each detector operator "must" know their detector. Excellent comparison, Ken, I think it truely comes down to knowing your detector and having fun with that detector which this hobby is supposed to be about, not the bragging. Learn your detecor and have fun!

 

[MichiganJason]

The audio is so good on the At Pro. I learned that the hard way. I was using the Vaquero and my brother was using the at. You know you have a coin with the at pro so its easy to just hurry along and dig the high coin signals quickly. I hunt with a few guys at a time usually and people with tone I'd, or screen can discover coins quicker than a beep and dig.

 

[HaroldILL.]

Forget them both and get an E-trac and you will whip him and anybody else's but on relics or coin's!

 

[Neil]

Not me. I don't waste time thumbing the knob. If the signal is smooth I just get to digging right away. The best target ID is my eyes. While the AT user is looking at his numbers and trying to make a call on whether to dig or not, I will have my target in my hand and on to the next. I regularily dig close to 100 coins in a 3 hour outing.

Dan

Now that's really moving for 3 hours. That's under 2mins to locate/dig/refill your hole on each coin plus allowing for junk targets that do sound like coins(they have to account for some of that time). I wish I could move like that/have that much energy.

 

[REVIER]

My club had a special hunt last October on a private estate a few acres large that has history going back to the civil war days and before.
Nobody hunts this place...nobody, totally historical so this was a privilege.
http://www.bwestate.org/gcbingham.asp

I think dirt had been moved around the place at ones time or another, we have about 60 members in our club and it seemed like most came out for this special meeting.

Of course all kinds of detectors out there, CTX's, Minelabs, White's, Garretts and whatever else.
I believe I was the only one with a Tesoro, a Vaquero, anyway, and the 10X12 DD coil came along for the ride.

Nowadays this place is not only a museum but used as a place for weddings and such so there is trash both modern and old all over.

We wanted to present a display of some of the finds to the historical society as a thank you so at first I decided I was going to dig some iron to add to the display...sometimes iron relics can be cool.
There was a ton of it out there.
I hunted in all metal at first mostly, if I remember correctly, targets everywhere and lots of it really big iron.
Parts from wagons and who knows what else, stuff like that.
I eventually switched out of all metal and kept the knob at minimum disc.
Some really huge stuff overloaded, even though it was deep.
A few of the smaller pieces I knew were iron and they were big because I "painted" the area with the Pinpoint button depressed so I knew but dug a few of those anyway.
An ox shoe, a large regular horseshoe, a few things I had no idea what they were, we only had 2 hours to hunt and one was already gone because it took time to extract this big deep stuff and we HAD to be extra careful about all holes we dug on that property so I was done digging iron for the day.
The rest of the time I came across a bunch of signals, some modern trash, some old trash, and a bunch of iron.
I avoided most of it...pretty easy using the Vaq.

The big stuff really overloaded, the smaller stuff that was high tones but still painted big I knew were not coins and they were too loud, the even smaller stuff that was coin sized sounded slightly different than coins...a little too loud, some broke up near the top...just different, but I dug a few of these because I was curious and one of those was an old spark plug from an early 1900's car.
That one also went into the display.
There was some modern clad here as well, some normal modern trash, but I wandered over to an area where a few others had been and I got a sweet high tone.
Silver coin, I hoped.
I pretty much knew it was some sort of coin, a member had just found a large cent a few minutes before in another area, but I was looking for a Barber or a seated or something else very cool.
Could have been a copper memorial or a wheatie or a clad dime or quarter, but I had hope.
Dug the hole, about 5" down there was something round and dark and too big to be any kind of a cent and it definitely wasn't silver.
A token?
That would be cool if it was old.
I pulled it out and lightly brushed off the dirt and saw a shield on one side.
Shield nickel?
I was so excited I didn't even think that it came in way too high to be a nickel of any kind old or new.
Then I turned it over and gently brushed off the dirt and I saw it...2 cents stamped right in the middle surrounded by wreaths.
That is when all the screaming started, and then the last 40 minutes of the hunt was a blur.

Out of all the people hunting only 2 coins were found that day that were old, mine and the large cent that was so wrecked you couldn't see a date.

Maybe I was just lucky and went over the only other coin on the property that wasn't buried too deep, or who knows what else.
The fact was at least 40-50 out there, all kinds of machines, and in all that iron my Vaq found one of only 2 old coins and mine was the best.
Better than best...in great condition.

Now I am not sure why I am able to tell most iron out in the field fairly easily but I have a theory.
I have the high tone model, and that might actually make a difference.
I prefer the lower tone of my Compadre, I was thinking about changing the Vaq to a low tone because I like hunting like that better, after using the Compadre the high tone actually started to annoy me.
Then I though, wait a minute...I can tell aluminum big and small about 99% of the time with this tone, that aluminum sound grates on my nerves and rattles my teeth every time.
Conversely, I seem to have a pretty good idea about iron with this thing too...also big and small pieces.
I am pretty good in iron with the Compadre but I am better with the Vaq and I think that high tone is the reason.
The Vaq stays the way it is, the big DD coil stays on the bottom at sites that are old where I use it, and the 2 cent piece is my oldest coin I ever found and now is one of my most cherished possessions.

 

[atomicscott]

I hate to say it but I've used both the Vaquero and the AtPro and the At pro is a much better machine. It just gives so much more info so of course your buddy is going to dig more goodies. I found the Vaquero to have terrible audio. The most unpleasant tone that offers little information. If you're in an area where the targets are sparse I think the V could hang with the At but in a trashy/iron area, the at pro is going to stomp you all day long. Hopefully Tesoro's newest offering will be multi tone.

I have to agree...even though I have never owned an AT Pro! The thing is, the Vaq is just not a great performer when compared to these advanced machines. Mine was deeper in air than in ground, my other detectors are deeper in ground than in air. I took both my multi-tone, VDI machines to spots I had pounded and 'cleaned out' with the V. I still found many more coins (some 9-10" deep) with my lowly, $215, F2! Trashy areas here are 10-15 targets (or more) per swing, sounding kinda like a machine gun with all the iron hits. When trying to disc iron the Vaq will mask coins adjacent to iron. I use ZERO disc and can hear/see the iron as well as the good conductors. If for some reason I feel like digging a big hunk of iron, I know before I dig it, & due to the 3 iron audio tones/#'s (on the X-Terra 505) I can tell about what size the iron is too (without sizing it up with coil). Back to back comparisons (like I did with the F2 and Vaquero) are the ONLY way that one will be certain which unit works better (for that particular person). Try checking your AT pro buddy's targets to see if the Vaq will hit on them. If I was hunting with a buddy and he was finding alot of shotgun shells and I wasn't, that would definitely shake my confidence. Shotgun shells are brass (great conductivity) & are pretty big to miss, even at depth.

 

[dan b]

I'm a youngster in this hobby. A young whipper snapper at 50!

 

[cladcanada]

Forget them both and get an E-trac and you will whip him and anybody else's but on relics or coin's!

And pull tabs and bottle caps , but at least you have nice flute music

 

[HaroldILL.]

Forget them both and get an E-trac and you will whip him and anybody else's but on relics or coin's!

And pull tabs and bottle caps , but at least you have nice flute music

Anybody digging pull tabs and bottle caps with the E-trac surley doesn't know how to use it.

 

[dan b]

Anybody digging pull tabs and bottle caps with the E-trac surley doesn't know how to use it.

Sure. I suppose if you are only interested in silver coins you probably will skip all the pulltabs and gold rings.

 

[tabman]

Anybody digging pull tabs and bottle caps with the E-trac surley doesn't know how to use it.

Sure. I suppose if you are only interested in silver coins you probably will skip all the pulltabs and gold rings.

The Vaquero has a discriminator that can discriminate out pull tabs and is just as deep as the E-Trac, but cost a whole lot less and can be swung all day long without pain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa1sTRoJDKc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeby9MGZsHI

tabman

 

[bigelow]

I bet your buddy doesn't have to change any settings or spin a knob to check the target ID? Another plus for the AT Pro

relics are relics, why would you need to ID them? Just dig them, or does the AT Pro tell you "Hey there is a Civil War horseshoe at 17 inches"?

 

[ken ward]

My friend and I tried another test. Our first test was with the Vaquero and the ATPro. Neither one of out done the other. We compared most all signals with each detector. Neither detector out performed the other.
WE just finished another fun test. ATPro with the Tesoro Silver Umax.. Before our hunt we were having coffee. WE always talk detecting.. I asked him if he ever finds his meter wrong??
He said it is wrong many times. He went on telling me things he found that was different than what the meter said.. So much for the meter..
As we walked around an old house site where we hunted many times before. One of us gets a signal. We say,, HAY see what you think.. I tell him he has a dime about 6".. A good solid beep on my Silver.. He would dig, YEP, a dime. About 6". WE done this for about 2 hours of hunting. It was fun. Our deepest coin was a 1960 penny at about 8". He found that .. My Silver would have a very good digable beep. WE also found a lot of junk.
Neither one of us out did the other.. I have been useing Tesoros for a lot of years.. He is a one year hunter. He is doing very good. He also has a nice collection of old coins. He even found his first silver ring on one of our little hunts...
So,, There is another little test that tells me that my little Silver at less than half the price of the ATP is just as good... KEN,, IND..

 

[Canewrap]

The Tesoros are just as good as many of the more expensive machines as you have proven and others have stated. The big difference is that you need to put in the time on a Tesoro to get good with it and hunt with it a lot and keep at it to keep your ears tuned. The more expensive TID machines are typically more effective for those of us that don't have the time to invest and get to hunt only occasionally.

 

[Neil]

The Tesoros are just as good as many of the more expensive machines as you have proven and others have stated. The big difference is that you need to put in the time on a Tesoro to get good with it and hunt with it a lot and keep at it to keep your ears tuned. The more expensive TID machines are typically more effective for those of us that don't have the time to invest and get to hunt only occasionally.

Let that be your little secret. For those of us who use the more expensive TID machines, we know better.

 

[happycamper08]

I have an Outlaw and an E trac and they both have there pluses and minuses. The E is great for silver but the meter just tells me not to dig when relic hunting. Since I have gotten the outlaw my relic finds have increased dramatically. Set your disc listen for a good tone and dig. Now if I am going to someones home and looking for silver coins the outlaw stays home. Both are good machines and both have there place I think a lot of the arguments on here are a person only has one machine and they are trying to justify to themselves and others that they made the right choice in machines. If it works for you enjoy it and be happy, but there is no need to put someone Else's happiness down. It's just a hobby and if you're not having fun do something else.