Very dissappointed with the Cortes...

[jbow]

I've been out twice with it now and found absolutely nothing. Finally this PM I put it up and got out the F75, went back to the spot I had just hunted with the Cortes and immediately found two copper pennies. I am going to give it one more chance. I am going to give it an unfair advantage. I am going to find some targets with the F75 then walk the area with the Cortes and see how they hit, swinging as if I do not know they are there.

So far so bad.

J

 

[Richard-N-FL]

Hey Jbow, Did you previously use any other detectors other than the F75? I saw you mentioned the Sovereign.

 

[digitaltim]

I actually did well with mine today.....I found two targets in 45mins that I had missed with other detectors. One was aluminum and the other might be lead... not coins but things I don't mind finding, cause they could be other valuable things...

I can totally get the info the detector is giving....... I can see it would be confusing if I was new to detecting, but using the ways the detector communicates ( graph, sum, etc) I get it.

I had a good idea of what I was digging every time.

I find in Some ways it does act like the Vaquero / Tejon / Cibola .....pinpoints accurately and sounds loud on large Iron.


Its easy enough to use.I haven't read the directions at all yet.........but I've read the online field tests so I wasn't totally blind...ofcourse it isn't too different from other detectors either

I was able to crank sensitivty to 9 and run fairly stable.


Sorry to hear it isn't working out for you.........did you buy new? make sure its functioning correctly....

I got a tip to ignore the text and use everything else.....its a good tip, cause the text is useless

 

[Dano123]

re; Tesoro Cortes, I had the Cortes for 3 weeks,and put it back on ebay! The Cortes is horriable,it has to be ground balanced! Ground balanced is good,only if you know how to use it, The Cortes is not "silent search discriminate like the Tesoro Silver Sabre U-max or the Tesoro Silver U-Max. I own a Tesoro Silver Sabre U-Max,which I bought in the year 2001, I 've tried the De Leon,Cortes, Whites MXT, Garret Ace 250,and bounty Hunter ,none worked good,and I always go back to the basics.... my tesoro silver sabre u-max! My Tesoro doesn't have all the bells & whistles like other high end detectors,but it finds a lot of neat stuff: 24 kt, gold ring,14 kt gold cross, 1877 seated dime,1892 Barber dime,1916 Braber dime, 4 Mercury dimes, 4 silver Roosevelt dimes, 2 indianhead pennies,lots of rings,necklaces,lots of clad coins,etc. Advice dump the Cortes,get a tesoro silver sbare u-max or a Tesoro Silver u-max detector..

 

[tab-nabit]

Ouch - That don't sound good - and I just got home from picking up a new Cortes, 5.75 coil, and another pinpointer.
Now I'm wondering what mode and settings you were using.
I'm going to try mine in a day or two and if it don't work out, I'll give it another try or so. Then if I'm not happy with it, I'll just give it to my son and see if he likes it. Then if that don't work, well I guess I'll have to find another machine to replace it. I don't want to think that far yet.

 

[Ivan]

The Cortes is a great unit. I have found lots of "gold " with it. Over 20 gold rings in four months.......not on beaches but in PARKS!!! Here are some tips...........I search for gold rings in pulltab infested areas such as picnic sites.... the rings are there. 1: Do not use too much sensitivity.... hunt at level of "4" you will still get great depth. This unit is quite deep detecting so back off on the dial, 2: Coil should not be closer than 3 inches from the soil........this takes some getting used to. You get better target ID readings more stable and better lock on............... my preplanted !0 K gold ring at 6 inches ; still hits hard with the coil at 3 inches above ground level. Tesoro's do not perform well if too close to soil. 3: Rings and "good" targets lock-on consistently, and the number spread is very tight.,,,,,, in my area pulltabs go from 21 to 34, but rings have a tight 2 to 3 number spread!!! 4:When hunting for gold leave you notch "off" and make sure you do not turn the disc higher than the IRON setting.....let the Meter do the disc" ing!! 5: No fast sweeping if you want deep hits....control you sweep speed........fast sweep is ok for dry sand hunting when looking for recent drops!!! 6: Dig ANY repeatable targets....if they click or tick solidly in the same pitch and sound....... they are often good. I found a 1921 Morgan silver dollar at the base of a tree; and it simply made a very "uniform ticking" from all directions ,,,,,,,,,,,at 8" down.....a Morgan. Try some of these tips and you will begin to see the performance value of this unit............there is more here than meets the eye!!!! Good Luck and dig deep!

 

[jbow]

n/t

 

[jbow]

I had noticed that I get the "lift coil" message a LOT. I will try hunting with it raised but I am going to wait until my 5.75 get's here, it is too heavy for me to hunt like that for any time.

I do like the information it give's and I will try some more. The whole purpose of this machine was to help me in places where I cannot be digging too many holes, so I need it to really help me to know what is there before I dig, and it seem's to be good at this. Maybe I just do not understand it yet and maybe the 8x9 coil is too big for the areas I have tried it in. I went back out after posting the OP, with my F75 and found 8 more cents, one a wheatie, an old 12 guage brass, and a button or snap that say's BETTERBILT across the top and ROME on the bottom. Same areas I used the Cortes. Still, I will try more.

I had my sens at 9 or 10, i'll try backing it off a bit. The Tejon I have is much more forgiving about coil height and sens and swing speed. I wish the Cortes had multi-tones in disc and a GB adjustment for disc.

I bet someone, who know's their stuff, could wire a GB control for the disc, since there is an internal adjustment pot. I bet it would be possible to do a completely reversable modification by removing the internal pot, connecting wires to where it was, run them out where the battery wires enter, down the upper stem, to a mini-pot added in one of the upper holes in the upper stem. Is anyone willing to try this?

Where are some of the TIDs you most readily dig? Say like a gold ring compared to a pulltab, in those infested areas. I noticed that pulltabs seem to be fairly consistant on the TID.

Thanks,

J

 

[jbow]

What machines are you used to?

J

 

[jbow]

I may do that if things do not get better. I was going to buy a Silver sometime soon anyway. I'm going to take another look at all the micromax series first. I have a Tejon that is a really good machine and I have a buddy who uses a Cibola and does very well hunting relics with it.

Thanks,

J

 

[tab-nabit]

Glad to see the tips Ivan. I'll be dipping a new Cortes coil to the ground later today or tomorrow. I'll try different settings just to get a bit of a feel on how it works. One of the harder things you mentioned is sweeping the coil 3 inches off the ground. Guess I been to used to scrubbing the bottom of the coil for years and don't think about it. But if that's my only problem with the Cortes, then the problem is really me. Guess I'll have to see how this machine works.

 

[tab-nabit]

I have the Tejon and Cibola and just couldn't let either go. So I added the Cortes which I'll be trying, and for some reason the Silver uMax keeps bouncing in my head.

 

[jbow]

I got a tip to ignore the text and use everything else.....its a good tip, cause the text is useless

Yeah, I can see that too. The text is very generic. All the other stuff is very good, imo. I think it had probably the potentially best TID I have ever seen. It's possible that I just have not swung it over a good target yet. I am going to try finding some targets that I would dig with one of my other detectors, mark them then go back with the Cortes and see what it tell's me.

Thanks,

J

 

[jbow]

Yes, I still have the SovereighGT, it is sad because I hardly ever use it any more. I have used a Tejon for maybe a year and a half, a T2 for a little over a year, and the F75 for about a month, I love the F75!!!

I'll try the Cortes some more, maybe it's me... I need to give it a fair chance.

It IDs very well on surface targets. I notice that if I have the disc turned up to say, foil.. then a nickel just chirps at normal swing speed but hit's hard if I stop over it. That bother's me a bit. I think it shoul hit hard if it hits at all. The Tejon does not do that, if I have it just a little under where a nickel break's up, it hit's it hard, I mean it either break's up or hits... If I decide to keep it I will see if Tesoro will check it out for me.

Thanks,

J

 

[tab-nabit]

Well that's a tough one for me to answer so I'll say a short note of what I currently have;
Minelab Explorer - II, I like the features, just It's slow and overworks the arm on longer hunts. Programs can be nice.
Tesoro Tejon, I like the depth, speed and dual discriminate.
Tesoro Cibola, I like the simplicity mixed with speed and depth. Turn on and go.
Fisher F-75. It's new and haven't put in enough time to lay out an honest opinion.
Garrett ACE 250. Turn on and go, no Menu's, simplicity, but I got this for a loaner. (son uses it mostly).
Tesoro Cortes. Just got it, haven't used it yet. Dunno anything....

I used the Whites 6000 Di Pro for several years and have been on a kick lately on working up a small team of machines for a few different situations. I'm still working on that. Some days I might want a simple turn on and go and others I might want the feature pack.
I also let go three gold machines lately and don't know if I'll get back into it soon. So for now I'm just working on a small team of machines for awhile.
About the strongest opinion I have for now is the Tejon. It's won me over well and I believe I'll be keeping it for years. So I need to keep working out a few others until I have a team that works for me.

 

[Ivan]

simply "air test " the detector with a ring you will notice; too close to the coil.....signal gets less defined. Right up against the coil.... a disaster. When you get a target out at 3" away........it hits cleaner and harder. Don't worry about hunting at the "4" level of sensitivity........I live in the North West we are quite mineralized here, and I still get rings at 6 " in depth. I got one two weeks ago at a carefully measured 6 inches; in packed gray clay with a sprinkling of sand on top......even with the coil 3 inches above ground got it no problem. It has something to do with the ground cancel design that old man Gifford developed. I hunted for quite a while until i discovered this quirk !!!!

 

[randyalbin]

n/t

 

[randyalbin]

n/t

 

[Ivan]

Regarding lifting of the coil ..........just shorten the rod and hunt that way, makes it a breeze. Even the pinpoint operates better at the 3' height!!! Good luck and dig deep!!!

 

[Ivan]

Yes that is good advice.... the text part is too generic of little use but pay attention to the number values and the chart below. Remember....Tesoro pushed Iron way to one side at ( 0) and grouped all coins in the (95) category so that there could be a greater range in the center of the meter. Round and Square Pulltabs: nickels and rings have more " room" around them. After using my Cortes for six months I'm finally realizing what a great unit it is! Also the amount of spread is quite tight on rings compared to tabs which vary by as much as 12 numbers. the point here is when you are hunting you should learn how to identify the "junk" yes the junk is your main concern ...once you see how it reacts...................good jewelry targets will begin to "jump out" at you. Dig anything with a solid lock-on if it is tight on the number scale .Good luck and dig deep!