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I'm a relative novice and would really appreciate some advice on selecting a metal detector. I'm mainly interested in hunting for jewelry, coins, etc. on land and in shallow water (fresh & salt). I'm considering a Tesoro because of the company's excellent reputation and lifetime warranty, but I'm not sure which model will best suit my needs. Any thoughts?
well hello there and welcome if you don't have alot of cash to spend i would sugest the silver umax if you can live without the TID screen, i have found more good stuff with this detector than any other, and if you got to have tid then go with the deleon, in my opinion it's one of the accurate tid out out there other than the depth meter, it's a very simple machine to operate, you'l will not be sorry for choosing Tesoro!
you won't go wrong buying a silver umax detector. it is a great machine, and being so light weight you can hunt all day and not get tired of swinging it. i have found lots of good stuff with my silver umax and even though i have more expensive machines, it is usually my first choice when hunting a site. i seem to find more and better targets with a beep and dig detector for some reason....target id machines are nice and seem to id targets pretty well, but they are not 100% accurate. i would recommend the silver umax detector and if you can, purchase the 5.75" concentric coil with your machine. it will get those coins and rings in the heavy trash better than the stock coil and it is a blast to hunt with. whatever your choice, learn the machine and have fun finding those old coins. feel free to ask questions here.... there are guys here with 30 or 40 years experience swinging a detector and can answer about any question. good luck and happy hunting..........roger
What ever you buy, Don't be without the multi-tone tagging feature. Once you get used to this feature, you'll never be without it. The only way to go, for coin hunting. Good luck with this cool hobby.
Thanks for your input. I've actually been considering the Compadre (which may be a little too simplistic for the long run), the Cibola (which costs a little more than I'm willing to spend right now), and the Silver Umax (which sounds like an excellent detector for a beginner). I think the Silver may be, to quote Goldilocks, "just right"!
Does the multi-tone tagging feature cause the detector to make different sounds for each type of metal that it detects? Is it hard to train your ear to learn the difference between the tones? I really hadn't considered this feature, but I definitely will now. Thanks for the suggestion!
Hey there TN Girl tones are great as i also have the golden umax as well it's the solid tones that you will be after and the higher pitched as well if the object is deformed in the ground sometimes you will get what i call a rolling tone from either low to high or vice vs. but when you get that repeatable solid high tone tone then dig and another thing knowing how to size your object, sometimes if a coin has been in the ground for a long time then it will do something called the HALO effect the oxidation from moisture will suround the coin and sometimes make it bigger than it seems, which i still get fooled buy it some times thinking it might be a big chunk of iron, I see your considering the the compadre that's not a bad choice had one of those to the only drawback is your limited to that one coil because it's fixed or hard wired to the detector that's why i suggested the silver umax which ever you choose nither one is no slouch the plus side for the compadre is better disc than the silver 180 ED vs 120ED, what ever you model choose you will not go wrong with tesoro!
Got to be careful venturing into the water with a land detector. A little slip or a rogue wave that you don't notice until it's too late and the detector gets submerged. That said, I did take my Cibola knee deep a number of times before I got my first water proof detector.
For salt water beaches it is beneficial to have ground balance adjustment. If the Cibola is more than you want to spend, then a new detector with ground balance adjustment or auto tracking is out of your price range too. You can hunt successfully on the wet salt beach areas without ground balance, but you will likely find conditions in some parts of the beach challenging to set up for.
I'd go for the Silver uMax. The Compadre does very well for the price, but adding the ability to adjust sensitivity, like the Silver uMax has, to help handle changing conditions will be very welcome as you cover different hunting conditions. I like the 9 x 8 inch coil for most conditions and that coil comes standard with the Silver uMax. As Roger noted, the 5.75 is what you want in trashy areas.
You may also want to find a club. Some club members may have detectors you could try out. You may meet someone with a good used detector for sale with a couple more features that would still be within your budget. You could try it out, and see if it works for you.
TN Girl, I bought a Silver U max for my daughter...it is a great machine and very light and adjustable (she was smallish when we bought it). The only time she had trouble with it was at a salt beach in very wet sand (waves covering sand from time to time). It could not pick up a coin (which I knew was there because I had just located it). It wasn't very deep, but the signal from the wet sand was interfering so much that she could not pinpoint the coin. Having said that, the Silver is a great machine (although my daughter now insists on using my Cibola at the beach when she wants to hunt). The Silver should be fine in fresh water situations (as well as dry land, of course), but the Cibola will handle salt water hunting quite well, even though it doesn't have ground balance. As all the other blokes said, if you pick a Tesoro you will get a good detector. All the best, Sapper.
You've all given me even more to think about! I don't live close enough to salt water for it to be a major factor in my decision, but the ability to swap coils is definitely something to consider. I get the feeling that, as I advance, I'll probably want to have more than one detector for different types of hunting situations. Sounds like this hobby may be habit-forming!
Does anyone know where I can download a comparison chart of the different Tesoro models?
Tesoro used to print (publish their own magazine featuring (wait for it), Tesoro detectors. I dont know if they still do, but it did contain a very useful comparison chart, together with articles and a lot of other useful info. You could give them a call and see if they still produce the Metal Detecting Information mag., or maybe they could send you some other info, if they dont. All the best, Sapper.
A great feature about the Tesoro Golden is the 4 tones. When I detect an iron object I hear the lowest tone, coins and silver rings give the highest tone, the 2 middle tones sound off on gold rings, pulltabs and other pieces of aluminum. Tones rule.
Is it possible to become too reliant on the tones and maybe miss some good stuff? I read somewhere that you should dig everything (at least when you're new to the hobby). Everyone has their own opinion...What's yours?
Hey TNGIRL go to the reviews on metaldetectorreviews and ck out the reviews on the garrett ace 250 and silver umax or any other tesoro, to me the ace 250 is the most over puffed detector out there, i would take on any one with a ace 250, using the silver umax, don't be swayed by the ace users, just remember one thing lifetime warranty and simplicity at its best I know i'll probably stir up a hornets nest here but that's just my 2cents worth, thanks for reading
simply not true...ive had the garrett ace 250...not a bad detector but that dang belltone drove me insane. its alot different to pin point with. harder for a newbie. since ive had many detectors and can tell you tesoro is great. best customer service.simple beep and dig units.you wont regret. i have the silver umax and love it. have several others too and love them all. i do however have a gerrett pro pointer pinpointer. its nice..good luck on your search
And you are on the Tesoro forum, after all. I'm heading to the site right now...