Which Tesoro to buy...

[digitaltim]

or anywhere you don;t want to destroy with holes. Its difficult to distinguish Large iron and Aluminum from good targets.... as far as iron goes they discriminate as well as any other... some Iron will give a louder..less smooth response. They seem to love aluminum cans and pieces of aluminum too....even on the highest discrimination setting. The same can be said for just about any detector out there.some are a little better, but all around these are not bad.

They are also by far my favorite detectors. extremely sensitive and fast.....a no nonsense approach to detecting...it beeps..I dig and move on. Light enough to swing all day.

They made me wonder why I ever used TIDs before.....

I've stayed out of the parks with them, but I plan to try some park hunting soon and will use a Cortes. I like the idea of ignoring zincs and maybe being able to ignore some pull tabs while hunting for rings.

Its a tough call, but I think for parks I have to recommend a TID...and for woods or fields the Cibola, Vaquero or Tejon.

 

[digitaltim]

Some people find the tejon too chatty...and say the Vaquero runs quieter...most will agree the Tejon is more senstive.... its supposed to be.

I find they both are fairly quiet........honestly I think the extra features of the Tejon are a waste for my tastes and I prefer the Vaquero over the Tejon.

You can't lose with either of them.

 

[digitaltim]

I had a Sov Elite with a meter ( I modified), a straight shaft, and I often hip mounted the control box........

Excellent excellent machine as far as finding targets. To me it was a beep and dig, because the tones weren't distinguishable to me.... The meter was pretty much useless.......most of the time it could tell the difference between aluminum, Iron, and clad, but for the most part it didn't help...Iron, clad, copper, and silver all can read 180...Its also one of the heaviest machines I have ever used......the explorers being the heaviest........and its cumbersome....kind of a clumsy set up.

The sov will ignore iron a little better and will be less eratic in highly mineralized areas.

If you're going to hunt mainly on wet beaches by all means get the Sov, but if you're sticking to land I honestly believe you'll be happier with the cibola.

I was a die hard minelab fan for a few years.then I preferrred Fishers for their simplicity..I went back and forth trying a bunch......Now I'm a die hard Tesoro fan.

Tesoro's detectors feel solid.....built better......simpler, ..just as accurate as the best, and more sensitive than many.

They're all around hard to beat. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't tried them myself. Tesoros look like toys compared to the large lumps of plastic other manufacturers are selling......

A Vaquero was my first Tesoro and it was like a God sent awakening. From the first time I fired it up and ground balanced it I knew it was different. Adjusting the threshold kind of sounds like you're tuning a model airplane engine. It sort of revs......I was amazed.

Makes me sick to think about the years I spent lugging around heavy detectors.

.....get the cibola.

 

[tabdog]

Hay Digitaltim, I'm getting my Cibola, it's like new, used 2 times he said and should arrive on Tuesday. I'm so excited!

I quit MDing about 25 years ago when I got married and had kids. I'm now a retired land surveyor in central Arkansas. The MDing bug up and bet me hard. Didn't have much money so 2 months ago I got a Bounty Hunter Quick Draw II. Boy have metal detectors changed in the last 25 years! Well I listened to all the hype about BH on the Internet and decided I needed to up grade. One month ago I found a used Garrett GTAx 500 for a little more than the BH. From all the hype about the 500 I thought I was really going to move up. While the 500 does has higher quality materials and more bells and whistles, the BH is more stable with just as good of depth as the 500. Even with the cheep pots the BH has, I like it better than the Garrett. I'm trying to sell the Garrett GTAx 500 on Ebay.

My question is, do you think I'm going to like my Cibola or is all the talk about Cibola just a lot of hype like the Garrett?
Do you have any advice for me?

The discriminator on the BH is real clunky. to set it I have to turn it all the way up and then turn it down to the desired spot which is never in the same place so I have to turn it down to find the spot and then do it again and hope I stop in the right spot. I have to test it every time to find out. I can't just set it and go.

Both the Garrett and the Bounty Hunter air test about 9.5 or 10 inches with a quarter. Do you think the Cibola can do better?

I guess I could just wait til Tuesday but I'm so antsy I cant wait.

tabdog

 

[Richard-N-FL]

Digitaltim,

I think I will get the Cibola or Cortes. I don't plan or see myself hunting places where manual GB would be necassary. Plus I am keeping my Elite for such places and the beach. Thanks for your input. How do you like the sounds from the Cibola?

 

[digitaltim]

BH's.....they're cheap and not bad at all for surface searching. I'm surprised they work as well as they do. I wouldn;t want to spend more than $65 for one, but at that price you can get your monies worth.

I agree with you about the Garretts..... I have not tried the newer ones --> the 2500 or 1500, but I was told not to waste my time. i think most garretts are as good as BH's, but usually more expensive.

To be honest.i've only used the Vaquero and Tejon.but I know the cibola is the same with less features. If i could do it over again I would just buy the cibola... i found the GB wasn;t necessary...

its a whole different animal than what you've been using......super tune it and you're going to be amazed

No hype with these tesoros.... its a nice surprise.you'll see

 

[digitaltim]

To be honest I've only used the Vaquero and Tejon, but I know the cibola is the same with less features. If i could do it over again I would just buy the cibola... I found the GB wasn't necessary...

Super tune it and you should have all the sensitivity you need.

Everyone says the tejon goes the deepest, but how deep do you need to go? The funny thing is my deepes tfinds have been clad.......obviously a disturbed area.............and all the oldest finds were within 4 inches or less......I found a 1797 large cent an inch down.......indian heads litterally almost laying on the surface.

the only difference in sound that I can distinguish is the abrupt loudness of Iron and aluminum. That and the obvious bigger size while X'ng is the only way I could tell it was junk sometimes.........but where i was searching I would often just dig everything that repeated anyways.

The detector's strong points are in its overall ease of use, weight, speed, and sensitivity...prepare to dig.

 

[digitaltim]

was that the cibola that ended 9/8 on ebay? I bid on it too. Looks nice.

 

[tabdog]

No I'm getting mine from Wane Jinkens of metaldetectors r us. He owed me a favor and I only paid $5 more for the Cibola than I paid for the Quick Draw II.

 

[tabdog]

Thanks for your input.

Some people freek out when I say I like the QD II over the GTAx 500. I wouldn't believe it myself if I haven't lived through it. In order to get depth with the 500 it becomes so unstable in this ground around here that it drives me crazy. I searched an old church yard with the 500. I went back over the church yard with the QD II and found more coins than I did with the 500. All the coins I found with the QD II were deeper or the were close to trash and there was an clump of 5 coins I did not find with the Garrett??


With the QD II I can turn the sensitivity all the way up in must situations and it sounds off some but I can always tell if it is a false signal by the sound.

I'm hoping I can put the QD II on the back burner when I get my Cebola.

Keep digging, tabdog

 

[digitaltim]

I've taken 3 different BH's over sites I hunted with Sovereigns, explorers, fisher CZ's and have found some neat stuff that the other detectors discriminated out....nothing of real value, but interesting...

I tried 2 Garretts.the 750 and the 1250........."BOING !" is what I think of them ( that's a Garrett inside joke there)

I've gone 2 years without ID......Last week I ordered a used cibola from a dealer (online ) and it was already sold.then I bid on a few on ebay that didn;t meet reserve.........finally after some thought I bought a Cortes so I can cherry pick in the parks with my toddler.....

From what I've read think it will be on par for sensitivty as the cibola, but I'm probably going to miss the simplicity of a beep and dig.....

HH