tejon vs minelab sovereign elite

[diggger21]

i'm looking for a deep seeking metal detector. tesoro tejon or minelab sovereing elite which one will be better

[Sandman]

That is a tough question. I use a Tejon but only have the Sov GT to compare it too. Both have responded to deep targets and you are comparing concentric coils to DD coils too.

[vaquero44]

i would put my fisher 1270 against the tejon on depth, the minelab have no clue about? bad thing about the 1270 is its heavy but i 've got use to mine!

[Keppy]

That is a tough question. I use a Tejon but only have the Sov GT to compare it too. Both have responded to deep targets and you are comparing concentric coils to DD coils too.

Sandman i have had every Sovereign made and to me they are all the same from the first one to the GT and every one in between. The only difference is the first one & the GT you can turn the iron mask off.the ones in betweenyou are in iron mask all the time. Then on some they put on some switches that really did not make a difference in the sovereigns operation. As to the question that digger 21 asked i don't know never compared them.

[jhnbaker41]

I have never used the Soverign however the Tejon goes very deep and allows you to dual descriminate out bad stuff even in bad soils. You have to learn the GB but past that it is awesome. I am hooked.

[U.K. Brian]

This is could be an easy question as the Tejon excels on land but can't compete with the Minelab on wet salt beaches.
The Minelabs multifrequency means a whole beach is detectable but its much heavier unless hipmounted and much, much slower in use.
I find that on the average land site the Tejon will produce more finds as you will be able to cover twice the ground in a set time. Same would apply on the top of a beach.

The Minelab also has a little bit to much iron rejection even at its minimum discrimination setting. If going for a Sovereign I would spend a little more for the GT version. Early versions didn't have much between them but the GT does have positive performance gains.

[LuckyLarry]

I've owned both and I thought both were basically junk. The Tejon weighed less, worked fairly well and went deep in (gentle) soil, as long as there wasn't much iron junk in it. It was too noisy for my tastes over steel, iron, and high magnetite/hematite soils and never would completely ground balance (in bad soil) because it auto-returned to threshold so very slowly. The Sov ran a lot quieter and handled bad ground and salt beaches MUCH better, but when nulling over a bad target it often canceled the next target in line with the swing, especially when canceling pulltabs or nails. It too had a slow return to threshold, silent or otherwise.

I have no use for either detector save for the Sovereign making a better boat anchor than the Tejon.

Larry

[BamaBill]

Ok Larry, I'll bite. Then, out of the modern, mid-priced detectors available (~$400-$800), what would you choose, since you think these two are junk?

[Treasure_Hunter]

I've owned both and I thought both were basically junk. The Tejon weighed less, worked fairly well and went deep in (gentle) soil, as long as there wasn't much iron junk in it. It was too noisy for my tastes over steel, iron, and high magnetite/hematite soils and never would completely ground balance (in bad soil) because it auto-returned to threshold so very slowly. The Sov ran a lot quieter and handled bad ground and salt beaches MUCH better, but when nulling over a bad target it often canceled the next target in line with the swing, especially when canceling pulltabs or nails. It too had a slow return to threshold, silent or otherwise.

I have no use for either detector save for the Sovereign making a better boat anchor than the Tejon.

Larry

Typical....

I dug hundreds of nulls when I first started hunting with with My Excal and Sovereign GT, never once, not a single time did a null that was a null from multiple directions ever turn out to be anything other then a piece of iron, on the other hand I have dug a signal that was a null from one direction and solid good tone from a different direction, when I started digging I dug up a piece of iron and a gold wedding band in the same scoop...............Then again I know not to cancel pulltabs or nails, nails being iron will null, canceling pulltabs will cancel out lots of various gold rings.......

I hunt with nothing smaller then the WOT Coil or the SEF Butterfly Coils, 12"x15" or the 15"x18"..........

[LuckyLarry]

Bama you and have exchanged info before. How have ya been?

I live in a much higher iron soil area than you and most others so I look at the machines that handle high iron soil best. Right now the 705 Minelab is doing quite well in our soil here, but in low iron soils a lower-powered detector would work nearly as well and in some cases deeper than a $1500 one on steroids. High gain (power) in detectors produces high interference and consequently greater reactance to noise and anything iron in nature, including high Fe soils. There are some exceptions though. The Fisher F-70 w 11" coil, newest Fisher GoldBug2 w 11" coil, and Minelab x-terra 705 w 10" DD seem to all be a good balance between performance and price. There are lots of rave things being said about all three, especially locally. Of these my personal choices would be either the ML 705 or the new GB2. The 705 would be the best all-around especially for coin hunting but not the best for fine wire rings and thin silver necklaces.The GB is the best nugget-hunter/relic-hunter combo and WOULD work on thin jewelry very well.

I am seriously considering the new GB for my purposes by a thin margin though, especially for using to hunt salt beaches with a big coil and my knowing how to work it. I may change my mind though and look harder at the 705 because it may well handle salt even better. Right now my best for that is my trusty old CZ-70. I don't need a nugget hunter, I already have one that finds BB size nuggets at 6". I built my first metal detector in 1971 and worked in detector design and engineering in in the early 80's for one of the 'Big Four" manufacturers, and I still trust and prefer my Compass GoldScanner Pro more than anything else out there.

Hope this helps a bit, even if it is mostly about my own personal opinions. Hey, as we both know, always try before you buy, right?

Larry

[BamaBill]

Hey Larry, been good. Last couple of days have been interesting, with 7" of snow here in N. Bama, which hasn't happened in a long time. Personally, I've been wondering about the G2 they're putting out, sounds like it isn't as EMI sensitive as the F75. I have experience with the 705 and if you're interested in my experiences, PM me. I want to give a balanced appraisal without starting a war. They're good machines, but there's more to what I want to say.