Best Bang for your Buck!

[DiggerinVA]

What do you all think are some of the best deals on new machines? What you pay versus what you get....Here are my choices:


1.) Tesoro Compadre.....................................$160.00
2.) Tecknetics Eurotech Pro w/ 11in DD...........$299.00
3.) Tesoro Vaquero........................................$446.00
4.) Garrett ATpro..........................................$595.00
5.) Whites MXT All-pro...................................$799.00
6.) Tecknetics T2 ltd......................................$899.00


These are just prices straight from kellyco's site and im sure some can be found cheaper....

 

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[atomicscott]

What do you all think are some of the best deals on new machines? What you pay versus what you get....Here are my choices:

1.) Tesoro Compadre.....................................$160.00
2.) Tecknetics Eurotech Pro w/ 11in DD...........$299.00
3.) Tesoro Vaquero........................................$446.00
4.) Garrett ATpro..........................................$595.00
5.) Whites MXT All-pro...................................$799.00
6.) Tecknetics T2 ltd......................................$899.00

These are just kellyco prices and im sure can be found cheaper....

If you include Compadre & Eurotek, you HAVE to put the F2 on the list! Its a killer deal with the 2 coil package at just $215! That tiny 4" coil is no joke, it will pull coins out of the trashiest sites, and at impressive depths!

 

[crazy4coins]

If you include Compadre & Eurotek, you HAVE to put the F2 on the list! Its a killer deal with the 2 coil package at just $215! That tiny 4" coil is no joke, it will pull coins out of the trashiest sites, and at impressive depths!

Agreed!

 

[Phantasman]

After all the machines "I" have had, nothing beats the "bang for buck" of the Land Ranger Pro. Multitone, PP with depth, Ground Balance, Volume control, 11" DD coil, 10" depth on a quarter, V-Break and numeric VID for $253 new/shipped. Sorry it didn't make the list.

 

[LuckyLarry]

Right now, this is the best one for the money, especially for its depth. I just bought one and now I own about 25 metal detectors, and it is a better deal than anything else for the money: From 9" to 12" for most coins. The thing is almost as light as Compadre (I have one), lighter than a Eurotek Pro (I have one), lighter than a Tejon (I owned one), deeper than all the cheaper ones and the aforementioned, and almost as deep as the Tejon. For $179 it can't be beat, and can even be used on salt/black sand beaches. 12" on a copper penny is fantastic for such a cheap detector. And puh-leeze, please don't tell me that air tests mean nothing, I and other detector creators and technicians know fully well that air tests are the only constants for testing depth. Thank you. I just bought one for $145 and it has adjustable pots so I'm going to tweak it for another inch or so in depth: I like the kid's short, but sweet depth test below.

 

[DiggerinVA]

Thats just my list....and i havent used all machines. So that is why i want to see your list!

 

[LuckyLarry]

Here is the kid's test: It gets right down to the facts without all the junk "music" and all the talking;

 

[DiggerinVA]

Right now, this is the best one for the money, especially for its depth. I just bought one and now I own about 25 metal detectors, and it is a better deal than anything else for the money: From 9" to 12" for most coins. The thing is almost as light as Compadre (I have one), lighter than a Eurotek Pro (I have one), lighter than a Tejon (I owned one), deeper than all the cheaper ones and the aforementioned, and almost as deep as the Tejon. For $179 it can't be beat, and can even be used on salt/black sand beaches. 12" on a copper penny is fantastic for such a cheap detector. And puh-leeze, please don't tell me that air tests mean nothing, I and other detector creators and technicians know fully well that air tests are the only constants for testing depth. Thank you. I just bought one for $145 and it has adjustable pots so I'm going to tweak it for another inch or so in depth: I like the kid's short, but sweet depth test below.

Larry....i owned a coinmaster.....bought it because of its "good air test" and after about three weeks i put it back for sale.....sold it for $125 with original batteries! It sucked!!! It is a one tone machine with very unstable id at anything over 4-5" in the ground.....yes it gives the same audio at 8" as at 2"....but what shows a quarter at 2" will show a nail at 8. Very limited settings aswell....i will take an ace 250 over this machine....

 

[LuckyLarry]

Digger, I owned an Ace 250 and all it did was "BONG" way too much. It's sensitivity and inherent gain was over-driven from too much Fe (magnetite) in my soils here, plus that noise nearly drove me insane and especially over a lot of scrap iron. It's circuitry is actully dated from the late 70's. It was horrible at pinpointing, so it was almost useless to me. I gave it to my Daughter and she uses it for a closet door stop. So I bought her a $69 Chinese-made "Navigator" from Amazon and she loves it, it simply works better. In fact I gave one to my other Daughter too, and she too loves the thing. I bought a spare for myself.

Sometimes people don't know that I was a detector design tech and a top secret nuclear/electronics warhead design tech because I try to keep that under a lid, so for me the Coinmaster is easily tunable inside, mostly for GB, and partly for threshold sound. It's not tough to re-tune at all. I did that with the cheapies above too and gained an inch on two of them and another gained 2". Every detector is different than the "identical" one right next to it that has the same company name, the same date of manufacturing, and the same batteries installed, no two are exactly identical, and Minelabs are often all over the board. Tesoros are the most notorious for bigger variances. CZ's are almost the same way, some will hit a dime at 8/5 inches and some will hit it at 10.5. It sounds like yours needed to be re-tuned, and you could have done it yourself, it's easy. Coinmasters are running at 8 so that makes them even more stable in the ground than one that runs at 14 Khz. I could have fixed your Coinmaster for you, for free. As for me, I never do use screen ID, I always use no disc/no notch on beaches or inland, or only "iron cancel", and I only use a pinpointer for finding buried broken nails in lumber. I now own about 25 metal detectors, I still like tinkering with them. Thanks for the input Digger..

 

[atomicscott]

Larry....i owned a coinmaster.....bought it because of its "good air test" and after about three weeks i put it back for sale.....sold it for $125 with original batteries! It sucked!!! It is a one tone machine with very unstable id at anything over 4-5" in the ground.....yes it gives the same audio at 8" as at 2"....but what shows a quarter at 2" will show a nail at 8. Very limited settings aswell....i will take an ace 250 over this machine....

Yep, I know of people that were not impressed at all with the Coinmaster. Those youtube vids can be very deceiving!

 

[DiggerinVA]

The straw that broke the camels back for me with the coinmaster was when i took a BH202 and compared on 4-5" coins and the 202 id was right on and the coinmaster was all over the place. A machine that has a screen but cant id at a modest depth i have no use for....if it had multi-tone and atleast gave the proper tone....maybe. I bought the machine for my wife, but she quickly traded it for a silver umax, which was twice the machine.

 

[DiggerinVA]

And another thing....i had a cz-3d that wouldnt beat the coinmaster in an air test on coins......but put the coin 10" in the ground for a few years and try to find them with the coinmaster!

 

[LuckyLarry]

Then your CZ3D needed some help too Digger. IC that you live in Virginia, and (most, but not all) of the soil there has little iron in it save for red soil of course, so there most likely was a problem with a specific detector or two that you had. As for the Silver uMax those all have very wide differentiations as to depth and discrimination variables, but they are great little detectors anyway and not as annoying as the Aces.. My Tejon was EXTREMELY DEEP in air, but some aren't, and in fact some really suck in air AND in the ground. Mine would measure 16-17" on a clad nickle in air, but it was fairly useless on a salt/BS beach, or inland because it ran so high in sensitivity and gain. Some Tejons only read 12" on a clad nickel in air (or mild soil). 6" is about all I could get with mine in the ground. F75's have a wide path for depth and sensitivity too. I have a Teknetics Euro Pro that was incorrectly tuned at the factory and it's air depth is the same as its ground depth, about 5", so I have to tune it properly too. Every detector made - is different than it twin Sister, there are no constants with them, there are no pat behavior rules. In fact, the only thing constant out there (is) the air, not even water either, just the air. Another thing; coins in the ground for 10 years does not determine depth; size and soil strata/matrix and mineral content does, and the size of a coin has not changed after ten years either. Here are the Masters (Dave Johnson's) notes on the subject, without him we would not be discussing this right now, he is why we are here; Have a good one Digger, and keep the posts coming, I find them interesting, just as interesting as Steve Herschbach's, and he mine. George Payne agrees with him as do all metal detector designers and technicians, along with John Gardiner, Jack and James Gifford of Tesoro Electronics, and others. Unfortunately Jack passed away January 3rd, this year. http://jb-ms.com/Baron/payne.htm

.. http://www.icmj.com/writers-detail.php?id=160&keywords=Steve_Herschbach

http://www.fisherlab.com/hobby/davejohnson/HaloEffect.pdf ..

 

[DiggerinVA]

I was simply stating the same thing as you.......Some machines look great in air tests.....some dont, but my CZ was super deep in any ground i hunted it on. Had no problems on a 10-11 inch LC. Screamed on it! But i just found the CZ too heavy and unbalanced with the control box mounted on the shaft. I have not got a personal problem with any company. I feel the MXT series of machines are some of the best in their price range; but i just feel that Whites scimped too much on the coinmaster. If it just had 3 tones and a cam-lock on the shaft it may have made the cut at my house. It is designed to be a beginner machine and i feel a beginner could easily become confused and frustrated with it. They would be fine on the coins less than 4 inches in non trashy sites. But when they begin to search for those 6 inch mercs and wheats they will get a bouncy id and no tones to dig by. Also if i remember correctly the disc is non selectable and in order to disc out pull tabs you have to disc out everything below them aswell. And the particular machine i had really struggled to id nickels at any depth. I "personally" just dont feel the coinmaster is up to the level of the Eurotech, the F2, the Silver Umax or even the Ace 250. If you look at comparisons of these machines the Coinmaster is usally lagging behind, so i am not alone in this conclusion. Also Larry, does your ETpro have the 11" DD or 8" concentric coil? The 11" seems to really outperform the 8" in depth, seperation and target ID.

 

[LuckyLarry]

Got it Digger. Mine has the 8", but I'll make it go deeper by readjusting the internal GB because since it is reading the soil as a big huge piece of iron. I'll make it ID deeper too through some re-adjusting internally. Most detector mfg's try to give beginners an all around GB, and that works fine for most soils but not all, and most people just hunt tot lots. We old timers are a different lot though, we want a challenge or two. The best discriminators I've found are the old Compasses, bar none. Check this out.

 

[LuckyLarry]

Some comparisons: Tesoro almost matches the Compasses, but not quite..

 

[Fletch88]

Right now, this is the best one for the money, especially for its depth. I just bought one and now I own about 25 metal detectors, and it is a better deal than anything else for the money: From 9" to 12" for most coins. The thing is almost as light as Compadre (I have one), lighter than a Eurotek Pro (I have one), lighter than a Tejon (I owned one), deeper than all the cheaper ones and the aforementioned, and almost as deep as the Tejon. For $179 it can't be beat, and can even be used on salt/black sand beaches. 12" on a copper penny is fantastic for such a cheap detector. And puh-leeze, please don't tell me that air tests mean nothing, I and other detector creators and technicians know fully well that air tests are the only constants for testing depth. Thank you. I just bought one for $145 and it has adjustable pots so I'm going to tweak it for another inch or so in depth: I like the kid's short, but sweet depth test below.

A coinmaster?

 

[LuckyLarry]

Yes, a Coinmaster..

 

[DiggerinVA]

I would prefer to see a test with coin a few inches below the nails....as this would be true to real world conditions.

 

[atomicscott]

I would prefer to see a test with coin a few inches below the nails....as this would be true to real world conditions.

Real world conditions are a much better test than these air test/nail-coin tests. My Vaquero never performed as it did in the videos I watched before deciding to purchase it. My Compadre beat it easily in disc accuracy. These videos can be very misleading