Tesoro Silver uMAX vs. Bounty Hunter Pioneer 505?

[GreyGhost]

Both can be purchased for about $250 or less.
I'm new to MD'ing so the simplicity of the Tesoro is very appealing to me. Also the build quality seems top-notch and its made in Arizona (which is where I'm from) and it has a lifetime warranty.
However the BH Pioneer 505 has a lot more features so I'm torn between which to get.
What do you guys think?
Thanks

 

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[discovery_bound]

Tesoro, hands down. Too many features just get in the way, and you can't beat a lifetime warranty. Just my opinion.

HH
DB

 

[GreyGhost]

Tesoro, hands down. Too many features just get in the way, and you can't beat a lifetime warranty. Just my opinion.

HH
DB

That was my hunch. I'll probably be loaning this unit to my father who is elderly so I think he would appreciate the simplicity too.
Although the Pioneer 505 has a lot of features I'd rather just have a rock-solid, simplistic unit I think. Basically a unit that does a lot of things OK (505) vs. a unit that does a couple things very well (uMAX).
Anyone else think differently?

 

[DKinPA]

I'd go Silver all the way on this one! I have a Silver that has been relinquished to "back up" status but only because I really enjoy using a machine with VID. The Silver is a lightweight, simple, durable and deep machine!!

Dave

 

[TORRERO]

how is it on salt water beaches ?

 

[Woodland Detectors]

Tesoro, hands down. Too many features just get in the way, and you can't beat a lifetime warranty. Just my opinion.

HH
DB

THIS..

Better depth, discrimination, and WAAAAAY more durable..

All those bells and whistles of the BH don't make up for the Tesoro's quality.

Ding! We have a winner. I agree.

Plus, who else can offer a "Lifetime warranty?"

It aint rocket science there.

 

[rmptr]

Tesoro machines just kinda do what they are supposed to do.
Find treasure.

I've had a number of other machines that have features and options and stuff.
Bottom line is : You gotta dig the target to see what it is.

Good luck.
(It's better to be lucky than know what you are doing.)
rmptr

 

[TORRERO]

How is the Silver uMax on salt water beaches ?

 

[DKinPA]

I can't answer the beach question cause we don't have any in Central PA.....LOL!! All my diggin' is in parks and woods!!

Dave

 

[rmptr]

How is the Silver uMax on salt water beaches ?

My Tesoros false in the wet sand. Dandy up in the dry.
But so does my Fisher 1280-X.
Have not tried my CZ-6 at the beach.

For the beach I'd like to have an Excalibur...

Good luck
rmptr

 

[TORRERO]

My Tesoros false in the wet sand. Dandy up in the dry.
But so does my Fisher 1280-X.
Have not tried my CZ-6 at the beach.

For the beach I'd like to have an Excalibur...

Good luck
rmptr

I used to have a Fisher CZ-6 in Spain and it was good for coins, but had a salt water switch and in this mode you would walk right over gold chains and bracelets.

 

[rmptr]

Thanks for the advisory, Torrero.

When I do get to the beach this summer I will pay close attention to that in some kind of test area.

Best
rmptr

 

[Michigan Badger]

I'd also go with the Silver uMax.

But for the money some older Teesoros are even better.

I just bought a used but near mint original Bandido for $160. It has ground balance plus threshold adjustments. I believe the depth is better than the Silver uMax.

A great thing about Tesoro is even the oldered machines are covered by Tesoro. I've purchased a couple used off ebay that were broken and Tesoro fixed them free. You can't beat Tesoro.

Badger

 

[Monty]

Just wondering how you would know if you did walk right over a gold chain? Just being nutty. M nty

 

[TORRERO]

Just wondering how you would know if you did walk right over a gold chain? Just being nutty. M nty

You would not know of course Monty...
You could not know......
But the reality is that if you hunt the beaches long enough and spend enough time out there, then you will
indeed walk over them.... you may have walked over several and not known it.
When I was in Spain, I dug maybe maybe 15 gold chains, all of them with some sort of Medalian or ring
or plaque on them except one.
That said we also found a lot of gold medallions that did not have chains.... so where were they ?
We found a small gold medical plaque one time... it had a name and phone number... so we called and returned it...
The girl said she had lost it and could feel the chain break, and she reached up and grabbed the chain, but the medal fell into the water...
sometime the previous year....

That one I dug with the Tesoro Stingray just after sunset walking up the beach in the wet sand I got a faint but repeatable signal, reached down and found the chain.
I know that there has to be times when I walked over a gold chain but missed it because I did not have a machine that could see it in the salt water sand.....

 

[TORRERO]

My personal take is...
If your digging silver chains, and not gold chains
then your machine is not picking them up...
Why would you dig silver chains and not gold ?
Do you think that only silver chains are lost ?
that's a funny thought...

 

[Monty]

The reason you are digging silver and not gold, assuming there is gold is that you probably have gold discriminated out. It falls right in the nickel/pull tab range on many detectors and people tend to discriminate them out. I found a gold ring and a gold chain with my ACE250 and both times it was a bouncy signal in the range mentioned. And Torrero I was just kidding abut the not knowing when you walk right over gold. But I don't hunt seashores or at least I haven't but once and I have a 1280X I am dying to try out. I have hunted some freshwater shores and found a bit of silver but no gold. I picked up a gold charm on a school yard long ago with a Bounty Hunter no less, but I think that was just beginners luck. I really think a lot of people see gold on their detector but just don't recognize it. The only real way to find gold is to dig about everything unless you find a creek bottom with some loose flecks or nuggets. Monty

 

[GreyGhost]

Got my Silver uMAX in this week and am heading out to the desert with it early next week on my day off.
I also ordered a scuff cover for it (shoulda known to order one sooner) that will hopefully get here on time.
I figured I might as well get one because if I stick with metal detecting I may want to upgrade down the road and spend more money on a MD so might as well keep the Silver's coil in good condition incase I ever want to sell it.
My folks own some land not too far from Tombstone that we've been camping on since we were kids so that's were I'm gonna hunt.
I found a pottery shard out there once and there was lots of calvary, Apache and stagecoach action in the area back in the old days so maybe I'll find an old buckle or spur or something.
At a bare minimum I atleast hope to find the property stakes buried in the ground! My pops has been looking for those things for years