Air tested my returned Vaquero with 5.75 concentric coil...Great results

[DigDugNY]

So as some of you know I got my Vaquero back with both my stock and 5.75 coils being re-tuned. I haven't been able to do an air test until now. I haven't tried the stock coil yet, but just did one with the 5.75 concentric because thats the one I will be using most of the time and I will tell you that it being re-tuned gives it a huge advantage now.

My settings were Threshold maxed, Sensitivity maxed, and discrimination set to the notch between iron and nickel. So I pretty much had it supertuned. I set the ground balance by doing the 5 turns counter clockwise and 2 turns clockwise. Here are my results

Quarter=13-14"

Penny=12-13"

Dime=11-12"

And I am not kidding you...this was with the 5.75 concentric coil. I don't what they did, but this makes me extremely happy!

If I get a chance soon, I'll try to do one with the Stock Coil..but I'm assuming if you add 1" or 1.5" to each coin, thats what it would be

 

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[Charlie P. (NY)]

Air testing is much like evaluating a car in the showroom. There are very few flying coins or precious metals.

 

[DigDugNY]

comparing to how it air tested before i got it back from the factory, this is exciting news...I might not get that depth in the ground, I dont expect that...but at least I know it is acting more powerful than it did, which will help get me more depth than i was

 

[Topdecker]

As long as you are fooling around, you should experiment and see how far from the perimeter of the coil it will detect a quarter. Should be like 2 or 3 inches, maybe more. Knowing that it blows out to the sides is good to know when you are struggling to find the target...

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[Critical Recovery]

Air testing is much like evaluating a car in the showroom. There are very few flying coins or precious metals.

charlie (as usual lol) speaks the truth.

Air tests in NO WAY are indicative of performance in soil conditions.

Air has a different conduction coefficient than soil and the "true" best way to test is in a test plot (buried) and even THEN you won't get 100% duplicatable results a soil compaction and leaching are also different.
heck, soil ITSELF is different from one time to another depending on the water content..

You just have to put dirt to coil.

 

[SpiritRelic]

charlie (as usual lol) speaks the truth.

Air tests in NO WAY are indicative of performance in soil conditions.

Air has a different conduction coefficient than soil and the "true" best way to test is in a test plot (buried) and even THEN you won't get 100% duplicatable results a soil compaction and leaching are also different.
heck, soil ITSELF is different from one time to another depending on the water content..

You just have to put dirt to coil.

Air test tell a detectorist a lot! If you air test a quarter at 4",are you happy with that?Air test tell us how the detector is performing.It can quickly compare detectors.If you don't get good results in the air,what makes you think you are doing better in the ground? Don't ever think doing a air test has no place in detecting.This man found a problem with his machine by noting what his air test compared to other machines on the forum.That is dumb to say a air test means nothing. :-(

 

[Pulltab Parson]

I love my 5.75 in. conc. on my Vaquero, it's like it opens up a whole new world!

Good Hunting!

Pulltab

 

[DigDugNY]

Air test tell a detectorist a lot! If you air test a quarter at 4",are you happy with that?Air test tell us how the detector is performing.It can quickly compare detectors.If you don't get good results in the air,what makes you think you are doing better in the ground? Don't ever think doing a air test has no place in detecting.This man found a problem with his machine by noting what his air test compared to other machines on the forum.That is dumb to say a air test means nothing. :-(

Thanks SpiritRelic for actually understanding why I was pretty excited. I know I won't get that depth in the ground, but knowing it is getting 3 more inches in an air test than it did before, and this being with the 5.75 concentric, at least shows me that getting my coils retuned helped. I hadn't seen these numbers the whole 2 years I've had the machine. I think I have a right to be a little excited

 

[kjb1769]

I would be excited as well. I really struggled with the decision between the Vaquero and the Outlaw. I bought the Vaquero and am very happy with it. But I wanted the 5.75" coil option for areas with a high amount of trash and bought a Compadre with the 5.75" coil. I figured that way I had the option of the small coil when needed and a backup detector "just in case".

 

[SpiritRelic]

I would be excited as well. I really struggled with the decision between the Vaquero and the Outlaw. I bought the Vaquero and am very happy with it. But I wanted the 5.75" coil option for areas with a high amount of trash and bought a Compadre with the 5.75" coil. I figured thatkjb way I had the option of the small coil when needed and a backup detector "just in case".

kjb,you made a good choice.I have the Tejon,Outlaw,Golden umax.I owed two vaq's in the past but fell on hard times and sold them.Dumbist thing i ever did.I still want another vaq,that's how much i like this detector.It kicks butt.You did good. :-!

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

That is dumb to say a air test means nothing. :-(

I'll ignore the "dumb" jibe and say that I never said air tests tell you nothing. They tell you how detectors work indoors with coins waved in the air with a lot of surrounding EMI. If most of your detecting is indoors and that excites you then enjoy. But I maintain you have to get dirty to learn anything useful or relevant. Wave a handful of mineralized soil and a coin behind it or a nail in the same hand to see if it nulls out the coin.

I MUCH prefer a test garden with buried objects near or under iron and junk.

 

[DigDugNY]

I'll ignore the "dumb" jibe and say that I never said air tests tell you nothing. They tell you how detectors work indoors with coins waved in the air with a lot of surrounding EMI. If most of your detecting is indoors and that excites you then enjoy. But I maintain you have to get dirty to learn anything useful or relevant. Wave a handful of mineralized soil and a coin behind it or a nail in the same hand to see if it nulls out the coin.

I MUCH prefer a test garden with buried objects near or under iron and junk.

I don't believe you knew of my situation. I had to send my detector and coils back into the factory to get them checked on. I had a feeling something was off. They both needed to be re-tuned and I just got them back not too long ago. My air tests weren't the best before getting them back, so when doing this most recent air test in the same place as I usually do and getting better results gives me a reason to be happy. No, its not actual ground conditions and the depth won't be as great, but its still winter here in NY, so your not going to see me out there doing ground tests yet. I don't see why I need a test garden when I'd much rather just go out and detect. Just knowing that my detector is now acting more powerful is what I'm excited about, so no matter what you say, its not stepping on my parade, that's for sure

 

[atomicscott]

I don't believe you knew of my situation. I had to send my detector and coils back into the factory to get them checked on. I had a feeling something was off. They both needed to be re-tuned and I just got them back not too long ago. My air tests weren't the best before getting them back, so when doing this most recent air test in the same place as I usually do and getting better results gives me a reason to be happy. No, its not actual ground conditions and the depth won't be as great, but its still winter here in NY, so your not going to see me out there doing ground tests yet. I don't see why I need a test garden when I'd much rather just go out and detect. Just knowing that my detector is now acting more powerful is what I'm excited about, so no matter what you say, its not stepping on my parade, that's for sure

Bobby, I never actually saw what the air tests were before you sent it back to Tesoro. Do you have those numbers still? I did air tests right before and after I got my Vaq back, so I could do an actual back to back comparison.

 

[SpiritRelic]

I still say there is a quick tuning type circuit adjustment Tesoro can do to max out every detector.That's all that happened bobby.Not all detectors are equal or fully adjusted.This is were you keep a sharp eye on your depth #'s.I know if i can get close to twelve inches with a quarter that is great by me.So it's just easy for me to remember one quarter eleven -twelve inches is excellent! :O

 

[yelnif]

Bobby, I never actually saw what the air tests were before you sent it back to Tesoro. Do you have those numbers still? I did air tests right before and after I got my Vaq back, so I could do an actual back to back comparison.

Atomicscott, hello, how did your air tests' compare with BobbyS? What were they before the retune? after the retune? Which coil or coils did you send to Tesoro for tuning? My reason for asking- after air testing my "V" with both the 8x9 and the 5 3/4 coils my max. aid 'depth' was only 11". I am wondering if I should send my "V" (with both coils) in for a checkup/ retune?
My test results using 1; 1878 morgan SD, 2; 1964 quarter, 3; 1907 barber dime:

8"x9" monolithic- thres-full, sens-10, all metal/// SD 10"-11"; Qtr. 8"-9"; dime 7"-8"
thres-full, sens-10, disc-min/// SD10"-11"; qtr. 8"-9"; dime 7"-8"

5 3/4" concentric- thres-full, sens-10, all metal/// SD 10"-11"; qtr. 8"-9"; dime 7"-8";
thres-full, sens-10, disc-min/// SD 10"-11"; qtr. 8"-9'; dime 6"-7"
PS. I did think to check battery voltage (7.8v - was still 'chirping' on startup)/ put in new 9.2v battery. Retest @ the same , maybe a 1/2" gain in depth.
Thanks all for any advice. HH yelnif...

 

[atomicscott]

Part of my problem is not realizing how hot you actually have to run it to get the best depth. It is hard to air test at max when supertuning if there is so much chatter due to EMI. That notwithstanding, I still was only getting about 5" on a dime in the ground with sens at 9 and 3/4 threshold with stock coil. I seem to have gained 1.5"-2" when I got the coil retuned. With the 5.75 DD coil: I drop a dime in a hole 6" deep without burying it and GB neutral to the closest clean ground (it seems iron is everywhere in my backyard), I can hit the dime plus about 2" with a decent dig-able signal. With the stock coil, it was a bit less for some reason. It would hit about the same but more choppy, iffy signal. This was with threshold at max and sens at the end of red zone, but still not maxed. I suspect it would have hit deeper on a quarter than the smaller coil In the air, before retune: 10" on quarter, 6" on dime. After retune, 12"+ on quarter 8" on dime. I can sometimes run it this hot. It seems that at most of my sites, it is hard to run it more than max threshold and maybe middle of red zone (sometimes more), without it being too chatty to use. That is still plenty deep though!

 

[yelnif]

I decided to run the "AT" after reading BobbyS results. I was just setting the MD the same, trying to compare results (apples vs. apples) and his won- hands down. I am forced to test in house as it hasn't stopped raining for 2 days and we have @ 4days more coming. PITA! Normally I run 'all metal'- thres @ 11:30 ( just barely audible)- sens @9 ( if I run it up to far in the red it gets chatty) with headphones. I have found cents(clad +wheat) @ 4"-5", but no silver or gold, heh heh I wish, and the usual junk. I spoke with Rusty at Tesoro (great fella to talk to) and he told me @ potential EMI also. He suggested getting 100yrds away from any EMI transmission sources to do a good air test, weather holdup- wish it was waterproof. How do you figure your getting accurate ground depth when your target is in a hole without any soil covering it? When the MD sweeps over the target- it's just air between them, no mineralization to deal with? That's just an air test in the ground. Right? Your depth did increase after retune- that's great, every inch counts. HH Yelnif...

 

[DigDugNY]

I can't really remember what the air tests were before getting my coils re-tuned, but what I can tell you is that I'm getting 3-4" better on my air tests with the 5.75 coil...although the air tests are nice, I still have to get it outside and detect with it to see how the coils perform

 

[atomicscott]

I decided to run the "AT" after reading BobbyS results. I was just setting the MD the same, trying to compare results (apples vs. apples) and his won- hands down. I am forced to test in house as it hasn't stopped raining for 2 days and we have @ 4days more coming. PITA! Normally I run 'all metal'- thres @ 11:30 ( just barely audible)- sens @9 ( if I run it up to far in the red it gets chatty) with headphones. I have found cents(clad +wheat) @ 4"-5", but no silver or gold, heh heh I wish, and the usual junk. I spoke with Rusty at Tesoro (great fella to talk to) and he told me @ potential EMI also. He suggested getting 100yrds away from any EMI transmission sources to do a good air test, weather holdup- wish it was waterproof. How do you figure your getting accurate ground depth when your target is in a hole without any soil covering it? When the MD sweeps over the target- it's just air between them, no mineralization to deal with? That's just an air test in the ground. Right? Your depth did increase after retune- that's great, every inch counts. HH Yelnif...

Actually I bought my vaq mostly for prospecting. Imo all metal is where the vaquero really shines! You can hear those faint changes in the threshold hum and find those really deep targets, as well as very small targets. I wish I could run in all metal more often, it works so well.

 

[atomicscott]

I decided to run the "AT" after reading BobbyS results. I was just setting the MD the same, trying to compare results (apples vs. apples) and his won- hands down. I am forced to test in house as it hasn't stopped raining for 2 days and we have @ 4days more coming. PITA! Normally I run 'all metal'- thres @ 11:30 ( just barely audible)- sens @9 ( if I run it up to far in the red it gets chatty) with headphones. I have found cents(clad +wheat) @ 4"-5", but no silver or gold, heh heh I wish, and the usual junk. I spoke with Rusty at Tesoro (great fella to talk to) and he told me @ potential EMI also. He suggested getting 100yrds away from any EMI transmission sources to do a good air test, weather holdup- wish it was waterproof. How do you figure your getting accurate ground depth when your target is in a hole without any soil covering it? When the MD sweeps over the target- it's just air between them, no mineralization to deal with? That's just an air test in the ground. Right? Your depth did increase after retune- that's great, every inch counts. HH Yelnif...

Hey Fin, actually, I didn't claim it to be a ground test. True a coin in the air has zero mineralization to deal with. Even laying a coin on top of the ground and not in a hole, the coin will definitely have some mineralization to deal with. I tested this a couple years ago with my F2 (no GB adjustment). In the air I could get a good signal at about 1.5" on a small piece of lead pellet (about 6 grains). When I dropped the pellet ON the ground, I could NOT pick it up even when scrubbing the ground, and I could actually see the pellet laying on the ground! This proved to me that the minerals of the surrounding ground definitely affected the depth at which the pellet could be detected. So, a test with some ground involved would seem to be somewhat more representative of real hunting conditions than a test with zero ground to deal with.