New to me deleon

[kmaz]

I just acquired a deleon in wonderful shape and I've spent quite a bit of time searching the net for as much info as possible. Hoping to hear some tips or nuances to look for in relation to targets and ID numbers. I plan to stick with this machine a while and really try and learn it.
thanks
kris

 

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[Ammoman]

I have heard lots of good things about it. Check out you tube videos.

 

[tabman]

The Deleon goes deep and it loves silver coins. I'm not a big fan of a digital readout without ID tones. I covered the screen did quite will with it.

tabman

 

[kmaz]

Thanks for the replies.. And tabman, I'd be happy with 5% of your yearly silver finds! Also have a compadre and can't wait till spring in upstate ny

 

[bill from lachine]

The Deleon is my every day machine for 6 years or so.....on the sensitivity go about 7 or 8 don't run it to hot...I just knock out iron and pretty much dig everything that beeps even the scratchy/iffy signals...all the rings in my avatar were found with it so it gets the job done.

Regards + HH

Bill

 

[Hihosilver]

The Deleon is on my want list, so I hope you post about your finds and settings.

 

[Crappies-n-Coins]

Ditto on what was said by those who swing one. Forget the screen, or you'll be passing over some good finds.

 

[tabman]

Thanks for the replies.. And tabman, I'd be happy with 5% of your yearly silver finds! Also have a compadre and can't wait till spring in upstate ny

That reminds me that I need to take my Tesoro Compadre out for a spin. The Compadre has found me enough gold jewelry to pay for itself many times over.

That one knob bandit can find good targets that other detectors pass over. Tesoro must sprinkle the circuit board with magic dust before they ship them out.

Google 'Church of the Compadre". There's nothing in its price range that can compete with it. Not even close! Plus it's really fun to use.

tabman

 

[kmaz]

That reminds me that I need to take my Tesoro Compadre out for a spin. The Compadre has found me enough gold jewelry to pay for itself many times over.

That one knob bandit can find good targets that other detectors pass over. Tesoro must sprinkle the circuit board with magic dust before they ship them out.

Google 'Church of the Compadre". There's nothing in its price range that can compete with it. Not even close! Plus it's really fun to use.

tabman

the church thread is one of my favs... Glad to be a practicing member. As far as relying on tid #'s ... Don't plan too but was hoping maybe to help with best guess scenarios , makes it fun to me.

 

[cokat7]

I use the Cortes and really like it. Cortes/Deleon, same machine basically. It is an excellent park hunting machine, works good for old coins too.
I use the Cortes and compadre, the compadre doesn't have anything over the Deleon. I've taken the compadre over places to find if I missed anything, I dug more trash those days than I dig in a month or 3 using the Cortes! Also, good targets recovered were none to 1 maybe 2.
when the Deleon/Cortes say it's junk, 9/20 times its actually junk, great ID.
btw, the cleansweep and Deleon will be a great match for open areas.
I was surprised by the depth on this machine when I got it, it's not super deep, but it seems to be close or just as deep as the vaquero I had. I've had coins in the 8-9" range with ok Id.
Cortes is the only machine I have actually been able to ID a woman's gold ring and know what it was before I dug it. Watch the vdi in the nickels/tab area and wait for it to lock on, nickels and tab #'s will bounce around, with a ring the #'s might move a bit, but only by 1 maybe 2 #'s up or down.
For park hunting I keep the disc at O in foil , just so I don't have to listen to all the trash, but still accept a small women's ring, sens at 4, threshold barley audible, . Now when you get a good hit and you know it's not the choppy broken iron sound - BUT the vdi shows 0. This is the machine unmasking good stuff amongst iron. Vdi will show 0 but the clean audio gives it away as a good target! This works best with the stock coil, or the 5.75 concentric. Every other available coil for the Tesoro umax units won't unmask like these 2, as far as I know anyways. Seems to me that the widescan like iron too much to be able to discriminate them by sound when the machine gives a good Id.


if I'm on an older site I run it with the disc at the half-way point between min and iron. Turning disc higher than this will make it loose some depth, but Once the disc is turned past this point it won't loose any more depth no matter how high it's turned.
i like toggling between all-metal and disc mode to find out if the target is a shallow shotgun birdshot or a deeper conductive coin. Also if you are unsure if the target is a bottlecap or not, listen for how the target sounds as the coil approaches it in all-metal. iron will sound off well before the coil is over it, while non-ferrous needs the edge of the coil to get within an inch for aluminum or silver and almost right on top of the target for copper or gold. Gold giving the tightest signal from any of them, so be sure to overlap your swing!
Im getting cabin fever here, waiting for spring thaw so I can actually get out there and use the thing again.
good luck!

 

[Crappies-n-Coins]

when the Deleon/Cortes say it's junk, 9/20 times its actually junk, great ID.

Did you mean 9/10?

I've dug lots of IH's and LC's that showed as "junk"

 

[cokat7]

Did you mean 9/10?

I've dug lots of IH's and LC's that showed as "junk"

In that case, let's go with 9 out of 10!
Ive only used it for one year and it's my first vdi machine, so lots left to learn yet.

 

[Crappies-n-Coins]

In that case, let's go with 9 out of 10!
Ive only used it for one year and it's my first vdi machine, so lots left to learn yet.

Depending on how/where you hunt, and if you haven't already bought one, you may want to consider adding one of the smaller (4" or 5.75") coils. They're great for picking between the junk.

 

[bill from lachine]

For what it's worth my rule of thumb is dig everything above iron and that probably applies to all machines not just the DeLeon or other Tesoro machines.

The VDI are pretty much a rough guess at best so don't rely on them I've dug LCs that rang up as pulltabs...go figure.

Did you mean 9/10?

I've dug lots of IH's and LC's that showed as "junk"

 

[luvsdux]

I've had excellent results with my D. As several have mentioned, you will do well without running the sensitivity full bore. 7 - 8 has served me well. I usually run the disc. around iron. If you get a signal that bounces all over the coin indications, always dig. Many times it will turn out to be a coin spill.
luvsdux

 

[kmaz]

Thanks everyone for all the remarks, can't wait to learn this machine.
kris

 

[cokat7]

Depending on how/where you hunt, and if you haven't already bought one, you may want to consider adding one of the smaller (4" or 5.75") coils. They're great for picking between the junk.

I do have the 5.75 and I fully agree with you.

For what it's worth my rule of thumb is dig everything above iron and that probably applies to all machines not just the DeLeon or other Tesoro machines.

The VDI are pretty much a rough guess at best so don't rely on them I've dug LCs that rang up as pulltabs...go figure.

Bill, do you dig everything from iron and up in a park? Or do you go older/cleaner sites?
I find I get too discouraged with the hobby if I dig everything above iron. Ive tried this at parks and fairgrounds with the vaquero when I ran out of other sites to hunt. It got to the point where I dug so much junk (trying to find that elusive gold ring), that I actually gave up the hobby for a full week in mid summer!
This is partly what fuelled me buying the Cortes, was being able to weed through the non-ferrous trash.

 

[bill from lachine]

cokat,

Just to clarify.....most of my sites have been heavily hunted by me and others so during my earlier years I was primarily coin shooting as things got thinned out I started just knocking out iron and digging everything from foil on up to find what was missed.

Regards + HH

Bill

 

[Sandman]

Tesoro Metal Detectors - Official company web site with metal detector models for treasure hunting land or water. This might help.

 

[digmesomestuff]

I recently bought a Deleon as well so thanks for the information. I've only been out with it a few times and am still learning it. Seems like a good machine. However, I read somewhere else in the forum that a Tesoro rep said the auto ground balance is not optimal for the Western U.S. I'm in CA. Anyone use one in the western States?