Eldorado and nickels

[Rocky77]

Hello everybody. I was recently lucky enough to pick up an Eldorado with the uMax housing and a Bandido II uMax. So far I'm really liking the Eldorado the most. It's become one of my new favorite detectors. The Eldorado is a lot easier to tell depth through the all metal mode, and it goes deeper than the Bandido. The Bandido and I haven't quite yet clicked. It's not the sounds, it's the the functionality I find a bit off. Maybe because it's used and needs a once over from the factory. Plus, the person who owned it before me obviously switched out the discrimination knob. It's larger than it should be.

Anyhow, after going through my test bed with both detectors they both were picking up my nickel with the nickel discriminated out. The Eldorado I had maxed out and was still picking it up. I'm pretty sure this isn't normal. Both detectors weren't knocking out the nickel in the ground but out of the ground they worked just fine. The nickel was around 4 inches deep and I had the 9x8 spider coil on the Eldorado and the 8in doughnut coil on the Bandido.

I'd also like to say I own an original Silver Sabre and it's pretty freakin awesome. I'm new to Tesoro machines and so far I'm really liking them all.

They just act weird on a buried nickel. Except for the Silver Sabre. That one is spot on even for its age. Any input on why this is happening would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

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[pinenut]

Hello everybody. I was recently lucky enough to pick up an Eldorado with the uMax housing and a Bandido II uMax. So far I'm really liking the Eldorado the most. It's become one of my new favorite detectors. The Eldorado is a lot easier to tell depth through the all metal mode, and it goes deeper than the Bandido. The Bandido and I haven't quite yet clicked. It's not the sounds, it's the the functionality I find a bit off. Maybe because it's used and needs a once over from the factory. Plus, the person who owned it before me obviously switched out the discrimination knob. It's larger than it should be.

Anyhow, after going through my test bed with both detectors they both were picking up my nickel with the nickel discriminated out. The Eldorado I had maxed out and was still picking it up. I'm pretty sure this isn't normal. Both detectors weren't knocking out the nickel in the ground but out of the ground they worked just fine. The nickel was around 4 inches deep and I had the 9x8 spider coil on the Eldorado and the 8in doughnut coil on the Bandido.

I'd also like to say I own an original Silver Sabre and it's pretty freakin awesome. I'm new to Tesoro machines and so far I'm really liking them all.

They just act weird on a buried nickel. Except for the Silver Sabre. That one is spot on even for its age. Any input on why this is happening would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

It's not normal to be getting a nickel with disc turned up much past the nickel range, on any Tesoro. They're usually completely gone by the time you get up to the tab range. Since you can disc it out normally on an air test but not in the ground, something tells me that your ground balance isn't correct, OR, there's another target of some sort along side your burried nickel.

If you determine that something's still not right with those, just send 'em to me as I can use 'em both for parts...

Actually, those are two of my favorite Tesoro models, congratulations on picking 'em up! Tesoro can and will make 'em both work perfectly, for a small cost. ^_^

 

[Rocky77]

It's not normal to be getting a nickel with disc turned up much past the nickel range, on any Tesoro. They're usually completely gone by the time you get up to the tab range. Since you can disc it out normally on an air test but not in the ground, something tells me that your ground balance isn't correct, OR, there's another target of some sort along side your burried nickel.

If you determine that something's still not right with those, just send 'em to me as I can use 'em both for parts...

Actually, those are two of my favorite Tesoro models, congratulations on picking 'em up! Tesoro can and will make 'em both work perfectly, for a small cost. ^_^

Thanks for the reply, Pinenut. I'm really liking the Eldorado so far. I actually had the ground balance set perfectly neutral. Some say run them slightly negative, but I find no difference when doing so. I also made sure no other target was close by. It's a mystery to me why it's happening. And no, I will not release them from my grasps to be used for scrap parts!

 

[digger27]

You live in Va. and have that red clay.
I live in Birmingham in the city also with that red clay...plus a ton of extra microscopic iron infused into most of my soil and it is way worse here in the city where I usually hunt than in the suburbs miles away with those same problems but a little less so.
I coined the phrase "Devil Dirt" to describe this stuff for a reason.
A couple of days ago I was hunting a tiny area in my neighborhood park that I have hit a ton of times with many detectors, the F70 is my prime and I know I went over the exact spot with this target numerous times but never dug this target.
The F70 is programmed to up average all targets around iron.
Normal copper cents and dimes that usually come in at the low 70's soar here into the low 90's if they are past 3" in depth, trash does it too and even Indian heads and nickels.
The deeper they are the higher the numbers.
I have dug several nickels here with that F70 at many depths.
Older Jefferson nickels, and silver war nickels have come in way higher than usual every time depending on depth.
At around 2-3" depth level I have dug those Jefferson's from the 1940's and 50's, usually around a 32-33 on my F70 VDI, at around the tab to lower zinc areas in the mid 40's to lower 50's VDI and into the 60's to 70's at the 4-5" area and at 6"-8" they also soar into the mid 80's to low 90's.
Silver war nickels are weird and can come in higher anyway but same thing...
A couple I dug that were 3" or so came in extra high in the zinc cent range, a few I dug at that 6"+ area back to the lower 90's.
I have recovered several buffs, also...same thing.
One or two sections higher into the tabs and zinc area in the 3-4" levels, they fly high back up into the silver dollar range if deeper much past that.

Two days ago I took out the Vaq once again just for fun because it is so dry around here I can't get deep so I was just having fun thumbing the knob and digging the shallowest targets for practice.
In that area I had been over a million times before with all kinds of detectors, in a spot I can guarantee you I have swung over in the past many times I got a classic tab signal with that Vaq.
Faded out at tabs going up, came in at tabs with the knob turned past and then back down, came in a little bit noisy on the end...this was a tab all the way.
It wasn't really deep, ended up being between 1-2" at the most but I figured I would chop my way down there, recover it and go home.
Out if the hole instead came a coin, not a tab, and it was a 1936 buff.
There is nothing wrong with the ground balance on my Vaq, it is working perfectly fine as is that same feature on my F70.
I am positive I missed this thing many times using that F70 in the past because it always came in as a jumpy tab and I just can't and won't dig tons of trash like I used to years ago.
I have always said I could miss something good with my higher percentage digging rules and this, evidently, was one of them.

Several years ago miles away from here in a state park I dug a modern nickel with my F2 in a small spot with some better black dirt that confused the heck out of me.
Most of the time I rarely got much past 2-3" around here because of the soil problems with that one, no GB either but it worked well enough and I did well hunting for shallow targets.
This nickel was a tiny bit deeper at maybe 3-4" but it came in at the mid 50's just like a decent piece of can slaw.
Nothing else in the vicinity, no iron, no other signals at all because I was so confused when a nickel came up I looked and dug around looking for another piece of metal.
There was nothing and this baffled me for years.
Now I know the answer...on all these nickels using any of these detectors the thing that caused this up averaging affect was the soil.
There might have been something else around these up averaged nickels, some big iron or other high conductive trash but not every one of them.
The common denominator in all that were affected by this was the soil.
Around here not only the red clay but even the rarer areas of better black dirt is infused with uncommon amounts of iron.
The F70 was programmed to do this near iron but now I realize the F2 can and will do it to.
Two days ago I discovered the Vaq seems to do some of this up averaging also.

I wish I knew this years ago.
Using this knowledge and the F70 I have found several great targets missed by others for decades in this mess because I understand this now and use other indicators and behavior to make digging decisions and don't rely on the standard and normal VDI info and behavior to tell me what targets might be, I had to learn a whole new language to do it consistently and successfully but I did and it was and still is worth it.
Now I wonder how many targets, deeper targets, I left in the dirt using both my Vaq and that F2 and the Compadre for years because I didn't understand how easily this kind of soil can affect conductivity readings...even using Tesoros.
I know now...better late than never I guess.

 

[Rocky77]

Very informative post, Digger. Thank you. It must be my dirt. My test bed is around my bushes in the backyard which is old mulch and dirt mixed. It's a nice funky black dirt. I dug up the nickel and reburied it tonight. It was still getting picked up with the disc past nickel but was choppier this time. I have a bottle cap in there as well as a pull tab and they were getting knocked out perfectly so I know the detector is working. It's just that pesky nickel signal I'm worried about. I have a quarter buried at 8 inches and the Eldorado was picking that up nicely even at max disc which completely reassured me that the detector is fine. I brought out my Xterra 705 to get a GB reading and the GB numbers were very low, so I know the dirt is bad. I'm totally new to Tesoros, so I'm still learning the subtle nuances and quirks.

 

[luvsdux]

I generally set my disc to where it just barely accepts nickels, then thumb the disc higher when over a target to see where the target drops out (or not).
luvsdux