Help reading the Disc knob on the Vaquero

[OcdChaos]

I was hoping someone could help me figure out what each mark on the Discriminate knob on the Vaquero roughly equates to? The first notch is obviously all metal. Then goes mark - iron - mark - mark - 5¢ - Tab - mark - mark - Max. What do the marks after iron and before nickel supposed to equate to. I have found that foil seems to be around the mark before 5¢. What about the 2 notches after Tab, or the mark after iron? Thanks for any of your experience as I learn my machine better.

 

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[digger27]

I was hoping someone could help me figure out what each mark on the Discriminate knob on the Vaquero roughly equates to? The first notch is obviously all metal. Then goes mark - iron - mark - mark - 5¢ - Tab - mark - mark - Max. What do the marks after iron and before nickel supposed to equate to. I have found that foil seems to be around the mark before 5¢. What about the 2 notches after Tab, or the mark after iron? Thanks for any of your experience as I learn my machine better.

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First off, you have to understand that certain targets come in at specific places most of the time, tabs around tabs, dimes high and you can't disc them out, zincolns around the 3:00 range most of the time, trash all over the place..but none of this is in stone, ever.
Too many things happening out there, soil conditions, masking metal near other targets changing the signal, how targets are laying in the ground and even depth can affect everything.

Look at this scale of common targets on this old Whites unit, it translates directly over to your disc knob, iron low, silver high and everything in between.



This is a normal range for targets on all detectors including the Vaq but again, normal is not normal all the time.

Past that iron mark you are into the foil range on those next two marks but don't believe only foil comes in there, if you do and avoid digging all of it you might miss many gold rings and even decent sized silver chains.

The marks after Tab are the range between higher tabs and lower zinc to about the 3:00 area and tabs, especially beaver tails, can easily come in higher than that dead on tab mark and some zincolns can come in below the 3:00 usual zincoln range especially if they are eaten up rotten types...or other zinc items can come in this range too like junk jewelry and I have dug a few zincolns above that 3:00 area, too.

Above the 3:00 area you can get into all sorts of things like some pop tops, screw on caps, decent sized can slaw and even full cans sometimes but not only junk all the time.
I have found a few large brass or bronze tokens in that range.

Maxed out the knob will still not disc out copper cents, dimes, quarters and the other large denomination US coins although you can still get some large trash that won't disc out either.

That disc knob is a range that can give you clues about what you are swinging over depending on where it ends up as you dial or thumb up to the fade out point or the way I always do it dialing past the fade out point and then back down to listen how all targets "come in".
A more accurate way to do it IMO.

Below will give you some information about your disc knob and two specific types of metals I usually hunt for, silver and gold.

The pic of the disc knob is off a Compadre but it is the same on the Vaq and matches up so a little more info about targets for you.
Notice the silver chain picture...those chains that came in at foil were in the range you asked about, the two marks between iron and 5¢.

Look at the gold info.
That stuff can come in anywhere and I have found most of mine in the area above iron into those two marks up to the 3:00 area in zinc on big gold 10k class rings.

It just takes practice and after digging enough targets at all levels you start to remember where most things usually shake out but always keep this in the back of your mind...
There are many techniques we can learn and use to help us make some pretty good and accurate educated guesses about what we are swinging over but without X Ray vision the only way to know 100% what is laying in the ground hiding is to dig it.

 

[OcdChaos]

Thanks digger27! That's helpful. I am currently digging everything, but rolling the disc knob over a target to see where I lose the signal or where it break up. I'm trying to guess what I think it may be before I dig it. I still have a lot to learn, but it's gettting better. I had wondered about the disc marks when I see other Tesoro owners post that they found something just above the 'I' in Foil, or something like that, leading me to wonder what they were looking at, but your picture of the Compadre model helps explain what they were talking about. Thanks again!

 

[digger27]

I am here to serve.

 

[68kaiser]

Chaos in am learning my vaquero also.. Have been digging all signals above iron for a few months now. I have learned the audio on the V is amazing for a one time machine. Head phones are a must.. I hunt with discriminate set to just take out a old nail. Then hunt slow and listen for good tones. You can tell the shape of a object with the V if you listen to what it tells you. On deeper targets they will disc out lower than shallow and you lose depth with high discrimination. That's why I set just above iron and LISTEN to the V and trust my detector. I am starting to dig deeper and better coins.

 

[luvsdux]

I've always took the non titled marks to mean, for instance, a tad over iron, a tad under tabs etc. You may find it helpful to mark each spot where a commonly encountered target drops out. Many times I set my discrimination to just cleanly accept a nickel so that the disc is under gold targets etc. This method also sets the exact spot regardless of whether the knob marking is right on.
luvsdux

 

[pinenut]

just reference points..

In-between marks are just reference points with no specific meaning. I like to start at a tad under nickel, then thumb it up and back. If I'm in super trashy spots, I may start out with my knob pointing at the faceplate screw and thumb it from there (yeah, sounds funny..).

Though some may laugh, I made myself a couple knobs just for that purpose. This one lives on my Vaquero:




And here's an earlier one I made, which is now on my Cibola:

 

[digger27]

I've always took the non titled marks to mean, for instance, a tad over iron, a tad under tabs etc. You may find it helpful to mark each spot where a commonly encountered target drops out. Many times I set my discrimination to just cleanly accept a nickel so that the disc is under gold targets etc. This method also sets the exact spot regardless of whether the knob marking is right on.
luvsdux

That is what I used to do for a decently long time after I got my Vaq.
Then one day I read a post from a hunter that stated the best thing he ever found came in as foil...so I started lowering that knob more and more.

In the last few years I have found about 35 gold targets and 8 of them came in at foil, smaller yellow gold rings and larger ones that were white gold, and many came in way below nickel into lower foil.

I am sure you realize this but for those newbies that don't I will tell them this...
There is no setting that will actually put you under gold since it can and does come in from iron on up and many rings definitely in foil.

 

[eyemustdigtreasure]

Almost every machine is a minor amount different.
Just air test your machine and see where on your scale the goodies are heard, and not heard,
then remember where those sweet spots are...!
Be aware that Old coins are sometimes different than modern coins on your discriminator.
Another way, is dig everything, paying attention to where your knob is when you last heard the target.