CTX 3030 vs CZ3D vs Tesoro Tejon Ground Test part 1 of 2

[Colosprings73]

Hey All,

Here are are the videos that some of you were asking me to do to show a true comparison of these 3 detectors.

I have to break this into 2 threads as I can only post 5 Videos at a time.

I live in NC so the ground has red clay and ground can be ok.

We made a test bed with clad coins at various depths.

Depths were 6", 8" and 11".

I made sure ALL machines were ground balanced and noise cancelled if possible.

The tests finally prove what I should in my air tests.

Of the 3 machines:

CTX 3030: I most proficient at the CTX 3030. I have to come to know its language very well and know what I am digging 95% of the time. The draw back is the depth. I again can verify that the CTX does NOT go as deep as other machines. Its major advnatages are that it DOES let you know whats in the ground PROVIDED it is not too deep, it has GPS and can plot the finds you make on the GPS map and upload them to your PC to overlay them on Google Earth and it has the ability to have updates uploaded to the CTX for better performance. I just recently did the most recent update and it changed my pinpoint system and made it MUCH better. Major downside is.......you guessed it......WAY TOO EXPENSIVE!!!

CZ3D: This machine I am getting better and better at it the more I use it. There is a DVD that you can get really help you with the use of the CZ as it is a very good and somewhat popular machine to those who have been in this for a while. The major plus to the CZ is that it is a Nickle magnet....seriously!!! Downside is the WEIGHT....it is really heavy with the large 11" coil, so I have to mount the box on a belt..PITA!!! There is a Mod so you can mount it under the shaft and have the display on the top, however I read it is a hard mod and you need parts.

Tesoro Tejon: I have to say I LOVE this machine and the Tesoro brand of machines. Out of all 3 I tested...the Tesoro was the CLEAR winner at depth. The more you use the Tejon the better you will become at knowing if it is a coin or not. It does have a large learning curve and is NOT just a beep and dig machine. The Tejon has a language all its own. You have to decipher the sound to gain a better idea of what is in the ground. It is soooooo light weight...I can swing it for hours with no problem. Lifetime Warranty to boot, wow I am sold!!! I plan on getting some more Tesoro units to fill my arsenal. Will be using Tesoros until the end.

Here are the 3 overviews of the 3:

1) ID'ing 2) Learning Curve 3) Depth 4) Price

CTX 3030: 1) GREAT 2) MODERATE 3) AVERAGE 4) VERY HIGH

CZ3D: [COLOR=#0080004]1) AVERAGE [/COLOR] 2) MODERATE 3) GOOD 4) MED/HIGH

Tesoro Tejon: 1) AVERAGE 2) HARD 3) GREAT 4) LOW/MED


Here are the videos from the Test Bed and I hope this helps any of you looking at any of these machines.












Just a side note I am not affiliated with any of these companies nor have a vested interest in one company or the other.......just a fair and honest comparison to show you the pros and cons of all three machines that I WILL keep and use.

Thanks for watching and HH.

 

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[kuger]

Great post!!I have been a die hard MXT user for years because I know her language,but a good friend switched from the Cibola to the Tejon and was running circles around me....especially at depth!!I broke down and bought one too.We never take the big coil off,and I am shocked at the seperation abilities,and ability to pick up tiny targets.You are right,they ave there own language.....that I am still working on

 

[Colosprings73]

Kuger,

I completely agree with you. The Tejon has an AMAZING target seperation. The CTX is Good and the CZ3d is Fair but both are no where near the TEJON. I forgot to show that part on my videos I will have to add that one.

HH

 

[granthansen]

Thanks for posting this. I'm going to watch each in detail as I'm seriously thinking about getting the CTX 3030.

 

[LuckyLarry]

I used to own a Tejon. It did very, VERY well in low mineralized soil and air tests, but as the soil Fe increased the behavior of the Tejon became increasingly irattic, to a point of being almost useless. The Tejon is a waste of time in high Fe or high iron trash soils, mostly due to it being overdriven by too much gain having been piped into it right off the assembly line. At my Oregon high magnetite salt beaches it was left in the van in favor of my Fisher "Z", it being the best single I've ever used under those conditions, and even better than a multi-freq Sovereign. I traded the Tejon for a Browning 338 magnum A-Bolt, and I quickly fled the scene before I got nailed with grand theft. It is a good machine in tot lots though as long as they consist of wood chips or sawdust.

The sensitivity on the CZ needs to be turned as high as the other detector's sensitivity settings for fairness. You also did not give the CZ the same benefit of doing a cross-check at 180 degrees as you did with the other detectors. If you did, it likely would have read better. Also, you disturbed the first matrix by removing more iron, another questionable practice when comparing different detector's performance against each other. Note: Some detectors read better at 180 than others do, a well-known fact among we old guys.


The CZ is easier to listen to, makes less noise, and is easier on the nerves. In my soil here it ground balances at 2 1/2, but there at 5, meaning that there is nearly twice the iron is my soil. A "5" reading on a CZ is about normal for Ohio soil, but other places the soil is a lot more nasty, good for the CZ, but bad for the Tejon. Just as in my case with my ex Tejon, the constant noise caused me to want to wrap the thing around a tree somewhere. In this video the constant ground condition's pops and chirps don't show because most coins are greater distances from each other and therefore much of the other interference and noise isn't produced. Also there is insufficient space between planted targets to show that too, but in the real world it's a totally different scenario. The Tejon is probably the toughest metal detector I've ever encountered for trying to ground balance a detector, especially in harsher soils. In this video here I found the Fisher easier to hear than the Tejon, and the 3030 the same. Little peeps and squeeks in the Tejon video in the real world do not find us those deep coins, because it takes too long to separate them all, noises made by a detector that is designed more for finding relics and old artifacts in wide open areas, than for coin hunting. Both the Tejon and the Fisher 1270, the predecessor of the Tejon, were designed for relic hunters in mild soil in the Eastern US and in Europe, but not for the average coin hunter.

Of the three I would chose the CZ3D 1st, the 3030 2nd, and a Vaquero 3rd. Why the Vaquero 3rd? Simply because it provides basically similar depth as the Tejon, but it is a lot quieter and the extra noise doesn't mask the real targets as much. .. Actually, I wouldn't chose the Tejon at all, it's too noisy for me.

The 3030 did as I expected, good in some ways, but bad in others. Please don't be offended when I point out my observations, I was in the business producing them at one time, so I'm a bit more critical than many others. It goes with the turf.

Cheers. Larry