Is the Cibola worth buying?

[JakePhelps]

I am thinking of getting it soon, I have already saved up almost 170 bucks. Hopefully I will get the rest sometime after christmas. But my question is: Is it worth the money? And should i get it for relic hunting? I have heard mixed comments about it and i need to know if its a good detector or not!

 

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[civilman1]

My question exactly Jake!Cibola or ACE250?.Let me know.

 

[SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS]

Jake,

did you try the machine out?

have a good un.............

 

[Michigan Badger]

When I'm thinking about buying a detector I don't just ask someone who owns that particular brand and model. I like to ask lots of questions on different forums.

The last few weeks I've been primarily focusing my attention on the Tesoro brand. To date, all current and previous owners of Tesoros say (write) the following:

1. They are very deep
2. They are very stable (don't drift)
3. They are a dream to handle (excellent balance and weight)
4. They are very good pinpointers
5. They discriminate very well
6. The company stands behind their product (warrantee)

I've heard this over and over again. Even those who sold their machines to buy another brand agree to these 6 points.

Do like I did--comment, ask questions, post on other forums, etc.

If Tesoros were bad and poorly made machines, one would never see such a widespread positive attitude toward them (all models).

So, on the other hand, post questions about some of the other major brands and get ready to read some awfully negative stuff.

The Ace 250 is another great machine. For the price, just try to find a bad comment about that detector. They're not easy to come by.

At $200 the 250 is your best buy. At $340 the Cibola is your best buy.

 

[gregl01]

Hi Jake, I have an ACE250 and it is a good all around machine. Ths Cibola WILL be my next detector come spring!!! Nothing wrong with the ACE, I found many items this summer and would recommend it to anyone for coinshooting, playgrounds, ballfields etc etc. If you need depth and great iron disc. all reviews say the Cibola is unmatched for the money Save a little more dough and hold out for a Cibola, I think it is more in tune to what your hunting for(just my .02)
HH
Greg

 

[1320]

I am in agreement with the many positive statements about the Cibola. It's small iron discrimination is unbelievable. If your searching for small iron relics, I'd leave this machine alone! It does well with large iron. It's a coin shooting machine.

I bought the Cibola as a backup to my much more expensive Cortez.....the Cortez is now the backup. The Cibola is a featherweight too, easy on the arm.

 

[JakePhelps]

Im definetly getting it once iv got the money

 

[Michigan Badger]

I am in agreement with the many positive statements about the Cibola.? It's small iron discrimination is unbelievable.? If your searching for small iron relics, I'd leave this machine alone!? It does well with large iron.? It's a coin shooting machine.?

I bought the Cibola as a backup to my much more expensive Cortez.....the Cortez is now the backup.? The Cibola is a featherweight too, easy on the arm.

May I ask why you made the Cortez your backup and use the Cibola as your main machine?

 

[bazinga]

My buddy is a dealer and was showing me a Cibola one day out in the field. It could only detect a quarter at about 6 or 7 inches.

The notch discrimination on it was very impressive though. Whenever he found a target he would just flip the notch from penny, nickle, dime, quarter, etc until it no longer got a signal and it was right on the money every time.

Granted, don't always trust an air test, but I would recommend saving up for a deeper machine. He recommended the tesoro tejaun though as an incredible DEEP machine.

 

[Michigan Badger]

My buddy is a dealer and was showing me a Cibola one day out in the field. It could only detect a quarter at about 6 or 7 inches.

The notch discrimination on it was very impressive though. Whenever he found a target he would just flip the notch from penny, nickle, dime, quarter, etc until it no longer got a signal and it was right on the money every time.

Granted, don't always trust an air test, but I would recommend saving up for a deeper machine. He recommended the tesoro tejaun though as an incredible DEEP machine.

Thanks for the info.

This is different than what I have been reading. This is the first post I've seen giving the Cibola a poor depth rating. Personally I can't say because I haven't used one yet.

 

[JakePhelps]

This is what i meant about mixed comments...now im confused on it

 

[gregl01]

I'm with Zeb on this. I have never heard a complaint about depth with this machine. Sounds like that dealer was pushing a Tejon that day!!!
I'm still convinced that it'll be my next detector come spring!!!!
Greg

 

[bakergeol]

Don't forget the Cibola does not have a manual ground balance. If you picked an area with severe ground mineralization it would be at a depth disadvantage to machines like the Tejon with manual ground balance.. So if you have severe ground mineralization in your area- Cibola's big brother the Vaquero would be the choice.

I went back and checked LT's field test of the Cibola. The tester reported finding wheat cents at 7" and a barber dime at 9". Although magazine field tests are fluff pieces with nary a bad review, I feel their depths are usually accurate.

Above all this is really not a new detector. It was introduced in the relic forums? some time ago where depth is important and was heavily debated.? I remember all the "Hype" and controversy about this detector when it was first introduced like "Yeah Tesoro has come out with a deep detector for $340". Comparisons with the Tejon or Vaquero, etc. etc.? Back and forth this went for a long time- well the results were in a long time ago- Yes it is a solid machine.Yes, there are detectors better and deeper out the there(Tejon) but not for $340.

If Tesoro could have? produced a VDI with the Cibola for $350 a lot of machine sales from the Ace 250 would have come their way.

George

 

[bazinga]

I'm with Zeb on this. I have never heard a complaint about depth with this machine. Sounds like that dealer was pushing a Tejon that day!!!
I'm still convinced that it'll be my next detector come spring!!!!
Greg

The dealer wasn't trying to sell anything to me, especially since he had no tejouns in stock and several cibolas right there if I wanted to buy them. I just didn't see any advantage in an air test over my ace 250. But, the notch discrimination on it was incredible and I will give it that. But, if you are after DEEP coins, i.e., over 10" I would go with something else. He said his buddy only hunts for old coins and swears by the tejaun and that's all he uses. I swear by my Explorer with the 15" coil, but the tejaun is more affordable,haha.

Sorry to give you a mixed review of it. It could have just been the machine, but who knows?

 

[bakergeol]

Comparing the Cibola to high end machines is not fair. You can always spend more money and get a deeper machine than the Cibola. Want an inch deeper for coins than the Cibola- spend an extra $200 for a Tejon. Hey go crazy. Spend $1100 more and get an Explorer 11 with a 15" WOT coil for a few more inches. Want even more depth on coins spend $1000 to $2000 more on high end PIs. Hey just throw some money around to ensure that my toy(detector) is deeper than my neighbor's.

However in case someone has not noticed it, the Ace 250 at $200 is the most popular detector here on this forum. Spending $200 more for a Tejon instead of a Cibola is a major investment for a lot of people. Maybe the question is "Would you spend $200 more on a detector to gain an extra 1" in coin depth?". A lot of people would say yes and a lot of people would say no.


George

 

[Michigan Badger]

The thing I'm hearing from some is all the Tesoros get about the same depth. I first heard this from a guy on another forum and he sent me to a dealer down south (very large online distributor). I'm supposed to call this distributor because he doesn't want to discuss this in print.

The depth they give me for all the Tesoros is greater than any of the Minelabs up to and including the Explorer.

Personally, I don't know. Like I wrote in another post, I'm tired of contacting dealers and hearing all these far-out claims and contradictions. Today I'm ordering a Tesoro model and that's that. I'll test it out throughly and if it sucks it goes on ebay. I'll let you all know what I think but the fact is we all have to see it for ourselves.

 

[Michigan Badger]

Here's a test I "borrowed" from another forum. Some of you may find this interesting.

TEST CONDITIONS:

I buried dimes and nickels (both of recent vintage) at different depths in loamy soil that was moist. During the test the soil above and below the coins was well compacted. I ran depth tests using my Cibola and my Minelab Quattro. Both units were optimized to be as sensitive as possible in my soil conditions, the Quattro was ground balanced before each test.

Note: Newly buried coins lack a conductive "halo" layer and will appear smaller in size than older buried coins. With this in mind, older coins should appear as larger targets because they have developed a conductive "halo" and should be detected at greater depths.

OBJECTIVE OF THESE TESTS:
1) Determine if nickels can really be detected deeper than silver coins.
2) Determine which machine detected the "best" during these controlled tests.
3) Determine if the pre-set ground balance circuit of the Cibola took a backseat to the sophisticated auto ground balance circuit of the Quattro.


TEST RESULTS:

CIBOLA test results on a nickel:
I buried a nickel at various depths and the Cibola could accurately detect the nickle at a maximum depth of 7-inches. The nickle was lost at 8-inches and couldn't be detected (not even in Super Tune mode) The Cibola did display one strange affect, when buried at 7-inches the nickel appear as a silver coin and could be detected with the discriminate set at a maximum level.

When a nickle was buried at 6-inches deep. The Cibola could detect it even when 4-inches air gap under the coil. Actual depth was 10-inches (6-inches of soil plus 4 inches of air.) When the nickel was buried at 7-inches the Cibola could not detect the nickel if the air gap between the bottom of the coil and the ground was more than 1/2-inch. The extra inch of soil really tended to dampen the extra lee-way in the air-gap department.

CIBOLA test results on a dime:

The deepest the Cibola could detect a dime was 5-inches. At 6-inches the dime disappears and could not be detected even in Super Tune mode.


QUATTRO test results on a nickel:

The deepest the Quattro could detect a nickle was 7-inches, identical to the Cibola. But at 7-inches it was giving lots of false signals. 75% of the signal were iron signals (negative numbers, no iron was in the soil and no signals were generated when the nickel was removed.)

At 6-inches the Quattro could correctly identify the nickel and consistently give a correct ID number (15 or 16). I was able to still detect the nickel with the coil raised 2-inches off the ground during this test. The total depth was 8-inches (6-inches of soil plus 2-inches of air.) Again during the 7-inch test, I lost the signal if the air-gap was more than 1/2-inch off the ground.


QUATTRO test results on a dime:

Identical to the Cibola results. The deepest the Quattro could detect a dime was 5-inches. No signal appeared at 6-inches. The Quattro threw off false ID numbers about 40% of the time so the reading at 5-inches was kind of iffy.


DISCUSSION and CONCLUSIONS:

CAN NICKELS BE DETECTED DEEPER THAN DIMES?
Yes! The Cibola (and the Quattro which is a multi-frequency system) were both more sensitive on a nickel than a dime. Is this because the nickel is a larger target than the dime OR because the 14kHZ frequency is more sensitive to less conductive metals as outlined in JB's article. I guess my test won't answer the second question.

The only way to tell for sure is to re-test using a silver coin the same size as a nickel (is there such a coin?) But regardless of the detecting mechanism, a nickle is detected at 7-inches and the dime is detected at 5-inches deep.

DOES THE CIBOLA OR QUATTRO DO A BETTER JOB ON NICKELS AND DIMES?
I was really surprised to see the $320 Cibola not only keeping up with the $845 Quattro but actually giving more better signals.

On the test where the nickel was buried 6-inches, the Cibola could detect the coin with an additional 4-inch air gap where the Quattro could only be raised another 2-inches. In this test the Cibola won out.

But the maximum soil depth both machines were about equal. But the Quattro signals were so iffy on the 7-inch nickel test I would have not dug if since I was seeing so many amount of negative numbers coming from the nickel. Even though the Quattro could detect the nickel at 7-inches the results were not acceptable. In this sense the Cibola could accurately see the nickel one inch deeper than the Quattro. The Cibola did think the nickel was a silver coin at 7-inches, but this is acceptable because it would cause me to dig the object.

On the dime, again both machines give the same maximum detection depth but the signal on the Cibola was more assuring because 40% of the time the Quattro would give an incorrect ID number for the dime.

So the answer is yes! The Cibola beats out the Quattro (at least on these tests.)

IS THE AUTO GROUND BALANCE CIRCUIT OF THE QUATTRO SUPERIOR TO THE PRE-SET GROUND CIRCUIT OF THE CIBOLA?
The data speaks for itself. The Cibola with pre-set ground did a better job at giving more reassuring signals than the Quattro at a similar maximum detection depths.

ADDENDUM:

Here is additional information not related to the above tests but is informative nevertheless. While scanning parts of my property I got very strong iron signals in three locations. Both the Cibola and Quattro said iron objects were in the soil. All three times I dug holes 13-inches deep and found no solid iron objects, just rusty looking hardpan clay. The signals disappeared after going down the 13-inches.

This tells me both machines can be fooled by pockets of mineralization. This is interesting in light of the Cibola being a pre-set ground balanced machine and the Quattro being a sophisticated auto tuning machine without improved results.

Last week I was on my friend's property and found that the Cibola does get fooled by rusty bottle caps. The rusty bottle caps sound off as coins. I have a Fisher Excel (out for repair now) that was able to detect the bottle caps pretty readily. So as a side-note, the Fisher Excel does a better job than the Cibola on rusty bottle caps.