Should I give my Vaquero a chance?

[Newfiehunter]

I have owned a Fisher CZ5 for about 15 years with success. About 4 years ago I purchased a Vaquero as a backup because of the good reviews it had received. It was only used once after I bought it and never used it since. Guess it is because it lacks visual and tone id and depth indication. Have used beep and dig detectors in the past with success, but going back to it is difficult, especially after using my CZ5 for so many years. So do you think I should dust off the Vaquero for a month or so to see how well it performs or just wait till my CZ5 goes to detector heaven? If it ever does!!

 

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[Terry Soloman]

Yes, I think you should.

 

[Fletch88]

I came from an R2D2- iPhone machine (atp) to the vaquero and what a welcome relief! Much more enjoyable to listen to and swing!

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[Fletch88]

Trying a Tejon to give me coin check toggle switch and amazing depth.

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[l2hunt]

Well I'm still learning the vaquero, and with very little time on it, but I think it's starting to grow on me! My other machine has the VID and other bells and whistles but only reliable to about 4 inches deep, after 4 inches I just dig any way, or even when it comes to the tones they splatter so who knows for sure when to dig or not, the machine struggles here in Colorado, tough ground for sure along the front range, very hard ground and lots of iron and minerals as well. But, I think the Vaquero is up for it, I'd like to get a least a little beyond 4 inches depth anyway, been finding nickels which I never found before, so I'm going to keep plugging away with the Vaquero for now. I may dig more, especially before I learn the machine well but I'll give it my best and see what happens! HH

 

[Cal G.]

I think you might enjoy learning the Vaquero. With practice you will find that you can tell depth and ID pretty good without a screen. 2.2 Lbs made it a incentive to me. The best detector operator (was in town visiting relatives) I ever saw used a old whites in all metal and had a piece of tape over a hole in the coil. He found a $5 gold piece in a small but old park that I and 50 others had hit hard over the years ,plus a big club out of Tulsa had run over in the 8o's. He was his own discriminator. It's hard to beat experience and a natural.HH

 

[Fletch88]

I think you might enjoy learning the Vaquero. With practice you will find that you can tell depth and ID pretty good without a screen. 2.2 Lbs made it a incentive to me. The best detector operator (was in town visiting relatives) I ever saw used a old whites in all metal and had a piece of tape over a hole in the coil. He found a $5 gold piece in a small but old park that I and 50 others had hit hard over the years ,plus a big club out of Tulsa had run over in the 8o's. He was his own discriminator. It's hard to beat experience and a natural.HH

I wonder what purpose the tape served? Great story though. I've actually been playing with my Whites Classic ll, (which I purchased at a garage sale for my daughter but i become hooked) lately and discovered it's a decent little detector. Love the small coil on it!

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[Cal G.]

I think the tape helped keep the dirt and dew from getting inside his coil. I 'm not for sure what model the detector was, but it was older than the Classic series. Good luck with the Classic, I never owned one, but heard they are real good in ghost town type environment as well as on jewelry. HH

I wonder what purpose the tape served? Great story though. I've actually been playing with my Whites Classic ll, (which I purchased at a garage sale for my daughter but i become hooked) lately and discovered it a decent little detector. Love the small coil on it!

Sent from my iPhone using TreasureNet

 

[Dwight Frye]

I would you might be surprised

 

[atomicscott]

I have owned a Fisher CZ5 for about 15 years with success. About 4 years ago I purchased a Vaquero as a backup because of the good reviews it had received. It was only used once after I bought it and never used it since. Guess it is because it lacks visual and tone id and depth indication. Have used beep and dig detectors in the past with success, but going back to it is difficult, especially after using my CZ5 for so many years. So do you think I should dust off the Vaquero for a month or so to see how well it performs or just wait till my CZ5 goes to detector heaven? If it ever does!!

I found it very hard to go back to my vaq after using a tid detector for awhile. So much more information got me hooked very quickly. I tried hard to forget about the display, but I felt like I was in the dark when swinging with no info other than the single tone. Let us know how it works out for ya! HH

 

[Newfiehunter]

I found it very hard to go back to my vaq after using a tid detector for awhile. So much more information got me hooked very quickly. I tried hard to forget about the display, but I felt like I was in the dark when swinging with no info other than the single tone. Let us know how it works out for ya! HH

That is how I feel about it. With visual ID at least you have some idea of what you may have before you dig, and like you said, it does feel like you are swinging in the dark without it. I remember using beep and dig detectors and had better success finding gold rings. Visual ID does spoil you to where it can make you lazy. If the Vaquero had tone ID, it would have been one hard detector to beat. I will try it and let you know how the transition goes from visual id back to beep and dig.

 

[Fletch88]

I have found the discrimination on Vaq to be very accurate. And pinpoint sound to be tale tell of can slaw and screw caps. Good luck and HH

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[l2hunt]

The most interesting thing happened after my post on the 9th....went out by the my chicken coop coop to find a few scattered nails since i was doing repairs and than as i'm swinging i hear a strong tone, i'm thinking it's another nail or screw, and the chickens are thinking the same thing i'm sure! anyway i dig and maybe 2-3 inches below the surface is a 1969 Kennedy half, couldn't believe it, and i know i was back there with the m6.... anyway guess that could of been a sign to....give the vaquero a real good chance. HH

 

[chinchilla]

as Fletch88 said, the discrimination on the Vaquero is very accurate, plus lifting the coil and using the pinpoint mode you will get different but comparable results

 

[atomicscott]

as Fletch88 said, the discrimination on the Vaquero is very accurate, plus lifting the coil and using the pinpoint mode you will get different but comparable results

I found the disc to be accurate until I hit high iron infested sites. Then I found I would dig iron constantly, even though it seemed to be a quarter or dime. All sizes of iron, even rusty nails. After 1 year I decided I couldn't understand the 'language'. This is not unusual for a high frequency detector. At 14.75 the Vaquero kills in gold, (nuggets & jewelry) but conversely it likes iron as well, and doesn't like silver so much. I believe the best performance of the Vaq is really realized in all metal mode. It will find many different conductivity metals and respectable depths in all metal. With the ground balance set up properly, it is very sensitive, especially to low conductivity metals, such as lead, gold, iron relics, etc...

 

[Fletch88]

I found the disc to be accurate until I hit high iron infested sites. Then I found I would dig iron constantly, even though it seemed to be a quarter or dime. All sizes of iron, even rusty nails. After 1 year I decided I couldn't understand the 'language'. This is not unusual for a high frequency detector. At 14.75 the Vaquero kills in gold, (nuggets & jewelry) but conversely it likes iron as well, and doesn't like silver so much. I believe the best performance of the Vaq is really realized in all metal mode. It will find many different conductivity metals and respectable depths in all metal. With the ground balance set up properly, it is very sensitive, especially to low conductivity metals, such as lead, gold, iron relics, etc...

Does the 505 or F2 not give signal on old iron with halo? Just curious.

 

[atomicscott]

Does the 505 or F2 not give signal on old iron with halo? Just curious.

The F2 will hit on the halo's too. The 505 rarely fools me with iron. I use the 19 tones, that way I can see where they iron is at all times pretty much. The silver signals that jump more than 3 digits and drop to a negative (-6, etc) are ALWAYS iron. With the 505 I've learned that knowing where the iron is, is better than disc'ing it out and losing a silver coin next to a rusty bolt due to masking. The 505 will signal on both, giving an ID number for the iron (- number) and then bounce to a number for the coin, if the coin ID number is not jumpy, it is usually a digger. I have found coins in the same hole with iron this way. Also the non-motion pinpoint (visual AND audio) is super accurate and really makes it easy to size the the target. I rarely dig iron smaller than a tennis ball (surface area). I NEVER dig rusty nails or bolts anymore, unless they happen to be in the hole with the desired target. I do dig some larger iron, but I KNOW it's iron, it's just wishful thinking that sometimes there may be a coin in the ground next to the iron hence the signal bouncing from (jumpy) coin to iron tones. This is user errror on my part, the machine is doing exactly what it is supposed to. I don't get nearly as frustrated at the trashy iron sites like I used to with the V. I've only got about 25 hrs so far on the 505, but it is VERY easy to learn and super sensitive/deep. Oh by the way, if I really miss the Vaq, I can always use the 1 tone option (not gonna happen)!

 

[chinchilla]

I found the disc to be accurate until I hit high iron infested sites. Then I found I would dig iron constantly, even though it seemed to be a quarter or dime. All sizes of iron, even rusty nails. After 1 year I decided I couldn't understand the 'language'. This is not unusual for a high frequency detector. At 14.75 the Vaquero kills in gold, (nuggets & jewelry) but conversely it likes iron as well, and doesn't like silver so much. I believe the best performance of the Vaq is really realized in all metal mode. It will find many different conductivity metals and respectable depths in all metal. With the ground balance set up properly, it is very sensitive, especially to low conductivity metals, such as lead, gold, iron relics, etc...

yes, the Vaquero is a bit touchy with large pieces of iron, but I never have had problems with nails at all. I noticed thought, the descrimination on the vaquero is seriously affected when: it's ground balanced negative, sensitivity is set too high and when it's used "supertuned" (all threshold up), honestly supertuned didn't work for me, so I prefer running it normal, I have more success that way

Agreed, the all metal VCO is really impressive

 

[Fletch88]

yes, the Vaquero is a bit touchy with large pieces of iron, but I never have had problems with nails at all. I noticed thought, the descrimination on the vaquero is seriously affected when: it's ground balanced negative, sensitivity is set too high and when it's used "supertuned" (all threshold up), honestly supertuned didn't work for me, so I prefer running it normal, I have more success that way

Agreed, the all metal VCO is really impressive

Yea I'm not real crazy about super tuning either. Maybe 2-3 o'clock but still able to use pinpoint button. It really burns up your battery too!

 

[chinchilla]

Yea I'm not real crazy about super tuning either. Maybe 2-3 o'clock but still able to use pinpoint button. It really burns up your battery too!

same here, the pinpoint is also great to identify those annoying hotrocks