Which one should be my first one?

[birdhouse]

Hi All,
Great site with tons of information.
I’m senior pushing 70 and I’ve never held a detector in my hand before
I’m looking at Tesoro Compadre $161 or the Bounty Hunter Discovery for $210.

Any suggestions on which one of these or any other suggestions on which one. I don’t mind spending up $220

 

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[Rawhide]

Most suggest to match the Detector to the type of hunting you are going to do. I use a more expensive Fisher F75 which is very light and easy to swing. I also have a bounty Hunter which is a very easy machine to set up and use. I know with the Bounty Hunter you will find targets easily up to 6" deep in normal soils. You may want to get the optional 5" coil that will help in trashy areas. I would look at the Warranty as I think the Tesero has a better one. Seeing you are near the coast, the Bounty Hunter will not be the better buy. Hopefully some Tesero users can chime in and help you out also.Good luck.

 

[Stormrider51]

I'd say "no" to either one and get a Garrett Ace 250. At 2.5 lbs it's one of the lightest detectors on the market. There are pre-set programs for coin, jewelry, and relic hunting plus a Custom setting where you can store your own program. The Custom program can come in handy. Let's say someone has lost an ear ring in the grass but has the other one. Set the Ace for Custom and scan the remaining ear ring. Now discriminate out everything but that one response and the ones on either side of it. The only thing the detector will sound off for is the lost ear ring or a target with the same conductivity. I'm probably not explaining this well but it's easier than it sounds. Garrett has an excellent reputation for quality and the Ace 250 is a lot of detector for the money.

Storm

 

[kayden]

I'd say "no" to either one and get a Garrett Ace 250. At 2.5 lbs it's one of the lightest detectors on the market. There are pre-set programs for coin, jewelry, and relic hunting plus a Custom setting where you can store your own program. The Custom program can come in handy. Let's say someone has lost an ear ring in the grass but has the other one. Set the Ace for Custom and scan the remaining ear ring. Now discriminate out everything but that one response and the ones on either side of it. The only thing the detector will sound off for is the lost ear ring or a target with the same conductivity. I'm probably not explaining this well but it's easier than it sounds. Garrett has an excellent reputation for quality and the Ace 250 is a lot of detector for the money.

Storm

I agree with this ...the 250 is very simple to use & its a good little detector. I have found alot of good finds with this detector & if you decide to upgrade or that this hobby is not for you....It will be very easy to sell as it holds its value!

 

[Terry Soloman]

The Tesoro Compadre is as good or better than the Garret Ace 250, or the Fisher F2 at finding gold and silver. Costs less, weighs less, easier to use, AND is the ONLY one with a lifetime warranty. BOOM Baby!

 

[JOe L]

The Tesoro Compadre is as good or better than the Garret Ace 250, or the Fisher F2 at finding gold and silver. Costs less, weighs less, easier to use, AND is the ONLY one with a lifetime warranty. BOOM Baby!

Agreed, light as a feather...

 

[dougofpa]

I agree with this ...the 250 is very simple to use & its a good little detector. I have found alot of good finds with this detector & if you decide to upgrade or that this hobby is not for you....It will be very easy to sell as it holds its value!

What they both said.

 

[CWnut]

and you thought you might get a straight, simple answer!! My, my. OK folks it's 'target id vs non-target id'

 

[birdhouse]

and you thought you might get a straight, simple answer!! My, my. OK folks it's 'target id vs non-target id'

I'm juts going to keep reading the replys before I decided. Keep'em coming,thanks everyone.

 

[Frankn]

Birdhouse Here's where I am coming from. I am 75 and use a 12 year old Whites XLT. It can be used turn on and go or you can adjust anything. It has built in programs and is able to store your own custom programs. You have basic programs to hunt coins, jewelry, relics and also prospecting. This is the detector that all of the new Whites are based on. It will go down 2' for large targets. The display gives you the info. you need. That is Estimate of type of target, depth of target, Pinpoints to exact spot that is dead center on the coil. You might have to stretch to $300 to pick up a used one, but it will be worth every penny. Frank

 

[Stormrider51]

Like CWnut said, it appears to be a matter of "target identification vs no target identification" as to what is being recommended. You are also hearing peoples personal preferences which are usually based on which machine(s) they have experience with. Let's talk about the target ID vs no ID thing for a minute as related to coin/jewelry hunting. Relic hunting is a whole different matter.

The simple fact is that metal detectors locate metal. There are things like coins and jewelry that you want to find and a LOT of metallic trash like pull tabs, nails, cans, and pieces of aluminum foil that you would just as soon leave under the dirt. Most major "advances" in metal detecting technology have centered around developing machines that can tell the difference between good stuff and bad. The key is conductivity. A penny has a known conductivity as do the other coins so a target ID detector like the Garrett Ace 250 will tell you when an object passing under its coil has one of those known conductivity values. This means that you can go out, search, dig only those targets the detector says are good and greatly reduce the amount of trash you dig up. The fly in the buttermilk is that pull tabs come in different styles and can have a conductivity that matches nickles and small gold rings. Pieces of aluminum foil can mimic almost anything depending on how large the piece is and whether it is flat, crumpled, or whatever. When a detector is set to ignore pull tabs you are accepting that you may miss nickles and some gold jewelry. This is why common wisdom says "Dig Everything!". If you set the detector to discriminate out (ignore) iron nails and small bits of aluminum you will be sure of finding those nickles and gold rings. You will also need a large trash pouch because the amount of trash you dig will far exceed the number of keeper items. The Tesoro Compadre doesn't have target ID but it does allow you to set a limit on what it will react to. This works well with the "minimum discrimination and dig everything" theory. The Ace 250 does have target ID and gives you the option to dig everything or ignore the "bad" signals. For the record, my Ace does a good job of finding nickles when set in the "Coin" mode but I do dig plenty of pull tabs.

I started detecting in the 1970's when it was a case of if the detector beeps, you dig. I followed the minimum discrimination/dig everything theory from then on regardless of how advanced my current detector was. I found a lot of good stuff. But I'm closing in on 62 years of age now and I'm reluctantly accepting that I can no longer leap tall buildings in a single bound. I have knees that crackle and two deteriorated disks in my lower back. Kneeling down, digging, and standing up is great excercise but my knees and lower back complain when I over-do it. I find that my attitude about discrimination has recently changed as well. If the area I'm hunting seemed to be fairly free of trash I'd stick with my dig-everything policy but if the area is trashy I'd find myself relying on the target ID more and more. I knew I was leaving good things behind but then again I was coming home with a higher ratio of good things to bad because I'm able to hunt longer. The Ace 250 gave me that. A month or so ago I bought what I consider to be the biggest advance in detecting ever. It's the E-Trac by Minelab. It's expensive but this thing is showing me potentials that I didn't think existed. I'm digging less trash than ever plus I'm going back to places I thought I had cleaned out and finding deeper older coins that I had missed before. I know that it's more money than you want to spend but keep it in mind if you find yourself truly hooked on this hobby.

Storm

 

[Frankn]

The big problem with the ID theory is that it is based on a coin of a given size. The ID theory does not work for other targets.
Each metal returns a percentage of the transmitter signal energy. That means that two metals of different sizes could return the same amount of energy and thus read the same on the ID scale. Frank

 

[bbells]

I am very slightly younger than you, and I started with the ACE 250 and it was easy to learn, easy to use, and light. The graphics shortened the learning curve a lot. A pinpointer helped quite a bit - My old eyes had a hard time finding the dirt colored items in the ground.

 

[birdhouse]

Like CWnut said, it appears to be a matter of "target identification vs no target identification" as to what is being recommended. You are also hearing peoples personal preferences which are usually based on which machine(s) they have experience with. Let's talk about the target ID vs no ID thing for a minute as related to coin/jewelry hunting. Relic hunting is a whole different matter.

The simple fact is that metal detectors locate metal. There are things like coins and jewelry that you want to find and a LOT of metallic trash like pull tabs, nails, cans, and pieces of aluminum foil that you would just as soon leave under the dirt. Most major "advances" in metal detecting technology have centered around developing machines that can tell the difference between good stuff and bad. The key is conductivity. A penny has a known conductivity as do the other coins so a target ID detector like the Garrett Ace 250 will tell you when an object passing under its coil has one of those known conductivity values. This means that you can go out, search, dig only those targets the detector says are good and greatly reduce the amount of trash you dig up. The fly in the buttermilk is that pull tabs come in different styles and can have a conductivity that matches nickles and small gold rings. Pieces of aluminum foil can mimic almost anything depending on how large the piece is and whether it is flat, crumpled, or whatever. When a detector is set to ignore pull tabs you are accepting that you may miss nickles and some gold jewelry. This is why common wisdom says "Dig Everything!". If you set the detector to discriminate out (ignore) iron nails and small bits of aluminum you will be sure of finding those nickles and gold rings. You will also need a large trash pouch because the amount of trash you dig will far exceed the number of keeper items. The Tesoro Compadre doesn't have target ID but it does allow you to set a limit on what it will react to. This works well with the "minimum discrimination and dig everything" theory. The Ace 250 does have target ID and gives you the option to dig everything or ignore the "bad" signals. For the record, my Ace does a good job of finding nickles when set in the "Coin" mode but I do dig plenty of pull tabs.

I started detecting in the 1970's when it was a case of if the detector beeps, you dig. I followed the minimum discrimination/dig everything theory from then on regardless of how advanced my current detector was. I found a lot of good stuff. But I'm closing in on 62 years of age now and I'm reluctantly accepting that I can no longer leap tall buildings in a single bound. I have knees that crackle and two deteriorated disks in my lower back. Kneeling down, digging, and standing up is great excercise but my knees and lower back complain when I over-do it. I find that my attitude about discrimination has recently changed as well. If the area I'm hunting seemed to be fairly free of trash I'd stick with my dig-everything policy but if the area is trashy I'd find myself relying on the target ID more and more. I knew I was leaving good things behind but then again I was coming home with a higher ratio of good things to bad because I'm able to hunt longer. The Ace 250 gave me that. A month or so ago I bought what I consider to be the biggest advance in detecting ever. It's the E-Trac by Minelab. It's expensive but this thing is showing me potentials that I didn't think existed. I'm digging less trash than ever plus I'm going back to places I thought I had cleaned out and finding deeper older coins that I had missed before. I know that it's more money than you want to spend but keep it in mind if you find yourself truly hooked on this hobby.

Storm

Well written, still haven’t decided but I’m leaning towards Garrett Ace 250

I really appreciate everyone's input.

 

[Sliverandgold]

Whites Coinmaster series of detectors are worth a look as well. The new Coinmaster GT is a really nice machine.

 

[perry2]

Storm rider // thats the best post on this subject I have ever seen/.// Perry
I have the AT-PRO

 

[Pulltab Parson]

I have owned both Whites and Tesoros both are great companies who make great machines. The Tesoro Compadre is a good machine thats simple and light but not a lot to move up to, I would recommend the Silverumax from Tesoro($250) or the White's Coinmaster GT ($270), they are both great machines and give you a little room to grow. That's my 2cents

HH
PTP

 

[ralexander22]

If you have a local dealer or club maybe you could get someone to let you try out some of the different models. That is what I'm going to try and do before I order one.As you can see from all of the posts everyone has a favorite and all models are the best one to buy. From what I can tell from my research they all really are good machines. Some have more whistle and bells than others. Do some research, try some out if possible and make the best choice you can. Bottom line is metal detecting should be fun not a science project.

 

[birdhouse]

I’ve been watching Diggers and so far from what I’ve seen they make the AT Pro (around $595) look like one really great machine. Does it really work that well?
It would be a much higher upgrade than what I originally was looking at.

I was wondering if I should hold off a little longer when I’m ready for an upgrade and move up to something on the level of the AT Pro Thanks again for all the input.

 

[Pulltab Parson]

Garrett ATpro is a good machine from what I have heard, though I have never used one. I have considered getting one, but after watching a number of instructional videos, I decided against it, only because its really noisy for me. It's like an Ice Cream truck. . . .hehe

good luck on your choice, just make sure it's a major brand and you should be fine!

HH
PTP