Deleon - My First Impression: Tejon/Silver Umax hybrid with target ID?

[SaginawIan]

Wow! My (very) preliminary impression: Very Impressive. To Summarize: Cross between a Silver Umax and Tejon with target ID. Basically a Tejon with target ID and Silver Umax stability and simplicity - it seems. If you have any idea how good those two detectors are - imagine them combined into one unit - the Deleon. Is this too good to be true?

After much consideration and research, I picked up a used Deleon for a great price. The detector looks nice -with a great tan/brown/gold/ and orange color scheme. This detector has the exact same dimensions as a Tejon - just different colors. Think Silver Umax color scheme with Tejon dimensions. The weight is less than 3 lbs with the batteries - and it feels lighter than that based on the balance. The white coil is highly visible as one swings it. The Tesoro emblem is emblazen in gold on the dark brown battery battery covers, which are nicely tucked under the arm rest. It takes 8 AA batteries that fit 4 to a holder, one on each side of the arm rest - and just like with Tejon - the battery doors look like they will break off, but don't and actually work very well.

As I fired it up with a brand new set of Duracells, I saw the words "Deleon" pop up on the LCD screen. The LCD screen is about 1/2" tall and about 4 inches in length. It is only one character tall and the actual size of the letters and numbers is about this: DELEON [/size] It is a highly visible display - black letters on a greenish-grey background. Below the LCD, there are only 3 knobs - threshold, sensitivity, and discrimination. There is also a toggle switch that switches between all metal and discrimination mode and battery test. When one toggles to battery test - the LCD displays bars indicating the level of the charge - the less bars, the weaker the battery. When you switch to all metal - the display shows you "AM" and when you switch to discrimination the display shows "DISC". This display is nice. It gives you what you need without a bunch of confusing stuff. It ID's coins great in air test - giving them "95" reading with accurate depth - and junk is "0" or very close to it. It seems like the display is user friendly, but I'll have to report once I use this in the field.

I air tested the Deleon along side my Tejon each with nearly identical settings and the stock 9x8 coil with a coil cover on each. Both had brand new duracell batteries and the Tejon was precisely ground balanced while the Deleon is a preset ground balance machine. I used a clad dime for the test and a cloth tape measure to get precise measurements. I also took care to make sure I used a place where EMI was not an issue - my backyard is free of any overhead wires or other obvious interference. Settings on both: disc. just below foil - sensitivity almost maxed just above 10 in the red zone. Each were given a similar smooth threshold. The results were SUPRISING! (disclaimer - I am not an expert at air tests and as we all know air tests are not that reliable, and I make no scientifically based assertions that one detector is deeper seeking - this is just a reference for what it's worth )

Both detectors detected the dime at a maximum depth of 9.5 inches at these settings - giving a smooth repeatable signal. I used Killer Bee headphones. There was a tone on each all the way up to about 10.5 inches - but it was broken. In fact, the results were amazing to me, given the impressive depth of the Tejon - it appears that the Deleon has the similar punch!

I can sum the results up in a few words : the Deleon, to me, seems to be a Tejon with target ID capabilities! The detectors got VERY similar if not identical results. In fact, there was a moment where I thought I would give the edge in depth to the Deleon - but the results were too close to differentiate between the two. Another amazing aspect of the Deleon I noticed - it didn't lose much depth with more discrimination. I moved the dial down to minimum and got only maybe a half inch more depth, while moving it to nickle - got me 9" on that dime. Very good for trashy areas, I think.

One odd thing that I noticed about the Deleon, though. If you have a Silver Umax or Tejon you will know what I mean and why this is odd. The orange area above 10 on the sensitivity dial called "max boost" for me does not add much more depth than a setting of exactly 10. This is true on both my Tejon and my Silver Umax. However, with the Deleon - I lost about 2 full inches of air test depth when I moved the dial from the orange to 10! I found this to be amazing. I tried it about 5 times with similar results - and what's more - when I turned the sensitivity down to 7, again, large loss of depth about another inch and I was down to 6.5 inches on the dime. THis is NOT true with my Tejon or Silver Umax, I get the same depth from a setting of 7 to max boost and it appears that one MUST run the Delon in max boost to get the most out of it. I'm not familair with the practice of "super tuning" that people do with the Cibola, but I suspect that one may need to max out settings in a simlar manner on the Deleon to get the best results.

I also air tested the Deleon with the 5.75 coil. Very impressive. I got almost the same depth as the stock coil and as with the Tejon - it seems that this is a must have accessory.

A problem, though. This Deleon has the infamous Tesoro "wobbling" rod. Just like my Tejon, the rod is loose in the upper joint, and of course - this is annoying as heck. So, just like with the Tejon, I will use pipe tape to tighten up the connection.

I am very happy I bought this machine. In fact, I am all hyped up about it right now! I am chomping at the bit to get out there in the field with it. It seems amazing. This has potential to be my new favorite. I cannot tell you how the discrimation works yet, because I haven't dug a coin in the ground. Next time I post, it will be all about the discrimination and depth reading capabilities of the machine.

Ian

 

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[Michigan Badger]

Congrats Ian!

The DeLeon was my first true Tesoro love and I never really got over it.

If you put a 9x8 web on your Silver you'd probably get the same air test.

I pulled a silver ring up from a measured 9 inches with my DeLeon. I detected it in our yard so I dug it slowly and measured the exact depth. The sod was 5 inches thick and it was 4 inches below the sod.

The year of my DeLeon was 2005 (I think) and it was my best year since 1983 for coins and rings and relics.

I'll never forget a nice gold chain bracelet (charm bracelet) I dug with it. It was in a heavily hunted area and the TID meter was the only reason I dug it. It sounded exactly with trash but the meter bounced into the gold area so many times that I decided to dig it anyway. Boy was I shocked to see gold in that hole at 5-6 inches deep (with lots of nails). I'm really not a meter person but I have to admit that that day the meter saved the day.

Best to you and go dig the loot!

Badger

 

[RJH02]

Great review. I noticed the difference with sensitivity on air tests also. Check out the depth on a 12oz soda can in disc. mode and AM with max sensitivity. It goes deep.

 

[SaginawIan]

This is a great machine! So I got out to the field today. Very deep machine. It is super smooth and a pleasure to swing. It's suprisingly deep. I dug square nails at 10" or more. I found a few bullets at 8". One thing is certain to me now - those who claim a lack of depth on the Deleon are simply wrong or have horrible soil. I got great depth today and it was my first time out with it. It seems to have power similar to the Tejon based on what I saw today.

One time I read a review about a guy that was complaining that he couldn't read a coin on the top of the ground with the Deleon. When I read that, I assumed the person writing it was a whacko. How could that be? Well, I kind of see what he was talking about now. I had this happen to me a couple of times. I would get a good signal, dig it out of the hole and into a pile of dirt. I would swing the coil over the pile, and nothing - or snapping. The display would read "lift coil" with up arrows. Well, I would stick my pinpointer in the pile - and whamo, there's the target. This happened on a couple of smaller brass targets that were well in the accepted range. WHY was this not being read when it was 1" under the coil? This seems like it could be a serious problem and was frustrating. Maybe I'm missing something here, but this happened twice to me. Any ideas?

Well, I'm not even going to comment on the TID or discrimination yet. I only had 4 hours on the machine and although I was a little dissappointed with it today, it may rock tomorrow. Overall, I gotta say the word for the day today is DEPTH. This thing is deeper than it gets credit for and is SMOOOOOOOOTH!

Ian

 

[Michigan Badger]

Ian the no signal on dug coins is a Tesoro trait, it's not just with the DeLeon.

The detector overloads and the signal is blanked out. I almost missed a nice IH with my Silver uMax due to this very problem.

I had a smooth deep signal and dug down about 12 inches when finally the signal disappeared. I checked the dirt and nothing. I figured it was a false signal and refilled the hole. I decided to recheck the filled hole and the signal was back. I slowly removed the dirt again and found a nice IH.

The best is to lift the coil while checking the dirt. Or, reduce discrimination. A pinpointer is an excellent idea.

I lost a large cent due to this problem. I had dug it in our yard but didn't see it in the dirt because I was probably hunting after work (dark).

I finally found it about a year later in a little dip near one of my plugs but meanwhile I had hit it with the lawnmower!

Yup, Tesoros love to overload.

 

[SaginawIan]

Well, as long as I know that it's all good and I won't miss one on the top. I guess these machines have a good amount of power - so long as it detects it 9" in the ground, I can forgive it for blanking out on the surface! Badger, this is one sweet machine. I'm suprised that people don't talk more about the depth of it. I'm not used to the TID on it yet, but that will come I'm sure.

My plan for this machine is to use it as a relic hunter and dig everything above iron - but use the discrimination to eliminate some of the shotgun casings at less than 2"

Ian

 

[Michigan Badger]

Well, as long as I know that it's all good and I won't miss one on the top. I guess these machines have a good amount of power - so long as it detects it 9" in the ground, I can forgive it for blanking out on the surface! Badger, this is one sweet machine. I'm surprised that people don't talk more about the depth of it. I'm not used to the TID on it yet, but that will come I'm sure.

My plan for this machine is to use it as a relic hunter and dig everything above iron - but use the discrimination to eliminate some of the shotgun casings at less than 2"

Ian

Ian back in 05 I posted a thread on the Finds Forum Tesoro category about how under-rated the DeLeon is. Some fellow out of Oregon or Washington state just cut me to ribbons. Later I found out he was a dealer for other brands.

His job was to make Tesoros look bad--that's why he was on that thread. So, beware--these people are still out there.

Anyway, back to my thread. I posted the DeLeon is the most underrated machine and that fellow posted it was the most ignored detector today due to poor quality. In other words it was being ignored by the intelligent people in the hobby.

It was at this time that I discovered that these people work in pairs or have multiple user ID's for the purpose of running down a compeditor's machines.

Others here have posted this and it's true, we have to careful not to always buy into everything we read on any forum.

Truthful comments will be balanced and it'll be obvious the person has no axe to grind. There can be exceptions when a detector was a hunk of junk but those are rare when dealing with the major companies.

Most sensible reviews will list pros and cons. But again, there can be those exceptions.

The DeLeon is a deep machine and I found not only coins and jewelry with mine but dug many excellent iron relics. In fact, up here my most favored finds were iron logging era relics. I dug my French trader knife and cannonball with my DeLeon.

I'd better shut up or I'll be selling my Explorer!

 

[stoney56]

Ian, the DeLeon is a great machine. As Badger said, it can overload on a shallow target, but if you get a 95 registering a few times, dig. Once in a while it might turn out to be a large rusty washer, but most of the time it'll be a coin. It will also kick up that reading on a deeper shotgun shell base. I've also had it not find a silver dime at 4" or a mini ball at 6" with it maxed out but was only due to the high mineralized soil. That test even flunked the Cibola for the most part as well as XLT's and MXT's along with a lot of Fisher's. I even had a heavy silver chain bounce all over the place from 23 to 55 or so at about 3".

 

[Michigan Badger]

Ian, the DeLeon is a great machine. As Badger said, it can overload on a shallow target, but if you get a 95 registering a few times, dig. Once in a while it might turn out to be a large rusty washer, but most of the time it'll be a coin. It will also kick up that reading on a deeper shotgun shell base. I've also had it not find a silver dime at 4" or a mini ball at 6" with it maxed out but was only due to the high mineralized soil. That test even flunked the Cibola for the most part as well as XLT's and MXT's along with a lot of Fisher's. I even had a heavy silver chain bounce all over the place from 23 to 55 or so at about 3".

Yup, this is all true. It's the other side of the coin--so ta speak.

All detectors poop out under certain conditions. I don't like to mention this often but one of the first coins I found with my Minelab Excalibur 1000 (basically a Sovereign GT)was a silver quarter at 4 inches max (more like 3 inches). It was in very mild soil and I barely got a decent signal.

Soil is a lot more complex than we think. It's constantly moving and changing. Thus some of the "I hunted that site out last year but with my new ____ detector it was like virgin ground!" stories.

The main reason I sold the DeLeon was because of it's factory set ground balance. I went to manual GB and now to automatic. Am I finding better stuff? No. But I am consistently finding deeper stuff.

I hate to say it but yes, ground balance is important. But, it's not necessary in all areas and types of soils. But it's also true that there are soil conditions where no matter what type of detector you use you're not going deep.

 

[Newfiehunter]

Thanks for the great review on the Deleon! Very informative!

 

[thomas_miles25]

I love my Deleon and would not trade it for anything!!! A couple of weeks ago I was detecting a park and noticed another person detecting ( go figure the same spot I was going to detect) He was using a Fisher (1270,Coinstrike) one of the higher priced ones and I was kinda worried that it was going to be pointless to hunt there when he was finished (2 hrs later) and low and behold my Deleon proved me wrong I ended up finding about 3 dollars worth. The Deleon is one heck of a detector and finds things for me everytime out. I have been to places over and over and still found over $1 in clad everytime. I wouldnt trade it for the most expensive (supposedly best) detector out there. I promise you that if you keep learning it you will feel the same way!!!! Good luck and keep diggin!!!

 

[Michigan Badger]

I recall when the lights went on in regard to the DeLeon meter.

When I first got it I thought it would lock solid onto silver dime, nickel, rings, etc.

What I discovered is usually the meter jumps all over the place as one swings the coil.

One day I got a softer signal that bounced back and forth from 95 to the 70's.

I decided to dig it and found a wheatie. That's when I learned that the TID deals in target patterns (groups of numbers). Actually this is the way all detector digital target ID meters work.

The thing I like about the DeLeon was it patterns are pretty consistant in a certain area.

I got to the place where I knew I had either a wheat or indian cent. The IH's registered a little lower than the wheats as I recall.

Those where fun times.

 

[Dan B]

I have a Cortes, but it's much the same experience. I find that an ID of 95, even briefly, is my clue to dig. Sure the number may settle elsewhere, but if 95 pops up even on a couple swings, I dig. I have found unbelievable amounts of nickels, dimes and quarters this way. Of course, I'm hunting in Canada, so your American coins may differ. If it's an old rusty nail, you will see an indication on the graph that doesn't jive with the 95 you are seeing. This is how you should use the Tesoro ID machine. Take in all the available clues, and learn to interpret what they are telling you.

The Cortes, and most probably the Deleon too, is an awesome machine. I will be using this machine for a long, long time.

Dan

 

[SaginawIan]

So I took the deleon out tonight and dug a ton of iron that read 95. I think I'm missing something. For instance, I had one really good sounding target - nice and smooth, small, and deep at 7". It read a steady 95 with no waivering. It indicated a solid bar at silver - and very small bar would occasionally pop up on one or another of the areas including iron. I flipped to all metal and pinpointed over the target and it basically read "0" with a bar on iron. I dug a hole and it still read 95 - pretty much until the square nail was exposed, then it read "0". So is this a target that I sould skip or do you guys dig all of these no matter what. Being that all metal ID and disc ID did not match up, seems like a good indication of junk? I probably had 10 targets just like this tonight. By the way - my Deleon is DEEEEP! I'm not kidding these things are deep. Again, I'm not sure yet about the discrimination - still learning it, but this is honestly to me one of the deeper detectors I have used. I do not think my Tejon is deeper at this point.

Ian

 

[Dan B]

The audio should give you clues that should help. I notice that along with the 95 and a logical spread on the graph, coins have a smooth sound on both ends (smooth leading into the beep, and smooth leading out). Iron that masquerades under the 95 reading has a sharp beep. Try listening for this and see if it helps.

Dan

 

[shanegalang]

I have had my Deleon for a while now.......I only have 2 BHs to compare it to. I love it, I am getting allot better at ignoring the ID screen and listening more.......it's kind of strange to me but even though it has only one tone, it fluctuates in intensity and level. After I get what I determine is a "good" sound, then I look at the screen to see what its telling me. Here's a list of ID numbers from my experience.

95: Dollar, 50 cent, quarter, dime, copper cent, washer (bouncing 95 to 08), coke can. The coke can will be a very strong signal and "lie" about depth. In other words I can lift the coil up to about 5 or 6 inches and it tells me 95 at 1, 2 or 3 inches.

38-45:" A nickel, always a nickel if it reads 44!!!

0, 00, - 08: iron

62-68: old style pull tabs

upper 30s: new style pull tabs

Cheers, Shane