I AM SO CONFUSED!!!!!!

[maverick4440]

I have been comparing notes on detectors and had finally settled on the Tesoro Tejon.
That is until today.
I went detecting with My buddy Larry and he brought along another guy I don't know too well.
This guy had a new Vaquero which interested me.
Even more interesting he absolutely smoked me and my Fisher and Larry was extremely annoyed that the Vaquero out performed his Whites DFX.
I was all set to buy a Tejon till today.
I saw him dig a dime at 11 inches and he outdid both me and Larry 5 to one on coins.
He said he looked at the Tejon but said it was a little high strung for the mineralized mining camps we hunt so he got the Vaquero because it was smoother running and batteries were cheaper.
I ran that machine for a while and liked it.
I'm back to being undecided again.
I have this more expensive is better mental block and I'm beginning to think I need to reevaluate that line of thinking.
The Vaquero is less expensive than the Tejon and it still kicked the DFX's butt and it's less than half the price of the DFX so maybe cost isn't the measure of how good a detector is.
Man! Just when I thought I had made the decision!

 

[bradsguns]

I have both !!
Here is the deal...the Tejon is a little bit deeper if you are looking strictly for relics..(in my experience, maybe an inch deeper than the Vaquero)...
BUT
If you are going to detect in all metal mode and dig ALL your signals, then you will be very happy with the Vaquero. It can be "supertuned" to run with a high gain threshold tone and you are very close to the Tejon. It is also, as mentioned, a bit lighter and uses the one 9v battery, as opposed to 8 AAs.

The Tejon has the dual discrmination feature which actually makes for a great multi purpose machine in the right circumstances...I typically set disc1 at all metal and disc2 at just above foil....I search in all metal, but if Im tired of digging, I just toggle to disc2 to see if its other than iron.

Brad

 

[bradsguns]

Forgot to mention....
One reason the Tesoro owners sometimes outdig a more expensive detector is that we actually dig our signals. I see too often a high end ID unit mis-identify the target (pop tab vs gold ring)...so we are digging signals where others sometimes pass them over thinking they are junk (which they often are), but the only way to be ABSOLUTELY SURE is to DIG !!

Brad

 

[maverick4440]

Forgot to mention....
One reason the Tesoro owners sometimes outdig a more expensive detector is that we actually dig our signals. I see too often a high end ID unit mis-identify the target (pop tab vs gold ring)...so we are digging signals where others sometimes pass them over thinking they are junk (which they often are), but the only way to be ABSOLUTELY SURE is to DIG !!

Brad

He was running low discrimination just below nickel on the Vaquero. We were in an old mining camp and you have to use some discrimination or you wouldn't get much more than 5 feet in any direction all day. Just too much junk from all the mining activity around to dig everything.
I actually found the oldest coins being two chinese coins dropped by chinese miners but they were my only finds, he dug 12 coins 3 silver dimes and the rest were wheaties. I'm sure luck and location had something to do with it but he was pulling out a lot more stuff than we were and some of it was deep.

 

[desertfox]

A lot of it is not luck as you say but knowing your machine! They are both very good detectors, what you don't want to do is buy one over the other then start out guessing yourself. Buy one or the other and be happy with it. HH

 

[Iron Patch]

This is simple to answer!


He proved the Vaquero can do the job well, and it's cheaper, so why would you roll the dice and and buy something else or spend more. It sounds like there's no unit that you will be able to run wide open there so whether you use a T or a V it doesn't really matter. I've heard the V is easier to get a good ground balance so yet that's another reason to buy it. The T could be very tricky where you hunt. I have owned both but definitely can not give advice like I can on an explorer. But I also don't hunt mining camps either.