Is my Vaquero working?

[atomicscott]

So I've been spending alot of hours between my two Tesoros trying to learn their languages. Lately I've been using the Compadre alot, and digging lots of pulltabs trying to get that gold jewelry that the Compadre seems to like so much! I was doing some depth testing in my test garden and realized the Comp had a tough time finding a dime at 5" just a very faint blip, I wouldn't have probably dug the signal. A quarter was a decent signal at 6" penny and nickel about the same. When I couldn't find the dime I pulled out the old Vaquero and got a nice neutral ground balance. Hmmm... no signal on dime with sensitivity at 6. Turned up sensitivity gradually to max, still nothing. Ok, time to supertune. I had an erratic beep on the dime when supertuned. This was with the 5.75 widescan coil. I decided to switch out with the stock 9x8 concentric. Same results with stock coil. Further air testing proved the weak depth. Air testing on a US quarter was about 6" nickel and penny about the same with the dime hitting at about 5" max. Am I missing something? I seem to have only been finding coins in the 5"-7" range lately, still finding some deep targets, just large junk though. I'm sending it to Tesoro ASAP, just like to hear anyones thoughts on the lack of depth? Thanks

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A History of Mining on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska - Grab it through Amazon!

[Tnmountains]

It sounds like it was working well before. If in doubt send it in now before they get real busy. They are a good company and will take care of you. At least you will have peace of mind. You know your machine better than anyone. Simple question did you try the test with the head phones un plugged?

 

[atomicscott]

It sounds like it was working well before. If in doubt send it in now before they get real busy. They are a good company and will take care of you. At least you will have peace of mind. You know your machine better than anyone. Simple question did you try the test with the head phones un plugged?

I always you headphones whether swinging or just testing.

 

[SpiritRelic]

Yeah because most vaqueros are low tone.And you do have to listen more on low tone.But a vaquero will hit a quarter,supertuned close to 12".If you can't get close to that supertuned you got a problem.

 

[Allcav]

This is what I can tell you. In an air test not super tuned, the quarter should be reached at about 9" and the dime about 7". I wont talk about pennies or nickles at this point. I tried this both with too + and too - and just right in the air. When you are too +, it looses depth considerably. These test are all with the disc level at min. We all know max disc will loose depth so I wont even test it that way.
I can also tell you that if your coil is out of tune, it could have the same effect. It could also be something in the circuitry but my guess would be the coil.
Please, before you decide to send it in. Even in an air test. Ground balance the machine properly or your results won't be right. You can also test this your self. If you are indoors, use a hot rock to balance the machine. If you don't have a hot rock, take it out side and balance it and do your tests out there.

 

[atomicscott]

Yeah because most vaqueros are low tone.And you do have to listen more on low tone.But a vaquero will hit a quarter,supertuned close to 12".If you can't get close to that supertuned you got a problem.

Yes Spirit and Tn, I alway use my headphones, whether testing or in the field. Spirit, I figured there had to be a problem. The bummer is I don't know how long it's been acting up. I've been doing alot of reasearch on local historical places and hunting some sites that may have produced some nice older coins if I wasn't getting such poor depth. I guess I need to go back over those sites! Is the pinpointing actually no-motion on the Vaq? It seems I have to move the coil to keep it working. Thanks for your help. Scott

 

[atomicscott]

This is what I can tell you. In an air test not super tuned, the quarter should be reached at about 9" and the dime about 7". I wont talk about pennies or nickles at this point. I tried this both with too + and too - and just right in the air. When you are too +, it looses depth considerably. These test are all with the disc level at min. We all know max disc will loose depth so I wont even test it that way.
I can also tell you that if your coil is out of tune, it could have the same effect. It could also be something in the circuitry but my guess would be the coil.
Please, before you decide to send it in. Even in an air test. Ground balance the machine properly or your results won't be right. You can also test this your self. If you are indoors, use a hot rock to balance the machine. If you don't have a hot rock, take it out side and balance it and do your tests out there.

Robert, I've tried ground balancing perfectly neutral, a bit + and a bit -. I am balancing to the surrounding clean ground in my test garden. also I had the same results with both the 5.75 widescan as well as the stock coil, although the stock coil may have been 0.5" or so better. I would think it unlikely that both coils are defunct. I'm pretty familiar with ground balancing as most of my time on the Vaq has been in all metal during prospecting, and I constantly check my GB every 2-3 feet (and finding sub-grain lead shot and bb's no problem). That could be why I havent noticed it until recently, as I dont use disc mode very often, but lately I've been wanting to get those deeper targets that the Compadre wont hit on. I was told that I could run sensitivity around 9-10 and get great depth without supertuning. Does this seem correct? Thanks

 

[Allcav]

You should get the depth. I also want to add, in heavy mineralized soil in the disc mode, you will loose depth as well.
Now that you mentioned trying it on 2 different coils, I would have you send it in for us to look at. Make sure you leave a note with your problems. Leave a phone number and a return address just in case I have to call you for something.

 

[atomicscott]

You should get the depth. I also want to add, in heavy mineralized soil in the disc mode, you will loose depth as well.
Now that you mentioned trying it on 2 different coils, I would have you send it in for us to look at. Make sure you leave a note with your problems. Leave a phone number and a return address just in case I have to call you for something.

Will do Robert, U da man!

 

[LuckyLarry]

Oops! Question has already been answered..

 

[SpiritRelic]

Yes Spirit and Tn, I alway use my headphones, whether testing or in the field. Spirit, I figured there had to be a problem. The bummer is I don't know how long it's been acting up. I've been doing alot of reasearch on local historical places and hunting some sites that may have produced some nice older coins if I wasn't getting such poor depth. I guess I need to go back over those sites! Is the pinpointing actually no-motion on the Vaq? It seems I have to move the coil to keep it working. Thanks for your help. Scott

The Vaquero is totally a motion based detector,there are very few detectors that have no-motion mode.The outlaw has this feature.The Vaquero is such a great all terrain detector!. :-V

 

[atomicscott]

The Vaquero is totally a motion based detector,there are very few detectors that have no-motion mode.The outlaw has this feature.The Vaquero is such a great all terrain detector!. :-V

Thanks spirit. I shipped it back for service, I'm confident it will work great when I get it back.

 

[chakra22]

Hi Robert I saw this air test-so I ran a check on mine

Hi Robert I saw this air test advice for the vaquero so I ran a check on mine-I had 3.5 turns on my ground balance knob-- so I set it at 1.75 turns off of the soft stop I think this is what the book says is a good way to start. Should be close to the middle postion for a starting point.

Threshold=full , sens=10, Disc=min quarter 10 - 11 in and dime 9-10 in-

Threshold=full , sens=full, Disc=min quarter 12 - 15 in and dime 10-13 in

Threshold=full , sens=10, Disc=beaver tail pull tab just past Nickel quarter 10-11 in and dime & copper penny 9-10 in, zinc penny 9 in, Anthony dollar 10-11 in and my cell phone 19 in. a droid x

I tried this with a half a turn- both with too + and too - and just right in the air. When you are too +, and it loose some depth

Thanks for the info on this test..

This is what I can tell you. In an air test not super tuned, the quarter should be reached at about 9" and the dime about 7". I wont talk about pennies or nickles at this point. I tried this both with too + and too - and just right in the air. When you are too +, it looses depth considerably. These test are all with the disc level at min. We all know max disc will loose depth so I wont even test it that way.
I can also tell you that if your coil is out of tune, it could have the same effect. It could also be something in the circuitry but my guess would be the coil.
Please, before you decide to send it in. Even in an air test. Ground balance the machine properly or your results won't be right. You can also test this your self. If you are indoors, use a hot rock to balance the machine. If you don't have a hot rock, take it out side and balance it and do your tests out there.

 

[rainyday101]

One thing everyone forgot to mention was to replace the battery and test again. I have also found that fresh test gardens are useless. Once the ground matrix has been disturbed it will need years to get decent test results.

 

[fella]

I have also found that fresh test gardens are useless. Once the ground matrix has been disturbed it will need years to get decent test results.

Really? Why?
Test gardens are kinda silly anyway. There is NO WAY you can set up a test garden for real world in field hunting anyway. Way too many variables. Unless you go to the same spot all the time and nothing ever changes (highly unlikely).

 

[boris]

So I've been spending alot of hours between my two Tesoros trying to learn their languages. Lately I've been using the Compadre alot, and digging lots of pulltabs trying to get that gold jewelry that the Compadre seems to like so much! I was doing some depth testing in my test garden and realized the Comp had a tough time finding a dime at 5" just a very faint blip, I wouldn't have probably dug the signal. A quarter was a decent signal at 6" penny and nickel about the same. When I couldn't find the dime I pulled out the old Vaquero and got a nice neutral ground balance. Hmmm... no signal on dime with sensitivity at 6. Turned up sensitivity gradually to max, still nothing. Ok, time to supertune. I had an erratic beep on the dime when supertuned. This was with the 5.75 widescan coil. I decided to switch out with the stock 9x8 concentric. Same results with stock coil. Further air testing proved the weak depth. Air testing on a US quarter was about 6" nickel and penny about the same with the dime hitting at about 5" max. Am I missing something? I seem to have only been finding coins in the 5"-7" range lately, still finding some deep targets, just large junk though. I'm sending it to Tesoro ASAP, just like to hear anyones thoughts on the lack of depth? Thanks

You can go deeper with sensitivity very low like 3 as higher will pick up the hot rocks,etc. I use all metal and don't discriminate unless just looking for coins at a trash site. I heard a beer can at 12" and dug it anyway and found a bowie knife worth$$$. HH boris ps save your postage until absolutely sure as they are good forever especially the waterproof ones.

 

[rainyday101]

Fella, test gardens are good for playing with a detector to get good depth. You can vary settings to see what settings will get your deeper targets. You can also set up coins with junk nearby to check seperation. As far as why fresh dug test gardens don't work good once the dirt is disturbed seems to be a complicated opionated mystery with several theories. When I first put mine I was ready to wrap my detector around a tree because it really couldn't get anything past 4". After a lot of research on the ground matrix etc. and several experienced detectorist saying it won't work fresh I moved on. Took my detector out in the field and went to it. I found coins at 6" with solid tones no problem.

 

[Allcav]

Hi Robert I saw this air test advice for the vaquero so I ran a check on mine-I had 3.5 turns on my ground balance knob-- so I set it at 1.75 turns off of the soft stop I think this is what the book says is a good way to start. Should be close to the middle postion for a starting point.

Threshold=full , sens=10, Disc=min quarter 10 - 11 in and dime 9-10 in-

Threshold=full , sens=full, Disc=min quarter 12 - 15 in and dime 10-13 in

Threshold=full , sens=10, Disc=beaver tail pull tab just past Nickel quarter 10-11 in and dime & copper penny 9-10 in, zinc penny 9 in, Anthony dollar 10-11 in and my cell phone 19 in. a droid x

I tried this with a half a turn- both with too + and too - and just right in the air. When you are too +, and it loose some depth

Thanks for the info on this test..

You can test test it like I mentioned above. However, with these numbers, sounds like you are right on the head.

To test it, turn your GB all the way clockwise 5 turns. Do your air test. You will notice a huge decrease in depth.

 

[DigDugNY]

How do you set GB back to a neutral position?

 

[Allcav]

You turn it 5x clockwise then back 1.5x counter clockwise. Should be close