How much are you planning on getting into the water...just a few times a year or much more?
If a lot are you planning many trips down to the saltwater or will you be concentrating on freshwater sites?
How is your soil where you plan on hunting, lots of the red dirt or a good amount of the blacker stuff?
If you are going to be around water a lot you are better off thinking about waterproof detectors like the MX7, the AT's or the Equinox's.
In Ga. there are many sites, creeks and rivers that have had a lot of civil war action so if you are into relics this is a popular way to hunt in your state.
Check out the Zack Byrd Adventure Hour or Exploring Alabama youtube vids, they hunt separately and also together a lot and they are in the water a lot on the western side of your state.
If not you need to consider your land conditions and what you will be up against.
I live and hunt in Birmingham Ala. and I don't know if my challenges and dirt will be exactly the same as yours but I can tell you about my experiences hunting in the south for thousands of hours with several detectors...the Vaquero and Mojave among them.
I have areas with that red clay and I also have black dirt but that dirt is still highly mineralized.
I also have quite very big problem with extra iron, lots of it.
Because of the many challenges I have Tesoros are not my main tool for hunting around here although I have found a ton using them over the years, I just found that using a bit more complicated detectors with more features seem to be a big help combating this stuff that get me a bit deeper and deal with my massive masking problems a bit better but we aren't talking about those here so I will stick to the two you mentioned.
The Vaq was my first "real" detector that I used for a long time and did very well.
I had both the standard concentric coil and eventually bought a larger DD coil in my attempt to gain more depth in this mineralization.
Turns out that big DD coil didn't help me all that much around here.
Our depth is pretty pitiful here, 5" or maybe up to 6" or so is common and even though we can get deeper the signals get so screwed up as you go further down noticing them becomes problematic.
I have dug some targets deeper a few times in some rare better black dirt, up past 6" to about 7-8" or so but again that is a rare thing.
Luckily, there us still a pretty healthy layer of great targets that still exists in our devil dirt that goes from shallow up to that 6" mark and those that learn to deal with masking problems can be very successful.
The Vaq for me was great, I know it can get scary deep under the right conditions because I have seen it do just that here in wood chips in tot lots, in dry sand at inland lakes and when I lived and hunted in almost perfect dirt out west in Kansas and Missouri but in my devil dirt soil here...not so much.
I tried regular hunting, all metal hunting, super tuned hunting...anything and everything I could over the years but I never did figure out how to get close to the depth I could achieve out west using both my coils.
That was ok, though, I still found more than my share of treasure including coins and jewelry, as I said there is still a lot to be found at more shallow depths for those that figure out how to do it.
After thousands of hours I eventually put my Vaq on the back burner and got into using a Compadre for jewelry hunting and then the Fisher F2 which I really bonded with and then an F70 that opened my eyes to what more features can do for you especially in difficult conditions if you learn to take advantage of them.
I still pulled out the Vaq from time to time for fun, I even got a smaller sniper coil for it and continued to find great things and I still used the Compadre here and there also but my Fisher screen units were my prime tools.
I got used to hearing and understanding the tones like I do with those Tesoros but also the screens and the extra info and data they provided helped me out...a lot.
I eventually moved back here to Alabama and continued to use my F70, mostly, but still pulled out the Vaq and Compadre here and there because switching around is still great fun for me and always will.
On my outings with the Vaq I noticed something that I hadn't before when I used it here for so many hours in the past...It was not the greatest at helping me deal with and avoid digging tons of iron, and as I mentioned there is so much of that around here.
In the past it wasn't that big of a deal because I used to be much more of a dig-it-all kind of hunter but over the years it became much more important to me to avoid digging trash as much as I possibly could, I no longer had the time or patience to dig junk like I used to so I got a lot more picky about the effort I wanted to spend doing that.
With my Fisher I could do that way better than I could with my Vaq, I could avoid a lot with the Vaq but that thing seemed to like iron a little bit too much for my current taste so I did something I never though I would ever do...I traded it away to a dealer out in Missouri so it could live a productive and full life again.
I didn't think I needed a another Tesoro because I still had my Compadre but in that trade I needed to pick out something so I opted for a new sniper coil for my Fisher and a brand new Mojave in that deal.
It was a crapshoot, I was curious because of what I had read about it and all I was hoping for was for it to work just as well as my other experiences with Tesoros, have have a language that was just as colorful and if I was real lucky get a bit deeper than my Compadre which, for all intents and purposes, matched the depth if my Vaq as far as identifying deeper treasure in my problem dirt.
When I got the Mojave I was shocked and awed at what it seemed to be able to do around here.
It was deeper than my Compadre by several inches, I know it sounds impossible but it beat out my Vaq in depth, also.
To be exact it seems to be able to ID more and better targets in my soil deeper than either the Vaq or the Compadre...strange but true.
The Mojave still likes iron a little too much and I do get fooled from time to time but compared to my Vaq it really is much better at that task.
I consider that trade a win-win for both of us...he got a great and deep tool for his great dirt and I got one that seemed to be able to deal with mine better than the other two I have used.
I hunt some sites with some pretty massive EMI, surrounded by and I hunt right under electric wire and near a lot if WiFi and stuff...the Vaq didn't have a whole lot of issues with that and I find the Mojave has even less.
I am not a relic hunter so chasing iron isn't exactly my thing but if it yours that Vaq might be perfect.
My dirt is really weird and challenging but yours might be different and better so if that is the case the Vaq should still be highly considered.
If you are a jewelry hunter or like to hunt in tot lots, along fences or close to other big iron obstacles the Mojave shines at doing that like no other except the Compadre...all the while being extremely adept at finding coins and everything else we look for out there.
I can't tell you what is better for YOU, ground balancing is easy on the Vaq and just a flip of a switch on the Mojave.
You have a few more options on the Vaq but they are both very capable at their core and can probably find the bulk of the same treasure out there.
Weight is similar, cost is different but a used Vaq can be surprisingly close to the price of a new Mojave if you are a good shopper.
The lifetime Tesoro warranty was a big consideration for decades for many owners that guided their buying decisions but right now that is up in the air and we will see how things shake out with Tesoro.
No matter what these things are built like tanks, I had no second thoughts about buying my Compadre used and I have no fears about future service if I ever need it because chances are I won't.
If Tesoro isn't around in the future I am sure others will take up the slack and repair them if needed.
Two good choices but for me in my difficult SE. dirt the Mojave is the one.
Good luck with your decision...no real loser either way.
