lost at sea said:
Hey Me, How to Tejon users know if they have iron, coins or anything else for that matter? I have heard that guys with these detectors can tell if it is a piece of iron, coin, etc. after they learn their machines? So how does the single tone differ?
Like sandman I buy and sell lots of machines. I really like THing but trying new detectors (and sometimes old models) is almost as much fun as hunting.
I sold my Tejon about a month ago and now am without a machine. I can't make up my mind what I want this time.
Anyway, having said all this, to your question.
The Tejon is really unlike all other detectors. With most deep detectors you have to really learn to interpret the many tones and odd sounds.
With the Tejon you have a "beep N dig" detector. It's smooth and so simple to use that anyone can master a Tejon within a few hours of serious effort. The Minelab SE is a little deeper but requires far more concentration and many hours of useage to master. But, once mastered it's a killing machine.
Having said this, the Tejon will find more goodies than the SE mainly because it's faster, more comfortable to use, and good targets are plain as day.
How does one tell iron from nonferrous metals while using the Tejon? Easy, just learn to use the discrimination knob. Set it so tiny iron nails are totally blanked-out and larger iron tends to breakup slightly. With the Tejon, all copper, silver, and gold targets come through clearly as long as you don't set the discrimination too high. You learn how high you can go by digging actual targets and planting test targets. Like I say, a few hours and you've got it.
I usually set my Tejon discrimination on either FOIL or between FOIL and IRON. Most tiny gold starts to drop out at about half way between NICKEL and FOIL.
The Tejon isn't a tone machine as such. But, it is true that there are slightly distinct differences in the sounds made by various targets. The sound differences are due mostly to the discriminational settings. What one is really hearing are solid or broken signals.
Discrimination corrupts certain signals so they sound different from those not corrupted.
I like most top brands and have found they all have they're strong and not-so-strong points. The no-so-strong point about the Tejon is the knobs turn too easily and they are constantly getting bumped while hunting. This can be solved by placing O rings under the knobs. Why Tesoro doesn't fix this is more than I can figure.
But again, depth wise the Tejon comes close to the Minelab SE but is 10-times easier to learn and use. It will produce more finds than the SE or Explorer II due to it's very clear target signal and light weight design. Also the pinpointing is dead-on with the Tejon. Many other top brands miss the mark here.
I often dug a 2 1/2 inch wide holes (plugs) while digging coins with the Tejon. Once learned that coin or ring will be dead center. Try to do this consistently with any Whites, Garrett, or even Minelab!
Dollar for dollar the Tejon is the best buy in coin/relic machines today. Until they come up with something truly new the Tejon is about all we can get at any price for general coin hunting.
Hope this helps.
