Silver Umax Review: Conclusion

[SaginawIan]

My final word on this detector: ALL AROUND GREAT COMBINATION OF SENSITIVITY AND DISCRIMINATION. It's not the deepest, but it's all you need. Depth isn't the only HALF of the equation.

This bad boy is underrated in my book. - and that's fine by me.

For the final part of my review, I have been hunting wooded home foundations that date from 1830 - 1890. I've hunted 3 of them and come up with some nice finds. All small targets were less than 8" deep. Some large objects as deep as 12". Every single target was in difficult iron infested soil. Overall, the detector has remained stable and quiet. One can be confident that if you get a repeatable smooth signal, that you have a good target. If you get a singal that is choppy, even a little, it is almost always large iron or square nails. It's as simple as that. The best way to hunt is with the sensitivity all the way up and discrimination just above iron. When you get a target, you will have no problem pinpointing at all. Flipping to all metal helps a bit too. With no designated pinpoint button on the Silver, I almost always dug my target in the first shovelfull! I also believe that the depth of this detector is excellent. It gives you all the depth you need. Could you get an inch or two from a higher end detector that costs 5 times as much, you betcha. If you only consider depth, then you will be disappointed in the Silver. If so, just buy a top of the line model and be done with it, since you will keep buying and buying until you get the DEEPEST. Personally, I'm starting to think that depth is only half of the equation. Depth doesn't matter if you can't tell what the hell the object is! Gotta have good discrimination to get the good targets. Good iron rejection is a MUST. I don't know how much better iron rejection gets than on the Silver! How are you going to get to that 12" dime (that you are "sure" is there) if you can't get past the iron nails all around it Me, I'd rather dig 6"-8" dimes among iron all day long with this little dynamo and leave those 12 inchers for the people with the time to misinterpret sputtering signals that give good VDI numbers. Of course, you will miss some coins with the Silver that are too deep. You will definitely find some of those with higher end models. However, you will also miss them with higher models if you waste time trying to second guess a VDI screen. Pick your poison.


Couple of things: the coil on this is awesome. It is a great size at 8" because it is small enought to dart around obstacles, has a hole in the center for ease of pinpoint. It is also large enough to cover enough ground during a hunt.
A slow sweep speed is needed sometimes. Sometimes I found myself moving too fast and missing objects that were easily identifiable with a slower sweep speed.

I had just finished writing about how much I love the Silver and how deep,sensitive, and discriminating it is when ------ Whamo! It just stopped working! For no particular reason I just tried to turn it on and it was dead. I was bummed. I changed batteries and nothing. Well, stupid me - I plugged in my headphones and realized that it was just the speaker that quit working! So, since I hunt with headphones, I will be waiting to send it in to Tesoro the next fall. By the way, I posted my problem with the Silver in the Tesoro forum and most responded that Tesoro would fix it despite the fact that I'm the second owner of this detector. I'll let you know how that works out.

Final Likes:
Looks good, Sounds good.
Light, Sensitive, and Durable.
GREAT DISCRIMINATION
RESPECTABLE DEPTH
PRICE$$$$$$$

Final Dislikes:
Pole Squeaks.
Sweep Speed, A Little Slow.
Gets Dirty Easy. Hard to Clean.

Get it, Use it, Love it!

The end.

Best Finds:

If anyone has questions about my series of reviews or just wants info about the Silver, please feel free to email me at simonsia@yahoo.com

 

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[khouse]

Those are some great finds! Have you looked inside the head to see if it's a speaker wires loose or disconnected. Maybe a 5 minute fix.

 

[Me]

Try putting that 9x8 uMax web coil on your Silver. I hear it will give you 3 inches more depth on coins. The 12x10 should give you 4 to 5 inches more.

One test online says the Silver with web coil (9x8) beats the Tejon.

I personally believe this and just ordered a 12x10 to prove it.

 

[dahut]

Heres the bad news - any decent detector would have found that stuff. WHERE you take it is more important than what you swing.

The good news? It is a pleasure to hunt with a uMax.

 

[Sandman]

Very true Dahut. Where you hunt is of prime importance in finding more stuff than you could find elsewhere with a different detector. In using a larger coil it will sometimes get you less depth in mineralized ground than a standard coil. But then the larger coil covers more ground per sweep and that can increase your find ratio.

 

[Michigan Badger]

After having read so much online about the old Silver Sabre and Silver uMax line of machines I decided to buy a couple and try them myself.

I just returned from a logging camp I gave up on due to hunting it totally out with my Tejon and Nautilus IIb.

With the Tesoro Silver Sabre II (old timer) I found that my site wasn't hunted out at all.

Digs so far:

1) one crosscut saw blade
2) one old spoon
3) one coin dropped by hunters, etc. (wheat 1946)
4) one brass oil lamp part
5) many small brass grommets (about nickel size)
6) lots of brass shells
7) plenty of unknowns (brass and iron)

Many of these were dug right beside holes I had dug while using the Tejon. I always use very low discrimination so I can't figure out how I missed these before.

With the old beat-up Sabre II fixed with 10x12 coil the targets were very loud and clear.

I actually like the old Silver better than the Tejon for my type of relic hunting. BUT, the Tejon with adjustable ground balance will always hold an edge in that regard.

It would be fun to compare the Silver Sabre II with a new Silver uMax fixed with the 10x12.

Badger