Tesoro detectors... coil selections? Which one!

BuddhaPie

Jr. Member
Apr 14, 2018
29
12
Nebraska
Detector(s) used
Pirate- Black Pearl, Mr. Bills IDX, Modded Tesoro Conquistador Umax, Modded Tesoro Cibola w/ HOT cleansweep, Tesoro Lobo Supertraq
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I'm fairly new to metal detecting, and this is the first forum I've joined , as well as the first post I've written so bare with my ridiculous questions/ramblings I am about to bring forth. :BangHead:

I have a new to me Tesoro Conquistador Umax with manual ground balance as well as a new to me Tesoro Cibola, both with the stock 9x8 concentric coils in their respective epsilon and delta configurations. Firstly the Conquistador is modded with a 3-3/4 turn manual ground balance that I have done myself. The mod works great, and has essentially turned this detector into an Eldorado. The circuit board even reads eldo1.1 which leads me to believe this has the ed-180 disc circuitry that seems very desirable in a Tesoro as well as the hi-tone that is also seemingly desireable amongst many Tesoro owners. The Cibola is soon to be modded with a 10 turn manual ground balance, and a trigger replacing the pinpoint button for all metal/ disc selection, but not before it is sent into Tesoro for a new hi-tone mod.

My thinking is that the Conquistador Umax with its ed-180 disc and manual ground balance would be a great detector for iron laden house sites, parks, etc. And that the Cibola with its H.O.T circuitry (and not quite ed-180 disc) would be better suited for open areas where iron isn't so much of a bother, but a little more depth, and ground coverage are desired.

So my first question as it pertains to the Conquistador Umax is:
Would a widescan coil such as a Cors Fortune 9.5"x5.5" DD be a good choice for the Conquistador in Iron laden areas? Cors markets the coil for excellent target speration in land heavily littered with iron and other debris.
Or, is one of the 11"x8" widescan DD coils (although larger) from Tesoro a better choice? Since it may be better tuned to the Tesoro electronics (disc setting, etc) compared to the Cors which are available to many other brands?

My second question as it pertains the Cibola is:
Would a large widescan coil such as the Cors Fire 15" DD be a good choice for the Cibola in areas where ground coverage, and depth are desired? Cors markets this coil to have exceptional depth and ground coverage for use in open Terrain.
Or, is the large widescan 12"x10" DD coil (although smaller) from Tesoro a better choice with slightly less coverage? Again because it may be better tuned to the Tesoro electronics (disc settings, etc) compared to the Cors which are available to many different brands of detectors.

Feel free to elaborate on as much or as little as you choose; mods, detectors, coils, etc. I would greatly appreciate any opinions on these detector/coil pairings or machines/coils like them that you have owned, had experience with, or have heard about through the grapevine.

Thanks to all, and Happy hunting! :headbang:
 

Excellent mods...are the instructions online? :icon_thumleft:

Always looking to tinker with my machines! :occasion14:
 

The instructions are online for the Cibola, they are from a guy named Sven, he's a great dude. It's a nice little PDF that has part numbers, instructions, and all. As for the Conquistador Umax that is a different story, the 100K 3-3/4 turnpot (used in the Tejon) that's needed is near impossible to find without buying in bulk, I instead used a bourns 50K 3-3/4 turn pot which was equally extremely difficult to find without buying in bulk, but I managed and it works just fine. If you want more details PM me and I'll help you to feel comfortable with the mod. I'll be honest I wasn't sure if it was going to work when I was done but, I've fixed plenty of small electronics, so I figured if it didn't I would just solder the small trimmer back in where it came from.
 

By the way I've since learned I'm a little back wards on the coils I'm looking at for these two detectors, I'm leaning towards the 5.75 concentric for the Conquistador in iron trash, and I've since heard that the Nels/Cors only work well with the H.O.T Tesoro's like the Cibola so I'll be looking in the future for a larger one of those such as the fire 15" for some pasture ground in a very historic area.
 

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I was thinking of buying Cibola and adding every Mod I can, just to do it for fun; maybe this summer. :occasion14:
 

I was thinking of buying Cibola and adding every Mod I can, just to do it for fun; maybe this summer. :occasion14:

I jus got one off of eBay for $170, I figure with my spare change I saved I'll do the mods
 

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