Tesoro Tiger Shark

[Sandman]

The Tesoro Tiger Shark is a fine sensitive machine that is good on land or water and water proof to 200 feet. Deeper than I like to dive for sure. It is easy to operate and has a All Metal Slow and Fast and Disc. modes. A on switch for Normal and Salt water mode. Your Discrimination knob and the Ground Balance knob. The Volume, Sensitivity and Threshold control are inside where they are adjusted if needed by a tiny screw driver. These are not marked inside and should be color coded but the instruction book has a good diagram.
The face plate is held onto the box with two large clips that are hard to accidentally open. The face plate also has no markings at the Discriminator Knob to show you where items are discriminated out an it has numbers 1 thru 9. This is important because not all detectors disc. at the same number on a pulltab for example. YOU should test each item on a clean piece of ground to learn where they tune out. I marked my face plate with a couple paint drops for reference.
The control box is attached to the shaft by spring buttons and may be moved from in front of your hand to your elbow or hip mounted. IF hip mounting, note that the belt loop puts the detector box upside down, but a small thing really. You still know what the knobs are for.

The most important feature is your ability to change to using different size coils depending on what your hunting or where. I have a 8", 10" and the Clean Sweep Coil which is 18"X3" inches and light weight too. It pinpoints at the front or rear edge really easy and it will cover ground fast and doesn't need to be over lapped to find the targets that may be far apart. If you don't put your coil over it, you can't dig it. You can cover four times the ground per sweep as your buddy and that means four times the goodies all else being equal. It's always a safe bet that you will find more using this Clean Sweep Coil.

 

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[oregondirt]

Something of interest with T/S is Tesoro makes a" Land Adapter" cable so you can use UMAX coils with it. You lose the ability to dive with it but you can use them on land.
I have several UMAX coils for a Eldorodo now I can use them on the T/S!

Keith

 

[Rusted_Iron]

I am a happy Tiger Shark user. Found my first Mercury dime and my first V nickel with it.

I have the sensitivity turned to about 50%, this is turned down to deal with salt water. I hunt with it this way on land, too. I could turn it up for land, I guess, but as-is I get the following air tests:

4" and less: nickel or quarter makes loud beep. Equally loud all through this range of 0 to 4 inches.

5": nickel or quarter gives a moderate "quack".

6": signal is faint, just on the edge of where it breaks up and could be mistaken for a junk signal.

Now, that was an air test, on moderate sensitivity, in Motion Disc mode. I am not an expert user, and it may be possible to tune the machine to get a little more depth. I do know that a coin that's been sitting the ground for many years will detect at a somewhat greater depth, depending on soil conditions. So I would imagine I should be able to find a quarter at 8 inches with no problem, maybe a little deeper if I listen for the faintest signals. Does that sound about right for the Tiger Shark?

In the surf I have found bits aluminum soda cans and rusty iron at least 8 inches deep.

 

[petersra]

I just got mine back from factory repair. It was sent back to me at my work instead of at home and I didn't have the manual with me. I turned it on and the volume almost blasted my ears off so I opened the cover and turned the wrong unmarked adjustments for threshold and sensitivity, thinking they were the volume control. Of course I had it all screwed up by the time I got home and got the book out and found the volume control. With an 8" coil and out of whack settings, I was air testing at 4" on a quarter and 6" on a gold ring. By tweeking the sensitivity and threshold (probably back to the original factory settings) I got 7" on a quarter and 9" on a gold ring. I may continue to tweak it to see how deep I can get it to go and still remain relatively stable.

 

[Rusted_Iron]

The factory-set volume is a little loud... you're not kidding

9" on a gold ring, not too shabby!

I wouldn't doubt this machine could find a quarter at 9" or maybe even 10" on land if it's set up optimally. Time will tell, after you and I get some more field time on our Tiger Sharks . I know ground balance has a lot to do with depth, as well as of course threshold and sensitivity. Targets in wet salt sand can apparently be found deeper than in normal ground, based on what experience I have with it so far. If my recollection serves, it appears coin-sized objects to a foot deep are possible in wet salt sand (someone correct me if I'm wrong, but that's what I was observing).

I'm also learning that depth increases on all targets as you turn down the discrimination. I guess that's why experienced MD'ers like to hunt with disc at a minimum setting, just above iron.

 

[MikeH]

Thanks to everyone on this forum for your input on the Tesoro TS. I am considering this unit as my next one when the money is available. As I can only think of affording one machine to do everything, land and beaches, I have high hopes. I will use these postings as an addendum to the manual. A question though. Is anyone aware of whether or not Tesoro
ever will make a unit similar to the TS but with some kind of Visual ID? It seems strange to me that this feature is not found on most of their machines. Would it add so much to the cost?
Thanks again,
MikeH

 

[Sandman]

Yes it does add some cost and the prices would have to be higher to reflect this. The screen is not really needed in my opinion. Sure I have it on some of my machines, but it only reports what the software tells it, so it's been fooled. If I believed everything it told me, I'd be many coins and rings shorter. Some pieces of foil read the same as white gold and platinum rings which are the ones with the stones.

 

[fng68]

Hi Sandman and fellow TS enthusiasts,

I'm a new TS owner and just had a chance to try it out twice.

I tried a playground and a freshwater beach.I was very impressed with the depth.

My DISC was set just above small iron nails, around 2.5.

The first thing I gotta learn is how to read what the machine is telling me.

Air tested as per book, GB'ed no problem.

My problem is the beeps vs quacks and what are the faint signals you guys are referring to?

Is this heard in all Metal or Disc.

I have read of this change in the report of sound, the nuance between good ,iffy and bad targets.

I kind of figured I have to dig everything, remember what the machine told me.

Any tips from you vets out there would be appreciated.

I am very impressed with the quality,performance and easy of use of this machine. Glad I bought it.

Thanks and HH,

Ron

 

[Sandman]

Defining the sounds the Tiger Shark or many other detectors is difficult to describe. It can only be really learned by use of the machine. Since the Tiger Shark is very sensitive even to gold chains, it can respond to tiny metal pieces while in All Metal and will report to the earring backs also in Discriminate settings. These little earring backs can be a bugger to retrieve since they can fall thru all scoops and you just have to try for them as the diamond earring studs are there for us too.

The faint signals are repeatable signals that are good, but lower volume. To confuse matters, some of the pops and crackels can also be good targets near a small piece of iron. All VLF's will do this but the iron mask ones, like Excals and Sovs.

Enjoy,
Sandman