Vaquero Thumbs up!

[birdman]

OK I went over a "hunted out" spot in my yard with my new Vaquero and I know three detectors have been all over and I was getting lots of good signals. In about 45 minutes total I have dug several deep shotgun shells ,a small suspender type buckle,some junk, a jack and a neat little boy scout button . I also dug some junk that I should have dug with my cibola. I am impressed ! We pounded this small area for a couple of hours before and I know we walked over this stuff and no telling what else. The travesty of it all is that I now realize that I must have walked over countless nice finds when I was just stationed overseas! Oh well, Maybe next time. Hope all is well and HH.

 

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[Michigan Badger]

Glad the Vaquero is working for you. So you think it's better at finding stuff than the Fisher was?

I know the Tejon has spoiled me for a long time to come. Like you I'm re-hunting "hunted out" sites and you've seen some of my finds posted here and elsewhere. I don't post everything I dig. I dig lots of Indian cents (lots for this area) and like you shotgun brasses, buckels, rifle brasses, toy cars, trucks, rings, jewelry, and odds and ends.

The thing I noticed is those sites that have been "hunted out" still have most of the old copper coins and rings (many are on edge). It's like everybody hit the bigger silver and clad fast and then called these sites "hunted out."

For years everybody has been arguing depth but I think it's not as much about depth as seeing the targets at those shallow depths (1-6 inches). An Indian cent down 4 inch's on edge requires a mighty good target separation machine (read the target mixed in with trash).

Tesoros have always been great at distinguishing trash from treasure (target separation).

Hope you find something really old and great in that yard.

Badger

 

[mag]

I talked with the folks at Tesoro last week. I was asking for advise on using the Vaquero. the guy advised me to slow down the sweep and overlap about half the coil each time.
Hope to try the concept out this week. Good luck... and God bless...

 

[birdman]

I just got finished with another short hunt. Well I really like this machine. I went over more previously hunted area and found two wheats and a 1936 buffalo. I would have hunted longer but the mosquitos were about to carry me off.I don't understand how it can get 20 below here and still have so many mosquito's and ticks in the summer. Badger the CZ 5 is a great work horse and I don't want to say to many bad things about it but I took it out in my yard and all the iron was making it almost unusable. I could have just dug everything but the yard would have been shot. It has 4 tones and loves to sound off a nice high tone for deep rusty nails. I have dug about 14 inches for a fairly small rusty nail before. I have also dug old coins up at 12 plus inches but not every day. Like any other machine you do get good with it after awhile but I got spoiled (maybe a bit lazy) after my cibola. I always knew I was not getting as deep but I dug a lot less small iron so I figured it was a trade off. I am just shocked what I am pulling out of the ground with my new machine . I thought the yard was wiped out. I am just wondering what I have walked over in the past. Mag ,that sounds like a good technique I will give it a shot. Thanks much .

 

[Michigan Badger]

I talked with the folks at Tesoro last week. I was asking for advise on using the Vaquero. the guy advised me to slow down the sweep and overlap about half the coil each time.
Hope to try the concept out this week. Good luck... and God bless...

Yes this is the way to use the Vaquero and Tejon. I hunt at a regular swing pace until I hear a tick/click or beep and then I move to that spot with a very slow swing. If it sounds better I'll put the coil right over that spot and slowly move the coil back and forth in little half swings watching the center of the coil. If the signal improves more I'll dig a couple inches down and check it again. If it's something good the signal will greatly improve.

This is the main method I use for rings and Indian cents.

This slow method is what works with most deep VLF detectors. Minelab owners wouldn't find a thing if they didn't use this method. Often THers miss good targets because they move along too fast and their swings are way too quick. The detector doesn't have time to process the signal. If you want the old deep stuff here in the states you have to hunt very slowly after you've located a potential hot spot or hit on a very trashy area.

And most important is the fact that deep or masked targets change in sound and readings. My last Indians sounded more like iron/foil until I dug down a few inches. When you get a signal that sounds iffy and is sometimes coin-like and others trash-like, dig! If it's trash it will quickly sound like trash with a couple inches of dirt removed.

Rarely do I dig an old pre-1900's coin that has an obvious coin signal at first. It usually has a broken coin signal that turns solid from all direction as soon as I remove some dirt.

I usually hunt in discrimination mode with the knob set on FOIL (half way between IRON and NICKEL).

Badger

 

[Shortstack]

I talked with the folks at Tesoro last week. I was asking for advise on using the Vaquero. the guy advised me to slow down the sweep and overlap about half the coil each time.
Hope to try the concept out this week. Good luck... and God bless...

If you seriously believe there will be deep coins, jewelry, relics, etc. you should not only slow down, but also overlap by only an inch or so. You've got to visualize the TIP of the detecting cone of energy. If you're intent on finding the deep stuff, you have to use the tip as a small brush which has to "paint" that deepest level without missing a spot. That will take a whoooole lot longer to cover an area, but if that area has the signs of being filled in or sodden thus burying targets deep, the inch-by-inch sweep is the only way to truly get everything---well, almost everything.

 

[Michigan Badger]

I talked with the folks at Tesoro last week. I was asking for advise on using the Vaquero. the guy advised me to slow down the sweep and overlap about half the coil each time.
Hope to try the concept out this week. Good luck... and God bless...

If you seriously believe there will be deep coins, jewelry, relics, etc. you should not only slow down, but also overlap by only an inch or so. You've got to visualize the TIP of the detecting cone of energy. If you're intent on finding the deep stuff, you have to use the tip as a small brush which has to "paint" that deepest level without missing a spot. That will take a whoooole lot longer to cover an area, but if that area has the signs of being filled in or sodden thus burying targets deep, the inch-by-inch sweep is the only way to truly get everything---well, almost everything.

Excellent post.

You said it all (most of it) in this short posting.

I learned about the cone thing back in the 70's. The detectors back then got maybe 5 inches max on coins. One time I found a small area with Indian cents so I got a chalk line and set it up between stakes. I walked this line back and forth and then moved it over about a foot and did it again. It took me nearly 20 hours to cover an area about 12x20 foot. I dug about a dozen old coins including Barber dimes and Buff's.

Also, lots of people miss the really good stuff because they listen only for those big solid loud hits. By far my best finds gave a tiny mellow piece of foil sound that 98% of THers would have ignored.

Lately I've been surprized at how many items are buried on edge so little area of the target is facing the surface. An Indian cent on edge doesn't give much of a signal at 4 inches.

Badger