Mike Hillis

I was hoping they'd link to a operating manual. I like the blue color. HH Mike

Bounty Hunter Time Ranger Pro is now available at Amazon,,,,,,,$449 Sorry,,,,,removed the link.....you have to search for yourself. HH Mike

Looks like a great trip to me. You have some outstanding rings to tie the memory of the trip to. Gerry, I really like those ring boxes you are using, Those are great showcases for great rings....Where can a person get those? HH Mike

I wish I hadn't heard that. Its very depressing. The V3 release was historic. It was "World Fair" class. The vibrant display, the ability to see multi-frequency results simultaneously, the ability to discriminate by correlating across frequencies. The ability to completely customize MY metal detector. It was like the future was now and was only going to get better. I thought, "Now we will see more color displays!" I thought, "Now we will see more frequency based discrimination!". I thought, "Now we will see Density!" Only we didn't get any of that. The V3/V3i was a far as it got. The rest of the mfg's politely stayed in their lanes. The new guys politely copied what was already out there. And the users base stayed predictably dumb. My hope is that someone at Whites keeps the vision alive. I'm going to put everything else on hold and start raising the money needed to go buy a brand new V3i before they go extinct. HH Mike

I love the both of those Vision boxes!!!!! I would love to be able to order custom coils......like a 4" x18" DD. I want one right this very second for my F75 LTD. I'd pay a premium for it too. I don't care. I just NEED that coil. I need it I need it I need it. I NEED IT HH Mike

It is a pretty ring. HH Mike

8 grams of platinum....very nice.... HH Mike

If I was coin hunting that place I'd be looking for the hot spots....clothes lines, transportation enter/exit areas, outhouse paths...the big shade trees or where the big shade trees once existed....sunny side of the house.... Find the hot spots and focus on those to the exclusion of all else. Good Luck! HH Mike

I like posting content here because Steve makes me feel welcomed, regardless of what equipment I'm swinging or posting about. I don't feel like I have to be using the latest greatest to make a contribution. And I think the other folks that frequent this site feel the same way. It doesn't matter if you are swinging and talking about a Bounty Hunter Tracker IV or the Minelab GMZ 7000 your content contribution is appreciated. I like that. HH Mike

Serial number 233307. I can't read the code so I have no idea. TID boundaries appear to be 0 to 20/22 for foil to nickel. 20/22 to 74/75 for nickel to zinc cent. 74/75 to 95 for zinc cent to dime. That is a pretty decent spread of TID for the mid conductive range.... 20 points for low conductors, 53 points for middle conductors, and 20 points for middle high conductors. The Cortes is an analog detector. As you raise your discrimination it will affect the depth all all targets near the discrimination point. So using the nickel for an example....maximum depth is possible with a minimum disc setting, but as I raise the disc setting I start shaving off distance from the nickel response. So using discrimination is a balancing act between rejection and response distance. Since I plan to mostly use the Cortes with the Cleansweep coil I have to be ok with the distance I can get on my lowest conductive targets with the iron rejection I'll need. I tend to think that the lower TID range of my unit's nickel setting has an affect on narrowing this balance. At this point, with iron disc set where I need it, Sensitivity on 5, my lowest conductive ring (TID of 3) gives a air test distance of 3" on the Cleansweep coil, while maintaining a 4.5" nickel air test distance. This translates to 1" of distance lost from my iron disc use. Which is acceptable for the Cleansweep coil. I focus on the staying rather low on the sensitivity setting as EMI could well keep me here, if EMI lets me use a higher Sensitivity setting then life gets more golden. I'm still good to go Cleansweeping for rings. HH Mike

I dunno...Its a new in box unit that is at least 2 years old. I'll post the serial number and we'll have a go at it. HH Mike

My Sunday morning got rained out. Woke up to heavy fog, then drizzling rain an hour later...and next week is laundry day so....maiden voyage is still a ways out. Bench testing with the stock coil shows this particular model to be tuned a bit different from the ones I've owned in the past. It seems to be tuned more in line with the 10 kHz operating frequency. All of the other Cortes models I've owned have had the Nickel TID in the mid to high 30s, from a 34 to a 39, and there is one for sale on the 'depot classified that has a nickel id in the low middle 40s. Mine has a nickel id in the high teens/low twenties. The Cortes uses a TID of 0 for iron and 95 high conductors start at penny/dime range. That leaves a spread of 94 numbers for low and mid range conductors. My model is giving a 20 point spread for foil and 74 point spread for the middle range...I don't recall my zinc id at the moment...it was in the 70s but at the moment I can't peg it to a single number...I'll have to go back and double check.. At first I was a bit bugged that the nickel id was so low, but in reflection I find that it is really more in line with the operating frequency. In reality how much useful resolution can a 10 kHz unit put into the foil range? That said, my entire mid conductive range has really opened up and it's TID spread is completely in line with a 10 kHz unit....74 points of resolution between a nickel and a dime is right where a lot of non-ferrous trash resides and where the resolution would be the most useful in picking goodies out of the trash. So I'm a bit stoked about that. Another thing I am seeing is that I'm not experiencing the over shoot null on this model...at least not on the bench...I'll have to wait and see if it does it on the ground. The other surprise is the All Metal mode is much deeper than any of my other units. My past Cortes' (remember I've owned 6 of these in the past) usually only detected slightly deeper in all metal than they did in Disc mode. This unit is much deeper in All Metal. The no-motion all metal mode still only gives an id at DIsc mode distances but the all metal threshold operation goes much further... The one real negative is that the detector is tuned to the stock coil and not my Cleansweep coil. Which means that large high conductors wrap to iron much faster than they should. So where a dollar coin would stay in the non-ferrous range at 12" on the stock coil, it will start wrapping to iron about 4" on the clean sweep coil, and all high conductors move up accordingly...dimes are staying at dime but quarters and higher are moving up the scale. Not a big deal for a jewelry hunter but a good thing to know. I'll ponder about this for a while and see if I really need to care or not.... Anyway....over all I'm pretty happy with it's potential. Now just to get it on the ground. HH Mike

Jeff, There are a couple of things I'd like to see added.....I'd like to see a notch feature in Micro mode. and I'd also would like a two tone in Fast and Boost only I want to keep the VCO and add a solid high tone for the high conductive range. On my last trip out with it I switched over from Micro to Boost and I really enjoyed the boosted VCO audio, however I would have liked a little more audio intelligence. Just give me a tone break between VCO and a High tone where I could keep the VCO in play for everything below the tone break and a high tone for everything above the tone break. I could use the Disc and Tone break point to adjust the size of my VCO window yet keep awareness of things that hit outside my desired target range. Also want 20" x 4" DD coil for it. HH Mike

Hi Rick, Congrats on another round with the Gold Kruzer. I'm waiting for it to warm up here as well. Been too cold for my bones so far this winter. Susposed to be a bit warmer this Sunday but I've already got a date with a different model. I made the mistake of running my disc to high, at 40, in Micro. I'll try your 22 setting next time and see how I do. Good luck. HH Mike

I've always liked the Tesoro Cortes. I like the design intent. I like the way it looks. I like the Sum mode with the audio tones. I like the graph. I like the Target ID range. I like pretty much everything about it except the single tone hunt audio in Disc mode and the overshoot null in the non-motion all metal sometimes gives me a fit. I've had six of them over the years and I usually part with them mostly due to the single tone hunt audio. But I get nostalgic after a while and end up getting another one every now and them....which is what has just happened. I saw one for sale and started looking at it again but didn't jump. Then a NIB unit came up for sale at a very good price and I couldn't help myself and jumped. Welcome home number seven. HA. I think I will put the Cleansweep coil on it and just hunt athletic fields with it where beep dig single tone is ok and all I really care about is ground coverage or places that I've already cleaned out and just want to run through for recent drops. Hope to hunt it next weekend and share thoughts and results. Wife is probably going to wack me, though. Only been two months since the last new purchase. HH Mike Tesoro Cortes Data & Reviews

Well....side tracked again.....expect another delay. What can I say. HH Mike

What do you consider West Texas? The is a meteor crater near Odessa. HH Mike

got this picture on my computer background......so I can look at it all the time.....HAHA Actually I normally have it cycling between the F75, Etrac, Impact, Gold Kruzer, and the V3. But I locked this picture into place until I have it hand.

what a steal of a deal!!!! I have a Compadre too. They are nice little units. Mine has an equal place in my rotation. I'm surprised every one doesn't own one. My wife really likes it to because the weight is just right for her and she likes the simple beep dig. HH Mike

Love the gold! I wish they would make a simple little discriminating one for fresh water. I could use something like that! HH Mike

Ok....I'm nearly back....I've got $300 of the required $399 squirreled away to purchase the Omega. Should be able to order in the next couple of weeks. Also....I used the 'contact us' email link on the Teknetics Direct website to make sure i could get a unit from the latest mfg run and they replied back the same day. That was very fast customer response. By the way, the last mfg run was this past November. One thing I really like about Fisher/Teknetics is the 5 year warranty. I have had to use it twice, late in the 4th year of a couple of detectors and they honored it with no problem. All I had to do was pay shipping in. They covered the work and the shipping back. At today's prices its kind of dumb to buy used when you can get the detector at a pretty decent new price with the 5 year warranty. Anyway...looking forward to continuing this discussion in a few weeks. HH Mike

Pretty funny to me. People want information. People get information. People complain about where the information comes from. Its not good enough that information comes directly from the designer and the designer's lead tester...they also want to hear from some company marketing man. HH Mike

I still have a couple of Tesoro. A GSII and a Compadre. Might still pick up another Cortes in the future when I cross paths with the right one. Since I like to use all my detectors, it takes a while for them to come up in rotation to talk about. And I sometimes give the new ones extra attention. 😂 HH Mike

I made a decision to replace my F19/G2+ detector slot with the Impact. I only run it in 20 kHz frequency and I find it to have the same hots as the F19/G2+ but with a lot more options, including a deep (boost) mode. Ground cancelling appears to be very good and it is working well. If you don't need waterproofing (the supplied covers are very nice) I recommend you take a look at the Impact. The pricing is very good right now. That said, the new BH Time Ranger Pro should be showing up soon and it may be a cheaper alternative to the F19/G2+. Love the V3 but the learning curve is long. HH Mike

hmmmm. How small of an item can I go down to with 7 ns pulse delay? HH Mike