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Christmas day I was climbing the walls to do a little detecting, so with little time to hunt before dinner I decided to hit my neighbors 18th century house. After two wheaties and some modern clad I got my first good target. It was an odd piece of copper/bronze doo dad. Looks familiar but I just can't put my finger on it. My last good Target was what I thought to be a key of some sort, Well not so much. After I got home I cleaned the (key) off and found it to be an odd medallion. A date of 1876 and a liberty bell and some people shaking hands emerged. After a little Google research I found it to be a 1876 Philadelphia Exposition medallion. It was the first worlds fair. It was called the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures and products of the soil and mines. Kinda cool since I found it in the soil Ha Ha. 10 million people attended from 37 countries and was held in Fairmount Park. I believe only 2 buildings that were constructed are still standing today. It's a nice find for me, but I sure wish it had the rest of the pieces. It's funny how the detecting gods throw a little important history at you from time to time.

I've been playing catch up with detecting ever since the rotten lyme got me. So I've been running hard and hitting some new spots and a fair amount of my old ones. The weather a day before new years decided to rain like cats and dogs. I was feeling like I was going to miss out on some silver if I didn't get out soon. ( I always feel like some of my good spots are going to turn into a housing development or soccer field). I guess my wife could feel my anxiety and said why don't you go out for a little bit. She said go enjoy your time off and gave me a smooch and wished me good luck. Well I headed out to the Park of plenty with an hour to play with, and a plan to focus on a small spot that has produced coins from the 40's/50's and some from the early 1900's. Tesoro silver U-max in hand with the new 10x12 concentric, I raced to the park. I started finding some wheaties right off the bat, mostly from the 40's. Time was closing in and I decided to hunt a break area where I have found some older silvers. I ran my disc 1/2 way between zinc and max to try and punch out some of the coppers. Nothing good was showing up and I only had a few short minutes before I had to go home. Walking back to the truck I saw piece of asphalt in the ground and gave a swing by it, Boom I got a loud signal and thought at first it was a smooshed can. I then realized my switch was on all metal (oops) back to disc. I still got a big sound and started to dig. At 9'' I was doubting anything good but being my last target to dig for the day I said lets see what it is. I gave a good push on (kac's) digger and pushed hard and out popped what I thought was an aluminum token until I saw the stars. At 11'' the 1902 Barber 1/2 dollar showed it's wonderful design. This is the second of 2021 and a perfect ending to a crazy year. This is the best 49 minute hunt I ever had.

I have a modified Monte's Nail Board that I used recently to compare the Equinox 600 to the Fisher F2, Garrett AT Max and Vanquish 340. You can see my post discussing my results here. I recently acquired a Tesoro Cibola and Tesoro Vaquero. Both are in great shape and both have the stock 8x9 "monolithic" coils (are these concentric?). I tested both on the same Modified Monte's Nail Board using the same parameters as my previous test. Just as a refresher: Coin Position 1 (Up) = the dime is in the middle coin position, but the dime is on the same plane as the nails. Coin Position 1 (Down) = the dime is in the middle coin position, but the dime is below the plane (about 2.5 inches) the nails are on. Coin Position 2 (Up) = the dime is in the side coin position, but the dime is on the same the plane nails are on. Coin Position 2 (Down) = the dime is in the side coin position, but the dime is below the plane (about 2.5 inches) the nails are on. 4 = The metal detector gave a tone and/or VDI response that would definitely result in me digging the target. 3 = The metal detector gave a tone and/or VDI response that would likely result in me digging the target. 2 = The metal detector gave a tone and/or VDI response that would likely result in me NOT digging the target. 1 = The metal detector gave a tone and/or VDI response that would definitely result in me NOT digging the target. Here are the Equinox 600's results and settings: The Equinox 600 was set up in Park 1 where everything was stock, except I adjusted F2 = 0. Sensitivity was at 10 (out of 25). The Equinox 600 was using the stock (11") coil. Coin Position 1 (Up): Sweep 1: 4 Sweep 2: 1 Sweep 3: 3 Sweep 4: 4 Coin Position 1 (Down): Sweep 1: 4 Sweep 2: 1 Sweep 3: 1 Sweep 4: 1 Coin Position 2 (Up): Sweep 1: 4 Sweep 2: 2 Sweep 3: 2 Sweep 4: 2 Coin Position 2 (Down): Sweep 1: 4 Sweep 2: 1 Sweep 3: 1 Sweep 4: 1 Here are the Vaquero's results and settings: Discrimination nob was set to Iron, sensitivity was set to 4 and I was using the stock 8x9 coil. Coin Position 1 (Up): Sweep 1: 4 Sweep 2: 4 Sweep 3: 4 Sweep 4: 4 Coin Position 1 (Down): Sweep 1: 4 Sweep 2: 3 Sweep 3: 4 Sweep 4: 3 Coin Position 2 (Up): Sweep 1: 4 Sweep 2: 2 Sweep 3: 4 Sweep 4: 4 Coin Position 2 (Down): Sweep 1: 2 Sweep 2: 3 Sweep 3: 4 Sweep 4: 3 Here are the Cibola's results and settings: Discrimination nob was set to Iron, sensitivity was set to 4 and I was using the stock 8x9 coil. Coin Position 1 (Up): Sweep 1: 4 Sweep 2: 4 Sweep 3: 4 Sweep 4: 4 Coin Position 1 (Down): Sweep 1: 1 Sweep 2: 1 Sweep 3: 1 Sweep 4: 2 Coin Position 2 (Up): Sweep 1: 3 Sweep 2: 1 Sweep 3: 1 Sweep 4: 3 Coin Position 2 (Down): Sweep 1: 1 Sweep 2: 1 Sweep 3: 1 Sweep 4: 2 Pretty impressive, eh? Yet the Equinox 600 had clearly superior recovery speed. But what I found interesting was that when I compared the Equinox 600 and Cibola, they were similar in regards to target masking. Here's my rough test: The Equinox 600 was set up in Park 2, F2=0, sensitivty was 10 and I notched out everything below 17 (everything else was stock). I placed a Zincoln between two modern aluminum can pulltabs. I placed the Zincoln between the 2 pulltabs in a straight line with equal distance b/w the pulltabs and coin. I then swung my Equinox coil over the line and saw if it detected the coin and discriminated out the pulltabs. I then moved both pulltabs in closer to the Zincoln while keeping all 3 pieces of metal in a straight line. There was a point where, during the swing, the Equinox failed to beep on the coin. I'd estimate this was when the pulltabs were about 5 inches (maybe?) on each side of the coin. However. if I honed in the on coin and did those mini "wiggle" swings, the coil could detect the coin (so the separation was there with the coil, but the recovery speed wasn't, apparently). Anyways, I did the same test with the Cibola and sets the discrimination so that the coin could be clearly detected and the pulltabs not detected (discriminated out). When I did the same above test with the Cibola, it performed virtually the same as the Equinox 600, ie the pulltabs masked out the coin at almost the exact same point and the coil could still be "wiggled" over the coin only and still detect it, but not during a "full" swing. I still need to test the Tesoros more, and I'll be selling at least one of them (if not both). But I wanted to hear your thoughts as to what I could do differently to get better results with either the Vaquero, Cibola or Equinox 600. Don't my results with Monte's Modified Nail Board seem a little...too good to be true for the Tesoros? What am I missing? Is it b/c I'm using a "monolithic" stock coil (is this a concentric coil?) and the coil is averaging the nail and coin values, which still come up above iron? I think I answered this question; see below/updated post. And same for the target masking when comparing the Cibola to the Equinox 600 using the Zincoln and pulltabs. I'm not surprised by the Cibola's results, but the Equinox 600? What could I adjust on the Equinox 600 to reduce this target masking (besides getting a smaller coil)?

Through most of 2020 I detected a large park which had been previously detected but still produced decent old coins for me. In one post I told of a well used path to a small waterfall which confused and frustrated me. The path (approx 150-200 m long) is right next to a creek ('stream' for you New Englanders 😉) and it was likely used for watering cattle in the late 19th and early 20th Century. The path was hard packed gravel and crushed stone, occasionl larger pieces of limestone, with soil filled in between all that aggregate. This path gave thick iron response to the Minelab Equinox and produced almost no coins. (I do remember one Zincoln -- I would.) Back then I tried both the 11" stock DD coil and the 6" DD with similar results. With both coils I recovered shallow (meaning mostly within the first 1" depth) lead bullets as well as brass casings. Most were 22 cal. but a few were larger and those in particular I was able to date at over 100 years old. My conclusion is that this path was used by hunters prior to it becoming part of the park. So in summary, lots of small iron (nails and wire), as many bullets and casings as I cared to recover, but no coins. And the recovered targets were mostly located in the top 1 inch. Some time after my report, kac suggested returning with the Tesoro Vaquero and 8"x9" stock concentric (the only concentric I have for it presently). He and dogodog recommended setting the threshold to where Zincolns just break up. I found out from the park caretaker that the path is scheduled to be covered over completely with a boardwalk so if I was ever going to return, I better make it quick. A week ago I took his advice as well as kac's and doggo's. But in two hours of hunting with the Vaquero I recovered almost nothing. One lead bullet somehow snuck past the threshold and I think I got an aluminum can base, but specifically no coins and practically no trash either. I had been committed to using concentric coils only and took my Fisher F75 with its tiny 3"x6" concentric as a backup. Returning the the vehicle I swapped out the detectors and returned for 2 more hours. I only use silencing discrimination (and silencing masking) when I have no choice so I set the F75 up in Default process, 4H (4 tones with nickel zone joining the high conductor coins in the highest tone). Low tone is 0-15 which is nominally the entire iron range. With this detector I decided to dig anything 'interesting', at least at the start. As was the case in 2020 I immeditately started recovering lead bullets and brass casings, all very shallow as before. Two more hours and still no coins. I gave up. At the far end of this wooded path there is construction of a new paved path in the open area of the park. (I've bitched many times before that I hate these backfilling-party upgrades!) For the last hour of this session I decided to search near that path, also at or close to where I had hunted previously. All the coins found that day (just two clad dimes and two copper Memorials) were found in that last hour with the F75 and its tiny coil. Here are the coins I found that day and the next day (described below): The next morning I returned to search several dirt piles -- the dirt having been removed ("scraped off") so they could backfill the walkway with crushed stone before paving with asphalt. That 2.5 hour hunt was exclusively with the ML Equinox 800 and 11" coil with my standard park/school coin hunting settings. The dirt piles produced only a clad dime -- what a disappointment. For the last hour I just searched part of the park I had hunted previously. One wheat penny was in the ground up trunk of a recently cut down tree (not surprisingly with damage from the blades of that tool). The other Wheatie was in along a path I'm pretty sure I had detected previously, but was less than 2" deep and thus sounded like a shallow Zincoln. (Lesson to self: Be careful what you mentally reject digging....) Oh, what's that other thing? Near the end of the first day in a dirt pile I got a signal in the nickel zone of the F75 (25-35 on the 0-99 scale) and thought maybe it was in fact a nickel. Imagine my disappointment when it turned out to be a 10kt gold child's ring weighing 0.43 g. (still about $10 in gold content at today's price). That's my first gold jewelry find since December of 2018. Ignoring the foil and pulltab ranges has its advantages... and its downsides. Finally, the non-valuable non-ferrous finds over these two days. The finds along the 'noisy' path to the waterfall (4 hours of the 7.5 hour total) are the lead bullets and brass casings, the aluminum bracket at far upper left corner, the chrome plated strap clamp (off womens clothing?), and the two items right above it -- one a small cap (but not bottle cap) and the other a small gear, possibly from a clock. To the right of those, also found along the wooded path, is heavy gauge copper wire wrapped around a fine gauge copper wire -- something electrical I guess. Everything else was from the rest of the (open) area I hunted over those two days. The tag with printing is religious and not old. Note the interesting toy cannon from a WWI(?) playset. I have no idea what those two embossed mating pieces (pot metal?) to the right of the toy gun are. That rectangle at the lower left is some kind of nametag, etc., not a buckle. Lower far right is a thick amber glass jar piece, probably part of a canning jar. Crown cap is pre-plastic liner era (I seldom find those as they rust away over 50+ years). Upper left is a decorative knob off of a piece of furniture. Finally the upper right -- what this was doing in a pile of scrape-off dirt at a park I have no idea. Here's a picture of a nearly identical piece I found googling: And some info on the company that made it: I'd much rather be showing you pictures of early coins, especially silver, and I'm sure you would, too, but the earlybird detectorists got those worms, leaving the decaying insects for me.

I started a new thread on a subject that we were discussing in this thread. In a post there, @kac said: ...When you get into can slaw and pull tabs you can easily just skip all that by cranking up the disc to the pull ring mark where class rings sit and most aluminum has dropped off and make an easy and quiet hunt for coppers and silvers. This looks like what @dogodogwas saying he likes do when cherry-picking high conductor coins. Sounds like you stil accept Zincolns. Is that right? Do you set the disc so that ringtabs are truly silent or on the hairy edge (giving ratty response)? (kac continues:) Hunting in the aluminum range the Tejon has the advantage of dual disc so you can work a tighter range but that can be just as tedious as hunting with a VDI machine and constantly checking numbers with the exception that as I mentioned before there is a pop to most aluminum. Is the 'pop' dependent upon where you set the threshold? I recall you (and maybe others as well) mentioning this previously. Is this one feature that makes an analog detector superior to a digital (for that particular 'discrimination' technique -- I don't mean superior across the board)? Is this something that you need to train your ear to pick up? I think cut square tabs and nickels for me are too difficult to hear the difference and oddly their numbers are nearly identical on just about all my machines that have VDI screen. I don't know what you mean by 'cut square tabs'. Do you just mean modern racetrack shaped pulltabs broken off from the can? So listenting for the 'pop' doesn't distinguish those from nickels? If I'm expert at anything in metal detecting, it's aluminum drink can pulltabs. I really like nickels and as you note, their dTID's (on detectors with digital Target ID readout) are in the same general range as pulltabs, sometimes with overlap. Most of my experience is with the Minelab Equinox (to be specific I'm talking Park 1 or Field 1, 5 tones, Recovery Speed = 4) and here is a breakout of the types of targets by dTID: Nickels: (start with the 'wheat' and shift to the 'chaff'): dTID sweetspot in the 12-13. There can be differences depending upon such things as depth and amount of corrosion. Shallow fresh drops are usually 13 while corroded ones tend towards 12. Most of the time I get some 12's and some 13's. Deep nickels (quieter on the volume scale and also more bars on the strength meter) can blip an 11 or 14, but still most of their dTID signals will be in the 12-13 band). The signal strength is the key for me. If I'm getting a rather weak nickel signal I'm not strict with the techniques below. In my area pulltabs don't tend to be as deep as the deeper nickels so most of them give a pretty strong to very strong signal. Rolled over beaver (only): Have quite a bit of 11 along with 12 and a bit of 13. In fact I can (most of the time) distingish these by going to Park 2, 50 tones, recovery speed=6 where they always give lots of 11. Smallest (latest in series, so closer to 1975 vintage, particular the single piece ones as opposed to those with a rivet) ring+beavertail, extended: mostly 12-13. I end up digging all of these as trying to distinguish from nickels is too risky. Modern punchout (near disk-like piece of thin aluminum that's part of the can lid and gets pushed into the can when opened): almost completely in the 12-13. These are pretty much impossible to distinguish from nickels, IMO. Just dig 'em and cuss the idiot who went to all that trouble to remove them. Bent over itself ring-only pull: These are assymetric so probably give a 'tell' when picked up from different directions, but they tend to be strongly in the 12-13 sweetspot. Modern racetrack pulltab: Fortuantely these seem to be one of the easiest to distinguish with the Equinox as they give both 13 and 14 dTID's. The 14 is in the long direction so if perfectly aligned you may get only 13 but you don't have to be much off that alignment to get the 14. 'Early' circular ring only (i.e. beavertail missing): These are easily separated from nickels, somewhere in the 15-17 range but unless bent do not come close to the 12-13 sweetspot. Of course these (and all others) are still a problem for jewelry detectorists and their symmetry (except for the rivet extension) make them sound really sweet, as if a nice fat gold finger ring). Ring and beavertail (attached) but with tail folded over or even wrapped around the ring: These tend to dTID lower than ring only, but still above the nickel sweetspot. 14-15 with maybe some 13 thrown in. Some more unusual varieties (at least in my area) are the early 'squaretab' which rather than racetrack is closer to rectangle, and even kind of butterfly shaped sometime. These dTID higher than nickels, and in fact a bit higher than the modern racetrack 'cousins', especially when not on-axis (meaning you're coil trajectory isn't solely along the narrow part). Another less common are the small ring+beavertail (intact) which contain a rivet. I'm not confident these are easily separted (dTID-wise) from nickels. Finally, there are many varieties of ringtabs associated with other cans such as Pringle potato chip cans and some automotive fluid cans. Those are larger and still further distance from nickels. One last word of caution: a fair amount has been written about Wartime Nickels ("silver nickels" which have no nickel content but rather quite a bit of silver and some manganese). In my experience they signal with the same dTID's as standard nickels but some have reported their TID's going up even into the Zincoln zone. In those cases, discriminating against pulltabs can lead to missing those. I do think they are rare but maybe I've passed over some?? So, kac, after all that, how does your Tejon respond to these various pulltab types, and do you set your threshold so as to be able to ignore all of them?

Today was a day that I've been waiting for for two weeks. A great forum member GB amateur contacted me to see if I would be interested in getting together to hunt on his way back from another trip on the east coast. Without reserve I said yes. With all the details worked out we got together today to hunt an old swim club established in the 20's. It was hot hot and more hot today and I was hoping we would have a good time before we both died of heat stroke. GB was running the 800 and I was too for about 15 minutes, When I decided to change over to the Compadre. I have found a few silvers there and had some problems with iron so what the hell. We both were finding some clad and wheaties. After an hour or so GB raised his hand with the first silver of the day a merc dime. Shortly after I pulled a 62 rosie. More clad and wheaties I decided to move to a spot I hunted a fair amount with the 800, But not with a Tesoro. Within a few minutes I pulled out a 44 merc. Two minutes more and out comes a 9k wedding band. The Compadre never ceases to amaze me. After a little while longer we decided to call it quit's and get some lunch and BS some more. Getting a chance to hunt with GB today was as fun as it gets and to have a good time with someone who you respect makes it all the better.

Hello everyone, I have just joined up and this is my very first post. I'm surprised to see fellow detectorists here from New Zealand. I've been here in N.Z. for almost 12 years now and only bumped into one other detectorist just a little while ago, some newbie from Christchurch going back home after his first trip to Kyeburn Diggings up Dansey's Pass. Some older dude with his new Gold Monster 1000, he stopped off at the beach here in Timaru for a snack and his afternoon nap. No luck for him this time and he was complaining about all the metal the old time miners chucked about there. That's along drive to about 2.5 Hrs one way. We were just heading home after hanging out there for the afternoon, when he saw us just after testing out my wife's new BH Commando TK4. So we had a little bit of a tail-gate meeting with him. He wanted to showed us his GM 1000, it was nice to have a look at one up close and I took it for a bit of spin in the dunes. Anyway I'm not here to chat about new acquaintances, got much more important stuff to talk about. I would like to Hyper-Tune or Super-Tune my Lobo ST and need some help with it. I Was thinking about putting on an external ground balance potentiometer to get some more depth, but first I need to know how it all works. Because my wife and I are Newbie's too and I'm trying to teach myself, my beautiful and talented assistant the "wife" all the ropes about MDing. So if anyone can help in anyway it would be very much appreciated. A German guy did that to his Lobo and he seams to be happy with his mod I think his name is mschahl and another guy Keith they both seem to very knowledgeable about the Lobo ST. I would love to here about what is and isn't, the up and down's, the in's and out's and what mod's I could do with these two MD's the Lobo and BH TK4. Also I could get a new PCB for the Lobo and put it in a build box like the one shown or drop it straight into the Lobo but don't know where or who could build it for me. This way I can take out the factory one to keep for a back-up incase anything goes wrong with my build. Thanks' in advance for all your help and it's nice to be here, I don't feel so lost now. Paul.

Anyone have experience with coil options similar to the precision 7” coil that comes standard on the mojave?

Does anyone know what the pots and push button on the circuit board of the Tesoro Lobo for?

I have a Tesoro detector but somehow the wires that go from the circuit board to the batteries have came loose. I need to see a diagram on where the wires go please?

Got a used Tesoro LOBO, but with or without coil, it just screams when I turn it on. Adjusting threshold no help. Any ideas, or anyone need it for parts? Thanks, Jeff in AZ

Does anybody know if those Detech or NEL coils made for a Tesoro Lobo ST will actually get better depth than the Tesoro coils before I go and buy one and can't return it? Any recommendations on the best coil of these 2 brands for deep silver hunting? I have all of the Tesoro coils made for my LST, but I could never get more than 8 inches on a silver quarter even after having the detector tuned to the 9 x 8 coil in Disc mode at the factory. My buddys with Minelabs can get several more inches or so they claim. The LST was my fave all time detector and the only one I ever paid for with finds,mostly gold jewelry.Heck,it will 'see ' a mens gold ring at a foot deep air test in All Metal,so I don't understand why I can only get silver coins at 8 inch max in Disc and a touch more in All Metal? Thanks, -Tom

Im looking for a battery cover for my Tesoro Compadre,, Does anyone know who might have bought out all the stock when the factory closed,,Or does anyone have an extra one they would to sell, Thanks

I either need someone to help me find a manual to download for the original bandido (not 2) or I need info on what the little black knob is on the back of the control housing. Maybe how to ground balance it. General information about it.

I found a Tesoro Silver Sabre Umax, the old one with the red pinpoint button. Has a 8" coil and looks to be in good shape 150.00 with a cheesy pinpointer. Any thoughts for making it a backseat toy? Update! I got it for 100 bucks and it's like brand new! My wife grabbed it and now it's hers. I put a fiber lower rod on it with a nylon coil bolt and it works great. She has a treasure pro and this is lighter for her and easier to operate. It's the small box one Steve like the modern silver uMax.But with an all metal pinpoint button and a threshold control. I'm trying to talk my sister out of her unused Compadre but for some reason it likes the closet at her house.

my grandkids broke one of the battery door push pin connectors to my amigo II, does anyone know where I could find a replacement one? It appears to be exactly like the one on my old whites goldmaster II. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank's to all that reply.

Recently my Tejon seems to be extra sensitive to EMI and I get a waiver or flutter in the threshold. Is there a way to tune or fix that? Not sure if something is failing or if it is just out of tune. Thanks

I have found that my Vaquero is a good honest all around detector that fits much of my detecting style and needs. I would like to do the high tone audio mod. Contacted Keith Wills and he does not do this mod. Is there anyone currently doing this upgrade?

I need a little help here in understanding the primary discrimination knob. Here is my observation. 8X9 coil, Using a lead pellet as a test target, buried 3", when placed in All Metal the target sounds off loud and clear. When switched to the discriminate mode, knob far left (zero discrim,) I don't receive any signal. I would think that at the lowest discriminate setting I should be getting a signal from iron on up. Is it possible the internal discriminate circuit out of adjustment?

I recently had the pleasant surprise of a mint condition Tesoro ‘Outlaw’ metal detector, minus coils, showing up at my doorstep as a gift from a very generous enthusiast and forum friend. It is an attractive metal detector and after spending a little time with it, I find it a very interesting detector, operational wise, as well. It has three operational modes; a motion all-metal auto tune mode, a non-motion all metal mode, and a silent search discrimination mode, all accessed via a three-position switch. It also includes a manual ground balance control dial that affects all the operating modes, a threshold control dial, a on/off + sensitivity control dial, a discrimination control dial, and in the center below the speaker louvers is a dual layer push button that servers both as a pinpoint and a retune button. Seems all very straight forward at first glance, until you discover its secret: The Tesoro Outlaw is a true, threshold based, metal detector. The threshold setting affects every aspect of the detector. The good news is the threshold setting is a set and forget control. Set it to where it gives the faintest hum and leave it alone. For me that is approximately the 1 o: clock position. And that brings us to the center Red Button. That little red push button in the center of the Outlaws face plate is the most important control on the detector. It is imperative that after every setting change that you make to the detector settings that you press and hold that red button and hear the threshold return. I mean after EVERY and ANY adjustment to the detector settings, no matter what the change is. If you change the disc setting, you press and hold the button until the threshold returns. If you change the Sensitivity setting, you press and hold the red button until the threshold returns. If you change threshold settings, if you change operating modes, after you ground balance, you have to press and hold the red button until you hear the threshold return. Takes about a second, maybe a second and a half for the threshold to return. No big deal once you understand it but it has to be done. If you don’t return to threshold after every and any operational setting changes the detector will be working at reduced performance/reduced depth, as if the threshold had been set somewhere below the audible hum, which will affect your depth. That is the way it operates. Once you figure that out you are golden. There are two all metal modes. The far-left switch position says ‘AUTO’. This is the motion all-metal mode with auto threshold retune. This is the operational mode that you need to be in for ground balancing. The all metal gain is preset. Sensitivity is controlled via the threshold setting. The threshold auto retune speed is perfectly acceptable for the majority of ground minerals. Might be a little too slow for really bad ground but for most of us it is fine. The middle switch position is the non-motion all metal mode. You control the threshold drift via the red button retune. Again, the all metal gain is preset. Sensitivity is controlled via the threshold setting. Ground balance affects depth performance for high conductors in all operating modes. Too far positive (clockwise) and you will severely impact high conductor response. However, the ground balance does not go all the way to salt so low conductors are not affected by a maximum negative (counterclockwise) setting. Yes….if you do not intend to use the all metal modes you can Power Balance in Disc mode. Yes….if you do not intend to use the all metal modes you can super tune the Threshold. The Discrimination mode is the far-right switch position. The Sensitivity control only affects this operating mode. The Threshold setting affects this operating mode. Ground balance settings affect this operating mode. Assuming you have your Threshold setting where you want it, and are ground balanced to an acceptable point, then you can further increase your sensitivity with the Sensitivity control. Discrimination control is classic Tesoro. I think the Disc range is ED120 or there abouts. It is easy to max the disc and just hunt high conductors and it is easy to disc out most small foil and hunt nickels upwards without losing a lot of depth due to the disc setting. I put the Cleansweep coil on it this past weekend and hunted recent drops and found it good on both high and low conductors. The Cleansweep is a fairly shallow coil….5” to 6” tops in Disc mode. Maybe 3” more in all metal modes. I was happy with its performance on both low and high conductors as a 10.6 kHz unit. I was happy that it seemed pretty EMI resistant. Ground balancing in the Auto tune mode is pretty straight forward, except you have go a bit slower on the coil pumps than you might normally be use to as you have to let the threshold retune between pumps, again about a second, second and a half. It’s a neat detector. I’ve never used anything quite like it before. HH Mike

Got a call from my Sister yesterday afternoon. "I'm at Goodwill and they have a metal detector here for $7.50. You want it?" "Sure, what is it?" "A Tesoro Lobo" "You bet" "OK, I'll bring it over later". It has a broken arm cuff, but other than that it's really clean. Very Good to excellent condition. Not all my "Treasure Hunting" is done with a detector. Just wanted to share.

These past few weeks, been using various analog models at an old farmstead. Although we’ve hit this area numerous times, hardly anything good surfaces but it’s a fun site to hunt and a good site to test equipment. Between the seven Tesoro models I’ve been using here these past few week’s, the Cortes was probably the best of the bunch and thats with using the 12”x10” DD coil and with full sensitivity. The 12”x10” spoked concentric coil was okay with a lower sensitivity, but it suffered some stability with increasing sens and that’s due to our West Coast inland soil. So, pretty much stuck with the larger widescan. Second best was the Lobo, Although it lacked depth it was great in areas thick with iron. Next, The Outlaw and modified Mohave ran equal, good depth with using the 12”x10” DD. The Mojave has a manual GB, which is needed for my soil. The Pantera did well, but tough soil prevented the extra depth needed. The Deleon just couldn’t get rid of the falsing, even with the large DD Deleon can’t handle our soil with high sensitivity. The Golden uMax did okay, but our soil is tough on the Golden. The 12”x10” DD improved depth with all these models with the exception of 4-pin Lobo, using stock coils with the other models in my soil were useless. The larger widescan coil is definitely deeper, eliminates most if not all ground noise, and still very sensitive to smaller targets. My favorite out of this Tesoro bunch is now the Cortes, for farm land hunting and definitely running the 12”x10” DD. One 1951 silver dime surfaced, one wheat penny and 1959 copper penny. Two musket 1/2 balls, few saddle snaps. Site has potential, We’ve pulled numerous seated coin’s, Couple of Bust and one gold coin from here on previous hunts. Going back today, this round will use a Teknetics Mark III, Compass CoinScanner Pro II, GoldScanner Pro and a Whites 5900 Di-Pro. Can’t wait, older technology makes the hunt more challenging and fun. HH, Paul

I found this nice tesoro compadre at the local goodwill today for less than $20. I couldn't resist buying it. Took it home and put in a new battery and it works great. it must be an older one because it has a metal coil screw.