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Deep coin detector

John W.H.

Elite Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2010
Messages
3,044
Location
Boston, Massachusetts
Ok, I'm sure this has been asked many times here in the past but here it is again.... Very simply, What is the best detector out there for under $2000 for finding DEEP coins? I'm planning on buying a upper end detector around x-mass but I want to make sure I find out all I can before I make the plunge. I've been thinking about an E trac. I want to find coins well beyond the depth I'm finding with my current machines. So, any advice??
 
John, if you've read my earlier posts on this subject you know I'm a zealot on coin depth. To me it's the most important feature of any detector. Trash separation being second in my mind.

I've used a lot of detectors over the years. In the last several years I've owned and used an F-75, F-70, White's MXT, Minelab Musketeer, Soverign and now E-Trac. (many others I can't think of at the moment) I've messed with about every brand and recently got turned on to Tesoro by having read reports on other forums. I researched Tesoro and was hesitant because their machines are not expensive. You get what you pay for is something I tend to believe. In the case of Tesoro's better models it's not true. For under 400 dollars any person can buy a Cibola (340.00) and own the single deepest detector I've ever tested in my garden. Deeper by an inch than my E-Trac when tuned to what I consider it's best for my soil. The E-Trac is an animal. The Cibola I have is a beast.

The Cibola cannot work deep in trashy areas like the E-Trac, it gets balled up with the junk, but in decent conditions, it's got no equal that I've ever used. This depth test included a PI White's I've had for years. Not current tech but still a modern PI tool.

The Vaquero and Tejon are great. In my example the cheaper Cibola is 1-2 inches better than these other models. I honestly believe the only thing keeping Tesoro from dominating the market is the public's insistence on having meters (VDIs) on their detectors and the public's misguided notion you must spend big money. If Tesoro charged 1500 dollars for their Cibola and put a modern spiffy control box on it with a useless numerical meter, they'd crush everyone else. I honestly feel this is true. Folks have to spend money to feel they are getting something superior. That is the way it is and always will be. I'm as guilty as anyone at getting sucked in. Now I have changed my mind where pure depth is concerned.

For me in my Florida soil it's a Cibola. Super tuned it hears clad dimes at 12 inches and clad quarters at about 13.5 inches. I was just messing around again this morning in my yard after having done an earlier impromptu test the other day with a friend's collection of Tesoro machines.

My E-Trac will not detect a quarter at 13.5. It starts to lose the target at 12.5. The sound the E-Trac makes at 12.5 is not something I'd investigate as it's really a broken sound. The Cibola is either pinging or it's silent. Very little interface as the target gets out of range as with many detectors. I like this because I hunt by ear and often give up on all broken pings.


Hope this at least opens your eyes to a brand that gets no respect in the heavyweight ring but can flatten all the current so-called champions.


OT
 
Thank's old town, I appreciate the input and have to agree that Tesoro makes powerful machines. I own a Tesoro Bandido I bought in about 1983 and I feel it out performs my Whites Eagle and even my new Fisher F5 as far as depth goes. It's simple to operate and is very light. I will have to consider a new Tesoro when I make my decision. I do however like having a meter to read target depth. But ultimately, it's performance I want.
 
Thank's old town, I appreciate the input and have to agree that Tesoro makes powerful machines. I own a Tesoro Bandido I bought in about 1983 and I feel it out performs my Whites Eagle and even my new Fisher F5 as far as depth goes. It's simple to operate and is very light. I will have to consider a new Tesoro when I make my decision. I do however like having a meter to read target depth. But ultimately, it's performance I want.

I understand the desire for visual aids. I happen to get a kick out of VDIs when they are correct. This is fun. We tend to remember when the meter is correct and forget the times it's wrong. This is why scratch lottery tickets are so popular. Selective memory.

The most often heard refrain from experienced MDers is dig all solid tones. To do this is to ignore the meter. In my mind this renders the meter moot in all cases if we are honest with ourselves. One must choose what is ultimately the most important: real depth as you were asking for initially, or a deep machine with a meter that is not worth much in the long run. Not a tough question in my mind. Good luck with whatever you choose.

At least you now know how to spell Tesoro.

OT
 
Well, I owned a Cibola and there is no way I was going to get anywhere close to 12" on dimes in my ground. In any kind of mineralization, this detector just isn't going to do as well as an E-trac, CZ3D, or any detector that has more than one frequency. I'd be lucky to hit a silver quarter at 7 inches with a Cibola.
 
The market is regulated by a MAJORITY of people who have had good or bad experiences with a given detector.

I'm not sure how long you have been using each detector, but after 7 years with my DFX I'm pretty darn good with it. What this means is that I can get the same , and sometimes better, depth out of my DFX than my E-Trac or V3i. Would I suggest to others that the DFX is deeper? No way! I realize I get this performance out of the DFX because I have 7 years with it. I know every little peep and pop that detector makes on deep targets. I don't hesitate to suggest the potential of the DFX, because I know first hand, but I sure wouldn't expect the same performance for someone new. They would be very disappointed in my recommendation when they didn't get the same depth.

You see so many different opinions on the same detector because people will get different performance out of the same detector depending on a lot of factors. You see a few detectors rise above the rest in popularity because they tend to work good for the majority.

As I've always said I'd use a turd on a stick if it did what I want in a detector.
 
I only report what I see with my own eyes. I've never seen a detector detect beyond its ability to air test. My Cibola air tests at 13.5 on a quarter and can repeat this in my coral soil when the coin is sitting flat - optimum setting. Compact that same coral soil as in a ball field and depth is cut drastically. This regardless of detector. I don't find 13 inch quarters at shortstop.

No amount of adjusting my E-Trac or F-75 will air test or detect this quarter at 13.5 inches. I wish this were not true as I've spent a ton on these machines to get that last inch.

Let it be known I've never recovered a coin deeper than 11 inches in the field and that was with an MXT many years ago. You remember things like this. I've always contended any coin deeper than 6 inches is a very deep find. People exaggerate in metal detecting just like they do in fishing.

In my soil, and in my hands, I feel more confident with a Vaquero or Cibola than I do with my E-Trac. If you live in mineral country I'd expect a different finding. But I live in South Florida where the only minerals of concern are below the high water mark. As I do not water hunt this has no effect on me.

Arguing detector depth online is awkward, boring, and futile. We believe what we want to believe until we actually do the side by side testing using various machines in our own back yards. This is the only test that matters and in my case bears out the startling fact a Cibola or Vaquero, (especially Cibola) is the deepest detector for my conditions.

I like meters but do not trust them on any machine past 3 inches or so. So no meter is no problem to me. My E-Trac is no better at telling a gold ring from a pulltab than the DeLeon I just gave away was. They can discern clad from junk but not gold from junk. So what's the point of using a meter beyond the initial amusement? This is my finding. Meters tend to steer people away from digging, especially the deeper, broken signals where the most older items are found. This, to me, is counterproductive in the long run. If you don't want to dig junk, stay home.

Deep is where it's at. The original poster wanted what was deep. I gave him my findings. See how these classic metal detecting question get so boring and so fast?

OT
 
So what's the point of using a meter beyond the initial amusement?

Amusement? You obviously should stick with a meter-less detector. LOL I sure don't find going home from a 1-2 hour hunt with a pouch full of junk amusing.

I think if you ask those that have used the E-Trac, for example, most will honestly say the meter is fairly accurate down to about 7" or so. I mean you can tell when you have silver by a fairly solid CO of 46-48. No detector is accurate on gold because gold does not have a consistent mass. So yes the meter is pretty useless when it comes to gold, but that does not make a meter useless. It may make it useless to you.

I understand that YOU don't see a need for meters, but that is as you say only your preferences. I find that looking at what detectors are the most popular is a fairly good way to gage performance by the majority. That isn't to say it is best for you, but just that it is for the majority of people.
 
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Amusement? You obviously should stick with a meter-less detector. LOL I sure don't find going home from a 1-2 hour hunt with a pouch full of junk amusing.

I think if you ask those that have used the E-Trac, for example, most will honestly say the meter is fairly accurate down to about 7" or so. I mean you can tell when you have silver by a fairly solid CO of 46-48. No detector is accurate on gold because gold does not have a consistent mass. So yes the meter is pretty useless when it comes to gold, but that does not make a meter useless. It may make it useless to you.

I understand that YOU don't see a need for meters, but that is as you say only your preferences. I find that looking at what detectors are the most popular is a fairly good way to gage performance by the majority. That isn't to say it is best for you, but just that it is for the majority of people.

Detector, my E-Trac and all my other metered machines all treat copper (clad) and silver the same. This is okay with me and makes sense as both of these metals conduct very well. Most people who are new to detecting are after those gold items they see on the forums. It is with an eye toward gold they buy the meter only to be disappointed time after time. A good beep and dig hits copper and silver the same. So why bother with the meter if it can't tell you a gold ring from a condom wrapper and mixes copper and silver equally?

As I said earlier, the meter is a siren call that even I cannot resist.(and I know better) Time after time I've found meters too inaccurate to base digging decisions on. Sound works better for me, although that vixen meter looks good after a day of digging crap. I understand the call.

You speak of buying what the majority like. Can't agree with this. Mass marketing is a force most cannot resist. Advertising rules all consumer sales. I can hold a person's hand, show them the depth and sound advantage of a Tesoro and yet this same person will hesitate and then go buy a Minelab or Fisher because those companies have a bigger market share and thus advertising budget. The big name product is seared into their brains. You could say it's a chicken/egg thing: how did the company get popular in the first place? but in the here and now, they stay there by getting the advertising edge. Just look at any set of adds on forums or in treasure mags. Tesoro and the smaller shops get overwhelmed and fail to garner the cache of the big boys. (the other cache)

Ford sold a lot of Pintos back in the 70s. The majority can, and often is, representative of the lowest common denominator. I'm a bit of a snob (if it isn't already evident) and resist the crowd at every chance.

OT
 
A meter is but one source of information and some would claim it is not even the best source of information.

Repeatable meter readings for different specimens of the same type are obtained only for man-made manufactured items (e.g. coins of the same type). Nothing else really produces consistent meter reading, even at shallow depths.
 
My favorite use for a metered detector is for those days I do not feel energetic and simply want to go to the park and harvest surface clad. This simple exercise does not get old for me. I feel silly admitting it, but I'd rather score 4 dollars in dirty clad than find one gold ring at the beach after 3 hours of searching.

For this kind of clad hunting, the meter is very good on most detectors. They easily register the pennies, dimes and quarters. The nickels get dicy, but the other stuff is spot on for the most part. I save a lot of energy raking in kid's lunch money using a metered machine on the surface.

This is my only use for meters.

OT
 
I happen to find the display much more informative than the sound. I understand the skill of learning to tell a good target from bad by the sound, but I also realize that skill is becoming less a requirement, and more nostalgic with each new generation of detector technology. Before long detectors will display a picture of whats in the ground, and yet will still see those claiming sound is the best way to detect.

I choose to embrace technology to better my detecting experience. My days of digging everything that beeps was over 10 years ago. Well, with the exception of tot lots of course. :D I see no need myself. I do very well relying on the display, and I have yet to see a single time of regretting doing so. I make very good use of the time I have for detecting. Yes when I would detect for 8 hours I was a lot less selective, but now I'm lucky to get in 1-2 hours so I've got to make the best of it. I do that with a very accurate display that I have learned just as well as any sound.

The display is just another form of input but I'll make you a bet. I'll bet I can bury 10 nickles and 10 pull tabs and give someone new to detecting, and many that call themselves veterans, a non-display detector and say the DFX. I'll bet they can ignore every pull tab and dig every nickle with the DFX, and only have a 50 50 chance with the non-display detector. That is just one of the values of a display. All I would say is if the VDI stays between 18-21 its a nickle if it above 21 its a pull tab. Try explaining the sound to someone new and see how long it takes to make it work.

You know I've got the video where I took a non-display(Tesoro) and the E-Trac to our local park where very deep coins remain. The non-display could not find one single coin the E-Trac found, and both detectors were new to me. Even at those depths the E-Trac was telling me copper(wheats) from silver with astounding accuracy. Look at the Clash of the Titans thread you'll see I started with 4 detectors(3 display 1 non-display) and ended up leaving 2 at home because they wouldn't even make a peep in all-metal on the coins the other 2 were finding.

One of the detectors I left at home I have 7 years experience with. In this case experience lost out to better technology hands down.

My choice of weapons.
mydets3.jpg
 
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Detector, I was about to make some smart remark about new technology until I paused to reflect I build wooden sailboats for a living because I like the look and feel of wood, yet outfit those same boats with the latest GPS and radar equipment. I wouldn't sail without it and would not recommend anyone else go too far offshore without it either. I guess I'm done here for now.

I'll continue to navigate my detectors by dead-reckoning but use the gadgets in my wooden sailboats. Go figure.

I wonder if John W.H. is still alive?

OT
 
Detector, I was about to make some smart remark about new technology until I paused to reflect I build wooden sailboats for a living because I like the look and feel of wood, yet outfit those same boats with the latest GPS and radar equipment. I wouldn't sail without it and would not recommend anyone else go too far offshore without it either. I guess I'm done here for now.

I'll continue to navigate my detectors by dead-reckoning but use the gadgets in my wooden sailboats. Go figure.

I wonder if John W.H. is still alive?

OT

:lol::lol::lol::lol: I've got alot to think about before I make a purchase!!
 
deep coin detector

i have been metal detecting for about some 30+ years. i am about 50 years of age!! i have owned a garret 1000, a whites xlt and a whites dfx. i have also hunted with a few friends with dfx's. well the whites and garretts are gone and i dont think i am going back!!! i have also hunted with a fisher 5. my friend has purchased a new e-trac and me and him have both scorrowed a few sites together! the e-trac found silver coin where the dfx failed. that woke me up real quick!!!! my new purchase will be a minelab with 20+ frequency's that can handle all metals. that my 30+years .02 cents!!! price is not the reason to buy but quality depth and dependabilty with accuracy is. :yes:
 
lol me and my little 100 dollar radio shack detector that i got when i was like ten have to disagree with all these fancy pants detectors! all i have is a sensitivity setting, and a discrimination level knob, with disc and tone settings, with an analog meter to tell somewhat whath the metal is. if the bonnnkkk sound goes off within a certain range of discrimination.. its trash. if its a clear beep with disc all the way up... its either a piece of aluminum or a coin haha. im gonna dig most all the signals unless its bonnnkking with really low disc.. with all that said.... anyone wanna hand me down a fancy pants detector??? hahaha;)
 
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