Excellent choice, you won't be sorry.
My Vaq once gave me a solid signal on a target buried deep in a tot lot that was a measured 12" under the chips.
This was with the standard coil that you have.
This target sounded like a coin, heck...it sounded like something even larger and it was solid and repeating and said dig me all the way.
It was not a coin but something way more surprising.
This target was a very small pocket stud, the kind that would be on a very tiny pair of child's jeans.
That was just one instance where the jaw dropping depth of my Vaq made me rock back on my heels.
As far as hunting with that really high disc...
I always dug a lot of trash but in the last few years that has gotten old but I still want to find all the great stuff I can...I just want to spend less time dealing with and actually digging trash to do it.
I figured out a different way to hunt with my Tesoros that for me seems to be way more accurate and helps me cut out digging about 80-90% of the trash I come across out there in my usually very trashy public parks I like to hunt.
After switching to this method my trash digging went way down but my gold targets and silver chain finds actually went up.
I might be missing stuff but it doesn't bother me at all doing it this way because of the quantity and quality of what I have found doing it.
I would like to think the methods I use are the number one reason I seem to find more than my share of great targets out there, but I have a very important accessory attached to most of my detectors that I might need to give more credit to than I am at this point.
Picture down below.
There is a member on another forum that just got a Vaq and asked for some tips.
He is hunting with that knob sitting on the line just below nickel presently, I cautioned him that I used to do it this way but eventually I changed, why I changed and how I go about dealing with heavy trash while still finding great targets.
Setting that knob at one place and just digging everything above that setting that beeps would drive me crazy...I am a big time knob thumber.
Here is that response in case you would like to see another way to hunt with the Vaq and that Silver that seems to work well for me.
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When I started using my Vaq I set it the same.
From what I knew at the time, or thought I knew, I should avoid a bunch of trash with this setting and still dig most gold rings.
Then I read a post from a hunter that simply stated that the best thing he ever dug came in at foil.
This affected me deeply...and I started lowering that knob more and more till I got to where I am today.
Using my Compadre and my Vaquero I hunt in a similar fashion but I usually keep that knob a bit lower using the Compadre.
With the Vaq I determine how to start off by taking into account where I am, what kind of trash I have to deal with and what I am going after.
I used to dig most everything, but over time that got frustrating for me and I had to make some changes to save my sanity while still figuring out how dig less trash and still find enough good and sometimes great targets to keep me satisfied and happy.
I will usually set the knob somewhere in the word iron at my parks that aren't really trashy at the R or O.
Where I have lots of foil I might move it up to the N or a little past.
In parks where there is an unusual amount of those hated round bottle cap inserts or pull off things which usually come in just a hair past the N I just dig a few to get an idea of exactly how many of these things are hanging around and if there are a lot I turn that knob to that point and just a bit further.
I have limited time to hunt, limited amount of energy to dig and limited patience to deal with a ton of specific kind of trash like this.
I am a gold hunter first and foremost and the kind of guy where if I let them the "what if's" could kill me...but when it comes to these things I finally decided to draw a line in the sand and never looked back.
I have dug over 30 gold targets in 5 years in this biz and even though many have come in at foil and lower foil at that, (lower than where you are presently setting your knob), I have never dug one that came in exactly where these inserts come in yet.
Close, but not exactly there except for one very thin gold chain that actually came in lower in iron.
I also want to mention that condiment packets and gum wrappers usually come in at about the same place, also.
I hate those too, but there are many more of those foil inserts out there than these.
I might be missing some gold by not turning my knob lower but I don't care.
One day if I dig some gold that exactly mimics this type of lower foil trash I will reassess, but for now I am fine with this way of thinking.
At sites where I get a lot of certain size can slaw that comes in a little bit higher I might turn the knob up to that point to where this type of trash is gone or just crackles but I rarely ever go higher than that.
If I set my knob where you do just below that nickel area those "what if'" feelings would come flooding back so for me I must do it this way...you might be complete different.
As far as other tips I have posted my thumbing method several times but I will copy and past it here, also.
To carry on that idea that I prefer to hunt like an old guy, digging way less trash than I used to and spending way less time doing that while still trying to keep my chances high as I can of digging some great targets, I have evolved into using this technique where I have effectively cut out digging about 80-85% of the trash I come across or maybe even a bit more.
What I believe is trash, anyway.
What I don't dig I will never know and I just don't feel like worrying about it anymore.
Sure I realize I could be missing stuff with this attitude but every year for 5 years I have gotten better, found more and better targets doing it this way every year too so that helps.
Every Tesoro manual that I have ever read says to use that disc knob one way...turn it up to the fade out point to figure out targets.
I have not done it that way for years and probably never will because for me I have found a better and way more accurate way to do it.
Again, this is my way...you have to figure out the best way for you to do it to keep you happy.
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Idxpro is learning his Outlaw and asked a question about how to tell the difference between good targets and trash...specifically tabs.
I have been making an effort to get as good as I pssibly can at doing exactly this for awhile now and I think I found something that works very well.
There are several techniques we can use to figure out target types when using most Tesoro detectors and I know and use them all, but this one is the one that works the quickest for me with the highest degree of success and accuracy.
For the benefit of any newbies that have picked a no screen Tesoro as your first detector I would like to say good for you...learning to hunt by sound can only be helpful to you as you spend time in this hobby, and I hope this technique might come in handy and become as useful to you as it has for me if you decide to try it.
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This is what I have learned about dealing with trash using Tesoro detectors.
I am usually a dig it all hunter but late last year I got real tired so for about a month I stopped doing so much of that and at the end of some long hunts do it still, and I have worked very hard at trying to figure out trash so those "what if" feelings don't drive me insane when I am in that kind of mood.
I think I might be a little crazy compared to others because so many try to avoid digging tons of trash and I seemed to be the opposite where I loved digging it and the trashier the site the better I like it.
At first I decided that this is the best way to hunt...for me, and I did this hobby for the exercise as much as finding treasure so there is that reason, too,
I suspect the real reason I got to this point is among all the trash signals I have dug I have also had some major surprises along the way...very huge and delightful surprises... and I just can't seem to wrap my head around the idea of ever missing anything good let alone great...so I dig and I am fine with it.
For those times when I just don't feel like digging every blasted thing I come across, and over time those feelings just kept growing, I have read about and use some well known tips others have posted like whipping the coil over a trash target quickly and noticing if it breaks up, or lifting the coil as I swing over a target and listening to see if it breaks up at the edge of the scanning field or just fades out, and these techniques work.
I have also done a lot of experimentation discovered something else.
On every target I come across, and I mean every one, I got in the habit long ago of NOT just turning that disc knob up till the signal fades out to see what area the knob is pointing to figure out target types like all the manuals say, but I always turn all the way past the area till the target fades out completely and then slowly turning down the knob to the point where the target comes in .
Except high tone targets like dimes and quarters that don't disc out, of course.
After several zillion targets acquired and dug I am convinced this is a much more accurate way to figure out just about every target.
I get so much more information out of not only seeing where that disc knob ends up when the signal is solid and full, but more importantly I get even more info when I hear precisely HOW that target comes in.
I noticed that and most good targets like coins, definitely on others like rings that are full and not broken, and surprisingly on most chains too, when I turn down that knob most good targets will just "come in"...solid and full...there is very little crackling or fuzzyness in that signal most of the time, not even one or two clicks.
Trash on the other hand usually does have much more crackling and clicks in that signal before it firms up and I assume this is because most detectors are designed to home in on solid round objects like coins and not irregular shapes like trash or objects with holes like tabs.
Now this is not true 100% of the time because the universe and life just doesn't work this way for us in this hobby.
There are some trash targets that do act like good coin targets and will come in full and solid and with no clicks.
Some beaver tail tabs with that tail folded over, foil that is thick like a coin, compressed and formed into a round coin shape, some small coin shaped pieces of can slaw and even a few sta-tabs do fool me me from time to time because there is virtually no difference between some of these and a real coin signal.
If those kind of targets are laying completely horizontal and flat in the ground this can compound this problem, but luckily most trash is not horizontal but turned slightly on edge to almost vertical, in my experience, and react accordingly with much crackling and clicks.
Conversely, sometimes good targets like coins do act weird and have some fuzzyness and at least a few clicks before solidifying, too.
I noticed this happen on a few zinc pennies and nickels can be totally weird, sometimes.
Yesterday I was using my Compadre and dug a nickel that was a little iffy and didn't even disc out till close to the tab section, and another nickel that came in at the correct area on the disk knob but still acted very crackily just like trash.
Even though I was a little tired at this point and was not digging all trash I still dug both of these signals because I heard something in each signal that triggered my digging impulse...a slight solid tone that rang true even though they were very short nowhere near the very solid type signals that most good targets I dig emit.
Exactly why I dug those is hard to explain but I just chalk that up to an ability I have acquired over the hundreds and hundreds of hours swinging my Tesoros...something most Tesoro owners can attest to once they accumulate enough time and experience in listening and learning the Tesoro language and quality of the tones.
The good thing about all this is that even though I do this thumbing knob thing on all targets to figure them out I also dug every target for a long time figuring this stuff out including trash targets too, and I still dig targets I know is trash from time to time to check myself and stay on point.
I can proudly say that I think I have gotten good enough to correctly determine trash from treasure about 80-90% of the time.
Again, to this day I still do check myself and still dig many of the trashy ones throughout every hunt just to make sure...again those what if feelings will mess with my head and destroy me if I don't...and this is no matter how tired I am.
The best thing is my greatest targets I have found like gold rings, silver coins and silver bracelets and chains, this technique worked 100% on those type of targets every time.
Don't think this thumbing, listening figuring out thing takes a whole lot of time either.
I have had so much time in doing this and so much practice I have gotten extremely fast at it and usually beat out any and every hunting partner in shear volume of targets dug even though I take a few seconds to do this on every one, and still seem to hit those correct guesses somewhere around that 90% number most of the time.
I am not saying I never leave any good target in the ground doing it this way, after all if I never dug a trash sounding but still good target how would I ever know, but I can tell you that I have had a few hunts where I was avoiding digging as much trash as I could and still walked away from 2 in particular with a pretty empty trash pouch but a couple of really great treasures.
One was a nice silver necklace that came in as foil, and another which was a gold ring that also came in as a higher foil signal but below nickel.
Trash targets both in a site filled with other trash targets that came in at exactly the same positions as many trash signals at these sites and yet still sounded good, and more importantly met my criteria of coming in solid with very few if, any, clicks at all.
I read all posts on several forums about techniques using the Tesoro detectors and try to remember and use them when I need to, but I have not read many that talk exactly about this sort of technique of turning past the fade out point and back, or if they do at the very least using it as much as I do.
On my Compadre I know this works tremendously, on my Vaquero it seems to work just about as well, especially when using a concentric coil over my DD which has a slightly sharper disc ability.
I am assuming it will work on most Tesoro's including the Outlaw.
If you have a mind to please give it a try and let
me know if it works for you, too
I know much of the country is getting hotter and warmer recently......... but here in the Northeast it seems like we are going into an iceage and its been that way for 5 or so years. I can remember being in a tee shirt in December..... now I'm always waist deep in snow.
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