Tesoro Cibola

[Daddy-O]

I looked through the list of posted detectors on here and didn't find anyone talking about the Tesoro Cibola. I bought my wife a Tesoro Cibola last week. It is due to arrive (by our best calculations) today! We are excited about it since it is our first detector. I'll post pics and try to keep you all updated on it as a detector for us newbies.
From what I understand so far, it is a slightly better detector than the Garrett 250 (which was another one we were looking at). We are planning on hitting the parks, going to some old historic sites for some relic hunting, and to a fresh water beach with it in it's first days with us (probably not in that order). I'll try to let everyone know how it goes for us, and maybe look for some advice from some of you other Cibola owners.
Daddy-O

[Brian]

Your getting a great machine that seems to be a bit of a sleeper for some reason. Near Tejon performance at a bargain price. Excellent iron rejection. When you get use to it try upping the threshold which will act as a sensitivity boost.
I'm picking up one for my wife when the new all black version arrives in the country. She likes maximum performance for minimum effort. Don't we all !

[l.cutler]

I would say performance is more than slightly better than the 250. Many detectorists shy away because it doesn't have target ID.! Get to know it and you won't have any need for a detector with target ID.! The Cibola is an excellent detector, I have been thinking of getting one as a backup for my Tejon.

i agree with the comments above. the cibola is a superb machine along with all tesoros. performance wise it is far superior to the ace250 and its stablemate (vaquero) is also excellent.
you wont be disappointed in your choice and the best of luck with it.

[FelixtheCat]

How good is the Cibola on salt beaches, especially in the wet sand zone?! I would like a 2nd detector that would be better than my BHD 3300 for this type of hunting.! I've done dry sand with my 3300, and I like it there, but in the wet stuff it wasn't great.

[drb]

I owned a Cibola and a Vaquero, both great machines, both easy to use, and it doesn't take long to figure out how to "hear" a good target from bad. For beach hunting, in the wet sand zone I would go with the Vaquero over the Cibola because you have control over the ground balance....That's not to say you won't find targets with the Cibola at the beach, because you will...it's just not as stable with it's preset GB.

[Daddy-O]

My wife's Cibola arrived today from Tony (thanks Tony!)!! We put it together and did the setup as described in the manual.! We ran outside for just about 45 minutes and found the treasure you see in the picture below (an old can of some kind, 22 casing, 2 pennies and the infamous pull tab).! ! I also included a picture of our new detector.! My wife has officially hired me to be her personal digger.! !! I get to retire when I get my own detector though.! !By the way, I was pretty excited when we found our first coin, even if it was just a penny!
Daddy-O

[FelixtheCat]

It is just the begining of grander things to come!

[Carol K]

Cool! You're off to a great start! The only thing missing in that picture is an old piece of jewelry.

Better head out to the yard again.

[Daddy-O]

Carol, we took your advice and went back out after supper. We were able to find about fifteen cents in coins and some other stuff before it started raining. I am glad that I took the advice that many of you put up here. We are using the digging items that you mention, we have a nice belt with pouches for various items, I have knee pads (a wonderful invention!), and the ever handy pinpointer. I bought the Vibra Probe 560. Well, I just wanted to say "thank you" to all of you that have helped us (knowingly and unknowingly) to get off to a good start.
Daddy-O

[Daddy-O]

Where do you Cibola owners usually set your controls? It seems like you can find more things if you turn up your sensitivity and threshold knobs, but you lose your pinpointing ability. Is that right? It also seems like you should turn up your discrimination just a bit too if you turn up the other two. I guess I'm looking for suggestions on how to properly go about it for optimal performance. Thanks.
Daddy-O

[Brian]

Increase the threshold and you increase the depth but as you say at the expence of the pinpoint feature.
At you are starting out just increase threshold enough to gain a little depth but still retain the pinpointing. Soon you will be able to pinpoint just as well by just sweeping the target and then hitting it again after moving round 90 degrees. Then you can maximise the detectors performance which can be a godsend on certain, especially older sites.
Try and resist upping the discrimination. Far better to hear rubbish/iron etc with a broken tone so it can be I.D.'d and ignored than to totally discriminate it out.
I should also try and find a deep good sounding signal and experiment to see how your sweep speed affects both I.D. and depth.

[~Alan~]

The only couple of people I know who used the Cibola, didn't keep them for long. I'm not sure exactly why, may be people who just change machines on a regular basis anyway.

[Daddy-O]

Thanks for the advice Brian. I have been running it with the threshold higher, and I don't have any trouble pinpointing the target (as long as I rotate 90 degrees like you mentioned to X it in. My wife had a little bit of trouble pinpointing the target until I was able to convince her to turn 90 degrees to scan the area again.
We went to a freshwater beach this morning and an old collapsed store this afternoon. My wife was able to find a small diamond earing among other things (coins and the usual trash). Look, I am already saying, "usual trash" like I am an old hand at all of this. I guess it doesn't take long to find out that pull tabs and bottle tops are all to numerous out there. The deepest thing we found with a solid signal was about 12 inches down. I guess that means we are getting the depth.
As far as getting rid of the Cibola....not a chance. I only wifh that we had another detector to compare notes with, for good honest competition and to be able to cover more area in less time.
I may get an Ace 250 for the kids and steal it from them while detecting with mom.
Daddy-O