Buckaneer
**********
Go Silver!!
First, I am a major Tesoro fan, to the point where I use my old Silver Sabre II WAY more than I use my metered Fisher Coinstrike and there's a reason: Tesoros are ridiculously simple to use, and they WORK!
For your budget, go with the Silver uMax, which is roughly around $250. The Silver line is often considered the best Tesoro's ever made, especially for newbies. They're hot on silver coins and do really really well on smaller gold in the shallows on freshwater beaches, but most of all, their discrimination circuitry is really good and in highly non-mineralized dirt, they'll get you down to 8" -- even deeper if it's a larger target.
For a little over $300 you could go with a Tesoro Cibola, but the only feature that offers over the Silver is a frequency shifter, which is an advantage primarily to competition hunters, and they hunt in very close proximity to other hunters and get interference from those peoples' units. So if you're not doing a lot of seeded club hunts, save the $100 and go with the Silver.
The only drawback (if it is one) to your detector is the Silver doesn't have a meter readout. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. In my own experience with my Fisher, the meter is actually a distraction and demands too much attention. With my Silver Sabre, I only need to depend on my ears and my brain, and I actually end up hunting better *and* faster.
I've been detecting around 15 years, and that Tesoro of mine is STILL my #1 go-to detector every time. I still bring my Fisher along for specialized stuff (like peoples' yards, where I need to be really careful about how deep and what I dig), but my Silver's a total gem.
First, I am a major Tesoro fan, to the point where I use my old Silver Sabre II WAY more than I use my metered Fisher Coinstrike and there's a reason: Tesoros are ridiculously simple to use, and they WORK!
For your budget, go with the Silver uMax, which is roughly around $250. The Silver line is often considered the best Tesoro's ever made, especially for newbies. They're hot on silver coins and do really really well on smaller gold in the shallows on freshwater beaches, but most of all, their discrimination circuitry is really good and in highly non-mineralized dirt, they'll get you down to 8" -- even deeper if it's a larger target.
For a little over $300 you could go with a Tesoro Cibola, but the only feature that offers over the Silver is a frequency shifter, which is an advantage primarily to competition hunters, and they hunt in very close proximity to other hunters and get interference from those peoples' units. So if you're not doing a lot of seeded club hunts, save the $100 and go with the Silver.
The only drawback (if it is one) to your detector is the Silver doesn't have a meter readout. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. In my own experience with my Fisher, the meter is actually a distraction and demands too much attention. With my Silver Sabre, I only need to depend on my ears and my brain, and I actually end up hunting better *and* faster.
I've been detecting around 15 years, and that Tesoro of mine is STILL my #1 go-to detector every time. I still bring my Fisher along for specialized stuff (like peoples' yards, where I need to be really careful about how deep and what I dig), but my Silver's a total gem.
