Pretty Pleased With My Vaquero

[Dave Rishar]

That's pretty much it. For those of you who encouraged me to get one, thanks.

Slightly longer version: its "language" is pretty similar to that of my Silver uMax, so there wasn't much of a learning curve. I did dig up some trash, but it was the same trash that I dig up with other machines - pull tabs and occasional bottlecaps. This, I've learned, is something that you just have to deal with when you're going after low conductors in trashy areas. (Which is the best place to go after said low conductors if you ask me, as it's very likely that no one else has, due to all that trash.) This is just a very capable machine that's pleasant to use. I won't be selling my Deus, but I won't be selling this either.

I do have a question though. The pinpointing feature is...well, it's not working well for me. The sounds "smear" and seem delayed, and I learned the hard way that "wiggling off" doesn't work so well with concentrics. This is actually not that big of a deal for me, as I'm fortunate enough to own a Uniprobe and there have been only a handful of targets that I've recovered that were too deep for the Uniprobe to find, making pinpointing a snap. Additionally, I have a CSC on the way for it as this is destined for use as a ballfield machine, and pinpointing with a DD coil is ridiculously easy without any pinpointing function at all. However, I'd still like to know how to do it with the Vaquero. Is there a trick to it?

 

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[DiggerinVA]

Hey Dave....you have experiiennce wiith a Silver.....so how is its depth? II have a post on here about loooking at one for my wife.....is it deep enough for a so-so relic machine? Thanks....i have also wanted a Vaquero for a while just havent bought one yet.

 

[rainyday101]

I never use the pin point on my Tejon. Much like you have found, it just doesn't quite do it for me. I see you have a Silver. I got so use to Xing my targets with the Silver, that's all I do with the Tejon.

I'm glad you like the Vaquero.

 

[DiggerinVA]

I dont use the pinpoint on any of my machines......maybe F75 ltd on really deep targets.

 

[Dave Rishar]

Hey Dave....you have experiiennce wiith a Silver.....so how is its depth? II have a post on here about loooking at one for my wife.....is it deep enough for a so-so relic machine? Thanks....i have also wanted a Vaquero for a while just havent bought one yet.

Good enough for most purposes, I guess. It hits a dime in the air at 9" in all metal on max sensitivity, for what it's worth. Knock an inch or two off that if discrimination is being used. (Note: by "hit," I mean an honest target tone that I would dig. It's audible an inch or so beyond that.) High mineralization and EMI will drive it bonkers, which are the main reasons why I don't use it anymore.

 

[pyrogort]

Good to hear from another recent Vaquero owner. I bought one yesterday after much evaluation, mental debating, and watching many YouTube
demonstrations. Light weight and quality construction to be sure and I haven't had time to "take it out", but comparing my own "air" tests
with those I've seen on YouTube has left me somewhat disappointed. They all show good signals ( in disc. with sens. turned up as far as will allow
without chatter) at 8 to 10 inches but I can't get much better than 6 to 7 at most. I don't do primary hunting in all-metal...way too busy for me. I
use disc. and then check in all-metal. The demos on YouTube (many of which corroborated the others' results) were a strong factor in my purchase
decision. Anybody with explanations or ideas? Not a newbie but definitely disappointed at this point.

 

[Dave Rishar]

I'm hardly an expert, but a few ideas...

Were you indoors? Was EMI an issue?

Were you supertuned?

What was your sensitivity set at?

What's your GB set at? If you're cancelling out ground that isn't there, you're needlessly reducing depth.

 

[rainyday101]

Good to hear from another recent Vaquero owner. I bought one yesterday after much evaluation, mental debating, and watching many YouTube
demonstrations. Light weight and quality construction to be sure and I haven't had time to "take it out", but comparing my own "air" tests
with those I've seen on YouTube has left me somewhat disappointed. They all show good signals ( in disc. with sens. turned up as far as will allow
without chatter) at 8 to 10 inches but I can't get much better than 6 to 7 at most. I don't do primary hunting in all-metal...way too busy for me. I
use disc. and then check in all-metal. The demos on YouTube (many of which corroborated the others' results) were a strong factor in my purchase
decision. Anybody with explanations or ideas? Not a newbie but definitely disappointed at this point.

First, these detectors like a fast sweep speed. The speed you pass the coin in front of the coil makes a big difference. Second, it is a concentric coil, make sure passes with coin are right in the middle of the coil. Third make sure you are doing this on the bottom of the coil, not the top. The sweep speed will make a pretty big difference like 2-3 inches. When you are looking for that max air test distance you have to make sure you are doing the swing in the exact center of the coil so you are at the peak of the cone on the concentric coil.

This will give you the results you want. My advice- don't worry about it and go detecting. It is plenty deep.

 

[dirtscratcher]

Good to hear from another recent Vaquero owner. I bought one yesterday after much evaluation, mental debating, and watching many YouTube
demonstrations. Light weight and quality construction to be sure and I haven't had time to "take it out", but comparing my own "air" tests
with those I've seen on YouTube has left me somewhat disappointed. They all show good signals ( in disc. with sens. turned up as far as will allow
without chatter) at 8 to 10 inches but I can't get much better than 6 to 7 at most. I don't do primary hunting in all-metal...way too busy for me. I
use disc. and then check in all-metal. The demos on YouTube (many of which corroborated the others' results) were a strong factor in my purchase
decision. Anybody with explanations or ideas? Not a newbie but definitely disappointed at this point.

Most people on youtube have an agenda of sorts. If you look hard enough you can find video's show any detector to be the best and the worst.

 

[pyrogort]

Thanks for the input Dave, dirtscratcher, & rainyday. Feedback and help from guys like you is one of the great reasons to subscribe to
TNet. Dave was spot on....inside test? Yes. Incorrectly "ground balancing" the air? Yes. Carefully buried a silver dime on top of
a small block of wood at a measured 8 inches in Fla. soil (sand mostly) and after proper ground balancing the unit DID give
a repeatable signal at iron/foil disc. level with sens. into the RED zone (near max.). I'm quite satisfied with that knowing that
long-buried targets will probably sound off even deeper (if I'm lucky enough to scan over one). Now "super-tuning"....that's
another scheduled test!

 

[digger27]

Love mine, don't pull it out a whole bunch but every time I do it seems to find the goodies.
I have the standard, the 10X12" DD and the 5" concentric sniper and every one has found me tons of coins and silver and gold.

Pinpointing is easy if you don't want to do the Xing thing or the quick side to side swipes like I do.
I assume you are using the standard concentric coil on this thing.
Get the tone, move the coil well outside the area like at least 8 inches away, hit the button and slowly draw that coil back to the target area.
When the center area of the coil is over the target you will get the loudest tone.
Dig there.
Easy Peasy, but swinging the center of the coil over the target and zeroing in with your eyes on the right spot to dig when you hear the tone is laser-like when you get some practice.
I call this "Eye, coil coordination", and the method I usually use the most.

Using DD coils it is slightly different but there are a few techniques that make pinpointing just as fast and efficient if you learn them.

 

[Dave Rishar]

Good info, Digger. I'll give that a try the next time that I go out.

Pyrogort? Glad that you got things sorted out.

 

[kansa54]

Hey Dave....you have experiiennce wiith a Silver.....so how is its depth? II have a post on here about loooking at one for my wife.....is it deep enough for a so-so relic machine? Thanks....i have also wanted a Vaquero for a while just havent bought one yet.

I've had good luck with mine when relic hunting. I found an iron hoe from an 1850's Indian campsite at around 20 inches. It also hits small dragoon buttons, small round lead bullets and percussion caps at good depth. It seems to find the small targets that my other detector missed. When relic hunting I usually super tune it but other wise I never do.
The reason I bought the vaquero was its light weight. I can swing it all day. You would love it.

 

[atomicscott]

Good to hear from another recent Vaquero owner. I bought one yesterday after much evaluation, mental debating, and watching many YouTube
demonstrations. Light weight and quality construction to be sure and I haven't had time to "take it out", but comparing my own "air" tests
with those I've seen on YouTube has left me somewhat disappointed. They all show good signals ( in disc. with sens. turned up as far as will allow
without chatter) at 8 to 10 inches but I can't get much better than 6 to 7 at most. I don't do primary hunting in all-metal...way too busy for me. I
use disc. and then check in all-metal. The demos on YouTube (many of which corroborated the others' results) were a strong factor in my purchase
decision. Anybody with explanations or ideas? Not a newbie but definitely disappointed at this point.

I know these guys are gonna jump my ass, but I too got the Vaquero based on Youtube vids and reviews. Mine never got near the depth (air testing or in ground) that others claimed. Sent back to Tesoro (due to Robert at Tesoro's recommendation) & had about the same results after repair. I guess some just work better than others?

 

[Terry Soloman]

Good to hear from another recent Vaquero owner. I bought one yesterday after much evaluation, mental debating, and watching many YouTube
demonstrations. Light weight and quality construction to be sure and I haven't had time to "take it out", but comparing my own "air" tests
with those I've seen on YouTube has left me somewhat disappointed. They all show good signals ( in disc. with sens. turned up as far as will allow
without chatter) at 8 to 10 inches but I can't get much better than 6 to 7 at most. I don't do primary hunting in all-metal...way too busy for me. I
use disc. and then check in all-metal. The demos on YouTube (many of which corroborated the others' results) were a strong factor in my purchase
decision. Anybody with explanations or ideas? Not a newbie but definitely disappointed at this point.

First -Take it out, ground balance it properly, and THEN tell us how you feel about the machine and the depth you are getting. I think your initial feelings will change.

Second - AtomicScot is a confirmed Tesoro hater, so take what he has to say about the brand with a grain of salt.

 

[Dave Rishar]

The good news: my Cleansweep coil showed up. The bad news: I probably won't get a chance to go out until the weekend.

For me, summer is the time to avoid the crowded parks and instead focus on the nearly-abandoned ballfields at the schools.

​LET THE CLEANUP BEGIN!

 

[pyrogort]

Took the V out for the first time yesterday evening. Still learning the "feel" of my new unit.....you know, where the headphone
wire swings, feel of the handle, thumbing controls, how it "sits" when you put it down to dig, etc..
Love the weight and solid feel. Hit a coin spill 20 minutes into the hunt. About 2 to 2-1/2 feet in diameter. 53 coins so far...
Stopped when it got too dark. Several good signals still there. Nothing special about the coins....clad dimes, nickles, and
Lincolns...no quarters (or "fatties" as I like to call 'em) yet. Depth 1 to 4 inches.
Any decent detector would have found them also. It was just a nice first experience with my new Vaquero.
Thank God, however. for pinpointers!!

 

[Dave Rishar]

So now that I've got a few hours on this thing, I have some observations:

1. It occurred to me during today's hunt that while I can describe a bad tone, I can't really describe a good one. It just sounds correct. For whatever reason, it was much more difficult for me to figure out good tones on the uMax. With the Vaquero, I just sort of got it right from the start. I dug hardly any trash today, and most of what I did dig was foil crushed into round shapes with the occasional pull tab thrown in for flavor...the same sort of trash that I dig with expensive detectors when I'm looking for gold, so I'm not terribly bothered by this. It comes with the territory.

2. I like the CSC. It air-tested horribly, but it seems to do much better in real world situations. No jewelry yet unfortunately, but that's only because I haven't put my coil over any yet. I did pull a very nice wheat today that was down around 3" - the first wheatie for that site and for this machine. (Interestingly enough, I'd gone through that area with my Deus and E-Trac a few months back and had missed it, as did my girlfriend today with her Deus.) Although I only dig signals that sound good (or are so downright weird that I have to dig them just to see what they are, which is how I got a zipper today), I'm not leaving much behind. During the times that we've both gone over the same ground, she's found nothing that I've missed, but I have found a few things that she walked over. Let me state for the record here that the Deus is an excellent machine, and that she has significantly more time on hers than I have on the Vaq. This is not meant to be a direct comparison between these machines, but rather an example of how quickly I've taken to the Vaq and just how well it can work.

3. At first, I was convinced that I would need to run in supertuning to make the CSC work. I don't bother anymore. The good tones are pretty hard to miss, even if they're quiet. It's still a nice feature though.

4. I never would have thought to use the frequency shift to make quick-and-dirty adjustments to GB on the fly. Whoever came up with that clever trick deserves an award.

5. I noticed that I don't bother thumbing the disc knob any more. The quality of the signal is far more important to me than the conductivity. I've taken to turning it just a hair above iron to knock out the obvious ferrous signals and if I get a good tone, I dig it. Note that I'm specifically looking for gold; if I were after coins, I would indeed turn the disc up higher.

6. This thing covers a lot of ground fast. I suppose that's the whole point though.

7. I can't pinpoint for crap with this coil, regardless of what method I try. Fortunately it's not really a problem, as my pinpointer can go about as deep as the coil can. I'll figure it out eventually. It's particularly annoying because I have no problems at all "wiggling off" with other machines using DD coils - just this one.

8. Once you go wireless, it's very, very hard to go back to wires and not mind them.

9. Although I initially purchased this machine as a training aid of sorts to develop my listening skills, I'm finding that it's the machine that I'm using most. Of course, all of my recent hunting as been a search for shallow jewelry in large public spaces, so this machine is the best tool for the job that I own. When the rains return and I'm back to smaller sites and deeper targets, I'll probably be using the Deus for that, hopefully with a better ear.

10. Cranking the sensitivity to maximum is generally not a good idea, but I'm surprised by how often I can get away with it.

The drawbacks? Wires. Not weatherproof. Difficult to pinpoint. Touchy ground balance. Lacking in some of the refinements that a spoiled Deus owner becomes accustomed to. The CSC makes it decidedly nose-heavy and unwieldy, but I think that this could be fixed with a longer armrest. Nothing insurmountable, and probably nothing that would be worth the $1000 price difference between the two machines.

So yeah...I'm still pretty happy with this purchase, and I think that I'm beginning to understand why Tesoro is doing what they're doing. As for the Vaq, it's found its niche in my lineup and won't be going anywhere anytime soon.