tejon vs minelab sovereign elite

[diggger21]

i'm looking for a deep seeking metal detector. tesoro tejon or minelab sovereing elite which one will be better

 

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[Sandman]

That is a tough question. I use a Tejon but only have the Sov GT to compare it too. Both have responded to deep targets and you are comparing concentric coils to DD coils too.

 

[vaquero44]

i would put my fisher 1270 against the tejon on depth, the minelab have no clue about? bad thing about the 1270 is its heavy but i 've got use to mine!

 

[Keppy]

That is a tough question. I use a Tejon but only have the Sov GT to compare it too. Both have responded to deep targets and you are comparing concentric coils to DD coils too.

Sandman i have had every Sovereign made and to me they are all the same from the first one to the GT and every one in between. The only difference is the first one & the GT you can turn the iron mask off.the ones in betweenyou are in iron mask all the time. Then on some they put on some switches that really did not make a difference in the sovereigns operation. As to the question that digger 21 asked i don't know never compared them.

 

[jhnbaker41]

I have never used the Soverign however the Tejon goes very deep and allows you to dual descriminate out bad stuff even in bad soils. You have to learn the GB but past that it is awesome. I am hooked.

 

[U.K. Brian]

This is could be an easy question as the Tejon excels on land but can't compete with the Minelab on wet salt beaches.
The Minelabs multifrequency means a whole beach is detectable but its much heavier unless hipmounted and much, much slower in use.
I find that on the average land site the Tejon will produce more finds as you will be able to cover twice the ground in a set time. Same would apply on the top of a beach.

The Minelab also has a little bit to much iron rejection even at its minimum discrimination setting. If going for a Sovereign I would spend a little more for the GT version. Early versions didn't have much between them but the GT does have positive performance gains.

 

[LuckyLarry]

I've owned both and I thought both were basically junk. The Tejon weighed less, worked fairly well and went deep in (gentle) soil, as long as there wasn't much iron junk in it. It was too noisy for my tastes over steel, iron, and high magnetite/hematite soils and never would completely ground balance (in bad soil) because it auto-returned to threshold so very slowly. The Sov ran a lot quieter and handled bad ground and salt beaches MUCH better, but when nulling over a bad target it often canceled the next target in line with the swing, especially when canceling pulltabs or nails. It too had a slow return to threshold, silent or otherwise.

I have no use for either detector save for the Sovereign making a better boat anchor than the Tejon.

Larry

 

[BamaBill]

Ok Larry, I'll bite. Then, out of the modern, mid-priced detectors available (~$400-$800), what would you choose, since you think these two are junk?

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I've owned both and I thought both were basically junk. The Tejon weighed less, worked fairly well and went deep in (gentle) soil, as long as there wasn't much iron junk in it. It was too noisy for my tastes over steel, iron, and high magnetite/hematite soils and never would completely ground balance (in bad soil) because it auto-returned to threshold so very slowly. The Sov ran a lot quieter and handled bad ground and salt beaches MUCH better, but when nulling over a bad target it often canceled the next target in line with the swing, especially when canceling pulltabs or nails. It too had a slow return to threshold, silent or otherwise.

I have no use for either detector save for the Sovereign making a better boat anchor than the Tejon.

Larry

Typical....

I dug hundreds of nulls when I first started hunting with with My Excal and Sovereign GT, never once, not a single time did a null that was a null from multiple directions ever turn out to be anything other then a piece of iron, on the other hand I have dug a signal that was a null from one direction and solid good tone from a different direction, when I started digging I dug up a piece of iron and a gold wedding band in the same scoop...............Then again I know not to cancel pulltabs or nails, nails being iron will null, canceling pulltabs will cancel out lots of various gold rings.......

I hunt with nothing smaller then the WOT Coil or the SEF Butterfly Coils, 12"x15" or the 15"x18"..........

 

[LuckyLarry]

Bama you and have exchanged info before. How have ya been?

I live in a much higher iron soil area than you and most others so I look at the machines that handle high iron soil best. Right now the 705 Minelab is doing quite well in our soil here, but in low iron soils a lower-powered detector would work nearly as well and in some cases deeper than a $1500 one on steroids. High gain (power) in detectors produces high interference and consequently greater reactance to noise and anything iron in nature, including high Fe soils. There are some exceptions though. The Fisher F-70 w 11" coil, newest Fisher GoldBug2 w 11" coil, and Minelab x-terra 705 w 10" DD seem to all be a good balance between performance and price. There are lots of rave things being said about all three, especially locally. Of these my personal choices would be either the ML 705 or the new GB2. The 705 would be the best all-around especially for coin hunting but not the best for fine wire rings and thin silver necklaces.The GB is the best nugget-hunter/relic-hunter combo and WOULD work on thin jewelry very well.

I am seriously considering the new GB for my purposes by a thin margin though, especially for using to hunt salt beaches with a big coil and my knowing how to work it. I may change my mind though and look harder at the 705 because it may well handle salt even better. Right now my best for that is my trusty old CZ-70. I don't need a nugget hunter, I already have one that finds BB size nuggets at 6". I built my first metal detector in 1971 and worked in detector design and engineering in in the early 80's for one of the 'Big Four" manufacturers, but I still trust and prefer my Compass GoldScanner Pro more than anything else out there.

Hope this helps a bit, even if it is mostly about my own personal opinions. Hey, but as we both know, always try before you buy, right?

Larry

 

[BamaBill]

Hey Larry, been good. Last couple of days have been interesting, with 7" of snow here in N. Bama, which hasn't happened in a long time. Personally, I've been wondering about the G2 they're putting out, sounds like it isn't as EMI sensitive as the F75. I have experience with the 705 and if you're interested in my experiences, PM me. I want to give a balanced appraisal without starting a war. They're good machines, but there's more to what I want to say.

 

[Sovereignelite]

Sweep speed is the key with the Minelab. I HIGHLY doubt any detector with a concentric coil is going to beat a double D on depth(If they are the same size coil i.e. a large concentric may go deeper than a smaller double D..

I've owned both and I thought both were basically junk. The Tejon weighed less, worked fairly well and went deep in (gentle) soil, as long as there wasn't much iron junk in it. It was too noisy for my tastes over steel, iron, and high magnetite/hematite soils and never would completely ground balance (in bad soil) because it auto-returned to threshold so very slowly. The Sov ran a lot quieter and handled bad ground and salt beaches MUCH better, but when nulling over a bad target it often canceled the next target in line with the swing, especially when canceling pulltabs or nails. It too had a slow return to threshold, silent or otherwise.

I have no use for either detector save for the Sovereign making a better boat anchor than the Tejon.

Larry

 

[LuckyLarry]

Right now the new Blisstools beat even expensive Minelab PI's for depth in (non-salt) soils, even if the soil is fairly high in Fe. And the Blisstool has a good iron discriminator too. Several different videos show it and prove it beyond any reasonable doubts. It's rather amusing to see the looks on the faces of people who bought a $4500 Minelab so as to get the best depth, and then they run into one of the Blisstool users. The Tejon beats the Sovereign Elite AND the CZ's by about 1" inland in soil with low Fe, but on the real nasty salt/black sand beaches or high Fe soils the CZ's beat the pants off of the Sov (and) the Tejons, by 1", and I mean EXACTLY one inch. I've tried them all at various times so I know that nothing would be any different than it was before.

BTW, I kept my CZ and got rid of the Tejon and the Sovereign, and for very good reasons. I liked the Tejon better than the Sovereign though, because it simply was a better detector overall, and matched although didn't beat the Sov on salt beaches. With the right circuitry, a single will beat (any) multiple freq made AS LONG AS THE SOIL DOESN'T HAVE TOO MUCH SALT IN IT, and now we all know it. Blisstool proved it. The Blisstool however (again) is not a good detector for salt beaches, but the CZ is, with the Sovs taking 2nd place to the CZ's.

So of all four detectors:

For best (overall) depth and smoothest operation get the CZ 1st, Blisstool 2nd

For best depth in high iron soils get the Blisstool 1st, buy the CZ 2nd.

For best depth on salt beaches get the CZ 1st, Blisstool last.

For best weight, get the Tejon 1st, the Sovereign last.

For best luck on tiny gold jewelry, the GB Pro.

For mild soil the Tejon & the Vaquero.

 

[Terry Soloman]

I just ordered myself a Tejon. I've never swung one before, but I have had so many people tell me to get one for farm field hunting that I finally had to break the news to my Lobo Super Traq.

 

[LuckyLarry]

You are going to like that thing Terry in NY, but probably not in AZ. Just remember that it has to be swung s-l-o-w-l-y if you want it to behave. If you turn the sensitivity down and back away from the red, it won't be as noisy trying to cancel fine wire and nails. Lucky for you most of your soil isn't as bad as it is here in the far west.. Tejons air test way up there, right along with the Fisher 1270, up to 15-16" on a nickel and even up to 17" on a quarter, but bring along a Fisher or something else similar for the real hot soil.. Larry

 

[liftloop]

bounty hunter "505"

"5 foot" on a big target

 

[Sovereignelite]

It doesn't HAVE to be hipmounted. I use the Detecting Buddy strap and it's as light as a feather with no fatigue. Personally I think any of the Sovereigns are hard to beat by virtue of the multi-frequencies alone.

This is could be an easy question as the Tejon excels on land but can't compete with the Minelab on wet salt beaches.
The Minelabs multifrequency means a whole beach is detectable but its much heavier unless hipmounted and much, much slower in use.
I find that on the average land site the Tejon will produce more finds as you will be able to cover twice the ground in a set time. Same would apply on the top of a beach.

The Minelab also has a little bit to much iron rejection even at its minimum discrimination setting. If going for a Sovereign I would spend a little more for the GT version. Early versions didn't have much between them but the GT does have positive performance gains.

 

[Sovereignelite]

Interestingly I recently found a Mercury dime with a nail sitting right on top of it as well as several other coins with nails or iron in the same hole: they never sounded like a null from all directions or were masked by the iron. (This is the case with my GT and Etrac)

I've owned both and I thought both were basically junk. The Tejon weighed less, worked fairly well and went deep in (gentle) soil, as long as there wasn't much iron junk in it. It was too noisy for my tastes over steel, iron, and high magnetite/hematite soils and never would completely ground balance (in bad soil) because it auto-returned to threshold so very slowly. The Sov ran a lot quieter and handled bad ground and salt beaches MUCH better, but when nulling over a bad target it often canceled the next target in line with the swing, especially when canceling pulltabs or nails. It too had a slow return to threshold, silent or otherwise.

I have no use for either detector save for the Sovereign making a better boat anchor than the Tejon.

Larry

 

[liftloop]

lucky larry
show me some footage on this 15 inches or more on a nickle 17 on a quarter this I have to see were talking ..vlf...right

 

[LuckyLarry]

Well Treasure, you are comparing a Sov Gt, but the detector in question was a Sov Elite, not quite the same animal. But then again, I spoke about the Sov Elite nulling first over a pulltab, and after it nulls it also cancels a coin while it has not quite recovered from the null over the pulltab. When 12" apart, that doesn't happen, but it does when the two different targets are only 3 or 4 inches apart and the swing speed is faster than 2 fps..