Tesoro Bandido II on ebay is mine!

[morbiusandneo]

Swamphunter,

Don’t take this the wrong way but you sure seem pretty pessimistic!

I keep several things buried in my yard from individual coins to full mason jars and larger items, all at different depths just so I can test a detector when I buy one. The Bandido II will find a quart mason jar at two and one half feet every day all day in soil ranging from dry to moist to wet. If the moisture content is just right it will find the jar at three feet consistently. It will find an object like a dutch oven at three feet without a problem. This has been proven in my yard and in the field. These are NOT open-air tests, this is on actual buried objects that I have encountered or expect to encounter in the field.

With any detector the soil conditions will change the depth that it can work at but there’s not much you can do about soil conditions. I have found that frozen ground hampers the depth capabilities the most, other than clay.

I would hazard a guess that the reviews that you read about the Bandido and the max depth of 8-12 inches were based on coin hunting and what the maximum depth for finding an individual coin would be. If you are testing a coin machine it’s rare that it is tested on anything but coins. The Bandido is a great little cache hunting machine as long as your cache is within that three to four foot area and good size like a quart jar or maybe a copper pot or dutch oven.

The Bandido and the Bandido II were discontinued for the new model which I believe is called the El Dorado. This is basically the same machine with a new look and new electronics. Being a model that was discontinued doesn’t make it a bad machine, it just means they changed the name. I don’t know that I would have paid $335 for a Bandido but that’s just me. There’s always one popping up here and there that you could get cheaper than that. They usually go for about $190.

I’m starting to sound like a salesman now and I apologize, I just think the Bandido is a great little machine and it has served me well and I see no reason to keep information about something that works to myself.

Alec: I SINCERELY thank you for this post to my thread!! I'm still waiting for delivery as there was a small glitch in the eBay process after I won this gem of a metal-detector!! PM me anytime, dude!! stvn.

 

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[SwampHunter]

SWR,
Maybe if Carl would have tried the Tesoro Bandido II he might have been able to find that cache with no problems



Morbiusandneo,
I hope you are able to find your cache with this machine. Sounds lik a gem of a machine.

 

[Shortstack]

SWR--
In that last photo with all of those great MDs, is that a Gardner on the right rear, leaning against the wall? Back a loooooong time ago, I visited Mr. Gardner at his home in Phoenix. He was building his machines in his garage and selling them through the mail. His ads regularly ran in each issue of Long John Latham's magazines. At the time, I couldn't afford one ( young Airman No Class stationed at Luke ).
The one thing I didn't particularly like about the Gardner was it's wooden rod and wood-bodied coil.

morbiusandneo--
You'll like the BD II. I have one I bought years ago and it's still going strong and is goes a very long time on one set of batteries. Using headphones will assure that time. I recently bought a DeLeon for turn-on and go use and wanted to get a 5.75" coil for trashy places. Heidi, at Tesoro told me that the 5.75" uMax coil I intended to get for the DeLeon would also work on my Bandido II. Both machines operate at 10 kHz so that made good sense. The point is, any uMax coil OF LARGER DIAMETER, should also "work" on the BD II.
Double check with Tesoro customer service to make sure.
The following large coils are listed for the DeLeon--
COIL-11RW...........11" round wide scan ( closed center, white)
COIL-12x10...........12"x10" concentric ( white spoked )

Make sure you ground balance the BD II properly, and then turn up the sensitivity to max and the Disc to the lowest point and go for that cache.
Good luck.

 

[Shortstack]

SWR-- I understand that. Carl has enough machines there to open an MDing museum. I think there's a MetroTech M-Scope in there, too.
Not more that 2 months ago, someone listed an M-Scope on eBay and sold it right off the bat. I think it went for $300. KvM bragged on that detector in at least one of his books.

 

[SwampHunter]

morbiusandneo--
You'll like the BD II. I have one I bought years ago and it's still going strong and is goes a very long time on one set of batteries. Using headphones will assure that time. I recently bought a DeLeon for turn-on and go use and wanted to get a 5.75" coil for trashy places. Heidi, at Tesoro told me that the 5.75" uMax coil I intended to get for the DeLeon would also work on my Bandido II. Both machines operate at 10 kHz so that made good sense. The point is, any uMax coil OF LARGER DIAMETER, should also "work" on the BD II.
Double check with Tesoro customer service to make sure.
The following large coils are listed for the DeLeon--
COIL-11RW...........11" round wide scan ( closed center, white)
COIL-12x10...........12"x10" concentric ( white spoked )

Make sure you ground balance the BD II properly, and then turn up the sensitivity to max and the Disc to the lowest point and go for that cache.
Good luck.

With your experience will the Bandido II find a fruit jar full of coins at 3 foot in most conditions?

 

[morbiusandneo]

SWR-- I understand that. Carl has enough machines there to open an MDing museum. I think there's a MetroTech M-Scope in there, too.
Not more that 2 months ago, someone listed an M-Scope on eBay and sold it right off the bat. I think it went for $300. KvM bragged on that detector in at least one of his books.

Yep, the M-scopes come on infrequently, and I tried for the one you mentioned and one other about 2-3 weeks ago.KVM was why I was pursuing that , also!

 

[bearbqd]

What in the world (that photo). No one person should have that many detectors. That's crazy.
Anyway, as far as e-bay. For those of you who don't know about it, I highly recommend a site like auctionsniper.com or a similar service to win your auctions. Why jack up the price by bidding when it's easier just to set a max price that you are willing to pay for something and let the bot do the rest. I don't recommend setting the snipe for less than 5 seconds though as sometimes they won't go through. I have won 95% of my auctions this way.

 

[Shortstack]

What in the world (that photo). No one person should have that many detectors. That's crazy.
Anyway, as far as e-bay. For those of you who don't know about it, I highly recommend a site like auctionsniper.com or a similar service to win your auctions. Why jack up the price by bidding when it's easier just to set a max price that you are willing to pay for something and let the bot do the rest. I don't recommend setting the snipe for less than 5 seconds though as sometimes they won't go through. I have won 95% of my auctions this way.

Excuse me, but aaaaah who are you to tell him how many MDs to own? His money--his decision.
As for eBay; I use their MaxBid system and it works just fine for me.

Swamphunter-- That Bandido II, with a large coil has a good chance at that jar. The problem might be the "jar" part. Seems I read that a container made from insulator materials, such as glass or ceramic (crockery) would prevent the eddy currents from forming on the coins. Any detector used for hunting that jar would need to pickup the metal remains of the screw-on lid; or any spilled coins, should the jar be broken open from farming or construction operations during the years. Many cache containers are items such as cast iron, lead (pipes), tin cans, etc. Maybe a little experimenting with some coins in a glass jar using air test precedures will give you an indication. GOOD LUCK on your hunt.

 

[morbiusandneo]

ShortStack : Thanks for this imput! My target cache's should not be below 24" depth, and I'm hoping they are between 12"-18" level.Very likley to be in mason jars. One is a steel box. steven.

[morbiusandneo--
You'll like the BD II. I have one I bought years ago and it's still going strong and is goes a very long time on one set of batteries. Using headphones will assure that time. I recently bought a DeLeon for turn-on and go use and wanted to get a 5.75" coil for trashy places. Heidi, at Tesoro told me that the 5.75" uMax coil I intended to get for the DeLeon would also work on my Bandido II. Both machines operate at 10 kHz so that made good sense. The point is, any uMax coil OF LARGER DIAMETER, should also "work" on the BD II.
Double check with Tesoro customer service to make sure.
The following large coils are listed for the DeLeon--
COIL-11RW...........11" round wide scan ( closed center, white)
COIL-12x10...........12"x10" concentric ( white spoked )

Make sure you ground balance the BD II properly, and then turn up the sensitivity to max and the Disc to the lowest point and go for that cache.
Good luck. ]

 

[bearbqd]

[/quote]

Excuse me, but aaaaah who are you to tell him how many MDs to own? His money--his decision.
As for eBay; I use their MaxBid system and it works just fine for me.



[/quote]

Cuz I'm the cat with AK 47 here that's why. Just kidding. Lighten up. It's just a lot of detectors is all. He can get 200 more for all I care.

 

[Shortstack]

Excuse me, but aaaaah who are you to tell him how many MDs to own? His money--his decision.
As for eBay; I use their MaxBid system and it works just fine for me.



[/quote]

Cuz I'm the cat with AK 47 here that's why. Just kidding. Lighten up. It's just a lot of detectors is all. He can get 200 more for all I care.
[/quote]

No prob. Guess I read your post with the wrong inflection.

 

[jeff of pa]

although this is certainly gone now.

The Big mistake people make on EBay
is bidding themselves up.

IF you see an item you want,
don't bid on it. sit back.
watch it. sometimes sellers have bidders
there to jack it up. it may be against the rules.
but since when has playing by the rules been a human trait ?
not everyone plays by the rules.

Plus putting in an early bid is showing everyone else
the item has bidders.

if in the last 10 minutes it's still below
your budget, keep watching till it gets to
90 seconds.
Know ahead of time how high you are willing to go ,
& start the Process of bidding, timing yourself,
so that by the time your ready to hit that
Confirm Bid button, you have 10 to 15 seconds tops left.
anyone being outbid will have no time
to up theirs.

Most of the time this works for me except when
someone wants it more & put a Higher Maximum bid
in.