WHITES DFX vs. TESORO TEJON

[Boilermaker27]

I have been detecting for about 35 years and have had lots of detectors and many brands, some good some not so good. My first detector was a Relco Frontiersman, and that was a long time ago. My main targets are civil war relics and sometimes civil war coinage.

A while back I got permission to hunt a good field that was used as a campsite in Missouri. This field had been hunted many times by many persons. We had been thrown out a few years earlier, but I went back and asked the wife and she said go ahead, but you probably won't find anything. I found 29-69's in about two hours. At the time I was using a Minelab Explorer. My Minelab went kaput and I was in a crazy good field so I decided to buy a Tejon, until I could afford a second Minelab. I used the Tejon for about four months and every day I went there found something good (button; knapsack hook etc.) including a pocketful of minnies. A few months later I bought a second Minelab Explorer II and went back and found that the Tesoro had found just about everything that was in that field.

I have some friends that use the DFX and they were doing real good. They had bought some large custom coils and were making some good finds so I decided time to sell the Minelab and buy the DFX. First time out I found a few minnies and also a half dime. Second time out I decided to take along the Tejon. Since the ground was very moist, near muddy at depth I started getting some crazy deep signals with the Tesoro. I had also noticed this last year in an area that I had hunted previously. The ground was saturated, digging was horrible, but I was getting some pretty good signals and digging 69's at no less than ten to twelve inches. The day after Christmas I went back and the soil was again saturated. I started getting some of the faint but strong signals and first one I dug I couldn't find the target. My friend with the DFX said, "it just rolled out of the side and its on the bottom of the hole". He asked me to wait and ran his DFX over the hole and nothing. We adjusted up the AC sensitivity and set the gain to 3 and still nothing. We then tried the mixed mode and nothing. The Tesoro was still giving a good strong signal and the minnie was about twelve inches down. I finally fired up my DFX and ran it over the hole and nothing. We finally tweaked the DFX and it finally gave a very faint signal, almost non-existant. The Tesoro was still giving a good faint but strong signal.

It seems that the Tesoro Tejon works really well, in fact awesome in very wet soil. During the late spring of last year the DFX was doing fine and the ground was much drier, but in very wet soil the Tejon really can go down deep and get those targets that are out of range for most detectors. This is a field that has been hunted very hard and with the wet soil the Tejon stood out like a trooper. The days of going out and finding the knapsack hooks and buttons are few and far between, no dimes or half dimes in this field either for the last 18 months. The half dime find a few weeks ago was in another nearby field, but still one half mile away.

One section of this campsite was bulldozed off and the soil moved down to a new motel construction site. We were finding minnies after feet of soil had been removed. There is no such thing as a hunted out field or campsite, it's there, just too darned deep.

In summary. I will take the Tejon over the DFX in wet soil and in the woods. The DFX is a fine machine but if you turn the sensitivity and gain up to get the deep stuff anything you hit or bump will give you a false signal, and it does drive you crazy. I think in drier soil the DFX will work fine. They are both good machines, and that's my two cents worth.

 

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[olepossum]

i was using my new dfx300 and the 300 dfx 12 inch coil and at 3 inches it blew my ears off my brother was 30 yards away using my old bountyhunter dx with the head phones on and said whay did you find a gold bar i could hear that clear over here and i am on a bed of pennies of course he found the other half of my pennie cache i found earlier this fall i got 152 pennies and in one swing he got the other 200 in one group at 3 inches i told him from now on use your own machine i aint sharein anymore so he is going out and ordering himself a ace 250

 

[Schrecky]

There is a person in our club who uses a Tejon, all the rest of us have a DFX. He has yet to find a silver coin with it, this could be a learning curve issue. One thing you mentioned that caught my attention, getting a false signal when you hit or bump something. Haven't heard of that problem with those I hunt with. I'm wondering if there is a problem with the coil or a connection?

 

[l.cutler]

When I first got my Tejon and went back to some of the sites we had pounded with a variety of other detectors, I couldn't believe the coins we had left!

 

[Shenandoah Digger]

My buddy uses a DFX and he walks over relics my Tejon picks up, and he's used it since it came out.

 

[therover]

I have both and like both machines. I am using the Tejon much more, and now with the 5.75 coil, it's a tot lot, trashy site killer.

My DFX with the smaller coil, in 15kHz mode can pick up small gold, but I think the Tejon is a little better and much easier to set up to get it 'hotter' due to only 1 or 2 knobs to tweak.

I can use it on the dry sand too, but the DFX will win easliy in the wet sand due to the dual frequency.

Won't give either up, but the Tejon is getting grabbed more often when hunting the land sites.

JC

 

[bg64vw]

Ive been scouring information for a few days on what kind of detector to buy and Im liking what I hear about the Tesoro Tejon. I have been borrowing a Whites XLT which is a tough detector for a beginner but appears to be an excellent machine. I understand theres no perfect detector but heres what Im looking for. I will be hunting relics and coins here in southern KY, mostly at old house and CW sites in wooded areas. I was hoping to find something new or used for under $800. From everything I read one of the Whites, most likely used would fit the bill but Im hearing alot of good stuff about the Tesoro Tejon which could be purchased new with warranty under $800. I don't think I could go wrong either way but I like the knobs even though Im tech savy. The things Ive disliked most about the XLT is its bulk and inability to pinpoint. Maybe the Tejon is just as bad in those respects?

 

[olepossum]

i have 3 machine one is a bounty hunter prospector dx the second is a whites coin master 6d/b and the other is a dfx300 w dfx 300 coil and a 5.3 prism coila bullseye 2 pinpointer and a garrett propointer pin pointer the bounty hunter package machine ear phones and bh pinpointer and a fiskars dig tool cost me around $600.00 i gave it to my daughter after i got my dfx 300 and the coin master sits in the corner all i use now is the dfx 300

 

[The-Bone]

does anyone know how the 2 machines compare when it comes to iron masking? i saw a video on utube that showed the tejon nulling out huge pieces of iron but still hitting on coins. wondering if any real world users could comment

 

[l.cutler]

I have found my Tejon to hit on large iron, I think you would have to run the disc really high to get rid of it. It really isn't a problem though, while the iron gives a signal I have found you can tell the difference by the sound and by the way it pinpoints.

 

[Shenandoah Digger]

I have yet to see a machine that will disc out large iron, axe heads and the like. But then, I don't want to lose that signal. Might be the location of something good.

 

[Eu_citzen]

Please correct me if I'm wrong but I think the Tejon as a relic machine? Often relic machines have great depth...
Think of the DFX as a modern coin/jewellery shooter, often great depth isn't needed instead they give you more disc info.

 

[The-Bone]

let me requalify my question...the utube video showed the tejon hitting on a coin while simultaneously nulling out a large piece of iron right next to it...i haven't seen anything that could do this before

 

[Michigan Badger]

I've owned at least 2 Tejons and I didn't sell them because of poor performance. I sold them because I like trying lots of brands and models and the hunting up in northern Michigan leave much to be desired.

If I lived in the south I'd own 3 machines and would never sell them:

1. The Minelab Sovereign GT or Explorer (and model)
2. The Tesoro Tejon
3. The Nautilus IIB

In my opinion, these are the best of the best.

The deepest of the 3 is the Nautilus but it has coil issues that can let you down right when you need the machine most. A good Nautilus properly balanced will beat all the others on non-silver objects by at least 2 inches (coil for coil size).

The best for silver is the Minelab product. Minelabs are at least 20 years ahead of the competition in smart target identification. But having written this I will also say their depth potential is greatly exaggerate. They are very deep--maybe just not as deep as commonly reported. Minelabs well learned will pull silver out of trash like the area was never hunted before. But alas, few have the patience to learn them.

The Tejon is closest in depth to the Nautilus IIB but with this one great advantage--it's rock solid dependable. I've dug small dime sized objects 10 inches deep with the Tejon. The depth in wet low mineral soil is beyond belief. The Tejon is greatly misunderstood today. It can fool you into thinking it's an easy machine to learn--it's not. One must set the machine to maximum sensitivity and learn to distinguish the good targets from the false signals. One must hunt very slowly and keep that coil close to the ground. The great signals are whispers the average ant couldn't hear. High quality headphones with excellent gain are essential.

Bottom line:

If old silver is your goal you can't beat Minelab.

If the copper alloys are most important then go with either the Nautilus or Tejon.

The Whites MXT with that sweet 12" inch coil is the unsung hero of our day. It's rates up there in depth with the DFX yet is easier to learn. The meter on the MXT is about as good as they come. The problem is weight and the depth isn't up with Nautilus and the Tejon. But still the MXT is deep and a great machine especially for those who want a meter. It makes the Tesoro DeLeon and Cortes look mighty poor in comparison. Tesoro really needs to upgrade their TID meters.

Got to get some work done.

Have a good one.

MB

 

[oneeye]

Thanks for the great detail Michigan Badger. I really like the performance of my MXT, but the weight is killing my bad shoulder. I have been doing a lot of research on the Tesoros and your information above helps. Thanks again.
Dan

 

[JOE(USA)]

I've owned at least 2 Tejons and I didn't sell them because of poor performance. I sold them because I like trying lots of brands and models and the hunting up in northern Michigan leave much to be desired.

If I lived in the south I'd own 3 machines and would never sell them:

1. The Minelab Sovereign GT or Explorer (and model)
2. The Tesoro Tejon
3. The Nautilus IIB

In my opinion, these are the best of the best.

The deepest of the 3 is the Nautilus but it has coil issues that can let you down right when you need the machine most. A good Nautilus properly balanced will beat all the others on non-silver objects by at least 2 inches (coil for coil size).

The best for silver is the Minelab product. Minelabs are at least 20 years ahead of the competition in smart target identification. But having written this I will also say their depth potential is greatly exaggerate. They are very deep--maybe just not as deep as commonly reported. Minelabs well learned will pull silver out of trash like the area was never hunted before. But alas, few have the patience to learn them.

The Tejon is closest in depth to the Nautilus IIB but with this one great advantage--it's rock solid dependable. I've dug small dime sized objects 10 inches deep with the Tejon. The depth in wet low mineral soil is beyond belief. The Tejon is greatly misunderstood today. It can fool you into thinking it's an easy machine to learn--it's not. One must set the machine to maximum sensitivity and learn to distinguish the good targets from the false signals. One must hunt very slowly and keep that coil close to the ground. The great signals are whispers the average ant couldn't hear. High quality headphones with excellent gain are essential.

Bottom line:

If old silver is your goal you can't beat Minelab.

If the copper alloys are most important then go with either the Nautilus or Tejon.

The Whites MXT with that sweet 12" inch coil is the unsung hero of our day. It's rates up there in depth with the DFX yet is easier to learn. The meter on the MXT is about as good as they come. The problem is weight and the depth isn't up with Nautilus and the Tejon. But still the MXT is deep and a great machine especially for those who want a meter. It makes the Tesoro DeLeon and Cortes look mighty poor in comparison. Tesoro really needs to upgrade their TID meters.

Got to get some work done.

Have a good one.

MB

Badger,

As always, that was an excellent post. I don't quite agree with your last paragraph, but it's O.K. to disagree right? I always look forward to reading what you have to say. NOW, we need the ground to thaw!
Joe

 

[Shenandoah Digger]

I'll agree with everything MB said about all the detectors except a few points. I live in the south, if you consider Virginia the south, and the Tejon in my ground often performs poorly. Sure all machines lose depth in highly mineralized ground, but the Tejon does worse than all the others I've encountered. In Culpeper at DIV, the Tejon would not find a Civil War bullet at two inches in disc mode, set just above iron. The IIb, although others have said it would not work in bad ground, was finding bullets that others were leaving behind. And it hit hard on targets the Tejon would not make a peep on. In moderate ground it has great depth, but in bad ground it's a poor performer. The IIb, T-2, and Xterra 70 destroy it in bad ground.

 

[Tnmountains]

let me requalify my question...the utube video showed the tejon hitting on a coin while simultaneously nulling out a large piece of iron right next to it...i haven't seen anything that could do this before

Hey bone
I am new here to t-net and have been reading all I can about metal detectors. I am in Chattanooga and have found many relics. I do not have the tejon but the conquistador a older machine. I can discriminate(on high) out grape shot (heavy metal)and hit silver?.The heavy metal will give that pfitzzz sound and the silver will beep hard as will brass and lead. It will not register a nickle though beside it ? I dig with a bayonet and its about a foot long.I often pull targets when to the hilt of my blade. Of course I want all that cannister shot. I was looking at the more expensive machines but think i will wait and dig some more relics this season then decide. Your soil has a little bit more clay than mine I think. Listen to the guys on here they are pros and I have learned a lot from them and that the older stuff and less expensive is sometimes just as good in the right hands.I look at a post of things I like to find/hunt and see what they are using. Relics in the south I see tesoro mentioned.Good luck and have fun. It warms up here and I will be swinging at the timber rattlers off my ole sites : )
P,s I like all that pfitzz sound too though !

tnmountains

 

[John (Ma)]

A lot of good information here and enjoyable reading. I now have the DFX and I have a feeling the Tejon will be in my arsenal by the end of this week. We will see. These natural relic hunts looks like alot of fun and I am new to relic hunting, so I have a long way to go. I thought about the Nautilis, but I like what the Tejon has to offer. Happy hunting!

 

[Shenandoah Digger]

I've got a Tejon and love it in spite of it's few faults. But in any ground, if you send out 10 experienced Nauty users and 10 experienced Tejon users, at the end of the day the Nauty users will come out way ahead. It's been proven in organized hunts time and time again. The Nautilus beats any machine for relic hunting, but you gotta know how to use it. Not your basic beep and dig, but not hard to learn either.