Tesoro Vaquero vs Detech EDS Reacher as first detectors?

Hi All,

I've been trawling the net for info on different detectors and came across the Tesoro Vaquero and Detech EDS Reacher.

I'm looking at a detector for use mainly at beaches, parks here in WA - started out thinking about the X-Terra 505 and the Fisher F5.

I'm prepared for a learning curve and have reasonable amounts of patience to get to know the detector.

I like the fact that they've literally got knobs on them ;-) so from a usability/user interface perspective they appeal to me more.

They both appear straightforward to use...

What do people think?

The Detech is expensive - has anyone used one or have any comments?

Cheers,

Chris

Are you familiar with the expression "making a rod for your own back"? Both of your brand and model choices are little-known if not nonexistant here in Australia and whatever their merits on paper may be, the lack of local knowledge and dealer support would make either a pretty unpromising way to begin exploring the often confusing and sometimes challenging world of metal detecting.

Selection of a well-known and widely available brand/model, will mean that when the inevitable newbie questions arise, you have access to a community of experienced users who can provide advice and suggestions that will help make your progress up the initial learning curve as painless as possible. Personally I'd suggest restricting your selection to an Australian-marketed model from Minelab, Whites or Garrett, all of whom offer a range of models that would cover your needs. Although Minelab and Garrett offer the advantage of local dealers here in WA, Whites' distributor/dealer in Victoria is highly-regarded for their service and support.

If you're confident/brave enough, low mileage second-hand units are the cheapest entry point - plenty of people buy new, quickly lose interest and resell, often before flattening even the initial set of batteries. I believe that all of the above three brands have transferable warranties, provided the machine was first purchased through an official Australian dealer.

Id beg to differ i have 5 tesoros and would consider the vaquero one of the best detectors, i have used they are easy to learn and powerful and have a lifetime warranty
They are light well balanced and you can pinpoint very quickly
It has a great ground balance so it can be used in a variety of soil types but wont handle wet sand very well like most single frequency VLF detectors
Its easy to use and the discrimination is fantastic
If you need help in learning to use it im not going anywhere you can ask me when ever you want
Grubstake does make some valid points but when i walk out to go detecting thats the one that always ends up in my hand

The Vaquero should be great in parks and dry sand at the beach. If you're looking to do a lot of wet sand beach work, but want something simple, then the Minelab Safari is a good unit. Not as light as the Tesoro though.

Duck, have you tried the Vaquero, Cortes or Tejon with a widescan coil on the wet sand?

The cortes handles the salt the best, i have 9 different coils at the moment running the 3 by 18 coil cleaning up after events like carols by candleight i have Nel and and the standard 12 inch widescan which makes the tejon into a different beast, what i have noticed is when you change the coil it plays havoc with the discrimination settings, and it takes a while to get used to the nel and the the other coils dont get put on much,
The standard coils on the tesoros are great i can pinpoint down to the size of a threepence with the other coils its probably the size of a matchbox
I got sick of the falsing with the vlfs so i bought the sandshark i have to dig everything but who cares

Grubstake - thanks for your reply and I take your point about support for lesser known brands. I found both the Tesoro/Detech through Avon Valley Detecting & Prospecting here in WA. Not sure what their service is like but will email them to test the waters...

I've had a bit of a read of the manual so a few questions for The Duck, when using the Vaquero, can you / how do you distinguish between finds and their depth, size, metal type? Given it has one audio tone, I take it that the volume changes with size/depth? Does the sharpness/smoothness of the signal change with targets? Do you use the discrimination settings much to weed out junk?

Cheers,

Chris

The finds and the depth are indicated by the amount of volume soft repeatable whispers are deep, and loud are closer to the surface the discrimination is the key at around the 5 c mark you will get all coins and not crown seal caps the further you go the more things you can take out just past the tab mark is goodbye to most pull tabs but you will have lost 5c 10 c 20 c and some rings but will still get pre dec and 1 and 2 dollar coins you will also get aluminium screw caps but iron and nails etc are gone as well
To set up a tesoro you must have a test bed and mark what you discriminate out and put a little mark on the dial
Also the higher the discrim the less penetration you get but you can supertune it by setting sensitivity to 10 and turn the threshold up still it gets a little bit erratic this will give you and extra 2 to 3 inches depth