Learning Curve on a Tejon

[jhnbaker]

I talked with the people at Tesoro and they were concerned that my buying the Tejon might not be a good choice because I am a newbie and the learning curve maybe steep related to it's features. They reccommended the Vanquero however I am interested in getting into relics and the Vanquero is not as deep of a machine. What does everyone think Help!!!!!

....they are partially right, and the Tejon does go deeper, however, I don't believe that the learning curve is all that steep on the Tejon. As one who has used a Tesoro machine for over 28 years, and now uses both the Vaquero and the Tejon, I would recommend either.

Depth of targets, is usally dependent on where one is hunting, the type of soil there and how long the target has been in the ground. Both of the machines are "relic hunters supreme".

The Vaquero utilizes HOT "High Output Technology", or approximately 20% more output power through the transmit oscillator, to punch deeper than the average relic hunting machine. I have found very nice targets down to 9" - 10" even in our highly mineralized, western states soil. See photos attached.

The Tejon is a HOT "Higher Output Technology" machine, using another additional 22% transmit power to punch even deeper. It's common in the difficult soils of Virginia for instance, to make good finds at 12" - 14". However, the Tejon is so HOT, that it will be noisier (chatter back at you) than the Vaquero, and seem to be harder to ground balance as a result. Many experienced relic hunters love that extra power, and ask me to ship them the "noisiest Tejon" I have in stock, because they know it is putting out the most transmit power, the noisier it is.

The Tejon's extra noisy nature could frustrate a new user, but just remember, that chatter isn't from good targets, it's feed back from the soil's minerals due to the power being put in the ground. A good target will be repeatable, smooth, and hard to mistake. The Tejon also has a few more features than the Vaquero, thus a little more to learn, but nothing drastic!

Both machines are lightning fast in recovery speed from a bad target laying in close proximity to a good target. They will find good targets that others pass over, because their machines discriminate out the bad targets, and can't recover back in time to sound off on the good targets laying close to the bad.

Hope this helps some, see photos below!

Attachment 10952 - Tesoro Finds

Attachment 10953 - Vaquero Finds

Attachment 10954 - Vaquero Finds

Attachment 10955 - Vaquero Finds

Attachment 10956 - Tejon Finds

Attachment 10957 - Tejon Finds

Attachment 10958 - Tejon Finds

Attachment 10959 - Tejon Find

[John's Detectors]

Hi baker, the Tejon in my opinion isn't that hard to learn. I would suggest reading the manual several times and not be in a hurry. Don't let the dual discriminators bother you and the ground balancing is easy. When you ground balance it just be sure there are no metal objects in the spot of ground under your coil. Turn the GB control all the way counter clockwise and go to the all-metal mode. Also turn up the threshold control until you just start to hear the tone and it is stable while having the coil raised up about 8 inches above ground. Start raising and lowering the coil from 8" to 1 or 2 " above ground and start turning the Ground Balance control clockwise until the threshold tone stops changing and remains the same whether it is 8" or 2" above ground. Now you can go back to the discriminate mode and start hunting. Set your sensitivity control up as high as you can without getting any chatter. there maybe times when you will need to turn the sensitivity down quite a bit because of trash or really noisy ground. Ok baker I hope this is somewhat helpful and you have a very good detector in your hands. Happy hunting my friend and God Bless.

John Tomlinson,CET P=VI
John's Detectors
Blackwell,Tx.
Best Little Detector Shop in Texas!

[John's Detectors]

Also baker I forgot to tell you once you are comfortable with your Tejon get the 5.75" DD small coil from Tesoro. This a really cool small coil that works quite well on the Tejon. You will see it's real value in trashy or maybe even noisy ground. Ok baker CU later.

John Tomlinson,CET P=VI
John's Detectors
Blackwell,Tx.
Best Little Detector Shop in Texas!