Tesoro Treasure Hunting Stories
I've used my detector several times for farm work finding lost tools,
glasses, and buried property markers. I've had to send my "old" Tesoro to
the factory for repair twice and can honestly say that they have been great.
I only wish there were a lot more companies like them around.
M. Randall
mbrandall@hcrec.com
I have just recently started metal detecting. I have a friend that
suggested the Tesoro Bandito uMax detector. After some practice at home I
went to a public park to try the detector out. After a couple of hours I
had found several coins and some other items. I was hunting at a
discrimination of 3 and then increasing the descrimination to check
targets. I recieved a good signal that faded just over 5 and dug down to
see what it was. To my surprise a class ring popped out. I was able to
trace it to the owner by the initials engraved inside the ring and was able
to return it to the owner who had lost it 26 years ago. The look on the
owners face was something I will not forget. I am sold on the Tesoro Bandido.
Ken Coplen
nek@lcc.net
One of my high-school football buddies got me into metal detecting. We
searched an old pasture in Bovina, MS on my grandmother's farm. Not much
searching turned up four unshot union civil war bullets. To my surprise, my
father bought me a Tesoro Cutlass II for Christmas. Boy was I ever excited.
On our 1st trip out, in the same pasture, we uncovered two unshot bullets,
and one that looked like it hit a tree. We also found a watch in the pasture
no more than an inch deep. Our farm hand Fred, told me my grandfather, who is
now deceased, gave him that watch more than twenty years ago, and it has been
in that pasture at least fifteen years. It was a special first find to say
the least.
Dave
Daveandliz@aol.com
I bought a Tesoro Bandido Umax about a month ago. I have taken it out a
few times trying to get familiar with the machine. Up until Mother's
Day the only stuff I have found is trash and some clad coinage and
Lincoln Memorial pennies. I was getting a little discouraged with my
finds until Mother's Day! I was in my back yard with my father showing
him my new toy. We found a 1964 nickel first. Then a few minutes later
we got a strong signal. When we dug it up it was a 1964 Kennedy Half
in pretty decent shape. The first silver strike! That first nice coin
is all it takes to get the enthusiasm going!
Rick Faldasz
rfaldasz@gis.net
About two months ago I purchased a Cutlass II UMAX from Lucille Bowen at
Bowen's Hideout in Spokane, Wa. I'd done my research and had already
decided the Cutlass II was the detector for me. Lucille was kind and
informative and I quickly placed my order with her. I might add that she
also beat any price I'd found on the net. Three days later my Cutlass II
was on my doorstep. The false signals drove me crazy at first but I soon
was able to determine what was junk and what was a coin. My coin hunting
has since improved tremendously! I'd previously searched my own yard
with an old Radio Shack detector and found nothing. So far I've
recovered 18 coins, including a 1914-S wheat cent. In a little over an
hour the other day I found 32 coins at our high school. I'm still
waiting for my first silver coin but I know it won't be long now. Thank
you Tesoro for making such a great detector! You've created a monster!
Scott Mikolajczyk
Scott@turbonet.com
My very first old find with a detector was an 1885 V nickel found at
only a half inch. It was found on a large rock under a bit of moss.
The nickel was very valuable & the machine I use is a Toltec II. For
coin shooting there is none better!
Randy Creech
Randycreech@webtv.net
I got my new Super Traq from Al's lunch time today. I assembled it
decieded to take it out into the back yard and give it a try. I've been
reading all the books so I got it all set up and started to sweep. I got
a fairly strong signal I thought a nail or pull tab but dug anyway to my
amazement out come a ring, wow talk about excitment, I decieded to go
over the hole again as the books state and recieved anthor signal anthor
dig anthor ring a silver one this time. I tried for three but the hole
only gave up 2. I brought them into the house and cleaned them up. The
first was a class ring, and I was able to indentfiy it as one of my
daughters friends she lost it 3 years ago and didn't know where, she sure
was excited when I called her. The other ring is really old and she says
it isn't hers I thought it was finding them together. I've never found
anything like this before. Watch out nuggets!!!!
Dennis Long
cmlong@ibm.net
With a borrowed Bandido uMAX my seven year old son found a gold ring that was lost for over thirtyone years. The ring was
returned to the owner, and the owner bought the Bandido. His first day out with the wonder detector he found a hand full of coins,
two toy cars, and a very old brass keg spout. All these finds came from one small grassy area infront of an old house. He's
hooked!
Terry
terryb@dewittec.net
Yes, it is always an enjoyable experience every time I get out to
detect. My TH'ing buddy & partner Donny just got a new unit, a Tesoro
Lobo and I took him out to one of my hunted out hunting sites to put it
thru the riggers of a test. Sure enough it came thru with flying colors
and it did exactly what I wanted to see it do. As we were popping out
the usual shallow surface coins that were recently dropped and
occasionally pop out older clad and copper coins at 4 to 6 inches, the
next thing I hear is Donny yelling out "Hi Ho Silver!" from across the
field. Seems he found a 1943P Silver War nickel at 8 inches deep. Now
how did I miss that? And I'm using a Fisher Quicksilver CZ5 too!
Anyway, he again finds silver after getting another new machine. I have
seen him do this on many occasions every time he purchases a new unit.
Good work Donny and if I'm ever in the market for a back up unit I will
definitely get the Lobo detector.
Barry Wainwright
goldcoin@bellatlantic.net
To say I am impressed with the Super Traq would be an understatement. I
have been swinging a detector for over 30 years and I have owned them
all. I have alway tried to stay abreast of the current technology,
which means I NOW own the best that Garret, White and Fisher has to
offer. (I did not consider Tesoro high tech.)
Back in the early 60's, detectors would only tell you whether a target
was metal or not. I thought that was wonderful. Then the
discriminators hit the market but would only indicate "good or bad".
All you knew was the target was good metal. I thought I was in "hogs
heaven." I found a lot, I mean a whole lot of treasure. As time
progressed, the detectors became more sophisticated. Now, they will
tell you what it is, how wide it is, and how deep it is. Well, that is
partially true. THEY TELL YOU WHAT THEY THINK IT IS. There's the rub.
We have gotten to the point that we are believing what those high tech
detector say. I am the perfect example of that. It seems that the more
advanced the detector, the fewer finds I make. I guess I have gotten
lazy and want to believe the detector is correct. That's easy to do.
After all, I spent big bucks on the machine, so why wouldn't it be
accurate? Well they are not accurate all the time. It's that "not all
the time" that bothers me. I hate to think what I have left in the
ground over the past years. That brings me to the Lobo.
I am planning a trip to do some nugget hunting out west. I contacted
Arizona Al and he recommended the Lobo Super Traq. He praised it highly
and he seemed to be a straight forward guy - so I bought the detector.
Since it will be a few months before I get to the gold fields, I decided
to test run the Lobo and maybe find some coins. I went to a place that
I have hunted so many times with my other detectors, that I have worn
all the grass off just walking around the area. It is so trashy and
hunted out that I did not expect to find anything - my purpose was to
get a feel of the detector.
Was I surprised! I was there for 4 hours and found 1 barber dime, 3
mercury dimes and 4 Roosevelt dimes plus 1 silver quarter. (These are
old coins in Oklahoma). This does not include the clad coins I found.
I even found a silver heart shaped pin. I was shocked! My deepest
coin, the barber, was found in the 8 inch range. The area is pretty
trashy and the Lobo handled it very well. I found that I could tell
with very good accuracy the sound of a coin. It's just a different
sound. Also, by the strength of the signal, you can tell whether it is
deep or shallow. That's the very thing I paid those big bucks to get the
other high tech detectors to do! The thought hit me - maybe this was
just a fluke. Maybe, all the conditions were perfect to find coins and
this isn't that good of a detector. I have taken the detector out
everyday since then and I have not been disappointed. This detector is
just outstanding. I can hardly wait to see what it will do on nuggets.
Even if it does not work that well on nuggets, I would still buy it for
coin and jewerly hunting. I can hardly wait to take it to the beach
next summer.
You know, it is almost like hunting back in the "good old days" when you
dug all the signals and could hardly wait to find out what it was. I
really believe that is the secret to finding valuables - not looking at
a LCD display. This Lobo really put the excitement back in metal
detecting for me.
As some of you guys get older, you will discover that the weight of the
detector really becomes important - in fact, it may be the most
important feature of the detector. The Lobo scores 100% on weight. I
can swing it for hours. You can see I am really sold on Tesoro's new
detector. I would recommended it to anyone who would like a detector
that can do most all treasure hunting jobs.
Gordon Gibson
sgibson@swbell.net
I met a fellow named Ricardo on a metal detecting forum and he invited me
to see for myself the great hunting locations in Valencia, Spain he had
been writing about. We hunted the
beaches near Valencia and in a few hours I had found about 20.00 in
Spanish coins as well as a silver pendant. He took me to a Roman city
site and I found a Roman clothing fastener, and he found a couple of
Roman coins. We then went to a site occuppied by the Roman Legion as a
campsite, and I found a Roman bronze coin from before Ceasar.
Anyone interested in hunting in Spain for Roman coins and other
relics, or water hunting for jewelry should contact Ricardo at the
following addresses: e-mail ricardo.gasco@uv.es or write
him at
Ricardo Gasco Vano C/tres Forques N:60-15 C.P.46018 Valencia, Spain.
He can get reservations at nice beach side hotels, and provide
transport and all the detecting and sightseeing that you can handle.
Fred Burnisky
burnisky@ix.netcom.com
About six weeks ago I bought a new Cutlass uMax and have since been
repeatedly amazed at its performance. I'm primarily a coin shooter and
the Cutlass is about the best I've ever used. I've found that LCD's and all
those other bells and whistles only slow me down. With the Cutlass you can
set discrimination between 8 & 9 and dig nothing but coins all day long.
I've reworked private property with the Cutlass and found numerous coins
my other more elaborate detector missed.
I'd like to thank all the other Tesoro owners out there who went out of
their way to share their hunting / operating tips with me. It really
helped!
Brett Barney
barn@flash.net
On June 13,1997, Tesoro received a Diablo II from me with a damaged search coil.
Today, July 10, it was delivered prepaid to me via UPS with the following
comments:
resealed coil & new coil bottom
recalibrated unit
replaced battery leads
replaced 5532 IC
final test good
TOTAL......NC
Tesoro says,"After the sale it`s the service that counts!"
My detector is more sensitive than when new. Tested with the same nuggets.
You better believe I am a believer.
O. T. Mullinax
wb4clk@quicklink.net
After using another brand of detector for my 1st year in the hobby I was
getting very frustrated, not finding anything valuable. My friends all
hunted the same beach areas here in San Diego, Ca. They were finding
rings like crazy and I had yet to find my 1st ring (or any other object
worth more than 25 cents!) finally in desperation I traded my detector
for a Tesoro Bandido II.
WHAT A DIFFERENCE! In my 1st 3 months I have already found 3 gold rings
1 silver ring 1 14k necklace w/gold pendantand 3 times the coins.
I find the Bandido II rejects iron like nobodys business, this makes
digging targets a pleasure knowing that I won't find another rusty nail
when I dig! I foung 4 rings in 3 days! Tesoro rules Man!
Waida
waida@ix.netcom.com
I unpacked my new Cutlass uMax this afternoon and after 15 minutes had
dug 4 clad quarters, a dime, 3 pennies and about an equal number of
pulltabs and various junk alloys. (Dug really is isn't the proper word--It
was getting dark so I and ran both discrimination and sensitivity at
"10"--these were all surface finds). I realized I was misreading tones
when I dug the junk. The unit has a really "crisp" feel and if a signal is
non-repeatable at this level of discrimination, it's probably not a
coin--although two tabs in particular did great quarter imitations!
I'm looking forward to experimenting with the discrimination and
sensitivity tomorrow when I search the same area again. I would welcome
any comments / operating advice from other Cutlass uMax owners. I have
a feeling that this was a very wise purchase.
Brett Barney
barn@flash.net
I have been using a Toltec II for about a year and a half now. I started out
in the ballfields and parks digging a lot of clad coins until I got really
familiar with my detector. I'm now concentrating on old home sites. The
number of finds have dropped but the quality has improved. Best so far
this year is a 1895 barber quarter, 1864 indian head, and 1890 indian
head and numerous early Lincoln cents. This is a great hobby. I would
encourage anyone thinking about trying it to do it. Also Tesoro is by my
experience the best going for the money (yes I have tried others). Good
luck to everyone this summer.
Jeff Faldowski
faldo5@tusco.net
Having bought a house last August, today I found time to explore the yard with my Golden
Sabre Plus. I was reminded what a good coin machine I own. A signal produced a rusty
nail at three inches. Rechecking the hole produced another one. A couple of inches
deeper I recovered a memorial cent. Certainly not a big find, but it reminded me that
the folks at Tesoro build them to work in the dirt, without the expense of the useless
bells and whistles.
I have been a detectorist since 1975 and have owned many machines. Until something
better comes along I will stick to what works.
O. T. Mullinax
wb4clk@quicklink.net
After a treasue hunt I left my Bandido 2 in the back of my pickup truck. That
night we had a thunder storm. The following morning it dawned on me that
I had left my detector out in the storm all night. After pouring the water
out of the case, I relized there was no way it survived. I called Rusty up
at Tesoro and he told me no problem, just send it in and it will be covered
under the warrenty. He also stated that if we were having this same
conversation 10 years from now the circumstances would not change. I think
that is great customer service. To fix my dectector at no cost and it
being my goof up. I would recommend their detector to any one.
Steven Minor
cn4459@coastalnet.com
Recently I have been searching in the Wilderness and Chancellorsville
battlefield area and have made some very good recoveries with my Tesoro
stingray. One day while searching I got a hit and found a round musket
ball. In the same hole I found an 1854 silver seated liberty half dime
in excellant condition and also an 1859 Indian head cent piece. Hundreds
of bullets, a nice US puppy paw belt plate, eagle I buttons, a bayonet,
and assorted knapsack hooks have also been found with this detector.
This is a very good detector for relics on land or in water.
Don Weston
dewtmw@erols.com
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