Tesoro Tejon - back to the dark side!

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Goldpick

Chris Johnson
Joined
Nov 7, 2013
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Location
Mount Gambier
After selling my GMT, I thought it would a good idea to head back to the dark side again and purchase a Tesoro Tejon (sort of miss my Vaquero). I did look at the Cibola originally, but thought I may as well get a Tesoro with the whole box and dice, and something that would go deep, especially with ground balancing ability. Ended up getting one from the US second hand in near new condition, and saved about $300 in the process. :)

It will be interesting to go back and hit the spots detected with explorer, especially after seeing that the Tejon can go deeper than both the Fisher CZ3D, and CTX3030.

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Nice work. I've got a Bandido II max on the way.

What I've read about the Tejon is that an iron spit and a faint deep signal can sound the same, but the gurus claim that with good headphones they can definitely hear the difference. Be interested to hear your thoughts after you've used it in Aussie soils.
 
Thanks Nenad, always had a bit of a soft spot for tesoros, good reliable and well built detectors. You only have to see how many older units that are out there to see how well they stand the test of time. My previous Vaquero was a beaut little detector, and worked well as a deep coin machine, pity I had to sell it due to financial issues at the time. Another huge advantage of the Tesoros is their weight, or lack of.

I mentioned the cz3d and 3030 after seeing a guy on youtube progressively detecting out an area with the three detectors, cherry picking with the 3030 from surface, cleaning up deeper coins with the cz3d, and mopping up anything deeper with the Tejon.

The Bandido 2 looks like a nice detector, what are you mainly using it for, general coin popping duties, or is it just something you've always wanted to give a go? :)
 
I've never personally owned one, but have played with many different models over the years. Always admired the no fuss approach and build quality of the Tesoros.
Most of my general coin detecting/park work is cherry picking. Often turning up the disc quite high and just digging the better stuff. For this I'm using my X-Terra 70 with stock coil. Just curious to see how the old Bandido handles this task, and really just want to play with something different. Having a manual GB was a must have - a lot of the areas east of the city are very mineralised!
 
Sounds about right, I've seen most US owners running the large DD versus the stock concentric. Might once again look at a NEL DD in the future, considering how good the little NEL Sharpshooter was on on the Vaquero. The Sharpshooter still managed to get excellent depth, but the best gains were in target separation, and easier pinpointing, plus they don't cost the earth. :)
 
Getting pretty excited about receiving my Tejon, should be here tomorrow with some luck. Will be interesting to see how it copes amongst a lot of iron
targets, something that can be a bit frustrating at times with constant nulling on the Explorer.

Nenad, have you received your Bandido yet?
 
The Tejon rocked up this arvo, and am very keen to get out and have swing. So light after lugging the Explorer around, feels even ligher than my Ace 250. :)

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Fitted out with torch, under chin headphones (thx Sandta), and control box cover.

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Goldpick said:
Getting pretty excited about receiving my Tejon, should be here tomorrow with some luck. Will be interesting to see how it copes amongst a lot of iron
targets, something that can be a bit frustrating at times with constant nulling on the Explorer.

Nenad, have you received your Bandido yet?

Arrived in the post today, but I haven't even opened the box.
 
I'd be ripping it out of the box like a kid at Christmas time! ;) Took the Tejon out tonight, it was certainly a lot more "lively" than the Vaquero, lots of pops, splutters and farts. Was good fun all the same, got a few coins & other interesting gear. :)
 
Well I pulled it out, wow, so light, smaller than I can remember, and looks like it has hardly been used. Will be giving it a spin today. I showed the wife and she said "Oh cute, looks like a mini real detector" haha
 
They certainly are light detectors, sort of expected the Tejon to weigh a bit with the twin battery packs, especially after having used the Vaquero, but it is like waving a feather duster around. Very good on batteries too, still using the ones sent with the detector from the US after 3 lengthy hunts. Jury is still out on the stock concentric coil, think I would prefer a DD for pinpointing and improved target separation. :)
 
Love the pin-pointing on the stock donut coil. Smack bang in the middle. Here's what I got first go at a local oval.

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Definitely need headphones with a volume control (so you can turn it down), as it hits HARD!
 
Shameless plug there for the Sunrays Nenad, nice looking headset, very comfy I gather? ;) The Bandido doesn't look like it has done a days work in its life, that was a good score.

Still getting used to the pinpointing on the concentric, but quite honestly, the response is that quick that it is relatively easy to pinpoint without flicking over to VCO. :)
 
Haha, my motto is I sell what I use. I tried my Technics on the Bandido and nearly blew my head off! The Sunrays are the only phones I have with volume control so they are the permanent mate to the tesoro. Yes they are very comfy. The padding is soft but thick, so the speaker drivers dont sit on your ears.

They have been a godsend using my Sov or CTX on the shoreline as they block out the wind and wave noise.
 
Hello Goldpick,

I always liked the design of the Tejon. The underarm battery pack provides needed balance that makes the unit less strain to use than lighter detectors that lack such balance, like your G2 or Ace for example.

The Tejon is a very hot unit so I am wondering how it is working out for you? The same issue pops up repeatedly - hot units that work well in the US but then because they are so hot suffer in Oz. I am not talking just hot as in frequency but hot as in high gain circuits. My suspicion is that the unit would have trouble on your bad ground, especially since it has a very touchy ground balance control. Just curious.

Like you my last Tesoro was a Vaquero and I have owned several Lobos. Never actually owned a Tejon myself but had a buddy with one.
 
Almost impossible to ground balance on the goldfields and very chirpy the funny thing is, i can run the vaquero on the hottest ground and it doesn't make a noise
In dead quiet ground the tejon comes into its own and can go very deep but out of all the tesoro range i wouldn't recommend the tejon for a beginner
 
the duck said:
Almost impossible to ground balance on the goldfields and very chirpy the funny thing is, i can run the vaquero on the hottest ground and it doesn't make a noise
In dead quiet ground the tejon comes into its own and can go very deep but out of all the tesoro range i wouldn't recommend the tejon for a beginner

Thanks for the reply duck. Not surprising - the Tejon is a finely tuned sports car. Not really made for off road (outback) use but shines on the freeways.
 
Hi Steve, still getting used to the Tejon, I tend to rotate between the Explorer SE Pro, Teknetics G2 and the Tejon, depending on the site and junk/iron density. So far I have had no issues at all with the Tejon with regards to urban detecting, it ground balances just fine everywhere I've used it so far, only requiring the odd adjustment on the run. I am currently running it on about 7 on the sensitivity side of things, with no apparent stability issues.

I don't really do much gold detecting these days, so the Tejon won't be heading to the goldfields any time soon, so that won't be an issue.

After using the Explorer for a fair while now (my poor hand!), it's a bit of a relief to use the Tejon being so light. As you mentioned, I really like the balance of the whole detector thanks to the positioning of the rear battery pack housing, even though it does look like a bit of an afterthought. :)
 

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