Tesoro Bandido II uMax
Price: $450
Avg. Score: 
4.6
Based on 10 reviews
4.6Based on 10 reviews
Avg. Durability:
4.50
Avg. Ease of use:
4.50
Oldie but a goodie
October 02, 2015
This is a lightweight power house. Very good target separation and great
sensitivity. No screen means you dig more targets, junk and good stuff. So
not a great machine for recon work, more a clean up machine. The sound is
very aggressive so make sure you have headphones with volume control.
Ground balancing is easy. Only dislike is the loud long start up tone.
Max Depth: 9 inches on US quarter
Overall Rating
Durability
Ease of Use
Would you recommend this to a new user?
Yes, absolutely!
Gone Beepin from
Sth Australia
208
This is a man's detector
November 28, 2013
I bought my Bandido II uMax based on comments I've seen by others. It is a
joy to swing. When you swing it over a coin the tone rolls a soft bell
curve. I got it and swung it over a few targets at home, hit the field with
it and the very first target I said that's a coin. Wheat penny. It's just
like that. Identifying trash is as easy as telling the difference between a
song on good vinyl, and scratched up vinyl. For those of you who have never
listed to a vinyl record I mean it won't be a soft tone that tapers up and
down in volume nicely, it will sound like a scratchy crappy broken tone.
Properly ground balanced running the 10" donut coil in discriminate mode I was touching 9 inch clad quarters on re-graded/sodded parks. It probably goes deeper because those hits were load and clear. The only reason I sold it was because I wanted to invest my time in my E-Trac, and preferred that someone else enjoy the detector instead of rotting in my closet. I realize now that was a mistake.
Now, you can get the 12"x10" Widescan coil in 5-pin uMax. I feel like an idiot for selling mine.
Max Depth: 10 inches on US quarter
Overall Rating
Durability
Ease of Use
Would you recommend this to a new user?
Yes, absolutely!
Fairway from
America
313
Tesoro Bandido II uMax Loves Nickels!
December 27, 2011
I finally got to take the Bandido out for its first test run today. I got
in about 3 hours of detecting. It was really hot and the ground was like
cement. After I ground balanced the detector, I set the discrimination on
'2', the sensitivity on '10' and the threshold at the 3:00 o'clock position
and started swinging. I found 26 quarters, 31 dimes, 29 nickels and 18 pennies. At first I was thumbing the discrimination knob before I dug to see how well the Bandido's discrimination worked. It was spot on. After that I started digging all good beeps without checking.
The Bandido II uMax hits super hard on really small targets and nickels. If small gold jewelry is around it will have no trouble at all finding it.
Pinpointing in the discrimination mode is precise and lighting fast. The 'high' tone that the Bandido makes is really pleasing to the ear.
Near the end of the test run, I found a bent rusty nail (12p) in the same hole with a quarter. I threw the nail on the ground and ran the coil over it. The Bandido didn't make a sound.
I then turned the discrimination from "2" to "0" and the rusty bent nail gave out a very slight crackling sound.
Then I remembered reading that Monte wrote about the Bandido having 120 degree discrimination and would discriminate out a nail at a "0" discrimination setting.
I wished that I had used "0" discrimination setting during the test run. I'll do that next time.
I tested the Bandido II uMax before I left the house with a really small thin 14k gold ring to see where it would discriminate out. It discriminated out just past "3" on the discrimination dial.
No nails, smooth running and can still detect really small gold jewelry. Now that's really amazing. It doesn't get much better than that!
I took the Tesoro Bandido II uMax out for another test run today. I really like this detector! I set the discrimination at "0", the threshold at the 3 o'clock position and the sensitivity at "10". I found some more coins (61), including a bunch of nickels (17).
The ground was so hard and dry that I quit digging the deep signals. I was doing my very best to find some gold jewelry, but all I could come up with today was 92.5 silver ring. It was only about 2 inches deep.
I just can't believe how hard the Bandido hits on nickels and gold rings. I never found this many nickels before. Not even close!
That tells me that it will do great finding gold jewelry. I've got to do my part and put the coil near some gold jewelry.
I've found 65 nickels in three days with the Tesoro Bandido II uMax. Gold jewelry is on the menu. I'm running zero discrimination.
Day 4 - 12 quarters, 22 dimes, 14 nickels and 14 pennies. That's a grand total of 72 quarters, 74 dimes, 79 nickels, 83 pennies and 1 silver ring in 4 days.
I used the same settings for all 4 days except for the first day. I just can't get over how many nickels I'm finding with the Tesoro Bandido II uMax. Its hitting them super hard.
I really like this detector a lot!
Tesoro Rocks!!!!!!!!
Overall Rating
Gerald from
West Tennessee
5810
Best Tesoro Ever
December 14, 2010
"I have had this detector for 2 yrs. It reliably locates objects to a
total dephth of 5 inches, if that tells you anything"Yes it tells everyone that you don't know what ground balance is.
Why did I ever sell mine!
Overall Rating
AM MAN from
Texas
4217
The best
November 02, 2010
I have owned the Bandido now for 12 yrs. No it doesn't have all the bells
and whistles and that's fine by me. You do have to ground balance which is
quite simple when you read the manual. I have gone back to places that I hunted with top of the line detectors and couldn't find any more targets even after gridding. The Bandido made it look like new hunting grounds.
It goes deep and picks up the smallest targets. Runs what feels like forever on a 9 volt battery. I can't say what it does on the beach because I live inland and have not had an opportunity. I have hunted many rivers and lakes and the weighted coil is a plus.
This detector is bullet proof, very light weight, and I can swing it all day!
Overall Rating
Richard from
North Carolina
423
Bring the Bandito back
December 22, 2009
I know its been discontinued but this was one of the deepest most sensitive
detectors for finding small targets. The only downside was that you needed to learn how to operate the ground balance and audio threshold controls to get maximum results its not a turn on and go machine which seems to be the trend.
If you can find any of these left for less than $400 in good condition better get it while you can.
Overall Rating
Gary Whalen from
Fort Worth
424
Bandido is great
October 31, 2007
Had this for many years no problems !!!
Overall Rating
Ray from
Eastern Pa.
3713
Best Tesoro ever made!
May 27, 2007
I've had and have a lot of detectors but this ones my favorite, it loves
small gold and is very sensitive, it's also deep, i can detect a silver
1964 dime at 8 inches, with the optional 10x12 spoke coil it's my number
one salt water beach detector, it's very easy to ground balance and stable
in the wet sand, and deep! bring a shovel, no kidding. To me the features
are perfect, pinpointing is super easy too! using the x method, The stock
brown coil is weighted, very nice when hunting in the shallows where
regular coils tend to float, although it makes the detector a little off
balance. The all metal mode with Retune feature is great, in this mode the
detector nulls out when getting closer to your target, this is also a good
way to pinpoint your target and works good on very deep targets. I get a
weeks worth of hunting on one 9volt battery! very nice! if you can find one
of these buy it! they range in price from 200 dollars on ebay to 350 in
stores used. Tesoro really did their homework with this one! I love it!!!
Overall Rating
Ron Lambert from
Mechanic Falls, Maine. USA.
566
My Results
January 03, 2005
I have had this detector for 2 yrs. It reliably
locates objects to a total dephth of 5 inches, if that tells you anything
Overall Rating
Ozark me from
Missouri
2794
Bandido II uMax
February 15, 2004
This is a good detector, and it's what I
currently use. I've had it about 1 year, and bought it used on eBay. I did
have a short in the coil, which
Tesoro promptly serviced for me. This detector takes quite a bit of time
and practice to get used to, as
it's a single-tone discriminator. It's the only detector that I've found
gold with, but you've gotta be willing
to dig the pulltabs. With all my detectors, the 4" coil is a must-have accessory, as the stock coil is only used at the beach. I also use the widescan coil, while expensive, can work great in the right conditions.
Overall Rating
Brian Gilbert from
USA
8714