Tesoro Bandido II uMax

Tesoro Bandido II uMax Loves Nickels!

Gerald in West Tennessee -
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!!!!!!!!

Dec 27, 2011

14 Yes
4 No

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Best Tesoro Ever

AM MAN in Texas -
"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!

Dec 14, 2010

13 Yes
8 No

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The best

Richard in North Carolina -
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!

Nov 02, 2010

13 Yes
0 No

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Bring the Bandito back

Gary Whalen in Fort Worth -
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.

Dec 22, 2009

14 Yes
1 No

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Bandido is great

Ray in Eastern Pa. -
Had this for many years no problems !!!

Oct 31, 2007

16 Yes
5 No

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Best Tesoro ever made!

Ron Lambert in Mechanic Falls, Maine. USA. -
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!!!

May 27, 2007

28 Yes
1 No

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My Results

ozark me in missouri -
I have had this detector for 2 yrs. It reliably locates objects to a total dephth of 5 inches, if that tells you anything

Jan 03, 2005

19 Yes
48 No

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Bandido II uMax

Brian Gilbert in USA -
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.

Feb 15, 2004

58 Yes
3 No

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