Tesoro Cortes
Price: $850Based on 24 reviews
Avg. Durability: 4.67
Avg. Ease of use: 4.33
Cortes vs. Fisher f75
Overall Rating
Steve lemons from
Ringgold ga
224
Cortes Tesoro fussy detector
When it sound on a target even with discrimin any thing appear even rocks!!! I don't know if the machine is broke or it isn't good on the river side. But if the company doesn't do anything ( they suggest me to sell it and buy an other brand!!! I will have to say don't buy that machine no fun at all!!
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Denis Billy from
Québec city
1759
Tesoro Cortes
I was getting 6.5” on a dime in Disc mode and sensitivity set on 10; a quarter came in at 8” just barely. I didn't think that was all that good especially when you hear about Tesoro's ability to go deep. So I called Tesoro and talked to one of their Tec heads and was told that detectors can go out of tune over time and that since mine was rough handled I should send it in for a tune up. So I did and it came back with a clean bill of health.
Needless to say I still got the same results on my air test after getting it back from the shop. After 2 months of heavy use I would have to say the air test where proven accurate for where I hunt in mild soil.
The machine has many good points. The quality and workmanship are the best. I found that when there's a small piece of iron and a coin in the same hole it will sound off with a good tone and show a good target at the same time showing iron on the segments scale. I found that it will give you a TDI number of what it thinks the target is and by cross checking it with the segment graph it will tell you how confident it is in what it found. If it lights up 2, 3 or 4 segments that means it's not sure. I found you still need to dig any good repeatable sound.
I also liked the fact that the All Metal mode and Disc mode where a thumb switch away. I found I liked to hunt in A/M mode and throw the switch over into Disc mode to check a target. The machine is also light and can be swung all day with little fatigue.
What I don't like about is it doesn't have pin point feature. I never thought to check before buying it to see if it had a pin point feature; I guess I just assumed a detector in that price range would have one. Let me tell you it can be a challenge to pin point. It took a lot of practice before I got any good at it.
The sensitivity setting had very little affect on its depth either in the field or during air tests. I didn't find A/M mode to be any deeper than Disc mode.
Hunting even a moderately trashy area meant swinging very - very slow with the stock coil and Sens turned way down. If you didn't you would miss most targets.
The depth read out was so inaccurate after a while I wouldn't even look at it and would just go off the strength of the sound to determine the depth. Which lead me to wonder if the depth read out is so far off how accurate can the graph and ID numbers be. I never really found the SUM feature to be of any real help in ID'ing a target.
Overall I would say in today's market it's over priced and that a fair price should be in the $350 range.
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Hardy from
NW Ohio
3716
Tesoro best machine
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Bill bigfoot from
Seattle
553
Fine Detector
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David Mckee from
Pinson, Alabama
295
Great All-Around Detector
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Jim H. from
Ravenna Ohio
244
Great Detector.
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Jabbo from
Central Jersey
306
Cortes... super disc machine!!!
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Ivan from
Seattle WA
426
Best detector for coin/relic/cache shooting
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JimF from
Atlanta, GA
315
Cortes One of the best coin machine on the market
Pro's :
The Cortes is a very light unit at 2.9lbs even with the 8 AA batteries, its very well balanced. Add a 7" coil and its an all day hunter.
The depth is every bit as good or better then the CZ5, which I also use.
You have a wealth of information in the display.
such as target ID, depth battery level.
The sum mode is one of the best features of the Cortes to give you a better Idea of the target.
Also the needed ground balance when hunting in mineralized soil in all-metal.
Pinpointing is right on the money. It pinpoints better then most machines I have used. I'm usually within an inch of the target.
Con's:
Display could be a tad bigger, but its not a problem. Could transfer over to the 9 volt system such as the Golden Umax.
pinpoint button like on the Cibola or Vaquero would be a plus.
Multi target tone, like on the Golden Umax. Like 4 various tones. It has like 8 or 9 in the sum mode.
All in all, the Cortes is one of the best machines that Tesoro has ever made.
Overall Rating
Mtdoramike from
Central Florida
748