Tesoro Cortes
Price: $850
Avg. Score: 
4.21
Based on 24 reviews
4.21Based on 24 reviews
Avg. Durability:
4.67
Avg. Ease of use:
4.33
Cortes
March 27, 2005
it isnt very deep
Overall Rating
Jerry(Tx) from
South
14223
Cortes
October 12, 2004
After using a Garrett GTI-2500 for over a year, I
decided to buy a Tesoro Cortes. I bought the Cortes because I read that it
was very light and went
deeper than other detectors. Both are true. When I first used the Cortes, I
fell in love with it and put away
my Garrett.At first, I was worried by the manual ground balancing in all-metal mode. But I found that ground balancing the Cortes is extremely easy -- if you're having trouble, then you haven't read the instructions. It took me less than one minute to do and is much quicker to do than to explain. And it's not even necessary if you use the discrim mode!
It detects much deeper than the Garrett -- I was finding targets at over 9 inches deep (bear in mind that the Cortes will detect targets over 9 inches deep, but the Cortes' display stops at 9 inches depth). Even in trashy areas, the target display didn't jump around that much; I was able to identify good targets easily.
Pinpointing is also very easy; making an "X" over a target a couple times in all-metal mode almost always zeroes in on it. But what really amazed me was how well it performed under high-voltage wires. Power lines always interfere terribly with my GTI-2500, even with the sensitivity turned way down. But the Cortes was totally unaffected, even with the sensitivity maxed.
If Tesoro could make the Cortes any better, I would recommend that they put the headphone jack on the back of the battery pack (instead of the electronics housing), and make the discrim mode multi-tone (to match the 9-bar display).
Even without my suggested "improvements", the Cortes is an excellent value and a pleasure to use. I strongly recommend it to both beginning and experienced detectorists.
Overall Rating
Bill from
USA
1018
Tesoro Cortes
July 11, 2004
I returned my Cortes to the factory with some
problems. They replaced several switches and rebuilt the loop. It took
about 2 weeks, not bad. The only
cost was shipping. No questions asked. They stand behind their product.
Overall Rating
David haynes from
USA
388
Tesoro Cortes
April 11, 2003
I have owned a Tesoro Silver Saber that I
traded towards a White Eagle II. I really liked the Whites, but it was
getting to be 12 years old.I mainly
coin hunt lots, schools, fair grounds and such. I started finding nickels
when I got the whites. I liked the
number id and the depth read out. My shoulder has started to bother me and the Whites was quite heavy. I bought the Cortes off ebay about 6 months ago. I was happy with the price and sold the Whites to regain some of the cost.
1st - the cortes is very light, about 3lbs.
2nd - It seems to have good depth, I found a 1916 barber dime last week at about 9 to 10 inches. 3rd - it has notch, but I don't use it much.
The down sides.
1st - I don't like the number id as well as with the Whites. Everything good reads as a 95 then you have to look at a bar graph to try to tell what the find is. The graph is hard to read and jumps around alot.
2nd - it does not use rechargable battery packs. 3rd - I still do not know if I have the ground balance correct.
4th - I have trouble sometimes pinpointing with the concentric coil.
I am trying to get use to the Cortes, I do like the weight, but sometimes I think about getting a White xlt e series. I liked the White id range better.
Overall Rating
David Haynes from
USA
8617