Tesoro Cibola
Price: $450
Avg. Score: 
4.73
Based on 81 reviews
4.73Based on 81 reviews
Avg. Durability:
5.00
Avg. Ease of use:
5.00
Cibola Review
October 31, 2005
The Cibola runs great at 7-8 on the sens or lower, the threshold works
great on depth at 2 o clock,the sens can go lower than 7
Overall Rating
Jeff Bernard from
Flint Michigan
139
Excellent first detector
October 23, 2005
After reading all the reviews and seeking advice from retailers I bought a
Cibola, my first detector, less than a month ago in the UK.Initially I thought it was a bit plastic, but now realise this is to keep down the weight.
I firstly tried the airtests, and it picked small copper coins up at a good 10" away. Impressive.
Testing it the first day in the garden, I found several interesting items from the previous occupants; a diecast toy car, a buckle, and four modern copper coins at depths of up to 12".
My first field test was on pasture which had alot of mineralised iron in the soil, so the pinpointing all metal mode was confused, but in discriminating mode it could still find objects accurately. I found a huge horseshoe at about 14", a Victorian brooch and several pieces of broken plough and lead. The machine was light, simple to understand and within a short time I started to get a feel for it. Big objects give wide signals, small objects give a small localised blip. Turning up the discrimination after a signal indicates the likely nature of the find, although larger bits of iron and circular finds such as horseshoes will always give a signal.
A session in a friends 15th century garden yielded some tiny Victorian brass buttons at about 8", and later I found an 1862 halfpenny at 12".
Today I bought a bigger spade as I've had to go alot deeper than I thought!.
It won't pinpoint over wet beach sand, but I find having got the hang of the machine that its so accurate in discriminating mode I don't seem to use the pinpointing much anyway, and still easily found objects on the wet sea sand.
The manufacturers 'supertuning' is I think unnecessary, it will perform very well in standard set-up to tiring digging depths.
Overall very pleased, not found anything of great value yet, but when I get the right site I think its up to the job, and seems good value.
Overall Rating
Chris Brewchorne from
Somerset, UK
710
One of the Best of the Best
September 15, 2005
I purchased the Cibola based on correspondences with Tom from Michigan (the
previous reviewer.)I wanted a machine that could sweep moderately quickly, has fast recovery times, was deep-seeking, discrimated well in trash or iron, and was light-weight.
The Cibola hit the bullseye in all these categories (not to mention it isn't a very expensive machine.)
It is the most immune to mineralization and RF interference when compared to my other detectors (the Excel ID, Quattro, Advantage, and Ace 250). Battery life is excellent too.
I can run the sensitivity all the way past 10 without a problem to get extreme depth. In the same soils I have to set my Excel ID and Quattro to 4 or 5 to prevent chattering.
This metal detector is as close to perfect as you can expect from a modern machine for general land use (coins, jewelry, and relics).
This Cibola really doesn't have glaring bad points, only a few minor weaknesses (and I emphasize the word MINOR.) It pinpoints well but I find I'm much more confident with the pin-pointing system on my Excel. On the Cibola, frequency increases as you close in on the target and then the sound disappears when you have centered the target. Often I wonder if I passed over the target when the sound vanishes.
You can easily detect nickels with this machine (a trait given to the CZ-5) but it is difficult to distinguish a penny from a dime however since it has no TID and both these coins discriminate out at about the same spot on the DISC knob.
Overall, I consider the Cibola the pinnacle of 21st century technology. It is a sleek, lightweight, deep-seeking, no fuss, trash-separating machine. I would give it a six-stars if I could.
Overall Rating
GT from
Western Washington
530
Preset vs Manual GB... C vs V
August 27, 2005
Unless you routinely hunt in high mineral areas where manual GB is a must,
or you have a need for the all-metal mode of the Vaquero, do not strike the
Cibola off your short list simply because it has factory preset GB.I tried a Vaquero and found myself constantly re-adjusting the GB every few feet in my mild ground conditions and it had a stupid slow sweep speed requirement.
The Cibola on the other hand gives great depth and sensitivity in MY ground without the fuss and is much more sweep speed tolerant on small low conductive items.
Can less be more? Depending on your requirements in a detector, Yes very definitely.
Overall Rating
Tom from
MI
581
Bullets
June 03, 2005
First day out found 34 bullets,plenty of depth especially, if you turn
threshold all the way up. Was using a garrett 2500,Wanted something
lighter. Great relic machine!
Overall Rating
Chris from
Va. usa
200
Cibola is it just hype
February 12, 2005
just purchased a cibola,had a rapier,the cibola blows it away,the cibola
even descrims HOTROCK,is much deeper seekin and still very light,cant be
beaten 4 the price.
Overall Rating
Wayne greenhill from
Uk
312
Different animal
January 23, 2005
I have used Tesoros for almost 15 years now and I can honestly state that
this is the pinnacle of their skills. It is very sensitive, very deep and
has the ability of locating targets close to iron as no detector on the
market has. I have tested it for approx. 1 1/2 hours on two "worked out"
sites and came up with a medieval ring and two hammered coins, one very
close to a rusty nail. I also tested it on a spoil heap with medieval soil
and found two small pewter badges, which gives an indication of the
machines ability to cope with very difficult mineralisation, but this is no
surprise because Tesoro has been the number one brand for these conditions
with no competition. So Tesoro keeps doing that and what is more: they
finally achieved a huge improvement while keeping its' strongest points:
superdiscrimination and ability to cope with mineralisation. Hands down for
them!Likes: weight, discrim, ability to find close to iron, sensitivity and depth (very)
dislikes: discrim at zero is not actually zero (it will still pick up small knives arrowheads etc!)
Overall Rating
Gilbert from
Belgium
362
Great Detector
December 27, 2004
This is a great detector. For the depth you
can't beat this detector for a great price.jandbdetectors.com
Overall Rating
Bucky from
Ringgold, Ga
157
Cibolo
December 10, 2004
This machine is great, It is deeper than an Fisher
Cz-5.
Overall Rating
Jerry(Tx) from
USA
129
Cbola
December 10, 2004
I like this machine but I'm a coin shooter and wish it
had target ID. I wish i would have waited and got a used one for 80-90.00
less.
Overall Rating
Sugar Shane from
South
924