Tesoro Vaquero
Price: $550
Avg. Score: 
4.39
Based on 77 reviews
4.39Based on 77 reviews
Avg. Durability:
3.84
Avg. Ease of use:
4.28
Very Light
March 18, 2009
Well I like Tosoro Metal Detectors and I have 3 now!Sting Ray, Tiger Shark, Vaquero, anyway, I wanted something light, I had a Fisher CZ 7 Pro, it was okay but your arm sure would tire out! Vaquero is sort of like my Sting ray, it gives a good beep when there is something solid in the ground. I Set it up so I can detect any kind of rings, sure you find pull tabs and other metal objects but when you dig up that Gold ring you will be happy!
Only thing I don't care for is the pin point, it wants to fade not soild on pin point but you will learn with it as you go! Happy Hunting!
Overall Rating
Greg from
Minnesota
144
A few comments.
March 16, 2009
I am still learning my "V". Have been out about 15 hours with it. Have the
clean sweep coil, and a 5.75" .The clean sweep goes negative, and(I think)
you will lose depth when you can't Ground Balance..Out 7 times this year,
about an hour each time, and have 6 dimes(silver)in a hunted out park. I
think I will buy another "V" as a spare..Very good machine
Overall Rating
Nad from
Central, central OHio
125
Best of the HOT detectors
March 05, 2009
I've owned the Cibola, Vaquero, and Tejon since they hit the market. All
are great machines, but the Vaquero is a much better all around performer.
The Cibola suffers from a preset ground balance which can't be adjusted for
bad ground. The Tejon, although deeper than the Cibola or Vaquero, loses
much of its' depth in highly mineralized ground. The Vaquero's performance
remains steady in almost any ground, losing very little depth in bad
ground.Everyone knows it's light and runs on a single 9 volt battery, but it's a lot tougher than it looks, and it really does have great depth, air testing not far behind the Tejon. I am not fond of the pinpoint button, wishing Tesoro had made it a click on and off button so you could hunt in all metal if you wanted to without moving the disc dial. Also, hunting in disc cuts out some small iron even if you set it at its' lowest point. But that's not entirely a bad thing, unless you want to hear everything that's in the ground. As a relic machine the Vaquero will stand up to about anything on the market, and at $420 or so it really is a steal. It hits hard on deep coins too, but as a die hard relic hunter, I rarely coin hunt.
Overall Rating
John Samsky from
Manassas, Virginia
284
Great detector
February 01, 2009
I have owned my Vaquero for nearly 3 years now and still love it. I started
out with the Cibola and it was a great machine also, but I wanted the
ground balance capability. Being relatively new to the hobby it did take
some patience to learn the machine but was well worth the effort for me. I
see a lot of people unhappy with the pinpoint feature but I will say that
after I realized how to use it I have found it very accurate. I can usually
find a coin with a probe at 5-6 inches deep easily after using the
pinpoint. I have used this detector to find hundreds of coins and many civil war relics. The light weight and one 9v battery are both added plusses to me. Before I had the Cibola or Vaquero I was using a target ID machine and found lots of coins but quickly realized it was not a machine for relic hunting (I like to do both). I am sure that I passed over some goodies with that machine but was relying to much on the target ID instead of the signal. I have not seen another detector out there yet that I would prefer over my Vaquero. If you have the patience to learn this machine I don't think you will have any regrets, and if you are new to the hobby it will take some time, but for me it was all fun time well spent.
Happy Hunting
Overall Rating
S Byars from
Corinth, MS
364
Still ?ing
January 09, 2009
Well I've been detecting now for a while.Had many machines. When I ordered
my tesoro V,I thought this might be the one. Reading all these great
reveiws on it...The plus side-Light weight.
1 nine volt.
Ground balance..
Negatives-Cant see all the depth this thing air tests out to.
Don't find much...
Supposed to be good in trash.I can run full sensitivity in trash ground and its quiet?.They need to go back and install a real pinpoint.
Looking at this machine, its got just about everything I want, but just don't find a lot. I ran the tesoro for a couple of months on and off. Broke my 1236 out, and ran same areas. Got more coins in an hour than I did in a week with the tesoro. Maybe its trashy areas? I'm not sure. Gonna give it another test this year coming. If it don't pull..It's gotta go...I'm not going to give this a low rating yet, because of possible human error...
Overall Rating
Brian Feras from
Flint,Michigan
1275
Awesome Detector
August 06, 2008
I bought my Vaquero a couple of years ago. I love it! First find was a
clad dime buried on edge at 7 inches. It rang as if it was on the surface.
The ED-180 discrimination is Awesome! I put the Vaquero up against my
Whites DFX and the Vaquero destroyed it! I sold my DFX and now I am a
proud owner of the Tesoro Vaquero. If you are looking for a DEEP machine
that is easy to set-up, then go with the Vaquero. The lifetime warranty is
the best in the business.
Overall Rating
Brandon Marshall from
Baker City, Oregon
334
Very good detector
May 21, 2008
I bought my Vaquero right at the end of March of 08. I went hunting with
it the first time and found silver. A very small back to an earring. I knew
when I saw that tiny silver, I had a great detector. Since that day I have done very well with this sweet detector. I found my 1st gold with it. A very nice 21k gold ring in a tot lot of all places. In a span of 3 weeks I found my 1st Buffalo Nickle, a nice 1942 Quarter, a 1940 Dime and my favorite find a 1937 Walker Half dollar.
The Vaquero is so nice and light, and easy to use, I really enjoy hunting with it. It will be a part of my hunting for a long time to come.
Overall Rating
Beale Carter from
Burlington NC
265
Best Detector I Own!
March 02, 2008
The Vaquero is the best detector I own now. I also own a Garrett GTI 1500,
Ace 250, and Bounty Hunter Quickdraw II. Pro's- Light
One 9volt Battery That Lasts
DEEEEEP!
Easy Manual Ground Balancing
Very Sensitive To Small Targets
No Confusing Treasure ID
True Threshold Based All Metal Mode
Great Discrimination
Frequency Shift
Supertuning=Two to Three Inches More Depth
Pinpoints Without Being In Pinpoint Mode
Cons- Knobs Can Be Moved If Bumped With Hand
The very first target I dug was a gold ring at an old school site. If I had been using my GTI, I would not have dug the ring because of it's ID as a pulltab. The depth is astonishing considering it only runs on one 9volt battery. The only problem is if I'm not careful, I can move the knobs by bumping them with my hand when picking up or putting down the detector. The only improvement I can think of is for the knobs to have notching instead of free turning. Did I mention this thing is DEEP? Deeper than my other detectors. I couldn't believe how much deeper it goes when supertuned. I don't even have to use the pinpoint button. The targets beep right in the middle of the "D" in the coil. I can even tell the size of the targets by moving the coil in short sweeps, forward and backward over them. I recommend this detector to everyone, newbie to pro.
Overall Rating
Jason H. from
East Texas
483
" Very Good detector but not that good "
November 11, 2007
I bought mine to replace a few older tesoro's and have been testing the
new Vaquero in my test garden against the Eldorado and the Bandido 11 umax
and the Tejon for the last 90 days, It is no deeper than the Bandido or the
Eldorado in my ground and its not even close to the Tejon as far as depth
or discrimination goes, I am selling mine and keeping the Eldorado , Its
still a very nice detector I like the Tesoro Brand have used for 15 yrs
just didn't see any major improvements orperformance over the model it replaced.
Overall Rating
Rick from
North Carolina
1131
Great all around machine
September 21, 2007
I love mine. I also have a cibola and the manual ground balance does make a
difference! I thought I hunted out my yard with the cibola and then went
over it with the vaquero and was finding a lot of stuff left behind. I went
out this morning to an area where three detectors had already been and
found three wheats.Of course I was listening to the lite signals and it
paid off. One was pretty deep also. I have not found any gold with mine
but it hits hard on my wedding ring. I have found 5 silver coins with it
and I have only had it for a couple of months and don't get to hunt to
often due to work and family. I really love this machine and have been
impressed with it.I have had many machines and this one has been my
faverite all around detector so far.Great machine for the price for sure.
Pros.. Very lite
uses one 9 volt Cons .single tone,no display
Really good depth
easy to ground balance
Loves small brass and copper
gets little interference from power lines
And the best of all,life time warranty
Overall Rating
Trent Nunley from
Minot AFB
242