Tesoro Metal Detectors & 3D Unmasking

Before I start this blog I'd like to point out that "testing" videos have run their course for me, I'm really tired of the bullshit that comes with them because there's always a group of people that have to try to prove that what I'm showing is "set up" or wrong. 

What I want to cover in this blog are a few subjects but mainly the effectiveness of Tesoro's when it comes to 3D unmasking. I've made it pretty clear in the past that any test above ground has to be taken with a pinch of salt because we can't recreate real in ground conditions. BUT ... you do get machines that perform better in the ground than in air, and visa-versa. For instance Nexus performs better in the ground than in air and I also believe Tesoro's and a number of my other analog machines do as well.

How Did I Come To This Conclusion?

Just like Nexus, when I hunt with my Tesoro's and some of my other machines, they give, usually on smaller items, a stronger signal response when a target is detected in the ground compared to when I wave the same target in front of the coil in air. How Do I Know This? Simple, on my videos when I'm hunting the river, once I've dug a target I nearly always wave it in front of the coil. Over a long period of time I started to see a distinct pattern, there's actually been a few really small targets that were detected in the dirt that weren't detected in the air at all.

So how does this translate into a machines ability to unmask in the ground? this is obviously a really hard question to answer. But I would hazard a guess that if target detection is better in the ground then they'll probably unmask better in the ground and I've seen many examples of this. For starters there are certain 'above ground' iron configurations that Tesoro's don't do well in. For instance, when you raise a nail to a certain height on the edge of where a coin is positioned on the ground. Most of my Tesoro's fail in this test .. but I've found countless deeper targets in the ground that were below an iron nail sitting literally at the same position as the test that I've described above.

Below is a video showing the Tesoro Lobo Super-Traq performing very well in the masking configuration I've described above.

It was only the other day on the river I dug a small pistol ball at about 3.5 inches with large ferrous trash just off to one side of where the pistol ball was located. Surely if I was to go on the 'above ground' test results the machine should've missed this target, but it didn't and it hit on it hard. I've explained that in these situations you need to understand the audio of your detector, would someone else have walked passed this signal response? I think this depends if 'said person' has really taken the time to understand their machine. Even if it's a fairly easy machine to operate, the language element is what has to be mastered and that can be difficult, it's here where the art lies for me, there is an art in understanding. 

Because nowadays vast amounts of people want everything given to them on a plate with the least amount of effort. Those that slammed Tesoro's performance probably didn't apply their mind to really understand what the machines were telling them, they might look like toys but they certainly don't perform like toys. I only have to read some of the forums to see which way the wind is blowing, people want algorithms to do the thinking for them, they don't want to dig trash, they only want to dig the treasure, they want the exact depth reading on the screen, they want to know when they have gold ... blah blah fucking blah. I hate to break it to you but if you only want to dig treasure you're in the wrong hobby and if you want your machine to do all the thinking, not only will you be walking over good targets. You've really missed the ART that is metal detecting. 

Ladies & Gentleman The Future Is Bleak - The Future Is Automated

There are no guarantees in this hobby and no machine can provide them for you. But .... alas we're living in an age where people rely on machines more than they rely on themselves. This creates a world and a society of non thinkers, this has been witnessed over recent years. Does anyone remember during the covid bullshit where people waited outside a shop for a red light to turn green so they could go and do their shopping?. - think about that for a minute and now move that over to metal detecting .. "I don't dig 48s mate, it's always trash" move that over in to navigation "Which way do we go?, I don't know, the SAT-NAV has stopped working". etc etc etc.

Back On Subject, I recently made a video showing my Tesoro Silver Sabre hitting a smallish sliver coin underneath two rather large nails. I conduct the same test with my Troy Shadow 'video below'. What I tried to do here was recreate a scenario that I tend to come across quite regularly on the Thames here in London UK. Those that have watched the video will know that both machines do quite well, for me this demonstrates the potential that Tesoro machines have when it comes to unmasking. Is the machine emitting loads of cool polyphonic tones with 2D and XY screens flashing whilst handles are vibrating? No in the language of Tesoro it was giving enough of a target response for me to stop and investigate a potential masked target. There were no amusements to add a cool theatrical mood to what was going on and because of that it doesn't come across quite as impressive as digital machines with better sound quality and speakers that can make you believe those detectors can hit that target harder.

Moving On

In regards to digital detecting and above ground testing I've written a blog about it here Do Above Ground Tests Hinder 'in ground' Performance. I think digital machines are tuned to perform well in all these stupid above ground tests and with the way social media is, manufacturers need to be producing machines that pass all the dumb tests that these self-appointed experts come up with.  Why? because if they don't it can make their detector look crap, however .... we really don't know if these above ground tests actually have any benefit to in ground performance. All the experts on YouTube and the forums can "wax lyrical" about it forever but the fact is, we don't know how above ground performance translates into in ground performance. The ground and the dirt is a very very complicated aspect that many people don't seem to understand, through my eyes performance is being inverted, above ground = GOOD, in ground = AVERAGE. It's definitely the case when it comes to depth with digital detectors so how do we know it isn't the same with unmasking.

"In air my Equinox 800 and Legend both pick up targets at crazy depths, but the simple fact is, they get nowhere near those depths on the same targets in the ground"

The only other set of machines that perform in the ground better than they do in air are Nexus and there's plenty of examples of this online. Why can't the digital machines go as deep in the ground as they can in air? - answers on a postcard please. 

So to conclude this blog, I have no interest in above ground tests anymore, for me they're pretty pointless and to be honest they're really boring to me. All they really do is give the twats ammunition to shout their mouths off and then I find myself getting into childish arguments. I have far too many important things going on in my life to waste my time on the bullshit that, in the scheme of things, is utterly irrelevant. I don't have a 'mass-produced' state of mind, what I mean by this is, I love all my detectors, however new, old or obsolete they are and I love using them. To me that's all that matters and I'd rather spend my time out on the river or in the fields actually metal detecting because that's where it's at for me, it's in those environments where you really start to understand the capabilities of the machines that you have in your hands. You really learn nothing listening to a load of white noise on the internet where it would appear the clowns have the loudest voices.