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It is
called the Tesoro Tejon, pronounced Tehon, Tehan, Tejan...some just simply call it
the Animal.
I have been sitting on the fence with this new Tesoro machine, as reports are
far and few between. Original speculations were it was to be a new breed of Lobo
with added features. I would describe the Tesoro Tejon as a deep seeking relic
machine running at the Lobo frequency with no other Lobo characteristics
whatsoever, which may be good for the people who did not like squawk of the
Lobo, but not so good for us Lobo followers...perhaps....
I decided to keep an open mind and not compare it, just simply treat it as a new
machine in need of evaluation.
 
On
with the test
The first visit was on a favourite test site, a pasture field but now very quiet
and low in mineralisation, I found the Iron rejection to work very well and the
Tejon to be stable at a sensitivity setting of 10. I dug one piece of square
Iron which gave a good loud signal in disc 1 but slightly clipped in disc 2,
this confirmed the discrimination was set up
how I wanted.
I noticed
that the controls had very little resistance which easily allowed them to be
knocked out of position , why can't Tesoro simply put rubber of felt washers
underneath the pots at the factory, instead of the owner having to play around
with their new machine before even taking it out...come on Tesoro...moan over.
I found 2 air rifle pellets which gave a good 2 way signal, my fourth signal was
a very faint whisper, but disappeared when I moved 90 degrees, the pin point
sounded very short and quiet, I dug it to find a Tealby penny at around 8 inches
in depth.
 
Henry 11 Tealby Penny 1158-1180
My
search was cut short, because I had work commitments and I really wanted to sort
the switches out with some washers before I continued.
At this
point I have only been out with the Tejon for a handful of short detecting
sessions and it has already proved to be highly sensitive on small targets with very respectable
depths, I have dug so many air rifle pellets in my last 3 outings.
Sadly this is the
wrong time of year for detecting as everything is under crop, the weather is so
miserable, it gives you no incentive to leave the house. If this machine was
tested on a Roman site I would be showing some nice coins and artefacts for sure, but
alas I can only give my honest opinion on the sites available to me at the time
of testing.
Without doubt this is the top of the range Tesoro available on today's market,
it will take a little learning and has some interesting Quirks for
example...when passing over targets close to the surface, the machine gives the usual bleep then followed by an overload sound which lasted
for about 2 seconds.
I contacted Tesoro about this to check if it was normal they told me that this
was nothing to worry about it was normal on the Tejon due to the high amount of
power it was putting into the signal, treat this as a large target overload signal.
Summary
The main point I
would like to make about this machine is to get the discrimination set up
exactly how you want it, this may take 2 or 3 outings to fine tune it
for your fields, then when you have it how you want ,stick some blue tack on the
discrimination knobs, nail them, weld them, even remove them, because if they
move just a fraction either way it will throw the machine out, you will either
start to dig nails or the other way loose tiny targets and depth.
Bad points
The discrimination
is far to close at the lower end of the scale between iron and foil...great for
you American guys you have no wish to dig foil.
Here in the UK the foil rejection
point is where some of our best finds are made....Disc now sorted thanks to Pentechnics latest modification.
The name sucks at first but most people call it the Animal.
Good points
Good depth
Adjustable tone works well
Very light and well balanced
Like the colour all UK models are now
in Black
Yep I like it, a
good machine for all you Tesoro fans out there, not for the faint hearted, take
time to set it up, you will need to work slow with the Tejon and investigate the
faint tickles, for best performance run your Tejon so you can hear the Iron
clicking rather than try to make it silent.
The Tesoro Tejon will keep you busy on Roman and Medieval sites...
patience will be rewarded with this machine.
Marks
9/10...love it...
The
new Tesoro Tejon Pro an optional extra for the European metal detecting
market.
Excellent !! the pro upgrade is here...just what the doctor ordered
First of all I must
mention that the Pro Upgrade has no drilling involved, changes are made to the
internal components, the face plate looks exactly the same as the standard
Tesoro Tejon.
My first outing with the new Tesoro Tejon pro
was on a flat field ploughed and drilled ready for seeding the soil was still
very fluffy.
Roman occupation has been well documented in this area, this was also apparent
by the contamination on the field I was about to search.
I set the discrimination exactly to the iron position, the Ground balance fully
anti-clockwise until it clicked into the new 'fixed' position, sensitivity to
nearly full and started my search.
The Iron sound in my headphones gave a distinctive click and easily
identifiable, positive signals were clean and repeatable, at this point I won't
rant and rave about what I found as this is irrelevant to the test.
I dug
a nice collection of shotgun shells. 22 air rifle pellets were teasing me again
then at last a Sestersis, in poor condition but at very respectable depth, the
smaller Roman coins I recovered during my search gave a good response and were
easy to pin point without the use of the trigger, just simply X'ing the target
was perfectly adequate.
With the Tejon Pro's wider discrimination range it is possible to
reject coke and still locate a small hammered coin, which is virtually
impossible with any single frequency(s/f) machine. Without doubt the
PRO
UPGRADE,
has made the Tejon far more tractable for UK conditions.
Note : Now all Black UK Tejons have the wider discrimination range.
Large pieces of odd shaped Iron are always a bugger to reject, especially on pasture,
the Tesoro Tejon will give a positive signal as will most other machines, but
then sometimes it will omit an overload sound which is a longer be-ep, this is a
plus point and can be a real advantage when large Iron is present, also large
non-ferrous targets close to the surface will give this overload signal, so it
is up to the user to define whether to dig or not.
When using this machine on
grass I tend to investigate the quiet deep targets, anything loud and large in
pin point will normally be Iron or modern junk, another good tip for Iron
identification is to whip the coil quickly over the target and listen to the
audio change, you will hear a click at the end of the signal.
Trust the audio, if its slightly broken or loud its probably Iron, on very bad
sites lowering the sensitivity will help a lot, you cant run this machine hot
all the time, sometimes you need to compromise, dont unleash it when
it is not required, turn it down and slowly sift through the iron shhhhh, some
of you may remember the "low power sifter program" for the XLT's, when we were
all digging Iron on high AC gain the low power guys were pulling out the goodies
from under our feet.
Earlier Tesoro's and Lasers such
as the B1's B3's, Silver sabre's etc deal with large Iron well but they are low
power machines compared to the Tejon, you can't compare apples to oranges, if
you want B3 power turn your sensitivity to zero.
Inexperienced users may not enjoy using the Tesoro Tejan as it can be a little
sparky (as with all high frequency machines),
after taking a little time and mastering the auidio sounds the novice will soon
be enjoying this machine. The Tejon will be best suited on worked out sites
where all the shallow targets have been found, if you have a slow sweep speed
and a keen ear the Tejon will reward you.
The fixed ground balance is another feature of the Tejon pro and is ideal for people
who just like a switch on and go operation, and perhaps master manual ground
balancing at a later date.
Tejon foot note
I have now been using this machine for 7 months and its time to update things,
looking back at my field test, it looks like I have been a little hard on the
machine, picking fault with the tiny niggles etc. Now I don't even notice them, its a cracking machine and I have 100% confidence in it, I have been blessed with some nice finds including a bronze age spear head, hammered, Roman coins and lovely artefacts. I can honestly say yes its
the next step up from the Lobo and the top machine available on todays market.
Confession
time !!!!
Oh how I was so wrong about the sensitivity, I made the same mistake as so many
people.
" Turn it up until unstable and then back it off slightly"
Nuts do you.... The Tejon is not like any other Tesoro and must not be
set up the same way.
My sensitivity settings for ancient soil conditions
std web coil and 5" trashbuster...no higher than 6
12x10 widescan....0-2...yes zero to two.
Why so low ?
More info here !! please visit my Tejon information page >>>
The Tejon digs Iron
I hear some people say, this is true to a certain extent but can also be put
down to different reasons, inexperience, lack of patience, but mainly from
hobbyist detectorists confusing the Tejon with a simple coinshooting machine.
When using the correct settings and compatible headphones iron is easy to identify
Tesoro headphones headphones...Important
As with all digital machines headphone quality is paramount, get the wrong
match and the singnals will sound dead and lifeless.
I would recommend using
Sprite's for precicise signal quality, naturally available from me. !!!
If you purchase a new Tejon
Forget about your last machine how it operated, what sounds it made.
Start again with a clear mind and remember these points.
*The Tejon is designed as a deep highly sensitive relic hunter,
small iron will be rejected most other Iron will give a broken or clipped audio
sound, this is all useful information the operator can evaluate.
*Keep all your targets, at the end of a search lay them out and evaluate
the machine, you may have a small amount of iron but I guarantee there will be
some really nice coins and artefacts your old machine would have missed for
sure.
*When you are confident with the Tejon take it to an ancient site which
has been searched 100's of times before, then you will realise this machines
capabilities.
Latest news
Some people have been giving the Tejon a bad wrap, you can't please everyone but
I can honestly say as an independent it is one of the best machines I have used.
Compared to the Lobo the Tesoro Tejon has more punch and the ability to find the
full range of target sizes, I do feel the Lobo has an easier iron rejection and
smoother signal tone.
For years people have been asking Tesoro to develop a deep seeking machine, now
its here only the dedicated have realised it's true potential, find out for
yourself have a demo.
As they say the Tejon is that sort of machine... you either love it of hate it
!!!!
I have been using 2 coils the 5.75 trashbuster concentric and the 12 x 10 tejon
coil widescan
The 12x10 widescan coil is excellent for cold
searching while still retaining excellent sensitivity to small coins and
artefacts, this is my personal choice of coil.
12x10 coil field test
(That the searcher magazine did not publish for some reason)
Gary's Detecting field tests and reviews, this Tesoro Tejon Pro metal detector information is Copyright © please ask if you wish to copy it or use any information
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