Tesoro Compadre Metal Detector Reviews
Tesoro Compadre Metal Detector
- Designed for All Ages
- Lifetime Warranty – for real!
- Silent Search All Metal and Discriminate Modes
- Quality built American Made metal detector!
- 3-Piece Knockdown Pole
The Tesoro Compadre Metal detector was designed with the idea that less is more. This modest Metal detector can do a lot of the same things that its bigger brothers can do. It works great for coin hunting, competition hunting and relic hunting, but it does it without any excess knobs. Switch on the detector and you’re working in a silent search, motion all metal mode. The farther you turn the knob, the more discrimination you can bring to bear on those trashy sites.
The Tesoro Compadre metal det
List Price: $ 189.00
Price:
Comments (3)
A truly fantastic machine.,
Very rarely am I a ‘brand loyal’ kind of guy, but I’m rapidly becoming that with Tesoro. In addition to my other machines, I now own 2 Compadres and will probably branch out into a couple other models in the Tesoro product line.
Lets look at both the practical and functional advantages that the Tesoro Compadre enjoys over other machines.
Practical Advantage #1: Lifetime Warranty.
This just cannot be overstated and really speaks to the quality levels that Tesoro is putting out. A manufacturer who is sincere about making a high quality product will stand behind that product. If you buy a Tesoro machine and 20 years later it breaks, send it back and they fix it, no charge to you. There isn’t any other MD manufacturer who offers a warranty service that is in this same universe. Most all of them pad their bottom lines with profits from repair services. Tesoro is smart enough to realize that the consumer goodwill generated by a no BS lifetime warranty sells more detectors than whatever margin they might make on scalping consumers for repairs on an unreliable product.
Practical Advantage #2: Cost
Not much to say here. As of today, $151 shipped is the ‘universally lowest online price’ you’re going to find on a new Compadre. You are getting a high-performance, serious machine for toy metal detector price levels. Why did I buy a second Compadre when the first has a lifetime warranty? Quite simple. I’ve seen this sort of thing before with other products, where very high quality is offered for a ridiculously low price. In time, prices will rise- sometimes, drastically so- and I wanted to lock in a spare of my beloved Compadre before this happened.
Practical Advantage #3: Entry Level Issues
Metal Detecting is one of those hobbies that draws a lot of people in with big dreams, until they actually get a MD, do it for a while and realize that you don’t find the ‘good stuff’ all that often. In the Compadre, you get a machine that does whatever a metal detector can be expected to do for a price that does not break the bank, in the event you try it out for a while and decide it isn’t for you. Unlike other machines where the low quality and low performance of the gear itself might cause disappointments for the beginner, if you buy a Compadre and decide metal detecting isn’t your bag, you can make that decision confident that it isn’t a question of having the right equipment. Further, while these are dirt-cheap to begin with, the hold resale value very, very well. List a lightly used Compadre on craigslist for a small bit of a discount off the new price, you’ll sell it.
Lets look at some functional advantages.
Functional Advantage #1: Performance.
There’s another review on this page that talks about how the machine ‘found lots of trash’ and lamented about it being ‘barely able’ to pick up a gold chain buried a foot beneath the dirt. Clearly, that was written by someone who was very, very new to the hobby. Yes, you’re going to find trash when you metal detect, irrespective of what machine you use. In time, you will learn how to read your signals and set your discrimination accordingly. On the issue of the gold chain buried a foot down, though, that’s really the big tell the person was new to this. Ya see, a metal detector doesn’t “read” a gold chain as a larger piece of gold. It reads it one link at a time. There are machines costing SIGNIFICANTLY more than the Compadre that wouldn’t stand a chance on a gold chain a foot deep. This is one area where the Tesoro is a super high performer, regardless of price. Small gold. There’s a lot of discussion about why this is- general consensus seems to be most of it has to do with the unusually high frequency the Compadre utilizes being favorable for gold- but let there be no doubt. The Compadre is a small gold killer. I own a few MD’s and have owned more over the years. If I were entering a MD Contest with the objective being a small gold ring, I would leave behind other machines costing $700, 800, 900 and grab my trusty $160 Compadre. Seriously. They are just *that good* on small gold.
Functional Advantage #2: Light weight.
In metal detecting, when you’re carrying and swinging the darn thing all day, you want light-light-light. The Compadre is an absolute gem in this regard- light as a feather and beautifully balanced. It truly feels like an extension of your arm.
Functional Advantage #3: Simplicity, or, The KISS Theory
This is one that loses a few guys, since lets be honest. DRO screens are *so cool* and all Star Trekky. It’s almost like an irrational hubris, similar to “Gear Superiority Syndrome” as seen in golf, the shooting sports, or anything else where people like to show how serious they are about the hobby by proxy of paying a lot for their gear.
Well, let me deliver you both the good and bad news.
The bad news is, we of the…
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|Best Nugget Shooter For The Price,
OK, I did a lot of research on metal detectors before deciding on this machine. I live out in the American Southwest and wanted a cheap machine I could go gold nugget shooting with out here in the deserts.
Keep in mind, this was the only machine talked about online that has successfully been used for gold nugget shooting and fits in the under $200 price range.
I’ve owned the machine for about a month now, and although I haven’t found any gold with it, I have found small silver nuggets (as small as sesame seed sized) and copper nuggets (around pea size). Because of it’s amazing success so far, I have no doubt this machine would also pick up gold if I came across it at the right depth.
As a test, I buried a 1/8″ gold ring about six inches deep and it picked it up no problem on all discrimination settings; it picks up the sesame seed sized silver nuggets at about 1 1/2″ to 2″; and the pea sized copper at about 4″.
Now of course, there are better detectors for nugget shooting than this one. However, these machines run above $500. So, if you’re looking for a cheap machine to go nugget shooting with, this is, without a doubt, the one.
Just don’t expect to find nuggets too deep and too small.
A few things to keep in mind…
1) I heard the best discrimination setting for finding gold is slightly above “iron”.
2) This is a “beep and dig” machine, so expect to dig a lot.
3) The small 5.75″ coil allows you to pinpoint with ease, go around obstacles, and go inside small holes.
4) Simplicity! One knob, easy to break down, durable, and life-time warranty.
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|Great Product!,
This is my first metal detector and I couldn’t be happier with my purchase. I was surprised at how easy the Compadre was to use. No problem using it the first day I had it. No headphones and no volume control – I’m not sure I’d want those features as I like to hear what’s going on around me. The disk is only 5″ so that means more swinging. But its very light and has a great response time so you can still cover a lot of ground. And it comes with a lifetime warranty!
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