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Tesoro tejon field test by Garys detecting, the Tejon has awsome depth it is a true relic hunter.
It is called the Tesoro Tejon, pronounced Tehon,Tehan,Tejan...some just smply 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.
TheTesoro Tejon field test

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 tak 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
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 Eurpean 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 Tehan 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.
*More will be explained in my Tejon secrets set up guide

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 footnote

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 dont 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 (dont worry it been declared) 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.

Compare the Tejon to the Goldmaxx...what a question
 I use both and think I will do for a long time I will try to sum things up in my own confusing way, I sold my field test model last week and went straight out and got another one.

Please have a look at my Tejon information page by clicking here !

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 coinshooting with relic hunting.
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 evalate 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.

Tejon Vs Gold Maxx
The Gold Maxx has the tone ID facility
The Tejon has a single tone which can be adjusted to suit the pitch of your hearing
The standard Gold Maxx has a 2D coil which works well in mineralised soil
The standard Tejon has the concentric coil which is sharp and precise(2D's are available)
They weigh about the same, the Gold Maxx can be hip mounted if river hunting.
The depth is about the same.
Build quality.... the same they both have niggles but hey its a metal detector not a Rolls Royce.
The Tejon has a trigger operated all metal circuit and 2 seperate discriminations and bucket loads of power.
The Gold Maxx has no "all metal" circuit but an Iron filter switch which works well.
Now can you see my point how can you choose, horses for courses, 2 great machines which will serve you proud........flip a coin.

Disadvantages : My worst case scenario searching with a high frequency machine is: A field littered with chunky square Iron.
Advantages : Searching under power lines is no real problem, very sensitive to small targets, lightning fast recovery speed and the ability to penetrate mineralised soil.

Latest news
Some people have been giving the Tejon a bad wrap, you can't please everyone but I can honestly say as an independant 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)


Remember Oads headphones work great on all the Tesoro range especially the Tejon

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