I got the first Compadre metal detector yesterday evening. The box it came in was small and light. Given how I don’t want to swing heavy detectors anymore, this was encouraging.
I unpacked the machine and was impressed by how small it is. The control box is small and the coil is small and the whole thing is incredibly light. The Tesoro Compadre felt very solid once I attached the coil and tightened the cam locks.
I didn’t have time to test it until this morning. I met Patton from the Friendly Metal Detecting Forum at one of our favorites spots and the fun began!
TURNING IT ON
I decided to forgo the headphones on this maiden voyage. When you first turn the Compadre on, it performs a loud battery test that lasts a couple of seconds. The unit is powered by a single nine volt battery. One small gesture that I really liked was that the battery was included with the detector and it was a well known brand battery.
DISCRIMINATION
The Compadre has one and only one control knob and that is the Discrimination knob. It goes all the way from All Metal to Max. In between those you find the usual discrimination settings of Iron, foil, nickels, pull tab, and zinc. I set the discrimination to Max. I believe in this setting, you discriminate all but coins.
COIL
The Compadre comes with a stock five and three quarter (5.75) inch concentric round coil. If you are not used to small coils, the stock coil may bother you at first. Luckily, I had been swinging my AT Pro with the 5x8DD coil so I was used to the small size.
The coil is hardwired thus it cannot be changed. This could possibly be the only draw back to its design but I may be of a different opinion after I’ve hunted more with the Compadre.
SWING SPEED
I noticed right away that if you swing this small round coil too fast, there’s a good chance you will miss targets. A medium swing speed seemed adequate to pick up all signals loud and clear.
TONES
The Compadre has only one tone.
CONTROLS
As I said before, the Compadre has no depth gauge, no ground balance control, and no sensitivity control. This didn’t keep the unit from finding coins right away. Oh, the Compadre also lacks a pinpoint button.
To be perfectly honest, I didn’t miss any of these features. To estimate depth, first you have to realize that the Compadre will likely not go deeper than six (6) inches. So that’s your limit. Once you know this, you can simply lift the coil off the ground and note where the signal cuts out. With a little practice this can give you a pretty good idea as to how deep the target is. The pinpointing feature is unnecessary given the size of the coil. Use the criss-cross technique and you will be fine. I had no problem at all accurately locating my targets.
The sensitivity and the ground balance are set at the factory and whatever they are, the machine did fine with them.
THE HUNT
I dug up some trash during my hunt but the Compadre is not fooled any more or any less than any of my more expensive and heavier detectors. I didn’t find any coin deeper than four inches. I still have to figure out iffy signals and deep signals with this machine. Once I accomplish that, I have no doubt my finds will increase. I cannot emphasize enough how light this machine is and how important that is when it is hot outside or when you are tired.
30 minutes of sheer fun with the Compadre
CONCLUSION
The Tesoro Compadre definitely lives up to its reputation. Its brutal simplicity makes it very fun to swing. No more worrying about tweaking this or that. This makes it an ideal metal detector for children or for the casual hunter.
Don’t let the Compadre’s Spartan nature fool you though. If you believe this detector to be a toy or a child’s machine you will be making a grievous error! This machine is a powerful, well built machine that will find the goods. I have no doubt about that even after only a 30 minute hunt. Just because I think this machine is ideal for children and hunters who hunt sparingly, I don’t mean to say this machine would not be deadly in the hands of more experienced detectorists.
I look forward to long, fruitful hunts with the Tesoro Compadre metal detector!
Thank you for looking!
The Dirt Is Good To Me 
That looks almost exactly like what I found today.
I also found some ancient fingernail clippers.