Question, anyone have experence with how "planted" or "seeded" hunts work?

[Helix]

Ok its been a while since I have post anything other then nonsense interjections. I / family owns some tiled land and was thinking what if I went out in a 20 acre area and scattered 1,000 wheat pennies or other items. Wait a few years after tilling and hit it hard and see how many can be found. What would be that average, would you only find 150 0r 750? I have never done anything like this. Any Thoughts? Edit: Of course would vary from detector but I want to see how a till field ratio would compare to a un tilled area.

[NHBandit]

Most seeded hunts I'm familiar with are sponsored by a club and have much more valuable items than some scattered wheat pennies. Sometimes Silver coins and often they will use numbered tokens that can be exchanged for a gold coin, new detector, pinpointer, etc. It's normally done as a way or raising a few bucks for the club while having a good time and very often the detectors & such are donated by a local dealer. I have never heard of anyone doing what you're proposing and I, for one, wouldn't pay for a chance to find a few wheats.

[bzbadger]

Our club has a closed hunt where the beach is seeded with silvers and tokens that represent a nice prize. If you don't mind me asking..what's your point to this? If you're trying to test something maybe we can help before you go through the trouble.

[pescadore]

The ones that I have been to have been club sponsored. Generally someone will plant coins, clad, silver, wheats, and prize tokens in a roped off area. You pay a fee to hunt the area. The Participants surround the area and the hunt is started by some type of signal. Hunting is fast and furious until everything is found or a time limit expires. Lots of fun and a lightweight fast detector is preferred.

[luvsdux]

I attend two seeded club hunts every year. In both cases they plant coins, mostly nickels, some painted as prize tokens which are turned in for a chance to draw a number that represents a silver round, older silver coin or other prize. The coins are just under the surface, in fact most are retrievable with bare fingers and you keep whatever you retrieve (other than the tokens). They also sell raffle tickets for other prizes. When the hunt starts, the detectorists swarm onto the field making me think that it resembles an adult easter egg hunt. Over the years I've ended up with a goodly number of silver rounds, 4 gold coins, headphones and other detecting equipment and have won 4 detectors. Besides the opportunity for prizes, the hunts offer a good venue to meet and visit with other treasure hunters.
luvsdux

[pepperj]

I have only attended one such hunt and it was sponsored by Minelab. won a X-terra 705 which has never been opened, along with a couple hundred assorted coins. Now it's off the list of detecting pilgrimages and probably never attend another.

I can see your interest in seeding a thousand coppers in a field to see how many will show up after a few years of tilling. The answer has many factors, how big is the field 1-500 acres, what's the soil, disc, scratch, drill, light plough, deep plough, rake, roll, irrigate, crop, grass, detector, experience, time spent, just to name a few off the top of the head.

You might get none one year, or hundreds the next year, but I bet you'll never get them all.

Must be nice to have all this extra time on your hands.