Best detector for finding 10lb gold bar in bottom of river

jkeller333

Tenderfoot
Jun 13, 2017
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Hi all, I'm new here and to detecting in general. I am looking for some advice on the best way to recover, or try to, a couple of 5-10lb gold bars that were tossed in a river a little over 100 years ago. I know the area and the water is slow moving and about 10ft deep. What's the best waterproof detector/coil for the job considering they may be buried fairly deep. Also not sure what the bottom is. May be pebbles/sand to muck.

Thanks!!
 

ARC

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Aug 19, 2014
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ME... !
I would be the best detector.

Oh... you WANT a metal detector. :)

ANY waterproof (IE: 200 foot depth or more) detector should do.
 

kingskid1611

Gold Member
Feb 23, 2015
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Your feet dragging the bottom....stubbed toes....of course with the depth you will need weight belt.
 

Tom_in_CA

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Mar 23, 2007
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10 lb gold bars ? That's over $200k melt value per bar. What is the source of your story ? Eg.: a "someone who told someone who told someone" type thing ? You'd be surprised how fast things get embellished, as treasure-fever grabs hold of camp-fire stories. Give us a little background on the transitions the story went through in the "little over 100 yrs" .

Like is this something you're hearing from a buddy ? Ok, where did he hear it from ? (and backwards through regression). Is it something you read in a treasure magazine or book ? Ok, where is the source of that material from ? Etc....
 

Argentium

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Feb 2, 2008
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The work you can do with researching the story will be as or more important than any metal detector . ( St. Anthony has a decent reputation) Welcome to treasurenet ! I'm not trying to be dismissive , I know there are great treasures out there - you some how have to get out from under the rumours , embellishment ,and outright lies to know if there is a genuine thread to follow...
 

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Tommybuckets

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Its good to dream but researching is the backbone of making great finds. Often these stories can be weeded out as not true or already thoroughly investigated. Then again it sounds like a fun romp. I'd start by trying to find some corroborating evidence (research), then scanning the bottom with a high end fish finder which shows soft and hard bottom. My friend's fish finder can sort of "see" into the muck and show some anomalies. Then I'd get busy with my excalibur. You are inspiring me to get back to looking for a box of silverware that was lost in a river. I actually came across this story from an old historian then read up on it in the library. The next step for me is to find out where the family was moving from and to in order to narrow down the area in which to search. The investigation petered out when I moved but I plan on rekindling it soon.
 

Tom_in_CA

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Mar 23, 2007
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Let's start an office pool bet guys: Typically when someone with only a single post comes on board with a fantastic wild treasure, that's the last we ever hear from them. They become 1-post wonders, never answering the feedback people gave them.

I'll be the first to throw a dollar into the ring and say "single post "
 

Treasure_Hunter

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Let's start an office pool bet guys: Typically when someone with only a single post comes on board with a fantastic wild treasure, that's the last we ever hear from them. They become 1-post wonders, never answering the feedback people gave them.

I'll be the first to throw a dollar into the ring and say "single post "

Tom, lets not. lets treat all members including new members with respect.
 

Terry Soloman

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May 28, 2010
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Tesoro TIGER Shark! :skullflag:
 

b3y0nd3r

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Aug 27, 2011
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You need an expert for this sort of thing. Good news is that I qualify! All I would need is 10% of the total find! A bargain!
 

Tr.Hnt3r

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Jun 6, 2017
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I have to agree with some of what b3y0nd3r and a few other posts are suggesting. With all Metal Detectors, there is a learning curve and you would need to be proficient at using the MD before you ever contemplate looking for the bars. For example, you might do a thorough search of the area and not find anything. little did you know that a setting had accidentally changed on your MD which you don't notice because of your lack of experience. You arrive at the conclusion that someone had already found the bars or the story wasn't real. Two years later a some teenagers are on a raft and one drops his glasses, dives down to pick them up and he pulls out a bar of solid gold. It's all over the news, lucky for you there are two bars, right?

It doesn't matter who the expert is, yourself or someone else, if the story is fake then you are wasting your time. Research, research, research or have a good swim.

Another thing you need to be aware of is that if someone is doing the search for you there is no guarantee that the individual won't get a hit and fail to divulge that information to you. Greed is a nasty thing. You need to be able to trust the person that does the search for you or do it yourself. I know of a guy that went TH with two other guys on a very large private estate at night and he got a hit on his MD the width and length of a bus he had his headphones on and kept on going never telling his partners. They kept on searching and sometime later that night they woke the people up and were fired at with machine guns. They never went back and he died in his fifties never telling anyone except his wife about the actual find and all she told me was that the location was somewhere in Mexico. So, good luck and I hope you find it. I am not saying or implying that anyone is not honest. I am just saying that you need to be able to trust the individual(s) that you decide to work with. For instance, I have a brother I would not work with and he is family.
 

chub

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Apr 23, 2017
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Wallmart LRD works well. Is the river in Nigeria? I can send you the money for the release of the detector.

Chub
 

Welgund

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Good lord guys he just asked what detector he could use, already said he knows the area of the river.lol. J Keller if I was going to check on something lime that I would get me a good used Garrett Infinium LS and dig everything. Snorkel gear, a good pair of fins also cause even if the water is moving slow it will carry you away. Going to be a lot of work any way you look at it. Make sure you tie off your detector and digging shovel to your belt also.
 

Mzjavert

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Oct 7, 2011
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Personally I'd magnet fish the area first to get rid of as much junk as possible.
 

huntsman53

Gold Member
Jun 11, 2013
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Any good White's, Tesoro, Fisher or Minelab Metal Detector made for use under water down to 20 feet to several hundred feet or made for both land and water use will likely do the job. It depends upon how accurate you want it and the price you are willing to pay. Considering that the Gold Bars have been sitting on or under the river or stream bed for some 100 years or more, they will likely throw off one heck of a wide signal which could make pinpointing the exact location or center of the target difficult. You may be wanting to Scuba Dive to locate the Gold Bars but understand that any metal you have on you for diving and/or for digging, will likely interfere with finding the signal of the Gold Bars. You could snorkel or use a Hookah System to stay down for longer times to search for the intended targets and neither will interfere with the signal. Do understand that you may and likely will encounter other targets that give off strong signals under water, so it would behoove you to remove these while searching as they will likely mask or hide the signals from the Gold Bars. Who knows, the other targets could turn out to be some things that are special or even very rare and worth a good sum of money.

Good luck!


Frank
 

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chub

Bronze Member
Apr 23, 2017
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Let's start an office pool bet guys: Typically when someone with only a single post comes on board with a fantastic wild treasure, that's the last we ever hear from them. They become 1-post wonders, never answering the feedback people gave them.

I'll be the first to throw a dollar into the ring and say "single post "

Someone owes Tom a dollar.

Chub
 

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