Treasure hunting and Thermal imager

Aztalan

Jr. Member
Oct 13, 2018
59
82
Colorado
Detector(s) used
JW Fisher Pulse 8X
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
The thermal imager is a great tool to use in our searching. Precious metals retain heat from the sun. After the sun goes down you can use the thermal imager to find heat signatures of precious metals. The thermal imager is also a good tool to find cold spots - caves as well. The following pictures show both hot spots as well as cold spots. 20181029_163019.jpg 20181029_163019.jpg 20181029_163538.jpg 20181029_163538.jpg 20181029_163538.jpg 20181029_163538.jpg 20181029_163607.jpg
 

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Aztalan

Jr. Member
Oct 13, 2018
59
82
Colorado
Detector(s) used
JW Fisher Pulse 8X
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
One cup is full the other only 1/4 full thought this would be a good show of thermal image capabilities
 

Digger_O'Dell

Jr. Member
May 11, 2018
70
118
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I cant see this working for MDing. I use one at work, and it only shows surface temps. So unless you are looking for a surface item that hasn't dissipated its heat, you would be out of luck
 

firemanphob

Bronze Member
Apr 8, 2018
1,080
2,023
Lanesville, IN
Detector(s) used
White Coin master 4000
Garrett AT PRO
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
We use these on the fire department and used to use them at work. They show the difference in temperatures and I think everything underground would be the same temp. The only way I could see it working was on things laying on top of the ground.
 

Eyeball

Jr. Member
Oct 15, 2018
98
162
North Bay area
Detector(s) used
Spectrum XLT, sold.
Garrett Ace 250.
Minelab Excal II.
Playing with a Garrett XL-500, it got wet.
Minelab Nox-600.
Garrett pinpointer Pro, Garrett Carrot.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I've been looking at them for a while, but the prices need to come down and reflect reality a bit better before I get into it.
Very good tools for detecting where a body was 10 seconds ago in a fire. Life saver for sure.
 

TommyB

Hero Member
Jul 24, 2013
563
860
OC, Calif
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
2
Detector(s) used
Whites Surf PI & Whites DFX
Primary Interest:
Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
I saw them using one of those on "Expedition Unknown". I think they were looking for some kind of treasure in the middle of the African desert.
They used it after sundown to see metal objects in the ground that were still warmer than the surrounding dirt. They actually found some pistols from the Germans in WWII
 

Digger_O'Dell

Jr. Member
May 11, 2018
70
118
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I can see that. Dry sand or desert soil doesn't hold heat due to lack of moisture. A larger piece like a gun would hold heat for a while, as opposed to something like a ring or small coin
 

Simon1

Gold Member
Jun 11, 2015
12,194
56,930
Primary Interest:
Other
I saw them using one of those on "Expedition Unknown". I think they were looking for some kind of treasure in the middle of the African desert.
They used it after sundown to see metal objects in the ground that were still warmer than the surrounding dirt. They actually found some pistols from the Germans in WWII

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I saw that as well and wondered. I believe they attached it to a drone at night in order to cover a larger area. They were looking for a lost horde of Krugerrands.
 

Bear Hunt

Newbie
Nov 1, 2018
2
2
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I have been wondering the same thing about thermal imaging. I have a FLIR that I have used for several years (non prospecting). I think it would work well in mountain regions to locate large deposits. Although, you would need to be in a location that has not been picked clean (like Colorado). For exploratory purposes (amazon basin) it would be an excellent tool to find ancient remains of past civilizations (thus treasure).
 

RTR

Gold Member
Nov 21, 2017
8,180
32,468
Smith Mt. Lake Va.
Detector(s) used
Teknetics Liberator
Falcon MD-20
***********
Blue Bowl
Angus MacKirk sluice
Miller Table
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
One cup is full the other only 1/4 full thought this would be a good show of thermal image capabilities

Whats the max. range of that imager ?
 

Clay Diggins

Silver Member
Nov 14, 2010
4,862
14,183
The Great Southwest
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
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I saw that as well and wondered. I believe they attached it to a drone at night in order to cover a larger area. They were looking for a lost horde of Krugerrands.

Would probably work on large iron objects like pistols in sand but it would never work on gold or silver. Both gold and silver are superior conductors and always reach ambient temperature at the same rate as the surrounding soil. Those Krugerrands might be out there but a thermal image will never distinguish them from the sand no matter what time of day.
 

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