Which metal detector for this situation

[zoumou]

Hello everyone,

I am new to the forum and glad to join you guys.

I currently have a target left by the grand parents in a farm, we "the family" know that it is more than 2 pounds of gold coins and at a depth between 3' to 8'(1 meter to 2 meters approximately). The container is a jar of clay and the land condition is mostly rocky and water can be reached at 160'(60 meters approximately), i am not sure about the mineralization

Instead of hiring a professional, i was thinking about buying a metal detector and take my time checking the whole land, a way to get into the hobby at the same time, and i may invest up to 4500$ in my first equipment.

My idea was to get something like jeohunter 3d as it can display depth after taking measurments, or may be the Garret atx with deepseeker coil, but people are complaining about the discrimination on both of them so i am a little lost.

All said, you know the target, depth, conditions, and budget, what do you think is the best metal detector for such job? and please feel free to give your opinion about any metal detector that you think can handle this job with discrimination.

Thank you

 

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[smokeythecat]

Don't buy anything. Go to a local hardware store than rents ground penetrating radar and that should find it. Here it's about $75 per day. It may take a day or two to get used to the machine, but put something underground, like a bar or lead or a container of sinkers, and test it out, then go for it.

 

[zoumou]

I have looked for renting and unfortunately nobody rents here my country.

 

[smokeythecat]

I don't know of any detector that will go 8 feet deep. Some of the big box units might, but its questionable. Ground penetrating radar units are available for purchase here in the US but they are expensive, although some Minelab metal detectors cost more.

 

[cudamark]

Is this family lore, or is the person who buried the coins still around to help locate them? In rocky ground, I can't imagine why someone would bury them that deep. Once underground, it's out of sight regardless of depth. How big is the search area? It might be cheaper and easier to just dig up the area with a backhoe. As mentioned, there isn't a metal detector currently on the market that will find coins at that depth. If it was a larger solid item, a two box unit would do what you need, but, even a hoard of coins in a clay container are seen as individual objects....not as a whole unless they are fused together.

 

[pa-dirt_nc-sand]

I spent some time with our local archeologists this summer using GPR. In my opinion, these units not only will cost you a small fortune, but also there is a tremendous learning curve to interpret the readings. Is it a large rock, area where soil was disturbed in the past, old road bed, chest of gold coins. All of these targets and anomalies can look similar on the readout. At 8’ down you will be using an excavator to dig lots of massive holes investigating these readings. Good luck!

 

[angelito1]

Welcome to Tnet ! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

[Knut dirtfisk]

Why in tarnation would your Grandparents leave a jar with 2 pounds of gold and not tell you where it was or leave a map or something? I think you are gonna buy the farm looking for that gold. No pun intended.

 

[zoumou]

Hello, it’s the great grandparents. My grandparents only relayed the message because they couldn’t find it at the time. I ended up buying the invenio pro from nokta, did some test and it could hit underground really good the discrimination is not that perfect at that depth but i could see a bit of the shape and the depth which can give me an idea.



I am currently doing some tests, the basic mode is easy but once you choose deep mode or expert you get tons of settings that i need to learn

 

[smokeythecat]

Good luck with that machine. It may be difficult to learn. How much land are you talking about? If it's an acre of less you can get rent a small backhoe for a couple days and take out 2' of dirt, then look and go deeper if you need to. They are not hard to use. But it will depend on how much land there is to cover.

 

[zoumou]

It is about 3.4 acres, but it a rural area where it’s pretty hard and expensive to get machinery to, even the digging will be a family task ��

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Good luck. I'd have gone with a two-box cache detector like a Garrett Treasure Hound/GTI 2500 or a Fisher Labs Gemini.

Good chance of finding an object as you describe and not breaking the bank if it is just a family legend.

 

[A2coins]

Good luck you need help lol. Welcome to tnet. Tommy

 

[zoumou]

Good luck you need help lol. Welcome to tnet. Tommy

Thank you Tommy, and yes when you see videos on youtube everything seems easy, you think ok it's just up this and reduce that, but once you have the detector on hands and you start testing, it goes crazy on all metals, there is just no standard configuration that would work for everyone. Now i have to learn how everything works to get the best of it.

Today i did some detecting in the farm, and i found one spot that the image screening showed as a box of metal 15cm*40cm at a depth of 70 cm, i just forgot to take some screenshots of the screen. Tomorrow i will rescan and take some screenshots, then i will dig that and post the pictures of the screening and what was found to see the accuracy.

Good luck. I'd have gone with a two-box cache detector like a Garrett Treasure Hound/GTI 2500 or a Fisher Labs Gemini.

Good chance of finding an object as you describe and not breaking the bank if it is just a family legend.

Normally that would work at some level, but the investment is from my own funds so that i can get into the hobby, and also i got a good deal on it from a company that was using it to map the wires in houses before performing electrical upgrades or modifications.

It would be perfect i end up making the legend a reality, otherwise i will end up with a good addiction "detecting"

 

[cudamark]

It is about 3.4 acres, but it a rural area where it’s pretty hard and expensive to get machinery to, even the digging will be a family task ��

Disturbed ground should be easier to dig than virgin ground. Try probing around with a long rod to see if you can find a relative soft spot. That method is used to find old privy holes.

 

[pulltabfelix]

Hello everyone,

I am new to the forum and glad to join you guys.

I currently have a target left by the grand parents in a farm, we "the family" know that it is more than 2 pounds of gold coins and at a depth between 3' to 8'(1 meter to 2 meters approximately). The container is a jar of clay and the land condition is mostly rocky and water can be reached at 160'(60 meters approximately), i am not sure about the mineralization

Instead of hiring a professional, i was thinking about buying a metal detector and take my time checking the whole land, a way to get into the hobby at the same time, and i may invest up to 4500$ in my first equipment.

My idea was to get something like jeohunter 3d as it can display depth after taking measurments, or may be the Garret atx with deepseeker coil, but people are complaining about the discrimination on both of them so i am a little lost.

All said, you know the target, depth, conditions, and budget, what do you think is the best metal detector for such job? and please feel free to give your opinion about any metal detector that you think can handle this job with discrimination.

Thank you

I thinking of the old black and white film "God's Little Acre" here. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051666/

 

[TheGreenBoy]

Hello, it’s the great grandparents. My grandparents only relayed the message because they couldn’t find it at the time. I ended up buying the invenio pro from nokta, did some test and it could hit underground really good the discrimination is not that perfect at that depth but i could see a bit of the shape and the depth which can give me an idea.

View attachment 1802871

I am currently doing some tests, the basic mode is easy but once you choose deep mode or expert you get tons of settings that i need to learn

View attachment 1802874

View attachment 1802875

Nice detector. Kepp us updated, good luck!

 

[chub]

Thank you Tommy, and yes when you see videos on youtube everything seems easy, you think ok it's just up this and reduce that, but once you have the detector on hands and you start testing, it goes crazy on all metals, there is just no standard configuration that would work for everyone. Now i have to learn how everything works to get the best of it.

Today i did some detecting in the farm, and i found one spot that the image screening showed as a box of metal 15cm*40cm at a depth of 70 cm, i just forgot to take some screenshots of the screen. Tomorrow i will rescan and take some screenshots, then i will dig that and post the pictures of the screening and what was found to see the accuracy.



Normally that would work at some level, but the investment is from my own funds so that i can get into the hobby, and also i got a good deal on it from a company that was using it to map the wires in houses before performing electrical upgrades or modifications.

It would be perfect i end up making the legend a reality, otherwise i will end up with a good addiction "detecting"

So many of these start out great...then end up as one post wonders.... looking fwd to that update!

chub

 

[GrayCloud]

Just to add my 2 Cents Here. Chances are, the Target you are looking for is no more than arms length in the ground. Most jar holes were dug with post hole digger since bout 1880. Most would not dig past arms length, for retrieval purpose. It would be a rarity to find one deeper.

 

[zoumou]

Hello again, just an update, i was able to detect two boxes now, they show up as a perfect rectangle at a 70 cm depth, and both boxes are far away from each others. We still haven’t done any digging as i detected large cavities around both boxes, i am not sure of the depth of the cavities but they look men made as they re quite the same dimensions, i decided to play it careful, i guess next week we will do it. For the time being, just seeing the shape, depth and different ids excited me, i wonder how it s gonna be when we ll dig it. Also sorry i am not keeping you updated but i was doing some tests myself to learn how to use the detector.