Whats your opinion on the Jesse James hunt on the History Channel

treasurehound

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GopherDaGold

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Re: What's your opinion on the Jesse James hunt on the History Channel

A repeat from 2009. Is that the one where the 'investigators' were packing heat?
 

OP
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treasurehound

treasurehound

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Re: What's your opinion on the Jesse James hunt on the History Channel

YES. It was interesting to watch but I don't know about the accuracy of the hunt. Looked more like a made for tv show.
 

spartacus53

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Re: What's your opinion on the Jesse James hunt on the History Channel

I watched part of it and saw that it was going nowhere fast, so I switched over to watch the 'lost" episodes of "Taxi". :laughing7:
 

Philvis

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Re: What's your opinion on the Jesse James hunt on the History Channel

treasurehound, below is my response to seeing the show back in November...

Where to start...

I finally got around to watching the program last night. I know there are some KGC treasure enthusiasts on here and I won't knock them by any means, but I didn't find their KGC references too terribly convincing. There wasn't any true evidence, just speculation. From the get go, something also bothered me about the Pastore guy and his cohorts. Their supposed skill sets really didnt impress me. I love how it said the loud one was GPR certified. I'm sure when they bought the GPR system, they took a course on it issued by the GPR manufacturer and afterwards gave them a certificate saying they are GPR certified. From my experience as an archaeologist being around GPR (I am not GPR certified, haha), they really didn't display a true mastery of it in both their usage as well as interpretation. Next comes the metal detectors. I by no means claim to be an expert detectorist, but come on, they were reading off the Garrett like it was a machine that just spit out a 100% true answer for what was in the ground and what it was and how deep it was.

I still am pretty skeptical about the gold bar and mason jar find. It was just all too convenient. I get on here a few times a week to read about finds and stories of TNET'ers who spend more time in the field than they do at home. I don't recall many stories of mason jars with silver dollars and gold coins or gold bars being found very often, and these amateurs just stumble upon them after their interpretation of some symbols. I really hate being a skeptic like this, but I just can't help it. And seriously, if you have dug down 8-10 feet or whatever, how do you stop all of a sudden and claim you need more investors for heavier equipment and just hope to make it back before the winter. If you feel it is necessary to carry shotguns and have pistols strapped to your sides, how would you just leave a half excavated area there? I've got an idea, sell your gold bar and coins. If they were real finds, that should have been an easy $10k, and if you cannot rent a bigger backhoe for a day or two for $10k, you've got problems.

That was the issues I had with the program. The only other comment I have is regarding the family of the JM James who claim he was Jesse James. They said the negative DNA report was inconclusive because the evidence chain on the DNA. That is only an argument you would make at a criminal trial. What I couldnt understand was why didnt they just do a DNA test on the grandson or great grandson? To me, that sealed the deal that they were of no relation to Jesse James. That would have been the first thing to do. If they did that though, it wouldnt have made for good tv when it came back negative.

In summary, I just don't buy it. As I said before, I really hate being the skeptic like this, but if I can easily say it doesn't add up, it really doesn't. I suggest that the History Channel hire actors to portray the treasure hunters next time. They may be more believable then.
 

GopherDaGold

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Re: What's your opinion on the Jesse James hunt on the History Channel

I agree with you 110% Philvis. I would also wonder how many wannabe treasure hunters ran out the next day to their local Shack to purchase spankin' new BH's while visions of riches danced through their heads.

I'm generalizing of course. My first detector was a BH which tend to get the same respect as J.B. Hunt drivers, ;D
 

B

BIG61AL

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Re: What's your opinion on the Jesse James hunt on the History Channel

I saw this show and it was typical of a semi professional documentary. More fluff than serious discovery.
They showed far too much footage of Jesse James and the facts of his criminal life. Give me a ten minute story of why you believe that there is treasure here and skip the recreations of his life.
Don't interpret the treasure signs and make a reasonable guess of where to dig and then just put a marker there and not dig a hole. How hard is it to did a hole?
As for the mason jar find i remain sceptical... a bunch of silver dollars and two gold coins are gonna scream at a detector not just beep lightly. Plus if those coins were in the jar when it broke it would all be in a single clump. You are not gonna find one dig some more, find another and dig some more. It just looks fake.
The gold bar looks fake too. If this was buried in the 1880's that tree should have grown by 100 years worth. One, the trunk should grown around it and it would be inside of the tree itself or two, pushed down as the trunk got bigger. Fake.
Had there been any huge buried treasure there someone who knew where it was would dig it up long ago and not just let it stay there forever. Greed is a powerful thing. It's long gone.
 

OP
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treasurehound

treasurehound

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Re: What's your opinion on the Jesse James hunt on the History Channel

Well I am glad that I am not the only one who thought this show was bogus. I could not believe that they find targets with their metal detectors and don't even dig them up. The only target they dug was the jar full of money which I am sure was planted for the show. And I am sure that if you found a treasure like that you are not going to have a tv crew out there. That would be a well kept secret.
 

Monty

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Re: What's your opinion on the Jesse James hunt on the History Channel

I was seriously thinking "fake" myself. But I got to thinking abut it and that's dangerous for me. If I had discovered JJ treasure signs or even treasure, I would not take a camera crew with me. I would go back later and reproduce the finding at a different spot and it probably would look fake. So, I just don't know? Monty
 

L

LandStar

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Re: What's your opinion on the Jesse James hunt on the History Channel

Now come on...you don't expect me to believe that every time you go out looking for some fabled lost treasure, your gonna find it on the first try, or you go out looking for ghosts, and they just mosey on up to you and begin holding conversations, and moving objects...I am not saying this is not possible, but come on...you know there is a little fluff in there to fill up an hour show or whatever...
 

hitman091358

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Jan 6, 2012
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Re: What's your opinion on the Jesse James hunt on the History Channel

what a crop of horse crap , first of all why wouldn't you dig up the first sites they detected and second of all they didn't dig up the big target said they ran out on money ya right, it don't take that much time or money to get a backhoe in there to dig .
Something just wasn't right with that.
 

blackbeard1717

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Re: What's your opinion on the Jesse James hunt on the History Channel

They should have a real life treasure hunting show. They have every other reality type show. True shows no faked findings. Odyssey was the best least they found sunken ships and treasure.
 

superoutsider

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Feb 2, 2012
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Re: What's your opinion on the Jesse James hunt on the History Channel

i just watched this show on feb 1 2012 , i know its been 2 years since it was made
so after all this time does anyone know if they ever got down to the supposed chest
that they were after at the end of the show? it said they needed more funding to get down the last 8 feet,
perhaps this has already been answered, but im new here , thanks
 

Bum Luck

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Re: What's your opinion on the Jesse James hunt on the History Channel

Anyone that doesn't know what a real back hoe is .............................. a rank amateur; or film producer from New York on a budget.
 

TabWhisperer

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Re: What's your opinion on the Jesse James hunt on the History Channel

I've always wondered what happened after this show was aired. I love the part where they find a gold bar under a tree trunk (and pretend to not know what it is). Then rather continue searching that area they rush off somewhere else. The somewhere else includes a giant hole they leave behind "because winter is coming" even those it looks like pretty nice weather at the time. What a scam of a show.
 

liftloop

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Re: What's your opinion on the Jesse James hunt on the History Channel

did you see were they put away the gti 2500 and pulled out a White's 6000 di pro and did you see the stuff they found with the White's detector.
 

TabWhisperer

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Re: What's your opinion on the Jesse James hunt on the History Channel

liftloop said:
did you see were they put away the gti 2500 and pulled out a White's 6000 di pro and did you see the stuff they found with the White's detector.
I think they could have used a broomstick and managed to find stuff. Not that it was staged... I still love that scene where they "find" the gold bar and that one guy is trying to scratch at it with a knife. Real pros. I thought channels like Discovery, History and NatGeo were supposed to develop shows with a certain amount of integrity. Too bad because they do have some outstanding stuff then they show garbage shows like "Diggers". I guess they can and will do anything for advertising dollars.
 

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