Most Moonshiners would bury their' money 50 to 100 yards from where their' still was located so that they could make moonshine and still keep a pretty good eye on their' money! Once you have permission to search the property, look for the location of where he had his' still. There should be some evidence of it still in the woods (i.e. some Copper pieces to the still, old rusted out galvanized buckets, old jars or broken glass, etc.). Once you find where the still was located, then search a circle out to about 100 yards starting about 25 yard out from the site of the still. Many folks would bury their' money around a big tree and visible large rocks! I would probably start searching from the roots of big trees out to about 10 to 15 yards from the trees and around large rocks out to about 10 to 15 yards from the rocks. However, you might want to search patterns but make sure to search the entire circle from 25 yards to 100 yards from the still. I doubt that he would have buried it closer to the still or near his' home as this is where thieves would first look but who knows!
Back in the 1920's or 1930's Bootleggers that lived in a home that once sat on the property where my nephew now lives, buried a 55 gallon drum nearly full of Nickels, yep that is right, I wrote Nickels! Seems kind of odd doesn't it??!! Well, my nephew and a friend were looking around the old homesite (the house is just a pile of burnt rubble now) where the Bootlegger lived and searching towards the old barn on the property. About mid-way between the old house and barn, my nephews' friend stepped into hole. When they looked into the hole with a flashlight, they could see all of these round disks amongst the debris of the rusted out drum lid and dirt. They went back to my' nephew's house and got a shovel, went back and dug the top half of the barrel out. They scooped out more than six 5 gallon buckets of Nickels from the old rusted out drum but aren't sure they got all of them. The Nickels were almost black from being stored in the rusted out drum and from being in the ground so long. I asked him what they did with the Nickels and he said that they rolled them, took them to the Bank and cashed them in, never checking them for Dates or whether they were Jefferson, Buffalo Nickels or Liberty "V" Nickels. Yes, I felt like kicking him in the butt when he told me that but I did not! I plan to go back to the site with my nephew and metal detect the whole area to see if we can find more of the Nickels or more 55 gallon drums loaded with coins.
Good luck! I hope you find your Grandfather's stash of money!
Frank