need help with my cache hunt

[johncache]

my great grandfather buried some silver alot of silver. He passed away unexpectedly one night while shrimping but he had told his son (my grandfather) where he had buried it years earlier. my papa was only able to find the 6 mason jars buried under the house. he could not locate the 10 or 12 buried around the barn or the two gavinised pipes filled with 750 silver dollars the ones under the house where around 18 24 inches deep. i know ill have to get a larger coil but my question is what machine should i be looking into? been looking at thr fisher f75 etrac and safari any help would be much appreciated

 

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[scotty544]

If you can afford a V3i, they get real deep on silver at the 5hz band setting. With max power, you could find large amounts of silver massed together at 20" or maybe even more. I have found aluminum cans and toothpaste tubes at 15" plus.
Its made by Whites and you can get one for around $1500 new. I have a V3i if you want to cut me in.... I got dibs on this one!

 

[cudamark]

If your searching an area away from surface metal, I'd use a two box, like the White's TM808. Around a building can be tough if there is plumbing, wiring, and other metal objects. As mentioned by Scott, the V3i with a big coil would be a solid choice, so would the E-trac, and CTX3030 by Minelab. If there isn't much junk in the area, a PI detector with a big coil should work good too. Show us some photos of the cache(s) when you find them!!!

 

[johncache]

the house and barn was tore down in the 60s but the well is still there as a reference point my search area will be around 50' x 50' but I know there will be junk I will haft to deal with

 

[Gold Maven]

good luck, post some pics.

 

[christo000]

If you can afford a V3i, they get real deep on silver at the 5hz band setting. With max power, you could find large amounts of silver massed together at 20" or maybe even more. I have found aluminum cans and toothpaste tubes at 15" plus.
Its made by Whites and you can get one for around $1500 new. I have a V3i if you want to cut me in.... I got dibs on this one!

I agree with Scotty I to have a v3i & have tested many coils on it for depth with the right adjustments its a solid winner & should get u where u need to b & find those. Try some of the online auction sites I've seen a couple around 12 or even go for a vx3 or a v3 still very good machines good luck in finding ur real treasure that's gonna b a nice day

 

[Lady Pirate]

Also try using a privy locator to stick down in the dirt to listen for sounds and feel for item's. The top's of jars and/or glass, or other materials. I made mine from an old spring mattress.

 

[johncache]

I had also considered that lady pirate I have an old stainless steel whip intena I'm gonna make one out of

 

[Tom_in_CA]

cudamark is spot on when he says to get a 2-box for this (although I digress from his advice when he goes on to give various coin machines as other alternatives). Forget all the coin machines, large coils, and debates/choices of various standard detectors. Get yourself a 2-box machine.

Because here's the deal: Even though it's true that a standard machine can find jar and toaster sized items with ease (and even more-so with "bigger coils" blah blah), yet you're going to be continually bedevilled with the OTHER stuff that "standard coin machines" are so adept at finding: COIN SIZED TARGETS. Doh! And even if you dedicate your mind to "only digging the big" signals, or "only digging the deep and big signals", you'll perpetually be bedevilled going back and digging a bunch "just to be sure". I mean, you can't assume that soda can size objects (jars, toasters, etc...) will always give an "overload" signal for your standard machine. This is only true when the object is shallow enough to trigger that. So for example, a soda can or mason jar at 1 ft. deep might give a quarter signal, not an overload signal.

So with a standard coin machine, you will be perpetually digging all the small stuff, or spend all your time "second guessing" large vs small, etc....

But a 2-box machine (like the TM 808) will ONLY find large items. About the smallest item it can find, is a soda can sized item (or a door-knob sized item if you have it finely super tuned and close to the item). Thus for your purposes (where your primary objective is ONLY the large item, and you are NOT looking for individual coins), a 2-box unit is your key.

I recently hunted the yard of a deceased fellow, on behalf of the estate, for jars of coins. And initially, I showed up with my standard detector thinking "I'll just dig everything" or "I'll just ignore shallow small stuff". But 2 hrs and 100 pieces of junk later I was going to give up. It was a very junky farm yard that had had burn pits, pig and goat pens, parked tractor cr*p, etc..). So I went and got a TM 808 and that changed everything. Now all I could find was bigger items. And even THEN I got 100+ pieces of large junk (soda cans, tractor parts, tools, etc...) However, i came up with the sought after 4 or 5 jars of silver coins. Would not have been possible w/o the TM808. With a standard coin machine, I'd probably have still been out there today digging up endless small junk.

 

[johncache]

thanks Tom for explaining in detail. that sounds like exactly what I need and a lot cheaper

 

[cudamark]

I should have expanded on my comments but I was rushed for time at the time I wrote it. The conditions at the site will determine which will work the best. If you have metal buildings, vehicles, metal septic tanks, etc, the two box will be difficult to use. If the ground is littered with metal debris, the regular detectors will be a pain. Not all sites have metal junk on them. If your site is relatively clean, a standard all-around detector with a big coil will work fine. If, like on Tom's hunt, you have lots of small junk and not much in the way of big junk, the two box will shine. Even using the two box, I would use the regular detector to help pin point the target as the two box isn't real good at that. It will get you in the general area but unless you like working a shovel, I'd pin point it a little tighter with a regular detector.

 

[rwd mo]

As has been stated the two-box is the way to hunt and then its gonna be a chore to find the caches at best and how deep are they Well its not known so its gonna be a chore. IF you got a pardner and can use a dowsing rod then this would help. It may come to having it dowsed before you find it. Just a thought. Been cache hunting for 40 yrs and its not easy finding anything valuable when its been buried. !!! Just don't get discouraged. shortribs

 

[johncache]

ok the only remaining structure is the 2 inch well. My papa drew me a basic map using the well as a land mark and i pulled up google maps to help him remember so i will be in the right ball park but the area is littered with small junk. he tried to find it years ago with a cheap borrowed md but quickly gave up after fighting with surface junk. i doubt it would of found it any how. i think its about 2 foot deep no deeper than 3 foot. im a young whippersnapper so i dont care it i haft to dig a swimming pool size hole. my plan is a tm 808 or similar 2 box, probing rod,and plenty of Gatorade. will some one explain dowsing rods to me. are they two bent rods you hold in your hand and they point? seems sketchy to me but im only going off what ive seen in movies lol

 

[Tom_in_CA]

ok the only remaining structure is the 2 inch well. My papa drew me a basic map using the well as a land mark and i pulled up google maps to help him remember so i will be in the right ball park but the area is littered with small junk. he tried to find it years ago with a cheap borrowed md but quickly gave up after fighting with surface junk. i doubt it would of found it any how. i think its about 2 foot deep no deeper than 3 foot. im a young whippersnapper so i dont care it i haft to dig a swimming pool size hole. my plan is a tm 808 or similar 2 box, probing rod,and plenty of Gatorade. will some one explain dowsing rods to me. are they two bent rods you hold in your hand and they point? seems sketchy to me but im only going off what ive seen in movies lol

uh, john-cache, you ask about the dowsing rods that rwd mo suggests you use. If you want a little taste of what asking about this involves, simply do a key word search here on either the "metal detecting" or "general discussion" forum, for any time this subject has come up. And you will see that .... most here deem it to be hokus pokus random chance, and outside the scope of anything besides supernatural mumbo-jumbo. So rather than start up a debate here, just go read the past posts on the subject.

Or, you can go the dowsing forum, and I'm sure you'll have all sorts of faithful adherents will chime in to tell you great the work, how to hold them, what incantations to recite, etc.... Heck, they might even recommend certain types with batteries and wires inside (can't go wrong with those kinds!! )

 

[RobRieman]

Lol. I knew that was coming.

 

[Jeff95531]

I would not waste my time with a metal detector if you are dealing with an area 50 feet by 50 feet, it would be cheaper to rent or purchase a backhoe or bobcat. Dig up the area to four or five feet then you will know if it is there or not with a metal detector you will be purchasing more--------then you will let others in on it with their detectors and witching tools and eventually one of them will dig your treasure up and be gone. Get a backhoe and git r done.

I know somebody who did this with a backhoe. The location was an old dump site and about the same size. One guy ran the backhoe....scooped, turned...second guy inspected the contents and after searching, bucket dump. Repeat. They found a lot of antique bottles but not much else. Took a couple hours.

 

[cudamark]

Is your last name Savage by any chance??

 

[cudamark]

Regardless, he sure likes the backhoe!

 

[johncache]

yea i see what your talking about when i comes to dowsing. didnt know what i was getting into when i asked that. its gonna be a month or two befor i get a chance to start my treasure hunt but i will keep yall posted on the out come for all the help. this has gotten me interested in the hobby and ive been looking at coin shooting also.whats yalls recommendations on good coin detectors? f75, safari, at pro, would like to spend 500-1000

 

[cudamark]

In that price range, I'd get a good used E-trac or Explorer if you have some detecting experience. A beginner would probably be better off with the AT Pro.