Too much junque

[SomeGuy]

I have access to an old cabin site in an area that used to be controlled by moonshiners. According to the current owner, "back in the day" "the law wouldn't go there." All that remains now is the collapsed chimney/fireplace and the outline of foundation stones and piers. I am primarily interested in any possible caches and relics, so I'm not using much discrimination. The problem is that there is SO much junque that the threshold nulls out most of the time (iron) and I can't swing the coil w/o getting at least 3 targets per swing, all junque. Working over the foundation, I got a beep and uncovered an old shotgun base under about 9" of stacked stone.



How should I detect a site like this?

Also, about 75 yds from the cabin, near the creek, I found this tree. No metal nearby. Does this mean anything to anyone?

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Personally, I'd just pick greener grounds. Sounds pretty junky. Moonshiners had nothing more to loose or hide than anyone else of that era, so seems to me, it's just homestead hunting, where old homes are a dime a dozen. Pick spots where you hopefully have less junk, and more coins to deal with, like stage stops, camp sites, saloon sites, church retreat grounds, etc.....

But if you really feel there's goodies under that iron belt, you're going to have to get a 2-filter machine (like various of the tesoros, or whites classic, etc...) which can see through a nail or two (albeit at loss of depth).

 

[Sandman]

It might help also to use the smallest coil for your detector that you can to get between the trash. You will lose some depth, but the depth you get from your larger coil does you no good if it nulls on the iron and can't see the deeper good stuff.

The tree is interesting, anyone have any ideas?

 

[lumbercamp]

When that tree was smaller in dia. a vine grew up it and as the tree got larger in dia. the vine compressed the growth. The vine eventually died and dropped off.

 

[Shortstack]

If you think there's a good chance a cache was hidden there, perform a more thorough check and ignore the surface hits. Check out the larger targets that are approx. 1ft. to 3ft. deep. How do you do THAT? Set your detector to "all metal" so the diameter of the target area can be better determined. The depth can be estimated by raising the coil above the ground until the detector goes quiet.

As for that tree; if you know any custom woodworkers in your area, they might be interested in BUYING that tree. Just a suggestion.

 

[BIG61AL]

I think this site has potential. They did not make all that moonshine to drink. They must have sold alot of it. I would plan a full day hunt - sun up to sun down. Grid out the area with day glow string from the hard ware store. Pick a portion and dig up everything not iron. You are bound to find something of value. if you can't do it all at once then go every four weeks or so until it's done. I you feel bad about digging so many holes just stomp every thing flat and dump a bag of grass seed on the last dig of the season and the grass will slowly recover.

 

[SomeGuy]

Thanks for all the advice. The tree had me curious because it looked intentional, never thought of the vine explanation. I have no specific reason to suspect a cache, just hopeful. I figure it would have been an all cash business, and the proprietor is unlikely to use a bank.