where and how to start?

[nc-joe]

I have just been granted permission to MD 2 sites.

One I thought was just an old out building, but after speaking with the 65+ year old owner, he advised that the 14x18 single room building used to be a house. I don't even know how to determine the age. It has rough raw wood siding, like an old cabin, it is constructed with nails, the tin roof is obvious newer than the rest of the structure and the 4 corners are rocks. (looks like limestones stacked on each other) Than about 100 feet away, in the woods, there are 2 older buildings. Look like they used to be chicken coops. One is the same construction as the house, the other looks newer and has older style cinder blocks for the 4 corners. Also there is a small garden like fenced area, 14x20 or so, with a gate and barbed wire around the top. First thought was a grave site, but no markers, second thought was a garden, but why the barbed wire? Anyway, the area around the coops/garden it full, and I mean full of metal everywhere. Were talking car parts (fender skirts, bumpers, headlamp buckets etc,) there a really old MURRY bike, and tons and tons and tons of metal roofing and junk on the ground. There are hundreds of mason jars, lids, jugs bottles and everything else like that around the buildings and piled up inside the 2 coops. (you know what i mean?) The thing is, I have seen posts to check for a lone rock or tree if looking for a jar of dollars in sites like this, but this is in heavy woods with rocks everywhere. You can't MD the coop area, there is way to much junk. How do you go about finding a cache in an area like that? One building has the ground as a floor, the other had a raised floor, but it is collapsed in, and I took a look around under the floor and found nothing but broken bottles and 1 shot glass.

As for the house, I did a preliminary all metal search, I dug a really rotted out spray can and a dial of some sort. Rang in as a silver coin, but it is the diameter of a nickle, as thick as 2 or three nickles and has a reeded edge and a rod going through the middle. No other targets found with in 10 feet of the exterior of the house. (by the way, the floor in the house is in tack, but does not seem safe to walk on. All interior walls are just the studs and exterior boards. No ceiling. This house sits at the corner of a tall grass field, about 100 yards from the road. Where should I look?

The second site is an old church. The church is 1/4 mile from the property above. It was build in 1900 and was used until 1992. I quick run there today revealed 2 old style pull tabs, 2 nails, 1970-D dime and a few pieces of iron. AND TONS AND TONS of iron targets that I did not dig yet. Should I void out the iron? Also, I have a very inexpensive bounty hunter pioneer ex, with only four settings. iron, nickle, alum/zinc and silver. I am looking at an ACE 250, but may be after Jan 1 before I buy one. Should I wait until I have a better MD to go back?

There is an old 2 hole outhouse at the church, I can't stomach the thought of digging it so if anyone does that, let me know, when I am done MDing there I will put you in touch with the property owner. YUCK!

So where would you start at each site and how would you work around the trash if your looking for jar of coins? I will try and post picks in a day or two.

Oh yeah, the grave sites in back of the church are OFF LIMITS to MDing.

 

[shootist]

Sounds like you have some great areas to hunt,the first thing I would really look at are the old bottles you said were under a floor? You could have a bottle or two that might be worth more than a jar of coins. Anything with embossing on the glass is decent,you can tell if you are into some really old bottles by looking at the bottoms of them. If there is a big depression in the bottom that looks pretty rough you are probably looking at a pontil mark and you know they are from at least before turn of century,check out the broken pieces look for crude necks and tops. If you are looking at screwtops I wouldnt really fuss over them,though there could be a couple of keepers if you know what you are looking for(embossed milks,some sodas). As far as the detecting I would first decide how many times or how long you will be able to hunt these spots. If the place is far away from you,or there is a time limit I would hit the obvoius areas first(driveways,walkways,clothesline,mailbox ect...Whereas if you plan to hunt the area for years then you would want to canvass the area in great detail. Those heavy trash areas are a chore to hunt,it is a lot easier to pick a coin out of trash with a higher end detector but if you have the time you may want to try and rake off some of the areas of the top layer of stuff,dont rake the whole thing just a 5x5 area or so and try your luck then decide if its worth it or not. Really with any old home site its not a question of if the coins and jewlery are there or not its only if you can find them. I dont really expect to ever find a big cache of coins but if you add all the coins and such up then there truly is a cache of items in every single yard of every single home,HH...Shoot

 

[dahut]

You do a good job of describing a common, two-fold problem:
Unknown sites and a ton of trash!
I say unknown, because you really have little idea of what has gone on in either place. Okay, there is some age to either one, but you dont know the layout or any of the happennings. For example, churches often held outdoor events like picnics and Mayday pageants. But where? In the field next door or maybe out back? etc.

Old houses are an interesting dilemma. We think because of the word OLD that they will be gold mines of goodies. Well, sometimes they are - and often they are not. Poopr people had little and you have no info on occupancy. Car mechanic? Farmer? Storage shed?

Where the trash is thick, that's you other problem. You are forced to do one of two things:
1. Pick around it - I suggest a smaller coil for starters.
2. Remove it - this will require the patience of Job.
With the iron, it can mask good signals so "null" only the itsie bitses, nails and so on.

Bottom line, gridding and thoroughness will get you whatever is there. It might take all year, so steel yourself now.

As for your supposed cache. Is that wishful thinking or do you know there was one? See the difference in mind set?
Large caches were often buried, small ones werent. By the sounds of the place, you are looking for a small one, if at all. MOST small ones were hidden inside a common building, not at great distances. The person who hides a cache wants to see it, to touch it and to add or take from it. Any place you can reach up to, down to and through can be a hiding place for a cache.

Good Luck!

 

[nc-joe]

With all the mason jars, jugs and a shot glass, I assume there was a still there at one time. I have seen where most moonshiners kept small caches of silver in the area. That would be my first goal.

Second, The land has belong to the same family for well over 125 years. They are African American, so thinking of the size of the house and the situation 100+ years ago you would first think, poor, but the original land size was well over 1000 acres.

The church has always been an African American Church.

 

[dahut]

Well sir, hope springs eternal! Keep that attitude and you will never be lost for a place to hunt.

I hear what you are saying about the 'shiners. It is my understanding that most "distillers" kept their hoard near to the work site. Try to find that still, first, and work from there. I'd head for the out buildings first - chicken coops were pretty common stash points. But, temper your wellspring of hope with the knowledge that unless they died an untimely death, the homebrewers in question likely retrieved their stash at one point in time or another.

People do indeed turn up caches, now and then. It's a fact that only about 10% of all coins minted can be accounted for through normal channels. So they are out there, somewhere! But, again, perseverence, dogged determination and a small share of luck will win the day - hope and assumption are merely diversions from the path.