Oh boy I have a feeling this is going to be a long post. Here goes....First things first, You mentioned your uncles house and that its been abandoned for 30 years. I believe you have a good opertunity to hone your cache hunting skills. (CAUTION ABANDONED HOUSES CAN BE DANGEROUS DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK AND PLEASE USE COMMON SENCE). If the house looks like its about to fall down then let it do its thing over time and save it as a cache hunting spot for your kids. No need to put yourself in the hospital, it cuts into treasure hunting time. If you believe the house is safe and feel ok about it then go in an be careful. Head for the livingroom and see if if there is a fireplace. Check all around the fireplace, up into the chimney. (Bring a flashlight). Look for loose stones in the chimney, under the mantle piece. Even dig down through the ashes to see if there's a loose stone or brick on the bottom. Did your uncle have any hobbies that you know of? If you know that he's into making clocks for example, check all the homemade clocks in the house. Anything you see could be suspect. Shower curtain rods, Old curtains had weights sewed in to the bottom hem and sometimes rings were hidden there. In the toilet tank, Anything that has drawers,check the bottom of the drawers and the back and look for anything taped inside above the drawer. If there is a closet full of clothes check all the pockets, check the walls for hidden doors ect.. look for old trunks and search the attic for old newspapers and books and pictures of the past. The pictures themselves may give you clues as to where to look. I hunted a 1930's school for 2 years and only found one mercury dime. It took me a while to relize that the pavement was newer then I'd expected. All that silver is locked under pavement. Old pictures can reveal exactly whre shed's or privys were located. If the house has skeleton key door locks, check the locks themselves, sometimes kids dropped a coin or two in there. Is it a dirt basement? sifting dirt floors can provide you with unique treasures. Check the registers and crawlspaces and window sills and door frames and just everything. You can drill out a pencil and roll up a $100 bill and stick it in the pencil and put the eraser back on. CHECK EVERYTHING!!. Look out the bedroom window. What do you see? Take pics and post them, I could point out any potential places you might wanna check. Under rocks, shrubs, chicken coops, dog house, big tree, flower bed, fence post, stone wall, statue, you get my point? When people were straining their eyes at night to keep an eye on there cache they wanted to be able to easily locate it even in the dark.Chicken coops and dog houses were popular because the animals were the alarm system. Open your bedroom window and stick your gun out. Your money isn't gonna be much safer then that. Definately check all the furniture and appliances. @nd hunting at town parks. I was told by a DEC officer if he saw me he would have to ask me to leave, but he couldn't tell me that I couldn't hunt there, he just said don't get caught. He also said if I do get caught play dumb and say that you didn't know that you couldn't be there. The worse they can do is tell you to leave. If they see you there again then they can do something about it. I've been hunting the same (your not suppose to be here) beach for 2 years and no one has told me to leave yet. I go during off season and I am encouraged 2 continue going there by showing all the rusty nails and broken glass I've collected. I've pulled several rings off of this beach including the big hunky silver mans wide split band ring with lions reared up on their hind legs. A ring that I love but I'm giving away to the winner of my contest. If your not a member of treasurequestxlt then you can't win. If your not a member then sign up today. I've only been posting on this forum for a few months but i think its just as good as treasurenet. Good people, great feedback, all aspects of treasure hunting. My contest is under the general discussions forum. Come and check it out. Tell them swizzle sent you. As far as research I might be able to help you out. I'm from the Adirondacks (HI NEIGHBOR) I'm fairly new to researching but I know I'm heading in the right direction. Maybe we could find a library somewhere's in between the parks and I could show you a little about how I'm researching caches. Let me know what you think and maybe we can split a mason jar of silver and/or gold in the near future. What type of detector did you get? I'm tired its bedtime. I hope I didn't bore you. Jason
