My son went metal detecting with a Scout group and seemed interested. I had mentioned buying one, but never really got around to even looking into it. Primary use would be as a hobby looking for coins, jewelry, etc.

The other day I was at a customer's home to open a safe belonging to her late husband. While there she told me that her husband and his friend had buried multiple buckets of silver coins and other precious metals on farm property they own. They never made a map, and despite alleged attempts by the friend have been unable to locate them. The friend was wanting to rent a dozer to start pushing the general area to see what he could find.

She said she doesn't trust the friend out there by himself, and said if I had access to a metal detector and wanted to look for it she would prefer that over heavy equipment. It was buried by hand, so although it may be "deep" as far as detection goes, it's not terribly deep.

Any recommendations?

Oddball idea / long shot:
Is there a college nearby with an archaeology department? Do they have a ground-penetrating radar unit they would run across the area?

I mentioned radar as an option as well.

Farm is in the middle of nowhere. If we went to look we would take some of the Scouts and end up camping at least one night due to the location.

For obvious reasons, she also doesn't want to advertise the situation to too many people she doesn't know or trust.

I can’t contribute but I am curious, how much acreage do you need to cover?

I wouldn't think much. She says there's 200 acres there, but that the friend knows the general area it should be in. Assumed to be along a tree line or fence line vs out in the middle of a field.

Reminds me of Shawshank Redemption.

Very interesting. I hope you can really narrow it down. Sounds like it could be tedious.

I would think you'd want to bring stakes and twine or something to grid it out and know where you've been and where you have to go.

Good luck!

Large quantities should be easier to locate. You're not looking for a coin but a more massive target. A larger coil on the metal detector= More ground covered.

A good systematic grid pattern would be needed. You want to be certain you've checked an area and mark it off instead of randomly searching over and over again. In the videos they drag a piece of chain behind them to show the grid covered.

You might consider Landmarks as Locations to search. They didn't make a map- Maybe they were relying on Landmarks as a reference. Big tree, boulder etc.

How long ago? Any chance of a visual search showing settling / unusual depressions where the items were buried.

Searching for stuff it's preferable to leave the area as untouched as possible.


https://www.youtube.com/result...tralian+gold+hunting

One of the more enjoyable series we've watched. Detectorists from the BBC.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06l51nr

This may strike some as wacky, but my experience with "witching" has proven value in the past. I did this to locate underground utilities, irrigation lines, etc. when I was doing landscaping. It was at least as accurate as the Miss Utility service.

My usual technique was to bend two lengths of a wire clothes hanger into "L" shape and hold one in each hand. When walking the area watch for the wires to cross and mark the spot. One must hold them loosely enough to allow easy swinging.

I figure that the way it worked was that your subconscious mind picks up subtle changes in the ground surface and/or vegetation that indicates a disturbance at some prior time. What can I say? It usually worked, and certainly was low investment.

200 acres and a couple of guys out swinging detectors will take a long time to cover and sticking a group of scouts out they won't keep it a secret long. Ground penetrating radar is great but comes at a price, it's expensive and again others are going to know about the location. They do make specialty detectors that cover larger areas but they come with a large price.

I for one would be interested in the outcome of your search.
Would make a great short story.
Get a go-pro and make up a video of the find once it happens.

When was the stuff buried? The USGS has a LIDAR Map resource.

https://www.usgs.gov/tools/lidarexplorer

Also a Drone overflight / survey might yield clues and help layout a plan.

Many larger rental companies rent detectors for a very reasonable price. I did that for a neighbor who lost a hearing aid in her back yard.

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200 acres and a couple of guys out swinging detectors will take a long time to cover and sticking a group of scouts out they won't keep it a secret long.

Assuming the friend will give us the general area, and assuming he hasn't already absconded with it, I don't think it would take us long. Even without the friend, my customer said that it should be along a tree line or fence line. At that point we'd mostly be working perimeter versus the full area.

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When was the stuff buried?

I don't even think she's entirely sure. Husband has been dead for a few years, and he told her about it prior. I'd say a range of 2 to 20 years.

And without going into detail, I know it's legit. The guy was into coins and precious metals and very well off. Many 5 gallon buckets full of silver would be well within the realm of possibility for this guy even as a hobby.

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Originally posted by a1abdj:

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200 acres and a couple of guys out swinging detectors will take a long time to cover and sticking a group of scouts out they won't keep it a secret long.

Assuming the friend will give us the general area, and assuming he hasn't already absconded with it, I don't think it would take us long. Even without the friend, my customer said that it should be along a tree line or fence line. At that point we'd mostly be working perimeter versus the full area.

quote:

When was the stuff buried?

I don't even think she's entirely sure. Husband has been dead for a few years, and he told her about it prior. I'd say a range of 2 to 20 years.

And without going into detail, I know it's legit. The guy was into coins and precious metals and very well off. Many 5 gallon buckets full of silver would be well within the realm of possibility for this guy even as a hobby.

I would look into renting a tow behind or self propelled Ground Penetrating radar and do a grid search, you're going to have to mark grids, dowels and string would work.

Now I'm excited.

I’ve gone out with a relative, looking for ‘float copper’. He’s up to a ‘Mine-Lab’ detector, $5k+ worth.

He goes fairly remote, most places there’s the various metals in the woods, nails, horseshoe parts, metal cans, whatever. Yeah, you can discriminate some before you dig.

So the confidence level is rather high, that the coins are there? MO? Good luck.

It's going to be extremely hard to keep this a secret . She'll have all kinds of trespassers poking around .

I’ve got a fairly inexpensive (like $350 in 2019] Minelab that I’ve used for evidence recovery and light EOD sweeping. It’s not something that I would trust by itself in a full on minefield but it was a good tool for precautionary sweeps and I found some improvised training devices with it in several training exercises. I also found a bunch of shell casings with it in various search warrants. I’m not sure how good it would be for precious metal recovery but it’s probably a start for something that works decent. Other than that Minelab unit, I’ve only ever used a Garrett and one of the super fancy military issue EOD metal detectors. I actually liked the Minelab unit the best overall and I would probably recommend Minelab as a decent company to start with.

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While there she told me that her husband and his friend had buried multiple buckets of silver coins and other precious metals on farm property they own.

If there was ever a situation where as few people as possible need to know or are "in the loop", this is it.