I live in indiana and a 150 house is less than a mile away. The owner commited suicided accidentally believe it or not. He was drunk and accidentally mistook antifreeze for alcohol. I don't believe it has ever been searched except by me, but there is beeps every inch. I get frustrated digging up nails and other worthless junk and then i want to give up. There is an outhouse and everything. It is rumored that the old landowners were moonshiners and that they buried money there. What should i do? I am a beginning metal detectorist and don't know what to do. My dector has elimation available, but don't i need to turn it down to find a cache of money? I would be thankful for any help.
Too much scrap metal?
- Thread starter tommyb
- Start date
Tommy
First off hopefully you have permission to detect this property... Then I would start around the walkways and then hit the flower beds and around large tree's where people could have sat to get out of the sun. Sometimes you have to dig up the trash to find the whispers of deeper good finds as well. After hitting these area's I would grid off the property and go very slow with your detecting.
First off hopefully you have permission to detect this property... Then I would start around the walkways and then hit the flower beds and around large tree's where people could have sat to get out of the sun. Sometimes you have to dig up the trash to find the whispers of deeper good finds as well. After hitting these area's I would grid off the property and go very slow with your detecting.
As Craig said, be sure you have permission to be on that property. If things are not in order it is bad for the hobby in general. Once you know there is no problem with you being there. check all the aforementioned spots then head away from the house and check around all non movable object. This would include old trees, large boulders, fence posts, property markers etc. Never know if someone had one to many they might have buried something and forgot the next day. You mentioned outhouse, if you have the nose for it check it out real good. That was a place many things ended up in, and hidden in. After all would anyone want to rummage around a fresh outhouse? Good luck, keep us posted
Wonderful, we will be over to help you out tomorrow. 
just kidding wish you good luck..Gil
just kidding wish you good luck..Gil
mxtswinger
Elite Member
Your situation is very common so don't feel too bad.If you are looking for a cache, don't forget that they were often buried in tin cans, and can sound like scrap metal.
The less discrimination you use, the deeper you can detect. The more scrap metal you dig, the quicker you learn your machine, and you also increase the odds of finding
good targets. Yep, it takes patience. 
Good Swingin
Kevin
The less discrimination you use, the deeper you can detect. The more scrap metal you dig, the quicker you learn your machine, and you also increase the odds of finding
good targets. Yep, it takes patience. Good Swingin
Kevin
early_americana
Forum Supporter
Tommy. I have a similar place next door to me. The last guy that lived there in the 70's was an alcoholic and there is a ton of trash there. One thing that has helped me at least a little bit is raking the leaves so I'm not detecting the junk underneath them on top of the ground. Also using a small coil if you have one will help.
Re: Too much scrap metal?..TOMMY WOW What a great place to hunt
I could go on and on setting the sernero of you detecting that great place for months and months... maybe even years to cover a great place like that. First you got a realize that the ground your hunting is covered with years of great trash.... That's right ....I said, great trash! For all that trash can only mean one thing....and remember this detectorists! The ground that is baron of trash may hold a few good items, but the lack of trash in the ground means the lack of people being present!
Thus you have a great place.....Sure lots of nails and junk but they ill all tell you a story once you begin to put them together. Study your finds on a great place like this and eventually you'll begin to see pictures develope in your mind of a season past and gone by.
It may reveal other near by places, and it will tell you of buildings and trash areas that exsist around every house. If anything you'll learn to move around and then you'll begin to get an even better picture of what the area held.
It's like a storybook unfolding! Fun and exciting at every dig!
Have fun and enjoy it!
KCK/ Ohio
I could go on and on setting the sernero of you detecting that great place for months and months... maybe even years to cover a great place like that. First you got a realize that the ground your hunting is covered with years of great trash.... That's right ....I said, great trash! For all that trash can only mean one thing....and remember this detectorists! The ground that is baron of trash may hold a few good items, but the lack of trash in the ground means the lack of people being present!
Thus you have a great place.....Sure lots of nails and junk but they ill all tell you a story once you begin to put them together. Study your finds on a great place like this and eventually you'll begin to see pictures develope in your mind of a season past and gone by.
It may reveal other near by places, and it will tell you of buildings and trash areas that exsist around every house. If anything you'll learn to move around and then you'll begin to get an even better picture of what the area held.
It's like a storybook unfolding! Fun and exciting at every dig!
Have fun and enjoy it!
KCK/ Ohio
dooby
Elite Member
I had a similar area when I first started detecting in the 70's, we actually took an old lawn mower to the property, then raked the area. The lawn mower turned up an old well that no one remembered, the well was covered with rotting old wood and weeds. Sounds like you have a great location tommy !!!
Everyone has offered good advice. One thing to remember is that years ago, most people just threw stuff out their window, or burned their trash in the back yard. You may search around for a bottle dump too.
Start in an area that is not so trashy, like the fields.
As far as the outhouse, well here's a funny cartoon for ya.
Also read the history of garbage collecting. Pretty interesting.
http://www.acedisposal.com/history/history_garbage.aspx
Start in an area that is not so trashy, like the fields.
As far as the outhouse, well here's a funny cartoon for ya.
Also read the history of garbage collecting. Pretty interesting.
http://www.acedisposal.com/history/history_garbage.aspx
Attachments
spittfire
Elite Member
That was a neat article 
booker
Forum Supporter
Very interesting about the garbage.Would the black plague virus still be active in those graves ?
spittfire
Elite Member
If I am not mistaken, viruses must have a host to feed on. If the host dies then it must find a new host in a short period of time. So I do not think it is active in the grave.booker said:
booker
Forum Supporter
Thats good --Would be scary to dig one up by mistake and take that nasty virus home
HEM
Forum Supporter
Thats about one year I have been reading the posts in this forum... Now it's time to join in and share my 8 years of "prospection" WITHOUT METAL DETECTORS (maybe this year EX SE... don't worry i'll post my 8 years experience in this forum soon). So to start lets say that for this kind of old house, one of my favorite place is the laundry or to spot the place where clothes were dry outside (its easy, look between two trees or two or more existing/existed poles where the clothes dry) find lots of goodies there. Look in the basement if the house has one ( hoping its not made of reinforced concrete). The front door and back yard and corners are the best place to find caches even the floor and internal partition of the house if its made of plank ( one major problem are nails....but I don't own any metal detectors to tell you how to overcome this problem, but for me its not a major problem, carpenters set the nails in regular intervals in the planks, repair areas are sometime noticeable, hence any irregularities and repairs may mean something good, last year we found some silver cents in an old house with plank floor. We notice that a plank had something strange with it that i can't explain but it could come out easily). Your Uncle is very lucky to buy a house own by a drunkard (if old landowner was a drunkard). Take a look a the empty bottles ( if there are any remaining) they can cost some bucks if they are very old or rare, collectors rush on them. And don't forget the storehouse... 
. if its a farm, hope that there's a river near by... Rush to it...
. if its a farm, hope that there's a river near by... Rush to it...
booker
Forum Supporter
welcome
tommyb said:
with the places I hunt I run into that quite a bit myself and I often get that feeling too, and when I do get that feeling I do give up... IMO this hobby is supposed to be fun, not a job, and I'm sure not going to MAKE myself do it, if I'm not having fun at the time I just leave and go do something else... the urge to go back to the same spot and see if I can find something cool usually comes back fairly quick and then I go back until I get sick of it again, then I leave again...
