jaredb3000
New Member
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2020
- Messages
- 4
Greetings all!
I've spent a decent amount of time searching this forum, and have decided it's time to ask some questions to y'all who have been in the detecting game a while
My neighbor recently learned that there was a guy who used to live at my house who made quite a bit of money once!upon a time, that he did not trust banks, and it was suggested to my neighbor that I hunt the property due to the likeliness that he may have hid a decent amount of $ here. I have a solid familiarity with researching local history and decided to investigate the historical data to see if the story about this guy checked out, and he did indeed make quite a bit of money. He also used to own a laundromat!in the 60's/70's, which means if he did stash $ around here its probable it might be in the form of silver quarters
Unfortunately, his relative who owned the house worked for the railroad and was a bit of a hoarder, so there is quite a bit of junk metal beneath the surface and it would take 5 years to dig every metal target. As I'm selling the house this spring, I'd like to calibrate my search to maximize the possibility of finding a stash of silver coins, while also keeping the option open for any gold that may have been stashed...
I've recently purchased a Minelab xterra 705 and have a decent grasp on how to use it having spent some time with it in the yard after studying manuals & watching videos.
My approach at the moment, given the amount of junk around the yard is to look for any large metal targets in all metal mode (if there is any cash buried its gonna need to be in something big & metal or I'm probably not going to find it). I've been toggling between AM and setting #1 in the treasure hunting mode for now, and I also regularly set the threshold & grounding using the automatic function. The threshold is usually at 2.
I'm far more interested in finding a decent stash of silver quarters which is quite possible, or better yet gold considering that $1000 of gold purchased in the early 60's would be worth about 200K today. Wishful thinking on the latter, but it is possible he may have purchased some as an investment given that gold prices steadily rose during the time he lived here...
All of that said, I am needing some advice on how to maximize the settings on the detector. Here is my list of questions, labeled A,B,C etc. for ease of follow up as I don't expect anyone to answer all of them
I'd like to check 3 different spaces- the yard, the dirt crawlspaces, and walls/ceilings.
A) I understand that crawlspaces & the walls/ceilings will be difficult, but given that I will be limiting my search to a decent volume of silver/gold- any recommendations for what settings to use when scanning the walls/ceilings? There is blow in insulation in the attic so I'll need to check that space from inside the house...
B) In regards to wiring- should I shut off the breakers before I do any detecting? I know where all the wires are, so I can limit my search to areas with no copper wires as needed.
C) Would it be possible to discriminate against copper wire without running the risk of missing silver or gold targets?
D) There is quite a bit of dirt crawl space under the house, and I would have to guess this would be where someone would have hidden $. There were several people living at the house & given the visibility of the yard to many of the neighbors, the crawlspace is the only area one would have been able to operate discreetly. From what I've gathered on this forum, my best bet would be to set the sensitivity quite low, correct? Any other suggestions for crawlspace settings? Should I set the threshold lower or higher when lowering the sensitivity? There is about 3' of clearance in the crawlspace, FYI.
E) There is a brick patio that would have been an addition made during the time this individual lived here. The bricks are set in about 1-2 inches of concrete with sand beneath and it would not be terribly difficult to remove them and reset them. Any setting recommendations for this particular environment?
F) As per the rest of the property (the yard) I would like to maximize the depth range- should I set the sensitivity as high as possible while also discriminating against everything but silver and gold? Is that even possible to do? For now I'm checking the yard for larger objects in AM mode & treasure setting #1.
G) I've noticed when in treasure mode the target ID sometimes reads a higher non-ferrous #, but when pinpointing it will usually read -6 or -8. Should I give any precedence to targets that occasionally show a # in the 40's when in treasure mode but show non ferrous #'s when pinpointing?
H) If I don't have any luck on my own I'd consider offering a percentage as a finders fee for anyone with more experience & better equipment that would be interested in helping with the hunt. What would a fair % be to offer someone? I'm located in Nashville, FYI
Thank you kindly for any & all input!
Best,
JB
I've spent a decent amount of time searching this forum, and have decided it's time to ask some questions to y'all who have been in the detecting game a while
My neighbor recently learned that there was a guy who used to live at my house who made quite a bit of money once!upon a time, that he did not trust banks, and it was suggested to my neighbor that I hunt the property due to the likeliness that he may have hid a decent amount of $ here. I have a solid familiarity with researching local history and decided to investigate the historical data to see if the story about this guy checked out, and he did indeed make quite a bit of money. He also used to own a laundromat!in the 60's/70's, which means if he did stash $ around here its probable it might be in the form of silver quarters
Unfortunately, his relative who owned the house worked for the railroad and was a bit of a hoarder, so there is quite a bit of junk metal beneath the surface and it would take 5 years to dig every metal target. As I'm selling the house this spring, I'd like to calibrate my search to maximize the possibility of finding a stash of silver coins, while also keeping the option open for any gold that may have been stashed...
I've recently purchased a Minelab xterra 705 and have a decent grasp on how to use it having spent some time with it in the yard after studying manuals & watching videos.
My approach at the moment, given the amount of junk around the yard is to look for any large metal targets in all metal mode (if there is any cash buried its gonna need to be in something big & metal or I'm probably not going to find it). I've been toggling between AM and setting #1 in the treasure hunting mode for now, and I also regularly set the threshold & grounding using the automatic function. The threshold is usually at 2.
I'm far more interested in finding a decent stash of silver quarters which is quite possible, or better yet gold considering that $1000 of gold purchased in the early 60's would be worth about 200K today. Wishful thinking on the latter, but it is possible he may have purchased some as an investment given that gold prices steadily rose during the time he lived here...
All of that said, I am needing some advice on how to maximize the settings on the detector. Here is my list of questions, labeled A,B,C etc. for ease of follow up as I don't expect anyone to answer all of them
I'd like to check 3 different spaces- the yard, the dirt crawlspaces, and walls/ceilings.
A) I understand that crawlspaces & the walls/ceilings will be difficult, but given that I will be limiting my search to a decent volume of silver/gold- any recommendations for what settings to use when scanning the walls/ceilings? There is blow in insulation in the attic so I'll need to check that space from inside the house...
B) In regards to wiring- should I shut off the breakers before I do any detecting? I know where all the wires are, so I can limit my search to areas with no copper wires as needed.
C) Would it be possible to discriminate against copper wire without running the risk of missing silver or gold targets?
D) There is quite a bit of dirt crawl space under the house, and I would have to guess this would be where someone would have hidden $. There were several people living at the house & given the visibility of the yard to many of the neighbors, the crawlspace is the only area one would have been able to operate discreetly. From what I've gathered on this forum, my best bet would be to set the sensitivity quite low, correct? Any other suggestions for crawlspace settings? Should I set the threshold lower or higher when lowering the sensitivity? There is about 3' of clearance in the crawlspace, FYI.
E) There is a brick patio that would have been an addition made during the time this individual lived here. The bricks are set in about 1-2 inches of concrete with sand beneath and it would not be terribly difficult to remove them and reset them. Any setting recommendations for this particular environment?
F) As per the rest of the property (the yard) I would like to maximize the depth range- should I set the sensitivity as high as possible while also discriminating against everything but silver and gold? Is that even possible to do? For now I'm checking the yard for larger objects in AM mode & treasure setting #1.
G) I've noticed when in treasure mode the target ID sometimes reads a higher non-ferrous #, but when pinpointing it will usually read -6 or -8. Should I give any precedence to targets that occasionally show a # in the 40's when in treasure mode but show non ferrous #'s when pinpointing?
H) If I don't have any luck on my own I'd consider offering a percentage as a finders fee for anyone with more experience & better equipment that would be interested in helping with the hunt. What would a fair % be to offer someone? I'm located in Nashville, FYI
Thank you kindly for any & all input!
Best,
JB