Need help to detect gold bars 4-6 feet deep

[mulletator]

Hey guys, I was recently contacted by a local person with a personal treasure story.

Apparently this woman's ex-boyfriend buried a box with several gold bars in their back yard. It was meant to be a surprise for her but he tragically died in a car crash and didn't get the opportunity to present her with it. She learned of this recently after his death.

She knows which property it's located on but the area is 1/4 acre in size and she figures it's buried 4-6 feet deep. There are apparently several gold bars the sized of Hershey bars. There is supposed to be other treasures but she doesn't know what those are. She doesn't know what kind of container this stuff is buried in. If it was metal we could find it pretty easily with a magnetometer but she's not sure.

What technologies are available to detect at that depth? I'm not aware of any detectors that can reliably go that deep.

 

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[Clay Diggins]

Gold bars "the size of Hershey bars" sounds like someone is guessing. I don't know of any gold bars manufactured with those type dimensions.

I think what a lot of posters are missing here is that gold has a very weak detector signal compared to other metals. You might be able to detect solid iron bars of that size at 4 - 6 foot depth but gold bars at that depth? Not gonna happen.

A GPR would reveal the disturbed areas of the property but a quarter acre residential property will probably have as many disturbed areas as those not disturbed.

First I would try a good PI detector like the Minelab GPX series with a large coil. That machine won't detect gold at 4 - 6 foot depth but I find it unlikely that the man dug a six foot hole to bury a few gold bars.

If the bars were buried in a larger iron/steel container that might provide enough signal to detect. I suspect anyone paranoid enough to bury gold 6 foot deep would not put those bars in a detectable metal container. In a residential yard you would dig a lot of holes and have a pile of non gold metal objects long before your ground was clean enough to detect a metal box at depth. If that metal box was buried anywhere near buried pipes or electric lines all bets are off. If the quarter acre is in a residential or commercial area the EMI would cut your depth and your chances of detecting the stash considerably.

The two box systems are a non starter. They won't detect smaller objects like gold bars at depth. If you were looking for a buried safe, car, iron pipe or railroad track they would perform considerably better and deeper than other detectors because this is what they were designed for.

IF the wife actually knew there were gold bars and knew the weight of those bars was considerable the logical and quickest (not cheapest) alternative would be to begin scraping off a foot or two at a time and detecting as you go. Eventually those gold bars will be discovered - if they exist at that location.

 

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[southfork]

It's only a 1/4 acre I could dig the whole area in a day with a mini excavator rented from Home Depot lol who needs a detector.

 

[TheGreenBoy]

It's only a 1/4 acre I could dig the whole area in a day with a mini excavator rented from Home Depot lol who needs a detector.

I need a detector. And an array wenner GRT would be really nice....Santa baby?

 

[ARC]

Why so deep?? doesn't make sense. In general, treasures are not buried deeper than a man's arm can reach.

Gospel.

 

[AstralDruid]

Dowsing rocks....
I'm thinking it just needs a good marketing team....

Must get me some and ditch the detectors once and for all..................Hoooraayyyy... 🌛

 

[hound]

Nexus Metal Detectors Official Web Site

Nexus Metal Detectors Official Website - Deep seeking treasure hunting and gold prospecting detectors

www.nexusdetectors.com

MP V3 with the big coil can detect a copper pan at 3m deep. It'll detect gold but they're not cheap and the coil is huge so you might need some back support swinging dual 31" coils.

 

[hound]

 

[99thpercentile]

Airborne electromagnetic surveys for geophysics are not anything new, they have been used for probably 50 years. Several of my friends and colleagues do this fully time, designing surveys, collecting data, and processing it. These aren't applicable to treasure hunting as they wouldn't find the small targets that most treasure hunters are looking for, they are designed to image to depths of hundreds of meters. The starting price for an airborne survey is probably around $350K now just to get the equipment to the site.

 

[boogeyman]

I'm looking for things that actually work. Dowsing does not work, I know some people on here believe in that stuff but it doesn't work. I don't want to get a big rant going on dowsning but suffice it to say I'm not interested.

Your first sentence bout days it all. You sure it doesn't work? It's a relatively cheap approach. If you're really interested in locating this wouldn't it make sense to use all available tools no matter your beliefs?
I have a TM808, and can honestly say I've found more with the rods than I've located with the Whites. A scientist!?!? I thought Scientists experimented and looked at things from all angles. Witchcraft?!?! Is that a scientific term? Did you mean skeptic,? Wish you best of luck in your hunt!

Post up a GE image I'm sure one of us witches / warlocks would be way willing to lend a hand narrowing your search down some.

 

[sprailroad]

I'm sorry that you believe in witchcraft. This is the last thing that I'm going to say on the subject. I wish that dowsing did work, it would make life a lot easier. Unfortunately it 100% does not work, I'm a scientist and I've studied it. So have a lot of other people. Keep on believing buddy but I'm looking for a technique that can actually get results.

No need to be insulting, the guy just offered a suggestion, one you could accept or disregard. OK then, four to six feet deep, as a surprise gift? Lots of digging when 2' would have been good, but then I'm old and shot.

 

[sprailroad]

I have tried it. We've done scientific trials as well as studied the research of numerous other scientific studies on the subject. Not to mention that I've interviewed hundreds of dowsers and not one of them can show any evidence that they've ever legitimately found gold using dowsing rods.

It doesn't work, not even a little bit. That's not my opinion that's a fact that has been proven over and over again.

As I said, I wish it did work. It would make gold exploration 1000 times easier.

As a "Scientist" did you not research "Two-box detector's as well?" I'm just saying....

 

[AKSasquatch]

4-6 feet deep would require a sizable hole and would be way deeper than anyone would bury anything they wanted to be found. If landscaping has been done, perhaps they are estimating the depth based on new mounds of dirt overlying the original burial site, which could limit your search area. Several god bars could pay for a lot of landscaping, might be time to redo it and detect along the way.

 

[the peace]

I strongly suggest against this. GPR is a great technique for detecting non-metallic targets, but if the target is metallic I would always use either a metal detector or magnetometer, depending on whether the target is ferrous or non-ferrous, before a GPR. GPR is very site dependent, whereas the metal detectors and magnetometers are much less site dependent.

hello for everybody thank you very much mr 99thpercentile fo your advice but i think that the russian GPR loza n can detect metallic targets and in hard rock and klay soil for deep targets . what is your appoint vew about that.

 

[Ism]

Only a little bit. I've never used one. It sounds like something that might work for this job. I'd like to hear from someone who has actually used one for this purpose before I go that route.

Did you try a PI detector on the property? I have a Whites TDI and with an 18" homemade coil, in all-metal mode it will detect 12oz size tin can at over 40" in my testing. The standard 12" coil will go pretty deep also.

EDIT: Oops, I missed the second page of PI recommendations. .....Nevermind.

 

[Steviecop]

Only a little bit. I've never used one. It sounds like something that might work for this job. I'd like to hear from someone who has actually used one for this purpose before I go that route.

Deus just came out with a 2 box system for the Deus 2. That's all I know about it but you may want to research it if you know someone with a D2. May be a cheap way to start.