Possible chance at a good MD experience

[Phantasman]

Possible chance at a good MD experience

My wifes grandfather died last spring. He has left a lot of acreage to be sold to add to his estate before dividing it between the 2 children he had. On that property are 3 old homes now abandoned (at least 70 years old). She has told be of an aunt that used to bury jars of money and hide money in the house. We went by the house and sure enough, it looks like it's ready to collapse. I am getting ready to buy my first MD and this will be my first stop. I am wondering, after visiting the Garret site, if the Ace 250 can find a cache of money. The Garrett website says that you have to move up to the 550 to use this feature http://www.garrett.com/hobby/techsupport/applications.htm.

It actually says to purchase the 2500 for best results. Does the 250 not pick up a cache in the all metal mode? Can I get by with the 1350?

Just wanted to see what some of you have experienced with these two. I don't know if I want to spend $850 on my first detector.

 

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[JT2]

Re: Possible chance at a good MD experience

Hiya,

I'd recommend starting with the Ace250, and get the additional 9x12 coil so that you can search deeper. The 250 is a fine machine to start with.

 

[Sandman]

Re: Possible chance at a good MD experience

The Ace 250 doesn't have the guts to find a deeply buried cache or fruit jar full of money. That is what Garrett meant by using the higher end machines where you can use the two box detector accessory that will cover more area and lots deeper. Sure it's possible to locate a small cache buried in a flower bed.

Be sure to check out the area near any chicken coops too. Trees with nails pounded into the underside of a limb for hanging a plumb bob, etc.

Good Luck,
Sandman

 

[Phantasman]

Re: Possible chance at a good MD experience

This was an old man and woman. The woman died 15 years ago and was never a bank type person. The house has a root cellar where she kept hidden ball jars and many had money that was recovered after she died. I have been by the house (never in it) on the way to the top of the mountain. My wife remembers family talking about how aunt Iley used to bury her money rather than put it in the bank. I just thought it might be worth the search.

If she was old, I wouldn't think she would bury something too far down. I don't know if the 250 could find bills in a ball jar at 12 inches. But it seems that the 1350 or 1500 would. I don't know if I want to go as far as investing in the box detectors. But it's nice to know the option exists.

 

[EDDE]

Re: Possible chance at a good MD experience

don't forget the flower bed/s or the garden
the most obvious place to dig a hole and bury something in plain view and never get a second glance
also dog kennel/s who messes with a dog
and if they did the alarm goes off
BANG

 

[TreasureTales]

Re: Possible chance at a good MD experience

Why are you interested in Garrett detectors? Why not spend some money on a mid-level Tesoro? Don't be a tight wad and blow the opportunity of a lifetime. You will always be kicking yourself for not forking over a couple hundred bucks more for a better detector once that property is sold and you can no longer access it and the buildings. How many times do people go the cheap route and then regret it for the rest of their lives? The old adage is true: YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. With the strong possibility of more caches of loot, I'd be out there with the best detector I could afford, after learning how to use it fairly well, and be looking for more stashes!! And here's something else to consider on an old property...there's more to 'treasure' than just gold, silver, currency. The definition of treasure can also include old bottles, silverware, jars, tins (like for tobacco and coffee), jewelry, poker chips, anything that someone else might value enough to want to buy. You could sell the stuff on eBay or you could haul a box full of it to an antique dealer. Whatever you do at such a potentially productive location, don't do it too quickly, too cheaply, and don't disregard things just because you don't personally consider them TREASURE!!!!


Good Luck! Please let us know which detector you buy, and post updates of your quest. [Wish I could go with you...]

 

[EDDE]

Re: Possible chance at a good MD experience

yup
ivory,whale baleen,whale oil etc is no longer imported it will get top dollar now!

 

[MonDak]

Re: Possible chance at a good MD experience

yup
ivory,whale baleen,whale oil etc is no longer imported it will get top dollar now!

 

[Phantasman]

Re: Possible chance at a good MD experience

Why are you interested in Garrett detectors? Why not spend some money on a mid-level Tesoro?

Since this is my first detector, Garrett seems easy to learn. Tightwad? You don't know me. If I felt there was surely a lot of money on this property, I would spend a few thousand on something better than Tesoro. Thats not the case. I wanted to get an Ace 250 just to have a hobby (I sold my security company a few years ago and retired, I'm 56) and after my wife told me the story of her aunt, I figured I might want to spend a little more to get something with more features. A lot of the detectors I have seen remind me of the old "why take the time to read a book when you can just watch the movie". Garrett has a great screen for movies.

 

[Dick from IA]

Re: Possible chance at a good MD experience

Buying an upper end detector at first could be frustrating and discouraging. Buy the Ace 250, get to know it and enjoy the finds it gives you.

Then, with reseach, make a decision on a higher end unit, if you choose to. Most of us do have more than one detector, anyway.

Good Luck; I envy the opportunity you have

DFIU

 

[ramjet2187]

Re: Possible chance at a good MD experience

I think I have your answer...........send me an email with the address of the property, and I'll dig the treasure up for you............... .

I think you've gotten some great advice. Ace 250 seems like an easy enough machine to learn to use, an elderly person wasn't digging 4 foot holes to bury her cash, so it won't likely be too deep.

Search slowly, overlap your sweeps, and dig every signal. Or you can take the easy way out, and just have me do it...........

Roger

 

[treasurekidd]

Re: Possible chance at a good MD experience

Honestly, I would consider buying both the ACE250 and the GTI2500 with the depth multiplier. They are 2 very different machines, with 2 very different uses for you. The ACE250 would be your everyday hobby detector for poking around schoolyards and parks. The GTI2500 with depth multiplier would be the "heavy equipment" you use for finding the buried caches, but you don't want to be hauling that out every day for an hour long hunt at a city park. Besides, even if you decided later on the you like the GTI2500 for every day hunting, the ACE will still make a great back up detector.

If I were you, I'd be out there hunting those caches NOW! In addition to the garden and flower beds, be sure to stand by the bedroom windows and look from there for any obvious places. People often buried their loot within site of a window, for obvious reasons. Also, were their any outhouses on these properties way back when? If so, it might be worth it to try to find out where they were, and hunt the paths from the houses to the outhouses heavily. Also hunt under where any old clotheslines may have once been, and along any walkways and fence lines (especially the fence lines!). Under a post in the fence was a common burying place for jars of coins, and were called "post hole banks".

Let us know how you make out, and best of luck to you!

 

[bazinga]

Re: Possible chance at a good MD experience

Do not get a Garrett machine if you want to dig a cache. I use a Minelab Explorer, but I don't think that would be a good machine for finding a cache of coins.

I would say a Tesoro would be a good choice or a Minelab Excalibur (it's a water machine, but gets great depth) or even a Nautilus if the cache could be in an iron container.

But I would say don't get a garrett if you are looking for a cache.

 

[dahut]

Slow down everybody...

...First, DO you need the 2500? Maybe. Some very good advice was given about getting BOTH the ACE 250 AND the GTI 2500. For the first timer, these two just might be the easiest to learn, when compared to many of the other high end detectors mentioned as "best". It is specifically designed for such things as you intend Another good choice might be the Garrett CX Plus, another unsung relic and cache machine. I had a CX II some years ago and it was a great machine...I wish I had it back.

The problem is, many high end detectors are bothersome for the newbie to get the hang of. For us nimrods, we love nothing more than mastering another new toy. But, since I gather you intend to go right to it without a year's worth of practice, some of the high end detectors might leave you scratching your head more than anything else.

But there's a larger issue here. In this case, there is far more to know about detecting around and IN old houses than which detector to use. Old houses, especially those that are old and still erect, leave more to find than just "hoped for" caches. You've gotten come great advice from the Kidd, stuff that says he understands the science AND psychology to this practice. These are things you should embrace before you ever get serious about searching patiently and thoroughly. Did you catch those two words? Here's another clue as to what I mean.

Most grannies that hoard coins in a jar don't bury them far - if they do, it's close by the back door or in the garden. Their main concern was/is getting to their goodies before grandpa is on to them; thus they arent terribly deep. You aren't looking for the Treasure of Montezuma here, just some grubby dimes and quarters in a mason jar. Frankly, the chances are pretty good that any coin jars WONT be buried at all, but rather inside the house. See, on the whole, men bury caches; women, however, find other places around the house like in the kitchen or basement. Would you know where and why a woman from 50-70 years ago would hide stuff? You should.

Most decent detectors will find such things, but from experience the Garretts will honk out loud should you be lucky enough to stumble over one that had been buried.

I have used a lot of detectors, in all price ranges. And like all the others, I have my favorites - I like Garrett, Fishers and Tesoro's. But, since you've mentioned Garrett, it should be said that they go to great lengths to make a detector that suits even newcomers - especially newcomers. The 2500 could be a little bit much for a newcomer, but it is a powerful tool that can do what you want once you've gotten the hang of it, which wont take too long. For pooping around the yard areas, the little Ace will do great for nosing under bushes and overgrowth. You wont spend less at the high end, no matter whose instrument you purchase, so you might want to consider getting both.

Besides, its not really relevant anyway. No matter whose quality detector you use, knowing how and when and where to use it will do more for you.

I humbly suggest you spend your first money on a good book about HOW TO find such things as you are looking for around an old house site. Just for the record, Charles Garrett has written one of the best on the subject and you'll get one for free if you buy a 2500, AFAIK.

 

[Phantasman]

Re: Possible chance at a good MD experience

Thanks to all of you for your advice.

I have a forum where we discuss different computer operating systems. Windows, Mac and Linux. There are the same types of people who will swear by their own OS, but just as here, Windows is easier than Linux and Mac. All come to a near same conclusion of results, its just how you get there and how easy the journey is.

That said, I have researched many detectors and have even read the PDF users manuals on most home sites. I have read the reviews of almost all detectors on metaldetectorreviews.net. From just reading, most detectors do about the same, some deeper, some better at discrimination, etc. But with a coin buried 4-5 inches, it would seem that they all will find it, fast and with ID. Getting deeper seems to be with more power (8AA over a 9V) and better frequency attributes. Discrimination and image/profiling can be established with a processor and, just like Intel and AMD, the faster and efficient ones are going to cost more. Now enter the user to work with this. The user is half of the equation to make it work. After all, a new user swinging a Garrett 2500 too fast, won't find as much as an experienced detectorist swinging an Ace 150. This is where this site shines, the sharing of the common goal of "finding stash" and the quest of how to do so, not on what equipment they use to accomplish this.

I build computers as a hobby and am a fire alarm systems engineer (32 years), so I understand how electromagnetic and frequency refraction principles work. When I read the spec's for all the different detectors, basically they are all operating the same, it's the processing of signal and displaying the result that seems to differ. Minelab doesn't send a signal any further than a Garrett. The result is how good the receptive signal is processed and how it's displayed. Add sensitivity and discrimination variables to the equation and you have a lot of variables. Half is how good the detector processes and the other half is how good the users sets up his machine to do the processing.

Garrett is what I like. It's easy to use, has all the features I want, seems to have a good following, works for many (from what I read), has a good reputation, has been around for a long time and the price is right for me. I could do a little better I guess, but I don't think I am making a WRONG decision.

Again, I thank each and everyone of those here, and since I have chosen my equipment, it's time to move to the area of this site to get some tips on hunting and hopefully share some findings.

Dan

 

[dahut]

Re: Possible chance at a good MD experience

Well said, Dan. I firmly appreciate your background and thank you for sharing it. We often get so little information when some pops up asking questions.

You have drawn all the right conslusions, to a tee, in fact. For finding a dime at 10", indeed, there may ba a minor depth advantage in one unit over another. But for your intent and with your knowledge base, the Garrett will do.

In fact, that 1350 we discussed elsewhere will manage the job I should think. With it, you could get the Ace 250, too. Whatever you do, get the larger coils. Their physical size will result in a larger field at depth and make it easier to hit on any large targets beneath the soil, should they exist - ditto for smaller ones.

One other thing comes to mind in all this and thats safety. Old, rickety houses can be hazardous, what with rotting floors, joists and the occasional creature that sets up housekeeping in them. Do be careful, okay?

 

[Phantasman]

Re: Possible chance at a good MD experience

Thanks, Obi

 

[dahut]

Re: Possible chance at a good MD experience

The Force be With You, my friend.