Treasure Hunting

Anyone into treasure hunting with a metal detector?

I am seriously thinking about getting into this hobby based on a personal theory of mine. We had a massive flooding of the Missouri river a few years back that went over the banks out for about 10 miles. The river's channel ended up being cut deeper by 8-12 feet due to the increase in water flow which exposed a lot of junk previously buried in the mud.

Just at my job area alone, there was a safe discovered due to the churning of the river banks. It ended up being empty, but the fact that something that heavy was moved around makes me curious since there were over 42 River boats sunk along this river that were never recovered.....all within about 7 miles of my area.

With the price of silver and gold what it is right now, it would not take much to pay off the equipment. The detector that I have my eye on is a pretty cheap one, but will detect down to about 39 cm with the ability to distinguish between metal types.

Just curious if anyone has any personal experience with this stuff.

What are you retired?

I've thought about a detector. Both for just seeing what I can find, and actually hunting valuables.

After giving it some thought, I just don't have the time at this point of life.

I have a job, a business to run, church and volunteer functions I perform, and life in general to live. Just don't have time to add something else to the mix.

Sometimes I feel retired right now. Business is steadily growing with most days booked this week, but only for one job each. I do have about $5,000 coming from work scheduled for the 15th, so the month should end well, but I still find some dead days yet.

I have always been fascinated by this kind of thing since I was 6 when I found a Remington pistol buried in a dirt cliff. We didn't see any Civil War fighting or any great historical events, but we did have a huge amount of cattle being driven across the prairie to Omaha.....bound to be a few things dropped along the way.

Besides, the winter slow down isn't far away and I can only play guitar for so many hours a day. A little hunting at the vacant farm houses might prove very interesting. I know that I have found all kinds of cool stuff stuffed inside the walls of these old houses over the years.

I also happen to know of a view ghost towns that few know about within a days drive from here. One never knows.

I'm too impatient with that kind of stuffs, I would've slammed that detector on the ground after an hour of search and found nothing, lol.

Many years ago I was in Nome, Ak visiting my brother.
Early in the 1900's the city burn to the ground.... Twice. They just pushed the rubble into the ocean and rebuilt. You can go out at lowtide or after a storm and comb the beach for trinkets. All kind of things.
My brother took me 15 miles into the hills were old delapidated mining shacks are in the brush. We found a few and just started turning over the debris: walls, roofs, doors. Once again, all kinds of trinkets,

That's what I'm talking about Matt....good stuff.

One of my first jobs at 16 was working with an old retired cattle rancher. He told me a story about how he and his brother spent 3 years with metal detectors looking for a stolen armored truck that was reportedly buried in the Sandhills of Nebraska.

The criminals that heisted the truck both died in Prison and the rancher thought he would find it eventually, but detectors back then weren't so great and he probably walked right over it.

About 8 years ago, a homeowner was having trouble with their basement walls bowing in. The contractor that came out to investigate the problem discovered a 1940's era armored truck buried on the other side.....held 1/4 million dollars in the back.

dp1 wrote:I'm too impatient with that kind of stuffs, I would've slammed that detector on the ground after an hour of search and found nothing, lol.

That's funny Dp I would probably do the same thing, only I would think the damm thing wasn't working

milspec wrote:About 8 years ago, a homeowner was having trouble with their basement walls bowing in.  The contractor that came out to investigate the problem discovered a 1940's era armored truck buried on the other side.....held 1/4 million dollars in the back.

Wow. Did they get to keep it or did the bank claim it? The bank probably isnt even in existence here.

Whats big here is panning for gold. Lot of folks do that part time for spare cash.

What sucks is that if you buy a house here you have no mineral rights. What a scam that is

The bank got the truck back and the Insurance Company claimed the money....the homeowners received a bill for foundation repair, but had a cool story to tell.

Why would you not get mineral rights to your property? That doesn't make any sense at all. Something very wrong about that.

I wouldn't have the patience to pan for gold, but I would explore old mines and dig the dolomite deposits for gold left behind. A modern detector could find stuff that the naked eye could never have back in those days.

You like treasure hunting do you?
Try this on for size.
Warning... You have a hard time sleeping at night.

www.unmuseum.org/oakisl.htm

Same here in CA, my sister or her husband told me that a while back when they bought their first home, no mineral right, which I also thought is ridiculous.
If I found an armored trucks buried in my land, I would part it out little by little and sell the old money separately in different places all over the country.
The only issues with that is I would need a crane to get the damn truck out of the grave, lol.

Matt; My carpet cleaner wrote:You like treasure hunting do you?
Try this on for size.
Warning... You have a hard time sleeping at night.

www.unmuseum.org/oakisl.htm

I have been fascinated by that story since high school. In addition to the pit itself, I would love to know just how they made those underground canals that control the flooding. Kind of hard to do with a hatchet and rope back in the day.

If the couple would have been smart with the armored truck, they could have been rich, but people in the Midwest are too honest for their own good.

Just last month there was an story about a man who purchased a country lot that had an abandoned house on it. He decided to try and fix up the house to make a rental out of it and started by cleaning out the chimney.

In the chimney, he found some loose bricks, behind which was a cash box with $20,000 inside. This idiot called the IRS and asked if he had to report it for tax assessment.