Metal Detector 6 Feet Deep

[Amilcar Labrosse]

TheNokta Makro Invenio is known for its advanced technology and features that set it apart in the world of metal detectors. It is specifically designed for deep treasure hunting and archaeology applications. The Invenio is recognized for its unique imaging and discrimination capabilities.

The Fisher Gemini 3 is known for its capability to detect large metal objects at significant depths, making it a valuable tool for both professional treasure hunters and industrial applications like utility locating. It is a dual-mode, deep-seeking metal detector designed to provide accurate and reliable results in various soil and ground conditions.

The XP Xtrem Hunter XTR-115 is a powerful deep seeking attachment coil for the XP Deus II Metal Detector. It essentially turns the Deus II into a 2 Box metal detector to help you find hidden loot. This coil's innovative Fast Multifrequency (FMF) technology makes it safe and stable in a wide range of field situations.

Pleasant buying experience. Manticore with the various coils is finding coins and a few pieces of jewelry. The waterproof headphones seem to work fine though I haven't submerged them yet, just used them in the rain.

I have only had the Manticore for only a few days but this detector has so far lived up to the hype. Depth is great. Identification is great. I have been detecting for over 30 years and owned many detectors. This one is the best so far. Also, Modern Metal Detectors is the best place to buy it from. The package deal was awesome!

I purchased a Minelab M9 coil and Minelab waterproof headphones for my new Minelab Manticore metal detector and as always the service was impeccable.

Great job Modern Metal Detectors.

I truly appreciate your fast delivery and wonderful service.

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.

Having dug and repaired a lot of sewers to houses around 4-8ft deep, one thing I can say is that even if you refill the hole/trench, it'll sink in (this is visible by eye as a depression) unless you really get in there and jet out the cavities/voids with water and then stack more dirt on top. Or, preemptively stack about 6-12" of dirt on top of the disturbed area (also, visible) so that it levels out once the disturbed dirt starts compacting. This is a long process up to years, depending on dirt type/moisture, and is definitely visible by eye both in the dirt levels as well as vegetation until things flatten out again.

So yeah, I'd just take a good look by eye first to look for large disturbances. But I doubt someone would have dug a hole that deep to bury some hershey sized gold bars, it'd probably take equipment to dig, and equipment to recover. The point of burying something I'd guess would be to discreetly hide it, not bring attention to it. So, it may be shallower than they think and within reach of a detector.

It's a 1/4 acre on a residential yard so we're not going to rip up the whole place with heavy equipment. If it was vacant land in the bush we'd definitely do that. This will need to be detected somehow.

I am considering GPR but I'm not sure if it would pick up something of this size. I own seismic sensors but they don't have the resolution for this. We also have a survey grade magnetometer but that won't sense the gold, if we're lucky and there's a lot of ferrous metal in there too the mag will pick it up. There are possible utilities and a septic system so that will probably throw off the mag.

I'm looking for a deep metal detecting option, possible a micro-IP or resistivity system. I don't have experience using that equipment for this application though. I am a mining exploration professional not a treasure hunter but this is a cool story and I want help them out.

Process of elimination then, try a GPZ with a large coil, or a GPX 4500/5000 with a large mono. If that fails you might need the brute force approach of a with an excavator, if there was really a bunch of gold bars there no one would care about digging up some grass to recover them.

Get payed beforehand. I have been on a few of these types of treasure hunts. Only one panned out, the treasure in that case was buried in a large aluminum pressure cooker and easy to find five feet down.

You would use GPR to detect the soil disturbance, not the box, if it's a small target. A large hole like that dug within the last few years would show good contrast to the older, more compact soil around it on a GPR.

Renting one, along with an operator to interpret the data, may cost a few thousand bucks though, which could be a significant percent of the gold value depending what's there. And if you had the wrong yard, then that's a chunk of change to lose.

That actually helps you, because you know where not to dig and can narrow search areas down. If it has a septic and active leach field then that'll narrow your search area down hugely as I doubt he dug through a wet, active leach field by hand (4-6ft woulda put him into dirty aggregate). You can find the leach field location on the permit, go pull it at the county, if the lot is only 1/4 acre then a good portion of it will be taken up by this septic system. You can also rule out the tank location too (though might as well look inside, maybe he hid it there), and any utilities buried shallower than your suspected hole depth - phone, cable, gas are often 1-2ft. Electric varies by code, but often can be shallow especially if older.

You could really eliminate a lot of potential spots to dig with what little info you have. Then you could get a 12" trenching bucket and a mini excavator and trench the likely spots and look for disturbed soil in the cut. Or just a Ditch Witch.

It'll be work and money no matter what you do, but that's the brute force method I'd use if it were me doing it and I didn't want to tear the whole yard up. Track on planks, save the grass, put the trench fill on tarps, backfill as you go.

This is, if not the most asked, one of the most frequent questions we get about metal detectors. It is not as easy of a question to answer as one might think. There are a lot of variables at play. Of course there are metal detectors that are made specifically for finding deep targets. Some can detect several meters under ground. Some, lesser detectors, are manufactured to only detect shallow objects. The detector's frequency and sensitivity are two factors. But there are many other things to consider.

The size of the object is a big factor in determining how deep a metal detector will detect an object. So, you may only be able to find a coin at about a foot deep, but a large box of coins can be detected at perhaps double that depending on the detector's configuration.

Size does matter. This goes for the size of the object as well as the coil. Many detector brands provide alternative coils to those that come stock with the detector. For instance, Minelab offers a 15" DD Smart Coil for the Equinox Series of metal detectors as opposed to the 11" DD coil that comes stock. Don't be fooled. When metal detecting, bigger isn't always better. When you are detecting trashy areas, larger coils give you a much larger detection pattern. Which means you will be detecting many more targets at once. This can be not only a hinderance but a nuisance. Most companies make small "sharpshooter" like Minelab's 6" DD Smartcoil coils for this very reason.

If you are searching for a very large, and perhaps very deep, target, you may want to consider a "box" style metal detector like the Garrett GTI 2500 with the Eagle Eye coil attached. These detectors can detect certain large objects several feet under ground.

The operating frequency of the metal detector is another factor that determines depth. Rule of thumb is the lower the frequency the better a metal detector is at finding deep, large objects. The higher the frequency the better a metal detector can detect small shallow targets (5 kHz-10kHz). This is why most gold prospecting metal detectors operate at higher frequencies (40 kHz-100kHz). This is why you will see most detector operating between 12 kHz and 18 kHz - frequencies that are all around useful to find a broad spectrum of objects like coins, jewelry, and relics.

In the example of a normal detector being able to detect a coin at the approximate depth of the coil's size, there are stipulations. If, for instance, the coin is tilted on its edge rather than laying flat, the detector may not detect it quite as deep since the pattern of the radio waves sent back to the detector will be read differently due to the coins orientation.

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