Best detector for larger deep caches?

[Goldfinger]

Greetings one and all: I live in Massachusetts (USA). I have experience in beach treasure hunting. I want to search the islands of New England for pirate or lost treasure. I would like to be able to search 3 to 5 feet down in the ground. The islands are rocky, highly mineralized, with some low scruff brush.
I don't think the hobbyist VLF metal detectors will reach this depth. A PI, pulse induction unit might, in wet conditions. I am suspicious of the hobbyist metal detectors being appropriate for my application.
I recently read of an interesting suggestion on another forum. A member suggested using a magnetometer for cache searching. These tend to be sticks or wands, such as the ones made by Magnawand, and Fisher. They are touted to have deep search ability. They seem fairly simple to use, and inexpensive. Most of these sticks or wands are for utility workers to find manhole covers and pipes, etc. There may be some of these devices designed more for treasure hunting.
Any opinion whether one of these Magnawand type detectors might a good idea for my searching? Also, any specific product recommendations will be appreciated. I don't have any electrical engineering tools or ability, so I am seeking a manufactured product, rather than a mod, or kit. Thank you, and best wishes.

[Unregistered]

yellow sticks like the magna wand, Schonstedt and fischer only detect ferrous objects. Do you care if you miss copper, silver or gold objects?

[ElectroNovice]

Greetings one and all: I live in Massachusetts (USA). I have experience in beach treasure hunting. I want to search the islands of New England for pirate or lost treasure. I would like to be able to search 3 to 5 feet down in the ground. The islands are rocky, highly mineralized, with some low scruff brush.
I don't think the hobbyist VLF metal detectors will reach this depth. A PI, pulse induction unit might, in wet conditions. I am suspicious of the hobbyist metal detectors being appropriate for my application.
I recently read of an interesting suggestion on another forum. A member suggested using a magnetometer for cache searching. These tend to be sticks or wands, such as the ones made by Magnawand, and Fisher. They are touted to have deep search ability. They seem fairly simple to use, and inexpensive. Most of these sticks or wands are for utility workers to find manhole covers and pipes, etc. There may be some of these devices designed more for treasure hunting.
Any opinion whether one of these Magnawand type detectors might a good idea for my searching? Also, any specific product recommendations will be appreciated. I don't have any electrical engineering tools or ability, so I am seeking a manufactured product, rather than a mod, or kit. Thank you, and best wishes.

I think a Pi with a large coil would easily find large objects at the depths you mention. Pi like the EM 61 ( a commercial Pi) from geonics used for UXO.mine detection etc they claim will detect large metallic objects to 8-9 feet.The gs5 with a very large monocoil would probably go to the depths you want on large sized caches of treasure.Also Eric has a number of beach Pi detectors that may be suitable for the task like the deepstar 3 see:
http://www.surfscanner.com/Surfscan3/Deep3.html
ElectroNovice

[Unregistered]

yellow sticks like the magna wand, Schonstedt and fischer only detect ferrous objects. Do you care if you miss copper, silver or gold objects?

Hi Unregistered guest: Thank you for your thoughts on this. I know that mags only detect ferrous objects. But I feel that most pirate chests, and lost treasure will have some iron associated with it, such as handles, hinges, or even weapons. I hear that many of these kinds of caches have a weapon buried with them. I don't think we are going to find many bars of gold neatly stacked up with wrapping paper and ribbons and bows. So I would take my chances of missing a cache like this by looking for associated iron. I just learned that mags have been responsible for finding most sunken ships. OK, we aren't talking about sunken ships here, but still, let me ask this:
Has anyone ever found a pirate chest or lost treasure cache? Was there iron associated with it?

[Unregistered]

Just started

I am a novice. I am wondering if anyone has some beaches in the Massachusetts area they could recomend??????????????????????

[Goldfinger]

Thanks, ElectroNovice!

Thank you! I hear rumors of an awesome PI being worked on, not yet released. I think Eric might be working on this. I'll keep in touch.

I think a Pi with a large coil would easily find large objects at the depths you mention. Pi like the EM 61 ( a commercial Pi) from geonics used for UXO.mine detection etc they claim will detect large metallic objects to 8-9 feet.The gs5 with a very large monocoil would probably go to the depths you want on large sized caches of treasure.Also Eric has a number of beach Pi detectors that may be suitable for the task like the deepstar 3 see:
http://www.surfscanner.com/Surfscan3/Deep3.html
ElectroNovice

[Goldfinger]

What are you looking for?

Hi unregisterd: What are you looking for? (other than simply "treasure".) And what kind of detector do you plan to use? I know of a few beaches.....

I am a novice. I am wondering if anyone has some beaches in the Massachusetts area they could recomend??????????????????????

[Lost in NC]

i am sure thee is/was iron objects associated with pirate loot. however, since piracy has been all but dead in our water since at least as far back as the 1700s. much of the iron may have rusted away to nada. a friend of mine who deals in antiques kicked himself in the rear end for passing up a chest allegedly that was found in NY along the hudson. the chest was quite old and had two sets of blades that swung out and split open the person who opened the chest. he said it was in nice shape but could not verify the autheticity of the piece. but the booby trap was pretty elaborate . guess if you found one it maybe wise to have your ex-wife open it for you hahahaha. or maybe just stand behind it. i wonder if the halo from a deeply buried object would cause a mag to sound off?

[Unregistered]

I have found that the problem with the mag is that it detects all kinds of junk
including all kinds of hot rocks. Pieces of Bassalt, Magnetic sand in, sandstone, meteorites (of course, most are magnetic) and any kind of stone that has at one time been molten. The molecules in the molten rock align with whatever the N and S pole was when they were molten. That is how,
over time, it was determined that the poles have been shifting for many, many years. The mag is a great tool for finding areas where there were (long gone, no trace) old houses, schools, dumps, privies, pockets of nails from the 49ers etc.. Then you go in with your detector and search out the area. Mine is a rather pricey unit (Cesium Vapour from Scintrex) and will easily detect an ordinary spade shovel at about eight feet. BUT it will drive you crazy if there is a lot of trash. One search I did on top of a mountain in New Mexico
(Doc Noss, Willie Dought stuff) I thought I was following a fault only to find out that each little tuft of grass that grew just outside a rocky area had collected bits of magnetic sand.

I'm not trying to discourage you. In some places it is a great tool. I recommend that you rent one for a few day to see if it suits your application.

Other things you should know is that the object, if over 2 ft deep is notdirectly below the search head. You are detecting the earths magnetic fieldand it comes out of the ground at about a 45 degree angle. If you approach a buried object from the south (assuming the N hemisphere) you would have to dig N of where you got the best signal. Depth is determined by approaching from the South to North. You will get a null before you get to the best signal.....mark it.....pass on over the best signal and N of that you will find another null....mark it.... 1/2 the distance between the nulls is the approximate depth. Figure about a 45* angle from best signal and that is where you dig and dig, and dig.
Good Luck,
Don