I am looking for some help on cache detecting. I am most comfortable on the beach, so I am looking for a detector opinion. I was approached today while digging on my favorite local beach. The gentleman asked me if my machine would detect a cache of gold and silver coins 3 to 4 feet deep. I gave the man a brief lesson on how detectors worked, and pointed him to a local dealer who I thought would be better to assist him. So, If I were to take him up on his offer to go to Mexico and search for this cache, What detector/s should I be looking at for large deep caches?
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Help with Cache Detecting
- Thread starter kmandiver
- Start date
I would use the Minelab SE or E Trac with the largest after market coil I could find. If you already have another brand, then get the largest coil you can find. But you must have a top or near top of the line machine. In my opinion, a lesser machine won't do when you are talking those depths. But the treasure must be a large cache. My E Trac can (in discrimination) pick up an aluminum soda can at two feet (air test). The advantage of having a larger coil, besides going deeper, is that if you find a large enough coil, it starts to not see the smaller items like small coins, shell casings, etc. Hope this helps. Remember everyone, just my opinions. Chime in if you have other advice in that area. HH
Can I save you a bunch of time? Direct him to the dealer, go ahead and be cordial, etc... But don't get too excited about caches in Mexico. There is so much ingrained superstition about caches in Mexico, that it seems every immigrant who moves here, is simply convinced that caches exist in every cave and backyard "back where they're from" 
Where I'm at in CA, we have a lot of immigrants d/t the agriculture work. I have run into countless of them, who, like you experienced, come up with fantastic tales of buried treasures, that "if only they had a metal detector back in their hometown, they'd be rich!" But when you press them for details, it's always someone who told someone who told someone, etc...
Back in the mid 1990s, I took the plunge and accompanied an employee of mine back to his hometown high in the Sierra Madres to detect for "several caches he was sure we could find that he knew of". We got there and searched ruins and old homes dirt floors till we were blue in the face. Got some fun stuff on a coin-shooting level (old relicks, etc..) but no caches. As we began to get discouraged, I decided to pry a little more about the nature of these cache leads he had brought me down there to search for. It turns out that stories that ...... back in the United States ... sounded so fool-proof-certain ("first hand and indisputable") were now crumbling. Like "gold coins that he had seen" turned out to be "Well.... I didn't actually see them, but I heard about them from a friend... blah blah blah" One by one I began to see that all his cache stories were well-intentioned, but merely passed-down stories and superstitions.
After a week in this little high-mountain village, as word spread that "americans were here with metal detectors", other locales began to ask us to search their backyards, or a cave or a ruin or whatever that they knew about. In each case, they were certain we'd find a treasure there. After many un-succesful hunts like this, I began to ask our hosts "how do you KNOW there's a treasure there?" The answers were somewhat comical, but they were insulted if you did not believe them. Things like "because I saw smoke coming from there" or "because I saw a glitter in the soil" or "the virgin mary told me in a dream" etc... etc.... After awhile, we began to turn down all such requests to chase these stories. It had to be first-hand (not someone who told someone who told someone).
No matter how much I stress this, believe me, the stories will be compelling. But if you really press them, very few are credible or firsthand. Not saying there's not caches down there (and up here too for that matter). Just saying you've got to enter in the superstition factor of the culture.
My only suggestion to anyone going down there to cache hunt, is to use a 2-box unit that will not find anything smaller than a soda can. We took standard detectors thinking "no problem we'll just mentally ignore any small signals". But it's nearly impossible to do, as you spend all your time trying to differentiate an endless stream of signals all blended together. A 2-box unit makes that nice and simple because you merely don't hear the small things The trash is simply unbelievable down there! Only the biggest cities have curbside trash service. So unlike here, where you put your trash out on the curb to be taken away, down there, in little villages/towns, they burn it, bury it in their backyard, or just take it out to the country or the nearest gullies and just dump it. We found trash, even modern trash, at the most remote of ruins.
Where I'm at in CA, we have a lot of immigrants d/t the agriculture work. I have run into countless of them, who, like you experienced, come up with fantastic tales of buried treasures, that "if only they had a metal detector back in their hometown, they'd be rich!" But when you press them for details, it's always someone who told someone who told someone, etc...
Back in the mid 1990s, I took the plunge and accompanied an employee of mine back to his hometown high in the Sierra Madres to detect for "several caches he was sure we could find that he knew of". We got there and searched ruins and old homes dirt floors till we were blue in the face. Got some fun stuff on a coin-shooting level (old relicks, etc..) but no caches. As we began to get discouraged, I decided to pry a little more about the nature of these cache leads he had brought me down there to search for. It turns out that stories that ...... back in the United States ... sounded so fool-proof-certain ("first hand and indisputable") were now crumbling. Like "gold coins that he had seen" turned out to be "Well.... I didn't actually see them, but I heard about them from a friend... blah blah blah" One by one I began to see that all his cache stories were well-intentioned, but merely passed-down stories and superstitions.
After a week in this little high-mountain village, as word spread that "americans were here with metal detectors", other locales began to ask us to search their backyards, or a cave or a ruin or whatever that they knew about. In each case, they were certain we'd find a treasure there. After many un-succesful hunts like this, I began to ask our hosts "how do you KNOW there's a treasure there?" The answers were somewhat comical, but they were insulted if you did not believe them. Things like "because I saw smoke coming from there" or "because I saw a glitter in the soil" or "the virgin mary told me in a dream" etc... etc.... After awhile, we began to turn down all such requests to chase these stories. It had to be first-hand (not someone who told someone who told someone).
No matter how much I stress this, believe me, the stories will be compelling. But if you really press them, very few are credible or firsthand. Not saying there's not caches down there (and up here too for that matter). Just saying you've got to enter in the superstition factor of the culture.
My only suggestion to anyone going down there to cache hunt, is to use a 2-box unit that will not find anything smaller than a soda can. We took standard detectors thinking "no problem we'll just mentally ignore any small signals". But it's nearly impossible to do, as you spend all your time trying to differentiate an endless stream of signals all blended together. A 2-box unit makes that nice and simple because you merely don't hear the small things
The trash is simply unbelievable down there! Only the biggest cities have curbside trash service. So unlike here, where you put your trash out on the curb to be taken away, down there, in little villages/towns, they burn it, bury it in their backyard, or just take it out to the country or the nearest gullies and just dump it. We found trash, even modern trash, at the most remote of ruins.I have 2 Two-box detectors a Whites TM800 and a Fisher Gemini they are good for looking for caves, oil tanks, cable tracing, large things that have been researched old mine sites, slid areas that once housed a town site.
There is a book
Deep Treasure & Cache Location with the Fisher Gemini- 3 By Stephen Ryland the book is not expensive and is a good read if you want to know more. Dan
There is a book
Deep Treasure & Cache Location with the Fisher Gemini- 3 By Stephen Ryland the book is not expensive and is a good read if you want to know more. Dan
I agree Tom, and it is the same here in the States. There are some that will sell details of Caches which are really just legends, past down from person to person.
No doubt there is buried treasure here and there but unless you stumble upon it.....well you get my drift.
I would guess one has to be dedicated to cache hunting but it isn't for me, too much uncertainty.
No doubt there is buried treasure here and there but unless you stumble upon it.....well you get my drift.
I would guess one has to be dedicated to cache hunting but it isn't for me, too much uncertainty.
GRAY GHOST
New member
hi kaman. if you were to take this gentleman up on his offer, then a two box system would probably suit your needs best. theyr'e expensive, so it would have to pay for itself quickly, right? i would be highly skeptical, many scams do originate south of the border. to do the search, i would require:
1. 3 big burly bodyguards of my choosing with automatic weapons who never sleep and like to stay near me and who just love me and don't know what the words "gold" and "silver" mean.
2. charge an astronomical hourly rate. don't let him forget your time is valuable, too. not in pesos either. DOLLARS. 50% estimated up front.
3. a backpack air conditioner, endless tecate and tequila, and i don't hafta dig or run the goats out of the house. labor problems are his problem. and my clock don't stop ticking.
after that brief spiel, all in one breath, i am inclined to believe he'd quickly be looking for someone else to scam. and all that with a good ol' grin on my face. haha, that's the american way, brother! thanks, and hh,
1. 3 big burly bodyguards of my choosing with automatic weapons who never sleep and like to stay near me and who just love me and don't know what the words "gold" and "silver" mean.
2. charge an astronomical hourly rate. don't let him forget your time is valuable, too. not in pesos either. DOLLARS. 50% estimated up front.
3. a backpack air conditioner, endless tecate and tequila, and i don't hafta dig or run the goats out of the house. labor problems are his problem. and my clock don't stop ticking.
after that brief spiel, all in one breath, i am inclined to believe he'd quickly be looking for someone else to scam. and all that with a good ol' grin on my face. haha, that's the american way, brother! thanks, and hh,
Metal detecting involves many facets and ideas as the range of different units show. What one considers fantasy another see's as opportunity we are only limited by our minds ability to be open and seek new adventure, sort of stepping out of our own comfort zone. In the 1600s the Spanish dip needle was used to locate gold & silver we know this as a magnetometer and it was successful as witnessed by the wealth, there are many who have never water hunted does this make it a silly idea remember all those who have never tried metal detecting and know little about it if we were to depend on there judgement and thoughts most of us likely would never have taken this hobby up. Most detectorist have never heard of a Two-Box or seen one let alone study the possibilities and power these machines offer but where there are people there are experts. Folklore comes with the territory nothing unusual about that, most of us will never find a cache, does that mean we shouldn't try.
Dan
Dan