How do I hunt an old hotel?

[Wooden Nickel]

I have a new Tejon coming in a couple of weeks.

I also have found an old hotel, built in the early 1900s, to detect around, but.... it burned down in the 60s. Besides that, in the years before it burned it was home to many, many chickens!

I'm new at this, and guessing, that one, charcoal is going to be a problem, and two, there might be a mineralization problem from the chicken doo-doo.

OK, it burned down over forty years ago, so the chicken crap may have washed away. On the other hand, there were A LOT of chickens in there, and I mean A LOT of chickens.

A friend has hunted and said there is a lot of metal around.

So, how should I hunt it? Settings? Coils?

The guy who owned it was not named Sanders, so no wisecracks about fried chicken.

Mike.....

 

[Elton]

Hunted all metal first. Cleared away all the junk targets.. then used disc.... didn't find a lot but once cleared I got a couple nice Merc dimes........and a few 40's wheats. Some keys etc.

Don't know about the chicken Poop LOL......... Mine was loaded with nails and foil.........

 

[WV62]

Can't say how to hunt the hotel, but I can say if you think you would be first in there I would stay away until you get a few hours or days of practice with your Tejon. When you do decide to go there you want to be able to do a good job of cleaning out that silver.

Ron in WV

 

[thump7]

You said there 'is' a lot of iron in the ground, you would do well to start out with the 5.75 concentric coil for added target seperation and better discrimination than the widescan. Contrary to what is written above, I would start out with a fairly high discrimination hunt it once - bring the disc down a notch or 2 and hunt the place over again. After you have hunted the place with disc set at foil, I doubt there will be any iron left in the ground any bigger than your thumb, the T does have a liking for iron, being it is a relic machine.
This is not a job, you don't need to start from the bottom and work your way up - you will find it easier if you gradually work your way down from a high disc. As a last measure - if you are up for it, change to the stock coil and start digging in all metal.
Just my personal preference, but it needs to be a pretty old site before my discrimination setting goes lower than foil. Otherwise I don't justify it as being feasable. - My 2 cents.

 

[fowlercharles]

Hi Wooden Nickel, All good advice from the other diggers, and especially about using the 5.75. Since you said you have a couple of weeks before you get your T, if you haven't done it already, do some research, maybe even some Sanbourn Fire Insurance maps, See if you can come up with the layout of the hotel. Look for entrances and exits, etc. The Sanbourns most times show outbuildings, sheds, garages and whatever.Good chance that at that time in history, the Kitchen may have been a seperate building altogether. It would give you some areas to concentrate on and learn the T some before stepping into the nail heavy areas. Don't be afraid to experiment some with the T, so you will find your best feel for how it works for you.You may also have difficulty finding a "clean " spot to GB, so you may have to put some distance between you and the hotel area.The T is a great machine, but has it's challenges, so go with it's flow. Seriously, I would wear some good gloves not only because of the chicken doo, but because there will be plenty of rusty trash and glass(lamp and window) in the dirt. Bet that doo will not have been kind to the coins there, though the silver should hopefully do better than most others.Good luck and HH, Charlie

 

[Wooden Nickel]

Thanks to all for the suggestions. I suspected that this will be a challenge, especially with the chicken poo. That might make any coins unreadable. 12,500 chickens equate to a lot of chicken poo in a short time.

Thanks again.

m.....

 

[Clad to be here]

I would start at the beginning.

 

[Dan-Pa.]

Chicken Feces should be no problem as imagine over all these years all traces will be gone. Your main problems will be all the nails and debris from the burned building and of course a small coil will be a plus. Indeed a old map or pictures will give you an idea of the layout and be a plus. Having hunted or tried to hunt burned out buildings from experience do expect an unbelievable amount of metal in the ground from the building itself so hope you are up to the challenge and yes this type of fire can melt or disfigure a nice old coin so don't be surprized if you find one in this condition...In addendum do wear gloves and make sure you have your tetanus shots up to date as who knows what the ground holds due to the previous enviroment...

 

[Wooden Nickel]

One last thing fellows. What about the carbon in the ground? Will this have an adverse effect on the machine?

I'll probably concentrate on the surrounding grounds before hitting the main building. There may not be anything worth a hoot at the main building site. There may be a lot of iron, maybe not because of the chicken poo. This place was full of chickens for several years. The result was tons of chicken poo. And anything other than pure silver will probably be corroded severely, if anything is even left.

It should be a challenging hunt.