Dowsing for Treasure

Posted on March 13, 2014 by David

While, for obvious reasons, there is much secrecy in treasure hunting, now and again you come across someone who willingly shares their knowledge, expertise and even their equipment! Takis, from Greece, is just such a person (and not the only one I might add) and his generosity has instigated a step change in my dowsing and treasure pursuits. “I have seventy dowsing books and this is the best one”. He said, pointing me to Dowsing for Treasure (1984) by Russ Simmons.

Again with Takis’ help, I got hold of a copy of the book, read, re-read and inwardly digested the contents. The greatest insight for me was the principle of using bait, a sample or witness to aid what you want to find. Now, I had not paid much attention to this up until now, I guess because my dowsing mentor was Jim Longton, who was such a good dowser that he just used a basically plain rod, having no real need for accessories. I had discussed the possibility of adding a sample chamber to an L-rod in my book, The Successful Treasure Hunter’s Essential Dowsing Manual, but had not actually used one in my own dowsing, simply because it was clear to me that just using a dowsing rod in one hand and metal detector in the other achieved much better results than using a metal detector alone, so if it ain’t broke, why fix it? Well you live and learn!

“I will make you dowsing rods like I use.” Insisted Takis. I didn’t argue as dowsing instruments are always a bit special when received as an unsolicited gift. And soon two dowsing rods arrived in the mail…

Categories: Dowsing, Metal Detecting

Metal Detecting With The Garrett Ace 250 by Crawfords MD

Posted on January 18, 2014 by David

garrettace250The design of modern metal detectors aims to eliminate many of the hassles and disappointments associated with the hobby. These include the noisiness of a machine going off when it scans over top of any piece of metal, no matter how worthless, and an overly sensitive product. Old machines used to get excited about beer bottle tops, but the new ones can determine what type of metal they are looking at.

 

Not too Sensitive

 

The Garrett Ace 250 is a relatively quiet machine in the field. It alerts the user when metal is found but without too much feedback, if any, so you can set it to high sensitivity. Its default setting is fairly high already. The major caveat is that you set your metal detecting device correctly before going out.

 

When you find something, your machine will let out a sound according to the item. Low tones indicate low-value metal (iron, nickel), but higher tones are indicative of higher-value metal (silver, gold). If you remember the electronic game “Simon Says,” the tones given off by this machine will put you in mind of that old battery operated game.

 

This means you can read your machine or just listen to it. If you get a crick in your neck after a few hours of metal detecting just listen and stop watching.

 

Setting your Machine

 

What this means is pressing buttons (bright yellow on a decent-sized console here) to indicate which metals to be alerted to and which to omit. Use the “discriminate” button to determine if you want the detector to overlook iron, nickels, pennies, etc., or pick up all metals. Set it to a silver-only setting or customize the setting to find exactly what you want. It is advisable to play around with the buttons a little to get the feel for how much you can do with the Ace and how easy it is to press the wrong button.

 

Screen Size and Setup

 

The LCD screen is a good size, if a little dark. Be aware that light will affect your ability to read it and you might want to shade the screen which has space to clearly show what metals you are looking for, the sensitivity setting, battery power, and other features. It shows depth from 2″ to 8″+ in 2″ increments.

 

The Package

 

A Garrett Ace 250 comes with an instructional DVD, 6.5×9″ coil, batteries, and headphones plus a pouch for storing treasures. Those are nice extras, though you can probably get a lot out of a Youtube video where instructions are concerned. Once you watch the DVD and use the machine just once, this could be easy and fun to use, but there are a lot of buttons to get accustomed to.

 

Pricing

 

As a hobby machine, you had better hope to land on a metal-rich bit of beach because this is not cheap but just bear in mind, the Garret Ace 250 works best on dry sand. By shopping around online you can find the best available price, so do not settle for your usual online shopping site. You could be surprised where the best deals are to be found on new metal detecting machines.

 

Biography

Crawfords MD has been supplying metal detectors to the community for over 15 years. The business was started by Craig Allison who prides himself on respecting customer needs and providing a high quality of service. If you’re in the market for a range of metal detecting equipment, please visit our site: http://www.crawfordsmd.com/

Categories: Metal Detecting, Treasure Hunting

Unique Metal Detector Finds By Daniel Bernzweig

Posted on July 15, 2013 by David

Sharing stories of unique metal detector finds never gets old.  If you enjoy metal detecting, then hearing what’s been found by others is not only fun in and of itself, but, it also wets your whistle so to speak and gets your mind racing with thoughts of what you might find during your next treasure hunt.

With that in mind – here’s Daniel Bernzweig of MetalDetector.com to share with us some of the most unique finds he’s heard about over the years.

Champagne in Finland

Several divers in Finland located a treasure stash of champagne bottles, with champagne still in them!  We’ve heard of many antique bottles of all kinds being found all over the world, but rarely are the original contents inside.  And even rarer is the fact that in this case the original contents happened to be incredibly high quality champagne; made even more so by its 170 years at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

Full Model T Ford

modelTford

Metal detectorists in Detroit, Michigan found a full Model T Ford!  A former owner of the property apparently buried the car in his backyard back in the 1920s to save it for posterity.  It seems his goal was reached.

Personal Finds

Some of the best metal detecting stories involve helping others out.  An example of this is when one person lost their dental work at a nearby lake and a metal detectorist searching the beach was asked to help.  Of course he gladly searched the area and found the man’s missing bridge work easily.

In fact, several hobbyists I know (and many I don’t) also make themselves available, usually for no charge, to others to help find lost treasures that mean a lot to someone like wedding rings for example.  They enjoy the search and also know how much these items can mean to others that it’s a win for everyone.

After all you never know what you might find when you go out metal detecting.  Maybe on your next adventure you’ll find something unique or even helpful to someone else.  Whatever you find when you head out with your metal detector though, you’re sure to find some fun!

Biography

Daniel Bernzweig manages MetalDetector.com in Southborough, MA. He has written on the subject of treasure hunting and metal detecting since the mid 1980’s. He enjoys traveling with his metal detector and helping to educate others in the correct use of  metal detectors in their explorations.

Categories: Metal Detecting Finds, Treasure Hunting

Nazi Gold

Posted on May 24, 2013 by David

I was recently sent this video by a Greek treasure hunter and thought it was worth sharing. The video is in English with Greek subtitles.


Θανάσιμα Μυστικά ~ Αναζητώντας τον χρυσό των… by KRASODAD

Categories: Treasure Hunting

Gold Auras

Posted on March 20, 2013 by David

 

gold chain

Many people say gold does not give off an aura and they’re absolutely right – if the gold is not influenced by an electromagnetic field.

I was sent this photograph of a lady’s gold neck chain she was wearing, taken with a Canon DSLR camera fitted with an infrared filter. Had the chain been placed on a table and photographed in the same way, it would have produced a pretty uninteresting more or less blank picture. But because the gold is being excited by the electromagnetic field produced by the wearer it is emitting infrared radiation that is being picked up by the camera. This is exactly what happens when gold is buried and excited by the Earth’s electromagnetic field, which is a lot stronger.

A graduate scientist explained this process fairly simply to me. Gold, as all substances, is made up of atoms. Atoms consist of a dense positively charged nucleus surrounded by negatively charged electrons, all being held together by electromagnetic force. Under the influence of an electromagnetic field the electrons are excited into an orbit further from the nucleus and then spontaneously return to their normal orbit releasing energy in the form of infrared radiation.

Categories: Treasure Auras

Film for Polaroid Cameras

Posted on February 6, 2013 by David

 

PX70aura

As many of you will know, with the rapid advancements in digital cameras, Polaroid ran into difficulties and the Dutch factory was sold to the management. The factory, under the name of The Impossible Project, is again producing SX-70 film to a different formula and slightly faster speed. The first of the new film was called PX-70 Color Shade but that has now changed to PX-70 Color Protection. I bought a box of 8 PX-70 Color Shade and tried it on my test site, which only contains a very small amount of gold (1/4 oz) and silver (2 oz). Happily the film has produced an aura, which you can see to the left of centre. This seems to show that it is the SX-70 Single Lens Reflex camera that produces the auras, rather than the film. So if you are buying an SX-70 camera for aura photography, make sure you get the SLR type which views through the lens. The non-SLR or box type has a separate viewfinder. For film and refurbished cameras, start here:

http://shop.the-impossible-project.com/allabout/colorshade/

Categories: Dowsing, Orbs, Treasure Auras, Treasure Hunting, X-Factor

Gold Coin Find

Posted on August 18, 2012 by David

I was very pleased to receive this aura photograph with the following message:

Hello David, I found 13 gold coins at 185cm depth.  Thank you so much.

The photo, which led to the find was taken with a Canon DSLR camera with standard lens and infrared filter.  the coins, I learned were pre-Roman, weighing 8.4-8.5 grams each so that is equivalent to 110 grams (3.85 ounces Avoirdupois or 3.5 ounces Troy) of gold. This is particularly interesting as it shows the camera is capable of picking up a relatively small amount of gold at 6 feet depth or more.

Categories: Orbs, Treasure Auras, Treasure Hunting, X-Factor

Treasure Hunting Strategy

Posted on August 3, 2012 by David

No successful treasure hunter that I know of relies on just one instrument or technique to locate a target because nothing is foolproof.  So typically the treasure hunter may use dowsing, an aura camera and other long range locators such as a multi frequency discriminator (MFD), an earth field generator or even a sniffer dog, before checking out the consensus target(s) with a metal detector.

When it comes to metal detectors then there are a number of factors to take into account, particularly the size, composition and depth of the target. In Britain, many of our caches have been broken up and scattered by centuries of plowing, so I have been on a mission to find a detector that can detect very deep on a single coin. For intact caches on inland sites, the low cost solution is a two-box detector but these are said not to work on beach sites, where I have an interest in recovering wreck, so I have a Detech pulse induction detector with a range of coils up to one metre square. Recently a new range of detectors, like OKM, have emerged with video screens and impressive claims, however, until I see one in action, I really cannot comment on how effective they are.

Categories: Treasure Hunting

The Lost Silver Ring

Posted on July 3, 2012 by David

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had a distress  call the other day from a guy who had lost his ring in the sea.  Apparently he is a canoeist and was upside down in the water performing an Eskimo roll when his heavy silver ring fell off his finger.  All credit to the man as despite his situation at the time, he did manage to work out where he had lost the ring with some accuracy, it transpired.

 

I met him the next day at low tide, when he showed me where he thought he had lost the ring.  This was on the sloping part of the beach not far below the high tide line and we thought the ring would have rolled or been washed down on to the flat part of the beach, where stones are dropped and accumulate.  I was using my preferred beach detector, an old Minelab Sovereign XS2A Pro, fitted with a 15 inch WOT coil, which gives good and fast coverage, good discrimination and good depth.  The guy was also searching diligently – eyes only.  We must have spent more than half an hour on this patch before I decided to start again at the loss point, searching up and down the beach from the high tide line, over the pebble patch and a few yards out into the muddy sand.  I figured that if the ring was going to be carried, then this would be in the direction of long-shore drift to the west and spent another half hour searching up and down in that direction.  As I felt I was too far away from the loss spot by then I returned to the loss spot and followed the same procedure in an easterly direction.  After around twenty minutes a sharp signal revealed the ring at two inches deep in the sandy slope, ten yards to the east and five yards above the supposed loss spot.

 

So I guess the ring had gone more or less straight into the sandy bottom and stayed there.  Had I realized that, I could have found the ring in less than half the time by initially circling the suspected loss spot and once the high tide line had been reached, switching to a ‘U’ pattern sweep from the high tide line, out to sea, under the loss spot and back up to the high tide line on the other side.  Nevertheless, it was one happy bunny who went home with his ring that afternoon.

 

Categories: Metal Detecting Finds

Treasure Aura Camera and Filter Set-up

Posted on June 20, 2012 by David

I get quite a few questions about filters and camera settings so I have put together this short video on the subject.

If the screen changes too fast you can pause the video at any point and even do a screen print.  Hope this helps.

 

Categories: Treasure Auras, X-Factor

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