A guide to successful cache hunting

Presented as a series of articles by
"Golden Circle Research"

Most detectorists desiring to become a successful "cache hunter" do so without much forethought. They read a few treasure stories and buy a couple of treasure sign books and head out to the boondocks. They anticipate a quick find and forever after being wealthy.

Truth is that only one person in a million will ever find a buried cache. Some of the reasons most treasure hunters are not successful are:

Many are lazy and hate to work so they take the easy approach to becoming rich and take up cache hunting. Little do they realize learning to find someone else's buried money usually requires long hours of painstaking work spread over many years before a payoff can be expected. Call it paying your dues or what you wish, but of the thousands who have tried it, 99.9% died poorer than when they started.

Cache hunting is not a wise choice for a person doing 9 to 5 for an employer. Persons raising a family will discover they must neglect family duties in order to put forth enough time and energy into research and fieldwork to be successful. Someone could probably come up with statistics on the number of dedicated cache hunters whose marriages end in divorce. But I'd bet the numbers would be astronomical. Just the cost of research, including books, maps, trips to out of state libraries, museums and treasure areas is prohibitive to most of us working for hourly wages.

1. A decent cache-hunting detector will cost, with the needed accessories, about 1000 bucks. Even then the treasure hunter is limited to small caches at shallow depths. Larger caches are normally buried deeper than a hand held detector will detect. (this statement is not always applicable but generally will prove true
2. A quality GPS (175-500 bucks)
3. Decent laptop computer with top of the line mapping software.
4. Precision drafting tools including: a surveyors steel or brass rule, professional grade steel protractor, various mapping scales, pencil drafting compass, 12" adjustable triangle, parallel rules, steel or brass dividers and a 30-60-90 triangle. Grid roamer etc. (about 150 bucks for set)
5. 10 inch measuring wheel for precision distance measuring.
6. 100 foot spool measuring tapes, used to grid an area to ensure each foot of ground is searched
7. Professional grade brass compass, with tripod.
8. 4 X 4 vehicle is invaluable to a serious cache hunter. They are plentiful today but were scarce 30 years ago. They are expensive and often are damaged in rough use getting in and out of some areas.
9. Motels or an RV are also an expensive necessity. Seldom does the treasure site lie within commuting distance from home.
10. Camping, hiking and backpacking equipment will be useful in many cases.
11. Cameras, including digital still and video models for recording signs, symbols and clues. Extra film, batteries, media storage is important to have on hand. (NOTE: It is not wise to video tape a treasure recovery as the evidence is not disputable in the case of lawsuits by property owners or blood suckers just out to steal your loot)
12. The more experienced you are the more you'll realize, at times, specialized detecting methods are required. (Nothing is more frustrating than working a treasure trail to the supposed cache site and not being able to prove or disprove you work was correct) Your first additional purchase will likely be a two-box detector. Better is a pulse detector with a large coil. Best is a proton magnetometer, Ground Resistivity and/or an EM unit coupled to laptop software that provides a 3D readout of survey. Recordings from most geophysical surveying equipment can be programmed to use existing Geophysical software now on the market.
13. Maps, maps, maps! Don't forget to obtain every map ever published of the area you intend to hunt. Aerial photos can help but having the map used by the person(s) stashing the treasure is indispensable.
14. Optional equipment is an individual's choice. Most cache hunters don't head into the wilds without some form of protection be it pepper spray or an AR-15.

Not many people would attempt to start a new business without some experience or training in the work they will be investing in. If you think along this line, isn't it foolhardy for someone to consider cache hunting without actually knowing how to go about it. We are serious! How many people have true knowledge or experience in searching for buried treasure? You might be surprised how few "knowledgeable" cache hunters are around. You probably are wondering what the hell I'm talking about. Doesn't everybody read the treasure magazines and books? Nearly everyone is online and reads the treasure forums, don't they? Yes, you hit the nail on the head, that is exactly the problem.

could be a great place for a novice to pick up hints. But lately with the caliber of some people who hang out there, inexperienced treasure hunters can get their mind corrupted with false information. Once a bad idea is in your head, it will not leave you until proven bad. That sometimes takes years. What people, broadcasting the bum dope, hope is that you'll never learn the truth or if you do learn it they will already have learned from you the location of your treasure site. Do a search on past posts made by the people you talk to on the forums. You will learn most of those pretending to be experts, have only been at the game for a year or two. It's impossible that they have enough actual experience to have learned what it takes. Most full time cache hunters, spend half a lifetime discovering those secrets.

Regardless of what you read, or hear about cache hunters, one thing you can take to the bank--- They are rarely, if ever, going to share their secrets to success with anyone! That is doubly true for anyone who appears to have a big mouth. Ain't a gonna happen!

This concludes chapter one on "Cache Hunting". Please stay tuned for the next chapter, "Cache hunting for newbies and the gurus", coming very soon.

For more interesting stories click here

Or