Hi there. I happened across this community while google hunting on a topic I am not familiar with but wondering if anyone might be able to help. My question is a bit of an odd one…I have come across information that suggests the location of where some family gold might be buried. It seems this might be under a fence post which has been concreted in, so am guessing 1-2 feet under ground. Unfortunately the property is no longer in our family so we can’t just go digging up the fence and will need to approach the owners. After this, as a first step, would a metal detector give us some information so we wouldn’t have to dig it all up unnecessarily? Looking for least invasive process to check if it is still there, but am guessing that depth with concrete and post on top might be a bit of a stretch…? Any advice much appreciated. Thanks.
Hi there, If the fence post is concrete it most likely has a metal reinforcing rod in it which case that will get picked up by the detector. Some will say that you can discriminate iron from non iron, which gold is non iron, however I don’t think you will get a VLF detector with an accurate discrimination at that depth. You will also have the fencing wire to deal with getting picked up as well. Cheers.
JW 
If there’s a reasonable quantity of gold and not deeper than 12-18inches, it’s likely a decent machine such as the Excal will give a ‘twitch tone’ before nulling on the iron. This also depends on how rusty the reinforcing and any other iron in the immediate vicinity is, the bigger the rust ‘halo’, the less distinctive the tonal separation will be.
Ultimately, I think you’ll probably be digging up the fence.
Bear in mind, that as soon as you put all your cards on the table, you are relying heavily on the integrity of the other party…
Best of luck.
I have put in many fence posts and to put in a wooden fence post reinforcing iron is not used. Of course if you build a foot path or wall or foundations then you must use reinforcing iron but fence posts dont require it in the concrete footing simply because it is merely a mass of concrete to secure the post.
Any self respecting fencer usually goes a bit deeper than 12 - 18 inches. I just put in some fence posts a month or so ago and went down 30 inches.
Detecting any gold will now depend on three factors - the mass of the gold, the depth of the gold and the type of detector used. A really good detector like a Minelab Xtreme and up may well detect it. A friend of mine in the Yukon recently got a 28 gram nuggets at 95 cms with a MInelab 5000
I hope you get it.
Correct Mr. Law. I got crossed over with JW’s mention of concrete posts. If it’s a wooden post, then shouldn’t be an issue…as long as the gold wasn’t buried in a steel ammo case or similar
Yes…I did not mention a wooden fence post but that is what I was referring to when I mentioned you have the fencing wire to contend with as well. You will find that the fencing wire will get picked up by any half decent detector WAY before you have any chance of detecting the possible gold at the depth it will be if it is under the wooden fence post. I know that I can not get within 5 feet of a wire fence with any of the top end Minelab detectors that I have used over the years with my gold detecting. Can get slightly closer with a small coil but then that defeats your purpose of needing detection depth, which a small coil won’t give you. Fencing wire also acts like a huge aerial picking up EMI, electronic magnetic interference, & amplifying/transmitting signals from miles away. If any electric fences are operating near by you are screwed. To be honest, I think you are pushing shit uphill but I wish you all the best. Please keep us posted as I do like success stories. Best of luck.
On another note. For those of you who may not be aware, a Russian company is producing after market coils for the minelab GPZ 7000 as minelab only ever made two coils for it. The cry from people was always wanting a smaller coil than the minelab 14" coil. minelab never came to the party. I have taken delivery of three of their coils to trial here in NZ. A 15 x 14, a 10 x 9 & a 12 inch round.
I have been having good success with the 15 x 14 on ground that I was no longer getting gold off with the minelab 14" coil. It has opened up all my old grounds again.
3.3 grams down 14"
Was a good day over all
Even loves small/tiny gold at depth
Anzac Day afternoon detect for three hours.
1.4 grams
Just loving this coil/
Big thanks to this Russian company. They have lifted my detecting experience on an already fantastic gold detector. The mighty Minelab GPZ 7000.
Best of luck out there
JW
JW
They are also making coils for the GPX range of detectors.
Did the gold bug notice that nugget John?
Hi Gav, Nice to hear from you. I mostly just use the GB2 as my pinpointer for when I get into a deep dig hole with the Zed. The big coils on the Zed can be a pain in the arse trying to locate the target signal when you get down into a deep hole. You either have to make the hole a lot wider, lot more work, to get the big coil right in there & tilt it on edge to try to narrow down just where the signal is in the hole. Easier to just stick a small coil in the hole & I love that little bullet proof GB2 sniper coil. I even prefer it over the Gold Monsters little 5" round coil due to its small elliptical shape. You can just poke the nose of it & it will bang right on the point of where the target is in the hole. So from the surface there was no way that the GB2 is going to get that signal that deep down. Also I can flick the discrimination switch on the GB2 & know if it is iron crap or not. Either way I still dig the target out in case it is iron that is masking a gold target signal. That has happened many times too. I always have the GB2 & the Gold monster in my wagon. Sometimes even the EQ 800. They are all so close in general detecting ability that it is hard to seperate them. The GM 1000 & the EQ 800 probably give a little bit more depth than the GB2 due to their coils being slightly bigger than the GB2’s & also there frequency being lower. But I do love the GB2 coil & it bangs on very small gold but it does need to be very close to the coil. Ideal for bedrock detecting & scrubbing. That will be due to it high frequency of 71 khz. Where as the GM 1000 is 45 khz & the EQ800 is 40 khz at its highest frequency. But with the EQ 800’s multi frequency setting, running all frequencies together, something magic happens then. Opps got a bit carried away. Here is my first gold found with the Russian 10 x 9 coil on the Zed from an afternoons detect on Saturday from an area I have absolutely thrashed over the years until I was getting nothing more off it. Bring on this little Russian Coil.
Some were pretty small for the depth.
Total of 9 for 1.5 grams.
Loving these coils on the Mighty Zed.
Cheers
Best of luck out there
JW