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How we need to prepare


Looking for booty

I was talking to a guy today who was into exploring historical sites. He, and others, basically went to sites of Roman forts or other such sites and hunted around for artefacts left behind centuries ago. I must confess I would have thought that they had been stripped clean by now but he tells me that they still make regular discoveries which they contribute to the local museums.

The tools they use are simple metal detectors and small digging tools. I was also interested to find out that the metal detectors only have a range of 18 inches in general although it depends on the material they are searching for. Cheap metal detectors can be bought for about £40 with expensive ones being about £200. The more expensive ones have improved sensors and can be tuned for different types of metal. The detectors used by Plod are based on echo location and not magnetic resonance and so they can detect buried caches which ordinary metal detectors would not find as they were too deep or didn’t contain metal.

What has this to do with survival you ask? Well, I was thinking that for most of us Plod would not be coming around to dig up our caches. We could bury our caches in our back gardens or in a secluded spot that we could be sure no one would be interested in digging up. Marking them by landmarks as specified before and marking their exact location with metal fragments to make a pointer we could detect with the metal detectors. For example make a triangle of empty tin cans, something nobody would want, 20ft apart with the cache buried 2ft down in the middle of the triangle or along one edge. If by chance someone else found the markers and dug them up, no harm done, they wouldn’t find anything at that spot.

In addition we could use the metal detectors to scavenge useful items from abandoned areas such as camps as well as using them to detect other caches hidden by third parties. They may even be useful in checking booby traps or mines around sites you are visiting.

It must be worthwhile putting at least one in with your supplies. Think about it.

10 comments to Looking for booty

  • tinkertytonk

    It may sound silly but don’t just rely on metal detectors to find your stores/burred supplies; see if you can douse!!!!!

    I can and with my buried stores I have placed a lump of metal. I only then have to have a douse (piece of wood, metal etc) to locate. Also good for finding waters supplies or indeed anything elas you may want to find; all without batteries.

    I suggest you all find out if you can douse and it would be a good back up for your electrical gear.

    Try this website for more information. Its fun too…………

  • Skean Dhude


    Please forgive me but I always thought dousing was a bit too much like white magic and I’ve never taken it seriously. Because you have suggested it I will have a look and see what there is. Have you thought about writing an article on dousing for here? I’ll be pleased to publish it.

  • tinkertytonk

    I used to have the same opinion then one day when I was at a farmers I knew he was waiting for the local dowser to find a water pipe in a field (the dowser charges) so he could tap into it. I watched the dowser find the pipe in 10mins. The farmer told me he did not do it himself as he could not dowse. The dowser showed me what to do and I walked over the field and the rods crossed over the pipe. Me and the dowser then followed the line of the pipe across the field. Never did it before and have done it a few times since mainly as party tricks when people hide things in a room and I find them.

    Some people can not dowse. Its not complicated just think about what you want to find, relax physically and mentally and you can find things. They use dowsers extensively in the US and Australia to find, water, oil, minerals etc. They even dowse over maps to find hidden resources.

  • moosedog

    I tried dowsing with metal rods many years ago (I’d forgotten all about it until I read the replies here) and can confirm that it does indeed work for finding water, buried objects etc when you walk over them. Dowsing over maps sounds a little… erm… odd to me.

  • tinkertytonk

    The dowsing over maps is done by the professionals hired by oil companies and the like looking for minerals/oil/water/etc This link shows just one professional dowser hired by oil companies that use maps to find resources,

  • Skean Dhude


    I would imagine water, etc. would be buried quite deep. How deep can you personally douse?

    Now that Moosedog has said he could do it to then maybe I can. Must be worth a try although so far I have shown remarkable resistance to performing anything that needs skill.

  • moosedog

    Skean: if it needed skill I couldn’t have done it! I wasn’t able to locate specific things, just a matter of the wires crossing when I was over something that was of a different mass to the soil around it, sometimes water, sometimes something metal, just random stuff. Because of this I guessed it was like those electronic gizmos they use on Time Team, GeoPhys I think they call them. It always seemed to be the wires doing the work, not me.

    Tinkertytonk: I looked at the link and the chap seems to be successful at what he does but being the sceptical type I wonder if it’s more to do with his 5 year study of geology? I just can’t see a logical explanation for map dowsing myself.

  • Skean Dhude


    Don’t do yourself down. Most tasks like that depend on the user, you obviously could do it, many can’t.

    I also am sceptical about map dowsing but reading up today indicates it does seem to work. So how is a interesting question. Maybe this is one area where you need a different set of skills.

  • Ronnie

    I also discovered that you can devine for water this year! Using two rusty bits of old wire, couple feet long, with a righ angled bend in them.

    I was complaining throughout that it was a waste of time, and that the wires kept crossing. (I’d been told to look for the single water pipe). But after, looked at drain maps and saw that there were indeed 4 water channels that I’d walked over, exactly where the wires had ‘kept crossing’. They’d be more than a meter down.

  • Skean Dhude

    Looks like I’m the only one that is behind the curve here. I’d better get my rusty bits of wire out and get out there. How many twists or bends for Gold was it?

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