# Buried cashe



## hunter33 (Jul 9, 2016)

I would like to bury cashes on the 40 acres I recently bought. I am having trouble finding info on containers and quantity of containers. I plan to vacation on this property and would like to do test runs with the cashes. The property is a few hours from my house so I can't go there as often as I would like. Another question I have is burying the cashe so that I can still retrieve it in winter. I was thinking basic survival equipment along with a gun, fishing equipment, dry goods. I figured I would need several cashe to accomplish this. Any advice would be great


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## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

There are several options for containers, a lot of People use Five Gal. Buckets with screw on lids. Another option is a length of 8" PVC Pipe with threaded adapters. As far as Frozen Ground, you might cover the area with Hay Bales, or a thick layer of Leaves to help keep the Ground softer.


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## LastOutlaw (Jun 1, 2013)

Pelican cases for larger caches. 

Another tip I learned is to lay a layer of gravel over the cache right under the surface dirt to help you find it later on. When your shovel hits the gravel you will hear it.

Another trick is to lay a bunch of nails under the gravel to throw off anyone hunting with a metal detector.


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## hunter33 (Jul 9, 2016)

The gravel and nail idea is great. I never thought of that.


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## phideaux (Nov 7, 2015)

Anything buried underground , if not a perfect seal ,
Especially metal objects( gun) , if for weeks at a time.

Kiss it goodbye.

Humidity/moisture is your worst enemy.

Guess how I know this..


Jim


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## hunter33 (Jul 9, 2016)

How do you seal your cashe?


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## OutInTheWoods (Jun 13, 2016)

hunter33 said:


> How do you seal your cashe?


If I was using PVC pipe - glue caps on both ends, then a bead of silicone around where the cap meets the pipe.

A Polypropylene bucket - make sure the lid is on tight (a plastic or rubber mallet to tap it down) then again, a bead of silicone between the lid edge and the bucket.


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## hunter33 (Jul 9, 2016)

You got me thinking now. Maybe I should get a vacuum sealer and seal everything before I put it in the bucket. Then seal the bucket after that


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## OutInTheWoods (Jun 13, 2016)

hunter33 said:


> You got me thinking now. Maybe I should get a vacuum sealer and seal everything before I put it in the bucket. Then seal the bucket after that


I'd get mylar bags and heat-seal them instead of normal plastic bags. The mylar is tougher, the heat seal is air/water proof and it doesn't degrade over time.

Regular plastic bags have chemicals in them that leach out over the long term, the 'zipper' closures can fail, and even the bags can degrade to the point that they're no longer airtight even if the closure holds.


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## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

What are the winters like in your area? How cold? How much snow? How often do you want to get into the stash? Wooded? Mountains? Desert? Do you have an old mine? How is the water table? What do we have to work with?

Take a chest type freezer and burry it half way down. Build a stone or brick planter a foot or two above it and fill with dirt. A large desiccant like you might find at a marine center and an entire package of O2 absorbers. Some silicone around the seal for additional protection if you desire and if it will be long term storage. 

This would work better if you had a cabin where you could place it along the south side.

No cabin? Build yourself a platform for a platform tent. Put in a garden and bury your stash(s) in the garden to disguise the nature of your digging.


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## hunter33 (Jul 9, 2016)

It is in mi. Mostly wooded, no cabin yet. Surrounded by public land. I expect people to be walking on it from time to time so hiding it is very important. I live several hours away so I doubt I could do much to stop people from walking on it even if I wanted to.


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## Tweto (Nov 26, 2011)

The freezer is a good idea except the neoprene seal will deteriorate in time. And then there's nothing to stop moisture from getting. In an area that is froze most of the year it may not be that big of a problem.

Here's a thought that I had, if you bury something then you will have to dig out the entire object to get it out. My thought was to bury my items in a sealed container inside another sealed containers with the removable end at the top so that all I have to do is dig down to the removable lid then open it and remove the smaller sealed container.

This system would allow another seal container to be easily inserted and rebury in the existing container already buried.

If it's an emergency the time savings could be very important.


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## hunter33 (Jul 9, 2016)

I like that idea. I also hope to find some rotten stumps that I could dig out and hide non perishable items


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

You could back fill your caches with clean sand up to an inch of the surface. It would be much easier to dig out, especially after it was frozen.
Also if you bury a bucket you could bury a second one under the first with a couple inch layer of dirt between so if found by another they would still likely miss the second bucket.


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

I once saw a video where a man buried a 55 gallon barrel for his cache. That is some work to dig out a hole of that size, and, there would be evidence that some digging had gone on there for some purpose.

Here is a thought. If you bury a cache this summer, you might be able to locate it fairly easily next summer, but what about in two or three summers. What can you do to mark the cache, without giving it away to others? Put a large boulder on top? Put 3 boulders in a triangle on top?

My grandparents used to tell about the 1930s, when banks went belly up and people lost everything. When that happened, people began burying their money in canning jars in their yards or gardens. In some of those situations, the money would be lost if and when the people died. There was one family that this was known to be true for. The husband buried it, died, and the wife had no idea where the money was.

This is not related to your question, but as a child, I always tried to out think the situation. Why not hide the money in the house? Under the mattress? In the freezer? In a drawer? Because there are classic hiding places that burglars look. And there are house fires.

Burying caches has its drawbacks as well.

This video shows an idea, but not sure how secure it is. I think he lives on his place, but it is a thought. This is a diesel tank that he repurposed. If you have not watched his videos, they are well worth your time.


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

This is the video for how he made his diesel tank cache.


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## Tweto (Nov 26, 2011)

weedygarden said:


> I once saw a video where a man buried a 55 gallon barrel for his cache. That is some work to dig out a hole of that size, and, there would be evidence that some digging had gone on there for some purpose.
> 
> Here is a thought. If you bury a cache this summer, you might be able to locate it fairly easily next summer, but what about in two or three summers. What can you do to mark the cache, without giving it away to others? Put a large boulder on top? Put 3 boulders in a triangle on top?
> 
> ...


I do metal detecting for one of my hobbies. Metal detecting forums are always talking about hidden finds of jars and metal containers with cash and coins inside. I have never heard of a container with cash that was not worthless because of moisture damage. However, finds with coins or silver or gold have been found that was fine.

They also, discuss where to find these. Some of the rules of thump are near or around a stationary object like a big immovable stone/rock or a large tree, also a location that can not be seen from a road or normal walking traffic near the main house (the person does not want to be seen while digging the hole). I would suggest to not use any of these locations.

BTW ****** Bulger had hidden $500,000 dollars in cash in his apartment wall behind finished dry wall. The FBI said that if ****** had not said it was there they would never had found it.


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

Tweto said:


> BTW ****** Bulger had hidden $500,000 dollars in cash in his apartment wall behind finished dry wall. The FBI said that if ****** had not said it was there they would never had found it.


I think that in a situation such as ****** Bulger, living in an apartment, that could easily be true. It would probably be true for many of us in our own homes. Hide something in a wall, drywall and paint over it, and who would be the wiser?

In a cabin in the country it can be a very different story. I think I have told this story somewhere on here before. A man bought one of the many 5 acre plots by Fort Garland, Colorado. He continued to live in Denver, but would go to his 5 acre place on the weekends and work on it. It was broken into, as are many mountain cabins. The walls were destroyed and the floorboards were taken up, because people frequently hide stuff there. He had his tools stolen, his solar panels, etc. He rented a storage unit in the closest town, Alamosa I believe, and kept his stuff there until he moved to his property.

That diesel tank buried cache might work better if it was a 55 gallon barrel. It would be less detectable by a metal detector, but not entirely. I like the idea of scattering nails or something metal around, but I think a diligent person would keep scanning an area until there was no metal detected in an area.

Hunter33, what is your 40 acre BOL like? Is it wooded, open field, rocky, flat, hilly? The rougher the terrain, the more likely others would stay out.

I always thought I would move lots of larger rocks and boulders to the edge to keep vehicles out, or even some felled timbers. That is not 100%, but it could be a deterrant. Many of us would want to clean up all the dead timber and brush to make a place look better, but it is a two edged sword.


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## VoorTrekker (Oct 7, 2012)

Some things to consider when cache'ing. To retrieve the container it must be situated to be retrieved. A nylon mesh net placed in the hole, then the container and use a strong nylon or synthetic rope to close the net and bring the rope near the surface. 

When digging up the cache, yank the rope. 

Before cache'ing anything metal, give it a good coating of light oil or preserving grease. Wrap it up in waxed paper or butcher brown paper. 

Cache in the morning, early. After securing the cache, close up camp as if departing. Keep a vigilant eye on the area. Patrol silently to ascertain if there are scavengers and looters watching your cache site. 

Do not be obvious about this security procedure, appear casual instead of apprehensive. Have everything ready to go for the return trip home and stay until nightfall, or after nightfall. This will give a good indication of visitors, animal or human. 

Using a big hay pile or straw pile of composting material may help camouflage your cache, or it will give it away if the cache container is not fully concealed below dirt. 

Use of natural terrain features helps. A draw, a spur, a gully, a high area near a creek or the top of a hill with two intersecting landmarks or visual points should help to locate the cache.

Once when homeless in Calif. I hid several military duffle bags on a trust ranch. The trust ranch was administrated by a civic committee; which spells bureaucracy. I hid a few gun and ammo and "survival" supplies in those duffles and left them in gullies, mini-canyon draws, etc. No ******ty helmeted Yuppie bicycler, or rails to trails metropolitan hiker ever found them in the "weeds."

It only took me ten to twenty minutes to locate and retrieve all of my bags.


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## Tweto (Nov 26, 2011)

weedygarden said:


> In a cabin in the country it can be a very different story. I think I have told this story somewhere on here before. A man bought one of the many 5 acre plots by Fort Garland, Colorado. He continued to live in Denver, but would go to his 5 acre place on the weekends and work on it. It was broken into, as are many mountain cabins. The walls were destroyed and the floorboards were taken up, because people frequently hide stuff there. He had his tools stolen, his solar panels, etc. He rented a storage unit in the closest town, Alamosa I believe, and kept his stuff there until he moved to his property.
> 
> 
> This maybe a excellent purpose for a few trail cameras. At least you will have pictures and even movies with sound of the criminals that destroyed your cabin.
> ...


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## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

If your bury the pipe/bucket with the lid at the bottom water can't enter (air is trap).

Dad had a fuel oil tank buried in clay. 20 plus years later he had stopped using it and had pumped the oil out of it. Heavy rain and the tank floated to the surface. Burying a cache make sure you have enough weight in it or have it anchored so it can not float!


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## shawn_c2000 (Jul 18, 2016)

I use five gallon buckets securing everything in garbage or zip lock bag just as an extra water protection.


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## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

TheLazyL said:


> Dad had a fuel oil tank buried in clay. 20 plus years later he had stopped using it and had pumped the oil out of it. Heavy rain and the tank floated to the surface. Burying a cache make sure you have enough weight in it or have it anchored so it can not float!


This is a serious problem. Septic tanks float out of the ground after they are pumped. All sorts of issues can occur with empty or light containers if there is a water table to deal with.

One answer is to dig your cache into an embankment. Plant grass over that area or better yet blackberries. Perhaps one of our metal detector people can address how deep or how far into an embankment to bury something to defeat a detector.


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

Another option is sink your cache in a pond. Easier than digging and a hidden rope can retrieve it without you getting wet.


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## sgtusmc98 (Sep 8, 2013)

Caribou said:


> This is a serious problem. Septic tanks float out of the ground after they are pumped. All sorts of issues can occur with empty or light containers if there is a water table to deal with.
> 
> One answer is to dig your cache into an embankment. Plant grass over that area or better yet blackberries. Perhaps one of our metal detector people can address how deep or how far into an embankment to bury something to defeat a detector.


As far as defeating a metal detector, I have one but don't know it's depth limitations. I would bury it a foot or whatever depth it will be protected from weathering and scatter little pieces of nails or something, it doesn't matter, could be scraps of cans. Nails or small pieces of wire would be the easiest because they will sink themselves, if the slope wasn't too bad you could broadcast throw them like grass seed around what you are burying and on top of it, maybe even heavy on top of it.

Metal detecting gets old in a hurry when it's going off all the time for garbage, you can tell if something is "bigger" if the small stuff is spread out but the reading is pretty much the same if there is a lot of small stuff. For obvious reasons broadcasting used nails could have consequences for feet and tires but if acceptable they can appear fairly natural, I find them in my woods that had been clear cut 75 years ago along with fencing and various machine parts. Any one would be just as well off digging the whole area up if they KNEW you had something there, otherwise they would get tired of digging up junk.


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## sea_going_dude (Dec 7, 2011)

you can go to you tube and search for hiding survival materials "using pvc pipe to hide your stuff" secure your valuables by burying them in PVC containers.











Many ideas of how to hide your valuables etc


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