# GPR for bottle hunting...



## ChrisP1 (Mar 20, 2014)

Hey Guys, Has anyone here tried to use ground penetrating radar to find groups of bottles in privies or individual bottles?  I'm looking forward to taking this beast for a test drive in my back yard this weekend... If you have any experience with one of these let me know. Thanks!Chris


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## andy volkerts (Mar 21, 2014)

Hello Chris. I think every brand is a little bit different, but they will show anomalies under the soil, like a bright white line for a buried water pipe or gas line, some show dark lines for pipes. They will show large spots of buried metal or trash as dark or light spots approximately in the shape of how they were dumped. I don't know how to tell depth of burial, as I was just watching the user, and that was not explained. What I do know for sure is that they will show everything that is buried in a yard, including tree roots, you just have to be able to decipher the images. The operator that I watched said that usage over time was the most important item in identifying what you are seeing displayed in the readout screen. The GPR  shown in your pic is a bit different than the one I have seen, but it looks like a good one.......good luck....Andy


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## David Fertig (Mar 22, 2014)

I have asked about these before.  There are only a few people who use then for bottles.  Opinions seem mixed.  Search for old threads on here. Did you rent or buy? And keep us posted.


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## ChrisP1 (Mar 22, 2014)

Thanks David...will do.

I didn't have to rent or buy.  I have a friend in construction and this was in storage since no one knew how to use it.  I can use as long as I want as long as eventually teach them how it works.

I will check out past threads.

I did try it briefly yesterday and got lots of noise, I think because the ground is very wet still.  Unlike metal detectors, which obviously work better with moisture, these work best in dry sand.

Chris


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## andy volkerts (Mar 23, 2014)

Hello Chris. You might try looking at some of the metal-detecting, GPR, magazines, they usually have some informative articles on these machines and their usage. You might also try contacting a dealer of these items, or maybe the dealer which your machine was bought from, if possible..........Andy


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## ChrisP1 (Mar 24, 2014)

UPDATE: I have taken some advice and searched previous threads on the Forum and found a little info, but not much that was useful.  I did get out for very short time with the unit yesterday and spent a little time dialing in the scanning depth and trying to search a couple known targets.  I was able to very easily find my dog's grave and a buried cable in my yard.  These both showed up as very distinct and different images on the screen, especially once I changed to one of the colored displays and not just the gray scale.  I am tempted to bury a bottle, group of bottles or glass debris to see what that looks like to kind of develop a response curve for the machine.  As my ultimate goal, at least in my yard, is to find the privies.  My only concern is that simply disturbing the soil may be enough to make the reading different.  That's easy enough to figure out however.
 
Stay tuned...
 
Chris


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## Bass Assassin (Mar 24, 2014)

A test garden is a great idea. Try burying different types of material, glass, steel, wood, etc. please keep us updated


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## ChrisP1 (Mar 31, 2014)

GPR test update... PROS:GPR is very good at locating: tree roots, dog graves, buried cables, pieces of metal, buried coal ash layers...in all cases it shows the depth accurately. CONS:I was NOT able to get it to detect or show any signal for a modern wine bottle I buried 1ft down.  I will have to try and work on the display settings, detection depth and soil settings to see if I can get it to show something. The generally wet soil conditions and the recent heavy rain will not help the cause any time soon. Chris


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