Property Pins

[Silver Bullet]

Has anyone ever used the eTrac for finding property pins? I think I found out that this is the absolute wrong tool for the job. I have tried three times at three different locations for three different people. I open up the discrimination pattern, as I believe the iron pins will scream. The only issue is every property pin I have wanted to find was in a fence row, or utility corridor. The last time I went out, the property owner was amazed at the small pieces of metal I was pulling from the hole. Unfortunately, there was a lot of trash in the area (old fencing material). I backed the sensitivity way off (down to a two or three on the manual scale, and I was finding pieces of metal only one or two inches deep). My thought was it would hit the larger iron pin a little deeper, but that wasn't the case.

Has anyone tried this at home? I recall surveyors use a yellow wand type of metal detector. My guess is it is much less sensitive to smaller trash items and only picks up large iron pipes. If there are any professional surveyors out there, can you let me know?

Thanks,
Silver Bullet

 

[roadapple]

I have done this with my E-Trac and the sounds searching for should be an "overload" based on the size of the steel pin . Not like nails sound. This how I found my property markers. Good Luck !

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

Several times,

But it requires unlearning about everything you've learned about detecting. I have an XS, run open screen; basically have to learn NOT to ignore all the low iron sounds. If possible get a long tape and a plat map and try measure the approximate location as closely as possible. Like you found out there will be tons of iron signals to check out. Usually the pins will give a very strong signal.

Chris

 

[Silver Bullet]

Thanks Roadapple.

I didn't think about the overload sound. If called on in the future, I'll keep that in mind.

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

I've helped a few people find steel property pins.
As already mentioned - just listen for the "overload tone".

Good Luck !

 

[bootyhoundpa]

Ive never used an etrac but have a sov gt and one tip i might suggest is to swing a little faster than normal with coil a few inches off the ground as you are trying to find a large target and want to ignore smaller targets..

 

[IDXMonster]

A little OT but I used my IDXPro to locate a manhole cover in our neighborhood that the paving company spread gravel over and paved accidentally. I traced the outline exactly. The fellow was a bit skeptical but they sawed out the circle and there it was. Pays to know whatever machine you have...except THAT didn’t pay me anything. Bastards...

 

[Gilligan110]

It also really helps to have a GIS map with satellite image to narrow down the search area. Not every community has one but it’s exceptionally handy, providing relative positions of pins (you can estimate direction and distance from fixed items like trees).