I've been experimenting with pit digging at a very nail-heavy site that has produced a bunch of large cents and half cents back to the late 1700s. It's rough - this is one sweep about 6" down with a magnet over a 3x1' section of the pit. I can't believe I ever found anything in there..... by the way, the four pits have been 3x3x1.5' or so and it's still nails at the bottom even at 18 inches (it's in a field that's been plowed in the past but is no longer being farmed). They haven't produced anything yet, but I'm working in the areas of the site that have produced the most, so I think it's just a matter of time til something pops up. Lots of ceramic right now and LOTS of iron.
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Working a heavy nail site (photo)
- Thread starter TrpnBils
- Start date
Basically here's my approach:
1. Pull off sod and set aside
2. Go over the entire pit with the magnet (3x3x1" neodymium magnet)
3. Loosen 2-3" of soil with pick and mix it up
4. Go over with detector
5. Go over with magnet
6. Remove soil and repeat magnet and detector on loose soil pile
7. Repeat Steps 2-6.
I've been going down to about 18" with these pits and it's still loaded with iron at the bottom. Even what looks like dirt ends up being degraded iron and is magnetic. It's nuts.... I can't believe we've found anything, but it also gives me hope that there's still stuff there. The first pit I dug, I pulled out a couple of inches of dirt and put a dime in it before covering with about an inch of dirt from the hole. I didn't even get a HINT of the dime on my detector!!!! No high audio blips (no discrim, so there's plenty of low tones), no hint of any color on the screen, NOTHING! So far the four pits have only produced three small pieces of pewter and a small brass buckle.
Incidentally, a friend of mine and I are the only two to have hit this site hard. It's adjacent to a CW encampment area that has been absolutely hammered to death. I've had other guys that have tried hunting this area tell me they think I'm nuts for messing around in there because they tried it and couldn't get past the iron. Of course I don't tell them what I got out of there with my Etrac, but I know there has to be more and it has to be deeper than 3-4" and/or masked because everything else I've dug here has been shallow. It's been plowed under enough times though that I know there's deep stuff there.
1. Pull off sod and set aside
2. Go over the entire pit with the magnet (3x3x1" neodymium magnet)
3. Loosen 2-3" of soil with pick and mix it up
4. Go over with detector
5. Go over with magnet
6. Remove soil and repeat magnet and detector on loose soil pile
7. Repeat Steps 2-6.
I've been going down to about 18" with these pits and it's still loaded with iron at the bottom. Even what looks like dirt ends up being degraded iron and is magnetic. It's nuts.... I can't believe we've found anything, but it also gives me hope that there's still stuff there. The first pit I dug, I pulled out a couple of inches of dirt and put a dime in it before covering with about an inch of dirt from the hole. I didn't even get a HINT of the dime on my detector!!!! No high audio blips (no discrim, so there's plenty of low tones), no hint of any color on the screen, NOTHING! So far the four pits have only produced three small pieces of pewter and a small brass buckle.
Incidentally, a friend of mine and I are the only two to have hit this site hard. It's adjacent to a CW encampment area that has been absolutely hammered to death. I've had other guys that have tried hunting this area tell me they think I'm nuts for messing around in there because they tried it and couldn't get past the iron. Of course I don't tell them what I got out of there with my Etrac, but I know there has to be more and it has to be deeper than 3-4" and/or masked because everything else I've dug here has been shallow. It's been plowed under enough times though that I know there's deep stuff there.
Jason in Enid
Active member
That is an absolutely insane amount of iron. No detector made is going to penetrate all that iron to find conductive targets below. Kudos to your for the level you are going through, but I think I would simply screen everything instead of trying to use a detector.
It's actually not as bad as you'd think once the magnet gets drug through. When I put the detector over the pile of removed dirt it's completely devoid of signals, and when I do get an occasional iron signal it's an easy catch with the magnet. I think in this case a sifter would be more of a hassle because I'd have to be dealing with removing rocks at the same time.
IDXMonster
Well-known member
I laugh every time I see that mitt full of iron
I suppose it depends on an operators patience level,expected return(you've already gotten spectacular things there) and hunting options(do you have a "better" site). It is VERY interesting,as we talked about elsewhere,that the dime became pretty invisible with just a small amount of contaminated dirt between it and the coil! I wonder if something like an old 66TR would have an advantage,as I've read that they can be effective in conditions similar to yours. At any rate,it's all a learning experience,and that's what I love to do about this hobby....learn! Nice going on the effort,I hope it pays off in a huge way for you!
I suppose it depends on an operators patience level,expected return(you've already gotten spectacular things there) and hunting options(do you have a "better" site). It is VERY interesting,as we talked about elsewhere,that the dime became pretty invisible with just a small amount of contaminated dirt between it and the coil! I wonder if something like an old 66TR would have an advantage,as I've read that they can be effective in conditions similar to yours. At any rate,it's all a learning experience,and that's what I love to do about this hobby....learn! Nice going on the effort,I hope it pays off in a huge way for you!IDXMonster said:
That's the other reason I've pursued this...it's only 5 minutes from my house, I have permission to go whenever I want, and it's an unused field so I don't need to worry about killing grass or making much of a mess! I can think of one other site I'd like to try this on, but we'll see how this pans out first.
Went back on Thursday before the snow hit and pulled 4 buttons (one was plastic and new-ish) out of the 3x3x1' pit I dug near the other three. Also pulled a 3" brass buckle and a nice (iron) chain I'm probably going to clean up. Can't believe this stuff was missed before! Still waiting on a coin to pop out. I know they're there!
IDXMonster
Well-known member
TrpnBils said:
A 3" brass buckle?? Holy cats,that's a big thing to be masked to the point of invisibility! Carry on when you can,this is going to get interesting, I can smell it....
IDXMonster said:
Yeah man it's so surprising. It was on the first pass after taking the sod off so it was pretty shallow. In that particular area there's a lot of iron just within the first two inches (and well below that obviously), but I finally did get to a point in that pit where there were no more nail signals and it was only at about 12" down...but 20 feet away I was still getting a bed of nail signals at 18" so I have no idea what went on in this field. I'm almost inclined to believe that the house might have burned down and that's why there are so many nails in one area, but there's no fire damage to any of the relics or coins I've pulled there (and there have been at other fire sites I've hunted). I dunno... I would love to have seen the progression of buildings on this site over the years. I think it's multiple generations of homes at least because of the ages of coins we've found.
subeSeems to be working alright. Like I said, once I get the dirt up and run the magnet over it once or twice the soil is pretty quiet. Generally the untouched soil has a sensitivity number of <12 but it runs about 18-20 after I pull the magnet through. I figure I'll hit this site maybe once every week or two and by summer I'll have the bulk of the hot spot dug and cleaned. There's good stuff there for sure, it's just a matter of picking the right 3x3 area.
Just an update on this. Since posting this I have pulled 4 additional buttons off of this site and some other miscellaneous pewter and brass. I'm only working this site for about 2 hours every other week right now, so it's slow going, but it is still producing. Last night I went out and after dark I dug a very nice 1860 IHP in an area of the site I have hit dozens of times over the years. It was only about 4" down (came out with the plug), and was only about two feet away from one of the pits I had dug a few weeks ago. There's still stuff there! This just came in as a slight low blip and I was able to isolate it. My next challenge is deciding which high blips are just falsing and which are something worth pursuing. Even in tests I'm seeing good targets barely give an audio response and it's not repeatable most of the time or at a 90 degree angle, so that method of double checking seems sketchy at this site. I know I have probably overlooked high conductors because of it, but this reinforces the idea that I know they're there for sure.... A small victory last night, but a significant one at this site. I have dug three of the early, thick IHPs at this site, including my one and only 1859...makes me wonder if there's a flying eagle hiding out somewhere....
tiftaaft said:
In the dark is my game! I made a swiveling mount for my 3030 so I can attach a mini maglite to it and hunt better. Originally I just taped another small LED flashlight along the shaft, but I found it annoying that I couldn't swivel the light around to help in digging so I came up with this design. It's not perfect yet, but it works for me.
TrpnBils said:
I would love to see a pic of your swivel mount when you get a chance... I have gone from holding a mini maglight in my mouth to a headlamp, but I would like a fixed light on my coil as well... easier to pinpoint when you can see the ground. (and if it swivels...all the better).
IDXMonster
Well-known member
There you go Jeff! It's there,you know it's there, but hidden very well! VERY nice recovery...
tiftaaft said:
I can get you some photos but it will most likely be tomorrow. Basically the one I had taped to the upper shaft worked fine for pinpointing like you're talking about but it was annoying to have the area NEXT to where I was digging illuminated, and the light on my pinpointer wasn't really useful for that scenario until I got in the plug. I will tell you though this setup isn't good looking at all - it's just what I had on hand, but it does work!
So here it is... like I said, not the prettiest thing in the world. It's not completely what I want yet either. I want to make it about half that height, and I want a ball type socket so it has mobility on the XYZ axes instead of just two of them which it is now. If I can get that third axis in there I can sort of direct the light down into the hole. You can also see in this picture the other flashlight I had taped to the upper shaft initially. I still use it occasionally but not too often now.