Anyone ever use a gas powered auger to dig?

[BennyV]

Just curious. Been thinking about winter months and/or items buried deep - 2+ feet.

 

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[releventchair]

No never.
Auger hitting rock or root or frozen spot is a merry go round wrist tester. And likely won't like the start anyways.
An auger grabs and starts digging real good like in soft soil in summer , are your reflexes so good you stop before hitting the target?


Have used a spud to remove a few inch deep frozen layer above known deep target.
Most targets are above ten inches detecting.
Thus spring thaw is awaited.
A must dig could see a fire built and later thawed ground dug.
Yes there are alternatives to fire to warm ground.
(Utility companies even use some neat equipment.)

 

[BAW]

Years ago when I was a professional archeologist it was common practice to use a one or two man portable post hole auger to make a quick and dirty “posthole survey” of a likely site by drilling a series of closely-spaced holes and counting the number of artifacts that came out of each hole, thus establishing the extent and shape of the site. The holes with the most debitage, potshards etc was assumed to be the center of the site and would be investigated further. As Relevantchair points out, when the auger struck a large underground rock the auger stopped turning and the operator received a rather severe jolt and was sometimes thrown to the ground. Artifacts sometimes came out of the ground in pieces, but in archaeology, where the goal was knowledge rather than the acquisition of perfect specimens, this was often considered to be a justifiable sacrifice, especially if the property developer who was paying the bills didn’t want to pay for an extra week’s work for the sake of an intact arrowhead which he wouldn’t get to keep anyway.