Trenching

[TrpnBils]

Does anyone here take this approach to real heavy iron sites that should have deep, good signals in a concentrated area? I never considered it until somebody mentioned it to me the other day and I might want to give it a shot at one site I'm on. Just curious to see anybody else's experiences with this and whether or not it's been worth it.

 

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[Skippy SH13]

do you mean getting a trencher and simply uplifting all the dirt?

Skippy

 

[TrpnBils]

I mean basically flipping the sod up on about a 1x2' area, digging down about a foot, and scanning the dirt that comes out of the hole. Kind of like digging a giant plug, but no heavy equipment.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Yes. I have done my own "urban demolition" scrapes before. Gone to an old-town area where trash or iron or something is blanketing the top, and flat-shoveled down a table sized area down to 4 or 5" deep. Stop, detect, repeat.

Another time an 1860s park got rototilled , to where the entire surface was jumbled fluffy turf/sod. But since all the top-soil was still in place, it was still a mess of zinc, tabs, clad, wino-caps, etc... So since everything was loose anyhow, I shoveled all the soil back to about 6" deep, in an area the size of a kitchen table . Stop, detect, and repeat as necessary. Was able to get old silver doing that. But ...sheesk ....... talk about back-breaking work ! haha

 

[bigfoot1]

at that point might as well use a sifter.I have and it can be an amazing method in highly concentrated areas

 

[relicmeister]

I have used this technique before, usually next to a cellar hole, and I almost always find a bunch of interesting stuff, but I haven't used a sifter yet and I'm anxious to give it a try.