Just before I got my license I worked for a utility company for a couple of years. A couple of the party chiefs were mostly worthless (lifers who didn't care). We were looking for a section corner at the intersection of two County roads and got a good signal. The two crew members started chiseling and the PC would wave the wand and say "keep digging." We opened a hole maybe 2.5' wide and 3' deep then finally unearthed a chunk of heavy scrap metal. No more signal. We started to backfill the hole and the PC told us to stop. He went to the survey rig and grabbed more scrap iron, spikes, and whatnot and threw them in the bottom. He then said "fill it up and pack it good. The next surveyor will find even more junk than we did (we?)." Those PC's taught me a lot about things to not do if I wanted to be a good surveyor, including not being a jerk.
Anyone else use this technique?
All the time
Anyone else use this technique?
The technique you describe is detailed in the Schonstedt manual. So you might as well ask "have you read the instructions?" Not many have but it is worth the 5 minutes it takes.
@gene-kooper?ÿ Hiya Gene. I used the horizontal metal detector trick on this site, but the pipe was too deep compared to the nearby chain link fence. I also know to watch the display as I slowly move the metal detector. It it goes from 04 to 05 to 07 and back down, something is under there. Even if the display holds steady at 04 I still dig and try again a foot down.?ÿ
@spmpls?ÿ
I have found: piece of scrap metal, in rock pile, under 18" of pavement. Set my rebar in concrete, with the top flush. It was an active roadway.?ÿ
N
Yep!
Learned it from the UXO techs I worked with. Bombs are worse to find when digging than when not digging.
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Big thing with the fancy tools is to not be too cheap to buy and Insert new batteries more than once every 5 years.
Fresh batteries make a huge difference in the response for tough detector situations.
The technique you describe is detailed in the Schonstedt manual. So you might as well ask "have you read the instructions?"
Twisting a phrase from an old gold mining movie, "Manual?? We don't need no stinkin' manual."
Obviously, I don't have a manual for my old, trusty GA-52C (but likely my old party chief had access to one in the late 1970s). I appreciate the link, Mark. Thanks.
One of my survey managers I had years ago always said, if you haven't dug a hole you haven't looked.
Found a buried 1913 brass cap yesterday that was 3 feet underground.
Best hint I ever saw was the message on the bottom of an upturned bucket down two feet: Keep going, you're almost there.
On deeper than usual holes I always leave four or five streamers of flagging from the deep pin draped up the side of the hole as I backfill.?ÿ It's always nice to leave a little hint for the next guy that he's "headed in the right direction" as he digs.?ÿ 😉
Same problem in a different field. Went to pick up a car part that I ordered and paid for online. The kid looked and looked and couldn't find my order on the computer. Ended up giving me the wrong part which I didn't notice till I got home. When I returned it the next day, the manager told me that my original order was on the shelf where it had been since i ordered it. The kid looked on the computer but never bothered to look on the shelf right behind him.?ÿ
Me. "What's the difference?"
T.C. Carroll "It's the difference between right and wrong!"
Decades ago I had the privilege of watching The Great Slydini do his paper ball trick, where the ball would disappear right in front of the audience volunteer. Slydini would say, "You know why you no see? Because you no watch. Watch!"
I thought of him when I uncovered an open pipe lot corner that hasn't seen the light of day in probably 60 years. I could see where other surveyors had scraped the dirt away, found nothing, and pronounced it "not found." Repeatedly. A metal detector was no use because of the chain link fence. I found it by doing something astonishing: I got out the pickax, dug down past the asphalt and more dirt, and there it was, waiting patiently to be found.?ÿ
You know why you no find it? Because you no look. Look! (and actually dig).
Uhh ...?ÿ is there anyone who actually needs to learn anything they could get from that "tutorial"??ÿ And then I don't think most people would agree with his terminology.
@bill93?ÿ Well, yes, going by the number of our peers who can't seem to dig for monuments, I'd say basic shovel instruction is necessary. This is another one of my favorites, the original lead cap from decades ago, down a foot, and a foot west of the nail and disk set by a registrant. His idiot crew didn't find it because it was near a metal fence post which made the metal detector screech.?ÿ He set his nail and disk by coming off an ADOT aluminum cap in concrete which a contract crew set for the center of section by a section breakdown, not knowing there were local reference points to the rebar in concrete that had been there for years.
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??You know why you no find it? Because you no look. Look! (and actually dig).?
Amen brother. I hopefully have one waiting for me at the inside corner of a chain link fence. There is a tall skinny rebar nearby with a broken wood stake. I have computed the corner to be between the rebar and the fence corner. Like you said, the metal detector is of no use in these situations. I will dig so that I may find.
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And there it is.
In the words of a wise old surveyor, "If you're not finding anything you're either looking in the wrong place or not digging deep enough."
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That's usually how I look at it too.?ÿ In fact, I was tying some monuments today and came to one in a pasture that was simply labeled "1/2 inch rebar" on the ROS.?ÿ Metal detector rang but it was over an area that was just big enough to be suspicious.?ÿ I started digging anyway.?ÿ A little over a foot later I punched through the top of a rotted corrugated pipe.?ÿ Blah.
I have a feeling the field crew on the ROS heard the ring but didn't want to dig that far and called the rebar found.
I'm finding mis named monuments too. I think it's called too-old-too-tired-to-dig syndrome. Too broke to care. Surveying is for intellectuals, not ditch diggers, syndrome.
Nate