How deep is too deep?

[frankj3]

I worked a fairgrounds parking lot today. Nothing exciting, just $0.19; 1 dime, 1 nickel, 4 pennies....all recent clad.

I had a few deeper "nearly dug 'em out" finds. But I didn't want to make too large of a hole. I had good solid tones, like for a quarter or something along that size. The digging was dirt mixed with ground up asphalt.....not easy digging in my opinion.

How long is too long to work for something like this? How much is too much to dig up?

FYI: There are a LOT of beer drinkers here in Texas.........I know because I brought about 20 pull tabs out of hiding and put them in the recycle bin. And that was just 1/4 of one row of parking spaces.

Then I went to a tot lot. Found a small purple stone in a broken mount......but I believe it's costume jewelry. Gonna have it checked to make sure.

 

[knarfj]

For every comment to your question there is bound to be an exception expressed, as there should be.

But from my experience, as a general rule, if your detector IDs a coin lets say a dime at 2 inches and you've dug down to 4-6 inches chances are it's a large deep trash item. That's assuming your pinpointing is accurate and you left your hand held pin-pointer home.

Another clue is if you can raise your coil a good 12 to 18 inches above the coin/target in question, before you dig, and still get a good solid hit there is a better then average chance your again detecting a large deep piece of trash. Although a surface coin can act similar.

But, then again, in the right location the subject deep assumed trash target could be an old mason jar just packed full of coins!

HH

 

[BarberBill]

It's mostly personal preference, but I'd hope everyone here would back off digging "too much" very quickly in areas that would reflect badly on the hobby.
BB

 

[frankj3]

BarberBill,
I agree with you. I don't want to dig too big of a hole to only find a pull tab.....but that elusive gold ring....ah, there's the reason for the dig! But I have enacted my own rule....the depth of my hand spade is it......or about 6" deep max.
Frank


FYI: My in-laws (rest in peace) used to visit the Snake River outside of Lower Stanley, Idaho every year. They had a childhood friend who moved there and owns a convenience store so that's how they got hooked on Idaho. Being native Texans, it was hard for them to call it "Heaven on Earth" but that's how they felt about Idaho.