How to dig in a loaded spot?

[Molinari]

Greetings,

I have found a spot on the edge of a river with hundreds of bottles- most without screw tops. I've never been a bottle hunter, but today my brother and I dug about fifty or so...most clear, some brown, and tons of broken blue, green, and red glass around the area. My question is, how do i dig more of these safely?

I've been going through the wet, iron filled dirt slowly with a spade, and although I've already dug many safely, I feel like I might be breaking a lot in the meantime.

NJM

 

[SurfCutter]

When I was digging for bottles , the standard gear I used was both a long and short handled garden scratcher / claw , some may even call the long handled one a clam rake , a good pair of gloves , bug repellent ,a container to carry back the finds , and most importantly an understanding of what is collectible and what you leave for the next hunter years later ...
Fancy Garden scratcher :

https://www.bluestonegarden.com/viewitem.php?ProductID=36

Long handle scratcher :
https://www.bluestonegarden.com/viewitem.php?ProductID=89
used with this ...
https://www.bluestonegarden.com/viewitem.php?ProductID=4

 

[Molinari]

n/t

 

[John(H)]

[quote SurfCutter]When I was digging for bottles , the standard gear I used was both a long and short handled garden scratcher / claw , some may even call the long handled one a clam rake , a good pair of gloves , bug repellent ,a container to carry back the finds , and most importantly an understanding of what is collectible and what you leave for the next hunter years later ...
Fancy Garden scratcher :

.............Also you can use a long handled hoe! If these are coming out of the river bank maybe just a long handled trowel and go very slowly do not pry anything out, wear gloves and if kneeling use knee pads............be careful......very easy to get cut from old glass! ...................HH.............Joe

 

[craigntrace]

When you hear the clunk,stop - it is a bottle. I dig with a garden fork to turn over the soil first ,then that exposes bottles and other goodies such as clay smoking pipes and pot lids, doll heads'. marbles, etc , as you might throw them out - and you only may find these gems when backfilling your hole, as all good bottle diggers do .Cheers Craig from Downunder.

 

[Mr Seitz]

If there are that many bottles it is a (newer) dump,sounds like a 1920s 30s dump.Its a good place to start out though.
The garden tool is a good tool,I use the 3 prong type scratcher it works well for me. We dig mostly 1800s privy's so we have to be really careful,and dig slowwww when we find a bottle.In the dumps we have the same process,but you can only dig one bottle (at a time) the reason you may brake a lot is because of the excitement and going to fast.Slow down and pick one then another,you brake less that way. Rick