survey pin

[fongu]

My deacon asked me to help find the survey pin for our church boundary and I can not find it. It was buried and a rock was put on top of it and I find all kinds
of metal with my 2500, but not the survey pin. I figured it would register as a 2 or 3, but the other survey pin they have that is not buried, registers as a 7. I tried in coin mode and all metal mode and probed with my small probe to no avail. Any advice? I really want to help my church out since they were so nice to let me metal detect there.

 

[Uncle Willy]

First of all do they have any idea how deep it is or the general area of it's location. A survey pin is a small target and easy to miss

Bill

 

[NM5K]

All the rebar pins I've found have hit in the low iron scales. Or at least with the Ace 250..
But rust is very conductive so if the exposed rebar is real rusty I could see it hitting higher.
I've looked for pins on two properties so far, and it's usually doing a bit of homework
that finds the pins, vs stumbling over them by accident.
IE: I'll look at all the adjacent properties and try to see where their lines and pins are.
I look for sure signs such as existing lines and go from there. Also another thing that can
help is measuring from the road center line to get an idea where the pin should be from
the road. But of course, if the pin is not on a road, that could be a problem.
But the lots I've done were pretty straight forward and on a road frontage.
What I would do is measure the distance of the existing pin to the center line of the road.
If the missing pin is also on the road, it should be the same distance from the center line.
That will reduce the amount of guess work a bit. Then see if the property across the street
has a line at that appx spot, etc.. Often there will be. If there is, jump back to your side
and check for a pin.
Also, if the church has the lot records, they may be able to tell you what the distance
between the pins should be. That would get you even closer.
Now pins that are not on a road are a good bit harder to find.
IE: I've been able to find both of the front pins to one property I have in OK, but am still
looking for the back pins. I know how far back they should be, etc, but they are still
proving hard to find even with me using a GPS to measure off the distances.
I know they are there somewhere, but I haven't been able to find them yet.
Probably a tree or something growing over them. Those also use a small pile of
rocks to mark the pin. Problem is, there are lots of other rocks on the ground there..
But the first time I hunted for pins here at a TX property, they didn't use rocks. Just a
rebar pin.. Not many rocks in that area..
But if your known pin has a rock, or rocks, I would expect the other one too also.
I've never had any trouble with the detector hitting on a pin once I go to the right spot.
Like I say, all the rebar pins I've done hit at the low end.

 

[BigCatDaddy]

Your detector will find the pin if it's in and not too deep, but you would probably have better luck with a detector designed to find ferrous metals only and really deep, like the one made by Schoendstadt. As a surveyor myself, the first thing I would get is the property plat or field note description for the property to find out exactly what is called for at the corner. If the corner fell on a big honking rock, they may have carved an "X" or in a tree, they may have hacked an "X". Also, they may give a call from a nearby corner or object to better help locate the exact corner. Get at least a 100' tape, a 200' one is better, and tape in the spot from two directions and work that area. It could be that the pin is just not there too. Hunting for property corners can be fun and sometimes confusing. Once, while looking for one that was a common corner for 4 properties, I located 8 pins in a 2 foot square. Previous surveyors eveidently didn't look too hard for the pin and just set a new one each time one of the four properties was sold or surveyed. I had to carefully examine each one to determine which was the "called for" corner. Some can also be quite deep and out of the range of a coin hunting detector, sometimes as much as 2 feet deep. You haven't had fun untill you've dug 2 feet down with a sharpshooter thru compacted road material to find an original pipe set back in 1910!! If you still can't find it, check your plat and find out who did the original survey and have them come out and locate it. If it's in, there should be just a nominal charge to come out and locate it for the church.

 

[fongu]

thanks everybody.