Patriot 1776
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You have to be kidding me " fill in your hole"
- Thread starter Patriot 1776
- Start date
slingshot said:The thin screwdriver (10") will slice thru the grass here in Texas and also pry up the "v" plug.PSS1963 said:slingshot said:
If you don't have a knife, shovel or digger, what are you cutting a "V" slit with? The sharpness of your wit?
-pete
Well, my hat goes off to you good sir! If I had to make my recoveries with just a thin screwdriver I think I would put my detector in the basement and never touch it again!
-pete
Its all about using the right tool for the job and location...a noob gets a detector, gets a shovel, pick, whatever, never hears nothing about a screwdriver!... figures hes going to be digging up silver dollars all over the public parks in the middle of the day...doesnt know a shallow penny signal from a sprinkler head....
The right tool for any public park or active sportsfield is a small thin shaft screwdriver...thats it! Its all I carry in those areas, no toolbelt or kneepads, just a nice button up shirt, shorts and flipflops...effective, fast and harmless looking...with NO trace left behind...
Even then you should palm it with the blade up alongside your arm so nobody can see it.... A guy should have a complement of tools including a d handle spade, a small digger, a folding knife, a few sandscoops, a small pick (great for sledding hills deep snow)...you never know what situation you will run across in a day..all this said, mastering all these tools and especially timing a site and appearances the right location tool usage is what will keep YOU hunting...
hell, noobs cant even use a sandscoop half way decent, half of them are on a crowded beach in the middle of the day with a pasta strainer, and no headphones, making complete nuisances out of themselves!!...No wonder everybody thinks we are dopes! They have no regard for appearances or timing a place either...all they know is those silver dollars aint gonna dig themselves!...
Learning how and when to hit a spot UNSEEN with no trace left behind is the best tool a guy can learn...second to that is a thin shaft screwdriver..
.
Mud
The right tool for any public park or active sportsfield is a small thin shaft screwdriver...thats it! Its all I carry in those areas, no toolbelt or kneepads, just a nice button up shirt, shorts and flipflops...effective, fast and harmless looking...with NO trace left behind...
Even then you should palm it with the blade up alongside your arm so nobody can see it.... A guy should have a complement of tools including a d handle spade, a small digger, a folding knife, a few sandscoops, a small pick (great for sledding hills deep snow)...you never know what situation you will run across in a day..all this said, mastering all these tools and especially timing a site and appearances the right location tool usage is what will keep YOU hunting...
hell, noobs cant even use a sandscoop half way decent, half of them are on a crowded beach in the middle of the day with a pasta strainer, and no headphones, making complete nuisances out of themselves!!...No wonder everybody thinks we are dopes! They have no regard for appearances or timing a place either...all they know is those silver dollars aint gonna dig themselves!...
Learning how and when to hit a spot UNSEEN with no trace left behind is the best tool a guy can learn...second to that is a thin shaft screwdriver...Mud
Using just thin screwdriver where I live in Texas would result in one thing to begin with. A bent screwdriver unless you're hunting well maintained lawns. Secondly, the older silvers around here that's even shallow enough to pop with a thin screwdriver is long gone, 'cept for the stray here and there. The tectors who use their diggers or small shovels will get those you leave by staying with the screwdriver. I'm talking about 2 inch digs, possibly 3 inch...not just the 6"+ targets. Fresh drops from a year or two, sure,,,you can pop those.
If anyone has spots to hunt in North Texas where they can actually turn over a neat plug with grass and roots intact, then a screwdriver MIGHT have merit. You just don't find those in the old 1800's parks. My home yard included.
If anyone has spots to hunt in North Texas where they can actually turn over a neat plug with grass and roots intact, then a screwdriver MIGHT have merit. You just don't find those in the old 1800's parks. My home yard included.
Thats all I'm saying...most Public Park silver is long gone or masked...no way a noob would even hear it through the fresh dropped clad and trash...yet they take a shovel out there and dig a hole the size of a garbage can lid for a surface penny...if noobs learned how to use a screwdriver first, and got to know the sport and machine hunting shallow clad, then there would be no troubles, cutting a nice plug takes practice and discretion of when and where..and a noob has none of that....
Mud
Mud
plidn1
Member
Mud,
I wish I could get the hang of using a driver. I have tried for more years then I will mention. Just can't master it. Must be the Italian in me.
But I am a great gardener.
I can always tell when a new detector is in the neighborhood. The tots look like Normandy Beach on D Day.
They all think they are going to find Captain Kid's buried chest of chucky cheese tokens under the slide.
I wish I could get the hang of using a driver. I have tried for more years then I will mention. Just can't master it. Must be the Italian in me.
But I am a great gardener.
I can always tell when a new detector is in the neighborhood. The tots look like Normandy Beach on D Day.
They all think they are going to find Captain Kid's buried chest of chucky cheese tokens under the slide.
I can see the screwdriver thing for clad in the 0-2 inch range - no need to worry about scratching that, but my first silver this year was a beautiful '63 Washington in XF-AU (from my own yard) and it wasn't more than 2" down so it might not be wise to do screwdriver in virgin ground. I'd have scratched it for sure if I'd tried to pop it. My second was an equally gorgeous '41 Merc that came from 5" in a pounded park - don't think I could have even reached that one if I had known it was there. Only found that because I checked my hole with my pinpointer after digging some aluminum trash and it was hiding directly below it.
Not sure what my tool is called - its not a Leshe (sp?). Blade is like a hunting knife but curved, rougher and heavier. Its sandwiched between two pieces of wooden handle and the sheath has Japanese markings on it. Whole thing fits discretely in my finds pouch.
I use a different technique depending on the depth reading . . . 3" or over gets plugged - usually 4" diameter 3-sided. I take extra time to PP accurately and it pays off. My targets are usually dead center, in or just below the plug. In high junk sometimes target averaging will pull this off center but rather than cut the plug wider I'll undercut the sidewall just below the root line. Everything goes on a towel for tidiness and because its easier to spot a dirty coin against a brightly colored towel than against the ground. Afterwards every crumb of dirt goes back in the hole. The better the grass is the less likely you can see where I dug.
For targets in the 0-2" range I try to get a fix on the target from the surface with the pinpointer then cut a slit with the tool and pry it open like this: () just enough to get the tip of the pinpointer inside to isolate it. At this point I'll usually either see the target or hear the sound it makes if I touch it with the tip of the tool. If dirt has to come out it goes on the towel. When I'm done I press the slit closed with both hands and it disappears.
I cringe when I see videos of people hunting parks with these shovels and cutting plugs 6" in diameter or bigger and scooping out dirt onto the grass with no towel. It seems so uncouth. I take pride in making my recoveries as discrete as I can, even if it takes longer, but scratching my silver is unacceptable - I get far too little of it as is.
-pete
Not sure what my tool is called - its not a Leshe (sp?). Blade is like a hunting knife but curved, rougher and heavier. Its sandwiched between two pieces of wooden handle and the sheath has Japanese markings on it. Whole thing fits discretely in my finds pouch.
I use a different technique depending on the depth reading . . . 3" or over gets plugged - usually 4" diameter 3-sided. I take extra time to PP accurately and it pays off. My targets are usually dead center, in or just below the plug. In high junk sometimes target averaging will pull this off center but rather than cut the plug wider I'll undercut the sidewall just below the root line. Everything goes on a towel for tidiness and because its easier to spot a dirty coin against a brightly colored towel than against the ground. Afterwards every crumb of dirt goes back in the hole. The better the grass is the less likely you can see where I dug.
For targets in the 0-2" range I try to get a fix on the target from the surface with the pinpointer then cut a slit with the tool and pry it open like this: () just enough to get the tip of the pinpointer inside to isolate it. At this point I'll usually either see the target or hear the sound it makes if I touch it with the tip of the tool. If dirt has to come out it goes on the towel. When I'm done I press the slit closed with both hands and it disappears.
I cringe when I see videos of people hunting parks with these shovels and cutting plugs 6" in diameter or bigger and scooping out dirt onto the grass with no towel. It seems so uncouth. I take pride in making my recoveries as discrete as I can, even if it takes longer, but scratching my silver is unacceptable - I get far too little of it as is.
-pete
Dangit Pete! Of course WE all know how to excavate a find!...its the damned noobs that are ruining it for all of us!
I got lucky, when I was a noob, out in the park tearing up the place in broad daylight with a pickaxe and tiling spade, I ran into a long time detectorist who took the time to gently school me in...he told me..."Sonny, if you want to get really good really fast, dig 1000 pulltabs and 1000 pennies with nothing but a screwdriver!" It was an eye opening experience that taught me about dirt and tones and depth and timing...I committed myself to learn how to use nothing but a screwdriver and get those 2000 targets as fast as possible. One of them turned out to be a gold ring...one was a pretty deep barber dime..another a merc, both tripped across while trying to get those pulltabs and pennies.!
Problem is, a park worker or average citizen cannot tell if we are noobs or not...no explaining to them how WE dig a plug gets through to them...all the see is a guy with a 'shovel' digging up the place...so thats why learning how to use a driver and getting in and out fast in public parks and sportsfields has payed off for me...One glance at me in shorts and flipflops with no obvious 'digging' tools says, "He cant hurt anything" and if asked, I'm looking for surface finds poking around with this pitiful screwdriver...so ALL noobs should either stay out of public parks, or be out there in shorts and flipflops with a screwdriver! Until they learn a bit...
Mud
I got lucky, when I was a noob, out in the park tearing up the place in broad daylight with a pickaxe and tiling spade, I ran into a long time detectorist who took the time to gently school me in...he told me..."Sonny, if you want to get really good really fast, dig 1000 pulltabs and 1000 pennies with nothing but a screwdriver!" It was an eye opening experience that taught me about dirt and tones and depth and timing...I committed myself to learn how to use nothing but a screwdriver and get those 2000 targets as fast as possible. One of them turned out to be a gold ring...one was a pretty deep barber dime..another a merc, both tripped across while trying to get those pulltabs and pennies.!
Problem is, a park worker or average citizen cannot tell if we are noobs or not...no explaining to them how WE dig a plug gets through to them...all the see is a guy with a 'shovel' digging up the place...so thats why learning how to use a driver and getting in and out fast in public parks and sportsfields has payed off for me...One glance at me in shorts and flipflops with no obvious 'digging' tools says, "He cant hurt anything" and if asked, I'm looking for surface finds poking around with this pitiful screwdriver...so ALL noobs should either stay out of public parks, or be out there in shorts and flipflops with a screwdriver! Until they learn a bit...
Mud
doc holiday
New member
Mud's most important message is: Don't be a bull in a china closet--learn how to be discreet--float like a butterfly--sting like a bee and let your stinger be a 6" screwdriver.
I guess the message I MEANT to convey is that the shovel, etc. seems to be THE TOOL that everyone takes to local parks, schools, and such public places. I had my Compadre and a 4"-yes 4"-screwdriver that fit in the palm of my hand. The school had closed and they had converted it into school storage. An administrator drove up very concerned. Apparently the new age thing is fiber optics in schools-and of course that means cables-so he was concerned about my digging. I opened my palm and he laughed and said, "I think you'll be alright" The point is it was the right tool for the right site and conditions.
The point is it was the right tool for the right site and conditions.